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Dreamcast Homebrew Website Relaunched
Wraggster writes "Those who have never visited the DC Homebrew site, devoted to homebrew games and demos for the Sega Dreamcast, should be aware that it's just received an official relaunch, including over 230 pages of downloads of demos, games, ports, multimedia, and some great help pages too. New features for the site include a developer spotlight and homebrew spotlight - it's a resource well worth checking out." With titles like the great-looking Alice Dreams, there's some interesting material coming out of the unofficial Dreamcast coding scene of late.
This is truly a great thing. The Dreamcast really is the Apple II of consoles. Hobbyist hacking is truly a lost art.
Probably not, but all things considered (its FIFTY BUCKS for a Dreamcast system, most people spend double that on gasoline for their car a month), for the cheap gamers, hackers, programmers, and those tired of 'remade games just with better graphics' this is excellent news.
There is Dreamcast emulator just released called Chankast so you can now enjoy the dc-homebrew scene even without Dreamcast.
When the Dreamcast first came out, I abhorred it for a number of reasons, such as lackluster 1st party games, poor 3rd party support and just a general disdain for Sega's marketing (their track record isn't so hot in that department). But right now, I'm loving the Dreamcast :-)
Right about now, the Dreamcast is somewhat prematurely in its "glory day". While most Dreamcast games sucked to no end, it had many decent PC ports (Quake III, Unreal Tournament) and a handful of other good games. Generally, you can find these games in the bargain bin at GameStop for $5-$15, usually new. The Dreamcast's current online pricepoint is often less than a new GBA game, and usually is bundled with some games. Frankly, if you're a cheap gamer who doesn't have a lot of time, the Dreamcast is the way to go.
But the main appeal of the Dreamcast to me is the "geek" community that's brought Linux, BSD and most of the APIs that they connonate (Hell, you can even use Windows APIs for the built in Windows CE ROM). This is great for people like me who want to get their feet wet with basic game development for consoles, but don't have time to learn a hacked-up graphics API, or for someone who just is looking for a fun weekend project. It makes me happy to see that the Dreamcast homebrew community is still alive and kicking, and I'm hoping that this kind of thing will continue for a while.
"You and your third dimension."
Before the console wars became the new hip thing there was the Dreamcast. No XBox or Gamecube just the DC and PS2. Both had their supporters but only one really changed the industry for the better, while the other is an on going money grab by an over-zealous (and too large) company.
Things that the Dreamcast changed:
The FIRST console to have online gaming. It came with a 56k modem for those horrid dial-up speeds and eventually had the ability to be expanded to broadband with an adapter. Phantasy Star was one of the first (if not the first) game to be online for a console and many games for the Dreamcast joined it. Including sports games and shooters.
This was pretty big. I mean web browsing with a controller is a pain (I would know). And first person shooters with support for the keyboard and mouse make it capable of rivalling some of the PC games in this respect
Unless I am mistaked this is the only console to date to have a VGA Adapter that had a purpose. It made the Dreamcast capable of using a PC monitor and games that were "VGA" Enable had better resolutions and looked way better than on even the best TV. These graphics can still rival PS2 and some occassion XBox graphics to this day.
The only thing some people complained about seriously was lack of a DVD player. But at the time PS2 was still ~$200 and the DC was already ~$99. For that you could have gotten another DVD player that actually would play movies and not just act like it could.
So not only is it a good thing that the homebrew site is back it is an excellent thing. We can finally have more games for the Dreamcast even it they are not officially sponsored by Sega anymore. It is good to see that this is one "dead" console that is not truly dead and may have a big enough fan base to keep it alive for some time to come.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
So many of the PS2/GC's eventual best games were ported from Dreamcast:
Grandia II
Skies of Arcadia
Ikaruga
Rez
Guilty Gear X
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
All were on the Dreamcast first. They played better on the Dreamcast than they did on the PS2 as well.
Other games, like Street Fighter III: First Strike, haven't been ported yet - but that got mixed reviews when it came out anyway.
Still, if you liked fighting games, this system was utterly godlike. With titles like SOUL CALIBER and Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves and Virtua Fighter 3 and Capcom vs. SNK (and 2 as well) and Dead or Alive 2 and the million King of the Fighters games and Last Blade 2, if anything it surpasses the Neo Geo in fighting game awesomeness.
I never bought a Dreamcast while it was in its prime though. I'm guessing it's probably because I kept seeing crap on the shelves like Power Stone 2 (which was actually an OK game) that I'd never heard of, and that scared me away.