Anyone think the Dreamcast is over-rated now?

[MikeRox]

Ruler said:
Yes i think its a very overrated console, most of its games were ported to other consoles now with better performance. There are view exclusive games left who werent successfull enough like shenmu1 or D2, and a couple of definitive console versions from ps1 like dino crisis who speak for owning this console.

I also dislike how the dreamcast requires a very very expensive vga box to get the best videoquality from your dreamcast on a PC monitor instead just using component cables who could be used on any hdtv. This device costs you 100€.

Not an over rated console in the slightest. Just that if you weren't into it at the time, you missed a lot of the magic. Gaming moved very quickly between 1997 and 2003. There was certainly far more progress in those  years, than we have had in the 12 years since.

You have to remember those games WERE exclusive when they came out. I mean you don't see people say the SNES sucks now, because you can get all it's best exclusives on Virtual Console. They are still SNES games even if you can now play them elsewhere just like much of the Dreamcast's best software was exclusive when it launched.

The Dreamcast was pretty much a full specced Aracade Cabinet in your front room for under £200/$200. That was incredible at the time. I can definitely see why many people now, would go back and wonder what all the fuss was about with some of the games, particularly games like Quake 3 Arena, Phantasy Star Online and Metropolis Street Racer. But at the time they came out, they were all at the very peak of what console gaming could offer. There was also a seismic shift in what was expected of a game between 1997 and 2003. I mean in 1997, a racing game could be released with a handful of tracks and a couple of cars, and you could slap a $60 price tag on it. You tried doing that in 2003 with anything less than 30 tracks and 200 cars... well... guess this is why the racing genre has died a death ;)

As for the VGA box. I can only presume you didn't have a Dreamcast at the time? It used to be very easy to get a VGA box (the official one only saw a very limited release) from any major retailer like Electronics Boutique for about £15. The device allowed you to play games in 480p, something no other system had previously offered, and also something which was far less frequent amongst the successor consoles where 480i remained the norm.

The lack of Component? Well nothing really used component back in 1998. PS2 in 2000 added it, but that was more for the DVD aspect than gaming, as the lack of 480p software content supports. No system prior to the Dreamcast did, and even when the GameCube launched 4 years later in Europe, Nintendo still decided component wasn't necessary for the European market.

As I say it was a huge transitional time for both visual technology and video games. If you had the system at the time. The praise makes a lot more sense, than if you decided to jump in later on. 1999-2001 were my favourite video gaming years, and it was pretty much all down to the Dreamcast.