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This topic is lockedThe Sega Dreamcast launched on September 9th, 1999, with what was statistically the most successful launch in video game history. Exclusive launch titles such as Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, Power Stone, and Hydro Thunder kept Dreamcast owners happy and non-owners envious. However, within a year, dark times befell the console. Without the PS2's DVD support, and without backing from EA, the Dreamcast joined the Sega Saturn on the island of great consoles that were ahead of their time yet screwed hard by Sega of America's crappy marketing techniques. The last Dreamcast game to be released in America was an anticlimactic NHL 2K, released in February of 2002.
Contrary to popular belief and seemingly unbeknownst to many, the Dreamcast continued to live on in Japan for the next several years, primarily as a host for arcade ports. Many of the Japan-only Dreamcast games, including Ikaruga, Rez, Shenmue II, Chaos Field, Radio Allergy, Karous, and Triggerheart Exelica, were ported to other consoles in the US. With hardware identical to that of the NAOMI arcade motherboard, the Dreamcast proved to be the perfect and most cost-effective porting ground for NAOMI-based games. The last commercially-released Dreamcast game was Triggerheart Exelica in 2007, a port of the 2006 arcade game. With newer boards such as Taito Type-X taking over in arcades, the NAOMI board became obsolete, leading to the end of the Dreamcast's ports. (However, the NAOMI board is still used occasionally, such as with the recent Melty Blood: Actress Again)
Also to be noted is the Dreamcast's homebrew community. In 2007, Last Hope-- a brutally hard side-scrolling shooter-- made its way onto market sites like Play-Asia and quickly sold out. With games such as Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles, DUX, and the upcoming Last Hope: Pink Bullets, the homebrewing isn't showing any sign of stopping; rather, it will likely chug along slowly for years to come, much like the commercially-released games on the system.
So, any fellow Dreamcast owners celebrating today? As for me, I'll be playing a hell of a lot of my favorite Dreamcast game: Mars Matrix. 9/9/2009 will never come again... so do something special.
Dust that sucker off if that sucker needs dusting, and give her a (noisy Dreamcast-style) whirl.
This post has been edited by Street Fighter: The Movie: 09 September 2009 - 06:11 PM
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