Happy belated birthday, Dreamcast!

I know I'm a few days late with this, but it's been quite a week in my household--work stuff (blarg)--and as a result neither my heart nor my brain have quite been in the blogging game, if you get my drift.

Regardless, I'll be damned if I'm going to let the 14th anniversary of the Dreamcast's North American release go by without a (belated) mention.

(No worries if math isn't your forte--the info above means the Dreamcast hit store shelves in this region on Sept. 9, 1999.)

Although I'm sure I seem like a Nintendo fanboy from time to time, the reality is that I'm an equal opportunity gamer. As much as I've loved my Nintendo-made consoles and handhelds over the years, I've loved my NEC- and Sony- and, yes, Sega-made systems just as much.

In fact, I count the Dreamcast and its predecessor (the Sega Saturn) among my all-time favorite consoles--no small feat when you consider the Famicom, PC Engine, PlayStation, PS2 and Super Famicom are their main sources of competition.

I was completely obsessed with the Dreamcast before it was released, by the way. I think that was due, in part, to the fact that its design reminded me a bit of the original PC Engine (still the best console design of all time, in my humble opinion).



It also was due to the console's promise of perfect arcade ports (see: Crazy Taxi, The House of the Dead 2, Power Stone and Virtua Tennis) and arcade-like originals (Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure and Space Channel 5, among many, many others).

Anyway, I bought one at launch--using the money I'd made from selling my Japanese Sega Saturn and games (doh!)--and loved the hell out of it until I briefly stopped gaming a few years later.

Thankfully, I didn't get rid of any of my Dreamcast titles during that college-induced gaming drought. (I did lose or sell my Dreamcast system, though--or maybe my older brother claimed it? I wish I could remember.)

I still regularly pull out those games--ChuChu Rocket!, Crazy Taxi, Power Stone, Space Channel 5 and Virtua Tennis, especially--and play them on the (second) Dreamcast I acquired a couple of years ago, actually--and I even add a new title or two to my collection every once in a while.

Do any of you have similarly fond memories of Sega's final console? Also, so you still play any of its games? If so, which ones? Let me and other Dreamcast fans know all about them in the comments section below.

See also: 'Happy belated 30th birthday, Nintendo Famicom and Sega SG-1000!'

The dreamiest Dreamcast ever

True story: Sega's Space Channel 5 is one of my all-time favorite games.

It's one of the few games I've purchased for my beloved Dreamcast--along with ChuChu Rocket!, Jet Grind Radio, Virtua Tennis and a few others I can't remember right now--and it's also one that I never tire of playing.

Given that, it should be of little surprise to hear I've been drooling over the Ulala-branded Dreamcast below ever since I discovered it a few days ago.



An artist who calls himself Oskunk is responsible for this wonderful paint job, by the way. To see more photos of this particular project, check out his (her?) blog, custom-art.blogspot.com, or his Flickr photostream.

See also: Previous Dreamcast posts

'From Pong to Virtua Tennis'

This weekend (and Monday, too) is all about fuzzy balls in our household. And by "fuzzy balls" I mean tennis balls, of course.

Anyway, I've got (tennis) balls on the brain right now because the final "Grand Slam" tournament of the year, the US Open, is about to reach its climax. (Both the men's and women's semifinals are being played today, followed by the women's final tomorrow and the men's final on Monday.)

As such, I've also got tennis games on the brain--which is why I was immediately drawn to the following photo, taken by Clément Gault (aka designrecherche), when it appeared in the "Your Contacts" section of my Flickr homepage the other day.



Although I'd hardly describe the triptych (of sorts) as stunning, I quite like how it shows the progression from the first-ever tennis game, Pong, to the first somewhat-realistic one, Virtua Tennis.