remember it like it was yesterday... 

eagerly looking at magizines and trying to watch videos of the Dreamcast on my 56k connection back in 1999. I was the meer age of 11, playing on my Playstation and N64, seeing the Dreamcast was like looking at the future.

I remember seeing gameplay videos of NFL2k, Sonic Adventure, and the first time I saw Shenmue. I swore that we have finally hit realisim in video games. Seeing the breath coming out of the football players when it snowed to seeing a zombie's head explode in House of the Dead 2. Of course, everybody else was idolizing the legendary PS2, which was supposed to come out in the near future.

Not me. My faith was in the Dreamcast. I remember the day, 9/9/99 at the local base BX with my mother and brother. We picked up the Dreamcast, Sonic Adventure, another controller, and a VMU device. The price was ridiculous, but I wasn't paying for it.

Opening it was like I had my hands on Pandora's box. The contents inside were seemingly that of Alien Technology from the future. Hooking it up to my TV and hearing the opening sound accompanied by the swirling logo and bouncing ball sent goosebumps to my entire body. 

Once I set up the time and date, it was go time. The demo disk had so many things to see, so many demos that I wanted. I could hardly contain myself... then I saw the other disk.

Holy shit, I can SURF THE INTERNET WITH THIS THING? Damn straight I could, and after about 30 minutes of wiring the 1 mile phone cable all over the house and into a jack, I realized that this was the most amazing moment in console gaming history. That was quickly overshadowed when I learned that I could actually play with other people over the internet. Holy shit.

So I spent the next few years playing Quake 3, Phantasy Star Online, Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, taking my Chao from Sonic Adventure to school on the VMU, and even surfing the net when I was grounded from the computer. The Dreamcast provided me with such timeless experiences never before fathomed. It was unreal for its time, pushing gaming in the right direction only to be destroyed by simple piracy methods and the hype of the PS2.

Happy 10th Birthday Sega Dreamcast, I am glad that many people are still here to celebrate what a great console you once were. I see that there is a brand new title coming out for it this year, and although it looks pretty shitty, I still appreciate the developers showing that the Dreamcast can still be developed for and that they care.