History of Gaming Archives - Intensive Gaming Diary

The Last Issue of Pelaaja Magazine

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Viljami

So, it’s a bit over twenty one tonight and I just received Pelaaja magazine as delivered in mail. I don’t know why the deliver was so late. Well, anyways, there’s also a book that I am currently reading in this featured image of this blog post. The book is about Snapchat (“How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars”). I find it very interesting and I am about hundred pages through this book at the moment. The book is written by Billy Gallagher.

The fact that I just received mail brought me the idea that I’ve been thinking about already for some days. I did already know that this issue of Pelaaja would be the last one. I was just waiting for the mail to be delivered so I could start writing this blog post. I knew that I was going to receive the issue sooner or later. So, this is the real news. Pelaaja is going to stop getting printed and it is going to be merged to another Finnish gaming magazine called Pelit. So, I, and also all the other readers that have a subscription paid already are going to get their still remaining magazines in their subscriptions delivered as Pelit magazines. We are also getting one issue of this magazine as a some sort of a bonus. Then we can make a new subscription to Pelit or just quit our subscriptions. This is how it seems to be going.

Pelaaja has been around for quite a while. The magazine was founded back in 2002 in October. Pelit, the other still remaining Finnish gaming magazine has been around for some time longer. Actually I remember reading Pelit already back in the middle of 1990s. I think it was established in maybe 1980s (it was actually founded in 1992). Pelaaja has for a long time provided a solid competition. I have bought some Pelit magazine issues. I have never subscribed to it. I have been a subscriber of Pelaaja for several years.

Back in the wild 2000s there used to be several printed gaming magazines. There are too many to mention or to even remember. I think we had a magazine called Peliasema that was focusing on PlayStation. Actually the word “peliasema” is somewhat translated as “play station”. Well, I had to make one more search through a search engine right here just to find that this was actually true and not just my imagination. It was founded in 1998. It was sort of a spin-off of Pelit and it featured some gaming journalists that were also writing articles to Pelit. So, there was some competition already in the field when Pelaaja was founded.

It is somewhat hard to trying to realize that Pelaaja has been actually discontinued. I thought that this magazine would have been up and running for a long long time. There are many trips, for example to our summer cottage, that I picked up the latest Pelaaja from gas station to have something fresh to read while enjoying summer, or winter, here in Finland. Pelaaja has been there for a long time and now it seems like there is a part of gaming journalism missing at least here and right now.

The direction for printed media is that we are getting less and less actual, physical, printed content and the news can be read online from your closest display that can be a smart phone, a tablet or a computer screen. More and more content is published digitally. More and more content is getting released for free online. And this has been the direction for already some time. I do enjoy very much reading content that has been printed to a paper as you can probably see from this blog posts featured image. I don’t have a e-reader device and my tablet is very poor and I almost never use it. Almost every book I read is a physical copy instead of a digital one.

In the last issue ever of Pelaaja we are going to deal with the new Doom game that is getting released next month. I am going to get that game. I know this already for sure. The last two Doom games were great ones. We are going to read more about Wreckfest 2, Housemarque, a Finninsh game company, turning 30 years and also some other very interesting content. I hope this is a good read. If its anything like every earlier issue of Pelaaja I am going to like it. So, thank you, Pelaaja, for everything and farewell!

Terminator 2D – No Fate

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Viljami

Terminator 2D – No Fate is a video game that will be finally released for Xbox Series X, PS5/PS4 and Nintendo Switch 5th of September 2025 (this year). What are my expectations about this game? From what I have seen in the official trailer we are going to see a game that is very close to the plot and happenings of the second Terminator movie. The action is going to be presented in an amazing two-dimensional style. I have to say that I am excited. I also think that Terminator 2 was maybe the best one in this series of sci-fi action and maybe even horror style of a movie.

The game, Terminator 2D – No Fate, is going to be available as a standard type of a release that is going to cost, at least here in Finland, 53 euros. The collectors edition is going to cost, here, 109 euros. Collectors edition includes a collectors a silver tin, steelbook cover, art book, flipbook, a paperweight and a poster. This short list is just giving you a hint of what the collectors edition is including. You can probably make your decision on if you are going for the collectors edition or are you going to stick with the standard edition.

It is just purely exciting to even wait for some video game like this. As I mentioned already earlier we are going to see some famous and legendary scenes that were in the movie. The first Terminator movie was good. It was released in 1984. It was a peace of art made by the director James Cameron and featured the then rising star actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a role that revolutionized hos career as an actor.

The second movie of this series was titled Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It was released in 1991 and was also, again, directed by James Cameron. The character of Sarah Connor is acted by Linda Hamilton that was also in the first movie. We are also seeing also Edward Furlong acting as a John Connor who is also later in the story in a significant role in the war against machines and robots that seem to be overpowering compared to human soldiers that fighting this war against machines.

If you are new to Terminator you might still get the picture with every word that I’ve already wrote in this blog post. The main plot handles between the machines, terminators, trying their best to destroy every human being. The terminator, a cyborg, is sent back to the past to kill, firstly, Sarah Connor before her son is going to be born. The second movie features a plot that describes how the second terminator, an advanced model, is trying to kill, now, John Connor while he is a young boy. I am not going so deeply in the plot. I highly recommend watching at least the first two movies since they are pure dynamite.

In the second movie Sarah Connor has had some hard time mentally while having the knowledge of a sort of an end of the world scenery that is going to happen in the future. The trauma has to be a deep one. After all she survived the attempt of the terminator on trying to kill her. In the beginning of the second movie she is being held at a mental hospital and his son and the “good” terminator, acted by Schwarzenegger, are freeing her from there at the beginning of the movie.

Everything that was good in the second movie, all the exciting scenes that we saw, I hope, are faithfully presented again in a form of a 2D video game. And all this has been made available to the most popular gaming systems of today. Now, lets just hope that it is not going to be another flop or a game that would perform somewhat poorly compared to the expectations. Lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Two Different Approaches to a Rally Game

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Viljami

This blog post is about how you can approach a game or specifically a rally game. So, a game has graphics, sound and overall game-play and also some rules of how to create the physics in the game. From this point of view you can try to create a popular game and a game that is nice or/and a game that is as realistic as possible. I am taking a look at two rally games right here in this blog post and right now.

Dirt 3 is part of a legendary rally game series that originates from legendary PlayStation 1 game Colin McRae Rally. There was also a sequel released for PS1 and it was called Colin McRae Rally 2.0. Dirt 3 is also a sequel to games called Colin McRae Dirt and Colin McRae Dirt 2. So, this game has a bit shorter title. These games were released for PS3 and Xbox 360 and also for PC. Dirt 3 can be played on Xbox Series X as it is backwards compatible. Every Xbox 360 game isn’t compatible in this way. Dirt 3 has now two sequels called Dirt 4 and Dirt 5. Codemasters made also two games called Dirt Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0. later.

Dirt 3 was released 2010. I remember back in the day when I just had to buy this game as soon as it was released. I remember paying 60 euros for this game. At that moment I only had one video game console and that console was PS3 back then. Dirt 3 takes an approach of trying to be as realistic as a rally game as can be. The camera can be adjusted and it is tightly following the car. There are some options here. Usually I adjust the camera angle so that I see the road as closely as possible. If you make a mistake you can pause the game and go back to where you made the mistake and try to correct the way you did drive.

There has been some time since Dirt 3 was released. It is a very good game. I like the background music a lot. You don’t hear any music while you are driving. There is something important in this game as it seems that you can also hear your cars performance. We can also say that the team that was involved in developing this rally game was a large one as it had, I think, hundreds or at least tens of people working with the rally game.

What about Art of Rally? It was released roughly about ten years after Dirt 3. The approach is slightly different as is obvious already. Graphics are somewhat basic. They aren’t even trying to aim to be as realistic as can be. This also makes the game lighter to run and so this rally game doesn’t require so powerful hardware. I have this game for Nintendo Switch and lately bought it also for PC through Steam. It cost something from 25 to 30 euros. The “deluxe edition” is somewhat more expensive but only about 5 euros or something like that.

Art of Rally has a very good physical modeling. What it lacks in pure graphical performance it compensates on game-play and overall realistic feel it is able to generate. It feels nice t and realistic to drive the vehicles that are in this rally game. Cars in Art of Rally aren’t real cars. Their names are just something that has been generated by the developer. Dirt 3 does have real drivers and also cars. It would be awkward in my sense to play Art of Rally with a steering wheel and pedals while Dirt 3 gives you everything concerning a simulation type of a rally game. I do play currently both games with a game-pad.

There are only a few people that worked in the development of Art of Rally. The music is in the background while you are driving. I like also the music of this rally game. So, I adjusted the volume settings so that I can clearly hear the music while I drive. I set the engine volume of the car a bit lower, actually way lower, than it was as a default. Art of Rally has a career mode. I recommend that you play the career mode through. It is a nice experience all in all. There are many ways in both of these games that you can drive with your friends in a multiplayer mode but I am not so into playing with other people through network or internet connection.

So, these two games bring you a bit different and unique take. Should we appreciate clever software design or even a form of art more than some video game that is realistic and seems to demand a more powerful hardware? Nintendo Switch was released in 2017 and it has tens or even hundreds of good games that have been released on it. It isn’t the most powerful console but it definitely can deliver some good quality games. Also the next Switch console has been rumored to be as powerful as a PS4 which is, by the way, also a cheap console that still seems to have some players place in their hearths. Should we always go for the most expensive choice or is there a room for some games that just don’t compete in this way at all. Could there be a cheaper or somewhat different option? And this is the question I am leaving you to ponder this time. See you soon again!

Rainbow Six

Posted on February 21, 2025 by Viljami

Rainbow Six is a book written by Tom Clancy. It was published in 1998. There were also several video games made based on this book. My favorite game from this series is Rogue Spear. I have also played Rainbow Six 3 – Raven Shield. The latest game in this series was released in 2022.

This book is a long one to read. It took me several weeks to get through it. There were almost 900 pages that were written with a small font. Tom Clancy is a clever and very good writer. He manages to keep you strained throughout the whole reading experience of this book. I have recently read also Power Plays by Tom Clancy.

If we discuss about the games I can tell you that they are kind of first person shooter types but you have several soldiers for you to control. There are many strategic points that you must take in account. You get to chose the teams and plan your actions. There are many ways to complete the missions. You have to be precise with your shooting and everything that happens around you.

The weapons and also other gear are being described very clearly. The precision with the action is very needed. You can also enjoy multiplayer mode if you want to. I think one good game to start from in getting into Rainbow Six would be Rainbow Six Siege that was released in 2015 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and also for PC.

Rainbow Six is only one part of this whole group of tactical and war-related video games. There also do exist games like Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Endwar, H.A.W.X. and The Division. All of these games are inspired by these books that Tom Clancy wrote. Sadly, Tom Clancy died in 2013. These games still live on and many from these games mentioned above are still getting sequels and updates. So, the legacy of Tom Clancy still lives strong.

Rainbow Six was a nice book to read. I wouldn’t have picked it for me to read if it wouldn’t had anything to do with video games. I think that this book was although very long to read. I think it was something like reading The Lord of the Rings book or maybe some book from Stephen King. I usually read books that take me about one week to finish and I read mostly non-fictive books.

Today Rainbow Six and every game in the series has a lot of meaning for me. I still have Rogue Spear as a big box standing on my game shelf. I actually have two cases but only one of them still holds the disc. I had the original box but the CD was missing. So, what I did was I bought another copy from a local Finnish game shop as it was luckily available for purchase.

Tom Clancy has written many books throughout his career. His first book was “The Hunt for Red October” and it was released in 1984. Many of his works were also made into cinematic movies. The movies were directed by John Mc Tiernan, Philip Noyce and also Robert Lieberman. His style of writing was very suitable for also movies and games. This whole load of material can be somewhat categorized as having everything to do with warfare.

You can find more information about Tom Clancy from websites like Wikipedia. There is all-in-all a lot of information available. You can even use a search engine to search for this information. I think artificial intelligence would have also something to say about this writer. I just wanted to express how I felt about the book and also my relationship to these video games. I can recommend this book if you like thrilling moments and closely detailed action just take my advice when I tell you that the book can take some time to read.

Some Reasons for the Success of Nintendo Switch

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Viljami

Today Nintendo Switch is the third most sold video game console. Only some legendary and popular devices are above it in the statistics. Those consoles are PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. I am talking about the global top list of consoles sold. The statistics of a specific region, like North America, Europe or Asia, might differ from the ones that I here am writing you about.

The most sold consoles, huh? PlayStation 2 has held this position for a long time now. It dominated the statistics being the first DVD player for many gamers. It has also a very wide selection in a form of a game library. People were expecting something like this already when only PlayStation 1 was available. During this period we saw a great increase in the number of gamers worldwide as new players and groups were starting to get interested in video games.

What about Nintendo DS and its success. Why did it take place? I guess this has everything to do with it being a portable gaming device. You could take it everywhere and it provided solid library of games and a decent three-dimensional environment for these new types of video games. I guess that before the era of smart phones (I think Apple begun this era by releasing the first iPhone in 2007) this was something very attracting for a gamer.

We are taking now Nintendo Switch in to account while we are having a conversation about the most sold gaming consoles. And actually why is it so? Well, there are some quite clear matters that we can think for a while. One of them is that Nintendo Switch has a gaming library that has a very good quality. There are several Nintendo exclusive games being still released that are very good ones and that you cannot play on another console.

We have to take in count also these delivery problems that Sony and Microsoft faced during the pandemic. This is a reason you cannot underestimate in these talks. There was a long period of time that Xbox Series X and both PS5 models, the one with the disc drive and the one without, were totally unavailable. You could find a Xbox Series S if you were lucky but there was no serious lack of Nintendo Switch consoles. The availability might be the biggest reason that Nintendo Switch climbed to such high levels of units sold during these times.

Why is the Nintendo Switch so cheap? The price is today about 300 euros here in Europe while PS5’s and Xbox’s pricier models wear a price tags way higher. You have to consider that Switch doesn’t come with a proper controller so you might have to spend like 70 euros for Pro Controller. This is of course optional. One factor of the low price seems to be that Nintendo Switch is very underpowered especially when compared to its main competitors of this generation of consoles. It is compared to Xbox 360 when we are discussing about pure performance. The upcoming Switch 2 that we are going to get more information from Nintendo by 2nd of April is said to be as powerful as PS4. So, the pure power is not the case when dealing with success here.

We also cannot forget the appeal of Nintendo’s brand. They are known to be a “mega” huge gaming company since the early days of Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short, back in the beginning of 1980s. It was the video game console that made home video gaming popular again while many consumers were very disappointed in Atari’s 2600 and especially their games and overall quality that finally caused a big depression of video games consuming and playing in the first years of 1980s. NES was definitely the console that made gaming popular again. You could trust Nintendo and it was something considered to have a good quality.

Today PS2 has sold wolrdwide over 160 million units. Nintendo DS has sold 154 million units. Nintendo Switch is behind these two with 150,8 million sold units. It is very exciting to see how is the Switch ending up to sell as the sales might dive down after or even before Switch 2 is getting released. How many people are going to buy Nintendo Switch if the Switch 2 is already available? The price of this new Nintendo console is predicted to be somewhere between 400 or 500 euros. However the price or other details, like release date, are not yet officially announced.

Point and Click (Adventure) Games

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Viljami

The idea for today’s blog post originated as I got to play a remake of Lucas Arts classic point and click adventure game Day of the Tentacle. I have only played so little of this game and I don’t really have enough experience from it that I could tell you anything else about this game. Lets just say that it is still something worth to experiment with even today.

Instead of writing you about just one game I decided today to tell you about point and click games in general. There are loads of great games if you end up enjoying this type of games. This whole genre was at its time something that the latest hardware could support. This era was dominant way before we got used to playing in these interactive three-dimensional environments.

To understand point and click games we have to talk about how they evolved in such a direction. Where did this genre actually come from? The first thing, when it comes to adventure games, were text-based games. First adventure games were like this – you actually had to type in every move you could make in the game. Sierra leveled the game up so you could move around. Some years after point and click games became very popular. You could just click and point what you were trying to do in this game. It was a new way that you could interact with a video game. Of course you used your mouse to perform these operations.

Adventure games, and so also point and click games, involve a lot of discussion between the characters in which you have to make choices. There is also a lot of items that you have to collect and use with other items to solve different problems. You often have a score that tells you something about how you are progressing in the game.

Many adventure games in the 1980s were brought to you by a gaming company called Sierra. The strongest adventure game in the end of 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s was Lucas Arts. It brought us games like Maniac Manson, several Monkey Island games and many more. Sierra had also some point and click titles like the Space Quest series. I think the third one was somewhat a point and click adventure game. As Lucas Arts developed their user interface to suit point and click playing style also Sierra had to level up their games.

Day of the Tentacle is full of humoristic scenes, conversations, interaction and puzzle solving. It is promised a steady five hours of playing time that is described by “How Long To Beat” website. I have only completed a small amount, under 10 percentages, of this game but I think it was worth its price. The game is available today for Xbox Series S/X as a digital copy. I think there are versions for some other devices also. The price is today about 15 euros but the price might come down a bit if there is a huge sale or something like that. I paid only three euros of this game during a sale opportunity.

Some other classic worth-to-mention point and click games are Sam and Max series, Indiana Jones adventure games, Full Throttle and The Dig. Sierra has also some adventure games that have to be mentioned: Police Quest series and Space Quest series, Leisure Suit Larry games and also King’s Quest series.

Some other notorious point and click games are Clock Tower series and Discworld series. You can probably find more from your favorite sources of information be it a search engine, an actual physical book about the subject (my favorite is Juho Kuorikoski’s book (“Suuret seikkailupelit – tietokonepelien klassikot) about adventure games in general) and maybe you could try asking an AI tool for more information. This tiny blog post seems to be too small for a more detailed description. This was my post this time. I hope you enjoyed. See you next time!

Why Does THPS Draw So Much Attention From Us Gamers?

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Viljami

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skateboarding, or for short THPS, is a PlayStation 1 game that was released in 1999. After the first game’s amazing success there were many more games released in this series of good quality video games. This was also something that made skateboarding more popular again and also some of these skaters appearing in this game even more famous.

After all we didn’t see so many games after all. If you know THPS games there cannot exist a debate about if THPS 5 was a good game. It actually wasn’t. While being released in 2015. This actually ended the season of quality when it comes to THPS. It took to 2020 until we got a decent THPS game and this was THPS 1 + 2 that was actually a remake made of two of the first games in this series.

The first four THPS games are very good. Also THPS Underground and its sequel can be considered something that you could spend some hours into. So there are many good games bearing the name of Tony Hawk.

What makes this video game series so good? We must start with the first original THPS. Back in 1999 I was in junior high. I remember how the game felt at first. It was very easy to get into and even a bit easier if you were familiar with actual real skateboarding. I mean knowing the basics was enough. And this game also made me want to try and learn skateboarding myself.

So there is this formula of playability. It is very interesting to fade into this world of trying to complete a trick or a run of tricks in this three-dimensional world that is presented to you. The music in this game brings me so many memories. Also the outfits of these skateboarders seem so cool. There was this combination of a rewarding gameplay and also this cool atmosphere and feel that made you dream bigger and just enjoy your youth even more.

If you are thinking to getting into THPS games I would suggest that you pick the original first game. Then you can proceed to second or maybe the third game. The third THPS game is very good and its actually considered one of the best games on PlayStation 2. THPS 2 was released in 2000 and it was followed in 2001 with THPS 3. THPS 4 and Underground 1 and 2 bring some other elements while trying to achieve something more than just bare skateboarding. The HD remakes, THPS 1 + 2, is also a great start when you are beginning to look into the world of THPS. The collection is available for the latest gaming consoles.

If you are wondering how I came about and started to write this blog post I can tell you something. I tried THPS 3 on PS2 again today. I played the game for a while, just an hour or so, the amount of time spent isn’t important, and figured out this idea of a blog post. That is very typical for these blog posts and how they begin to take their form. I have lots of inspiration when it comes to my video game collection.

Getting Into Final Fantasy Origins

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Viljami

There have been many Final Fantasy games released throughout history. Some of them are spin-offs. If we consider the main line of Final Fantasy games and think about its definitive roots you simply cannot forget the first two games that were originally released for NES and/or SNES.

So, you want to play these two games? You have several options. I, myself, went with the Final Fantasy Origins that was released for PS1 in 2003. That seems pretty late for a PlayStation 1 game don’t you think?

What are the other options? Well, you can go with the “pixel remaster” collection that I have been considering also buying. This collection includes all first six Final Fantasy games from I to VI. So these are remakes of these games that graphically seem like some SNES games. Or, at least they come near to that. They are remasters after all.

One option for a hardcore Final Fantasy fan is to go with the original NES version of the first game in this RPG series. Graphically it isn’t as nice as the SNES version of the game. The first game of this RPG series wasn’t published originally in Europe at all and also North America got to see Final Fantasy with a delay of several years.

Final Fantasy as a video game series didn’t get a justified beginning in the PAL region firstly at all but this all changed when in 1997 we got to see also in Europe the seventh FF game to be released for PS1. After FFVII conquered almost every gamers hearth it was acceptable for the gamers in Europe also to see some earlier releases of this famous game series. After all we saw every game that were already a pretty big thing in other parts of the world to get released for PS1 and after that we saw even more games for newer gaming consoles.

This one blog post is too short for us to properly discuss about Final Fantasy as a game series. Instead I am going to write tot you about how I felt getting into the first game of the series. I bought the copy of this game already some months ago. It might be already a year ago or so. I just haven’t had the time to play it, yet.

I was familiar already with FF1 as a NES game. I have tried my hand playing it. This PS1 release includes two games FF I and FF II. It isn’t the most priciest retro game but it isn’t also the cheapest. The way I started to play it was to actually rip these two discs as rom files. After that I transferred these files through Ethernet to the Raspberry Pi 5 based Recalbox. I like to play nowadays my PS1 games this way as it is easier. I do have the hardware, of course, also. It is just easier because you don’t have to mess so much with memory cards or minding of the disc getting scuffed.

The game itself is an adventure type of game meaning you can have conversations and you are trying to obtain some objects that will guide you in your quest. The actual battles are turn-based and they occur at random moments. You have to be in a zone that gives you these occurrences. There are some areas where you don’t have the battles. They are kind of turned off.

The game is also about character development. In the beginning you get to choose four characters with some different character classes. I for example created a group of two Fighters, a White Mage and a Black Mage. I decided to go with a team like this. As you might know I think that there must be someone in the team that can also heal other members and itself also. Fighters are good for fighting and they get powerful combat weapons and armor while Mages can have very powerful attack spells also. It is one point to spot a weakness in monster that are trying to attack you.

Final Fantasy games usually take a long time to finish. I think FF I takes about 16 hours to complete while the second one takes about 22 hours. I think playing Final Fantasy Origins is a good way to deepen your knowledge even more about this RPG that might just be the series that brought these kinds of video games to Europe in the first place.

Moving On From Just Playing?

Posted on January 6, 2025 by Viljami

As a child I had my first touches to computer technology by playing video games. This sparked eventually my interest towards information technology. We might call it as well ICT or Information and Communications Technology.

Later in my life I chose ICT as my main subject to study. I learned a whole deal about programming. My dream back then was that I could be someday developing a video game by myself. I dreamed of creating games that would have a deep plot, a nice game-play and good looking graphics.

I actually did complete my studies. My story in trying to get a job as a fresh graduate isn’t very rare at all. I graduated back in 2016 and it was very hard to try to get a job as I also had only little working experience. It seemed like there was misunderstandment about what jobs I actually had the actual skills to be successful in.

I ended up getting a job that required skills in customer interaction. As I had no experience at all I had to start from somewhere. I didn’t get to work as a software developer. This was a bit of a disappointment for me but I just kept growing my working experience. I actually never gave up on my dream completely.

As I was studying I got to develop my skills in writing. In 2020, just before corona virus hit us all, I started to write this blog about video games. I chose to write in English as I hoped to reach more people and get to learn more English, also.

Today I am an IT Support Person. The choices that I made throughout my whole life are getting reflected in this whole blog post. I like sometimes to write also about my personal matters. Also I like to write about games, books that are somehow related and also about music and technology and computers while not forgetting programming.

That’s just how life goes sometimes. We make choices. We make some sacrifices. We lose some part of our lives and we do something that motivates us to go further and get to develop ourselves.

Today, I am also trying to learn something relevant every week if not every day. I haven’t forgotten everything I’ve learned especially from programming, computers but also about communicating with other people sometimes referred to as customers or players or users.

This text, this blog post, is for you here to reflect on where you and where we are going towards to. Are we just playing video games or is this actually a part of a larger picture we are dealing with?

About Sega Dreamcast

Posted on December 12, 2024 by Viljami

Sega Dreamcast was released 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and Europe. Its game library consists of about 600 games. This is considerably lower than all games that were released to PS2, a console of the same era and console generation, that had several thousands of games in its game library.

Some other gaming consoles of this generation were Nintendo GameCube, Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2. So, Dreamcast was competing with these giants. This was an era in which we saw definitely more games released than we have in todays world of gaming. It has to said that the competition was tough. PS2 sold most consoles and had the most games in its library while Xbox and GameCube sold well but not as much as PS2. In 2001 Dreamcast was discontinued. It didn’t sell well.

Today Dreamcast is considered to be a definite gem as a retro gaming console. You can get the original console for about 200 euros. It is also possible to play it by emulating Dreamcast on a system like Recalbox that you can run on a Raspberry Pi 5 or PC. Raspberry Pi 5 has enough power to run Dreamcast emulation while some older Rasbperry Pi models might lack this power. We have to consider if this way of playing Dreamcast is actually legit or not. After all every Dreamcast game isn’t available.

I have solved this problem with buying this Dreamcast Collection for PC. I bought it a long time ago but it seems to be totally legal. This collection has four Dreamcast titles in it. While Sega quit manufacturing gaming consoles they still make video games for other systems. There are lots of good quality games still getting released by Sega. This tells something about their position as one of the most legendary game companies in the history of video games.

Sega’s history includes classic consoles like Mega Drive / Genesis, Master System and Saturn. However some of its products weren’t so successful. They did take a wrong direction with releasing 32X and Mega CD. They weren’t commercially successful which evidently lead to some financial problems that lead to discontinuation of Dreamcast.

What are some good games for Dreamcast? There are some role-playing-games like Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II, a boxing game, Ready 2 Rumble, many 2D fighting games, some 3D fighting games, like Virtua Fighter 3tb, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Resident Evil – Code Veronica and many others. The game library is in its entirety a very solid and of good quality. I think that finding a bad game for Dreamcast is a difficult task to complete.

I do have some critic also about Dreamcast. The fact that the controller only has one analog stick makes playing first-person-shooters a bit clumsy. You have to map movement and aiming differently than you would with a better gamepad. Also when compared to some newer consoles Dreamcast lacks some power. But it has to be said that when considering it to be a retro console it handles its business very nicely.

It would be great to get something from Sega today that would be legit and also of good quality when it comes to retro gems like this one. There would definitely be many gamers that would like to buy a mini console, a remake or a completely new game from some of these classic titles. We have to see and wait for what the future holds for Sega fans.