I got Sega Dreamcast!

[BWF89]

A few days ago at school my friend Frank said that he needed some money to buy an $80 graphics card for his computer so he could play Half-Life 2. He only had $40. So I said I'd buy his old Sega Dreamcast off him for $50. After some haggling he ended up getting $50 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Which wasn't a big loss since I never planed to play it again after the Holiday edition of the OPM demo disc eraced my memory card and my 120 hours of progress. I sat it on the floor and we played it for a couple of hours. After he left I spent about 30 minutes getting it to fit into my entertainment center.

For $50 and 1 copy of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City I got:

Hardware
-Sega Dreamcast
-2 controllers (1 official)
-A VMU memory card
--------
Misc Software
-1 Dreamcast Magazine demo disc
-1 Dreamcast Web Browser 2.0
--------
Games
-NHL 2K
-Sega Smashpack Volume I
-Ms. Packman: Maze Maddness
-Xtreme Sports
-Coaster Works
-Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge
-Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX
-MDK 2
-Sonic Adventures 2
-Rippin Riders
-Trick Style
-Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
-Sonic Adventure
-Silver

The graphics on that thing are almost comparible to PS2 graphics. And what few games I have played so far are pretty fun. All in all I think I got my moneys worth. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's run on Windows CE. But oh well.

[cacofonix]

I don't think the Dreamcast ran just Windows CE I think it also ran a Sega one as well, I only noticed the Windows CE logo once and that was only on Sega Rally.


cacofonix

[oddabe19]

Hi, I'm 1999.

Have we met??

:-P

[twisted_steel]

I remember using several emulators when I actively used my Dreamcast. It was very easy - no mod chips, no specific CD-Rs like the XBox. As for Windows CE, I'm pretty sure the Dreamcast used it since some of the emulators would not work without CE libraries.

Emulators for Dreamcast: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/emusfordc.shtml
Quake port: http://imrtechnology.ngemu.com/quake.htm

[darkoptix]

Dreamcasts own. They are really underrated systems, that should have deserved more attention. For the price you got that, awesome.

[DJ_Max]

Dreamcast wasn't really underated, just that Sega wasn't good at getting their systems known, and if they didm they quickly stopped production, and started on something else. If you look through the years you will see the same happened with the Sega Saturn, Sega CD, etc..

BTW, I still own one.

[Rogee]

Congrats! I love my Dreamcast. I've had it since September 9, 1999, when I paid $200 for it the day it came out. That system was so overlooked.

Most games didn't use Windows CE. I think it was only used for smaller games and applications. Now there are a bunch of home made games and emulators for the Dreamcast now. I even remember a group getting Linux running on Dreamcast.

I managed to find the ethernet broadband connector for my DC. It was definitely ahead of its time.

[kiddo]

Congrats, new dreamcaster :)

I bought mine 40$ a year ago (quite impossible to find), and since then my cdholder bag is full :) I have enjoyed the good titles on dreamcast:
Ikaruga, Grandia2, skies of arcadia, chu chu rocket, and a few others :) I'll have to make a beowulf cluster with it someday

[daniels]

Linux on the DC is fun if you can manage to get yourself a Broadband Adapter, but as they tanked horrifically in stores, they sell for an absolute mint on eBay (or, at least, did in 2001; when I was looking, it was upwards of $au320). The architecture is sh4 (I think), which doesn't run Ubuntu, but ports and build daemons welcome.

[miho]

Hi, I'm 1999.

Have we met??

:-P
Dreamcast was better then the f*cking ps2, it died because of bad timing. :x

[panickedthumb]

Yeah, DC was WAY ahead of it's time. I'd love to get one. Hmm.... there's a used game store a few miles away....

But seriously, the graphics are PS2 quality if not a little better. It's just like the Sega Genesis and Super NES. The Genesis had much better graphics and sound, except for a few titles, not to mention the performance boost you can get from overclocking it, but it wasn't nearly as popular. Sega just sucks at marketing.

[BWF89]

Yeah, DC was WAY ahead of it's time. I'd love to get one. Hmm.... there's a used game store a few miles away....

But seriously, the graphics are PS2 quality if not a little better. It's just like the Sega Genesis and Super NES. The Genesis had much better graphics and sound, except for a few titles, not to mention the performance boost you can get from overclocking it, but it wasn't nearly as popular. Sega just sucks at marketing.
I've learned over the past few weeks that how powerful your invention doesn't make ANY difference on how well it will do. Here are some examples:

Linux/BSD/Macintosh are alot better than Windows but Windows still owns 95% of the market.

Sega Gamegear was miles ahead of Gameboy and Gameboy Color combined but somehow the latter won the handheld wars.

BetaMax was alot better than VHS but VHS won the video wars.

X-Box is alot better (in graphics) than the PS2 but PS2 owns the market.

The list could go on.

[kiddo]

My 2cents about "the PS2 is beyond Xbox":



who really wants to spend money to help Microsoft? http://www.ubuntuforums.org/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif


power is not all. Games make the console great. And so far, every "good" game out on Xbox is out on PC.


PS2 has the largest game library available. And it's the RPG console :) oh, and it's backwards compatible.
Sony is good at marketing
As for the DC graphics vs PS2 graphics, nope, sorry, but PS2 graphics are a _little_ bit better. They're good match, though. Dreamcast was a wonderful machine, ahead any technology available. But why, why didn't those SEGA idiots either release it sooner (that's pretty impossible I recon), OR wait for the NEXT console generation (then they would have even more time to make a kick*rse console).

Too bad.

[nevin]

yeah, i got the linux working on my dreamcast. i think the only really cool thing about having linux on there was that it came with doom on there too, so i could play doom on my dc. couple other cool things too. but def cool that linux worked on it.

[grte]

If DCs are so expensive on Ebay, just pop into your local pawn shop. the one in my town had like 10 of 'em for $50 CDN a piece.

[steven8]

Congratulations!! I loved the Dreamcast, when I played it, but my money was sunk into Nintendo equipment at the time, and couldn't do both.

Have fun with it!!

[fistfullofroses]

I had a Dreamcast and loved it. IMHO I think that the Dreamcast was most likely the best system to ever grace our ungrateful eyes.

[Johnsie]

I got a new DC a couple of weeks ago.... The graphics are great and the games are really cheap. I dont see why anyone would pay £40 for a game when the dreamcast games are so good and much cheaper. The gamecube was a ripoff but the games weren't weren't quite as good. I'm still sad that Nintendo was allowed to buy Sega.

[Xzallion]

They really shine in the homebrew scene. Theres some good games like "Beats of Rage" and "Squares" that you can legally burn to cd and play. Also you can get emulators to run on them. ;)

[Peepsalot]

Yep Dreamcasts are fun. I got mine at a pawn shop for $32.95 a couple years ago.
Some of my favorite games have been Vanishing Point, Crazy Taxi, Ikaruga, and Sega Marine Fishing(with special fishing rod controller ;) ).

One of the nice things is that you can burn ISOs to CD-Rs and it will play them.

I found an ISO online of a NES emulator with a ton of games, that thing was a blast to play. There is also a snes emulator, genesis, gameboy, commodore 64, and probably a bunch more I don't know about.

[pmj]

I got a new DC a couple of weeks ago.... The graphics are great and the games are really cheap. I dont see why anyone would pay £40 for a game when the dreamcast games are so good and much cheaper. The gamecube was a ripoff but the games weren't weren't quite as good. I'm still sad that Nintendo was allowed to buy Sega.

What!?

Nintendo did NOT buy Sega. Sega quit making hardware and instead now makes software for all platforms. The GameCube wasn't a ripoff either; it was the cheapest console of the last generation and had plenty of good games, especially, of course, the first party titles.

Oh, and congratulations to the OP on the purchase of this great console. There are many classics you should check out. Here's a good list: http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2006/10/best-dreamcast-games-for-today-top.html

[NeoChaosX]

Congrats to the OP on the Dreamcast purchase. Wonderful, wonderful games on that system. My two favorite are Skies of Arcadia and Project Justice (sequel to Rival Schools for those of you who remember that game).

[M_the_C]

First of all congrats on the new DC, it's a great console.
Recommend Soul Calibur as a game.

who really wants to spend money to help Microsoft?
As opposed to Sony?

As for the DC graphics vs PS2 graphics, nope, sorry, but PS2 graphics are a _little_ bit better. They're good match, though. Dreamcast was a wonderful machine, ahead any technology available. But why, why didn't those SEGA idiots either release it sooner (that's pretty impossible I recon),

The main reasons PS2 graphics are better is because 1) the DC came out 15 months before the PS2 and 2) As developers get better at making games the graphics get better. DC didn't have the time it needed to shine.

[atihimself]

Congrats to the OP on the Dreamcast purchase. Wonderful, wonderful games on that system. My two favorite are Skies of Arcadia and Project Justice (sequel to Rival Schools for those of you who remember that game).

Rival schools... jeah lot of sleepless hours i remember it, but i think soul calibur was better
another good game was soul reaver

[patrick295767]

just a nice sega pic: http://patrick295767.sitesled.com/linux/segasega.jpg
(zophar http://www.zophar.net/unix/unix.phtml )
http://mc.pp.se/dc/

[xpod]

Pity you were not a wee bit closer to me as i just tried to sell about 15 new Dreamcast games on Ebay for a pal a week or two ago.......no takers strangely enough:-k

We got all the old consoles too as far as i recall so mabey i`ll try what your pal did and put the games together with a console.........now why did`nt i think of that in the first place](*,)

[BWF89]

I can't believe my thread from almost 2 years ago is still being bumped.

By this point in time I just use my Dreamcast to play emulators. I enjoyed playing Half-Life/Blue Shift on it.

[GILBERTO15]

could anybody give me a good tutorial on how to get these emulators running on the dreamcast?

[l0c0dantes]

www.dcemulation.com

[BWF89]

www.dcemulation.com
I think you have to have Windows to burn DC games. If it's a prepackaged disc image with the roms & emulators already on it you might be able to use a converter program like cdi2iso to convert it to a format burnable on Linux, but I've heard people say it doesn't always work.

[Super King]

I'm a Dreamcast owner myself, a pretty nice little system with some fun multiplayer games. Unfortunately mine's broken, though I'll be buying my friends DC at some point for a good price.

[kop316]

I just got one a few days ago, and I got it for about 20$. You guys who are paying 50$ should really look around for some flea markets.

I just got it for games, but what is the deal with all this emulation and linux with it? I haven't heard of it before.