!!! Hot Deal !!! Sega Dreamcast Console only $59 !!!

[trauschu]

Gamestop.com (formerly Babbages and/or Funcoland) has the refurbished Dreamcast on sale this week at their B&M locations for $59. If you buy it online it's $69. It was in the Sunday paper here in San Antonio, TX and I apoligize for not posting it before. I'll see if I can scan the add later and link it.

In case you are hesitant because of the recent info that Sega is cancelling Dreamcast support; don't. It's a great piece of hardware. Notice I said "hardware", not "game console". Where else can you get a 200Mhz PC w/ PowerVR graphics accelerator for $59?

There are many emulation projects in progress for Dreamcast (NES, SNES, Doom, Quake, etc..) The most recent release was a fully functional XWindows linux port that could run XMAME. You can find all this info at http://www.dcemulation.com

Did I mention that it is a great gaming console too.

 

[Replevin]

I heard only the "old" Dreamcasts could do emulation because Sega modified the "new" Dreamcasts to only read their proprietary disk and NOT CD-Rs.

Is there any truth to this? I would totally buy a Dreamcast if it read CD-R/RWs.

 

[TK-421]

False.. I bought my Dreamcast back in February when they lowered the price, works fine with CD-R's

 

[Linh]

i bought mine not over a month ago. already have over 100 games, all free of course

 

[dimwit]

I think Sega discontinued the DC before they got around to changing the mechanism to not read CDRs.

Of course those 100 free games are not really free, besides the cost of broadband, there is media costs of course, besides the GUILT you have to live with. Not that it keeps my son from bragging about his 130 "free" games.

 

[Tung]

already have over 100 games, all free of course

It's people like you that put SEGA out of the console market.

 

[stovetop]

and of course, the real price of those 'free' games, sega discontinuing the dreacast because no one was actually BUYING them.. Sega made profits off software sells, not hardware (As all companies do).. so great job guys! Thanks for killing off the DC!

(sorry for the rant, it just irks me when people brag about their 'mad skillz' of stealing software. shouldn't ops do something about that? what if we started talking about copying pc games in the forum?)

BTW, good deal trauschu =)

 

[alladin]

Hey,
People say the burning DC games caused the dreamcast to go out of business. But i knew people been burning playstation games for over 5 years and that crappy console is still selling. I mean look at the Playstation 2. Everyone i know has been burning the games on that console because they games suck to much to actually pay for it. Even when the games finally come on the DVD disk as oppose to the CD's that the playstation uses right now, people will just rip them off of the DVD, take away the useless movie files that people usually skip through anyways and burn them to cd. I don't think burning dc games caused the dreamcast system to fail, their marketing did.

 

[gsaldivar]

Tung, stovetop: screw you both. I'd bet that any of the nasty old game pirates spend more money in a month on the video game industry than you guys would spend in a year. It's "people like us" spending hundreds of dollars to rent games at blockbuster to build up a decent game library, that keep the industry in business. I've gotten thousands of dollars worth of sales for Sony, Sega, Nintendo... just through my family and friends alone - word of mouth: for them, it's easier to buy retail than copy the game.

By the way, Playstation has much more piracy than the Dreamcast ever did, but you don't see those game developers starving, do you?? hmmmm?

So if you want to buy your games retail, fine. But don't play superior, or try to put the failure of Sega as a hardware company on people who copy games.

 

[stovetop]

What a god damn idiot.

The PSX piracy scene is bigger (by far), but the % of poeple who pirated on DC is much much larger (and probably greater than the amount of actually legitmate buyer) of the PSX.. Furthermore, don't try and preach to me about how the 'scene' works trying act all superior and s#$% becuase I myself was part of it and actually distrbuted game iso's. But then I realized that what I was doing was really hurting the Sega (and other companies) more than i thought.. Why? It's not because I wasn't buying them and I wasn't supporting them, it was because of comments like "Man, thank's Stovey! Now I don't have to buy this!" And s#$% like that. It wasn't ME (or you) that wasn't supporting them, but the people who took from us. Dont' talk to me like I'm some naive twit, gsaldivar, you're obviously the one living in a false reality where everything is candy coated and s#$%.

Furthermore. You're entire post was bs and after this post I will stop reply to this thread because it's juat a waste of my time. If you want to continue this conversation, I would be glad to, but not in this forumm, PM me or something. I can't change you, and I'm not going to try anymore than I already have. You can remain in you're little wonderful world of f#$%ed up economics gsaldivar, but I'll stay in my other legal one. kthnx

 

[Need]

Not making any comments on pirating software, but Sega DC went down because they couldn't beat the hype of PS2, and there is no way they are going to hold up against Microsoft's $300 millions advertising budget or Nintendo's $5 billions backbone. They decided they are much better off writing games for the other guys.

 

[stonerdave]

sorry, the reason sega was forced out of the console biz was their poor marketing (or complete lack of). how was it that the sega nomad, basically a portable genesis with a vast library of games, could possibly fail in the midst of the 2-color gameboy? well, most people didn't even hear about it until it was on the clearance rack, and sega seemed to enjoy the same position with the DC. there was a ton of hoopla on the DC when it was released, then Sega had this bright idea to give up on it within a year.

i mean come on! with the genesis, sega had an extremely aggresive marketing campaign planned out, and managed to fare quite well against the vastly superior Super Nintendo for a few years. it was the first time nintendo had seen any kind of competition, and that really pissed off Yamauchi.

anyway, the piracy thing is way overdone, imo. i don't buy the stats that they're pushing on eveyone, either. do you really think that the typical gamer that's going to buy the game anyway is going to spend a few days downloading the game and then burn it on a cd? i think not. besides, most of the people i've seen with dozens of pirated games only play 2-3 of those, so how much damage is that? (i'm assuming they don't sell the copies, which makes sense b/c they all have pretty good jobs) it's not like they would've bought (or even rented) all of those games anyway.

from my observations, the funniest thing to me is that the people who have the most copied games seem to be the same people that should have the strongest feelings against software piracy! how freaking ironic is that? of the few people i know that play copied video games, several of them have promising futures in the software industry as programmers, yet feel compelled to not pay for anything they play. i wonder if the SPA is aware that the people committing the most 'crimes' come from within their own ranks!

 

[NeoGodzilla]

<< I heard only the &quot;old&quot; Dreamcasts could do emulation because Sega modified the &quot;new&quot; Dreamcasts to only read their proprietary disk and NOT CD-Rs.

Is there any truth to this? I would totally buy a Dreamcast if it read CD-R/RWs. >>



This is true. Sega changed the later batches of the DC so it wouldn't play anything other than the Sega produced disks. This is why BleemCast! will not work on the newer consoles. The exact date that Sega started to produce these systems escapes me at the moment, but I believe it was around Dec. 2000. If it is one of the older models this is an awsome deal!

-NeoGodzilla

 

[stonerdave]

stovetop, i agree with you about your feelings about piracy. i wasn't part of the distribution scene but i have a pretty good idea how it works. and i have an idea as to its size, as well...

i just think that the main reason sega gave up was due to their mismanagement in the states (not that japan was better...), not b/c people began pirating.

nowadays i only pay for games, as they aren't really that expensive to me, and i only buy a few every year.

 

[BiGNuTz]

i only have 40 dc games, need more AIM- airbugs02

 

[trauschu]

So now that everyone has ranted and raved about the (il)legality about copying Dreamcast games, we are back to the issue I created this topic for.

If you don't have a Dreamcast, they are a steal at $59 at the B&amp;M locations, and are a great buy at $69 online.

And yes, since these unit are re-furbished (read: physically produced a while back), they will all play the &quot;backup&quot; Dreamcast disks you can get from the Internet. But, I have YET to see any Dreamcast, new or refurb, that would not play the &quot;backup&quot; disks.

Don't pass this one up.

<OPINION>
My $.02. Copying games didn't kill the Dreamcast. What killed Sega was their inability to compete with the $$$ Sony and MS$ were pumping into the market. Sega did the right thing. Stop selling a console that wasn't getting the media spotlight, and just work on creating NEW kick-ass games for the consoles (DC, XBOX, etc). I think everyone will agree that Sega has always been #1 in producing great arcade games, and then bring these home to us. As far as &quot;backups&quot; are concerned, download them if you want, and buy them if you like it. Kinda like a downloadable PC demo; and then buying the full version in the store.
</OPINION>

 

[gsaldivar]

oh yeah... Great Deal trauschu !

 

[SinNisTeR]

lets focus on the hot deal. thanks trauschu!

 

[Boogak]

Bleemcast won't work on DC's manufactured after October 2000.

 

[durracell]

I bought a new Dreamcast at Target just about a month ago (I like to stay behind the curve to save $$) and it does play cd-rs (I just had to see if it really worked). I'm not comfortable with using copies, though. But now that I have a Dreamcast, I'm faced with the reality of there hardly being any games in the stores... I mean I can walk into BB and there is only a selection of about 15 games. Target has about a dozen. Wal-mart only has about five. I have looked on ebay to expand my library and so many people are selling burned disks! That only leaves me with videgame stores to purchase from and many of their games are used.

I think that a $59 dreamcast is a bargain and can tide many over until the dust settles next year. But the lack of support for the Dreamcast in the stores should be taken into consideration. It's hard to find many games in new condition and many of the accessories (like the official maracas for Samba de Amigo) have been discontinued and are impossible to find for a reasonable price.

 

[lucidguy]

I want to clear up two important misunderstandings.

1) The only DC's that don't play CD-R's are special limited edition pink Sakura Wars DC units that were only released in Japan. Any white market DC unit you can buy in the US will play CD-R.

2) The reason Sega got out of the console business is because they did not have a single successful console after the Genesis. 32X sucked. Sega CD sucked. Nomad ate batteries like crazy and was undermarketed. Saturn was difficult as hell to program, was too expensive, and had lame game support. The Dreamcast had an elegant hardware design, but its timing was unfortunate. It was released too late to be considered a 4th generation console and too early to be considered a 5th generation console. (PSX, Saturn, N64 are all 4th generation. PS2, Xbox and Gamecube are all 5th generation. DC is somewhere in the middle, both historically and technically.) This unfortunate timing allowed the PS2 hype machine to scare tons of prospective DC buyers away from the console. PS2 arrived, it sucked, but suckers bought it anyway. Therefore, RIP DC.

 

[tantos]

I called my local Funcoland in Orange County, California and they said it was selling at $79.99

 

[Phatty106]

Hot deal! I might just have to pick one up...

Looks like I missed the debate, but I just have a few points to throw in:

stonerdave is right. Sega put *themselves* out of business. Their marketing tactics were pathetic. What would you call it, passive advertising? I saw way more teaser ads for the DC before it came out than I saw actual ads for it. Did they expect the games to speak for themselves? Hard to do when Sony is spending millions on an all-out media blitz. &quot;Top story tonight on Channel 6 news, there might be a shortage of PS2s at launch. In other news, we bombed Iraq again...&quot;

Second, the vast majority of pirates would never buy the software. If it wasn't free, they wouldn't have it. Period. So $loss figures from piracy are greatly exaggerated.

All in all, Sega should stick to what they're good at- making games. They obviously don't know how to survive in the hardware market. Which is why its a good thing that they're gonna continue to make games for other consoles- its what they should have been doing the whole time.

But $59 for this thing is a no-brainer...

phatty

 

[Sigity]

Good debate...this was actually a helpful conversation that went on.

as for my two cents...thanks for the post.

anyone know where if we could pm anywhere and get a coupon going?

sig.

 

[ScAndal]

Dreamcast is worth it for NFL2k1, NBA2k1 alone!

ScAndal