The Sega Dreamcast, 10 years on
Ten Years on and it's still thinking...
It may be hard to believe but yes our last beloved Sega console is ten years old today. The very console our website was founded on has now reached an age where it can almost be considered retro. It is certainly quite the milestone for any device and looking back the DC still holds a special place in many people's hearts. The console pushed many new and amazing features that are considered console gaming staples in today's age of super-powered, large, badly manufactured monoliths. It was the first home console to successfully push gamers into the wonderfully geeky (and at times punishing/frustrating) arena of online play. God bless that little 56k modem that could! The DC also managed to have hundreds of great titles published for it in it's relatively short life-time, and I must say that the console still has one of the best good game to bad game ratios of any system I have ever played. The DC library is also one of the most balanced and appealing libraries of any console to date. It had everything from pick up and play arcade ports and deep RPG's to masterful fighting games and action packed shooters. This wide appeal is a stark contrast to today's consoles which seem to cater to a specific demographics and perform horribly outside it (the users of PS3's are much different people then those playing the Wii).
The real draw however for us Homebrew lovers extended beyond the console's official software and accessories. The console has a gigantic library of homebrew games, emulators and apps and spurned the expansion of a small niche that homebrew was on consoles to the giant community it is today. You can find hundreds of programs here on DCemu and if you have forgotten about your beautiful white box hiding under your bed or in your closet I highly recommend playing around with some homebrew you may have missed in the past or may have come out since you put her away. Take a look!
I confidently believe if it wasn't for the popularity and the mainstream attention that DC homebrew got we wouldn't have nowhere near the content and sense of community we have now in the console homebrew scene. Though the popularity of homebrew rises and falls, and the coverage of DCemu has spread, changed, and evolved over the years let's all take a moment and revisit our old friend that started it all for us here at DCemu.
