I’ll keep my love story short, but the Dreamcast hit right around my first full time game industry writing gig. I had been in the industry a year or so before in other positions, but this job was, “Living the Dream”
It was just an amazing time in my life. I tend to remember all of my fuck ups and asshole moments way more than anything else when I remember my past, but the Dreamcast is kind of the marker for what felt good back then. And not to get too personal and depressing, but I think it was the last time in my life where I felt truly happy about everything in my life, and looked forward to the future.
I vividly remember at one point in the middle of its short life span thinking, “Gawd. The Dreamcast seems to be really amazing. And I don’t think it’s just that I’m riding high by being amazingly lucky to be in this position. I think I’m actually witnessing and getting to write about something really, genuinely, good!”
And it absolutely was. SEGA was so ahead of its time with this one. To put it short, a colleague made the comment, “It’s a gamer centric machine.”
I know the word “Gamer” has been morphed and perverted into an icky concept, but the context of what my friend said then holds. If you liked video games, SEGA pushed ideas with the Dreamcast that served your interest not just in the (1999/2000) present, but going forward. Cool ideas. Blue sky game-centric ideas that were attainable in concept, and could be perfected later.
Oh lord. The library as well. SEGA was in full renaissance mode with their first-party offerings (Jet Set Radio, REZ, Space Channel 5, Shenmue, Phantasy Star Online, Etc.), and their third-party support was so good. As a hardcore Capcom fan especially (and a competitive FGC person at the time), it was a dream machine.
Man … gawd … just such a good time. I could dive so deep into any one thing about it, just babbling for a million words, and it would be all love.
Crap. I said this would be short.