Cast aside your despair

Still sad about the untimely demise of the Dreamcast? Console-ation is at hand.

Here, we remember the pioneering game console that succeeded, over its unjustly short market life, in winning a devoted fan base. Whether this is due to its colourful game library, including near-perfect arcade ports and numerous titles never released on other consoles, or some other magical attraction, we’ll likely never know. And what does it matter? Charisma is more than the sum of its parts. 

Roundly considered to have been ahead of its time (the last turn of the century, for the benefit of the Gen Z-ers out there), the Dreamcast also spelled doom for Sega. Nearly 20 years on, we are left puzzling over why this came to pass. Many say it was down to poor timing in the race against competitor consoles, while others blame it on anything from management to market conditions.

When it comes to the crunch, though, there’s no truly satisfying explanation for the premature death of the Dreamcast. We must console* ourselves with the knowledge that some things are simply not of this world and can exist only in passing, leaving us with but a fleeting glimpse of a vast beyond.

*Yes, we’re aware that we already used that pun. What of it?

Who are we?

Short answer: we’re Jedmond and Wilson Picketty, brothers who were 11 and 14 respectively in 1999. We pooled our Christmas and birthday takings from our Nan to buy our first game console. Funnily enough, it was not a Dreamcast, but we spent a lot of time at our mate Gavin’s, and he had one with about fifty games. We never got around to getting a Dreamcast of our own, and now we’re paying the price of nostalgia-steeped regret.