#0046 Author Life: Dreamcasting

During September of 1999, Sega released their final gaming console system, the Dreamcast. I was eleven years old when it released, and begged my grandmother for the money to purchase the $200 gaming system. After hours of puppy dog eyes, she caved, and I acquired a Dreamcast.

Unfortunately, I had to come up with my own money for games. As a result, I put in 100s of hours into demo discs because my game collection only included about ten games. Still, the console played a significant role in my youth, providing me with hours of great memories

The Dreamcast was a groundbreaking console that marked the end of Sega's ventures into the home console market. It is considered part of the sixth-generation video game consoles, which includes the later released Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox. It had several notable innovations at the time, such as being the first console to include a built-in modem for internet access and online play. Despite its technological advancements and strong launch, the console ultimately failed, pushing Sega out of the console market. It struggled to compete with the Playstation 2, which had more games and could play DVDs. The Dreamcast was discontinued in 2001, and Sega transition into a third-party software developer. The Dreamcast is fondly remembered for its innovative features and strong gaming library, including titles like Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, and Crazy Taxi. The silver lining of the failure is that we now have Sonic games on all systems.

This year, I've purchased a used Dreamcast from eBay, and I'm going back through all the games I played as a kid and the ones I missed. So far, it's been a blast.

CURRENTLY LISTENING:

My Tax Relax playlist at the office.