Page 2: The games for Dreamcast

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What console enthusiasts still love 25 years later are the wonderful Dreamcast games. Some of them are already in the works for the Saturn, but will only be completed for the successor.

– "Crazy Taxi": originally developed for the arcade and certainly one of the role models for "Grand Theft Auto 3". You pick up passengers in a 3D city and drop them off at their destination. Part 1 comes for several platforms, part 2 only for Dreamcast, part 3 for Xbox.

– "Sonic Adventure": the first 3D Sonic and therefore the counterpart to "Super Mario 64". Development starts as a Saturn game. After the end of the console, it is even released for the GameCube. Sonic and Mario on one console – Who would have thought that a few years earlier?

– "Virtua Fighter 3tb": a fighting game that comes from the arcade machine ("tb" stands for Team Battle).

– "Shenmue": one of the most expensive game developments to date. The ambitious mixture of adventure, action and life simulation is launched under the working title "Virtua Fighter RPG" for the Saturn. Part 2 is already a multi-platform title; we have to wait almost two decades for part 3.

– "Skies of Arcadia": an epic pirate role-playing game in which much of the action takes place in the air.

– "Jet Set Radio": a fast-paced inline skating game with smooth cel shading, in which the entire city serves as a course. The sequel will be released for the Xbox.

– "Space Channel 5": the flashy retro-futuristic music game. Originally designed to attract female players, it becomes an insider tip for the console. (When it is shown to Michael Jackson, he successfully asks – – to be included).

– "Samba de Amigo": a music game with maracas and a mat included. Expensive then, expensive now.

– "Soul Calibur": the successor to "Soul Blade" (aka "Soul Edge"). The machine conversion of the fighting game is released exclusively for Dreamcast; part 2 comes for the trio of Playstation 2, Xbox and GameCube.

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Spiele für Dreamcast (20 Bilder)

The Dreamcast is the first console to be equipped with a modem ex works. Sega launches an online service, which strangely has different names depending on the region: Dricas in Japan, SegaNet in the USA and Dreamarena in Europe. Initially, it doesn't offer much more than e-mail, chats and information. It was not until mid-2000 that the first online game appeared: "ChuChu Rocket". The fast-paced puzzler is available free of charge in Europe. It was originally developed to test the console's ability to display many moving sprites simultaneously – and the stability of the online servers. A finger exercise for the masterpiece "Phantasy Star Online", the first online role-playing game on a console.

A VMU, a virtual memory unit, which is plugged into the controller, is needed to save game states. With its display, it has the appearance of a Tamagotchi. It can display additional details during the game; and you can copy small games onto it.

The scene

In principle, software support for the console never waned. Official games were still being released years after the console was discontinued. Today they are homebrew titles. For example, the German shoot-'em-up "Sturmwind" by Duranik. "Driving Strikers" is even the first new game in many years that can be played online – and even across different platforms (Dreamcast, Windows, Linux).

Shahzad Sahaib from Salzburg, the man behind the studio Retroguru and one of the creators of the magazine "BrewOtaku", knows: "The scene is producing both in-house developments such as 'Xenocider' in the style of 'Space Harrier' and ports, such as the recent 'Duke Nukem 3D'. Development software such as DreamSDK helps to minimize the entry barrier to the world of Dreamcast programming."

In Germany, this includes the DragonBox Shop, which offers new games for the console on disk and in a case. The fact that new Dreamcast games are exhibited at Gamescom every year is also thanks to Chris Noll, who runs the Retrospiel store in Cologne (and has his own Dreamcast releases in the works):

"Due to its integrated internet connection, Dreamcast was disproportionately represented in the homebrew scene of the early 2000s. There was an active community of (budding) programmers and enthusiasts on the net, including myself. Each console could start conventional CD-Rs with its own programs via an exploit. Indie releases such as 'Beats of Rage' by Senile Team were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times via our website DCEvolution alone. The scene maintained interest in the device even years after Sega's withdrawal from the console market. Many of those active at the time, such as Christian Whitehead with his 'Retro Sonic' project, which eventually led to the official 'Sonic Mania' game, are now active in the industry. Without the Dreamcast community, my store would certainly not exist."

However, anyone who wants to acquire a basic stock of Dreamcast games is years too late, says the Leipzig store RETRO Games: "Those who could and wanted to, bought a collection when nobody else wanted it. Anyone who wants games now has to search for a long time and dig deep into their pockets." Unless you are looking for a popular title that has been released for several platforms. Or "ChuChu Rocket".

Chris Noll adds: "The late titles from the period immediately after Sega's withdrawal from the hardware business are particularly expensive. This is because they were released in much smaller editions and were often no longer available from regular retailers. In Japan, many more games were released years later that never made it to us and are correspondingly sought-after and expensive. What makes the console still seem fresh and modern today is its high-resolution image output via VGA, which can be looped through 1:1 with a simple HDMI adapter. This allows the image to be displayed sharply on a modern flat screen."

(anw)