September 9, 1999

I'm still on my hiatus, but I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the significance of this day. Why? Today marks a day that will forever live in the hearts of dedicated gamers everywhere: the anniversary of the release of the Dreamcast console.

I must be up front: I did not own a Dreamcast at any time during its run. My appreciation of this hardware did not come until many years later. In fact, not until the last year or so.

About a year ago, I began to notice more and more articles about the caliber of Sega's little white console. This was also the time when I began to get not only an itch to write about gaming, but also to collect all the old consoles of my childhood. I still owned my N64, and I found a Sega Genesis on eBay (and it reeked of smoke... moron who sold it to me did NOT put that little bit of info in the item's description). I almost went after a NES and SNES, but realized that most of the games I wanted to play on them were available on Wii's Virtual Console (although you can still buy emulator systems for a good price).

In my eBay hayday, one of my most sought after items was a Dreamcast. I didn't want to get one new... those run for at least $80 (that's only $20 cheaper than a BRAND NEW PS2. That should tell you something about this sytem). I finally found one that came with two controllers and no games. Why no games? I wanted to amass my own Dreamcast collection. I didn't want any crappy, filler games to sully the mix.

I remember the day that it came, and how incredible it was to open that box and hold that system, realizing that I had history in my hands.

History?

Yes. For it's time, the Dreamcast was arguably one of the most technologically advanced systems ever made. It brought the gaming industry into the type of three dimensional gaming that we know today. Yes, the Playstation and N64 were the first successful consoles to introduce 3D gaming, but the Dreamcast was the first to show what 3D gaming would eventually become (the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox were still at least a year off). It was also the first console to have a modem built in to the system itself. Keep in mind that this was over two years before the release of the original Xbox (and therefore, Xbox Live).

Simply put, the Dreamcast was years ahead of its time.

With a gaming library that includes Rez, SoulCalibur, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Skies of Arcadia, Jet Grind Radio, Crazy Taxi, and Shenmue 1 and 2, it's easy to see why this console is celebrated as one the best and, unfortunately, also one of the most short-lived.

Need any more eveidence? How about the fact that developers (albeit small, independent ones) are still making Dreamcast games.

Happy birthday, Dreamcast. We sure miss ya.