Unboxing an UNUSED Dreamcast Console! 23 Years Later
video description
As far as the availability of some of the more expensive games nowadays, this is where I think it is justified to pirate. Get a good ODE and use quality 1: 1 GDI rips (not old CD-R destined CDI rips which often had to cut out or downgrade audio/video content to fit from the original 1GB GD-ROM capacity) and go to town.
Also on the Windows CE comment, just a friendly FYI since many slip up on this: The console itself never had an 'OS' onboard like modern ones. Everything needed to run the game bare metal was on the disc. Microsoft offered a Windows CE SDK built to run on the Dreamcast hardware as an optional toolkit for game devs to use if they wish. The theory was that it made ports from Windows easier. In reality, only a tiny handful of games took advantage of it with the vast majority using Sega's own SDK.
Also one of the nice things about the Dreamcast and Sega is it received a LOT of quality arcade ports in its life. In fact because the Naomi arcade platform was essentially a Dreamcast with more RAM, there have been successful attempts over the years to bring over some of the arcade titles that never got official ports.
Date: 2022-11-26
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Comments and reviews: 13
Otaku
Man that brought back a lot of memories. My favorite games were Crazy Taxi (LET'S GO MAKE SOME CRAAAAAZY MONEY) Soul Calibur (even though I was never really good at it) and Shenmue. The whole immersive reality thing, where there is a day/night cycle and different characters do different things, etc. was pretty amazing. The localization and voice acting were pretty derpy (hey, do you happen to know where sailors hang out) but I was willing to forgive that. Was really bummed when Shenmue 2 was announced as an Xbox exclusive here in the States. But was thrilled to find out that there was apparently a European) release of Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast. I managed to import a copy and thanks to the Utopia bootdisk I was able to play it on my NA console. Wish I knew where my Dreamcast was. Had the full setup with controllers, VMUs, rumble paks, even keyboard and mouse. (never was able to get ahold of the broadband adapter tho) Plus a ton of games. Bought it back during the Sega-exiting-the-console-market fire sale. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but IIRC it was pretty ridiculously cheap for what you got. Unfortunately it seems to have gone missing sometime during my last move. I have a vain hope that it is somewhere in the garage packed away among the boxes of random crap still in boxes that I haven't yet managed to go through.
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Man that brought back a lot of memories. My favorite games were Crazy Taxi (LET'S GO MAKE SOME CRAAAAAZY MONEY) Soul Calibur (even though I was never really good at it) and Shenmue. The whole immersive reality thing, where there is a day/night cycle and different characters do different things, etc. was pretty amazing. The localization and voice acting were pretty derpy (hey, do you happen to know where sailors hang out) but I was willing to forgive that. Was really bummed when Shenmue 2 was announced as an Xbox exclusive here in the States. But was thrilled to find out that there was apparently a European) release of Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast. I managed to import a copy and thanks to the Utopia bootdisk I was able to play it on my NA console. Wish I knew where my Dreamcast was. Had the full setup with controllers, VMUs, rumble paks, even keyboard and mouse. (never was able to get ahold of the broadband adapter tho) Plus a ton of games. Bought it back during the Sega-exiting-the-console-market fire sale. Don't remember how much I paid for it, but IIRC it was pretty ridiculously cheap for what you got. Unfortunately it seems to have gone missing sometime during my last move. I have a vain hope that it is somewhere in the garage packed away among the boxes of random crap still in boxes that I haven't yet managed to go through.
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EAESPN
my mom bought me this for xmas in 1999 (lucky me) with one game Mortal Kombat Gold, yeah it was fun but a week after xmas she got my Sonic Adventure as she noticed I played the absolute shit out of the one stage demo for hours and hours, playing MK only a few times to change it up, I remember going to my dads for the weekend and, when I came back home she said to look in my room and there I saw it on my night stand Sonic Adventure and I was like holy shit! ' and I proceeded to spent the next month of so playing the crap out of that game, and yeah the story was kinda cheesey, but I did not care I had a dreamcast and was the only one of my friends to have one for about a year and it bring back such great memories, I often get lost in the music and the system at times, I miss them days of being a young teen playing playstation and dreamcast and thinking the world was a amazing, and awwed by the wonders every day, what a time to be alive is all I have to say!
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my mom bought me this for xmas in 1999 (lucky me) with one game Mortal Kombat Gold, yeah it was fun but a week after xmas she got my Sonic Adventure as she noticed I played the absolute shit out of the one stage demo for hours and hours, playing MK only a few times to change it up, I remember going to my dads for the weekend and, when I came back home she said to look in my room and there I saw it on my night stand Sonic Adventure and I was like holy shit! ' and I proceeded to spent the next month of so playing the crap out of that game, and yeah the story was kinda cheesey, but I did not care I had a dreamcast and was the only one of my friends to have one for about a year and it bring back such great memories, I often get lost in the music and the system at times, I miss them days of being a young teen playing playstation and dreamcast and thinking the world was a amazing, and awwed by the wonders every day, what a time to be alive is all I have to say!
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Donovan
I am still impressed with Sega even today as Dreamcast console was ahead of its time, despite a few hardware handicaps (in-order execution scheduling within both CPU and GPU surprisingly didn't stop them from churning out the graphics which only computers that come 3 to 7 years later after it was first released would be capable of - even Nintendo and Sony struggled and Microsoft got it somewhat right in terms of gaming quality in comparison to Dreamcast.
It's still worthwhile to play games on either emulator or the original console as there's still value to playing some old Dreamcast games. And I personally would use a version of VMU with SD card or eMMC SSD as some games might require more than 128 KB of memory, typically with games released late in Dreamcast's market life - and in the beginning leg of gradual memory card phase-out, with XBOX introducing the gamesave features that allows you to save games on either memory card or hard drive.
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I am still impressed with Sega even today as Dreamcast console was ahead of its time, despite a few hardware handicaps (in-order execution scheduling within both CPU and GPU surprisingly didn't stop them from churning out the graphics which only computers that come 3 to 7 years later after it was first released would be capable of - even Nintendo and Sony struggled and Microsoft got it somewhat right in terms of gaming quality in comparison to Dreamcast.
It's still worthwhile to play games on either emulator or the original console as there's still value to playing some old Dreamcast games. And I personally would use a version of VMU with SD card or eMMC SSD as some games might require more than 128 KB of memory, typically with games released late in Dreamcast's market life - and in the beginning leg of gradual memory card phase-out, with XBOX introducing the gamesave features that allows you to save games on either memory card or hard drive.
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The
Hello there,
I am a former manager for Rhino Video Games and I am wondering which location you used to shop at. I managed store 18 in Dalton, Ga and store 20 in Cartersville, Ga and I helped open a number of new stores across Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama before the company was finally bought by GameStop followed by my walking out 2 weeks later due to the treatment of the staff.
One of my viewers linked me this video over on the Rhino Video Games Discord which is now home of The Quiet Man Speedrun. it's one of the worst games SquareEnix has ever released. Recently one of my old employees recreated our old workshirts, we did a limited run and I even gave a couple out to viewers.
Rhino was a great place to work before Blockbuster came in and ruined it and then sold it to GameStop which was and is an unbearable place to work. Thanks for the shoutout for the best business I've ever worked at.
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Hello there,
I am a former manager for Rhino Video Games and I am wondering which location you used to shop at. I managed store 18 in Dalton, Ga and store 20 in Cartersville, Ga and I helped open a number of new stores across Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama before the company was finally bought by GameStop followed by my walking out 2 weeks later due to the treatment of the staff.
One of my viewers linked me this video over on the Rhino Video Games Discord which is now home of The Quiet Man Speedrun. it's one of the worst games SquareEnix has ever released. Recently one of my old employees recreated our old workshirts, we did a limited run and I even gave a couple out to viewers.
Rhino was a great place to work before Blockbuster came in and ruined it and then sold it to GameStop which was and is an unbearable place to work. Thanks for the shoutout for the best business I've ever worked at.
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Charles
Thanks for another excellent video.
A thought: I know the Deamcast is something of a cult retro console so understandably it may be hard to get why it failed. It never appealed to me BITD and still doesn't even though I love all things to do with retro electronics - why? It certainly wasn't the console or SEGA's tarnished reputation. It was that the games on the system really didn't appeal to me, or I suspect the majority of potential buyers. Too niche, too much of the same old thing.
. I could go buy a probably inferior PS2, play my PS1 games if I wanted 'old', play updated versions of favourites, even play a DVD! .but most importantly play something new with new ideas, and not just another darn scrolling shooter or Sonic or fighting game. IMO: that's what killed the Dreamcast, right or wrong the impression that all it had to offer was more of the same just a bit prettier.
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Thanks for another excellent video.
A thought: I know the Deamcast is something of a cult retro console so understandably it may be hard to get why it failed. It never appealed to me BITD and still doesn't even though I love all things to do with retro electronics - why? It certainly wasn't the console or SEGA's tarnished reputation. It was that the games on the system really didn't appeal to me, or I suspect the majority of potential buyers. Too niche, too much of the same old thing.
. I could go buy a probably inferior PS2, play my PS1 games if I wanted 'old', play updated versions of favourites, even play a DVD! .but most importantly play something new with new ideas, and not just another darn scrolling shooter or Sonic or fighting game. IMO: that's what killed the Dreamcast, right or wrong the impression that all it had to offer was more of the same just a bit prettier.
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DaGleese
For me, the Utopia Boot disc was always an anxiety inducing experience, as I had a 50Hz TV, and the Utopia Disc ran at 60Hz. The image would go crazy and flicker. I always thought it was damaging my DC and TV. Then there was always the off-chance the new copied game I got off a friend would also be set at 60Hz, and I wouldn't be able to play it. I remember getting an American copy of Crazy Taxi off my friend before I had seen it available in stores. I was so eager to play it that I put up with it being at 60Hz just so I could hear the Offspring. I couldn't see a thing, but I'd try and play basically blind and try and hear as much of the cool music as I could before TIME'S UP! I eventually realised if I pressed down a few times in the menu I could get 10 crazy minutes of listening to the Offspring. Treasured memories.
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For me, the Utopia Boot disc was always an anxiety inducing experience, as I had a 50Hz TV, and the Utopia Disc ran at 60Hz. The image would go crazy and flicker. I always thought it was damaging my DC and TV. Then there was always the off-chance the new copied game I got off a friend would also be set at 60Hz, and I wouldn't be able to play it. I remember getting an American copy of Crazy Taxi off my friend before I had seen it available in stores. I was so eager to play it that I put up with it being at 60Hz just so I could hear the Offspring. I couldn't see a thing, but I'd try and play basically blind and try and hear as much of the cool music as I could before TIME'S UP! I eventually realised if I pressed down a few times in the menu I could get 10 crazy minutes of listening to the Offspring. Treasured memories.
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DarkestPhoenix
I never actually owned a Dreamcast, and played one a grand total of 1 time. When the only friend of a friend (and about the only person in high school who owned one) brought it by. It was a neat system, but one I had very little interaction with. Dreamcast was a weird one, because the official (or maybe unofficial) reason I see floating around is the piracy killed the system, but while I know the sample size is small, I literally ever only knew one person who owned one growing up. To the point where the local WalMart, after the demise, had them stacked up and were desperately trying to get rid of them for 40 bucks. I regret not having the money for one now. So it might have been one of the factors, but I think just low sales volume is far more the culprit, considering how quick Nintendo consoles get hacked.
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I never actually owned a Dreamcast, and played one a grand total of 1 time. When the only friend of a friend (and about the only person in high school who owned one) brought it by. It was a neat system, but one I had very little interaction with. Dreamcast was a weird one, because the official (or maybe unofficial) reason I see floating around is the piracy killed the system, but while I know the sample size is small, I literally ever only knew one person who owned one growing up. To the point where the local WalMart, after the demise, had them stacked up and were desperately trying to get rid of them for 40 bucks. I regret not having the money for one now. So it might have been one of the factors, but I think just low sales volume is far more the culprit, considering how quick Nintendo consoles get hacked.
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dancedj2k2
I LOVED the Dreamcast. One of the best systems ever made. The main reason the Dreamcast died was because Sega wanted game makers to make exclusive games for the system. They did not want a game on the Dreamcast to ever show up on another system. The other reason for its failure was it was not released with a DVD player. Instead opting to go with G-VCD disc, which were popular in Japan but not in the USA.
However there is no argument that the limited amount of games released for the system were the best games ever released. Many of the games still exist today, from the 2k(NFL, NBA, NHL, ) games, to Soul Calibur, and Dead or Alive.
The VMU units which are still in use today(with hobbist) for some applications, and the ability to use it for carrying data and games was a great idea.
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I LOVED the Dreamcast. One of the best systems ever made. The main reason the Dreamcast died was because Sega wanted game makers to make exclusive games for the system. They did not want a game on the Dreamcast to ever show up on another system. The other reason for its failure was it was not released with a DVD player. Instead opting to go with G-VCD disc, which were popular in Japan but not in the USA.
However there is no argument that the limited amount of games released for the system were the best games ever released. Many of the games still exist today, from the 2k(NFL, NBA, NHL, ) games, to Soul Calibur, and Dead or Alive.
The VMU units which are still in use today(with hobbist) for some applications, and the ability to use it for carrying data and games was a great idea.
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Patrick
I got one black friday, 2000. It was going for 49. 99 at best buy with 2 games. I got shenmue and sonic adventure 1, then came back after xmas and got phantasy star online 2 and capcom vs snk. I continued to save my lunch money and buy more games up until best buy and eb games lost all their inventory because reasons (all games were 9. 99 - 24. 99. yes, all those 200+ games today were that cheap and plentiful. I remember this being the adult console that was way ahead of ps1 and n64 with arcade graphics. Even today the look, build, and style of the dreamcast console has a different appeal than the ps2 or any other console has. It just feels different.
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I got one black friday, 2000. It was going for 49. 99 at best buy with 2 games. I got shenmue and sonic adventure 1, then came back after xmas and got phantasy star online 2 and capcom vs snk. I continued to save my lunch money and buy more games up until best buy and eb games lost all their inventory because reasons (all games were 9. 99 - 24. 99. yes, all those 200+ games today were that cheap and plentiful. I remember this being the adult console that was way ahead of ps1 and n64 with arcade graphics. Even today the look, build, and style of the dreamcast console has a different appeal than the ps2 or any other console has. It just feels different.
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DJ
Sega, my favorite console maker ever, The Mega Drive is still my number one of all time and the Dreamcast was way ahead of its time. The industry owes a lot to Sega, they showed Nintendo were not invincible and could be beaten when they introduced the Mega Drive at a time when Nintendo had a 90% plus share of the market, they aimed games at an older audience rather than just kids and made it cool, they did so many great things and the likes of Sony and Microsoft benefited. Would have loved to see them stay in the market but they did make mistakes so I guess if you have to go out the Dreamcast for me was one hell of a console to go out on.
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Sega, my favorite console maker ever, The Mega Drive is still my number one of all time and the Dreamcast was way ahead of its time. The industry owes a lot to Sega, they showed Nintendo were not invincible and could be beaten when they introduced the Mega Drive at a time when Nintendo had a 90% plus share of the market, they aimed games at an older audience rather than just kids and made it cool, they did so many great things and the likes of Sony and Microsoft benefited. Would have loved to see them stay in the market but they did make mistakes so I guess if you have to go out the Dreamcast for me was one hell of a console to go out on.
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Mitchell
I bought a Dreamcast about a year ago and one of the things that really impressed me as someone with no experience of the console aside from videos was when I tried opening the webpage on Sega GT with no connection just to see what it would do and it pulled up a page that was baked-in on the disc! It blew my mind that they would actually bother to give you anything more than a generic no connection message. And of course there's a ton of awesome games, I really want to get a few friends together and play splitscreen PSO sometime. Something about this console just made the perfect storm of early 2000s gaming (and nostalgia.
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I bought a Dreamcast about a year ago and one of the things that really impressed me as someone with no experience of the console aside from videos was when I tried opening the webpage on Sega GT with no connection just to see what it would do and it pulled up a page that was baked-in on the disc! It blew my mind that they would actually bother to give you anything more than a generic no connection message. And of course there's a ton of awesome games, I really want to get a few friends together and play splitscreen PSO sometime. Something about this console just made the perfect storm of early 2000s gaming (and nostalgia.
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TwoBlackMarks
I remember reading about the Dreamcast in the magazines, I was really hyped for it. It was gonna be awesome! The best console ever from what I read about it!
In reality, I cannot even remember seeing it for sale, in Norway that is, I have some vague memories of Dreamcast games for sale, the same with Saturn actually, nowhere to be seen after a couple years, but I DO remember Saturn games being sold, if I had been older I would probably gotten a Dreamcast. I did get an used PS2 some years later.
Oh, SEGA, if you had just been a little bit smarter with some, or many of your choices.
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I remember reading about the Dreamcast in the magazines, I was really hyped for it. It was gonna be awesome! The best console ever from what I read about it!
In reality, I cannot even remember seeing it for sale, in Norway that is, I have some vague memories of Dreamcast games for sale, the same with Saturn actually, nowhere to be seen after a couple years, but I DO remember Saturn games being sold, if I had been older I would probably gotten a Dreamcast. I did get an used PS2 some years later.
Oh, SEGA, if you had just been a little bit smarter with some, or many of your choices.
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UnKnown_Drive
The Dreamcast COMPLETELY passed me by. I'm not even sure I knew anyone that owned a Dreamcast, as least as far as I knew. I might've heard about it in passing, but I was just utterly consumed by the magnificence that was the PS2.
That said, for the brief moments I saw others looking back on it, it did seem really interesting. The startup intro alone floored me with how, for lack of a better word, dreamlike it was. This video is also my first exposure to not only an unboxing of the console, but a genuine CRT playthrough of its library. Couldn't ask for a better person to do so, LGR.
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The Dreamcast COMPLETELY passed me by. I'm not even sure I knew anyone that owned a Dreamcast, as least as far as I knew. I might've heard about it in passing, but I was just utterly consumed by the magnificence that was the PS2.
That said, for the brief moments I saw others looking back on it, it did seem really interesting. The startup intro alone floored me with how, for lack of a better word, dreamlike it was. This video is also my first exposure to not only an unboxing of the console, but a genuine CRT playthrough of its library. Couldn't ask for a better person to do so, LGR.
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