If you read my post on Retro Gaming Resolutions from December 30th you know one of my resolutions was to get an Atari 5200 and 7800 in 2014. Than I began to think about other systems out there that are worth collecting and trying. My mind immediately went to the oddball systems, like 3DO, NEOGEO, and Turbografix, but I totally forgot about that Sega legacy after Genesis.
Let’s be honest things were pretty bleak for Sega after the Genesis, I won’t get into why, I already wrote an article about that in Gen X.5: Part 2 – Gen 4.5 and the Sega Saga. Let’s just say Sega made a few bad decisions, so systems like the Saturn and Dreamcast didn’t sell all that well, even though they were on par with competing systems.
As for me you know that I took a duck from the console wars to go to PC gaming, something I don’t regret, Command & Conquer alone cinched that one up for me. So well SNES was shooting it out with Genesis, and Playstation was making its debut I was happily immersed in Warcraft, C&C, Sim City, Descent, and Wing Commander. It wasn’t until about 1999 and a little game called Gran Turismo that I returned half heartedly to console gaming with a PS1, at that time it was just known as Playstation.
So late last year when I picked up a Genesis and played it, and Sonic for the first time I was blown away by the game play and graphics. It was a really awesome experience, and considering it had been nearly 20 years since I last played an SNES I had forgotten how 16-bit graphics looked. But since then I have been concentrating on building my Nintendo consoles collections culminating with an SNES purchase about a month ago. After that I asked what systems I could get next.
So here I’m thinking about Sega’s lost systems. I call them lost because posterity will remember the PS1 in Gen 5, and the XBOX in Gen 6 long before it does Sega’s minor contribution in either generation. For me the Saturn and Dreamcast are completely alien territory, since outside of a few Sonic titles I know nothing about either system. In retro gaming circles the Dreamcast seems to be refereed to more then the Saturn, but gamers generally don’t talk about either in great detail.
It’s also interesting that unlike another lost system, the Atari Jaguar, there doesn’t seem to be a following or allegiance to either Sega system even from Genesis devotees. Which as an outsider looking in, begs me to ask why?
To say the least though I’m going to be taking a closer look at both the Saturn and Dreamcast in 2014. My goal being to get to know these systems, and their games, and possible add one or both to my collection.
If you consider yourself a Saturn or Dreamcast expert feel free to chime in and tell me more.
