The Warp Pipe - 06/09/09
By Matt Keller - Sun Sep 6, 2009 9:00am
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This week, The Warp Pipe will reflect on the Dreamcast’s highs and lows and highlight some of the better parts of its library.
Sega’s Final Stand
| The Dreamcast is yet another tale in the Sega saga initially defined by a split between the Eastern and Western arms of the company. Agreements couldn’t be reached with which direction to take the console, so two projects were started. The main difference was the graphics chipset – America planned to use the 3DFX Voodoo 2, while Japan chose the Power VR2. The Japanese project was chosen in the end, spurring a lawsuit from 3DFX claiming that Sega acted in bad faith and misled them into believing they were committed to the Voodoo chipset, alleging that Sega had already chosen the Power VR chipset when 3DFX was approached. The other side of the argument is that Power VR was chosen after 3DFX leaked significant details about the Dreamcast while filing for its IPO. The matter was settled out of court, leaving us all to imagine what a 3DFX-powered Dreamcast would have been like, and whether it would have saved 3DFX from its eventual financial ruin. The Japanese launch was set for November 27, 1998, but Sega ran into difficulties prior to the day. There was trouble attracting third parties, particularly outside of Japan where the Saturn failed – the most notably Electronic Arts, who allegedly wanted exclusive access to sports on the Dreamcast, a position which Sega refused to budge on due to their own sports plans. Problems with the fabrication process at NEC caused a major shortage of Dreamcast units for the launch, and only four titles were available. Virtua Fighter 3tb was the most successful of the bunch, but it sold only a third of what Virtua Fighter 2 managed on the Saturn. This was mainly attributed to the poor quality of the port, which was outsourced to Genki, rather than being handled internally by AM2. America proved to be far more receptive to the Dreamcast in the lead up to the “09/09/99” launch. The console’s showing at the 1999 E3 received unanimous praise and had fans foaming at the mouth. The pre-launch period was not trouble free – American chief Bernie Stolar was given the boot by Japan and replaced by Peter Moore, then a Reebok executive. September 9, 1999 would be one of Sega’s finest moments. The launch set records at the time, grossing over $US98 million on the first day, with 225,132 consoles sold along with a ton of software. It was one of the most populated launches to date, with fifteen launch titles available. NFL 2K, Soulcalibur and Sonic Adventure proved to be critical darlings and really showed off the power of the console, moving around a million units each over their lifetimes. Day one sales were doubled within two weeks, and the installed base was up around 1.2 million after Christmas. Launches across the rest of the world were not as smooth, the best example being the Australian launch, which was bungled badly by local distributor Ozisoft (now Namco Bandai Partners). Originally set to launch day and date with the American model, the machine was delayed on a weekly basis until November 30. On that day, the Dreamcast systems would be the only thing to show up – with a much higher price tag than the rest of the world, with a slower 33.6k modem. No first party games, memory cards or peripherals were available, and the ISP deal was not finalised. If it were not for Acclaim and Activision, no games would have been available. Ozisoft’s inventory would not show up at stores for more than a week after launch. The negative launch was something from which the Dreamcast would not recover from in Australia, yet Ozisoft continued to irritate loyal fans with delayed releases, high prices and low inventory. Any goodwill the Dreamcast brand had deteriorated quickly, leading to heavy discounting by retailers and marginalised store shelf space within only 12 months. The Dreamcast took a turn for the worst in 2000. The PlayStation 2 hype train hit hard – the promise of a cheap DVD player and sequels to popular franchises like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy wooed gamers away from Sega. The next blow came when the GD-ROM protection was cracked and hackers found a way for copied games to be played without modification, effectively making the system a pirate’s dream. Though the pirated games were generally inferior due to space compensations, the negative effect on Dreamcast software sales was huge –a hit Sega would never recover from. Console sales improved in the back half of the year, but despite price cuts, a stellar software line up and the rollout of the online service, Sega was helpless against the PlayStation 2 threat, even with Sony’s mass shortages. In poor financial shape after years of losses, Sega announced on January 31, 2001 that the Dreamcast would be discontinued and that they would no longer produce home console hardware, instead becoming licensees for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft. It was the end of an era. New releases for the Dreamcast hit store shelves until January 2002 in the USA, with NHL 2K2 the last major release in the territory. Despite the lukewarm reception of the console in Japan, Dreamcast releases continued to trickle out for more than five years after the system was discontinued. Sega officially supported the system until 2004, when they released Puyo Pop Fever, but licensees stuck with the machine. Niche titles like vertical shooters experienced cult success on the console long after its death. The final licensed commercial release for the system was Triggerheart Excelica in 2007. | ) The PAL Dreamcast in all its glory | |
) Soulcalibur’s gorgeous visuals were mindblowing in 1999 | ||
) Ambitious titles like Shenmue still couldn’t save Sega |
Casting a Dream
| The Dreamcast introduced a number of cool features to the console landscape, and popularised some that were previously limited or obscure. The most notable feature in the current day was the system’s internet capabilities, which gave users easy access to online games and a web browser. It wasn’t the first console to introduce these features, as consoles had limited online play and internet browsing abilities in the past in Japan, but the Dreamcast made it a central feature of the console, and many games were developed to support it. Over forty games on the console supported online play, some (like Quake III: Arena) even offered cross platform multiplayer with PC gamers. A number of other games also enjoyed downloadable content and online leaderboards. Due to infrastructure limitations at the time, most gamers were forced to play on rather laggy dial-up connections – a broadband adaptor was available later in the system’s life, however. Another favourite feature of the Dreamcast was the Visual Memory Unit, the system’s standard memory card. Its primary function was to save game data, but the VMU could also be used to play small games and display important game data on its 48x32 screen. The most significant use of the VMU came in Sonic Adventure, where players could load their Chao onto the VMU to play a small game to build its abilities before loading it back up into the game. Sega also had the foresight to give the Dreamcast native support for VGA, allowing games to be displayed in progressive scan, which greatly enhances picture quality. The vast majority of official Dreamcast releases feature support for VGA, but some do not. There are brute force workarounds, including using a boot disc or simply unplugging the VGA box during loading screens. Not everything about the Dreamcast hardware is great, though. The GD-ROM drive has a tendency to stop reading GD-ROM discs, while the discs themselves are quite easily damaged. The PAL game cases break easily, and since they are not standard jewel cases like the US and Japanese ones, they’re difficult to replace. The system’s controller can be quite uncomfortable – the cord’s position is a nuisance, and the face buttons and directional pad are prone to causing blisters. | ) One of the coolest memory cards ever |
The Dream Games
| Despite only being widely supported for a little over three years, the Dreamcast had a significantly high proportion of high quality games. Sega’s development teams were at their best, churning out hit after hit in a variety of genres. The system also enjoyed many quality titles from third party publishers like Capcom, Midway, SNK and Activision. Part of the beauty of the Dreamcast is that very few of the games are legitimately difficult to track down – you can build a quality library at a very low cost. Sega’s arcade ties helped the Dreamcast attact an array of quality conversions. Fighting games and shoot ‘em ups reigned supreme on the system, with a number of high quality conversions. Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Garou: Mark of the Wolves and Capcom vs. SNK 2 were all excellent conversions and very popular among the core audience. Soulcalibur was far superior to its arcade orginal, boasting shiny new graphics and many new play modes. Shooter fans were rewarded with games such as Ikaruga, Mars Matrix, the Gunbird series and Bangai-O. High quality ports of many of Sega’s own arcade games like Crazy Taxi, The House of the Dead 2 and Zombie Revenge also graced the system. RPGs were predominantly PlayStation territory during the Dreamcast’s heyday, but Sega’s system had a few key exclusives. Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia and the Japan-only Sakura Wars series are the system’s most celebrated J-RPGs, but the system had a few high quality non-conventional RPGs, like the predominately multiplayer Phantasy Star Online and Segagaga, the “Sega simulation”, which put you in the role of a boy who was hired by Sega to save the company. Who could ever forget the Shenmue series, Sega’s most ambitious, expensive and groundbreaking projects, and one of my personal favourites. The Dreamcast also had a solid library of action/adventure games. On the platformer front, Rayman 2 was the game to beat, though many players will argue that Sonic Adventure and its sequel are the better efforts. If you’re a little more gung-ho in your action, Capcom’s Cannon Spike is arguably one of the company’s best action games, though few people know of its existence. The Dreamcast also enjoyed temporarily exclusive access to one of the best of the old-style Resident Evil games, Code Veronica, which featured the Redfield siblings furthering their investigation into Umbrella activities. The Power Stone games were classy multiplayer brawlers with over the top graphics and a great core gameplay mechanic. The system was also home to a number of high quality ports from other systems, like MDK 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament. Finally, the Dreamcast enjoyed a healthy assortment of sports titles, even in the absence of Electronic Arts. Sega’s own sports labels NFL 2K, NBA 2K and NHL 2K filled the void, and were even superior to EA’s own offerings. Extreme sports were represented by the best versions of the first two Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games. Arcade sports games were also prolific on the system – Midway’s NFL Blitz series was at its best on the Dreamcast, and Sega’s own Virtua Tennis 2 is still arguably the best tennis game out there. There’s something for everyone on the Dreamcast. | ) Sega’s arcade ports were top notch | |
) There were plenty of good exclusive titles too |
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