Sega · 1999–2001

SegaDreamcast

Online play, VMUs and Sega's last console. Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Soulcalibur, Skies of Arcadia.

[n] Dreamcast games available

Shop all Dreamcast games Explore the highlights

Why it mattered

The console that was right eighteen months too early

Sega launched the Dreamcast in North America on 9/9/99 at $199, sold nearly $100 million of hardware and software in the first twenty-four hours, and for about a year had the best games in the world: Soulcalibur, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Phantasy Star Online over the built-in modem. It also had a memory card with its own screen, near-arcade-perfect ports thanks to Sega's closely related NAOMI arcade board, and a Windows CE logo on the front. Then Sony announced the PlayStation 2, third parties waited, and Sega left the hardware business in March 2001.

Roughly 250 games came out in North America, so the whole library is collectable, and it keeps growing — independent developers were still pressing new Dreamcast discs two decades later. Games shipped in standard jewel cases with the manual in the front and the back insert doing the box's work, and those cases crack at the hinges and lose their tabs, so a clean complete copy is worth checking closely. Budget Sega All Stars reprints are honest, Not for Resale pack-ins are complete games, and the GD-ROM's outer ring is where scratches hurt. We photograph every case and disc.

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Fast facts

ReleasedSeptember 9, 1999 (North America) — 9/9/99
Launch price$199, with a 56k modem in the box
MediaGD-ROM, a 1 GB disc only the Dreamcast could read
Units sold~9 million worldwide
Best sellerSonic Adventure — roughly 2.5 million
Did you know?Sega picked the date for the marketing: 9/9/99, at $199, and reported about $98 million in sales in the first twenty-four hours — the biggest launch day any entertainment product had managed at the time. Eighteen launch titles shipped alongside it, more than any US console before, including Soulcalibur, Sonic Adventure, NFL 2K and Power Stone.
Did you know?Every Dreamcast had a 56k modem built in, and Sega's SegaNet service made it the first console with online play as a standard feature. NFL 2K1 in September 2000 was the first console football game you could play against a stranger. Phantasy Star Online launched in North America in January 2001, helping establish online console RPGs just as Sega announced it would end Dreamcast hardware production that March.
Did you know?The VMU memory card has its own screen and buttons: it slots into the controller, shows a play-calling screen in NFL 2K so your opponent cannot read your formation, raises a Chao in Sonic Adventure, and plays as a tiny handheld on its own. The batteries die and it beeps on boot without them — that beep is normal, not a fault.
Did you know?SEGA's NAOMI arcade hardware shared much of the Dreamcast's architecture, making remarkably faithful home conversions possible. Games such as Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Virtua Tennis, and Power Stone demonstrated how closely Sega's arcade and home hardware could work together. It is the reason fighting-game players still keep a Dreamcast under the television.
Did you know?Shenmue cost somewhere around $47 million to make — the most expensive game ever produced at the time — and Sega joked that every Dreamcast owner would have needed to buy two copies for it to break even. The US release came on three GD-ROMs plus a Passport disc for the online features, so a complete copy is four discs, not three.
Did you know?Sega All Stars was the budget reprint line, launched in 2000 at $19.99 with a band across the top of the insert. Crazy Taxi, NBA 2K1, Sonic Adventure and Soulcalibur are among the games that got the treatment. The disc is the same; the insert is the tell, and it is usually the cheapest complete copy of the game.
Did you know?Sega announced on January 31, 2001 that it would stop making the Dreamcast at the end of March and become a software publisher, cutting the price to $99 to clear stock. NHL 2K2, in February 2002, is generally cited as the last US release. Japan carried on for years, and independent studios have kept releasing new boxed Dreamcast games ever since.
Did you know?The Dreamcast could boot a music-CD format called MIL-CD, and within a year that hole was being used to run games burned onto ordinary CD-Rs. Sega removed the feature from late-production consoles, but the damage to sales was real — and it is why a boxed Dreamcast game was, for a while, the least protected thing on the shelf.

Find your next Dreamcast game

Start with a familiar favorite, explore a theme, or browse by what’s included.

Counts are listings in stock — the same game can appear more than once in different packaging.

The grails

Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Cannon Spike, Mars Matrix, Bangai-O, Seaman, Record of Lodoss War, Silver — the Dreamcast games collectors cross the room for.

Sega Sports 2K

NFL 2K, NBA 2K, NHL 2K, World Series Baseball 2K1, NCAA College Football 2K2, Tennis 2K2 — Visual Concepts' launch-year football and the line that outlived the console.

Sega All Stars

The budget band across the insert: Crazy Taxi, NBA 2K1, Sonic Adventure, Soulcalibur, House of the Dead 2 — reprints at $19.99 of the games that earned it.

Came in the box

Sonic Adventure in a Not for Resale sleeve, the Web Browser disc, Generator demo discs, Dreamcast Magazine samplers — the discs that shipped with the console or the subscription, complete and honest.

It came with plastic

Sega Bass Fishing and its rod, Samba de Amigo and its maracas, Seaman and its microphone, Typing of the Dead and its keyboard — a console that shipped more peripherals than sequels.

Health bars

Soulcalibur, Dead or Alive 2, Street Fighter III, Power Stone, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK, Ready 2 Rumble, Mortal Kombat Gold — the last console where the arcade fighter came home unchanged.

Straight from NAOMI

Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, Virtua Tennis, Power Stone, House of the Dead 2, 18 Wheeler, Zombie Revenge, Outtrigger — the arcade board was a Dreamcast, so the ports were the arcade.

Scoreboards and finish lines

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Razor Freestyle Scooter, Championship Surfer, Suzuki Alstare, Sydney 2000, NBA Showtime, Hydro Thunder — the year 2000 in sport, when everything had wheels or a board.

FROM THE SCREEN AND BEYOND

Movies, television, comics, and other pop-culture crossovers that found their way onto Dreamcast.

Everything is 2

Ready 2 Rumble. Sonic Adventure 2. Power Stone 2. Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Dead or Alive 2. NFL 2K2. Sydney 2000. The Dreamcast launched on 9/9/99 and spent the rest of its life in the year 2.

Virtua-lly everything

Virtua Tennis, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Virtua Striker 2, Virtua Athlete 2K, Virtua Cop 2, Virtual On — Sega's favorite adjective, spelled Sega's way.

Complete in case, best condition first

Explore complete-in-case Dreamcast games currently in stock, selected for condition and ready for your collection.

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Game with manual

Cart and manual, no box — the collector's middle ground.

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Loose discs

Disc only — tested, photographed, priced accordingly.

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Sealed

Factory sealed and photographed through the shrink.

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SegaDreamcast

The console that was right eighteen months too early