As we all know, the Dreamcast launch was staged over three dates. 09/09/99 sticks in the memories of many gamers as the definitive launch for the console, rightly so since the Dreamcast sold the most amount of it’s 10 million run in North America. It’s almost easy to forget the November 27th 1998 Japanese date or even this very day back in 1999 where the Dreamcast rushed into the homes of those wanting the 6th generation of consoles in Europe.
This day often passes with little fanfare certainly mostly down to it’s less than iconic number placement but the Dreamcast as a product really is something that should be celebrated in all territories it launched in and I’m sure treading on the same ground of how Sega got a launch so right (or so wrong depending on where in the world you are) isn’t something you’ve come here to read. For example, I believe that the console should have launched in the West in 1998 and the 09/09/99 date perhaps would have been better for Japan since the Saturn was still doing well enough in that region.
Instead, I would like to share my own experience of the Dreamcast at the launch. I would have been 12 when the console launched in the UK, I had a Megadrive through my childhood and my Dad had bought us a PlayStation the year before, this really was because ‘chipped’ games were so easy to obtain at car-boot sales here and was almost throwaway entertainment for myself and my sister as kids. Believe it or not, as much as I liked the PlayStation since all my mates had them, I didn’t really click with it and ventured to the other 5th generation machines in an almost backwards move, I had the N64 first which I loved for the selection of Wrestling games and of course, Goldeneye and Mario 64 but the Sega Saturn which I got after the ’64 was for me the best experience I had out of the 5th generation, the games at this point were dirt cheap since production had ended over 12 months before by this point, I had Road Rash very early on as well as Sega Rally and Virtua Cop with the gun, I was impressed with how fun this machine was as well as how well built it felt too. I yearned for games like Sonic Jam, Sonic 3D and anything else I recognised as a franchise on the Megadrive but these games always seemed to command a premium over many other games in my local Gamestation and at the time, stores like this were the only place to buy Saturn games outside an expensive Dial Up Internet ideal for an eBay in it’s infancy.
I’d strongly set myself up as a Sega gamer from what I remember. I wanted to experience more of what the company had to offer, venturing to the Master System and Game Gear since hardware and software for those was very obtainable in the UK where they both had a decent amount of success. I was also buying up Saturn games, even stuff I hadn’t ever heard of purely to have a good amount of games, being a kid, this took a clever mix of saving money from birthdays and Christmas and trading in my PlayStation and N64 which held more currency than the Sega stuff. I would say that here was when I became a collector over being a gamer, sacrificing what I would truly play and instead buying something obscure that had a good shot of being worth more one day; it did pay off, but that’s a story for another time!
Anyway, from this brief history of my game buying trends, it was clear that I would buy whatever Sega would be pumping out next. With the company out of the market here for a year, it became very easy to forget them as a current day competitor. The PlayStation had dominated, the N64 was hanging on and doing ‘okayish’ but Sega threw the Saturn out without the Megadrive to fall back on or the Game Gear , both of which could have made 1998 or beyond in my opinion, but Sega had this reputation here, they killed off hardware quickly, far quicker than their competitors. This was perhaps the cycle of things that wasn’t going to help the Dreamcast’s initial chances.
To say I was a gaming expert as an early teen would be a lie, yes I was a huge nerd for various things, WWF, action figures, cult TV and many other socially inept things, so I didn’t really know that Sega had a new machine coming. No real advertising had taken place, what was there was really unclear and naturally, the Internet gaming sites of today were not around then and £3.50 for a gaming magazine was more than I could commit to. Toys ‘R’ Us was perhaps the biggest factor into my Dreamcast desire, I saw the grey and blue stand up pod sat at the end of isle of my local store and watched Sonic Adventure being played by some older teens, it looked incredible! Far superior to anything I had ever seen before and THE Sonic game that my heart desired owning a Saturn. I simply had to have one.
I begged my Mum to get me one for one of my birthdays to which she bought mine from Electronic Boutique who had a deal with a load of 3rd party games which I didn’t care too much about, but Sonic Adventure was one of them.
To understand the importance of Sonic Adventure does require a degree of looking back and indeed forward. The game launched in all regions for the console and was the first solely 3D game in the series, it was also the first Sonic game to be technically miles ahead of anything at the time, play Sonic Jam’s 3D world and then Mario 64, play Sonic R and then something Mario Kart 64 and the difference in quality and technical prowess and it is almost night and day, but the Dreamcast was different, Sonic Adventure blow everything out of the water in 1999, it ran fast, looked great and was tailor-made for the Dreamcast. My first play through of the game was mixed, however. I didn’t like the wandering around to try and find the next action stage, but I did enjoy the sheer amount of characters and levels contained when you did find the right path but the camera was a pain more often than not leading to cheap deaths. There was enough about this game to love though so all was forgiven, I guess when we fast forward to Sonic Adventure 2, which would also be built with the Dreamcast hardware in mind it would be ironic to say that perhaps this was the last time we got a truly good 3D Sonic game which also seems to go hand in hand with my interest in Sonic almost disappearing after this game. I do strongly believe that games tailor made around one system benefit the most and that can’t be truer for Sonic. Both SA and SA2 really sum up how strongly the console left the gate and how strongly the impression it left on all that stuck with it until the very end. A machine far ahead of the pack and yet lived a fraction of the time it should have.
I guess this is mostly a retrospective look more at Sonic than the Dreamcast but I strongly believe most people experienced this game before the slew of high quality games that relentlessly launched for well over a year, I have the full PAL set of games as well as plenty of USA and Japan exclusives so I am quite well versed on the console library but SA is one game I can’t get out of my head, it’s a flawed diamond, that’s for sure but I happily play it whenever I power the Dreamcast on and something that even in 2021 gets attention from my three year old son, who loves Sonic Adventure over Sonic Mania, the reason? Those bloody wandering around bits! Maybe Sega did get a product that truly appeals to anyone in some form or another. Who knows.
Happy birthday Dreamcast!
Dreamcast Today 