Dreamcast!

This week I decided to buy a new console. And by "new" I mean "I haven't owned one before". This is also the first and likely only console I own made by Sega. If you haven't guessed which console it is by now . . . well you're an idiot because it's in the title and there's a big picture of it right up there ^^^

Just why in the heck did you buy a Dreamcast? you might wonder. My answer: because it has some AWESOME games. Also, because it's just one of the best consoles ever, and here's why:

-it was the first console with online play, and yes people actually played it, and it was actually FREE. And it had cross-platform online play between the Dreamcast and the PC for some games before anyone else was even contemplating it

-it was the first console with mouse+keyboard support, with awesome FPSes supporting it like Half-Life and Quake 3

-It has hardware that's almost identical to NAOMI arcade boards, which means it got some kickass flawless arcade ports like Ikaruga and Under Defeat

-It was a console designed for hardcore gaming - it had simulations, fighters, shmups, platformers, adventure games, puzzle games and also many unique genre-defying games. The small number of FPSes released supported mouse+keyboard controls

-Despite its commercial death at the hands of the PS2, there is a dedicated homebrew and hacking community to this day, and there are still commercial games being made for the system! Karous came out just two years ago for the Dreamcast, and due this year is another shmup called Dux. Incidentally Dux looks like a crappy R-Type clone to me, but I have to give them credit for supporting the Dreamcast, and some people do like R-Type and would probably enjoy Dux

A Dreamcast goes for around $50 these days, and the games go for around $5-$10 at most. However, because of very poor anti-piracy measures implemented in the system, no one has to pay ANYTHING for Dreamcast games aside from the cost of blank CD-Rs. No boot disc or modding is required to play downloaded or backup games on the Dreamcast, and because all of those games are now out of print it's perfectly fine! If you have $50 to blow and you don't really want any of the current generation consoles, consider going back and discovering some gems of the last generation!