Sega net was awesome. It introduced me and thousands of others to online gaming. Here is the story:
It all started when the Dreamcast first came out (9-9-99). The system came with a modem packed in the box. No games supported it yet, but you could go online with the system and browse the web (with the included web browser). Sega net did not exist at this time. The web browser disc came with the option to sign up for At&t's internet service. It cost the standard $21.95 a month and at the time, it was Sega's recommended ISP for the Dreamcast.
The first Dreamcast game to actually go online was Chu Chu Rocket. Released in March 2000, it was a fun puzzle game made by Sonic Team. The online play was decent, but there was noticeable lag.
September 2001, exactly 1 year after the system's launch, NFL 2k1 launched alongside Sega Net. Sega no longer recommended At&t because now they had their own isp. It was made especially for gaming and when you bought NFL 2k1, you automatically got 50 free hours of online use. People who got Nfl 2k1 on launch day (myself included) were quite surprised. After signing up for your free hours, you got to connect to the NFL servers where you were greeted by hundreds of other players. It was all great. There were lobby’s for every major city in the US. After a week or two, there were thousands of people online. It was all really cool. The gameplay was equally good. The first week was rough. You would get random disconnects every once in a while, and on occasion (if you were really far away from your opponent), you would get a crappy connection. But, things got much better and the disconnects disappeared. Connections got better and except for the occasional hic-up, games went very smoothly. You could tell you were online, but just barley. It was awesome.
So, NFL was a success both online and off. The PS2 was just coming out, but Sega had a much stronger lineup of games and Online play. Many of the games coming out, were online games. Quake 3 and Unreal both made appearances on the Dreamcast. Both were surprisingly solid online and with Quake, PC players and DC players could play together (there was a patch that the PC players needed to download). I myself got really addicted to online quake. I never had a disconnect. Ever. The quake servers were flawless.
At the same time that quake came out (October 2000), the Sega Broadband adaptor came out. The adaptor sold for $59.99 only on Sega's official website. It did what it said it did- it let people with broadband internet connections, connect to online sega games that supported the adaptor. That was the main problem- not enough games supported it. Quake was the first and after it came out, only a handful of games let you use the adaptor. This was definitely one of the biggest downfalls of Sega's online plan.
But, before Sega Net could collapse, one major hit was still due out. In January 2001, Phantasy Star Online came out. It gave us console gamers a taste of what PC gamers had with Everquest. In short, the game was fantastic- easily Sega Net and in my opinion, the Dreamcast's biggest success. The online lobby’s were perfect and easy to navigate. Chatting was a blast and you could even chat with Japanese gamers (using a rather large list of set phrases that could be translated). The game itself was fairly simple, and truthfully, in one player mode- a bit of a bore. But, when you ganged up with 3 friends, the game was impossible to put down. My fondest memory of PSO was playing with my brother and one of our friends. My brother in Hawaii, me and our friend in Chicago. I was never a PC gamer, so this was all new to me and I fell in love with it. I'd come home every night looking for them online. Once together, we'd make a game and spend half the night killing things and the other half goofing around and talking. All told, I ended up spending well over 350 hours with PSO. It was that good.
Well, with the good, came the bad. It was in January that Sega announced they would stop supporting the DC by the end of the year. This horrible news didn’t stop the online games from coming. Daytona USA online was another great online title. The next year of Sega Sports games came out and they were all online ready too (NBA2k1 was also featured online play, not just NFL). Also, an online Worms game came out- it was a total blast as you can imagine.
In August of 2001, Alien Front Online came out. It was a fairly simple car combat game, with online play. However, when you bought the game, a microphone was included. That’s right, with Alien Front Online, you could actually talk to your enemies and friends. The voice chat was a first in any console game and it showed. While the chat feature did work, it did so with mixed results. The biggest obstacle was the sound quality. Voices would sound tinny, and subsequently, difficult to understand. But, it did work better than I thought it would and it made for some memorable matches. The lobbys for AFO were some of the best that Sega ever made. This game also had the least amount of lag I ever experienced with Sega net. Believe me when I say that there was practically NO LAG. It was amazing. I played one night, for 9 straight hours. Never once did I get bogged down or for that matter, even notice lag. In a game where split second trigger pulls were key, AFO's online play was solid gold.
October marked the beginning of the end for online Dreamcast gaming. Strangely enough, it was the release of the much anticipated Phantasy Star Online version 2. Gamers who had already gotten their PSO characters up to level 100 (no small feat at all!) were chomping at the bit for something new. Well, PSO2 did offer some new stuff, but it could hardly be considered a sequel. The list of improvements included:
- a very hard mode that let gamers get their original characters all the way up to level 200.
- lobby soccer. This let gamers to play a game of soccer while waiting for buddies in the lobby’s.
- When you played on very hard, the levels took on a different look. For example, the end boss of the first level was now an ice dragon instead of a fire breathing one.
Well, that was about it. The very hard mode was worth it to many, but the lack of new areas disappointed many. Also, Sega decided to include a fee to play online with PSO2. Hackers had done a number on PSO version 1. In order to prevent this, Sega had to do numerous updates to the servers. Well, this cost them money, so with PSO2, they charged gamers so they could maintain the servers to prevent hacking. The fee was small- $15 every three months. Not bad at all, but considering that the original Phantasy Star was still free to play online- many just stuck to it instead.
Like I said, PSO version 2 was the beginning of the end for SegaNet and online gaming with the Dreamcast. Virtua Tennis 2 was supposed to be online ready, but that was canned. The same was true with NHL 2k2. No dice. Propeller Arena- a very cool looking dog fighting multiplayer deathmatch game that was being made by AM2 was totally scrapped. It looked really fun and it was another title that was going to use voice chat. Oh, what could have been....
Aside from a great online version of Bomberman, Sega net pretty much died at the end of 2001. Sega Net as we know it was scrapped and all Sega net accounts were turned over to earthlink. Early in 2002, the real shit hit the fan. Sega required everyone who wanted to play games online to pay $9.95 a month. This fee was for every game that was on the Sega servers (PSO and PSO2 were not included because they had their own servers). Older games like NFL 2k1 were still free, but it was too late. The players had left. PSO still had life, but it was nowhere near as busy as it was in its prime. I remember going online every night and struggling to find an open lobby. It was that packed. Nothing was cooler than knowing that 10,000 other gamers were out there, waiting for you to meet them and play together.
So, early in 2002, Sega net passed away in its sleep. It was not even one year old. It really was a tragedy that this community of gamers couldn’t survive. Those who used it will tell that it was some of the most fun they ever had gaming. I myself met friends that I still talk to today. In fact, my old PSO buddies are eagerly awaiting the GameCube version of the game to come out. We can only ‘dream’ that the game will ‘cast’ the same addictive spell that the original did. J
Man, I miss Sega net. I really haven’t enjoyed a game since it was around. Hopefully one of the new systems will get things right and create an online gaming environment that works. I myself am cheering for all of them. Surely one of these companies will get things right. Sega proved that online gaming on a console does work. But, being an innovator in the console market rarely pays off. Sega has learned that the hard way.
The End.
Below are some reviews and previews of the games discussed above. Check them out if you have the time, or better yet- go play them
IGN review of NFL2k1
IGN review of Phantasy Star Online
IGN review of Alien Front Online
IGN review of Quake 3
IGN preview of Propeller Arena- must read!- this game looks real cool!!
