A sonic fan from down under takes a look at the impending doom Sega Ozisoft strikes on the Dreamcast with its rampant delays…
As you browse the net today you'll undoubtedly see all the news about the SEGA Dreamcast. It's been a smash in America, Europe, Japan and other countries around the world. But down in down under, we're still waiting for the Dreamcast as delays keep on being announced.
Ever since the megadrive/genesis went out of fashion, SEGA has never really cut it in Australia. When the 32-X came out in here, it was around for 1 day, then it dissappeared into nothingness. I was only able to find it months later in a bargain bin outside a closing down, electronics store. Even then it was practically a free gift with megadrive games and there was/are no games for it. The Saturn was the next fiasco. I only ever saw one ad for it and the ad was only on once. Then the Saturn was released with a poor selection of games and despite the more superior hardware, the Saturn was considered, “not as good” as Playstation, Nintendo 64(which some people still think is a 64 bit system. It's not, it's a 32 bit system). So the Saturn died a death, but more was to come. The ads for the SEGA Dreamcast, the ultimate gaming system started months before it's release. They were even distributed on the net!
The ads never came to Australia, even several days before it's official release.
The Dreamcast was due for release 9/9/99 but that was postponed till 28 of Sept because of the Aussie rules football, grand final. (Pretty lame excuse because the grand final is nowhere near that time) Then they told us it was postponed again due to internet programming problems, this time till October sometime. I rang up Hi-Tech World to get the next release date, they said “October the 11th and we've ordered a heap but don't hold your breathe, I doubt it'll be released on time”. He was right, now, we've been told, we have to wait till November the 30th or so for “no good reason”. The only way to get one is to win one and so far there have only been a few to win. But the ads never-the-less, didn't show and unless you have access to the net, or read the limited info in gaming magazines. You wouldn't have the faintest clue what a Dreamcast or Sonic Adventure is.
So as the world watches the little countdowns on the Sonic sites and talk of how cool their Dreamcasts are, we Australians sit and wait for these elusive Dreamcasts. If they ever come here that is, and if they do, will anyone know about it?