Sega was in the console game for a long time before going third party. Their last hardware effort was the Dreamcast, whose failure caused the company to abandon consoles in favor of becoming a publisher for the other platforms of the time: PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox.
However, do not let the Dreamcast’s lack of success make you think it was bad. Not only were a slew of classic titles released on it, but the console itself could do many things only platforms several generations down the line would make standard, the ten most impressive of which are listed below.
10 Internet Browser
Not only did the Dreamcast allow for select games to be played with friends over the Internet, but players could also use the system as an internet browser. In the late ’90s this was particularly bleeding edge, since the Internet was not yet in everybody’s homes like it is today. People could check out websites and even look at their email using the console.
9 Perfect Arcade Ports
Years prior to the Dreamcast, arcade titles were still coming to consoles, but they usually missed something in the process. It was not until Sega’s final piece of hardware when home console ports of arcade games matched the experience one would get in the public gaming spaces. Titles like Soul Caliber and Crazy Taxi were just as beautiful in the home as they were in the arcade. Home consoles’ increase in technology started arcades’ slow decline, and they are nearly nonexistent today.
8 Motion Controller
The Nintendo Wii in 2006 popularized and perfected motion controls, but the Dreamcast had a peripheral which utilized the feature just as well. The Sega Fishing Controller, was used for Sega Bass Fishing. Players could use the peripheral in other games too. The reception was universally warm, something many other motion controller-based games at the time could only dream of.
7 The VMU
The memory card for the Dreamcast also had many other functionalities. The VMU functioned as a second screen for certain games, displaying things such as health and other information in real-time while playing.T he VMU would also unlock minigames in select titles. The PSP and Vita would offer similar second-screen features for certain PlayStation games many years later.
6 DreamEye
Back in the late ’90s digital cameras were not quite as ubiquitous as they are today, and they certainly were not on everybody’s phones. This made the DreamEye a particularly appealing novelty for the console.
Unlike the PlayStation 2’s EyeToy, the DreamEye was a fully functioning digital camera players could use outside the home. When plugged into the Dreamcast, players could toy around and edit their photos, like many do today with photo editing software.
5 Microphone Peripheral
Seaman was one of the weirder Dreamcast games, and included the voice talents of Leonard Nimoy, who was Spock from Star Trek. Using a microphone peripheral, players would raise and command the strange creature which was a fish with a man’s face, feeding it and making sure it survived. Using a microphone to direct characters is admittedly not a super popular feature in games, but people can use a microphone to open apps on their PlayStation 4, and Xbox One’s Kinect could use voice commands to turn on the Xbox as well.
4 VGA Adapter
With the VGA adapter, players could plug the Dreamcast into a computer monitor for a slightly higher resolution image. It was 480p, which is a far cry from the 1080p standard most gamers use today, but it was still a notable upgrade in crispness from the soft CRT image players got from their television sets. Given the realism of some of the games like Shenmue and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, the increase in resolution is notable when comparing the two formats side by side.
3 Keyboard Functionality
Players could plug a keyboard into the Dreamcast which could be used to communicate in certain games during online play. Additionally, the peripheral was used in Typing of the Dead, a spin-off of the popular House of the Dead series. Instead of using a shotgun peripheral to destroy zombies, players had to type in the commands and words as fast as possible to dispose of enemies.
2 Console MMO
Before Final Fantasy XI on the PlayStation 2, Phantasy Star Online was the premier online RPG. While not exactly an MMO, it features many facets of the genre.
Servers have long since shut down, though fans have kept the game alive with private servers. A sequel, Phantasy Star Online 2, came out in 2012 in Japan and only recently made its way to the West on the Xbox One and Windows.
1 Shenmue
One of the most expensive games of all time upon its release, Shenmue’s ambition surpasses any other game of the time. It was one of the first console games to feature a fully fleshed-out open-world environment with a day and night cycle to which players had to strictly adhere. Despite its impressive presentation, the first two games were not commercially successful, which doomed the franchise’s future until a third game came out in 2019.
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