Today marks a special anniversary. No, it's not just the long-awaited arrival of the Beatles CD remasters. Today is the tenth anniversary of the American launch of the Sega Dreamcast.
Maybe it's just a function of age, but Dreamcast was the last great videogame console in my eyes. It was the last time that games were being made - fast, exciting, competitive, original games. Not reenactments of Hollywood blockbusters, not cynical ploys for computer geeks to break into the movie business, but video games. There are so precious few examples of classic games today.
Dreamcast was just about the best game system for multiplayer games. A decade ago, I was working as a waiter at one of the sports bars at the University of Minnesota campus, and every Friday and Saturday night, after closing time, we'd pull out the DC, hook it up to the tv sets, and play until dawn. NFL2K1 was the undisputed champion - ah, another lost classic! - as were endless drunken rounds of Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, Chu Chu Rocket, Virtua Tennis, and San Francisco Rush 2049.
Ah, great times. You can score a DC and a large pile of great games for next to nothing these days. I'd still rank it higher than what's available now. Add in the console's ability to play emulators (4-player M.U.L.E.!) and you really have something of value.
7 comments:
Hell yeah! Me and some friends picked up Dreamcasts at E.B.'s midnight sale on 9/9/99. What a great system that was. Gaming is so stale these days... I have a PS2, but never bought anything in the current generation. The new stuff looks prettier, but it seems that they've totally lost the fun factor.
Geek! Geek! Gamer Geek!
I should talk. I still miss Atari. lol...
CAPCOM games are among my nostalgic faves. There are many nods to Ghibli (tenuki, forest spirits, etc.)in their lovely platform backgrounds.
I went out to Target that night, right in the middle of work, hah! But it was slow and we needed our kicks. I came back with the DC, a pair of controllers, a VMU (there was a novel idea), and let's see...which games? Ready 2 Rumble, Soul Calibur, NFL2K, Trickstyle (later traded in for Sonic Adventure), and Hydro Thunder.
Ah, the good ol' days when I could spend money like it was water in my hands.
Oh, and you do know that I have this other blog called "Videogames of the Damned," right? That was originally a games blog, but morphed to include my political panic attacks and my love of music. Heh heh.
Today's a busy day for me, so blogging is light. Go listen to the new Beatles CDs - Revolver sounds excellent, much better than the old CD and almost as good as the vintage vinyl.
Awesome... I'm going to pick up those Beatles remasters ASAP.
Do you like the Stone Roses? I just ordered this as well: http://stoneroses.skyroo.com/se/view/music/index.html
I got the limited edition version... kinda pricey, but it looks so amazing!
I used to have a Dreamcast for a while (still quite slow for some emulators to work on it), but loved Crazy Taxi!
Oh, yeah! The new Beatles CDs are terrific. Revolver sounds much better than the old CD, and the packaging and extras are superb. It's a great example of CD at its finest.
Stone Roses were cool. All '90s music is cool.
The DC emulators were all written back in 2000 and 2001. I don't think they've been updated since then. I expected all of them to be 100% by now. Thankfully, the MULE emulator works perfectly and allows for 4 players. It's one of the greatest computer games ever made, kind of a cutthroat Monopoly.
Lol, I thought that since it was 9/9/09 you were going to say something about '9'. XD
Apparently somebody in america is trying to show that not all animated movies are for kiddies! Which I personally totally support. The idea of animation for adults is apparently a novel concept for most american adults. o.O
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