Halcyon Days

For reasons known only to the shadowy organisation that controls my life, my homepage when I load up Firefox is set to BBC News. This is good, because before I instantly click on either the Hotmail, Free Porn or Russian Brides tabs on the toolbox window, I manage to get a glimpse of the day's unbiased, up to date and un-CNNised events. Today though, I decided to have a proper look at the BBC News site because I noticed, tucked away in the top right hand corner of the main page, an article about the PS2 and Sony's arrogant refusal to lower the price in the UK even though they have pretty much everywhere else. At the bottom, there were links about related articles so after a few minutes of sifting through them, I had a brainstorm: I typed 'Dreamcast' into the search window and found this article from early 1999 reporting the upcoming launch of the system, and also a rather interesting Real Player interview with a James Snodgrass, editor of some now defunct (probably) magazine on the potential of Sega's (then) unreleased baby.

I also unearthed this one reporting on the phenomenal launch success of the system as gamers went mental for Dreamcast and queued for hours to get hold of a console (see pic). It brings back memories of Game and Electronics Boutique actually stocking Dreamcast stuff, and playing on Blue Stinger in the entrace on one of those pods with a gaggle of school kids watching...ah, halcyon days.

Battle on through the tears though, brave reader - we shall have our day...but in the meantime, have a read of my review of 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker. Actually, don't. It'll only make things worse...

15 comments:

Animated AF said...

Aw come on, 18 Wheeler aint that bad. It's bloody good fun while it lasts, even if while it lasts isn't that long at all ;p

Son_et_lumiere said...

18 Wheeler sucks. Also the first link is broken.

Tom Charnock said...

Checked em all out ant they all seem fine...

Son_et_lumiere said...

Oh it's working now. Wasn't before. Also blogger is stupid not to let you edit comments...

The Chad said...

It's good to know someone else enjoys the good ol' BBC. We broadcast their first hour of news (4:00 GMT) at 10 pm here at the radio station I work for. They actually express emotion in their reporting; something our NPR anchors rarely exhibit.

But moreover, it's very nice to see pictures of everyone else loving what we still know to be a phenomenal system.

gnome said...

Now... I know it's irrelevant, but I have to tell you... I bought the bleeding Dreamcast at last... And tom, I'll be sending you the invoice you know. It's your bloody fault!

Ross said...

Did you get it for a reasonable price Gnome?

Ross said...

Also, I would definitely reccomend Marvel vs Capcom 2, even though I prefer is on Playstation 2 because of the controller.

Power Stone, Grandia II, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, and Street Fighter III: Third Strike are good choices as well...

Animated AF said...

Each to their own but I quite enjoy 18 Wheeler. Must be the novety of it, as well as the smashing up cars and houses part. Oh, and the trademak-Sega cheesecake dialouge gets me everytime XD

gnome said...

Well, reasonable but surely not cheap... 90 euros with a VMU, two games and a second controller. At least its got a guarantee. And thanks for the recomendations ross...

Tom Charnock said...

What games did you get Gnome?

gnome said...

SoulCalibur and UEFA Striker, but soon I'll berserk and spend 10 more euros to get Sonic Adventure and something more...

Tom Charnock said...

Uefa Striker is pretty decent...but the crowd is too quiet and the goalies don't have gloves...what the hell is going on there? Is it based on the 1960s or something? Also, the players run as if they're ice skating. Overall though, it's a decent title. And Soul Calibur needs no justifcation. It's simply mindblowing.

gnome said...

Yep, Soul Calibur is great... UEFA Striker is decent at best... It really doesn't feel like football. I mean, it's so easy to have a one on one with the ungloved goalie it's rediculous... I'd have preffered something like Sensi or PES.

Animated AF said...

The DC has no good football titles. Full stop. Not much of a loss to me as I coudn't care less, but football titles are vital to a consoles success in the UK. With that considered, the DC did pretty darn well without any good ones, as the saturn had much better footie titles but flopped. Football games over flood the Mega Drive and PSone though.