DREAMCAST lasted 7 years & 4 months (& maybe more?)

[fishsandwich]

According to apparently credible sources, Sega has announced that UNDER DEFEAT is the last OFFICIAL release for the Dreamcast (homebrews and such will continue, obviously.)

The first Dreamcast games were released in Japan on November 27th, 1998.

Under Defeat was released on March 23rd, 2006.

That's 7 years and 4 months of official games releases for the Dreamcast in Japan. It's been over 4 years since the last USA release, NHL 2K2.

The Dreamcast will continue to live an active lifestyle in the homes of many gamers (I'm going to play around with Bleemcast tonight and see what PSone games will run) and it will no doubt see continued support from the enthusiast community, but March 23th was a (relatively) important day... Under Defeat and the official end of the Dreamcast.

A great game to go out with, by the way.

EDIT: I don't want to spread incorrect information... Several folks more intelligent and well-read than myself assert that Under Defeat is most likely NOT the last official Dreamcast release and have credible information to back those assertions up. It seems that we may have more official releases coming. :D


http://www.segagagadomain.com/dc-covers7/underdefeat-f.jpg



Major video game consoles

First generation
Magnavox Odyssey | PONG | Coleco Telstar

Second generation
Fairchild Channel F | Atari 2600 | Magnavox Odyssey² | Intellivision | 5200 | ColecoVision | SG-1000 | Vectrex

Third generation
NES | Master System | 7800

Fourth generation
PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 | Mega Drive/Genesis | SNES | Neo-Geo | CD-i | Sega CD

Fifth generation
3DO | Jaguar | 32x | Saturn | PC-FX | PlayStation | Nintendo 64

Sixth generation
Dreamcast | PS2 | GameCube | Xbox

Seventh generation
Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Revolution

[lordnikon]

This is not entirely accurate. MileStone (Developers of Chaos Field and Radirgy) has been contacted on this matter by Dreamcast-Scene.

MileStone's official statement was that they don't think that Under Defeat will be the last Dreamcast game. They already contacted Sega of Japan to secure that Dreamcast games and GD-ROMs can still be produced in future.

Also Ring Age (http://www.takuyogame.ne.jp/products/ringage/) was still supposed to see a release.

A bad internet rumour got started when GRev stated that Under Defeat would be a great game to close out the final days of the Dreamcast. This got mistranslated into the "last" game. Then a bunch of websites reported on it.

[SNKFan75]

The Sega Dreamcast is an incredible system. To think that it has lasted officially for seven years is mind boggling.

I sure wished Sega would have supported the system for longer, considering all the great shooters and fighters that were released for it. Tis' a shame to see it only get mild support form fans now. With a games roster of Marvel vs. Capcom 1 & 2, Ikaruga, KOF series, Zero Gunner 2, and not to mention Under Defeat, this little system was the highlight of gaming for me in the late nineties.

SNKFan75

[lordnikon]

The Dreamcast does not have "mild" fan support. It is one of the top consoles in terms of a dedicated fanbase. Under Defeat topped 10,000 in sales. Also there are more fan sites for the Dreamcast than most other consoles.

You are correct that the Dreamcast is an incredible system. Just like the Neo-Geo AES, you get the arcade experience in your own home. In North America alone, 59 games were release on the Dreamcast that originated from the Arcades (any hardware board). And on a global release scale, 60 titles were released that were from native hardware (NAOMI / NAOMI GD-ROM).

The Dreamcast is a highlight of gaming for me on a daily basis.

[Rockman Neo]

Whether or not Under Defeat is the last Dreamcast game or not, it was a good run. The Dreamcast will be missed.

[fishsandwich]

This is not entirely accurate. MileStone (Developers of Chaos Field and Radirgy) has been contacted on this matter by Dreamcast-Scene.

MileStone's official statement was that they don't think that Under Defeat will be the last Dreamcast game. They already contacted Sega of Japan to secure that Dreamcast games and GD-ROMs can still be produced in future.

Also Ring Age (http://www.takuyogame.ne.jp/products/ringage/) was still supposed to see a release.

A bad internet rumour got started when GRev stated that Under Defeat would be a great game to close out the final days of the Dreamcast. This got mistranslated into the "last" game. Then a bunch of websites reported on it.

I shall stand corrected on this issue if this turns out to be the case. I'd like nothing better than to see continued official support for the Dreamcast. Well, "nothing better" isn't entirely accurate as I can think of hundreds, if not thousands, of things that I would like better than a new Dreamcast game. For instance... A lifetime of free foot massages from someone really hot or perhaps a complete payoff of my mortgage balance. Hell, just pay this years tax bill and I'll be happy.

I look forward to more DC news!

:D

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Also Ring Age (http://www.takuyogame.ne.jp/products/ringage/) was still supposed to see a release.
Hah, Ring Age! That game as been on the Dreamcast release list since like 2002. That'd be amazing if it finally came out.

I didn't think we were gonna get any more Dreamcast games after Sega stopped having a DC release list on their Japanese webpage sometime last year, but then Radiology and Under Defeat came, so more releases certainly wouldn't surprise me. Maybe Trigger Heart. Too bad it looks like neither Melty Blood or Senko No Ronde is gonna happen.


...word is bondage...

[roushimsx]

Either Senko No Ronde had better come out on DC or the Xbox360 version had better not have any region coding on it ... :(

It'd be great if Milestone were able to put out another shmup on the system. Chaos Field was a little rough around the edges, but Radirgy is quite awesome. All the same, if Under Defeat wound up being the last official game on the system, it'd be a great way to go out.

I still find it cute that people were trumpeting Ikaruga as the last game for the system, and that was a good 4 years ago. If nothing else, the last few years have been pure heaven for shmup buffs.

Now let's all hope that Under Defeat and Border Down get ported to the PS2 so that more people can experience the raw badassity of them :)

[kainemaxwell]

The DC was and still is an amazing system.

[goatdan]

I've heard from a very good source that Under Defeat will not be the last Japanese Sega-pressed release, although things need to keep falling into place, I expect there should be more.

[jdc]

Nice.

For the life of me, I don't think that I will ever truly understand why this system wasn't embraced by the general populace. I used to see people ooh and aaah over the Soul Calibur and NFL 2K games that I ran as demo on a daily basis....and then immediately walk up to the counter and ask me for a PSX 9001 DualShock.

Every time someone did that it felt like a kick to the balls.

[smork]

Curious, where does that Under Defeat cover image come from? I got the LE, and it's in a DVD case. Is the normal in a standard DC case?

I don't think it's the last release myself. Sales are too strong - somebody's going to notice that if you can move 10k units of a game on a "defunct" console in a week that there's probably still a decent market for it. If nothing else I am hoping Senko no Ronde will see the light of day...

[goatdan]

Curious, where does that Under Defeat cover image come from? I got the LE, and it's in a DVD case. Is the normal in a standard DC case?

I don't think it's the last release myself. Sales are too strong - somebody's going to notice that if you can move 10k units of a game on a "defunct" console in a week that there's probably still a decent market for it. If nothing else I am hoping Senko no Ronde will see the light of day...

I was under the impression that both releases of this were in DVD style cases. Can someone confirm that? Now I'm curious :)

And it also helps that the sorts of games that do so well still on the Dreamcast are made on Naomi hardware. Porting between the platforms is rather easy, so it makes these ports a quick way for companies to earn a buck in a niche market. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw another 10 releases in the next three or four years.

[smork]

And it also helps that the sorts of games that do so well still on the Dreamcast are made on Naomi hardware. Porting between the platforms is rather easy, so it makes these ports a quick way for companies to earn a buck in a niche market. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we saw another 10 releases in the next three or four years.

Isn't that one of the great appeals of the DC this late in it's history? Many of the "official" releases are perfect arcade conversions, so it's like a NeoGeo for the new millenium.

And like the NG, I hope that as long as there are NAOMI arcade games being made there will be at least some of them trickling to the DC.

[fishsandwich]

Curious, where does that Under Defeat cover image come from? I got the LE, and it's in a DVD case. Is the normal in a standard DC case?

I don't think it's the last release myself. Sales are too strong - somebody's going to notice that if you can move 10k units of a game on a "defunct" console in a week that there's probably still a decent market for it. If nothing else I am hoping Senko no Ronde will see the light of day...

I was under the impression that both releases of this were in DVD style cases. Can someone confirm that? Now I'm curious :)

All the Under Defeat game variations came in DVD cases, both regular and LE. I got that image off of Segagaga... someone has crafted a CD game case. I printed out the front and back myself (there was a better back insert on the net but it has disappeared) andde myself a case to put in the storag box with all the other shooters, kind of like a placeholder. The DVD case won't fit in the box with the other games.

[kevin_psx]

The first Dreamcast games were released in Japan on November 27th, 1998.
Under Defeat was released on March 23rd, 2006.

Not for me. I consider a console dead when they stop making new ones. Sometime in 2002. Less then 4 years.

[Captain Wrong]

The first Dreamcast games were released in Japan on November 27th, 1998.
Under Defeat was released on March 23rd, 2006.

Not for me. I consider a console dead when they stop making new ones. Sometime in 2002. Less then 4 years.

That's nice. We'll contact you next time we need an official statement on something.

BTW, it's than not then. KTHNKS.

Back on topic, what's Ring Age? Your link's done busted. :)

[fishsandwich]

The first Dreamcast games were released in Japan on November 27th, 1998.
Under Defeat was released on March 23rd, 2006.

Not for me. I consider a console dead when they stop making new ones. Sometime in 2002. Less then 4 years.

So?

[Guru of Time and Space]

The whole "Under Defeat is the last Dreamcast game" schtick is blown out of proportion and taken the wrong way. Whether some people translated it wrong in the first place or whatever, the following message posted on the Under Defeat page at sega.jp/dc is the SOURCE of all this shit-

ドリームキャストの最後を飾るのは、このソフトだ!

And here is the ghetto translation-

"This software decorates the last of Dreamcast!"

Stop.
Go back a few months.
This is where people start to freak out.
But what this message really means is that Under Defeat will be the last Dreamcast game sold with a refurbished Dreamcast system because of the law pertaining to second hand electronic devices made before 2001 now being illegal in japan starting on April 1st.

~That's all.~

There will be more Dreamcast games. Milestone has already contacted Sega, as said before, and GDs will still be produced.

And, about Ring Age - It's a 4 player dungeon crawling action RPG by Takuyo Soft. It looks fun, but, it has been on and off the release lists for quite some time now. ...And with Takuyo's website being down... I don't even know what to say.

-GoTaS

[Julio III]

That CD cover for Under Defeat was created by Yakumo who runs www.segagagadomain.com and the RetroCore show. He has made a front and back CD cover as well as a spine card O_O for the game. He has made available really high resolution versions of these (I think way over 10MB each) if you wanted to print off good quality versions.

[Ze_ro]

People have been saying "this is the last Dreamcast game" for a long time now, referring to a number of different games. I remember buying Trizeal, being entirely certain that nothing else would come out, but now I have Under Defeat and Radilgy sitting next to it. There's no reason to think that Under Defeat will be any different... in fact, with the recent release of these two games, I'd almost think the pace of DC releases was INCREASING!

It's kind of funny how important the NAOMI hardware is in this whole situation. With NAOMI being so popular and still in use, it makes it easy and cheap to make a Dreamcast version of an existing game and take in a couple of bucks on it's release. Without the NAOMI though, the Dreamcast would be silent. I don't think any other game system has ever enjoyed a relationship like that. I just wish SNK would try this out with it's Atomiswave games... hint, hint SNK...

--Zero

[gepeto]

I feel compelled to say for what it is worth is that I have never had an issue with any dreamcast hardware. It died an undeserving premature death. Long live the cast if only in our hearts.

[GaijinPunch]

The comment at segadirect.jp could very well mean it's "decorating" the very last of their consoles. Remember, the refurbished units? Who knows though. Until it's in a press release, I won't believe it. Sega Direct is just the shoppnig unit.

The most likely next candidate for a DC release is Trigger Heart Exelica. A lack-luster shooting game put out by Warashi (Shienryu/Shienryu2). I've got a video of it taken from the AM Show at my site if anyone is interested. It's in the Japan 2006 report, in the commentary section.

[smork]

Just to clarify what's been said elsewhere -- it's not illegal now to sell game systems with internal power supplies in Japan. It's illegal for for a company to sell them without inspecting them and certifying them with one of the new stickers. I would think Sega would be quite likely to have a few people qualified to inspect their refurbished consoles and will continue to sell them. So there's a good chance this isn't even the last system/game bundle being sold by Sega for the DC.

Still totally legal for private individuals to sell whatever they want.

[roushimsx]

The most likely next candidate for a DC release is Trigger Heart Exelica. A lack-luster shooting game put out by Warashi (Shienryu/Shienryu2). I've got a video of it taken from the AM Show at my site if anyone is interested. It's in the Japan 2006 report, in the commentary section.

Not to tangent too much, but what's the deal with Warashi? Shienryu and Sengeki Striker were pretty neato (good lord do i love Shienryu), but the sequel to Shienryu blows new york hardcore and now word on the street is THE is meh? Damnit :(

(i'll probably still buy it :( )

[lordnikon]

People have been saying "this is the last Dreamcast game" for a long time now, referring to a number of different games. I remember buying Trizeal, being entirely certain that nothing else would come out, but now I have Under Defeat and Radilgy sitting next to it. There's no reason to think that Under Defeat will be any different... in fact, with the recent release of these two games, I'd almost think the pace of DC releases was INCREASING!

It's kind of funny how important the NAOMI hardware is in this whole situation. With NAOMI being so popular and still in use, it makes it easy and cheap to make a Dreamcast version of an existing game and take in a couple of bucks on it's release. Without the NAOMI though, the Dreamcast would be silent. I don't think any other game system has ever enjoyed a relationship like that. I just wish SNK would try this out with it's Atomiswave games... hint, hint SNK...

--Zero
Well, SNK is a shadow of their former self. They already did this with the Neo-Geo, so they are not going to release Atomiswave games on the Dreamcast. If SNK was still serious about supporting their fanbase they would be releasing AES carts still. But that all ended with Samurai Shodown V Special. SNK has since moved on from supporting such niche markets as the NEO or DC, and are now trying to mass market their games.

Atleast we got King of Fighters 2002 to round out an exceptional cast of KOF games on the Dreamcast.

The interesting part about the NAOMI / Dreamcast situation now, is that it is a symbiotic relationship: Imagine a restaurant, with a developer at one end. He turns, and glances across the room. An arcade game player spots him, and their eyes meet. No words need to be spoken. They simply nod to each other with a slight grin.

The Dreamcast is a win win situation for these developers. Most of the people who would buy these games on other platforms, already own a Dreamcast. On top of this, the Dreamcast can easily boot import games. Anyone in the world can enjoy these new releases. For other platforms, setting them up for imports is much more difficult and time consuming. Not only are companies like GRev able to reach their target demographic in Japan, but worldwide as well.

This sort of relationship extends beyond just the developers and the consumers though. The import game shops are also benifiting greatly from the situation. This is why some of them are currently pushing for a DC release of Senko no Ronde (which would not come out until after the 360 version, if people want me to explain why, just ask).

It is an amazing situation where every party involved seems to be getting what they want.

[segagamer]

As much as I would like to see more official DC releases in Japan, I would be very content to have Under Defeat as my last DC game purchase.

[GaijinPunch]

It's illegal for for a company to sell them without inspecting them and certifying them with one of the new stickers.

Dreamcast & Saturn wouldn't qualify anyway. They pushed the law back to hardware before (I think) 1989.


Not to tangent too much, but what's the deal with Warashi?

They are a weird anomoly. The problem w/ Naomi games is that they're too easy to make crappy. I don't know why, but it's very easy to make half-assed polygons do things on that system I guess. Anyways, Exelica is definitely not my cup of tea when companies like Cave are putting out 120% quality stuff.

[lordnikon]

They are a weird anomoly. The problem w/ Naomi games is that they're too easy to make crappy. I don't know why, but it's very easy to make half-assed polygons do things on that system I guess. Anyways, Exelica is definitely not my cup of tea when companies like Cave are putting out 120% quality stuff.
Hardware does not dictate the visual style of a video game. This rests in the hands of the developers.

[PrototypeFC3S]

I'm thinking about buying a modded Dreamcast so I can snag some more of these imports. I use a disc for them right now but its a pain in the ass.

[nate1749]

Are dreamcast games still being released on a regular basis in Japan? Obviously it's not as much as it was in the late 90s, but anyone know how many games were released for say last year?

Nate

[fishsandwich]

Are dreamcast games still being released on a regular basis in Japan? Obviously it's not as much as it was in the late 90s, but anyone know how many games were released for say last year?

Nate

Regular basis? Not all all. There were maybe.. what, four games released for the Dreamcast last year? Every "big" release in the past few years has been a shooter mostly culled from arcade games running on Naomi hardware. I guess the shooter genre is so hardcore for the Dreamcast that a publisher can take an existing Naomi arcade game, convert it easily to Dreamcast, and then produce a run of games that are guaranteed to sell a certain amount of copies... and at a profit. The Naomi arcade hardware is still being supported, isn't it? Seems like it gets lots of shooters. I'm all for more Dreamcast shooters, even if new games only appear a few times a year. Even if the Dreamcast is officially dead (which many claim it's not) it still had a surprisingly long run for a console that was deemed a failure.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

There were maybe.. what, four games released for the Dreamcast last year?
Actually, only two. Trizeal and Angel Wish. Angel Wish being a girl-get adventure game (basically lots of Japanese text with some still pictures sometimes with a little animation all wrapped up in an "adult" theme) a lot of people wouldn't even count it.

Now, 2004, that was a great year: Psyvariar 2, Shikigami No Shiro, Chaos Field, Baldr Force EXE, Puyo Puyo Fever as well as a ton of girl-get adventure games. There's no doubt that the releases have slowed down dramtically from that level, though. First of all, the girl-get games have stopped pretty much completely and they were the Dreamcast's mainstay aside from NAOMI ports. A lot of those girl-get games were WinCE ports, by the way, so I guess WinCE and NAOMI together deserve the credit for the Dreamcast's continued life, well those and KallistiOS, too, of course. As for the NAOMI stuff, I wouldn't exactly say that the NAOMI is a thriving architecture; it gets maybe three or four games a year of which two or three come out on the Dreamcast. That's ignoring the AtomisWave since those games never get ported to the DC even though it's architecture is even more like the Dreamcast than the NAOMI is and it gets even more games (or *GOT* I should say since a lot of people think the AtomisWave is already pretty much a dead platform).


...word is bondage...

[GaijinPunch]

Hardware does not dictate the visual style of a video game. This rests in the hands of the developers.

That's to say that the trends say otherwise, although in actuality it is of course, entirely up to the creativity of the developer. I think what it comes down to is that developers will settle for less in a 3D game. Just my take on it.

[Captain Wrong]

Hardware does not dictate the visual style of a video game. This rests in the hands of the developers.

So Atari 2600 games could look like 360 games if the developers wanted them to?

I'm pretty sure talent dev houses play to a console's stregnths when figuring out how a game is going to look, which means the visual style is, to an extent, determined by the hardware.

[GaijinPunch]

So Atari 2600 games could look like 360 games if the developers wanted them to?

No, but any Naomi game can in theory be as graphically competent as Ikaruga, although very few of them, if any, are.

[lordnikon]

Ok let me clarriy things further. My wording was off in my comment and I just realised this.

Here is what I am really trying to say:

The NAOMI hardware is not some how forcing developers to create games with a lower polycount. This is decided by the developers through design choices, and their overall technical ability to develop games.

Also, games that don't look like Ikaruga or Under Defeat arn't necessarily games with bad graphics. As long as the game has a complete cohesive look, and looks finished, then I think the game was developed well.

Trizeal for instance has a lot of sharp angles. Some people consider this to be "bad graphics". Others like myself consider it to be a stylistic look. Trizeal's look is complete and consistant. While the enemy ships have a low polycount, they have well shaded textures, and the game does have nice explosions. I personally like Trizeal's look, and do not necessarilly see technical problems with the game's graphics.

Now Chaos Field on the other hand has some issues that could be described as bad graphics. Overall the game has a solid look and feel. However there are some spots that could definatly have been corrected and are clearly NOT "stylistic" in nature. For instance the ropey textures on the intro and on some of the city backgrounds. It was probobly a bad idea for the developers to do a close zoom in on the in-game ship models for the introduction. Chaos Field was MileStones first game. So its lack of polish in spots could be attributed to the compaines overall technical ability when developing this first game.

Most games that have come out on the NAOMI look fantastic. F355 Challenge, Outtrigger, Cosmic Smash, Giga Wing 2, Power Stone 2, Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation VS Jion DX (this game looks incredible), Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2... I could keep listing games but I think I will stop here.

So this brings us to Trigger Heart Exelica...style? or mediocre graphics? Trigger Heart's look is inconsistant. The overlay gui is boring and uninspired, and the enemy ship textures are horrifically bland. The textures are so blurry and you can barely see the lines on them. They might look good in photoshop, but once they are mapped onto the craft, they look terrible.

Trigger Heart just doesn't look like a finished game. It lacks polish and looks more like a doujin shooter (amateur shooter) on the PC.

[roushimsx]

Angel Wish being a girl-get adventure game (basically lots of Japanese text with some still pictures sometimes with a little animation all wrapped up in an "adult" theme) a lot of people wouldn't even count it.


did they censor it / tone it down or was it still a hardcore pedophile game?

[GaijinPunch]

Trizeal for instance has a lot of sharp angles. Some people consider this to be "bad graphics". Others like myself consider it to be a stylistic look.

Trizeal is horrid. Sorry, I've thought so ever since I saw it on basically the best display possible -- 28" arcade monitor in all it's beta test glory. It just screamed doujin to me.

I understand what you're saying. My rather goofy theory can be applied to 3D gaming in general. I really think devs and gamers in general accept a lot less when it comes to 3D graphics.


So this brings us to Trigger Heart Exelica...style? or mediocre graphics?

It's crap. :) Gets even worse when you see it in person.


Trigger Heart just doesn't look like a finished game.

Well, it's not... but I don't think it's going to get any better befor it's release next month.