DREAMCAST SYSTEM OFF TO SLOW START.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

The launching Thursday of Dreamcast, Sega's video game system, had been heavily hyped as the biggest opening day ever in entertainment, with sales forecast at $45 million to $90 million, but San Fernando Valley game players were not beating paths to local dealers as retailers had hoped they would.

While a Sega spokeswoman said about 1,000 people lined up outside a San Jose store at midnight to get their reserved Dreamcasts, Valley stores reported sales at or below expected levels.

``So far our sales are kind of disappointing,'' Derek Young of Best Buy in Woodland Hills said late Thursday afternoon. ``I'd say probably in the last few hours I've been here, we've had a handful sold. The games are moving well, but not the systems.''

He said Sega might have done better by offering more game titles and releasing the system on Labor Day weekend, rather than on a school day. He acknowledged, however, that Dreamcast's unsurpassed graphics make game development more complex, like sophisticated Disney animation compared with TV's more primitive-looking ``South Park.''

The Dreamcast display at Toys R Us in Woodland Hills bore a sign announcing a temporary limit of one to a customer, even as about 20 boxes went unclaimed on the surrounding shelves by early afternoon.

Response was better at the small Software Etc. store in Topanga Plaza, where employees said about 50 people were ready to buy when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Traffic slowed during school hours, but picked up again in late afternoon.

David Bedran of North Hollywood, a 21-year-old computer technician, had stopped in that store looking for computer equipment but found himself taken in by the Dreamcast display near the entrance.

``This is the game that got me going,'' he said, manipulating the controller through higher and higher levels of Soul Caliber, a hand-to-hand combat game with a variety of characters and backgrounds and an even wider range of weapons but, mercifully, no blood.

The basic system runs $199 for the box and a single controller, and game disks sell for about $50 each. At those prices, the typical Dreamcast customer is a male in his late teens or early 20s, area retailers say, or a generous parent of a lucky kid.

Mindy Hibler of West Hills purchased a system and a Sonic Adventure game for her son, Max, for his ninth birthday Saturday. She also picked up four controllers so his buddies can get in on the action.

``He has a Nintendo 64, PlayStation, all the Gameboys,'' Hibler said. She expects Dreamcast will be very popular with Max, his cousins, his father and other game fans who come by. ``We have a fun house,'' she said.

At Toys R Us in Woodland Hills, the Dreamcast demonstrator was set up beside an older rival system. It was Dreamcast's new Sonic Adventure game that drew the attention of 6-year-old Michael Olsey. He watched appreciatively even as his grandmother, Fran Olsey, visiting from Chesterfield, Mo., balked at the asking price.

``They want to send us to the poorhouse, don't they?'' she said. ``And I'm the grandma who buys these things.''

Steven Harbert, head of electronics at Toys R Us in Van Nuys, said customers ordered about 80 of his 150 systems before they arrived, and some of these buyers were waiting outside when doors opened at 9:30 a.m.

His store rode the tide of Dreamcast hype, setting up demos about three weeks ago to whet players' appetites. At times, Harbert said, he feels like an arcade manager.

``The kids come in and try to stay there all day,'' he said. ``You have to regulate it and make sure everybody's taking turns.''

Gary Richardson, 33, of Reseda picked up the system he ordered a month ago and tinkered with it at home for 30 minutes before going to work as a computer operator at a printing company.

Along with the basic system, he bought a second controller and the Soul Caliber game. He looks forward to using the system's unique Internet capabilities, which will allow for interactive play and downloading different game features and levels.

Chris Jones, a 14-year-old sophomore at El Camino High School in Woodland Hills, said he took a job as a summer camp counselor with the aim of earning enough for a Dreamcast setup.

He took home the basic system, a second controller at $25, six of the seven games he wanted for $300 and a memory card, $20. For all that, he worked 8-1/2-hour days for eight weeks, baby-sat and squirreled away his allowance.

If there is a peer-pressure chain reaction at school, Jones admits to starting it.

``I reserved it the first day it was available, so I pressured a lot of people into buying it,'' he said.