Dreamcast Turns 14
The SEGA Dreamcast was released on this day 14 years ago in North America. Way ahead of its time, the Dreamcast was the first console to have first party online support and gave us a glimpse of what the future of gaming would be like with titles like Sonic Adventure pushing graphics and speed ahead of anything else on the market.
EU territories would have to wait almost a month, almost a year after the Dreamcast’s Japanese debut, but the wait was more than worth it. Despite how things turned out, the Dreamcast has some great titles, most of which have become cult classics. Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia remain two of the biggest games that people want to see released digitally, and maybe that’ll happen at some point in the future.
In the past 14 years we’ve seen a shift to HD, a focus on online gaming. We’ve seen SEGA go bust and Microsoft get big. We’ve seen Sonic appear on a Nintendo console and we’ve seen Tails and Luigi cross swords. It’s been a hell of a time, but the Dreamcast remains an excellent console, and one that it’s well worth looking up if you’ve never had one.
Happy birthday, Dreamcast!
Article By Mat Growcott
Mat Growcott has been a long-time member of the gaming press. He's written two books and a web series, and doesn't have nearly enough time to play the games he writes about.
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