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I bought a brand new one off of Amazon in March. It was the black Sega Sports edition and it was brand spankin new. Sure it had a problem with shutting itself off after turning it on for a day, but after that problem disappeared I haven't had a problem since.
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@the bends: The football game that came with my Sega Sports Dreamcast was the only football game I was ever good at. Good times.
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I still have my dreamcast - and play it occasionally. Me & my friend still love playing the basketball & football games on it.
And of course something I would never do - but simple enough to download & burn games to normal CD's and play them.... for those that are into getting tons of games for little cost. (since it is hard to find games for purchase anymore.)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-434350-100x100.png\")
@coan_net: My husband and I still occasionally hook up our Dreamcast. Samba de Amigo on the Wii just isn't the same.
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Anybody know where I can get a \"new\" Intellivision console?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1037-100x100.png\")
@Quake 'n' Shake: You could wait 6 years till Marty Mcfly shows up to save his son, then ask him to bring you one back from 1985 when after he takes care of that whole sports almanac mess.
Those are the kind of response we need here at the Konsumerist..quick, witty & to the point.
Keep up the Good work HOORAy!
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Nope. Ebay an old one, buy the PS2 disc with 60+ intellivision games on it. Or download the emulator and some roms.
@SynMonger: sure. Try www.atari2600.com. I am not affiliated with them whatsoever, but I picked up a \"new\" NES from them.
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I have two used Dreamcasts (one is a back up in case the first ever dies), as well as several controllers new in box. My favorite part of my DC collection is the official mouse and keyboard, and using them for Typing of the Dead :D
While I wouldn't spend $200, I would probably spend more than I should on a new Dreamcast.
@AlteredBeast: I love \"Typing of the Dead.\" I always thought that typing classes would be a lot more fun if they used that instead of that stupid b-word Mavis Beacon.
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@AlteredBeast: LOL I also have 2 DC decks. I used to take one places fairly often (friends and family LOVED Samba De Amigo) and had read that they did not travel particularly well and I didn't want to be without!
I should go back and finish Shenmue2 after all these years!
@Troy F.: I NEVER played Samba De Amigo, and I still kick myself for not buying it when it first came out.
@AlteredBeast: It is available for Wii now. The Dreamcast's purpose-built Maraca controllers are a little better than Wiimotes even with maraca attachments, but it is still a blast to play.
The Dreamcast flopped hard because it was soon discovered that the system could read burnt CD-R's without any modifications and the games that didn't work just needed a start up disc which is just as easily found as the files to burn the games on the interwebs. Thus the bootlegging began and no one bought any games since they could all be had for nothing. I have one and I only paid about 15$ at a yard sale with games and accessories. Good system otherwise though.
@Outrun1986: As others have said, most people didn't have the means to download ISOs back when the Dreamcast should have gotten it's foot hold in the gaming market.
BUT, I think that the fact that it can play homebrew and backups without being modified is what kept it so popular with gamers through today.
I mean, so many of us are like \"OMG we love DC too!\", does anyone here only have legit copies of games? I'm talking about even those hard to find, import only shooters that make the system great.
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@Outrun1986: I had a Dreamcast from day 1 of its release (I think I was 16 or 17 at the time). At the time we had 56k dialup, I had never heard of bittorrent, and the files weren't readily available on the net. Even if they were I wasn't going to tie up the phone line for 3 days to download a file. Piracy may have become more commonplace towards the later years of the DC but it definitely didn't kill the system.
I think more than anything the lack of EA Sports games dealt a serious blow to the Dreamcast's success in the U.S. The PS2 came out my freshmen year in college and EVERYONE ditched the DC for the PS2 because of Madden (even though NFL 2k was a far better product).
@Outrun1986:
i remember the nail in the coffin was a hardwar issue. they had updated the laser that read information off the disc, and due to that some early gen consoles couldnt read new material. i never saw any actual news article off of it, so i may be wrong.
You know, it's weird, but I always say the opposite: Lack of piracy seems to kill systems.
Piracy shows a system's popularity, and gives poorer people a reason to buy into it. The more systems sold, the more likely games are to be developed for it.
Since piracy normally has absolutely no effect on sales whatsoever (prove it does!) there is a net benefit from it that increases a console's popularity.
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@Outrun1986: Most people in 1999 had dial-up connections and no easy access to information or ISO files. The few that did did not kill off the console. Like was mentioned, the DS and GBA were easily made into pirate devices for less than the price of a game. The PSP has been made into one as well. DS is still selling like crazy, consoles and games. PSP, not so much. A sytem can kill itself.
@Outrun1986: Come on, piracy has never killed a system. Just because some college students were doing it doesn't mean every kid with a Dreamcast was...
@lannister80: Isn't the PSP doing pretty badly, with not many publishers wanting to invest in an original game that will be pirated with ease?
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@Outrun1986: There have been easy piracy mods for many systems that stayed commercially viable. $20 bucks got you a DS flash card device to play DS games right off a microSD card and the DS is still selling like gangbusters. $15 back in the day got you a device to plug into your PSX parallel port and a spring to hold the disc cover button down to play CD-Rs and still made lots of money for Sony. No cost? Cutting up a old credit card in a certain shape gave you a tool to pull discs out of your PS2 and replace them with CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. And, hm, I think there have been more PS2 games sold than there are people on the planet or some other ridiculous statistic.
Of course piracy didn't HELP the Dreamcast, but it was first out of the gate in Dreamcast/PS2/Gamecube/XBox times and crazy marketing by Sony tried real hard to paint it as a loser. The fact that Sega had already built a reputation for releasing and abandoning hardware quickly (32X, Sega CD, Saturn) certainly didn't help either. The price cut after only six months to compete against the PS2 and the phone-it-in approach to releasing decent games released outside of Japan? No help.
That there was easy piracy at all probably kept people buying the systems at least.
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Man, I played Virtua Tennis until my thumbs turned purple.
I got the black sports ed and can't believe how clear the graphics are. Virta Tennis is addicting as well.
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The one that I get misty-eyed for is the Atari Jaguar. It was way sweet hardware that Atari and it's partners totally screwed the pooch on...missed development deadlines and didn't get it out in time for Christmas shopping that year, and then there was no money left to finish the games in progress, so on and so forth.
The few games that were finished were kind of cool, and the controllers were kind of mind-blowing at the time. Great graphics etc. But they blew it, and that was the last gasp for Atari.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-159466-100x100.png\")
AvP was one of the craziest, mind-blowing games I'd ever played at the time.
You're right, the power in that thing was tremendous.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-406173-100x100.png\")
It was ahead of its time, for sure.
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Skies of Arcadia was my drug of choice on my console...
Then I moved into some of the other games whose names slip my mind at the moment... Power something or other, and that game where you played a kid who had a mechanical arm and hunted for treasures...
And I did buy both of the fishing games and 2 fishing controllers.
@GrandizerGo: The game with the kid with the mechanical arm was called Evolution - The World of Sacred Device. There's a sequel, and they re-released the pair as one game on the GameCube.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-343837-100x100.png\")
Skies of Arcadia was amazing. They came out with a GameCube version which didn't have so many random battles which made it even better.
That reminds me, I want to get rid of my Dreamcast. Never had any problems with it, and it works fine and has 7 games with it. Anyone who posts a reply to me here, i'll alert you in a couple weeks when it's up on ebay with no reserve. It's just gathering dust (so to speak, it's in a bag and box) and I haven't played it in years. Will test and photograph before ebaying, though.
@West Coast Secessionist: Donate it free... To me!
I lost my beloved black one to my ex in a stupid breakup. :(
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@gamabunta: I have one with a bagillion games) that I have been meaning to get rid of too. After seeing this, I sort of want to hook it up again--but heck, we don't even have a TV anymore and we have zero free time. Those fishing controllers were sweet, as were the strange games--my favorites were chu-chu-rocket and typing of the dead.
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This isn't confirmed yet, they're still waiting for a reply from others who bought them and thinkgeek to see if this was one of those mixups where 10 years ago some dummy stuffed a used dreamcast into a new box and returned it.
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Amazon has factory sealed Dreamcasts (they claim, at least) for $102.
I already own one in working condition.
Hello from ThinkGeekland!
We emailed Destructoid's editors [where this post originated] late last night but haven't seen the posted amended, so here's our Official Apology, in blog comment form.
First, a little backstory: We came upon an amazing cache of new-in-box Dreamcasts not too long ago. We had a bunch of units shipped to us to inspect them, and indeed, though the boxes were a little worse for the wear on the outside, the consoles had nary a scratch and even the wire twists that bundled the cables had never been undone. It was like magic--magic that had been hiding in a warehouse, unknown, for years.
So we asked our source from whence these beautiful Dreamcasts came, and they didn't know--could've been a liquidator, or a Circuit City that had closed shop. (Hear that? It's the sound of a plot thickening.)
But we'd seen them with our own eyes and figured it was best to share our discovery with the world. Hundreds were snatched up quickly and squees were heard 'round the internets.
So far we've had 2 instances of not-so-new-in-box Dreamcasts. The individual who received the one reported here contacted us via email (which never appeared in our inbox, for some reason) and Twitter (through which we've taken care of the situation) has already been issued a return shipping label. We're more than happy to refund him for the Dreamcast as well as shipping.
We're very sorry about the whole thing--we never meant to ship used Dreamcasts. We know our customers are smarty pants and could tell if they'd been duped with a stale Dreamcast; we'd never get away with taking advantage of you guys, so why would we try?
And now we have 3 options: 1. Stop sharing the gift of new Dreamcasts; 2. Have them all shipped to us and inspect each one individually and then ship back to the warehouse; and 3. Continue spreading the (mostly) untainted Dreamcast love and working with the very few customers who get lemons.
We hope you'll understand why we're continuing to offer them on our site (when we get our grubby little paws on more, of course). And again, we apologize to the 2 customers who ended up with what appears to be returned merchandise.
--The ThinkGeek Monkeys
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@Carrie Gouldin: Huzzah to the Thinkgeek monkeys! Also, pretty please put the Neverlate Alarm Clock back in the geek points rewards!
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@Carrie Gouldin: On a completely unrelated topic, can you guys start including model numbers on the website for the stuff you sell? I'll find stuff I like, but I'll want to read some reviews before I buy. However, because I don't have the model number I basically can't search for it.
Anyway, other than that I love you guys.
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Based on the manufacturing date, the DC console is a launch unit, but the box is a late (mid-2000 on) version. Someone, somewhere either returned an old DC in a new box and kept the new one, or is in the business of reboxing very worn Dreamcasts.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-285956-100x100.png\")
@djsyndrome: Wrong. I have a launch Dreamcast and it was made in JAPAN. Later on production was shifted to China to save money.
I stopped buying from Think Geek a while ago. Their stuff is never quite as good as they advertise. I remember picking up a sonic grenade that broke after the second use, a copy of Khet where the lasers weren't nearly as aligned as their example photo showed, a compressor-less refrigerator that wound up being noisier than one with a compressor might sound, a car LED display that only worked for one day...
I have no idea how they have any repeat customers. I saw that same notice on Kotaku about new Dreamcasts at Think Geek and immediately said to myself \"I'm not falling for THIS one again.\"
@Applekid: Dunno about your experiences, but I've only had one issue with ThinkGeek. I bought a R/C helicopter and one of the blades didn't rotate, so I got a UFO - Uncontrollable flying object. RMA'd at Thinkgeek, and they shipped me a new one no charge, and didn't even ask for the old one back (spare parts, woot!)
All the other many many things I've ordered have come as described without any problem.
@nucwin83: I bought one of those RC helicopters for my dad and he LOVED it. I was really impressed with how quickly my items were shipped, etc. I would buy from them again. Of course, no one is perfect and some people are going to have problems.
@GMFish: That's an excellent question! Will talk to the head monkey about that. And also: <3
@Carrie Gouldin: The monkeys certainly know how to keep a sharp eye on those internets to quell any geek uprising...
You guys have been top notch in the customer service arena, and I'm glad the situation got cleared up!
Just let me know if you happen upon any magical stashes of original NES consoles ;) (I know you've got a nice remake or two on the site, but nostalgia and all that...)
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Lets not rewrite history Consumerist. Playstation 2 did NOT offer online play when it was released, it didn't do that until the broadband assult of the Xbox forced them to, and the Dreamcast didn't die because of the Xbox but because of the Sony Hype machine and it's lies it offered to the public about how much better the PS2 was. The Xbox is actually the spiritual successor of the Dreamcast, which included the former Dreamcast and Sega head Peter Moore taking over the Xbox division. Dreamcast was the best console to never reach it's true greatness. What a shame.
@bigd7387: I'm really surprised I see Dreamcast's around here so much based on the fact that they were basically killed off a couple years after release. When I am yard sale shopping I usually find Sega Genesis consoles as the most common one, and anything before NES is very hard to find, and forget about finding some of the more rare stuff like Atari Lynx, Jaguar and Sega Nomad. People around here definitely went for whatever was popular. I just got a Nomad after about 10 years of collecting, first one I ever saw in the wild. I guess the sports games had people lured to the DC so some people bought them.
The PS2 broadband adapter wasn't even that great IMO, and only a few games supported it. Dreamcast had Phantasy Star Online which was really, really popular back in the day.
I have a Jaguar with no power brick!
I also have an Atari 800XL with no power or video cables, a Commodore 128 with no power brick, and a Saturn with a dead optical drive.
One of these days...
\"The system, the forerunner of the generation that would include the more successful Xbox and PlayStation 2, offered online connectivity and stunning graphics.\"
I don't see in that sentence any statement that the PS2 offered online play at all, much less at launch.
Reading. It's what's for breakfast!
Paid nearly $200!?. Sealed its not even worth that much you can get them loose with hookups a controller and a few sega sports games for like $20 consistently on ebay.
@Daniel Lawrence Kurnath: I dunno where the 200$ number came from. Even on the site, it's 99$ for the unit, and I believe 20$ for an additional controller. So maybe the OP was willing to pay 80$ for overnight service or something?
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Interesting typo. I was wondering what this mythical place known as ThingGeek was all about.
ThinkGeek responded to Destructoid, and said that these were isolated incidents. Considering that more people haven't complained about it I'm willing to believe them.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-425602-100x100.png\")
See I bought a nice used one off eBay awhile back, and for $50 I gotone which had been lovingly and gently cared for by someone who was asdedicated a gamer as I.
That's the way to buy old consoles.
@incognit000: the difference is the OP (and everyone else) who was taking advantage of the sale wanted a new Dreamcast.
I'm not at all shocked that it took coverage by Consumerist to get a reply from Think Geek. I've had nothing but awful customer service from Think Geek when I've bought from them (Yes, I was dumb enough to go back after a bad service experience. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.)and I've been unsuccessful in my bids to get removed from their mailing list (apparently requesting removal while on the phone with someone in customer service after following the instructions provided by their emailing list to unsubscribe is NOT enough effort to prove I really don't want to be on their email list after my crappy customer service experiences.) I've just added their address to my spam filter since I can't get them to leave me alone. Think Geek often has some great stuff, but I'm more than willing to look around until I find it somewhere else. After reading praise for Think Geek's customer service in the comments I just had to chime in.
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I still have my 2 Dreamcasts with 6 controllers and 6 memory card thingys and rublepaks. I have the black sports edition one and the $50 one that went on sale when Sega announced the Dreamcast was dead. They still work great. I have over 200 Dreamcast games includeing whole bunch of home brewed games. Sega Bass fishing was one of the best games ever.
The best part of the whole Sega/Dreamcast story is the one about Microsoft buying all of Sega's technology; proving the fact that the Xbox was originally Sega's idea. Microsoft finished it the way they wanted, but it was originally going to be Dreamcast 2. For those none believers: look at the Dreamcast controller side by side with an Xbox controller. It's not a coincedence.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, Dreamcast ran on Windows CE.
ugh I bought one of these ill fated machines as it was on its way out and I think I paid like $200 with 3 games I believe...then I had to get a stupid adapter for my tv too which set me back like $40. I would love to sell this pos for what I paid but alas it won't happen. Maybe if I hold it for another 10 years
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I knew it was too good to be true, that's why I didn't order any.
@Koinu:
I bought one... the outer box def. did not seem to be in new shape, but that didn't bother me... I opened it only so far as to see that it was in there, haven't unboxed yet... I'd better get crackin before the refund period is up
@Koinu:
More light may have been shed onto this, other readers have said they got theirs brand new, and only cost them 10$ in shipping.