The final breath for the Dreamcast?
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Retro. Tagged with Dreamcast, Emulation, Fan Stuff.
Since Sega stopped production of the Dreamcast consoles back in 2001, the argument over whether the Dreamcast was dead has been raging in forums and message boards across the gaming community.
Some say that because Sega stopped officially supporting the console and that the system was no longer being manufactured, that it was dead.
But all those stubborn Dreamcast nuts out there, (me included), argued the point that titles were still being made (even though small, Japan-only titles), the homebrew scene was thriving, seeing many new games and ported PC titles emerging from the underground gaming scene. And some of the online games were still able to be played online. Also Sega was still repairing the systems, that they had not stopped supporting the system entirely, and all this meant that it was not dead.
Could the end to that argument be at hand?
Earlier this year we heard that Sega had stopped the production of the official format for the Dreamcast- the GD-ROM. a special disc, only used by the Dreamcast, which was essentially a high quality CD-ROM that could hold 1 Gig of data. This meant that no games (by any company) could be officially released for the system. The only way to get new games would be through the homebrew/ underground scene, where users will need to burn games onto a normal CD-ROM. However many will not like to do this, as playing CD-ROMs on the Dreamcast has been known to wear down the laser.
Even then that was not such a big problem, anyone who could afford to, could get their Dreamcast sent of for repairs….
Now I’m afraid it seems that Sega have announced that as of September 28th 2007, according to German website Gamefront, they will no longer accept Dreamcast, Saturn consoles or their accessories for repairs. This could be the final blow for Dreamcast (and Saturn) lovers everywhere.
“30.03.07 - Sega Japan communicates that one will stop the internal repair service for Dreamcast and Saturn to 28.09.07.Defective consoles are not no more repaired starting from this date. The same applies also to the accessories of the two systems (e.g. Stromkabel, A/V cable, etc.).”
The homebrew scene is still doing quite well, but as the systems slowly start to die off, that niche market, that has been doing so well over the last 6 years, could come to an end too. We can only hope that some very kind people will start up their own Dreamcast repair centre, sure the parts won’t be official (and maybe Sega won’t allow it), but it could be the only way to keep one of the most under-rated systems alive. Lets pray that Sega start releasing Dreamcast titles on Xbox Live or the Virtual Console. Or someone makes a decent Dreamcast emulator for the PC.
For now all I can say is that if you think your Dreamcast could be on its last legs, you had better send it off to the designated repair centres, before it’s too late….and ‘keep the dream alive’ just a little longer.
Where to repair?
- US owners should check out Sega-parts.com
- European owners have a list of places to choose from (depending on country you live in)
- Japanese owners…sorry I’m having difficulty readng/translating the Sega Japan site, but I’m sure there is a link there for you.
[Source: Gamefront.de]
Comments on this article
There have been 8 responses to this article.
(O.o) really!
thanks for this, one of my dreamcasts’ won’t read my games anymore. (which is why we have three here)
time to check if any of my saturns need a fix up.
jopamine
Posted March 31st, 2007 at 1:20 pm.
Yeah I’m really annoyed by this.
I sort of have 3 Dreamcasts. One working. One keeps restting. And the other is the unofficial Treamcast- which for some reason doesn’t play certain games properly- it’s like the image is pushed down, so that it falls off the bottom of the tv and what should be the bottom of the image appears at the top of the screen. Very annoying.
I am just really worried that eventually all my DCs will give up- and I won’t be able to play of the games at all. The problem with disc based consoles is that they seem to be a lot less reliable than cartridge based ones. So where my Mastersystem, Megadrive and Snes have all lasted with no ill-effect, I think my DC will die off in a few years.
-I can only hope someone makes a decent Dreamcast Emulator for the PC.
G
Posted March 31st, 2007 at 2:58 pm.
Good info, as always, Graham.
Chris
Posted March 31st, 2007 at 10:35 pm.
Thanks man. Hopefully people can get their systems repaired asap. We have a few months, but still, best to get in early.
G
Posted March 31st, 2007 at 10:37 pm.
Yeah, I have two dead Dreamcast’s laying around I’m using for spare parts (Sadly one is my launch Dreamcast..) I bought a third one off of EBGames.com a while back, but it didn’t work at all when it showed up. So I had to construct a ‘Frankencast’ in order to get it to work properly, which was harder to do then I thought at first because their were aparently two models of the Dreamcast: Different coolant system, motherboard and GD-Rom drive.
But ‘Frankencast’ has held up for a few years now, perfectly.
Don’t worry, G, you could always use Ebay or something to buy a new console.
Warren
Posted April 1st, 2007 at 2:14 am.
I was wondering where i could get a replacement motherboard at for my dreamcast?
Jeremy
Posted February 21st, 2008 at 12:09 am.
i repair all dreamcast consoles and treamcast
i supporting all sega fans and shenmue fans aswell and repairs needed just email me and i can repair all sega dreamcast console
as i know were to get the parts as they are limited to get i think sega should release a dreamcast 2 with backwards compatably
and blue ray support and there could have all shenmue games all on one disc
my mum used to say when i had my frist sega mega drive they should have all sonic games on one disk shes right in a way
if thei helps any sega fan please email me for a dreamcast repair and tell me whats wrong and then i can give you a price for repair and i take paypal as for the payment or cash with the sega dreamcast but if you do that make sure recorded delviery
raymond
Posted July 8th, 2008 at 9:03 am.
my email is raymondlydiard@hotmail.com
raymond
Posted July 8th, 2008 at 9:17 am.