Totally awesome console that should never have failed. It punched well above its weight and still provides visuals equal to the current generation wii. The dc had a british designed gpu and even the hitachi risc chip is derived from the british arm risc processor I believe.
#RETROSPECTIVE FACEBOOK ARSTECHNICA PS3#
In my living room today a dc is under the main tv permantly and my ps3 provides upscaled and improved ps2 visuals that still don't look as good as dc. Admittedly the dc only has 26meg memory compared to about 36meg of the ps2 so that might help. Even the games seemed to load faster yet I realise writing that, they shouldn't do as the dc has a 12xcdrom and the ps2 24x for cds but that was the reality for me. Thats about 5x the resolution!!! I've yet to see a ps2 game even today that looks as good as shenmue or shenmue II. The dc rendered at 640x480 progressively no problem. Also the ps2 only actually rendered at about 640x200 and interpolated to 640x400 which softened the image and created more aliasing.
The ps2 could kick out a lot more polygons but had to repeat textures because it only had 4meg and no hardware texture compression. The ps2 only has 4meg, the gc and wii only have 3meg and combined with the dc's clever tile based rendering gpu meant huge amount of textures were available on screen you could just about fully texture everything to make it look realistic. I think the wisest decision sega made was giving the dc 8meg of video memory. The ps2 was demoted and connected to a 21" philips combi where its graphic problems were unnoticable mostly.
The dc took pride of place with my projector playing classics like shenmue over a whole wall, it was gaming greatness.
The weakness of the ps2 regarding aliasing and its low interpolated resolution looked truly awful. The difference was staggering the projector mapped 1:1 pixels on the dreamcast to give a truly amazing dc image on the wall. Just to put the final nail in the coffin of the ps2 I got a AE100 projector and connected the dc via VGA and the ps2 via component. I couldn't believe it not only were dreamcast games more playable and more interesting but they blew the ps2 games away technically (remember this was early ps2 titles). Time passed and with the dreamcast already in decline I bought one at near enough the time I bought a ps2 from the so called slammer half price ps2 deal. I also had a playstation too at the time. I was happy at the time with a n64 playing mario 64 and pilotwings 64 etc and thought no more of it. Both visually nice but not the genres that would suck me into buying a console. I remember watching a few instore game demos like the boxing game with the boxer with the big afro haircut and a skateboard type game. I thought it was a another doomed to failure sega console and thought best ignored. I'll admit I witnessed the dreamcast launch with apathy and disinterest. The Dreamcast was a revelation, and it's certainly worth remembering. It remains the largest leap between generations gaming has seen after 3D arrived it was all a matter of making the games look better. Sony launched with mediocre games, two controller ports, no online features, and games that didn't look as good as what we were used to from the less-expensive Dreamcast.ĭreamcast developers and publishers gave us offbeat titles, began working in genres that are only now maturing, and fed our love for the quirky, the quality, and the unexpected. Think of how many Dreamcast games that launched on that day that are still considered classics, and then take a look at the PlayStation 2 launch library.
#RETROSPECTIVE FACEBOOK ARSTECHNICA 480P#
You could buy a VGA adaptor to play games on screens that supported 480p long before high definition televisions were common. The system included four, count 'em, four controller ports. It included a modem, and later an optional-if hard-to-find-broadband accessory the system came with a Web browser and a telephone cable in the box so users could go online the second they opened the system.
The system had much better 2D capabilities than the PlayStation 2, making fighting games and shooters on the system a joy to play. In the minds of gamers, the Dreamcast was an unqualified success. The best Dreamcast 10th anniversary retrospective is at Ars.
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