"After the PS, N64, and Saturn but before the PS2, GC and Xbox."

1999.

''It's the end of the world as we know it.'' -REM

9/9/99 an interesting date, it wouldn't come for another 100 years, and with the arguable failure that was the Sega Saturn, Sega figured it was time to release another system and try and bring back a little magic that was of their Sega Genesis years.

It was an interesting advertisement campaign, 9/9/99, pretty catchy and interesting if you ask me, with some sort of odd orange swirl being pushed into your face and with glimpses of marvelous 3D worlds in games such as Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, you were easily blown away. At the time you were limited to decent 3D worlds, the flagship system boasting the complete 3D world games being the Nintendo 64 with their own Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The Dreamcast came between two generations, filling that little gap between when the systems were getting old and when the brand new systems were going to come out and blow you away. It came after the PS and N64 were reaching their limits but before the PS2, GC and Xbox came out exceeding expectations, to be honest, it was above and beyond the PS and N64, but it never quite reached the PS2, GC, or Xbox.

[Basic Layout of the System]

It's white, GD-Rom based [it's like a CD], has the orange swirl logo on the GC-Rom lid, 4 controller ports, orange light to tell you when it's on, and a modem in the back for online play. A basic console system.

[Layout of the Controller]

Almost like a fat upside down ''U''

On the left an analog stick with a D-pad under it. Start button in the middle-bottom. Yellow ''X'', Green ''Y'', Blue ''B'', Red ''A'' buttons on the right. ''L'' and ''R'' buttons on the underside, at easy reach with your index fingers. It had to slots on the top of the controller for a VMU [memory card with screen and buttons to hold gamesaves and to play mini-games] and a rumble pack. The ONLY problems with the controller was that, the cord comes out facing you, not coming out of the top of the controller.

[Sound]

Excellent, of course it depends on the game, and the style of music you like, but for the most part the tracks on games and the sound effects are crystal clear, but that's to be expected on a GD [CD] based system, am I right?

[Graphics]

Alright, this is where it gets tricky.

1999 and early 2000, this simply blew away every PS and N64 game, easily, no question, think of the difference between Super Nintendo to the Nintendo, it's that kind of difference. That is in comparison between that generation and the DC. ALTHOUGH in comparison to the following generation: the PS2, GC, and Xbox, the DC can hold it's own to a degree, possibly should the DC have been continued companies could have exploited the power in the DC but they didn't, but in all honesty the PS2, GC and Xbox are superior, BUT that is not to say that the DC's graphics were bad, quite to the contrary, the graphics are simple stunning, but still in comparison to today's generation, they aren't up to par.

[Games]

Alright, this is where it gets simple.

Games are games, if they are fun, they are fun.

The DC has so many games, and they are so cheap now days, you have every genre imaginable each containing AMAZING, WONDERFUL games, from freedom 3D adventure games [Sonic Advance] [Jet Grind Radio] [Crazy Taxi], to AMAZING 2D fighters [Marvel Vs Capcom 2], to RPGs [Silver] [Shenmue] [Time Stalkers], to 3D shooters [Unreal Tournament] [Quake 3], to Sports [NFL 2k2] [NBA 2k2], it's just simply amazing.

[Closure]

This system was amazing, it was ahead of it's time, but unfortunately that was also it's downfall, it was ahead of it's time, but before others. This system help make the great systems today, it re-enforced 4 controller ports, it help create the cel-shading technology you see today. It launched with a price of $199, you can find it today between $60-$100, but you know what? I'd still pay $199 for it today.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/03