"One thousand years in the making, one thousand days to destruction."

When the Dreamcast came out in 9/9/99 it started a revolution – Not only was it suppose to be only one in a thousand years (much like the date) but it ushered in a new era of gaming. The Dreamcast started a revolution on which all of the next generation consoles will base their future projects even the PS2 itself.

The Dreamcast had it all: online play, an absurdly more powerful processor and graphics card then the PS1, antialiasing, memory cards that didn't use ''blocks'' but rather relied on kilobytes or megabytes, and the support of Sega, Namco and Capcom among others. The only thing that the Dreamcast seemed to lack was competent leadership from the head honchos at Sega: This is the story of a console that was killed by those who made it.

Hardware: 10/10

When the DC came out, it was... well... the IT in console gaming. The processor in the DC was easily 100 times more powerful then the one in the PS1 or the N64. It offered hardware based antialiasing (AA), something that even the PS2 does not offer, and it had a big spacious memory card and a new revolutionary device called the VMU.

The VMU was a memory card that acted like a small portable Gameboy. You could upload mini games from the real games that you played on the actual console on to the VMU and play them, in black and white, using the small D-Pad and the A and B buttons. The card used a watch-like battery that powered it for a long time and thus gave it a pretty useful overall appeal.

The memory cards themselves were a huge advancement over Sony's model. They used bites, kilobytes and even megabytes to store the data. This meant that a huge amount of data could be stored on a card, unlike Sony's standard 15 block memory card which would get halfway filled up with one sports game season. However, it's not like you didn't have what to fill these cards up with. Even to this day using the DC's browser tool you can download extra quests, skins or designs for some of the DC's games. All of these extras are stored on the memory card. This concept was then pretty much copied by the Xbox and its hard disk.

There was more to the DC then memory cards and superior hardware. The modem and the ability to surf the net made a premiere, for consoles, on the Dreamcast. To this day there is not one company that offers web surfing on consoles. The DC did.

The online component of the DC was pretty expansive. It ranged from racers, to football, to shooters, to FPSes. The console itself came with a 56k modem and a CD for surfing the web using that modem. If one was inclined to buy the broadband adaptor one had a similar choice of a web surfing CD and an adaptor.

The specs of the DC could pretty much be summed up as this:

200 MHz
16 Total Ram
8 Video Ram
2 Sound Ram

This was so superior to both the PS1 and the N64 that, instantly, the DC was proclaimed the first next-generation console: Compared to the PS2, these specs are truly poor. It cannot be ignored that these specs were probably viewed as merely between generations but, nonetheless the DC did have some features that were never featured in some of the future consoles.

For example the PS2 does not have hardware-enabled AA, making games look considerably worse on it then the DC or other next generation consoles due to their jaggy and uneven edges. Of course, you won't notice this when comparing Silent Hill 3 on the PS2 with Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the DC but with the first generation PS2 games these observations were quite common and well founded.

The problems came with most games that were ported from the DC to the PS2: The PS2 versions were mostly disastrous. The programmers of these games on the DC were experienced with the system and managed to squeeze out the best of it. So when such games as Grandia 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or Ferrari: F355 Challenge came to the PS2, many people were shocked about how relatively poor they compared to their DC counter parts. In the case of 2D games the fact that generally all Sony systems have a problem with recreating low-res graphics only made matters worse.

The DC came and went but its hardware applications still rein today as almost supreme. It invented 128-bit processing (well, almost) and it pretty much made PC owners think twice about console hardware. Something that's really, really hard to do.

Controller: 8/10

The DC's controller is good. The button layout is excellent and it has 1 analog stick (compared to Sony's 2 sticks) however, there are a couple of things that plague it.

While the D-Pad is good and generally serves all games well when it comes to fighters it can get real bad. The buttons aren't too clearly defined and you may find yourself pushing forward-down instead of just forward due to the close proximity and the general woozy feel of the D-Pad. A bigger problem, though, are the L and R buttons. The fact that they stand about a centimeter from the actual ''clicker'' makes those fraction-of-a-second moves very, very, very hard to pull without a great amount of experience or an unofficial controller.

Games: 9/10

The DC has a crap load of good games. From arcade games, to the genius of Sega, to Capcom and Namco fighters, to well... Soul Calibur. The game library of the DC is still as impressive today as it was 5 years ago and it still amazes me that this console died out so fast.

The truth is the DC has a little bit for every one. However if there is one category that the DC outshines every other console in it's the fighting genre: The wealth of fighters on the DC has never, ever been repeated on any other console ever since or up until the DC. From Street Fighter 3 to Soul Calibur all genres and names are featured here and most of them are still exclusive. Even in the case when they're not exclusive, not one of the fighters that was ported off the DC was better off on the console it was ported on. The plethora of cheap peripherals, the masterful renderings of 2D graphics and the Internet connectivity all were and, mostly, still are exclusive to the DC.

For RPGs the DC is a decent choice. There aren't nearly as many RPGs as on the Playstation or its successor, but the few that do exist are extremely good. Both Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 offer RPG gamers possibilities on a whole new level. The huge exploratory engagements in Skies of Arcadia and the lovely characters, environments and battle system in Grandia 2 still out shine 90% of the RPGs today. Both of these games were ported to other consoles, but, unfortunately for most gamers, the versions were chopped up, the graphics were poorer and the content suffered in both cases.

Adventure gamers cannot pass up on the DC. Shenmue and Shenmue 2 are the 2 best adventure games in the last 15 years. The DC also has such odd adventure titles such as Ooga Booga or Makken X, which both warrant a look for fans of the genre.

Sports and American football fans ought to do themselves a favor and buy the DC for its jaw dropping NFL 2kX series. The same could be said for those who love tennis since you can't play Virtua Tennis anywhere but the DC. Versions of Sega's NBA2kX series are also best on the Dreamcast as well as some of the best hokey games ever made, in the shape of NHL2k2 and its respective sequels and prequels.

Racing fans too will have a great time with the DC since it has anything and everything from arcade racers like Daytona to some of the most true to life simulators ever invented: F355: Challenge and Test Drive: 24 Hour Le Mans. Rally fans too will be pleased to know that the only place you can play Sega Rally 2 or V-Rally is the DC.

FPS and shooter fans should have already bought this console. With such great FPS titles as: Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 and even Half-Life (although, not officially) and 2D shooters such as: Mars Matrix, Ikaruga, etc. it's a no brainer. Platform fans... with Rayman 2, Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 all being better on the DC then in any other place... well... it's a no-brainer. For $30 and another $50 you'll be in platform heaven.

Survival horror gamers, Sega fans, or just players who look for new and innovative games have to try the DC out. From roller skating, to Resident Evil: Code Veronica, to Aero Wings all of these games shaped up what was and is the future of console gaming and they're all better on the DC or are simply exclusive to the system.

The plain simple truth is that the DC represents each genre and each player equally well. This in turn makes for a greater selection of good games and for a greater audience. Unfortunately, the DC's games are not without problems.

The biggest problem with DC games is that there's only a little over 200 of them. As you can imagine any forest will have some dead trees in it so it's obvious that not all 240+ DC games are likely to be good. Put this together with the fact that no more games are coming out for the DC, and you're left with 100-110 games worth your time without a chance to see another release.

Other problems, like the fact that games have a ''classic'' feel to them, sometimes bordering on over-simplicity and the fact that importing some games costs about $80 may turn some people off, but it shouldn't. At the prices DC games are going for right now, buying a DC with a ton of good games that take months to complete won't cost you more then a PS2 or an Xbox. And even with the limited library you still have at least 2-3 years of game play here folks. For $300, that's not all that bad.

Multiplayer: 10/10

There's really little that can be held against the DC when it comes to multiplayer. The console comes with 4 controller ports and you can still play games like UT and Quake 3 over then Internet using the DC. It has all the peripherals you need at a very cheap price. Even the broadband modem hardly ever costs more then $60 on eBay. To top it all off, the DC probably has some of the best party games ever created: Powerstone 1 & 2, NFL 2kX, Outtrigger and more are all great examples of fun in packs.

Value: 10/10

It's obvious that the DC is the cheapest next generation console, but that's not all that the value grade is based on: With most DC's you can still surf the web, play VCDs, play ROMs of SNES, NES, Genesis and even PS games, play Quake, play MP3s and more. To top it all off, games for the DC are extremely cheap. A majority of them are even cheaper then SNES games, not bad of a deal for a console that cost $30, eh?

All peripherals, memory cards, and controllers are dirt-cheap. You can buy a wheel for racing games for $15 and an arcade controller for $11 in most places that still carry them. That's impossible to do with even the Super Nintendo or the Sega Genesis.

Overall: 10/10

The DC is, and will remain, one of the best consoles in gaming history: It successfully combined great multiplayer, great games, functionality and innovation in one tidy little package. Sega took care of killing their baby through their idiotic business decisions and half-assed ad campaigns, but that should not stop anyone from picking up this hidden gem. The chances of seeing decent ports of these games, or even any ports at all, is minuscule and both the price, and functionality of the DC is beyond any console in its generation.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/04, Updated 11/28/05