CO-OP 0213 -- Dreamcast Retrospective -- 15 Games! Shenmue 1 & 2, Soulcalibur, Jet Set Radio and More!
matt chandronait10 years ago the Dreamcast launched. The sytem was so beloved by its fans that it was a shocker to many when SEGA pulled the plug on their hardware division, ending one of the most venerable of living-room gaming dynasties. More after the show:
As you know, Jason and I were the only ones that made it to PAX to make sure the CO-OP Panel went down as smoothly as possible. The home team held their own panel/roundtable for this incredible, fifteen-game retrospective while Jason and I gathered stories from fans at our Panel and around PAX about what the Dreamcast meant to them. From people that remembered the Dreamcast from day-care to a woman that worked with the voice of Seaman to a Ryan O’Donnell cosplayer (he insists he “just looks like him”), this episode is one of our most epic yet. Here’s a list of the games we and the kind attendees at PAX touch on:
- Soulcalibur
- Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
- Jet Set Radio
- Shenmue 1 & 2
- Sonic Adventure
- Power Stone 1 & 2
- Skies of Arcadia
- Phantasy Star Online
- Samba De Amigo
- Tennis 2K2
- Crazy Taxi
- Seaman
- House of the Dead
- Typing of the Dead
- Chu Chu Rocket
Thanks again to PAX 2009 for once again being our favorite convention of the year, the PAX staff and convention services, the Totally Rad Show crew for shooting and attending our Panel and just being all around awesome people, and all you wonderful PAX attendees that came to our panel in spite of the snaffus, hung out with us at the joint Totally Rad Show, CO-OP meet up, and told use your stories on-camera. We’ve been reminded again why we love doing what we do, and we owe that to you.
<3
Reader Comments (40)
Wow, guys. I have to agree with you; this is definitely one of your most epic episodes. I loved all of it.
Personally, I never owned or played the SEGA Dreamcast when it had debuted. Really, the only game I played for it was Evolution at a friend's house. What I saw really amazed me, and it was a lot of fun. I always saw the games made for the Dreamcast, but I never got to play them. I know I missed out on some really good times. I now own a standalone Dreamcast that was given to me, and this episode makes me want to get all the necessary equipment to hook it up to my TV and just start playing those wonderful games.
I personally loved some of speakers' stories. The hour tokens, the day care, and the Shenmue glitch stories were my favorites. And props to the Ryan O'Donnell cosplayer! Somehow, I did not catch it until you called it out, but it was absolutely hilarious.
Great work, Area 5. Keep it up.
Thanks again for having me up front for the PAX panel because of the scary resemblance to Ryan. It is in no way cosplay, just extremely coincidential in a very, very scary way. Like I told Jason after the panel, I stumbled across the 1UP Show (being a huge EGM fan back in the day) and thought "Shit, it's like watching myself have the dream job I've always wanted." And have been hooked since 2007.
If anybody wants to know more about me or be friends, you can find me here on Facebook (http://tinyurl.com/lcax8k) or Twitter (http://tinyurl.com/mjm3rz)
I'm always down for meeting new people. :)
Wow. Huge episode. I have really fond memories of the console, especially because I had mine stolen the day after I got 3 controllers and NHL 2K. But I remember it very well. Soul Calibur and Sonic Adventure were ones I always used to show off to my friends.
This was a really well done episode, it seemed like not a fawning love-in (I agree about the controller etc) but a really well thought out look back.
The PAX footage intercut was a very clever concept. Well done guys.
Also - as I'm in Edinburgh, it totally surprised me to hear a Scottish accent on Area5!
Good work, guys.
I got my Dreamcast with Crazy Taxi a few months after it came out and it has remained hooked up to my TV ever since. Watching this episode really brought back all the warm and fuzzes that I remember from the first day playing Dreamcast and now I really need to get out there and track down some more games and peripherals for it. Great job guys and keep up the good work.
Loved this episode! It's nice to watch the retrospectives from you guys!
I bought my Dreamcast on March 30, 2001. I was a little late to the party but it's still one of my favorite systems.
I totally agree with Ryan about the default controller. It's ridiculous to use, and the only time that I use it is for Crazy Taxi. If he's interested, there's a DC/PS2 controller converter out there made by Innovation. It's definitely not in production anymore but if you can hunt it down, it's worth it. I was lucky enough to have bought two way back when for all of my fighting games.
Hi! I did my own retrospective last week. It's only a blog post with lots of embedded videos. Funny thing is we came up with the same games (at least some of them). Oh, and it's all in Spanish, for those not living in the US (or California :) ). Check it out : http://www.culturaparalax.com
Forgot to link it: CulturaParalax.com
Great show Area5!
Dreamcast is still awesome.....
Next week review three ds games:
Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Scribblenauts, and Flipnote studio for dsi
It would be sooo awesome!!!!!
There have been a few ChuChu Rocket clones for the iPhone. Here's a review of Run Run Sheep, which I haven't played, but will now be checking out, because I'd never thought to look for one. Good podcast.
Such an enjoyable episode. Thanks for that look back, guys.
"Holy shit - that guy is cosplaying as ryan o'donnell!" - I lol'd.
I'm about 1 min into the show, and I had to stop. I'm laughing so hard at the FF8 reference.
Great Episode. I was 17 when it came out, this brought back a lot of memories. I can't believe a decade has come and gone. Anyways, have you guys made a Facebook page for Co-op?
Guys, really, this was a great episode of co-op! well done! if I were you, I'd really start to consider making more "retrospective" episodes, or finding a "spot", like the iphone part you usually have, to present some retro.
Also, another nice idea would be having the main episode story about a retrogame (as you did for super metroid) and reviewing modern games that are actually the children of that retro game (or genere) making a kind of history episode, about genere or a developer etc...
keep up the good work, and tnx once more!
@TJ You should do it! We were all pretty impressed at how well many of the games still hold up. I'm still jonesing for more Tennis 2K2 & Powestong
@EricS. It's a good thing Ryan wasn't there, we might have taken you home by accident. Thanks for joining Matt & Jason on the panel, they looked lonely up there.
@regmcfly Thanks! Having people share their stories really made the episode special.
@JohnS I had actually forgot how much I played that game. The music brought it all back for me.
@Lyndsey I totally agree; the controllers weren't very comfortable. I remember selling a few of those adaptors when I worked at Babbage's, I wonder if we could track one of those down...
@scribblenaut head from novato Hey, that's a pretty good idea!
@Martin Cesar will be happy to hear that, thanks for sharing!
@Tony You're welcome, and I agree, it felt great to sit down with the system and games again.
@Louie We did do, many times!
@Ricky We really should get on that shouldn't we...
@niguloto That's a great idea, the retrospective stuff we've done recently has worked out really well, especially with there not being as many games to talk about right now. We'll probably cover more recent stuff now that Fall is approaching but I'd definitely expect more retro segments down the road.
It's almost like you forgot it was the DC's 10th so hastily threw together a poxy montage of crap games which were barely what the console was about back in the day. Apart from maybe Shenmue, but that's a sold out, obvious choice.
Lame.
I still have a dreamcast, in fact it's the only console I own any more. I'm surprised no one has mentioned Cosmic Smash, that is one of my all-time favorite games.
Does anyone know what the song is at 25:30-26:30? I remember it from somewhere but I have no idea where, it's killing me.
Very entertaining and hilarious episode!
I wish my first console was the Dreamcast... I was born in the late 90s, so I only started out w/a Game Boy & Pokemon...
This is the best episode of Co-Op ever. Good going!
I think you could even make a spinoff series totally based on retrospectives. Like Retronauts TV! ;)
Love the Bizzarro Ryan at 33:00
Great episode!
To be honest, I think it's one of my favorites. Someone probably already mentioned it, but you guys should do retrospectives more often. I can find plenty of coverage on current games (don't get me wrong, I still want that too) everywhere, however, there aren't too many places that show of some of the old gems of gaming.
Love,
Ben
@fgfhjd
You outed yourself as a troll the moment you talked shit about Shenmue. That game was fucking awesome then, and remains awesome now.
I still have very fond memories of my Dreamcast. I had just moved up to London, and I was living in a bedsit and I was the poorest I had ever been. The mad fools at Dixons extended me credit so I could buy a DC, and I spent that winter curled up with Soulcalibur and Ready to Rumble boxing. I had so many games for that console later on when I had more money, but didn't finish enough of them sadly.
Metropolis Street Racer was the driving game that finally convinced me that using the brake button might actually be worthwhile, and I used to love getting home from work at 6 am and driving around the streets near where I worked in real life. None of the PGR games come close to that original. And Samba di Amigo, I got huge bloodied blisters on both thumbs from trying to get 100% accuracy on Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life", which was just about impossible due to the controllers not being the most precise in the world. And who could resist playing Soulcalibur with the fishing controller?
Ah man, good times. There was just something about that console, a warmth to the graphics and an overall feeling, I still consider it the greatest home console ever made. I love my 360, my childhood was made better by my Master System and SNES, and I'd never part with my DS, but the Dreamcast was the console that stole my heart.
Great episode guys.
1. I love the Dreamcast, but Final Fantasy VIII is still the best thing to come out on 9/9/99. Even though Ryan was joking, I still think it's awesome. Pretty funny though.
2. The second I saw the Ryan look a like. I wondered if anyone was going to say anything, so when Matt said something I was ROFL.
3. My Dreamcast memory. I bought a bundle with Sonic Adventure 1/2, and then like two weeks later Sega said they were done supporting it. I didnt care because I got a lot of good memories out of it, but in my mind it feels more like a transition console. When people talk last gen it's the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube and two gens ago it was PS1/N64. The Dreamcast is like a red headed step child.
4. Good job bringing Che back, and listening to my advice. Now all you gotta do is bring Jane back for a segment once.
I enjoyed it. Should do more epsidoes like these IMO
Is there some sort of game or unspoken rule that 'Rez' may not be mentioned when talking about the dreamcast? That it got overlooked by the bitmob guys I can understand, but it seems a bit weird that it isn't mentioned at all by the people who named their collective 'area 5'.
God, I loved the Dreamcast. Unfortunately over in the UK we only had a 33.6 modem built in but that was still more than adequate for me to waste evening upon evening playing PSO.
In fact, I'm off to dig my DC out of the loft and find the VGA box!!
Awesome episode, thanks :)
Whoa! I go away for one day and the comments 'splode. In reverse order:
@David Stretch ... I wish the PSO servers were still online! After playing the PSP version I wanted to give that version a try. 33.6?? Serious dark-ages, man ;)
@Simon ... That's because Rez wasn't a Dreamcast exclusive. Yeah, it was on the system, but most people bought it for PS2 and really having it on the Dreamcast didn't add anything special. In fact, the "peripheral" you could get for it was only PS2. We really wanted to focus on the stuff that made the Dreamcast so unique and Rez, while goddamn amazing, isn't that.
@Matt G ... haha! Yeah, eerie how much they look alike. As Eric mentioned in the comments above he's not a cosplayer, it's just the most bizarre of coincidences. One of my favorites of all time, actually.
@Parkingtigers ... Now those are some Dreamcast memories to be proud of :)
@Ben ... This was the perfect excuse to do a retrospective given the anniversary date, but I think you're right in that it couldn't hurt us to do more when the occasions arise. Involving the community at PAX was also one of the things that made this episode so great, so I do fear a bit that unless we can find good ways to involve people beyond just us and our game journo friends that the final products could suffer. Still, we're all really pleased at the success of this episode and we'll be looking to do more.
@EricS ... yeah man, it was godDAMN amazing having you show up out of the blue like that. Destiny much? Hahaha! Yeah, I know you weren't really cosplaying as Ryan, but it made for a good joke. Sorry if this episode gets you called out for intentionally mimicking our boy ;). And thanks for being so good natured to come hang out at the panel table with us, haha!
@Martin ... yeah man, thanks for sharing! Good to know that such awesome gameplay hasn't gone unnoticed (or uncloned ;) )
@Matt I'd be down to hang out anytime after hanging with you guys during and after the panel, if I lived in the area that is. I already got some friend invites from some really cool people on Facebook because of this episode. The more friends, the more merrier I suppose! ;)
I have to agree that this episode was great, and I never even owned a Dreamcast (FF8, on the other hand . . .)
I really like the way you're doing episodes focussing on things other than just the latest reviews. It's great to hear you talk about and show recent games, but it's good to mix it up too. Other than the Rebel FM Game Club and the odd article on Gamasutra, there isn't really anyone looking at games after they've been out for a while and seeing how well they stand the test of time. It's definitely cool to see you guys doing that with episodes like this one and your Super Metroid segment.
None of the media player controls work. Pause, Full Screen etc.
Like Aimzor posed, none of the media player controls work like Pause or Full Screen, on Firefox 3.5.3 but, work in Internet Explorer 8 for some reason.
Excellent show guys! Best yet!
@Matt I mentioned on my "donate" post that I enjoy when people talk about games just as much as playing them. This episode was perfection for that.
@Jayfresh I started working at EB in Winnipeg, Canada a month before the Dreamcast came out. Your story is so right. I would walk to the closet of a stockroom and kill the breaker for the consoles. Then I listened against the wall for colorful reactions from the front. "The consoles are on a timer" ahhhh...... Bittersweet memories.
@All I always think of one thing when I look at my Dreamcast. How many people have played it. Out of every console I have owned, my DC has been played the most with friends(even more than the Wii.....odd?). The best example was when it came with me to the house where we used to practice for my old ska band. It was noon and I set it up in the livingroom and played a bit of Virtua Tennis with a few of the "stoner dudes"(official title) that were actually awake. By the time we got back from a gig out of town at three the next morning the room had about 30 people in it all going nuts on Dreamcast. I left at about 8:00 am with said Dreamcast and I will probably chalk that up as one of best multiplayer experiences I've ever had. Thanks Dreamcast!
Controls on the player are busted...
Fantastic Episode. Inspired me to hook the dreamcast back up. Donation sent. Keep up the good work!
The dreamcast is crazy. I had it and I loved it. It was the bets but sega has done lots of shit and it is damage.
Shenmue was a crazy game...
The dreamcast was a huge part of my growing up and i always played it for hours on end, even when the xbox came out i still pulled out my dreamcast for a couple months and played it nonstop. you guys pointed out pretty much the best games, a big one i played other than soul caliber was Unreal tournament and crazy taxi, probably the most competitive game ive played for it. lol indeed the memory card was a issue, by the time i actually decided to take it out of my controller to play around with, the battery in it was dead. i was so terribly sad to see that it did so bad even though it was a great system. you guys do it justice.
To the long forgotten system that you barely hear about, heh' and dont think of the dreamcast being in our era as us being old, just think of it as being us being well aged, and full of knowledge, of the great things they missed.
keep up the great work!
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Really enjoyed the show. Was a console I never owned, cool to hear some stories about it.
I never owned a dreamcast (probably because I'm only 16 now) but after watching this a few times I've finally bought one and it's on the way in the post now! Thank you Co-op