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Is The Dreamcast Undead?
PlaidG writes "An interesting article has been posted on Antigames.com about the community revolving around the yet-living Sega Dreamcast. It covers the reasons behind the continuing viability of the Dreamcast, and the thriving underground surrounding it." Quite apart from the cool stuff such as MP3 players or Dreamcast Linux you can hack around with, the array of great games now available so cheaply makes Sega's console very enticing, even past its prime.
Um... How exactly would having the broadband adaptor enable piracy? Last time I checked, Dreamcasts didn't include hard drives and CD burners...
I recently got a used Dreamcast for less than $50 at Electronics Boutique, and the games sell for less than $10 or so. As far as I can tell, the hardware is just about as good as any other console, and at that price, it's hard to say it's not worth it.
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
I mean, the Atari 2600 is technically undead because people still make new games for it, trade games, and even make goofy hardwood handheld versions of it.
...soon
This is all uber-cool and very stimulating to my inner nerd self, but lets be real-- its not exactly giving the Xbox a run for the money.
On the other hand, the dreamcast is a very nice little custom game platform. I am surprised no one has figured out commercial applications for a 50 dollar Windows CE based platform that has zippy graphics, a cd-rom drive, and a modem. Hey, add a crad reader and a tv and you could make it into an ATM!
Oh well. I bought the Dreamcast for one reason, and one reason only. A reason that refuses to die even this very day. And that reason is....
S E A M A N !
(start Leonard Nimoy's voice)
Welcome back. It is good to see you so.....
(unnatural pause)
www.avacal.com -- the home page of pete shaw
I am a student, and wanted to get this thing based solely on the fact that I'd be able to get it cheap and buy second-hand games for next to nothing. I see my buddies with Playstations and Gamecubes and I like most of the games they play, but my roommate and I have gotten literally HUNDREDS of hours out of my $14 NHL 2K2 - and I know my friend put Zelda Wind Waker down inside of three days (as soon as he beat it).
:)
The games are easy to back up (which, yes, makes them easy to pirate, too) so I don't have to worry about $60 going to waste on a PS2 DVD because of an errant fall or a little carelessness in loading the disc. The one concern I have with the DC is the laser motor - sites like DCEmu seem to indicate this is a legitimate fear, as there are tools available on their site making backups a little easier on the DC's laser.
I got my DC with a dozen games, two controllers and a memory pack for under $50. I bought more games but I still play the nucleus of old games and get at least a couple hours' use out of them every night. Needless to say, I am very happy with this purchase.