Dear Future Gamer

Deciding against the usual European botched game conversion and sloppy release schedules, I decided to purchase my Dreamcast from my local import shop. It cost £250, which I think is quite reasonable for a machine with a 56k modem, guaranteed to run games full-screen and full-speed. I bought one game - Sonic - and lo and behold! I can't play the f****** thing. Yes, I've fallen victim to the faulty GD-ROM farce which affected the US launch. For Sega's sake, I hope the European launch goes smoothly. This could be an early nail in their coffin if even a small proportion of discs are faulty. It just stinks. Where's the quality control?

I won't get my replacement Sonic until next Wednesday (and can't buy any other US game until then) so I'll just have to grin and bear it. If anyone is going to be looking forward to their Dreamcast on Thursday, perhaps you should buy at least two games to make sure that you don't have wha will be an expensive ornament gracing your living room for a few days.

John Boettcher

FG: Sega reckon it was just one US plant that reproduced faulty disks. Hardly an excuse, admittedly, but hopefully you'll get sorted out soon enough. Let's hope there's no repeat of this in Europe.