I attended Sega's lavish UK launch party for its Dreamcast with my friend and Digitiser columnist Violet Berlin. I remember her greeting the actor Verne Troyer with the words "Hello, Mini-Me!", which - as I remarked at the time - I'm sure he loved.
The only other celebrity I remember being there was Paula Yates, who had brought her young daughter Peaches along. I never saw her talking to anyone, and though it's easy to read much into her behaviour, thanks to what we now know, she seemed to me rather alone... just sort of wandering around the party with Peaches on one arm, and a large wicker bag on the other.
It's heartbreaking to think that neither mother or daughter are with us anymore. Indeed, it's probably only a matter of time for Sega too; such is the curse of the Dreamcast.
Here's a funny thing: when I wrote my "tribute" to the Sega Saturn, I repeatedly referred to it as the 'Dreamcast'; a grotesque error that wasn't picked-up by my in-house sub-editor, whose knowledge of gaming, we've established, stopped at Duck Hunt.
Indeed, the only "game" she plays these days, is some bizarre app on her phone where she has to combine alpacas into some manner of twitching, composite, horror, by repeatedly tapping on them.
Fortunately, Digitiser2000's canny-eyed readers wasted little time in pointing out my embarrassing error - but the interesting thing (he says, in a bid to make a virtue out of his sloppiness) is why I made that error in the first place.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have ever referred to the Nintendo 64 as 'GameCube', or the Master System as 'Mega Drive'... though when I consider, say, the various PlayStations, they more or less blend into one - a bit like a twitching, composite, llama monstrosity, in fact.
The only other celebrity I remember being there was Paula Yates, who had brought her young daughter Peaches along. I never saw her talking to anyone, and though it's easy to read much into her behaviour, thanks to what we now know, she seemed to me rather alone... just sort of wandering around the party with Peaches on one arm, and a large wicker bag on the other.
It's heartbreaking to think that neither mother or daughter are with us anymore. Indeed, it's probably only a matter of time for Sega too; such is the curse of the Dreamcast.
Here's a funny thing: when I wrote my "tribute" to the Sega Saturn, I repeatedly referred to it as the 'Dreamcast'; a grotesque error that wasn't picked-up by my in-house sub-editor, whose knowledge of gaming, we've established, stopped at Duck Hunt.
Indeed, the only "game" she plays these days, is some bizarre app on her phone where she has to combine alpacas into some manner of twitching, composite, horror, by repeatedly tapping on them.
Fortunately, Digitiser2000's canny-eyed readers wasted little time in pointing out my embarrassing error - but the interesting thing (he says, in a bid to make a virtue out of his sloppiness) is why I made that error in the first place.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have ever referred to the Nintendo 64 as 'GameCube', or the Master System as 'Mega Drive'... though when I consider, say, the various PlayStations, they more or less blend into one - a bit like a twitching, composite, llama monstrosity, in fact.
BIG ISSUE
I think the issue is this: once consoles became disc-based, the leaps from one generation to another became incremental pigeon steps.
Worse still, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between, say, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 - supposedly rival systems. This issue is hardly helped by Sony and Microsoft offering multiple different models of their respective machines.
But that's now. The Dreamcast was released 18 years ago in the UK - and at the time it was very different from its predecessor, in almost every respect. Perhaps the reason I confuse the Saturn and the Dreamcast is this: both were notable as unmitigated disasters for Sega, the latter being such a flop that it was discontinued less than 18 months after its European release.
Thus, the last console Sega ever released was here and gone in a heartbeat. RIP Dreamcast, we hardly knew ye.
I think the issue is this: once consoles became disc-based, the leaps from one generation to another became incremental pigeon steps.
Worse still, it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between, say, the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 - supposedly rival systems. This issue is hardly helped by Sony and Microsoft offering multiple different models of their respective machines.
But that's now. The Dreamcast was released 18 years ago in the UK - and at the time it was very different from its predecessor, in almost every respect. Perhaps the reason I confuse the Saturn and the Dreamcast is this: both were notable as unmitigated disasters for Sega, the latter being such a flop that it was discontinued less than 18 months after its European release.
Thus, the last console Sega ever released was here and gone in a heartbeat. RIP Dreamcast, we hardly knew ye.
TRAGIC, YEAH?
The story of the Dreamcast is something of a tragedy.
Following all of its missteps with the Saturn, Sega was determined to get everything right next time - and by and large it did.
The Dreamcast was cheaper to manufacture, it was easier to develop games for, it was priced right, and had a confident launch line-up - which this time included a proper Sonic The Hedghehog game.
Heck - it even looked nicer than the Saturn had, with its all-white, bulky PlayStation 1 feel, Tamagotchi-infused controller, SNES-like buttons, and nice swirly, hand drawn, logo, which the canny wags on Teletext's Digitiser video games pages would later suggest resembled a flushing lavatory.
Furthermore... the games! It's hard to argue with the impact of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, or Shenmue - three games which together have more or less written the rulebook on the ubiquitous open-world epics we get today. Phantasy Star Online was - yes - an online role-playing game, at a time when such a thing was still a novel idea.
Then there's Power Stone, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Soulcalibur, Skies of Arcadia, Samba de Amigo, Rez, Space Channel 5, Seaman, Metropolis Street Racer, Virtua Tennis... the Dreamcast didn't just have some good games - it had some truly great games, and the influence of many of them can still be felt today.
If you don't believe me, then just listen to this amazing noise: hsssrrrrrrrrrtthtttttthhhhhhh-ufrfffr!
RADIO GAGA
Perhaps the most questionable game released by Sega on the Dreamcast was Segagaga - a satirical role-playing game set in 2025, at a time when Sega's fortunes have diminished so much, that the company commands a mere 3% of the overall games market.
Featuring cameos from various Sega characters and franchises - at one point, the player finds themselves working in a retail store alongside Sega's proto-mascot Alex Kidd - the aim is to save Sega from the brink of bankruptcy by recruiting developers, and releasing original hit games.
Along the way a Sega executive states: "Game development is a very special job that requires a very special person. The high stress levels often drive our staff members to become... subhuman. They're violent and need to be caged. But we need them to make good games. This is the unfortunate truth of the game industry."
Which all sounds a bit like a case of tempting fate, akin to wandering around a cruise ship with a megaphone, shouting that you hope it doesn't sink... while simultaneously firing a shotgun into the deck.
And thus it was so.
The story of the Dreamcast is something of a tragedy.
Following all of its missteps with the Saturn, Sega was determined to get everything right next time - and by and large it did.
The Dreamcast was cheaper to manufacture, it was easier to develop games for, it was priced right, and had a confident launch line-up - which this time included a proper Sonic The Hedghehog game.
Heck - it even looked nicer than the Saturn had, with its all-white, bulky PlayStation 1 feel, Tamagotchi-infused controller, SNES-like buttons, and nice swirly, hand drawn, logo, which the canny wags on Teletext's Digitiser video games pages would later suggest resembled a flushing lavatory.
Furthermore... the games! It's hard to argue with the impact of Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, or Shenmue - three games which together have more or less written the rulebook on the ubiquitous open-world epics we get today. Phantasy Star Online was - yes - an online role-playing game, at a time when such a thing was still a novel idea.
Then there's Power Stone, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Soulcalibur, Skies of Arcadia, Samba de Amigo, Rez, Space Channel 5, Seaman, Metropolis Street Racer, Virtua Tennis... the Dreamcast didn't just have some good games - it had some truly great games, and the influence of many of them can still be felt today.
If you don't believe me, then just listen to this amazing noise: hsssrrrrrrrrrtthtttttthhhhhhh-ufrfffr!
RADIO GAGA
Perhaps the most questionable game released by Sega on the Dreamcast was Segagaga - a satirical role-playing game set in 2025, at a time when Sega's fortunes have diminished so much, that the company commands a mere 3% of the overall games market.
Featuring cameos from various Sega characters and franchises - at one point, the player finds themselves working in a retail store alongside Sega's proto-mascot Alex Kidd - the aim is to save Sega from the brink of bankruptcy by recruiting developers, and releasing original hit games.
Along the way a Sega executive states: "Game development is a very special job that requires a very special person. The high stress levels often drive our staff members to become... subhuman. They're violent and need to be caged. But we need them to make good games. This is the unfortunate truth of the game industry."
Which all sounds a bit like a case of tempting fate, akin to wandering around a cruise ship with a megaphone, shouting that you hope it doesn't sink... while simultaneously firing a shotgun into the deck.
And thus it was so.
MILD PERIL
Following the disastrous Saturn, Sega was already in a precarious financial situation.
In a last-ditch bid to buy its way out of the sinkhole, the company blew hundreds of millions of dollars developing its successor, and hundreds of millions - maybe zillions - more releasing and marketing it.
Even a rumoured $50 million was blown on Shenmue alone, in the belief that it would become the system's killer app, which drove sales.
It didn't; though loved by its hardcore fans, Shenmue is just too off-kilter, esoteric, and difficult to describe, to truly appeal to ordinary plebs - and people like me...
When Sega was forced into cutting the price of the already-cheap Dreamcast even further - pushing it into unprofitable waters in a bid to keep momentum - the writing was on the wall. Also the windows, the doors, curtains, carpets, and "pelmet".
And so, just a whisper after it had arrived, the Dreamcast had gone. And Sega, too, was gone from hardware production; from that point onwards, Sega would become a software publisher only.
SHAME ON YOU
It's a shame. The Dreamcast genuinely was a great console, and a humbled Sega had learned honestly from its mistakes.
It might be a strange thing to suggest, but potentially the Dreamcast was too much too soon - maybe people weren't ready for online gaming (broadband was far from ubiquitous in 1999), or voice chat, or a controller featuring a second screen.
Or maybe the games the Dreamcast offered, as good as they were, still owed too much of a debt to the past, and lacked the sort of safe, predictable, gung-ho, paramilitary gameplay that was fast becoming the norm. Furthermore, a lack of confidence in Sega ensured the Dreamcast couldn't provide the third-party support which would've brought those games.
Or maybe the Dreamcast just had a stupid slogan: "It's thinking."
More likely, the damage had already been done. Sega was too far behind to ever catch up to Sony and Nintendo. Its reputation had already been flushed out to sea. Furthermore, the imminent PlayStation 2 would offer something that - beyond games, beyond online functions, beyond slogans - would set it apart from its rivals; it would be able to play DVDs.
Following the disastrous Saturn, Sega was already in a precarious financial situation.
In a last-ditch bid to buy its way out of the sinkhole, the company blew hundreds of millions of dollars developing its successor, and hundreds of millions - maybe zillions - more releasing and marketing it.
Even a rumoured $50 million was blown on Shenmue alone, in the belief that it would become the system's killer app, which drove sales.
It didn't; though loved by its hardcore fans, Shenmue is just too off-kilter, esoteric, and difficult to describe, to truly appeal to ordinary plebs - and people like me...
When Sega was forced into cutting the price of the already-cheap Dreamcast even further - pushing it into unprofitable waters in a bid to keep momentum - the writing was on the wall. Also the windows, the doors, curtains, carpets, and "pelmet".
And so, just a whisper after it had arrived, the Dreamcast had gone. And Sega, too, was gone from hardware production; from that point onwards, Sega would become a software publisher only.
SHAME ON YOU
It's a shame. The Dreamcast genuinely was a great console, and a humbled Sega had learned honestly from its mistakes.
It might be a strange thing to suggest, but potentially the Dreamcast was too much too soon - maybe people weren't ready for online gaming (broadband was far from ubiquitous in 1999), or voice chat, or a controller featuring a second screen.
Or maybe the games the Dreamcast offered, as good as they were, still owed too much of a debt to the past, and lacked the sort of safe, predictable, gung-ho, paramilitary gameplay that was fast becoming the norm. Furthermore, a lack of confidence in Sega ensured the Dreamcast couldn't provide the third-party support which would've brought those games.
Or maybe the Dreamcast just had a stupid slogan: "It's thinking."
More likely, the damage had already been done. Sega was too far behind to ever catch up to Sony and Nintendo. Its reputation had already been flushed out to sea. Furthermore, the imminent PlayStation 2 would offer something that - beyond games, beyond online functions, beyond slogans - would set it apart from its rivals; it would be able to play DVDs.
NOW
The depressing truth is that Sega has never really recovered from the Dreamcast.
The system would prove to be the company's last big hurrah - and it has seemingly struggled with its identity since becoming a software publisher.
It's still rolling out Sonic games, to a general lack of mainstream interest, and is propped up by its annual Football Manager series. Its Yakuza games are well-received by their fans, but in the West they're just that little bit too Shenmue-y to gel with everyone. Myself included. Sorry. Total War is another key series for this new and bewildering Sega, yet it somehow failed to turn Alien Isolation into a hit franchise.
Far from developing Sega-style games for other systems, the overall sense is one of a company that's flailing, searching around for exactly what it is for these days - like a laid-off big city executive, who now lives in a bin.
And that's a shame. The mid-90s tussle between Sega and Nintendo is rightly regarded as a golden age for gamers of a certain vintage, and the games industry is poorer for the decimated version of Sega we have today.
This is the company which not only gave us Sonic The Hedgehog, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter, and Jet Set Radio, but also Golden Axe, Zaxxon, Wonder Boy, Bonanza Bros., Space Harrier, Hang On, OutRun, After Burner, Thunder Blade, Power Drift, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.
Sega has a heritage of great games and great brands, which it somehow seems reluctant to capitalise on. Maybe it senses that what it once did best has fallen foul of prevailing trends, but - like somebody who has been unlucky in love a few times too many - it feels more like Sega never regained confidence following the failure of the Saturn and the Saturn.
I mean - DREAMCAST and Saturn!!!
Whatever.
The depressing truth is that Sega has never really recovered from the Dreamcast.
The system would prove to be the company's last big hurrah - and it has seemingly struggled with its identity since becoming a software publisher.
It's still rolling out Sonic games, to a general lack of mainstream interest, and is propped up by its annual Football Manager series. Its Yakuza games are well-received by their fans, but in the West they're just that little bit too Shenmue-y to gel with everyone. Myself included. Sorry. Total War is another key series for this new and bewildering Sega, yet it somehow failed to turn Alien Isolation into a hit franchise.
Far from developing Sega-style games for other systems, the overall sense is one of a company that's flailing, searching around for exactly what it is for these days - like a laid-off big city executive, who now lives in a bin.
And that's a shame. The mid-90s tussle between Sega and Nintendo is rightly regarded as a golden age for gamers of a certain vintage, and the games industry is poorer for the decimated version of Sega we have today.
This is the company which not only gave us Sonic The Hedgehog, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Fighter, and Jet Set Radio, but also Golden Axe, Zaxxon, Wonder Boy, Bonanza Bros., Space Harrier, Hang On, OutRun, After Burner, Thunder Blade, Power Drift, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker.
Sega has a heritage of great games and great brands, which it somehow seems reluctant to capitalise on. Maybe it senses that what it once did best has fallen foul of prevailing trends, but - like somebody who has been unlucky in love a few times too many - it feels more like Sega never regained confidence following the failure of the Saturn and the Saturn.
I mean - DREAMCAST and Saturn!!!
Whatever.
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