800px-Dreamcast-set-orangeThis post will probably end up a bit shorter than it needs to be, but I sliced my finger tip open at work today so it’s a little painful to type right now. But, this cannot wait until tomorrow. It wouldn’t make sense.

It’s currently September  the ninth, two thousand-nine. That’s 9/9/09 if it hasn’t been made evident to you by the mass amount of things being released today because of it’s numerical uberness. For me, and many other gamers who can remember, today marks an anniversary. The 10 year anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast’s release. That’s right, it was released on the much cooler date of 9/9/99. Quad-niner people!

Many have seen the various articles pop up on their favorite gaming websites regarding what would become Sega’s swan song of consoles. Some may see the posts and laugh at the system for it’s failure, others shed a small tear at the fact that it could have been so much greater if it simply had better support from third party developers. The Dreamcast was a beautiful thing to behold. It had top notch graphics, a controller that I personally think had the best design EVER, a 56k modem (blazin!), and the most unique storage system to ever grace this earth. This system walked into the room with balls. Big ones. But so many people felt slighted by Sega’s last somewhat failed console, the Saturn, that they didn’t want to buy into another one so soon, especially with the first Playstation was still rocking so hard. I personally loved the system. In fact, I still have mine stowed away with a few great titles if ever the mood strikes me to play.

I sometimes have a hard time remembering my own personal history. Like most people, I can remember all the big events that happened in my life, but usually not the exact dates. But earlier today it hit me, I know EXACTLY what i was doing ten years ago this day. I was working at Electronics Boutique, wearing a black t-shirt which had an orange swirl on it, coupled with khaki pants and brown dress shoes, selling Dreamcasts. I worked from early in the morning as a line of people formed outside the store, setting up boxes near the counter in preparation for the sales onslaught, to the early afternoon. It was a great day. One memory from that day which will always stick with me is when a customer told me that a man just ran out of the store with a Dreamcast under his coat. I ran out of the store in pursuit with the fellow who informed me of the dubious act. We were like freekin’ Starsky and Hutch. I got outside just in time to see the man toss the box into his back seat and proceed to start his car for the getaway. The crazed good Samaritan decided to yell profanities at the criminal while kicking in his car door as I wrote down the mustachioed man’s license plate number. We gave the info to the police, but I never found out if he was caught.

So, moral of this story?

um…Dreamcasts were great…or something…

I don’t know, my finger hurts.