Piracy Killed The Dreamcast, Piracy Saved The Dreamcast

[GreenL420]

Marketing, timing and the PS2 all played a big part, but one of the other reasons cited in the untimely demise of the Dreamcast was the ease with which games could be pirated. That may be, but as Michael Gapper reminds us, it was also one of the best things about the system.

And I don't mean in a "oh because the games were free" way, either.

As his excellent piece argues, easy access to foreign titles, unfinished projects, software improvements and games people might not otherwise have paid for gave Dreamcast users an experience - and the console an army of vocal supporters - other consoles could only dream of.

It's an entirely academic point, of course. For all the side benefits of Dreamcast piracy, you'd have to be incredibly naive to have forgotten that people were also pirating the kind of games they would have paid for, affecting Sega's bottom line (and those of publishers) and helping contribute to the console's passing.

But hey, it's been over ten years since the death of the Dreamcast. Academic points are all it's got left to argue about.

[coughdrops]

Bullshit, the Dreamcast wasn't around long enough for piracy to fuck with it, and the internet was mostly super slow, making piracy a much bigger obstacle back then. And the reason it was/is so loved even after it was abandoned, was because its ease of modding, not piracy. Dude is wrong.

[KW]

I played this for a short time, it was cool bananas. Crazy Taxi

Bullshit, the Dreamcast wasn't around long enough for piracy to fuck with it, and the internet was mostly super slow, making piracy a much bigger obstacle back then.

What dimension do you come from? Internet didn't need to have a role for pirating 2nd gen games back then.

If you had a chipped console (I don't know about The Dreamcast but I'm %90 definite it would've been the same), all you had to do was go to the swap meet every Sunday, buy a collection of games or one CD for $10. Or even just rent the damm game you wanted & burn it methodically.

[Exodus]

great console, good old days
was dope to play all old arcade games on console

[adoutlaw]

still love my dreamcast and Shenmue

[Mr Blax]

was a great console

[Dante Benzino]

i prefer sega genesis

[GreenL420]

Bullshit, the Dreamcast wasn't around long enough for piracy to fuck with it, and the internet was mostly super slow, making piracy a much bigger obstacle back then. And the reason it was/is so loved even after it was abandoned, was because its ease of modding, not piracy. Dude is wrong.

not necessarily he is somewhat right the playstation 1 was able to be modded via modchip and have games burnt and that came out in 1995 dreamcast came out in 1999.

[coughdrops]

I played this for a short time, it was cool bananas. Crazy Taxi




What dimension do you come from? Internet didn't need to have a role for pirating 2nd gen games back then.

If you had a chipped console (I don't know about The Dreamcast but I'm %90 definite it would've been the same), all you had to do was go to the swap meet every Sunday, buy a collection of games or one CD for $10. Or even just rent the damm game you wanted & burn it methodically.

Most people didn't have access to that kind of swap meet, generally people outside of large cities did not have that so much of that--at least not in Michigan. Saginaw had one raunchy one where I used to buy bootleg tapes and shit, but nowhere else around here had flea market/swap meet shit like that. IMO the primary venue for bootleg games for dreamcast was the internet, and broadband speeds and availability just wasn't enough to make that big of a dent with piracy, and for damn sure packaged swap meet bootlegs weren't enough. PS2 fucked 'em proper, and shit fell apart -- can't blame piracy. :P Sega always was better on the software front anyways, so it wasn't too terrible a thing. Dunno, whatever.

[coughdrops]

i prefer sega genesis

I always used to lust after a Neo Geo with a SFII arcade stick. mmm... 1992.

[122]

all i remember was i use to do something with a match stick on the ps1 and it let me play pirated games..... good ol days...

i got 2 dreamcast consoles still play crazy taxi, house of dead and shenmue now and then.

[chatzon]

sure i can remember, cracked dreamcast games. but lol the dreamcast killed dreamcast. some good games, but no competition to the other consoles.

u cant deny that the ps1 was by far the most piracy friendly console ever. as much titles i have bought, but goddamn ive downloaded so much and burned so much ps1 games like everyone i know who owned a ps1. but ps1 killed the videostar therefore piracy is a good thing for good things and a bad thing for bad things..ohh im so pretty today

[Makaveliandcheese]

Lol I just found out I can burn games for the Dreamcast and after 2 days I have like 70 sum games

[BlacPain]

the best console in my eyes. we played a lot and you didnt need to chip it like the ps1 or something like that.
bootleg games were available to order already pressed and you didnt need to download them.

we bought the original SEGA bass fishing and the SEGA marine fishing with the third party rod from Mad Catz instead of the original one, because you got the extended feeling

also used to play fight games with those very cool arcade sticks

[The Diabolical Truth]

if i remember correctly dreamcast didnt even need to be modded it played copies. and btw im from nyc and did not know where to get bootleg then and still dont now (besides the internet)