Back in 2006 something very exciting started happening at IGN, they announced a re-launching of their Sega Dreamcast webpage and would immediately begin re-reviewing and ranking every game. Their claim was the Dreamcast was too great of system to let die and that “as Sega fans, we just can’t let the system die.”
This was great news, a major video game news outlet dedicating countless hours to playing and reviewing Dreamcast games. Each week I would have the opportunity to re-visit the system and check out the new reviews. The future was looking up. In a weird way, it was like a re-launching of the system itself. I was very impressed and hopeful. As each game was reviewed, it would receive a re-evaluation, as it was seen through current-video-game-generation eyes; had some of the great games not held up? Did others get better with time? These questions (and more) were all being explored by the editors of IGN. On top of everything, else we’d also be getting new video captures and media for every Dreamcast game, that means no more YouTube searches to find some video of 18 Wheeler!
But atlas, it was not to be. The IGN crew only reviewed around 16 titles. For months (and even years later) I would check the page and hope that more titles had been reviewed only to find no updates. What makes this story even more tragic is that 09.09.09 would have been the perfect time to have completed this list.
However, I am very happy and super impressed that Gagaman of The Dreamcast Junkyard put together THE top 100 list of Dreamcast games. What makes it even better is that it was voted on by everyone in Internet Land. The Dreamcast is truly being kept alive by the fans of the system and not those that have a fleeting, nostalgic tug on their sleeve to revisit this wonderful system. So I know I’ve said it before, but thanks to all that continue to support the Dreamcast and let’s see if we can get IGN to live up to their promise. You can always give them a piece of your mind: dreamcast.ign.com/email.html and tell them that ihaveadreamcast.com sent you!
Speaking of keeping the dream alive, last night a buddy and I played some Sega Marine Fishing with the fishing rod controller and followed it up with some Virtua Tennis. Lots of fun, now I have some Shenmue to play!
“I saw some kids playing a Dreamcast on tv set up on the sidewalk outside this little co op grocery store on my way to work today, and I was so happy and so busy yelling "SEGGAAAA!" that I almost crashed.”
The above quote is from a forum posting that someone brought to our attention. Very awesome.
The paper ended up running two pieces about The Dreamcast on September 9th. The other one was more the typical “looking back at what was” piece, yet still cool.
Lastly, I missed this earlier in the week but The Flagpole (another Athens, Ga publication) wrote a little piece about our night calling it “the nerdiest event Athens has seen in a while.” Check it out: http://flagpole.com/Weekly/DontMiss/DontMiss-9Sep09
I’ll have some video clips posted in the next day or two. They’re still coming, so keep checking.
Even though the night had its fair share of hiccups, we still managed to have an amazing time. Here is how our night began : By the 8 o’clock hour we were met with three disappointing situations: 1) a thunder storm 2) a citation from the police department 3) a non-working wi-fi/internet connection. Things were not looking up.
However by 10pm everything was rolling smoothly and the party was in full swing. Just as promised, we had 2 Dreamcast set up on televisions in the different parts of the club and 2 consoles projected, one on a wall in the club and the other outside serving as the entrance to the club (by then the rain had let up).
We played Dreamcast all night. Dreamcast cakes were served, countless games were played, a Dreamcast was given away, people showed up with their own games, bands played (Gemini Cricket, Grey Milk, Captain #1, & I Have Read Other Books…), and we then around 1 am we ended the night with a Soul Calibur competition.
Even though we couldn’t stream the event, some video was captured and we are currently putting together a video to post next week. We are also trying to track down some photos that were taken by various people that attended the party. So even though things started on a sour note, the night ended with spirits high and feeling fulfilled.
The daytime or “around town” streaming also experienced its fair share of troubles, the most being weak wi-fi signals. Some places had great high-speed connections while others had incredibly slow connections. We are talking dial-up slow! Still, despite bandwidth limitations we had a great time everywhere we played. We experienced a wide range of reactions from puzzled and confused looks to others that totally embraced our mission and jumped on board. The highest level of enthusiasm was found at the University of Georgia, where I heard my favorite quote: “I was born before the Dreamcast came out but I wouldn’t say I was living!”
Overall, I can’t imagine a better way to spend the 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast. Like I said, we have pictures and video clips to be posted soon and I’ll go through the justin.tv stream and find some highlights as well. We will also post the article(s) written about us and the Dreamcast by The Red & Black newspaper.
Lastly, if you have not read The Dreamcast Top 100 presented by The Dreamcast Junkyard, you need to.
My only regret of the day was not being able to see much of the Dreamroom stream but I guess that is what archives are for! More soon!
Thanks to everyone that watched and hung out with us on 9.9.09: Play N Trade, Ike & Jane, The Daily, UGA – Jittery Joe’s Crew, The Grit, Go Bar, and The Red & Black
No-thanks to the Athens-Clarke County Police Department
Dreamcast 10 Year Anniversary Celebration!
Starting at 9am (eastern time): All day we'll be streaming from public places throughout Athens, Ga playing the Dreamcast. Everything wraps up at a party at the Go Bar at 9pm. So, we'll be streaming all day and giving away some stuff donated by Play N Trade. If the feed is down, check back at the top of every hour to see where we'll turn up next or check the posted schedule.
STREAMING SCHEDULE FOR 09.09.09 (all times are for the Eastern Time Zone) 9am – wake up, morning gaming, getting everything packed up 10am – Breakfast @ Ike & Jane’s (a local coffee/donut shop) 11am – UGA campus (hanging out, meeting people, etc) 1pm – Downtown Athens, Ga / lunch somewhere 3pm – Jittery Joe's Coffee Shop 4pm – 8pm – heading home / dinner / getting ready for the party / checking out the Dreamroom stream (we’ll be streaming off and on during these 4 hours)
9pm – midnight – Dreamcast 10 Year Celebration @ The Go Bar, downtown Athens, Ga.
Live bands (playing songs from the Dreamcast EP) Dreamcast gaming : 2 projected screens (one inside, one outside), 2 traditional tv set-ups Door prizes :
3rd place – free Dreamcast EP
2nd place – Play N Trade gift card + Dreamcast EP
1st place – free Dreamcast system (donated by Play N Trade) + Dreamcast EP + a handful of Dreamcast games
...and maybe more prizes!! A huge thanks for Play N Trade of Athens for donating most of the door prizes!
Also, checkout Barry's (The Nomad Junkyard) Dreamcast party during our downtime!
Daytime streaming will start at 9am (Eastern Time Zone). From there we’ll be driving all over Athens, Ga and streaming and playing Dreamcast from public places. That's right, we are bringing the Dreamcast to the masses! Here is a rough schedule (tomorrow: times are a guide, check back, and refresh the feed often):
STREAMING SCHEDULE FOR 09.09.09 (all times are for the Eastern Time Zone) 9am – wake up, morning gaming, getting everything packed up 10am – 11am – Breakfast @ Ike & Jane’s (a local coffee/donut shop) 11am – 1pm – UGA campus (hanging out, meeting people, etc) 1pm – 3pm – Downtown Athens, Ga / lunch somewhere 3pm – 4pm – Barnes & Noble bookstore (we’ll be set up somewhere in the store) 4pm – 8pm – heading home / dinner / getting ready for the party / checking out the Dreamroom stream (we’ll be streaming off and on during these 4 hours)
9pm – midnight – Dreamcast 10 Year Celebration @ The Go Bar, downtown Athens, Ga.
Live bands (playing songs from the Dreamcast EP) Dreamcast gaming : 2 projected screens (one inside, one outside), 2 traditional tv set-ups Door prizes :
3rd place – free Dreamcast EP
2nd place – Play N Trade gift card + Dreamcast EP
1st place – free Dreamcast system (donated by Play N Trade) + Dreamcast EP + a handful of Dreamcast games
Also, a HUGE thanks to the Play N Trade in Athens, Ga for donating the Dreamcast and gift card as door prizes. These guys were super supportive and totally onboard when we told them about it. So, support Play N Trade!
We’ll have another update later tonight. We are going to change the layout of the website in order to make viewing the stream easier, we want to include the SEGA Junkyard family in the layout, and be able to communicate our different streaming times (the stream will be off and on tomorrow since we’ll be traveling from wi-fi spot to wi-fi spot). We’ll also be updating via our Twitter (twitter.com/otherbooks), letting everyone know when we are streaming again.
Tomorrow is going to be awesome! There are a lot of things happening around the ‘net and we’re going to try and get them included in the “re-design,” making Ihaveadreamcast.com a central location for much of the Dreamcast craziness.
Lastly, if you have a Twitter account – Tweet about #therealsept9. A group of Dreamcast fans are trying to make it one of the top Twitter trends, as well as a mission to take 09/09 back from other video game releases.
Wow. September is here. Ok. So, we are getting a step closer to our vision for 09-09-09. Here is the deal so far:
Daytime Streaming (throughout the entire day of 09-09-09 we’ll be streaming) but we are trying to take internet streaming and Dreamcast playing to a new level – You’ve seen us play the Dreamcast at our house before and frankly we need something more exciting, more challenging. So, we have cooked up a few new ideas… If you want hints, study the poorly scanned “Dreamcast Day” notes. Everything is being ironed out and will be posted in a day or two (at this point we are just finalizing the times). Basically, we’ll be streaming throughout the day at different times for chunks of an hour or so.
But trust us, if this works – it should prove to be pretty bizarre.
We plan this to be the biggest Dreamcast Anniversary Party in the southern United States, if not the world. So, make sure you are a part of the action.
Go Bar (Athens, Ga Dreamcast party): Starting sometime after 8pm (eastern standard time) open to the general public, free, door prices. If you live anywhere close to Athens, Ga or know someone that does – tell them to be here! At least 3 – 4 Dreamcast systems will be set up. Two projected against the walls: one inside the club, the other outside in the patio section). The other systems will be set up on televisions. Internet streaming station. One Dreamcast will have our streaming camera set up to give people at home a chance to chat it up with everyone at the club. The camera will be positioned in a way so that everyone at home will see plenty of gaming. Dreamcast Goodies – cookies, cakes, and more will be baked in the Dreamcast’s likeness will be there for munching on. Door prizes – we are currently in talks with Play N Trade to offer Dreamcast related door prizes to all who attend (including a Dreamcast system). Musical Performances by the Draemcast EP bands: Bicycles & Gravel, Captain #1, Gemini Cricket, Grey Milk, and I Have Read Other Books Besides The Catcher in the Rye. DJing by DJ Other Voices, Other Rooms – he will spin a few video game inspired sets between performances and gaming competitions. Dreamcast EPs – there will be plenty of Dreamcast EPs for people to pick up (it’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas). Streaming Other Dreamcast Parties Station – a place to checkout some of the other Dreamcast parties going on around the world! (Hopefully – we’re still working on this one).
We’ll also be trying to document as much of the day as possible with digital cameras (video and still picture).
We are also working out ways to include many of the other Dreamcast events happening on September 9th as well. Be on the look-out for a new website design to help organize all the craziness.
Please, email us with any questions or suggestions on how to make this better: panta AT ihaveadreamcast DOT com.
(A number of people have emailed us over the last month or so, if we never got back to you. SUPER SORRY! Contact us again, we get overwhelmed for time to time).
