Top 5 Dreamcast Online Games...That Never Actually Existed

The Dreamcast’s online capabilities out of the box were no doubt somewhat revolutionary for a console back in 1999. Sega couldn’t have played up the fact that a modem was included much more than they did; with a heavy push on web browsing and emailing when the Dreamcast first launched.

The promise was that online gaming would follow shortly and whilst we did get some outstanding online experiences eventually, I think looking back now, it is fair to say that Sega didn’t really live up to their pre-release “up to 6 billion players” hype. There were some great games designed around their online features, but there were just not enough.

The sad part is that the Dreamcast was ahead of its time when it came to online gaming on console, and I can’t help but think that with a few more quality online-focused releases earlier in the Dreamcast’s lifespan, it could have turned an also ran feature into THE reason to buy Sega’s wonderful grey box.

Walk with me as I uncover the five Dreamcast online sensations that never actually existed, but I think wish really should have...

Toy Racer Retrospective: Dreamcast Online Gaming

If you ask most Dreamcast fans what their favourite games are on the system, it’s not unusual to hear things like Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Phantasy Star Online, Crazy Taxi, and so forth. One answer you don’t hear very often is Toy Racer; a budget Toy Commander spin-off focusing primarily on online multiplayer racing.

For me, Toy Racer is one of my favourite and easily most played Dreamcast titles - not because it’s necessarily a fantastic game - but because it genuinely changed the way I enjoyed video games forever by fully opening my eyes to the world of online gaming.

Released in 2000, Toy Racer was developed by No Cliché and published by Sega themselves. It only ever saw the light of day on store shelves in Europe, as a planned US release never ultimately materialised. Toy Racer enjoyed chart topping success in the UK thanks mostly to its insanely budget price of just £5 (approx $6-7 today, but more like $3-4 back then) - the same price as a Dreamcast demo disc - and this was certainly a huge reason why I took a gamble back in the day.

Being a student at the time, new gaming purchases were a rare occurrence. But how could I resist at such a low price for a new racing game promising endless multiplayer fun!  Up until this point, I’d been intrigued by online gaming but had never really invested any significant time into it. I didn’t own a gaming PC and my free copy of Chu Chu Rocket (thanks to being an early sign-up to the Dreamarena) didn’t really have any lasting appeal for me beyond the initial novelty of playing against other real people via the power of the internet...

You Can Now Access The Original Jet Grind Radio Website From Your Dreamcast

While the promise of online gaming was a big part of Sega's marketing campaign when trying to flog the Dreamcast to the masses, many games simply didn't have any online gameplay portion. That didn't stop certain games proudly displaying the fact that they offered 'online functions' on the packaging, though. Usually, what this meant was that high scores could be uploaded to a leader board; or that certain things could be downloaded from a dedicated portal to a VMU that added extra features. For example, ghost car times in racing games, or mini games that could be played on a VMU screen. Some games offered more than others in this area, and one of the best when it came to added online extras was the awesome Jet Grind Radio.

As detailed in this story over at Dreamcast Live, the Jet Grind Radio website has been resurrected in (almost) its entirety, meaning that you can once again hook your Dreamcast up to the internet and browse the various pages that could be accessed from the game's main menu. Hidden away in this treasure trove from yesteryear are a graffiti gallery and ranking page, along with a hints and tips section that actually corrects some of the information printed in the physical manual. This isn't the first time a game's bespoke website has been revived, as the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 sites were both brought back online recently too.

Cross Platform Online Multiplayer Added To Doom For Dreamcast

Not content with dragging large swathes of the Dreamcast's official library back online with Ooga Booga, POD 2, NFL 2K and Monaco Online (to name but a few), all-round programming genius Shuouma has turned his attention to an unofficial Dreamcast release and managed to bring it online for the first time. That game is DCDoom, an unofficial port of id's seminal first person shooter, and now Dreamcast owners can play cross platform with PC owners. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

Naturally, the pool of gamers still playing multiplayer Doom is quite small these days, and even smaller if you factor in the number of people who own a Dreamcast, a DreamPi and a copy of DCDoom...but still, the fact that this is an option is pretty interesting. Shuouma has confirmed that cross platform gaming works, stating:

"I looked at this and I have now added modem support for DCDoom. I have also tested to play
from my DC after dialup against my Linux machine running SDL Doom. Works fine. So the network-code is working. People just need to be careful when setting up the network variables."

- Shuouma

It's worth noting that you will need a specially modded version of DCDoom which Shuouma says will be released soon as a downloadable CDI file. We'll update this article when it's available and we've tested it out ourselves, but in the meantime you can find out more about this fascinating project by visiting the DC-Talk forum thread on the topic here. Thank's to Luiz Nai for the heads up on this.

Source: Dreamcast Talk

World Series Baseball back online with DreamPi

World Series Baseball 2K2 is back!

Being from the UK, I can't say I've played many Baseball games in my time, the only ones that come to mind are Super Baseball 2020 for the Neo Geo CD and World Series Baseball 2K1, which for reasons unbeknownst to me, I and a friend used to love playing back in our days in 6th form college (high school for you yanks). We even made one custom character each. I remember this quite vividly because my friend's character was named Saddam. Yes, as in Saddam Hussein, and also shared his likeness.

The random images you can find on Google never cease to amaze me.

While Sadam's days of hitting home runs out of the park, along with his save file, are unfortunately long gone, online baseball on the Dreamcast isn't. Thanks to Shuouma, from the Dreamcast Live team, World Series Baseball 2K2 is playable online once again with DreamPi.

Anyone who knows anything about baseball games (so not me) will tell you, WSB 2K2 is the best example of the sport on the Dreamcast, so it's fantastic that its online features have been restored. What's more, now they've successfully got one 2K sports title up and running, no doubt it's only a matter of time before others follow. I'm personally looking forward to NFL 2K1 which according to the Dreamcast Live's website, is currently a work in progress.

As always, great work guys!

Dreamcast Live's Shuouma has once again stepped up to the plate

If you haven't yet rejoined the online party, consider picking up a DreamPi from the Dreamcast Live store.