As last throws of the dice go, the Sega Dreamcast was more than a good one. It looked to be right on the money. That was before Sega began to indulge in another round of profoundly baffling self-sabotage.

Not having learnt all the lessons of the Saturn, Sega Japan launched the Dreamcast early in its home market, once again, like the Saturn, failing to support its new console with sufficent titles. The predictable results followed with opening sales proving dismal.

However, on the other side of the Atlantic it was to be a refreshingly different story.

For once having allowed themselves enough lead time to have a sufficent number of launch titles ready and supported by a decent marketing campaign the launch of the Dreamcast in North America was to prove the single biggest opening day for any electronic entertainment medium in history. Bigger than any opening day box-office for a movie or first day returns on a DVD or CD launch, Sega of America hadn't experienced such success since the days of the Genesis.

But there was a problem.

Sports games were vitally important to the North American market and even though the Dreamcast launched withNFL2K, Sega was engaged in a very public falling out with the premier third party sports game developer - Electronic Arts. In just a short space of time EA vowed that they were going to "crush" not only the Dreamcast but Sega itself.

Sega’s long and checkered history of trouble with third party developers couldn't have been illustrated in a more damaging fashion. But, as with the Saturn, Sega looked to its own in-house developers to supply the games the format desperately needed. Thankfully they didn't fail to deliver.

The Dreamcast's official end came in early 2001, just two years and two months after its November 1998 launch in Japan. It was to be something of a lingering death. Though offical titles for it had ended, during the next decade games continued to be released for the Dreamcast, the most recent release was in 2010. The irony here is that all of these post-Dreamcast games are the work of third party developers, ports of Japan only coin-op games - that have become sought after in the West.

Sega never lost their courage to innovate, quirky versions of the hardware, like the ill devised ‘Divers’ Dreamcast system, limited edition box sets featuring a plethora of different coloured consoles, the fishing controller, the Maraccas, even right at the end, the Segagaga retrospective box set. It’s no wonder that Sega remains so highly collectible today with such a rich vein of novelties to track down.

Even today, the Dreamcast back catalog looks fresh, that classic Sega sheen dripping over ever fast moving sprite. The little incidental details, like a hot air balloon or hang glider travelling overhead, or clouds parting to reveal that classic deep blue Sega sky. Or that undefinable musical style that lived on after magical sound shower to infect every Sega title. Nurtured the king of 1980s coin-ops, the Dreamcast evokes so many feelings, the first time you saw the After Burner coin-op in action, or wrestled with Space Harrier, or the way we all want to sing ‘Daytonaaaaa’ in that idiotic way. Somehow that same Sega magic has been suringed into pretty much all their first party titles.

The end of the Dreamcast was also the end of Sega as a home videogaming console producer. In perhaps the final irony Sega intended to embark upon a new career, hiring themselves out as a third party developer to the rival companies who helped destroy them. Super Monkey Ball on the Nintendo Gamecube and Virtua Fighter 4 on the Playstation 2 were massive hits and Sega also supported the newest entrant to the home console videogaming market - Microsoft - by releasing follow up titles to both Panzer Dragoon, and Jet Set Radio, and converting the classicShenmue 2.

If nothing else these games prove that Sega’s in-house software designers had lost none of their originality or creative flare but to parent company, CSK, even these belated successes were greeted with indifference. With Sega still in major financial crisis CSK sold their controlling interest to fellow coin-op manufacturer, Sammy in 2003.  

In the years following the new owners have scaled back the arcade division of Sega as well as re-amalgamating all of the creative teams that were established to support the Dreamcast. Several of Sega's best designers have left while those that remain have had to watch as many of their own creations have been sold off to third party developers.

New titles are few and far between these days and to younger generations of gamers Sega are perhaps only known either for the Yakuza franchise - a gritty yet colourful take on the Japanese underworld (which recently took a bizarre turn by incorporating Zombies into its on-going storyline) or the umpteenth repackaging of Sonic The Hedgehog, this time available for download for the iPhone or iPad.

Of course the Master System, the Mega Drive, the Saturn and the Dreamcast have all gone on to have a life amongst the Retrogaming community, and I for one am glad of that. I grew up with Sega and whilst I played the games as a kid and loved them, it is only now as an adult that I fully appreciate the imagination and indeed sheer artistry that went into so many of those games. As a commercial entity Sega failed, missed opportunities, blown chances, incompetent and plainly strange decision which today make Sega a ‘how to’ lesson in the ways a business shouldn't be run.

But as a legacy of failure, when I think of all those great games, it's one I can live with.