Gamertell

In light of this year’s Dreamcast anniversary I’ve decided to write up a guide for many of you who either are just diving into Dreamcast or rejoining the Orange Swirl Society.

I’ll try to cover as many aspects as I can about the system but if I miss some burning question, feel free to ask in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Acquiring a Dreamcast

The first step is perhaps the most obvious one – get a system. You can find one on the usual online marketplaces (eBay or NCSX for instance) or check your local pawn shops, Goodwills and even a yard sale.

A decent running price for the system alone is about $25 to $75 depending on condition. Some places will even include bundles with extra games and controllers. Be sure to acquire a VMU (Virtual Memory Unit) or you won’t be making much progress in your games. These will run anywhere from $0.50 to $8, they come in various colors and, even if the battery is dead, it will still work once plugged into your controller.

Setting Up Your Dreamcast

Next we naturally have to hook the thing up. There are various ways to do this.

If you have a standard CRT television, the composite cables will work fine for you.

However, I prefer the method of VGA adaption, especially if you are going to play shooters or are just going to hook the system up to an HDTV. You can either purchase a VGA box or grab one of these adapters that goes straight from your Dreamcast into your monitor/television.

What to Play?

The Dreamcast is an amazing system with a great library of software to boot. Most of it was aimed at the arcade crowd although there are plenty of other genres represented. Here a few suggestions to get you started:

• Jet Grind Radio
• Shenmue
• Soul Calibur
• Sonic Adventure
• Seaman
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures
• D2
• Evolution
• Giga Wing
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
• Street Fighter: Third Strike
• Crazy Taxi
• Space Channel 5
• Skies of Arcadia

For the completionist, Sega once posted a complete checklist of Dreamcast titles on their site, however the link is currently dead. Thankfully, the strong community surrounding the system has kept the list alive today in PDF form. The best thing of all is that most Dreamcast games these days are kicking around for a few bucks. However don’t be surprised to see high price tags on rarer more complete finds.

Import Heaven

Much like the Sega Saturn, one of the Sega Dreamcast’s true strengths was the easy ability to play imported games. All it takes is a Boot Disc or a Gameshark CDX and your Dreamcast is region-free.

You can acquire these one of three ways: Either purchase them online or do some digital footwork and you may be able to find an image of the Boot Disc and instructions on how to make it work on your system via Google. Finally, there are mod chips but it’s perhaps easier to use one of the other routes.

What kinds of imports can you expect to play on your system? Tons. Here’s a tiny list just to name a few:

• Ikaruga
• Border Down
• Under Defeat
• Radirgy
• Princess Maker series (thanks for informing me of this Jenni!)
• Sakura Taisen
• Capcom vs. SNK 2
• Psyvariar 2
• Puyo Puyo Fever
• Super Street Fighter 2X
• Trigger Heart Excelica
• Shenmue II
• Rez

TATE (TAH-TAY!)

What is Tate Mode? It’s the mode in which the picture on your screen shifts at a 90-degree angle. This is where it’s handy to have your Dreamcast hooked up to a VGA monitor (not a flat screen unless it has a swivel stand). How do you play with the screen shifted? Simply turn your monitor onto its left side. Relax, it won’t hurt it (remember to bend at the knees).

Why would you want the screen shifted 90-degrees? Because it lends itself to a more arcade feel and, in most instances, actually shows you the entire screen without bunching it up.

Accessory Fever

Don’t you just love accessories? Stop lying. I know you have more than two plastic guitars in your house. The Dreamcast has some awesome accessories.

For instance, the official Sega Dreamcast Arcade Stick was a solidly built piece of hardware. It’s been seven years and mine is still going strong. There are plenty of sticks available for the system yet I find the official one the best of them.

Then there was the Dreamcast keyboard. This thing provided many a classic moments with Typing of the Dead. Typing in words to kill zombies was hilarious enough especially when you are no good at it. But the keyboard also had other uses. Since the Dreamcast could go online via the built-in 56k modem, you could browse the web and if you had a VMU plugged in, you could (and even still can) download games and other things straight to the unit.

Then there was the microphone and Seaman. Talking to that human headed fish was/is perhaps one of the most surreal experiences gamers can have. It’s just something you have to experience on your own to grasp.

Playing Online

Yes its true, avid Dreamcast owners can still take their systems online either through the 56k modem or the viable alternative of the cable modem adapter. What are you going to play though? Chu Chu Rocket was a big time waster but perhaps the biggest and most addictive reason is Phantasy Star Online (PSO).

For people longing to relive their days on Ragol, there’s good news in that there are still working servers for the Dreamcast, GameCube and PCs.

Now Go Play!

Alright, that about covers the basics so go get started and let us know how it’s going for you. Was it everything you remembered? Was it better as nostalgia? Did I miss something you wanted to know? Write us!

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