Ten years ago today, at around 5pm, I was sitting on the top deck of a stinking double decker bus with two weighty plastic bags clasped tight to my side. Inside, a pristine, launch day Sega Dreamcast, a vat of peripherals and the vast majority of the launch titles. I'd saved all summer, sold my chipped PlayStation for £30 more than it was worth, worked my fingers at least slightly closer to the bone, all for this moment, all for the wonder that rested in those crisp, enormous bags.
I got the console home, unpacked everything with the due diligence of an architect carefully revealing a fragment of ancient pottery. This was the first time in all of my gaming life that I had caught up with technology. More often than not I was a generation behind; Spectrum instead of C64, Master System 2 instead of Mega Drive, Mega Drive instead of PlayStation, and I only got one of those a couple of years in and had to spend a month playing the demo disc that came with the console because I couldn't afford any games. Not this time though, oh no, this time I was cutting edge.
Once my prized possession was connected to the knackered old TV, it was time to decide what to play first; Sonic Adventure, obviously, a re-imagining of a childhood hero. I opened the box; no disc. Perplexed, vaguely terrified, I tried the next game; no disc. Hands shaking with rage and disbelief I scrambled for my other purchases, yanking open the cheap plastic to be greeted, over and over again, by a disc shaped absence. I could feel an expletive brewing deep in my belly, a scream of gargantuan proportions, the sort that wakes the dead. Then I realised the boxes were double sided and the discs were all in the back. It's a bit like a microcosm for the whole Dreamcast saga, Sega starting off as they meant to go along, getting us early adopters ready for the pain of having to say goodbye too soon.
I'm not afraid to admit that the Dreamcast is, and will likely remain, my favourite console. Online gaming, amazing peripherals, the strongest launch day line up of any console ever, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, Virtua Tennis, these are all mine. It's like the first band you love, and I mean really love, are always your favourite band, even if you stop listening to them. Your tastes change, you move on to bigger and better things, but there's always a part of you that belongs to your first. The blue swirl made me the gamer I am today, and for that I'll never forget it.
Even if it did look like a futuristic Japanese toilet.
