Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Stunning graphics make the gaming console a delight to play -- but it'd be even better if Sega got the Net component working.
Sep 14, 1999 | I've got to hand it to Sega -- it's built buzz around the new Dreamcast gaming console. Witness the near-riot on the bus that I rode last Wednesday, as I lugged my review-unit Dreamcast home from work in a shopping bag.
Before I'd even planted my rear in the molded plastic seat, the yuppie in a suit across from me had already plunged his hands into my shopping bag. "Ooh, you mind if I take a look at it?" he begged, fondling the box with tensed fingers. (I could tell he was deliberating about whether he could convince me to open up the box so he could peek inside.) The parka-clad teenage boys in the back of the bus craned to look at the box, nudging each other and muttering about the merits of the Sony PlayStation vs. the Dreamcast. And a middle-aged mom practically assaulted me as I was stepping off the bus; blocking my path, she demanded to know how I managed to get a Dreamcast console the day before they hit the stores. "I gotta get one for my kids," she yelled after me as I scurried down the street, enduring the continuous slap of the heavy bag against my leg, and the fear that she would snatch the Dreamcast from my grasp.
Yes, I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. At my local Toys "R" Us -- where I hauled my sleepy self early Thursday morning to procure an elusive "Dreamcast RF" unit, which hadn't been included in the package and which was apparently necessary to hook my new console up to my TV -- the sales staff was groggy. Toys "R" Us had already sold out of Dreamcast machines, thanks to a stampede that had converged on the store at 12:01 a.m. the night before. The precious units that remained were hidden in the back, and were being suspiciously meted out only to those who had pre-ordered them. According to Sega, 300,000 fans were wise enough to do so.
What is everyone so worked up about? Perhaps the palpable excitement is primarily due to Sega's savvy (and expensive) marketing campaign; but after spending some quality time with my machine, I think it's fair to say that the Dreamcast is worthy of much of the buzz. More than a mere gaming console, it's a kind of hybrid gaming-browsing machine -- a cross between a WebTV and a traditional Sega console, as it were -- with the most stunning and zippy graphics you'll see off your PC. But it's revolutionary because of how it will change the notion of console gaming -- if it lives up to the interactive promises that Sega is making.
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