website/content/museum/sega-dreamcast.md

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Sega Dreamcast	Consoles	name image company company_name tabs emulators comments oc_id source Dreamcast /media/museum/photos/sega_dreamcast_1.png /companies/sega Sega emulators title url platform text Chankast http://www.chanka.org/ Windows The first Dreamcast emulator to play games. Good compatibility but no longer updated. author date text Zaius (USA) Friday 17th September 2021 The only console I ever pre-ordered. 9/9/99! author date text ''CABBIK'' (England) Saturday 13rd January 2018 Now the DC was definately the underdog of it''s era, and it''s sad to have to admit it given it was (in reality) a bloody fine bit of kit. I can even recall, when these were put on sale in Electronics Boutique stores, a few days earlier helping to create some pre-order promo flyers using scanned in images from a Sega catalog, via a parallel scanner, and trying to carve an isolated image using Photoshop on a 286 PC with nowhere near enough memory and the many crashes that involved. Mind you, i did end up owning one (along with a copy of every official, and some promotional copies of never-released titles), and damn near every accessory whilst it was still being retailed (including that rare Ethernet addon which i never actually got to use). I gifted the set to a collector a few years ago, but the second fishguts console (used for spares) eventually became a case for various different SBC''s (and i am talking way earlier stuff then the PI) and even the high-capacity optical drive got reused. A good end story to a much missed proof that Win CE was actually useful for more than PDA type application and data collection devices. author date text matthew (San Antonio Tx United States) Wednesday 26th November 2014 I love this system it has great games and homebrew sadly sony killed sega with the help of illuminati much like bill gates did to commodore i would highly recommend getting one of these systems you won''t be disappointed with the experience of it. author date text Cas (Netherlands) Monday 18th February 2013 John, seriously. These things happen. Just buy another Dreamcast and don''t be a pussy. author date text regularg0nz0 (USA) Friday 28th October 2011 I''m surprised that there''s no mention that the core operating system in this console is Windows CE. This was kind of a big deal at the time, and was Microsoft''s way of getting a good look at what went into creating a console. author date text John (Mobius) Saturday 1st October 2011 I remember having one of these when I was 5... Good times... Then we moved and there was a PS2... Little did I know it would kill my favorite thing abot sega... Consoles, man! My hatred towards that playstaition 2 grew... and now this!? I will never buy another playstation for as long as I live! I got a chance to play anothervDreamcast once... But i''ll always remember, My 1st Dreamcast... But I never got a chance to say goodbye to it... SEGA FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! author date text Wenlock (Australia) (Australia) Sunday 12th June 2011 I gather quite a number where sold in Australia, though I can''t say I saw much of them. I''ve seen 2ndhand controllers in 2nd hand stores. author date text Raindance Rob (UK) Sunday 1st August 2010 while the Sega Dreamcast wasnt a bad console it was let down by the games that were released for it, most were boaring imo. the best games were Virtua Fighter 3 $ Crazy Taxi author date text Andy (USA) Sunday 2nd November 2008 Certain games like Sonic Adventure and Skies of Arcadia had mini games you could download into the VMU to play "offline." These were fairly basic due to the graphics limitations of the VMU (very low res monochrome). author date text Falco Lombadi Friday 4th July 2008 The Sega Dreamcast's VMU cards not only stores thye progress on the games, but on the games, (I don't know for sure, getting all my information from the internet and not owning a Dreamcast yet myself), you can download games onto the VMU card. (This I am sure of) author date text Robert (USA) Wednesday 14th November 2007 i own one it is like no other sega system its best 3d graphics out of any system they made it is not backwards compatible i thought i would get that out there it cost me 200.00 i think i have ten of the fifteen games that came out in the u.s.a. 1246 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230209062050/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=1246 2023-02-09

The Dreamcast, as it would come to be known, was the result of two competing development projects. Two teams, one from Japan and one from America, were tasked with creating a new console, mainly to get a head start in the next gen battle after the Saturn's lack of success.

The machines were quite similar with both teams settling on the Hitachi SH-4 for the CPU, the main difference being the choice of manufacturer for the graphics chip. The Japanese team went for a chip based on VideoLogic's PowerVR technology. This machine was codenamed White Belt, Guppy, and Katana. 3dfx was the company of choice for the American team. Using technology based on the Voodoo 2 chip these prototypes were codenamed Black Belt, Shark and Dural. This project came to an end when 3dfx revealed details of their deal with Sega, which lead to the Japanese team being given the go ahead to develop what would become the Dreamcast.

When the Dreamcast launched in 1998 it was by far the most powerful console available, as was demonstrated by Soul Calibur which featured stunning animation and could easily have been mistaken for a tech demo. Early sales were very strong, with the console breaking records for pre-orders and first day sales. However, Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 2 in April 1999, almost a year before it launched, had a dramatic impact on sales. PlayStation had become a household name while Sega's image had been severely damaged by previous hardware such as the 32X and Mega CD. Sales slowed as both consumers and developers waited for the launch of the PS2.

In January 2001 Sega announced that Dreamcast production would cease by March that year. This would be the end of Sega's presence in the home console business, although the company would continue as a software publisher and an arcade machine developer.

Software was still developed by a number of companies including Sega who released their final Dreamcast game, Puyo Pop Fever, in February 2004. Independent games continued to be developed, the most recent being released in March 2007.

The Dreamcast was pretty much developed around the Sega Model-3 arcade system board & stuck into a console. The Model 3 arcade system was more familiar as the arcade machine that run games such as Daytona USA & Sega Rally in many amusement arcades in the mid 90's. The Saturn was also based on an arcade system, known as the "Titan" or ST-V which was more familiar in arcades running familiar games such as Virtua Racing & early versions of Virtua Fighter. it is also rumoured the dreamcast used a 3dfx Voodoo 2 graphics system in early versions.

We need more info about this console ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.