You came, you saw, you didn't conquer. It's okay, though. You were way ahead of your time. In an era that saw the Playstation 2 and the Xbox completely obliterate the marketplace, little Dreamcast was that kid who got left behind during field trips because he was so forgettable. Even Nintendo Gamecube got its props by the gaming industry, while Sega sat back and twiddled their thumbs and watched the Dreamcast fail. 

 

Having just been burned by the Sega Saturn, I, along with countless other gamers were very skeptical when it came to anything that Sega put out. Honestly, why not? Sega has a history of abandoning its hardware at the drop of a hat to move onto the next thing. Need I remind you of how quickly Sega abandoned the Sega CD and the 32X once the Saturn hit the shelves? Granted, neither system was any good, but still, if one invests money into a gaming console a company should do everything they can to make sure the consumer gets his or her money's worth. 

Saturn killed the Dreamcast. It wasn't Playstation 2 or even Xbox. Sega Saturn rose from its grave like the main character in Altered Beast, and made sure that the Dreamcast failed. Honestly, how could Dreamcast have possibly tanked otherwise? It was a beautiful looking machine with an abundance of launch titles, decent graphics, four controller ports, VMU support, online gameplay, and a freakin' web browser! No other console at that time had anything close to that. That along with a killer advertising campaign should have kept Sega rolling in gold Sonic coins for at least a year until Playstation came by with its name recognition and dvd player. But in the back of many gamers heads was that damn Saturn. Sega Saturn got off to a hot start, but had little third party support and was ultimately abandoned within three years. You think a gamer was going to trust Sega after that? Nope!

 

In the end Dreamcast was a fun ride. It had a lot of good games, and a lot of sucky ones. I admit I didn't get one on 9/9/99, but I knew people that did. I was working at Whataburger at the time, and after a long hard day of grilling burgers, salting fries and filling drink orders, we were tired. All we wanted to do was rest. Instead we'd all boogaloo over to a co-worker's apartment and play Dreamcast. I remember getting my ass handed to me in Ready 2 Rumble, and the glee I felt after defeating my buddy in NFL 2k. And when he bought House of the Dead 2, and MK Gold, oh, it was on!

I myself didn't get a Dreamcast until much later, after the machine died and they were selling them dirt cheap at Circuit City. Eventually I lost interest in gaming all together, and I sold my Dreamcast, my N64, and all my games in exchange for concert tickets and some pocket cash. I regret doing that now after being more active on the internet and seeing all these Dreamcast videos people posted on youtube and other gaming sites. So that's when I began my quest for another Dreamcast.

On September 28, 2008 that quest was fulfilled.

 

The Dreamcast was mine once again. And nearly a year later I have a pretty healthy collection of games for it. I picked up the ones I lost, and discovered a few new ones. At the top of that list was Shenmue. 

 

My holy grail, which I have not found yet for a reasonable price is Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. I gave up looking for that one once it was released on XBLA. So I continue my journey, rummaging through every yard sale, every mom & pop music/movies store, every Movie Trading location, and even freakin' Ebay & Amazon, looking for that rare Dreamcast game. 

Happy birthday Dreamcast. You're no longer that under appreciated gaming console that people laughed at. In the ten years since your launch you have grown to cult status. Any gamer that doesn't currently have one of you shouldn't even be considered a gamer at all. You're no longer that lost kid at the museum anymore. You're now driving that freakin' bus. You certainly deserve to be placed among the consoles of lore. Nintendo and Playstation welcome you with open arms into their fraternity of cherished gaming machines. Now blow out your candles, son!