That's right folks. Ten years ago the infamous Sega Dreamcast was unleashed upon these United States. I recall picking up Ready 2 Rumble, NFL2K, and of course Soul Calibur along with an extra controller and two VMUs. I added Sonic Adventure a couple days later. Unfortunately, the DC also shipped with a 56k modem (remember those?). I say that because it took another year for any online game to release, and so in the interim we were left using the modem to chat online. Almost ruined my life...

The fact is the Dreamcast had an excellent line-up of games. Even if the machine had a lifespan of only two years. I miss games like Crazy Taxi, Jet Grind Radio, Powerstone, Toy Commander... But don't you dare mention Shenmue. "Have you seen any sailors around here?" Ugh.

If you roam around these parts you will find plenty of posts and stories related to the Dreamcast. For those that are lazy I linked a few below. These arn't necessarily the best because I like you are lazy as well and just picked a random few. If you don't like being called lazy, prove me wrong by doing searches of your own.

From the below linked Happy Birthday Mr. Dreamcast (2001): "Years from now, just how will people look back upon the DC? Is it a classic like the SNES or Genesis? A decent but forgettable system like Turbographix-16? Or a complete failure like the Jaguar or Saturn?" While you really can't put it in the same class as NES or SNES or even the system that overshadowed the DC and sent it to an early grave, the PlayStation 2. Dreamcast was unique and just flat out crazy enough that it has its own special place in history. It's certainly well above the "decent but forgettable" level.

It is a classic.

So many great games... (wipes tear from eye) Seriously. No console has had a two year span as great as DC did. Most games had that wacky Japanese Sega vibe that was both a curse, and the reason the system is so beloved by fans. Then throw in online play (you can throw away the gimmicky VMUs), and Sega set the tone for this millennium of gaming. You cannot overlook the gaming community the DC inspired. From chat (#dreamcast), to websites (bring back TorkBoard!), to yes even clans (where are you Sega Devils?). That if you ask me is the biggest contribution to console gaming the Dreamcast gave us. Remember Phantasy Star Online? Of course you do. We all do. I think I dropped 200 hours of my life into that game. Which is pretty damn sad. Then again, I wasted a lot more on IRC (yeah, I've wasted my life). Just remember...

It's (still) thinking.

Here's the really crazy part if you ask me. The Dreamcast is ten (10) years old. The Sega Genesis is twenty (20) years old. That means when DC came out, the Genesis was ten years old. Think about it. No you won't... [/obligatory Simpsons quote]

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