The final days of the Sega Dreamcast
[This article was originally published in 2006 by Hyper magazine. Although the Dreamcast had been officially dead for several years at this point, a number of indie shoot-em-ups had found their way to release. I decided to investigate…]
Five years after Sega pulled the plug on its hardware division, the Dreamcast has found itself in a weird purgatory. Neither alive, nor dead; the system has managed to sustain itself with a drip feed of import titles. Produced by boutique Asian developers, these limited run releases only add to the consoles iconic status.
This is a low
Launched in Japan in late 1998 (1999 in the West), the Dreamcast was to be Sega’s last throw of the dice. A chance to amend for the monstrous stupidity and mistakes of the Saturn/32X years. A make or break deal that would either restore the company to its former glory or see it exit the home console market forever.
Launched 15 months ahead of the PS2, the Dreamcast initially enjoyed strong sales. Under the guidance of one Peter Moore (who you may remember from such consoles as Xbox and Xbox360), Sega shifted 500,000 Dreamcast units in the U.S. within two weeks of launch. Despite this early success, the system would find itself on life support less than two years later.
There’s been plenty written about the demise of the Dreamcast and reasons behind it. While it’s tempting to blame the whole thing on Sony and momentum of PS2, there’s more to it than that. Certainly, the announcements by Sony’s Ken Kutaragi that PS2 would cure cancer and launch shuttles into space didn’t help Sega. In fact, it stopped the Dreamcast’s momentum dead in its tracks as people held out for the all sing, all-dancing, PS2 and its ‘Emotion Engine’.
That said, Sega was already in trouble. It had cost the company $600 million to develop the Dreamcast and company’s coffers were dangerously low after the shambles of the 32X/Saturn years. This lack of money affected all facets of the systems marketing including advertising spend and Sega’s ability to cut the consoles retail price.
Sega’s disastrous run of hardware also meant third party publishers were highly sceptical of the Dreamcast. E.A. refused to support the console from the outset and many other developers jumped ship to the PS2 as it became apparent what was about to go down. The final nail in the Dreamcast coffin was the announcement that both Microsoft and Nintendo had new consoles on the horizon.
While the Dreamcast would go on to sell approximately 10 million units during its stilted lifespan and see over 290 titles released in the West, for all intents and purposes the console was considered dead by 2002. Indeed, Sega announced it was halting manufacture as early as January 2001.
As it turned out, however, the consoles epitaph was to prove premature. While the system retreated from the mainstream, a sporadic flow of titles has kept it alive amongst the hardcore. Sega released its last game for the system as late as 2005 [Puyo Pop Fever] and since then a handful of boutique Japanese development houses have taken up the reins, continuing to support the ageing system. Import sites such as Play-Asia and Lik-Sang still have dedicated Dreamcast sections and at least two developers have announced plans to release one more game. Hell, even IGN recently got in on the action; relaunching its Dreamcast section and promising to have another look at the ill-fated console.
The Dreamcast may be half buried in the console graveyard; but it’s a surprisingly lively place.
Let’s release a Dreamcast game
The obvious question then, is why a company would continue to release games for a system as niche as the Dreamcast? The short answer is that it’s easy. The Dreamcast hardware’s similarity to the popular Naomi arcades boards has meant ports are quick and straight froward. In essence, it’s been a marriage of convenience.
Of course there’s more to it than that. The three companies continuing to support the system - Milestone, G Rev and Triangle Service - all have their roots in the Japanese arcade market. In each case, the people behind said companies left comfortable jobs with larger developers so they could continue to release the shooters they grew up on.
As Toshiaki Fujino, President of Triangle Service, noted in an interview with Edge magazine: “On the home console side of the business, there are big players occupying big shares of the market. It would make no sense to compete against them. Nobody would notice our games. But as those companies have left the arcade market, it has become the playground of small developers.”
It’s a situation mirrored in Sega’s Dreamcast. It provides a cheap and readymade market for the kind of releases that Milestone, G Rev and Triangle Service specialise in. The user base may be small, but it’s receptive to the games. Granted, you won’t get rich selling Dreamcast games, but you know that you’ll be able to shift a few thousands units worldwide to the collectors.
Also, with no other releases to compete against, you’re guaranteed a degree of coverage as you announce the “final, final, for real this time, never again, get it while you can,” Dreamcast release…
And on that note, here are those final releases.
Under Defeat
G Rev. March 2006
Under Defeat is a throwback to the military themed vertical shmups' of the late 80s. There’s no bullet grazing, chain combos, or other such nonsense here, instead, the action has a distinctly ‘old school’ approach. Think Toaplan’s Tiger Heli or Twin Cobra.
While the fundamentals might be ‘old school’, the implementation isn’t. Under Defeat allows you to turn your helicopter gunship 45 degrees either left or right This is done by moving the controls in either direction without firing. Holding down the fire button locks you in position.
With no other home conversions planned and this looking like the last Dreamcast release, it’s going to be worth a small fortune one day.
…
Radirgy
Milestone. Feb 2006
Developed by Milestone, Radirgy is best known for its distinctive visuals. As far as we’re aware, it’s the first (and only) shmup to feature cel shading. Like the rest of the shooters featured here, the game was ported from the arcades and is based on Sega’s Naomi technology. Featuring three weapon types: standard shot, short-range sword and ‘Absnet barrier’, Radirgy has you taking on wave after wave of cutesy alien invaders. Or something like that, the anime cut scene are all in Japanese…
Anyway, the point here is to build up your ‘Absnet Barrier’ – which acts as a shield of sorts. Once it’s full you can ‘sit’ on top of enemies and earn ridiculous point multipliers. While in this state, you can continue to attack and refill that ‘Absnet Barrier’ all over again.
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Trizeal
Triangle Service. April 2005
Oh look, another Dreamcast shmup ported from Sega’s arcade boards. Fancy that… Unlike some of the other games featured here, Trizeal doesn’t try and break your brain with overly complicated combos and chains. If it moves, shoot it. If it looks like it might move, shoot it. There are better examples of the genre out there, but this still remains highly playable and fun. Also, it was developed by a team of like, 3 dudes, literally - so it’s nice to support it.
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Puyo Pop Fever
Sega. February 2005
The last Sega game to be released for the Dreamcast, Puyo Pop Fever is the classic puzzle game with a few extras thrown in. Aside from a new story mode and revamped graphics, the main addition here is (appropriately enough) ‘Fever Mode’. In this new mode, a pre-designed puzzle will fall onto a cleared field during two player battles. You then have a limited amount of time to find the ‘trigger’ that causes a massive chain reaction and clears the screen. Aside from that this is classic Puyo Puyo – you either love it or you don’t.
…
Chaos Field
Milestone. Dec 2004
Another Milestone release, another arcade port. Chaos Field gets right to the point and forgoes proper levels in favour of one giant ‘boss rush’. The basic idea is to maintain a combo meter as you take on boss after boss. Just to make things interesting, the game operates on two different ‘fields’ and the players ship can transfer between these with the push of a button. The ‘Order Field’ is easier while ‘Chaos Field’ allows you to amass stupid high scores as the game throws everything at you. The longer you can hold your nerve and stay within the ‘Chaos Field’ the better your score.
