The Dreamcast Release

[Hidden_Darkness]

the first time I had ever seen or heard of a dreamcast was in january 1999, a local video game store near me had a japanese dreamcast with sonic adventure available to play. even though sonic adventure is not the best game, at the time I was blown away by how huge of a upgrade the graphics were compared to n64,ps1 or saturn and was surprised to see sonic in actual 3d unlike sonic 3d blast that came out 3 years before.

at the time in 1999 being only 11 I couldn't afford a dreamcast since I had just bought a sega saturn on clearance from walmart and a bunch of cheap saturn games from toys r us with money I had saved up for months. I wanted a dreamcast very badly though and waited a couple years for a price drop. I finally got a dreamcast for $50 from bestbuy in january of 2001 when the game prices were very cheap, it was the black boxed version that came with sega smash pack.

the same day at best buy I picked up sonic adventure for $20, virtual on for $15, marvel vs capcom for $15, jet grind radio for $15, sonic shuffle for $15. then a few days later I stopped by a video rental store and bought street fighter alpha 3 for $10 when they were clearing out their dreamcast games. a few months later in late 2001 I got sonic adventure 2 and crazy taxi 2 when they were released.

I don't regret getting into the dreamcast back in early 2001 because all the games, systems and accessories were dirt cheap and were still in stores for a good 3 to 4 years after that. between 2001 and 2005 I picked up probably about 15 more games for about $5-$15 a piece when stores were liquidating their stock. the eb games near me had dreamcast games up until 2006, the local toys r us had dreamcast games until 2005. despite getting the dreamcast so late, I was still able to witness a few new releases coming out in 2001 so the dreamcast to me was still new and kept me occupied for years. I eventually got a playstation 2 for christmas in 2002 but I still played the dreamcast alot more then the ps2.