20+ Years Later: The Origins of the Sega Dreamcast

20+ Years Later: The Origins of the Sega Dreamcast

Now that we’re quarantined inside due to the worldwide pandemic, I’ve tried to take away some silver linings from an otherwise depressing and scary situation. I’ve realized I now have few to no excuses for not catching up on my reading stack, my video game rack, and my music tracks. So I’ve been busy and purposeful, even when relaxing.

One of the cool things I’ve been re-immersing myself in might be called “Retro Gaming,” but for most of my generation, that refers to like Pong, Donkey Kong, Galaga / Galaxian, Asteroids, Pac-Man, or at least games from the original Nintendo (NES) or Sega Master Drive. Now, not only Super Nintendo, but Sega Genesis, might be looked at by one of the younger generations in the same way my generation thought about the Atari 2600. Talked about feeling antiquated. Remember this was before Sony and Microsoft got in on the action.

Following the legendary battle between Sega’s Genesis and Nintendo’s Super Nintendo, from which both walked away winners, a new battle was soon to begin. Sega had been rapidly developing a number of new technologies to not only outpace but outperform Nintendo, its chief rival. The 32X expansion pack for the Genesis, the Game Gear (a color version of Gameboy that ate batteries like candy), the Sega CD, and Sega Saturn followed suit, in addition to deals in America with cable companies for a special service called Sega Channel, where subscribers could play over 50 games per month.

While the Genesis had outperformed the Super NES in America, the mother company in Japan became jealous and began cutting funding to its subsidiary Sega of America, going as far as to mounting of charges of outright sabotage. In either case, the much anticipated Sega Saturn became a total flop in America, consumers largely citing lack of an appealing ad campaign, the absence of their marquis mascot Sonic, and a hefty price tag for a console system more expensive than anyone had ever really seen. The flop was blamed on Sega of America, despite the fact that Sega of Japan had not gained much headway and arguably lost ground in Japan as well.

To make matters worse, rumors were circulating widely and finally confirmed when Sony, a powerhouse international company which also happened to be based in Japan as well, announced they would be launching a video game console called the Playstation. It was meant to compete with Nintendo and Sega.

Meanwhile, Nintendo had successfully launched the N64, and made critically acclaimed and commercially successful adaptations from 2D to 3D in its major franchises, such as Mario 64, Mario Kart, Banjo Kazooie, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Donkey Kong, along with games like Goldeneye. However, it’s greatest failure lie in its inability to continue its partnership with Squaresoft, the foremost developer of the JRPG, and who was in the midst of working on its most important game to date: Final Fantasy VII.

Legend has it that Squaresoft’s new Final Fantasy game was too big for the N64 to handle, and after an ugly fight, where Square refused to compromise the content of its game to suit the design limitations of the N64’s cartridge system; Square jumped ship and signed with Sony to release its game as part of Sony’s Playstation launch. Final Fantasy VII was the most successful game for the Playstation’s launch, and it played a major role in video game history. While in hindsight it seems inevitable that Sony would eventually dominate the videogame market, without the aid of Squaresoft and its subsequent other releases, Sony might have struck out in its first attempt. Instead it hit a home run, and was giving Nintendo, for years the dominate first party video game developer, a run for their money.

Sega decided early on its Saturn was a failure, and moved quickly to establish the next line or generation of consoles, a project later known as the Dreamcast. The Sega Dreamcast was an incredibly innovative system. Not only did in launch on September 9, 1999, but it was well ahead of the Playstation 2, which wouldn’t even be released for a few more years! Subsequent years found Microsoft joining the fray for video game supremacy as it launched the Xbox, and Nintendo did its GameCube. Despite the onslaught of billion-dollar multipnational corporations weighing on the scale, somehow the Dreamcast, however, still bears its marks on our present generation of console systems.

For one, the controller was a fascinating development in video game history. When Microsoft later entered the arena of video game industries, it shamelessly stole its controller design from the Dreamcast’s design. The memory cards were inserted directly into the controller (a design element Nintendo had implemented, but it was more for the Rumble Pak as most cartridge based games for the N64 were able to save directly to the cartridge anyway). The Dreamcast went a step further and developed what it called a Visual Memory Unit or VMU. The VMU itself could be removed and played like a mini gameboy and used to unlock special quests or items, etc. for a particular game, such as Skies of Arcadia.

The console came with a built-in 52k modem, which is laughable today, but back then was standard to advanced internet speed for 1999. It had the first dedicated online gaming network via console. Games like Phantasy Star Online were designed specifically to utilize this feature. Today online gaming is standard, but the Dreamcast undoubtedly helped make it so. All console gaming systems come with modems now; its standard.

The Dreamcast also had many exceptional games and was really a great testing ground for avante guarde and leading edge games. Certain games redefined the genre altogether on the Dreamcast. Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast changed the 3D fighting landscape considerably to where by its second and third installments was including characters from Nintendo and even Star Wars. Many of Capcom’s finest 2D fighters came from this era and were ported successfully to the Dreamcast, such as Street Fighter Alpha 3, Capcom vs. SNK 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and Street Fighter 3: Third Strike.

Other genres were no exception to these innovative trends. In classic RPGs, at least two are celebrated to this day and have enjoyed the prestige of having been ported to rival systems: Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2. In cel shading gaming technologies, Jet Grind Radio led the charge, opening the door for other games to use cel shading, like Fear Effect for Playstation, No More Heroes, or even its sequel Jet Set Radio Future for Xbox. Resident Evil: Code Veronica was a good enough game by itself to be considered above average for the horror genre in general. Sonic Adventure was another successful conversion of 2D to 3D (although Sonic 3D Blast for the Genesis already did the first conversion, it was imperfect and led to the better game, Adventure), and Sonic Adventure 2 was a solid sequel.

There were numerous hidden gems as well, such as Giga Wing and Giga Wing 2, or Toy Commander. Truly it was a dazzling system and with great fondness and memories I have decided to dedicate a few upcoming reviews to some of those games that genuinely touched me.

Stay safe everyone, and catch up on your reading, gaming, and music. I’ll be right there with you.