Diary of a Dreamcast: Life of a Retro Game Console

It’s hard being a game console. 

I remember coming off the assembly lines, headed toward the stores, so much hype and I was so excited. Back then your CPU is full of so many ideas, dreams and possibilities. I know some consoles wanted to be demo kiosks, floor models, game tester hardware, etc. I wanted to be in the home. Get an owner and live the soft life as an adored home video game console. To be played for years and years by the same owner who would love me like no other. To be my owner’s obsession and greatest love… played daily till death do us part.

I knew I could get it too. I was a Sega Dreamcast, the ultimate gaming system. I came from a good family, with a great pedigree of consoles before me, so there were plenty of high expectations.

Ever since I was a circuit board, Mama Saturn beat it into my CPU:

“You have to know how to be a proper game console in public but know how to be lots of fun to satisfy your owner in private.”

Every day on the assembly line, I dreamed about which owner I would get…

What games would they play? 

Maybe they’d be rich and buy a whole bunch of games? 

Or maybe they’d be a sophisticated gamer and import a whole bunch of rare and different software from all over the world?

Maybe they’d work at a gaming magazine? I would be a celebrity game console playing the hottest titles before release! 

So many possibilities.

Finally launch day came, September 9, 1999. I remember it like it was yesterday. 

The store I was in was crazy, filled with people, absolute chaos. I was near the top of the shipment, so I was one of the first systems to be bought. My owner brought me over to the counter, and I was so excited. I remember the games he bought too: Sonic Adventure, NFL 2K, and Power Stone. Very refined, varied taste. I looked on proudly as I was brought out of the store, saying bye to the consoles I was on the truck with. I was on my way to do better things with my life.

Back then my owner was in college, and in between beer pong tournaments, classes, and part time jobs on campus, he’d play me non-stop in the dorms. We played so many games together, from action games and platformers to sports stars, fighting games and RPGs. 

I considered myself lucky, I had an owner that played a lot of different games and took very good care of my accessories. There wasn’t a night back then that I wasn’t on and playing something. It wasn’t the fanciest digs, but back then all I needed was a happy owner and 19” inch CRT TV. He was going to be a lawyer after all!

Our best times were in the summer of 2000. My owner and I rang in the new millennium with him graduating law school and getting a new job in the city which got him a large paycheck and a fancy 1,300 sq. ft. 1-bed, 1-bath apartment with a den. We played so many games together that summer… Jet Grind Radio, Soul Calibur, Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Crazy Taxi. 

It was also the first time my owner had gotten internet, so he took the phone cable and plugged me in to the World Wide Web for the first time. It was a feeling unlike any other being online for the first time. I was talking to a bunch of different devices all over the world. It was magical. My owner and I spent a lot of time together that summer.

Then it happened.

I should’ve seen the signs. Work picked up in the fall, I wasn’t getting played as much. He wasn’t buying as many games anymore. The internet stuff was like a fad that passed, simply deciding to use his work computer for that. 

Sometimes things get busy right? I thought to myself. Little did I know back than that jackass had eyes for another. 

I remember he was sitting on the couch one day just watching TV, scrolling through channels. I was just sitting there on the coffee table, unattended, bored, not being played. I was confused, previously if he was here, he couldn’t keep his hands off me.

Then a commercial came on TV and for that PlayStation 2. He didn’t think I saw him looking at her, ogling her graphics and DVD drive. I remember when he used to look at me like that! Those “come hither eyes” that meant we were in for a long hot passionate night of gaming. Now he’s drooling over her DVD drive like a blubbering idiot pig!

I was heartbroken. I couldn’t believe he would be looking at another console to play with. I may not have a big DVD drive, but he was my owner, he belonged to me!

Of course I did the thing every game console does, I blamed myself. 

Did I let myself get stale? Not enough different and interesting experiences? I thought to myself.

I tried to make myself more appealing. I would play anything his heart desired. 

“Oh I see you checking out my new games!” 

“Wow 4 controllers! Someone’s excited!”

“Is that an arcade stick in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?”

I thought we had finally passed this whole PS2 thing when he bought Phantasy Star Online the following January. He was hooked on that game. We would play together for hours, sometimes days straight, non-stop. It felt like before, when I was the only apple of his eye. I even let him convince me to get an expensive upgrade to my modem with a BBA because he wanted a faster connection! All to keep him happy.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed being played again with the same ravishing ferocity as before, but at the same time I started to resent him. I used to be enough for him without all these expensive upgrades. I just felt so much less than.

However, at least in my CPU, I still believed the myth I was sold back in the factory when I was just a circuit board on the assembly line.

“Do anything for your owner! They’ll take care of you!”

“It’s a game console’s duty to keep their owner happy, even if you’re tired and not up to it.”

I mean, he wasn’t looking at that whore anymore, so to hell with it I was down.

Or so I thought.

I remember the day it all changed. It was Christmas Eve 2001. He hadn’t played me for a week because he was busy but tonight was going to be the night. I made sure I looked my best, I had 4 controllers plugged into me with a Jump Pack for each, new special edition VMUs with fresh batteries, all connected to a 32” plasma screen TV… Very mindful, very demure. I was so ready.

I could tell something was off though, the way he looked at me with those glazed over eyes as he entered the apartment, setting his keys on the nightstand. He had a box under his arm.

Oh, some new games maybe? I thought to myself.

As he approached the TV, I got ready for another night of rough, non-stop gaming. It had been too long.

Then, he reached behind the TV and unplugged my composite cables. 

What is he doing? I thought to myself.

I sat there in shock as he opened the box and took out a new PS2 he got for Christmas. 

I was floored, he had brought that whore into my damn house! 

Sat that trifling bitch right next to me on the coffee table! 

Plugged her into my TV!

At first, I still believed the lies. I should’ve known better by this point.

“It’ll be adventurous playing all together at the same time.”

“Big storage discs are just my thing! You aren’t going to judge me for my optical media preference, are you?”

“You know you’re still my favorite; I don’t love her like I love you.”

It was all gaslighting, smoke and mirrors. By the next Christmas, I was in the closet in my box with all my stuff. I wanted to scream. That asshole even lost some of the games he used to play with me as the years past. I only got the occasional late night play call after that. 

“Hey babe, let’s play Virtua Tennis.”

“I’m lonely thinking of you, lets raise some Chao together in Sonic Adventure 2.”

“Metropolis Street Racer and chill?”

They were fun, but he didn’t have that same spark as before. Like he just wanted a quick fling. Sucked even more that now he couldn’t even do that right.

Eventually, even the “occasional” came to a screeching halt.

As the years passed being ignored, I remembered what some of those PlayStation and Nintendo 64 trade-ins told me in the back of the store all the way so many years prior. They tried to warn me.

“Being with an owner, they’ll love you at first, they’ll be obsessed. Then as soon as some new console shows up, your old news. They’ll trade you in or toss you in trash.”

I didn’t believe them at the time. Why should I have? I was the hot young thing on the market for the first time! 

“I know how to get an owner and get them to love me forever,” so I thought.

We finally split and he traded me in a while back. Nowadays, I’m back in the store.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I get no love at all. 

Occasionally I’ll catch the eye of a discerning, distinguished collector, or a younger gamer who’s into being dominated by “harder games on older retro consoles”. 

I was even bought for a while by a gaming YouTuber that spends all his time screaming slurs on the internet, that was a low point.

Now I even have a store listing on those Facebook Marketplace:

“SEGA DREAMCAST CONSOLE LOT CIB W/CONTROLLERS, VMUs, GAMES/OTHER ACCESSORIES!

Currently working, previous owner took very good care of me.

My included games are Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Power Stone, NFL 2K, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue and Jet Grind Radio. All complete in original jewel cases!

My included accessories:

4 Controllers (gray, red, yellow, and green Millennium 2000 edition), 2 Gray and Blue VMUs, 2 Jump Packs, ULTRA RARE Sega Broadband adapter, arcade stick, original cords and cables included!

I’m looking for a good home, for a new owner to fit in their collection. An oldie but a goodie, still has hours and hours of fun built in! Are you up to the challenge? SEGA!”

Despite my listing and pictures getting a lot of attention (I’ve always photographed well), I just know it won’t be like the good old days.

It’s hard being a game console.