The Dreamcast. The system that first brought us online play. That had controllers that weighed roughly 25 pounds when you had the card and rumble pack plugged in. I loved my Dreamcast and I miss it. I wish we saw more from Sega than just the occasional new rendition on Sonic and the NBA.

 

I think the Dreamcast was maybe my favorite gaming console. Obviously it does not stack up against the current generation of consoles but for it's time it was fantastic.

 

I fell in love with it rather quickly. I received it for Christmas and by mid afternoon me and my family were playing the NFL 2k series against a few people from Alaska from my living room. That was back before it was easy and constantly surrounding us. It was rather impressive and awfully fun.

 

Then there were the controllers. Gigantic yes but ultimately more comfortable than they got credit for. It had two slots in the middle where that little hole is. In those slots you would place a little memory card with a video screen on it. It was like how you can hook up the PS Vita to your PS3 or the latest rendition of the Gameboy to the Wii.

 

The Dreamcast was a thing of the future. Everything they had integrated was later taken to another level by another company. If they had stuck it out and created a new generation I can only imagine what they would have come up with. They had better minds than Microsoft or Sony had.

 

At least as far as innovation they did. I remember the day when you could trick the system. Back when you could buy a chip and download free Playstation games. Or how you could buy a blank disc and a spring and trick the Dreamcast into letting you play downloaded games. I mean obviously I did not do this...but I may or may not have known people that did.

 

Sega not only made better consoles but they made better games. The NBA 2k series has always been the best around and the NFL 2k series was always better than Madden before they purchased the right to become a Monopoly, something that is actually illegal. But Sega could even turn a tennis game into a must play.

 

The only way they let us down, is by bowing out. Maybe the biggest let down possible. They gave us so much yet I still feel cheated. They seem to be slowly dying and it sucks, because they were the smartest people in the business.

 

mlz

Sunday, March 24, 2013