Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast. I just had to write something about this great console. Me personally, I think the Dreamcast is the greatest system ever made. It was a good 5 years ahead of its time, doing things that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are doing today. Some of those features I am speaking of is: downloadable content/updates(to an extent), browsing the internet and sending emails, downloading other users saved games, and being able to develop your own games to play on the console.
Breaking that down further, certain games that had online connectivity, mainly(or only) Sega brand games, could download update or add-ons to the game. Sonic Adventure for example had a couple of holiday updates for Christmas and Thanksgiving that changed the main town to have holiday decorations. I don’t remember, but it may have even changed the music. Phantasy Star Online did the same thing for Valentines Day by modifying the main area before going out on a mission with a giant holographic heart.
I can’t leave out the Sega VMU. VMU(Visual Memory Unit) was the Dreamcast’s memcard and much more. The VMU came with a built in LCD screen(black color only) and a D-Pad plus several buttons(Start, Select, A, B). The VMU alone had the ability to connect to other VMU units and transfer files and so forth. This connection between two VMU units allowed game companies to make mini-games that would be offloaded onto the VMU where people could have battles/competitions with each other. While plugged into the controller, if a company choose to, it could display vital information. For example, in Resident Evil : Code Veronica, the VMU would display the characters health status. Not all companies took advantage of this feature, but it was one of those little things that helped make the Dreamcast what it is.
When it came to online connectivity, the Dreamcast came with a built-in 56k dial-up modem with a broadband-ethernet modem as a separate purchase. I only had the dial-up because like most people in my area of living 10 years ago, dial-up was the thing to have and cable/DSL was too expensive. But for only having dial-up internet, the Dreamcast did great with online play. When playing NFL2K1 online or Phantasy Star Online, I next to never had lag issues until Sega started closing down its servers late in the Dreamcast’s life.
Overall, I believe the Dreamcast is a great system and I still have mine today. I have many great memories with this gaming system and I thank you Sega for making such a great console that sadly was just ahead of its time and didn’t have the support it needed and deserved.
