The Dreamcast Legacy • Hacker News Board

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#31

Post by moepstar » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:13 PM UTC

bachmeier wrote: post #15

I played my Dreamcast a ton. When I'd get stuck while writing my dissertation (a regular event) I'd think things through while playing a game of hockey. It provided just the right amount of distraction. I never understood the hype around the PS 2. It was so bad that when I went to the store to buy NHL 2K2, the employee said they no longer made Dreamcast games. She asked the other employee, who said the same thing. I…

I still play my Dreamcast a ton.

There's, to this date, new (indie) games being released, new/old builds of long-lost games do surface [0]...

The Dreamcast is a gift that keeps on giving...

[0] https://en.sega-dreamcast-info-games-preservation.com/

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#32

Post by emodendroket » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:14 PM UTC

b15h0p wrote: post #2

The article states that the Dreamcast "fell out of the public eye as the Nintendo 64 was released". Am I missing something here? As far as I know the N64 was released more than two years before the Dreamcast's release. The Dreamcast always felt like it belonged to the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube console generation more than the PS1/N64 generation, although it was released in between generations. Release dates: * PlayStation 1:…

It was absolutely the PS2 that tanked the Dreamcast. Perhaps the author meant Xbox.

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#33

Post by hahamrfunnyguy » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

One game I haven't seen mentioned here was Ikaruga. It was a top down shooter from Japan. Like many shooters, you fought your way through hordes of enemies and boss battles. You of course could upgrade your arsenal along the way by collecting powerups. One innovative gameplay mechanic was the firing mode: you would fire either white or black bullets. When you were firing white bullets, white enemy bullets and projectiles could not harm you. The reverse was also true.

Really fun game!

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#34

Post by halpert » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

bachmeier wrote: post #15

I played my Dreamcast a ton. When I'd get stuck while writing my dissertation (a regular event) I'd think things through while playing a game of hockey. It provided just the right amount of distraction. I never understood the hype around the PS 2. It was so bad that when I went to the store to buy NHL 2K2, the employee said they no longer made Dreamcast games. She asked the other employee, who said the same thing. I…

I had a Dreamcast and loved it, but the PS2 was an amazing system. The main draw was the massive game library, great online game play, and it doubled as a DVD player. Not sure what else you’d really want?

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#35

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #33

One game I haven't seen mentioned here was Ikaruga. It was a top down shooter from Japan. Like many shooters, you fought your way through hordes of enemies and boss battles. You of course could upgrade your arsenal along the way by collecting powerups. One innovative gameplay mechanic was the firing mode: you would fire either white or black bullets. When you were firing white bullets, white enemy bullets and project…

[deleted]

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#36

Post by fredoralive » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:22 PM UTC

p0wn wrote: post #19

I remember you could copy the games because they had no drm on them. My buddy had a complete collection. What a masterpiece.

It's a bit more complex. Beyond using a bespoke ~1GB GD-ROM format that normal optical drives can't read, the discs did AFAIK have copy protection of the "wobbly track" variety. So even if you have a GD-Recordable drive and media, you couldn't just copy the games. (Although if you have a GD-R drive you almost certainly had the dev tools to run unprotected games anyway).

Unfortunately they wanted a way to add Dreamcast content to music CDs ("MIL-CD"), which led to a massive holes in the security that meant it would happily boot off CD-Rs. I guess they didn't want to tie record companies to Sega's own duplicators so the CDs don't have any direct copy protection. Instead CD programs are "encrypted" (unlike GD-ROM games) and the disc drive turned off after initial load. Naturally the encryption / scrambling was figured out, and people figured out how to turn the drive back on[1]. Thus fun with piracy and homebrew. Late in the production run they removed the MIL-CD stuff entirely, although the vast majority of systems out there would've been built by then.

(Sorry if I've got any details wrong).

[1] Plus a bonus that the boot sector could contain unchecked extra code that made "self booting" pirate games possible.

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#37

Post by kingcharles » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

ChrisKnott wrote: post #30

The legacy of the Dreamcast was the Xbox, specifically online multiplayer (and massive controllers!). Peter Moore (who worked on both consoles) has talked about this several times over the years, e.g. this recent example [0] [0] from 7:40 https://youtu.be/tadtqchbbh0&t=460

Thanks for the link. Microsoft really built XBox out of everything they learned from working with Sega on Dreamcast. Without Dreamcast there would be no XBox.

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#38

Post by beamatronic » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

b15h0p wrote: post #2

The article states that the Dreamcast "fell out of the public eye as the Nintendo 64 was released". Am I missing something here? As far as I know the N64 was released more than two years before the Dreamcast's release. The Dreamcast always felt like it belonged to the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube console generation more than the PS1/N64 generation, although it was released in between generations. Release dates: * PlayStation 1:…

The Sega Dreamcast release date was 9/9/99

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#39

Post by MisterBastahrd » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:28 PM UTC

No other console tanked the Dreamcast.

The Dreamcast was fatally wounded as a platform because their DRM was easily bypassed. You didn't even need a special hardware dongle or modification. You could instead straight up download copies of games that were modified to work on the system. No point in supporting a platform that was dominating arcades but whose sales were getting obliterated by piracy at home.

Re: The Dreamcast Legacy

#40

Post by nullstyle » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:29 PM UTC

icedchai wrote: post #29

nullstyle wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The genesis was available in stores concurrently with the NES, and once it was released the master system didn't get much shelf space at stores anymore. The genesis has nearly around 2 years lead on the SNES if I remember correctly. The NES and Genesis definitely competed. (source: I remember the store displays)

Yes, I remember this as well. Growing up, late 80's, we had a NES, then in 1989: a Sega Genesis, and also a Turbografx 16. Yes, we were spoiled kids...

We had to sell half our NES games and pool together Christmas money from 3 brothers to get an open box genesis from the BX. Ah, military brat life :)