I fought and died in the console wars for the Dreamcast
Posted: 10 Jan 2026, 01:36
I miss forums terribly, so I'm happy to join a new one. I was a mid-90s baby who grew up with a hand-me-down SEGA Genesis from an uncle and later an eBay Dreamcast collection my dad got us in 2002 when the price had tanked for some reason. I had the original Ecco and it left a huge mark on me even though as a little kid I don't think I ever got past The Undercaves. The opening few music tracks of Ecco 1 live forever in my head. I have an immense love for the game but I am staggeringly terrible at actually playing it.
My favorite was always Defender of the Future on Dreamcast, which before I was old enough to (a) not suck at videos games and (b) let the internet tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do, I saw at least parts of every level using the GameShark to unlock everything. Over the years I saw more and more the game, but I could never beat it. In the late 2010s I made a very serious attempt to complete the game, but much like Icarus I eventually got really cocky and decided to stop using a walkthrough. I was punished for my hubris by getting stuck on The Hatchery. Last January I completed my first actual start-to-finish legitimate playthrough of the game, some 22 1/2 years after we got it.
I got Tides of Time at a retro game store in the late 2000s but I never got very far into it. I recently bought a copy of Ecco Jr just to complete the physical collection, which is the one I most wish I had owned as a little kid because I could've actually played it without getting stuck 10 minutes in.
I'm also a huge fan of Skies of Arcadia, if there's any other Dreamcast kids here who had that a childhood-defining piece of media as well. I am preternaturally good at the Genesis and Dreamcast Sonic games, and yes, I did own Sonic Shuffle. The less said of my attempts to finally beat the original Bubsy on Genesis, the better. But I did do it. At what cost?
My favorite was always Defender of the Future on Dreamcast, which before I was old enough to (a) not suck at videos games and (b) let the internet tell me what the hell I'm supposed to do, I saw at least parts of every level using the GameShark to unlock everything. Over the years I saw more and more the game, but I could never beat it. In the late 2010s I made a very serious attempt to complete the game, but much like Icarus I eventually got really cocky and decided to stop using a walkthrough. I was punished for my hubris by getting stuck on The Hatchery. Last January I completed my first actual start-to-finish legitimate playthrough of the game, some 22 1/2 years after we got it.
I got Tides of Time at a retro game store in the late 2000s but I never got very far into it. I recently bought a copy of Ecco Jr just to complete the physical collection, which is the one I most wish I had owned as a little kid because I could've actually played it without getting stuck 10 minutes in.
I'm also a huge fan of Skies of Arcadia, if there's any other Dreamcast kids here who had that a childhood-defining piece of media as well. I am preternaturally good at the Genesis and Dreamcast Sonic games, and yes, I did own Sonic Shuffle. The less said of my attempts to finally beat the original Bubsy on Genesis, the better. But I did do it. At what cost?
