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Welcome to this (completely reworked) section of my site
which is devoted to all things Dreamcast.
As I live in the UK, most of the information is obviously from a UK perspective,
although the Dreamcast was of course popular in many other countries in europe,
and in particular, the US and Japan.Although I'm a game collector, you may
well be wondering why I have taken the time to create a section devoted solely
to a 90s game console, when this site is really dedicated to classic arcade
game emulation.Well, there are quite a few reasons really, firstly, no other
console has made such an amazing first impression on me, either before, or
since, not just the console, but because it had some of the best original
games ever made.Secondly, the Dreamcast had essentially the same technology
and power, as Sega's NAOMI arcade system.Lastly, the Dreamcast had, and still
has, one of the largest homebrew scenes of any console, which of course includes
the development of arcade emulators, and rather ironically, emulation of
the Dreamcast itself, which is covered in a new part I'll be adding soon.
It's hard to believe, that it's actually been over a decade
now, since the release of the Dreamcast games console, but it was, and will
remain, one of the most highly regarded, and incredible consoles ever
produced.Way ahead of it's time, it was the first console to have a built
in modem, which not allowed internet access, but for the first time, introduced
console gamers, to what was Sega's vision, online gaming.So, it's a shame
then, that so few people actually owned one, despite being launched ahead
of it's rivals, the PS2, and then later, the Gamecube and Xbox.The success
of the Playstation 1, had made Sony, despite being a newcomer to games consoles,
a market leader, and so many people, especially parents and Playstation 1
owners, were convinced enough by Sony's hype, and the fact that it would
inlcude DVD playback, to wait almost another year for the £299.99 PS2,
rather buy a Dreamcast.However, for those, like myself, that did choose to
buy one, it was an amazing experience, not only because of it's technical
innovations, but ultimately, because it had such a great selection of games
available, helped by the fact that Sega didn't need to rely on third party
producers, as it was a game developer itself, both for the console, and coin-op
arcade markets.Sega, was using, what was essentially Dreamcast hardware,
in it's next generation arcade game cabinets, in the form of the NAOMI system,
so perfect, and exclusive to Dreamcast ports (at the time) of it's great
arcade games were now possible, as well as some great originals, including
the incredible gaming experience that was, Shenmue.A four disc epic costing
millions, that was produced by Sega's AM2 division, under the leadership
of Yu Suzuki , one of
the gaming industry's greatest icons.
Shenmue (UK, PAL)
Shenmue Screenshot
Yu Suzuki
Now Playing: Shenmue
Please use the above controls to stop or play
the background music
The Dreamcast had a short life in the stores, production
came to an end in 2001, when Sega announced that they would pull out of the
console market, and instead concentrate on producing games for other
consoles.Most stores, almost immediately following this, chose to get rid
of their stock quickly, as there was no point allocating expensive store
space to a discontinued console, this meant that the prices were heavily
reduced.The last deal I remember seeing before they seemed to vanish, was
in Woolworths (sadly now gone from our high streets), which in the end, were
selling Dreamcast consoles for £49.99.
Of course, now, we have a new generation of consoles,
which are far more powerful than either the PS2 or Dreamcast, such as the
Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, and more recently the PS3, although some their
features were actually first seen on the Dreamcast.As a collector I now have
a few of these other systems, but like many other Dreamcast owners, I still
enjoy the Dreamcast gaming experience, and find myself being amazed sometimes
at how good the games still look and play after all these years.So, if you
are one of those people that have only ever heard of the Dreamcast, perhaps,
after spending some time in this section, you'll appreciate my enthusiasm
for it, and realise that all these years on, it's far from being a dead console,
and hopefully buy one for yourself, especially as you can get them used for
about £10-£20.If you do, you'll wonder why you never considered
buying it all those years ago, and instead, possibly chose to wait over a
year for a PS2, which cost you £100 more, only to find yourself later
enjoying playing great games, like Crazy Taxi on it, which were Dreamcast
game ports.
OK, now that you've been introduced to the Dreamcast,
it's time to find out more about it.I hope that the following segments, will
help you appreciate just what made the Dreamcast so special, and such a major,
and exciting event in gaming history.
The Dreamcast Story
We start in the 1990's, a decade in which the established gaming brands,
Atari, Sega and Nintendo pretty much owned the game console market, as they
had in the 80's, with their 4th generation consoles, the Jaguar, Megadrive,
the worlds first 16bit console, and Super Nintendo (SNES) respectively.However,
when it came to releasing the the 5th generation of consoles, that all changed.
The 64bit Atari Jaguar
The Original Sega MegaDrive
The Super Nintendo or SNES
Atari never regained the success they'd had in the 80s, and decided to leave
the home console market, after the Jaguar had proved to be a commercial failure,
but there was now a new kid on the block to take their place.Actually, there
were two, both better known for their TV's & VCR's, firstly there was
the 3DO, released initially by Panasonic, which despite winning Time magazine's
'Product of the year 1994', didn't survive.Then, a little later, along
came a more serious contender for the home gaming market, Sony Computer
Entertainment, with the Playstation, which proved a massive success.
The Sony Playstation or PS1
The Sega Saturn
The Nintendo 64 or N64
Sega, and Nintendo, both saw their market share dwindle, despite both having
success with their new consoles, the Sega Saturn, the worlds first 32bit
console, which like the Playstation was a CD based system, and the Nintendo
64 which used expensive cartridges.Sony, with their Playstation, despite
being new to world of console gaming, eventually took the market lead away
from Nintendo, leaving Sega trailing behind.Sega soon realised, that if it
was to regain strength in the console market, it would have to release something
amazing, and do so, before anyone else.
Sega's next, and ultimately last console project, was named Katana, and once
news about it's development spread in 1997, gamers all over the world became
really excited in anticipation of it's release, as they were teased by
promotional videos, demonstrating it's awesome 128bit PowerVR based graphics.It's
sleek design, made it the smallest of the next generation 128bit consoles,
but despite it's compact size, it would provide a massive advancement in
technology over the existing consoles, being 4 times more powerful than the
Playstation.It would be the world's first, to include 128bit graphics, and
a built in modem, which in partnership with BT, would not only provide internet
access, but also allow for online gaming via Sega's own Dreamarena service,
and importantly, this service would be free, although you'd still need to
pay your ISP's dialup charges for access.To gain popularity for it's free
DreamArena online service, and the Dreamcast's online gaming features, they
later gave away an excellent puzzle game called Chu Chu Rocket.In the UK,
existing console owners, could also get if for free, by ordering via the
Dreamarena service.
Sega's FREE online service, DreamArena
Chu Chu Rocket, given away for FREE
Unlike the earlier systems, it would also have a new custom CD system, called
GD ROM, as DVD was deemed too expensive, this enabled each disc to store
upto 1.2gb of data, almost double that of existing game CD's.Another world
first, and perhaps the most amazing, is that it would offer all of this,
for an initial selling price of £199.99, which would be the lowest launch
price ever, but more importantly for Sega, it would also launch way ahead
of it's rivals new consoles, the Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Gamecube.
The UK Dreamcast demo stand
A boxed Dreamcast console
Official Sega Dreamcast Promotional Video
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After much anticipation, and with many stores taking massive pre orders,
the Dreamcast was finally launched in the UK, after some initial delays,
on 14th October 1999.It was a great launch success, with plenty of stock,
despite it being one of the first times that many stores opened at midnight
to satisfy demand, whilst others had customers camping outside overnight,
to be one of the first to get their hands on one.Customers were also able
to choose from 18 great launch game titles, including Sonic Adventure, Soul
Calibur, Power Stone and Trickstyle.When you got your Dreamcast home, and
opened the box, you'd find the following items..
The Dreamcast console, power lead, modem lead, switchable RF lead, gamepad,
instruction manual, a disc containing playable game demos and movies, and
finally, a disc containing Sega's Dreamkey internet browser, which allowed
access not only to the internet, but also Sega's own DreamArena online service.
At the time, I was upgrading my first PC, so it wasn't until Christmas that
I got one, which was thanks to my wife, who very kindly purchased it for
me as a present.During the important sales period leading up to Christmas,
the Dreamcast sold very well, and despite the hype and fear surrounding the
millennium bug, which was going to bring all computer based systems to a
halt as we entered the year 2000, the worlds computers and Dreamcasts continued
to work, unfortunately for Sega, their decision to go with GD ROM, was not.As
the following months went by, they began to lose sales, as many people were
swayed by Sony's hype, and decided to wait for the PS2, as despite the fact
it lacked some of the Dreamcasts features, it would, be able to playback
DVD films, which considering the price of standalone DVD players at the time
(approx £180 for a typical own brand model), made it sound very attractive,
effectively being 2 machines in 1.
So, the Dreamcast had a very short production life, and became Sega's last
console.Had they decided to also opt for a DVD system, and put as much effort
into marketing as Sony had, then perhaps things would have been different,
and we'd actually be using the next generation of Sega console.Piracy was
perhaps the final reason that convinced Sega to leave the console market
for good, as coding groups discovered quite early on in it's life, that it
was possible to create 'backups' of GD ROMs, by stripping away some of the
data, so that it would fit on a CD-R, and be playable without any modchip,
merely by using a Boot CD.So, Sega was now a 3rd party games developer, but
did they really leave the console business? The Microsoft Xbox , and
even the Xbox 360, are sometimes thought of as the Dreamcast 2, as unlike
the PS2, or at least initially, Microsoft had decided, like Sega before
them, that online gaming was going to become a major part of their consoles
success, the difference being, that Microsoft had the financial power to
bring it to the masses, and make it work, but there's another, more recently
discovered reason.Sega already had a working relationship with Microsoft,
following it's decision to run a custom version of the Microsoft Windows
CE operating system on the Dreamcast.Once the Dreamcast had failed, Sega
had hoped, that they could persuade Microsoft to make the Xbox, Dreamcast
compatible, allowing Dreamcast owners to upgrade to a new console, whilst
retaining the ability for online gaming, with their Dreamcast games collection,
however, eventually, Microsoft rejected the idea, as they weren't prepared
to offer online gaming support for the Dreamcast games.Shame, although they
did offer Sega a lot of help, in it's decision to become a 3rd party developer,
hence some of the great exclusive Dreamcast games, were then ported to the
Xbox, such as Shenmue 2, and Jet Set Radio.So for many people the Xbox is,
at least in spirit, the new Dreamcast.
Return to dreamcast menu , or continue to next part..
What makes it
tick
The Dreamcast packed a lot of power for it's size, and essentially had the
same hardware technology, as Sega's new generation of coin-op arcade cabinets,
the Naomi system (And you thought Naomi was just the name of the girl in
Shenmue).Actually, the only real difference between the Dreamcast, and what's
inside the base of the Naomi cabinet, is that the Naomi system reads it's
game data from ROMs, not GD ROM discs, and has more memory.
The NAOMI system arcade cabinet
The NAOMI system hardware, PCB, and game cartridge
One of the first things that appeals to you when playing any game, apart
from the gameplay itself, is the graphics, and let's face it, if you
walk into any arcade, Sega games have always stood out from the crowd, not
only because of their cabinet designs, but because of what they managed to
achieve visually, by pushing graphics technology.Remember how amazed you
were, by the speed of the 'super scaler' sprite graphics, when you first
discovered Sega's Outrun in the arcade?.Unfortunately, despite the best efforts
of the software developers, trying to port arcade games like this, to less
powerful home systems, was never going to achieve the same experience, which
was at best, rather disappointing, as you can see in the screen comparison
below.
Sega's Outrun (Arcade version)
Sega's Outrun (C64 computer version)
Click the PLAY button below to listen to Outrun's "Splash Wave" song
If you visit the arcade in Dreamcast game Shenmue 2 (also on Xbox), you'll
find an Outrun machine, which is an arcade perfect port of the orginal coin-op
game, whilst in the arcade of Shenmue 1, you'll find Space Harrier, both
designed by Yu Suzuki.
Thanks to the NAOMI arcade system, and the Dreamcast's spec being so similar,
the Dreamcast was perhaps, the worlds first game console, that could not
only play arcade games, with the same identical visuals and performance,
but in some cases, it could also improve on them, adding new modes or features,
adding lasting appeal.So, how can a console so small, provide the power and
speed needed to run a NAOMI arcade game like Crazy Taxi.
Well, this is how it's done, these are the Dreamcast's technical specifications:
Components
The Dreamcast's PCB or motherboard
The Dreamcast's GD ROM, PSU & Fan
CPU : Hitachi SH-4, 200MHz clock
rate, 360 MIPS (millions of instructions per second), 1.4 GigaFLOPS
(floating-point operations per second), 128-bit 3D calculations, 64-bit data
bus, 800+ MBytes/second bus bandwidth
Graphics
Core : 128bit NEC PowerVRSG, 3 million polygons/second
peak rendering rate, Perspective-Correct Texture Mapping, Point, Bilinear,
Trilinear and Anisotropic Mip-map filtering, Gouraud shading 32-bit z-buffer,
Colored light sourcing, Full scene anti-aliasing, Hardware-based Fog, Bump
mapping, 24-bit color, Hardware-based texture compression, Shadow and Light
volumes, Super sampling
Memory : 16 MB main RAM,
8 MB video RAM, 2 MB sound RAM
Resolution : 640 x 448,
could provide high definition output using an external, and optional VGA
box.
Colors : 16.7 million
Sound: Yamaha Audio Core, 32-bit
RISC CPU, DSP for real-time effects, 64 sound channels, ,Full 3D sound support,
Hardware-based audio compression
Dreamcast Control
Pad : Digital and analog directional controls, Dual
analog triggers, using new (VMU) Virtual Memory Unit data save unit
Expansion
Options : Modem: UK 33.6kb per second transfer rate
(56kb in U.S.) upgradable using an optional Broadband adapter
Operating
System : Customized Microsoft Windows CE and Sega
operating system
Media : GD-ROM (GigaByte Disk-ROM)
Drive - Maximum speed 12X 1.2 GigaByte capacity
Console
Dimensions : 7 7/16" X 7 11/16" X 3" , 190 mm (W)
x 195 mm (H) x 78 mm (D)
Weight:
4.4 pounds, 2.0 kg
The heart of the Dreamcast, the CPU, is a RISC processor. RISC stands for
reduced instruction set computer, which quite simply means that it can perform
better than many fast CPU's, because it works using fewer, and more simplified
instructions.Another interesting thing about the Dreamcast, is that it's
operating system is loaded in with each game, and some of it's games use
a special version of the Microsoft OS, Windows CE, which was customised
especially for Sega, to allow game developers to make use of features such
as DirectX.When most people think about Windows CE, they often think of the
many PDA's and smartphones, which use it as their operating system, but it
was actually developed to be very flexible, and is even used in items, such
as 'Sat Navs'.Other games use Sega's own developed operating system.
Official Dreamcast Gamepad
So, that covers the console itself, but of course you also need a means of
control, and the Dreamcast game pad was very unique.It had the now common
control pad, and analogue directional stick, as well as 4 action buttons,
but it also introduced a new feature, L & R pressure sensitive triggers,
this made driving games in particular, much more realistic.It also contained
2 socket slots, which were used for the VMU and vibration packs (more on
these in the Accessories part).A lot of the design features of the Dreamcast
control pad, were used in the original Xbox controller, which was very similar
in style.
Total Control Plus PS 2 DC
There were also adapters produced, like this Total Control Plus, which enabled
you to use Playstation control pads with the Dreamcast.Personally, I find
the Dreamcast control pad to have a good control layout, and more comfortable
to use than most.
Return to dreamcast menu , or continue to next part..
Controllers & Accessories
As with any games console, going right back to the days of Atari VCS 2600,
it will be supported by a range of optional controllers and accessories,
produced both by the consoles manufacturer itself, as well as 3rd party
companies, and the Dreamcast was certainly no exception, with perhaps the
biggest range of peripherals, and dedicated controllers ever seen on a console,
although sadly, some of them, were never released in the UK.So in this part
we'll take a look at some of these, which include some very unusual, and
amazing for the time items, but before we do, there's one in particular,
that's important to look at in more detail, as rather than an accessory,
it is really, very much a required item if you own a Dreamcast.The VMU, or
Visual Memory Unit.
The VMU Visual Memory Unit
VMU 'Invaders' Mini Game
What is the VMU?
The memory card, that thinks it's a Gameboy.
Out of the box, the Dreamcast came with everything you needed to start playing
great games, and if you had an ISP, it could even browse the internet, however
as with previous consoles, if you wanted to save your game progress, then
you'd need to buy a plug in memory device.The Dreamcast memory device, was,
as you can see from the pictures, rather unique.Not only was it a memory
device offering 128KB of flash memory, for saving your game progress, but
it also sound, and a monochrome 48 x 32 dot matrix LCD display, which could
display the time, in game information, or even 'eye candy'.Finally, it could
even be used for playing mini games, which could be downloaded either from
the internet, or from various Dreamcast games, such as Sonic Adventure.It
plugged into the top socket on the Dreamcast control pad, so it's LCD display
was visible through the pads window.The bottom socket on the gamepad could
then be used for a vibration, or 'rumble' pack, or other device.
The official VMU in transparent colours
There were also many 3rd party VMU's, like those on the right, but almost
all of these were solely memory devices, as they lacked the buttons and LCD
screen, although they usually had more memory.
As you can see, it really does look like a mini gaming device, with a mini
control pad, and 2 action buttons.To allow use in this way, it could be powered
by 2 CR2032 batteries, although this wasn't necessary for using as a game
save device, or for games to use the LCD screen.
3rd Party VMU
Arcade Stick
This is the Dreamcast Arcade Stick, an official Sega Dreamcast product.For
those that love fighting type games, or shoot-em-ups, then this was a must
have.It is quite a large unit providing space at the front to rest your palm
whilst playing, and adding to the authentic arcade experience.The controls
and switches are the same as those used on real coin-op cabinets, so very
durable.Notice, that like the standard Dreamcast control pad, it also has
a VMU slot.The Arcade Stick's use, is really limited to the gaming genre's
already mentioned, not because of it's looks, but because it lacks the analogue
stick, and triggers required for most other types of games.
Steering Wheel
This is the official Sega Dreamcast Steering Wheel.It is a one piece unit,
not having the seperate pedals that some other units have.It's very comfortable
to use, and quite stable due to it's size and design.You may notice, that
this also features an intergrated VMU slot, a clever design feature, as you
could at a glance see any displayed game information on it's screen
Vibration (Rumble) Pack
This is another official Sega Dreamcast item, the Vibration Pack.The Dreamcast
control pad has 2 VMU slots, enabling this to be used at the same time as
a VMU.The Vibration pack, as it's name suggests vibrates your controller,
which can add realism to certains types of games.This works especially well
with racing games, an example, is that it can make your controller shake
when you leave the road, driving into a gravel verge, giving you the the
same feeling you'd experience through the steering wheel of a real car, doing
the same thing.The Vibration pack could also be used with lightguns.
Dream Gun & Dream Blaster
Here we have 2 lightguns that were made for the Dreamcast, the official Sega
product on the left is the Dream Gun, and the one on the right is the
Dreamblaster, produced by Mad Catz.Both had on board controls for game menu
navigation, and a rear VMU slot for a vibration pack.To save your game progress
required the use of a standard controller with a VMU plugged in at the
same time.The official lightgun, was quite hard to get hold of generally,
and so the Mad Catz Dreamblaster was probably more popular, and is indeed
the one I use.The Dreamblaster also has LED lights on it's barrel, which
are sequenced to look like a firing shot, each time the trigger is pressed.Both
lightguns were commonly bundled together with House of the Dead 2, which
in the UK was generally the only lightgun game available on the Dreamcast,
although others you could obtain from more specialist stores includes Virtua
Cop 2, Confidential Mission, and Death Crimson, although some of these were
import only games, and would therefore need a BOOT CD to work on a PAL Dreamcast
in the UK.
Keyboard & Mouse
These were both official Sega Dreamcast products.Rather strange items for
a games console you may think, but remember this was the first console with
a built in modem, so could be used with the Dreamkey browser for internet
access.They could also be used with certain games, in particular FPS (First
Person Shooters) like Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament.Perhaps the most
unusual game to make use of the keybard though was a version of House of
the Dead, called Typing of the Dead.Instead of shooting enemies, you had
to quickly type the word shown, so I suppose you could almost class it as
an educational game.
Fishing Controller
Fishing is a popular sport pastime, especially in the UK, and because of
this, virtual fishing had gained popularity in the arcades, so when Sega
decided to port Bass Fishing to the Dreamcast, they realised the one thing
that added to the realism of the game was of course the controller itself,
and so they would need to create a similar controller for the Dreamcast to
recreate the same gaming experience.The one on the left is the official Sega
Dreamcast Fishing Controller, the one on the right is the Fission version,
although they are very similar in design and features.The controller works
very well, and really does add to the enjoyment and realism of the game,
especially with the built-in vibration.Both have a side mounted reel, and
are motion sensitive, which allowed for realistic casting, as well as menu
navigation buttons.The Dreamcast had six fishing games, three of which were
released by Sega, Sega Bass Fishing 1 & 2, and Sega Marine Fishing, all
were ports of arcade games.Although the Fishing Controller is the best option
for playing these games, they can also be played using the standard controller,
but like the lightgun, most people purchased the Fishing Controller, bundled
with a game.
VGA box / cable
The Dreamcast is able to produce a crisp, high resolution 640 x 480 display
in VGA mode, which is made available using either the official Dreamcast
VGA box, or similar, such as the DC VGA Cable shown.This allowed it to be
connected to a PC monitor, or a TV with ED/HD TV support having a VGA input
or HDMI using an adapter, and resulted in a much better picture, although,
not all games were compatible.It's rival consoles, the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube
didn't natively support VGA mode, and so generally any VGA output was generated
from a lower quality composite source, rather than progressive scan.Quite
simply, with a VGA box, your games will look much better (similar to the
difference between watching a film on VHS and DVD).
RGB Scart Cable
RF Cable
Composite Cable
TV Connection Cables
Supplied with every Dreamcast console was the standard HKT-8830 RF Cable,
which allowed you to connect your console to any TV, using the aerial socket.To
allow you to keep your exisiting TV aerial cable connected, it had a loop
thru aerial socket.Obviously using the aerial socket means that the Dreamcast
would need to be tuned in, just like a TV channel, on a spare channel.The
RF cable does the job, but offers the poorest picture quality, so several
other options were available, which in order of increasing picture quality
are..
Composite Cable
This connects to the standard RCA Phono connections of your TV, with 3 seperate
plugs
Yellow - Composite Video
Red & White - Audio Left & Right (Stereo)
RGB Scart Cable
This is the most popular option, especially in the UK, and connects to your
TV's Scart socket, and provides RGB quality, when connected to an RGB enabled
Scart socket, usually AV1 on a TV with 2 Scart sockets.If your TV doesn't
support RGB, then you'll get composite video quality.ss
Beyond that, you also of course have the option of using it's VGA mode, which
offers a high resolution picture (see segment above).
Microphone
This, is a very unusual peripheral for a games console, but again, it
demonstrates just how far ahead of it's time the Dreamcast was, for here
we have a microphone.It plugs into the 2nd VMU slot, and could be used together
with the Dream Eye digital video camera (see below) for video conferencing,
or Sega's free telephone service, Dreamcall.However, it's main use was within
a game, that it was supplied with, called Seaman, or perhaps it should be
referred to as an interactive simulation, because it's hard to describe what
Sega's Seaman game actually is.Essentially, a virtual pet, with the body
of a fish and head of a human, that with advanced speech recognition, you
can actually talk to, using this microphone.The game is also well known for
featuring the voice of Leonard Nimoy, better known to many as Mr Spock.
Dreameye Digital Video Camera
Available only in Japan, was the Sega Dreameye digital video camera for the
Dreamcast, coming as a package which included, a headset microphone, which
connected to the 2nd VMU slot.Sega had big plans for the Dreamcast's online
capabilities, and this was essentially a webcam for the Dreamcast, enabling
users to not only participate in video chat, but also as a means of editing
and sending photo's to relatives all over the world.It had a very respectable
VGA resolution, which a decade on, it still standard for many low end camera
phones.
Twin Stick Controller
Designed specifically for the massive arcade gaming hit, Cyber Troopers Virtual
On (No not Battlezone!).Suprisingly, this wasn't the first time Sega had
produced a twin stick controller, they'd made one for the Saturn as well,
but this Dreamcast version, was much better quality.As with all of the
Dreamcast's controllers, it also features a VMU slot.There was also another
twin stick controller, but this was designed for 2 player fighting games,
and looked very much like the controls of an arcade game cabinet, except
it had dual VMU slots.
Dreamcast Karaoke Unit
As you're probably aware, Karaoke is a very popular not only in in Japan,
but all around the world, so with this in mind, Sega proudced this add-on
Karaoke unit for the Dreamcast.It features 2 microphone sockets, with independant
controls.It connects to the Dreamcast via the expansion port, so required
removing the modem.What was quite clever, is that instead of using Karaoke
discs, you downloaded the songs from Sega's online Karaoke service, which
with a 1 day pass costing 500 yen (About £3.40 as of 04/10), offered
a cheap way of getting new songs for your karaoke party.
Dreammovie VCD & MP3 Player
The Dreamcast, was able to play normal music CD's using it's built-in player,
but it couldn't play MP3's which had just started to become a popular music
format.This add-on gave the Dreamcast extra multimedia capabilities, allowing
you to not only play MP3's, but Video CD's (VCD's).VCD's were a popular format
at the time, allowing video to be stored on a normal CD, and offering a picture
quality that was somewhere between VHS & DVD, also retail movie DVD's,
and players were much more expensive.For added convenience, this Dreamcast
kit, also came with a remote control.
Dreamcast Maracas
These were designed specifically, for the hugely popular arcade game, Samba
De Amigo, which had been ported to the Dreamcast, and indeed were usually
sold together as a package for about £99.99.So, why so expensive?.Well
the technology which made it all work was rather expensive to produce at
the time.The Dance mat came with a sensor bar (Yes, before the Wii), which
was able to work out the positions of the maracas, using it's sensors
to pick up the signals from the ultrasonic transmitters contained in each
of the controllers.Despite the high price, this become a very popular Dreamcast
'party' game.
Dance Mat
The DDR Dance games were hugely popular in the arcades, and when Konami ported
them to the Playstation, complete with a Dance Mat controller, they became
just as popular in the home.Knowing this, Konami released an official Dance
Mat, and 2 dance games for the Dreamcast, DDR 2nd Mix, and DDR Club Version.The
Dance Mat itself was very hard to find, so many people opted to use a Playstation
mat (like the one shown) with a controller adapter.There was also another
game Dance style game which people soon discovered worked with the Dreamcast
Dance Mat, even though it wasn't mentioned, and that was Space Channel 5.
Densha De Go, Train Controller
This is another of Dreamcast's more unusual dedicated controllers, produced
by Taito, and designed for their train driving simulator game, Densha
De Go 2.Taito's Densha De Go series, was very popular in Japan, and allowed
players a graphically realistic simulation of driving a train, and although
you could use the standard control pad, this was obviously much better.Train
driving simulators are now very popular in other countries, especially in
the UK, since Microsoft released Microsoft Train Simulator.
Dreamcast 2 JAMMA Arcade
This rare conversion kit, is used to interface your Dreamcast to a JAMMA
arcade cabinet, a sort of poor mans Naomi game system.The JAMMA (Japan Amusement
Machinery Manufacturers Association) system, is a amusement industry
standard, which allows any JAMMA game boards to work on any JAMMA standard
game cabinet.This allows game operators to change games, without having to
change cabinets, but more importantly, it's easy to do, using a standard
JAMMA interface edge connector, so is almost plug & play.Prior to this,
arcade cabinets were mostly dedicated, meaning they were wired for a particular
game.If you own a JAMMA game cabinet, then this allows it to play Dreamcast
games via your console.Obviously these games differ to their Naomi arcade
versions, and so they are played using a credit for play time.This was first
used on Nintendo's Playchoice 10 and Sega's Mega Tech arcade cabinets, which
were essentially console based game systems, in which each coin inserted
would provide the player with an amount of play time.
Zip Drive
This is a picture of the very rare Dreamcast prototype Zip drive, of which
only one is known to exist.Zip drives were very popular at the time as back
up devices, due to the cost of CD rewriters, and this was going to be used
as as a sort of ultra high capacity game save device.However, it was too
late in the Dreamcast's life to become a viable reality.
Mod Chip & Boot Software
A lot of the Dreamcast's games were initially released in Japan first, whilst
others were only made for Japan.The Dreamcast, like other devices was region
locked, meaning that a UK consoles, would only play PAL UK versions of a
game.Like the Playstation, a mod chip was soon made available, which needed
to be soldered to the Dreamcast's PCB, and would allow the console to play
imported games.Of course this wasn't strictly legal, as it would also allow
you to play backups of game discs.The other problem with a modchip is that
it is very difficult to install, requiring you to take your console apart,
which would void any guarantee, and then do some very careful soldering.It
was soon realised however, that the Dreamcast didn't really have any real
security system, and could easily be soft-modded, ie using a software boot
disc, one of which was the commercial release DC-X, which allowed you to
play import games on your UK Dreamcast.A little while later some Dreamcast
homebrew scene developers released the Utopia Boot CD, which not only allowed
you to play import games, but also backups.
Broadband Adapter
The Dreamcast was the first games console to come with a modem included.The
UK console, came with a 33.6k modem, which provided dial up internet access
using Sega's own Dreamkey browser, and DreamArena online service.Although
moulded to form part of the consoles shape, the modem was an add-on unit
which connected to the Dreamcast's expansion interface.Later on Sega released
the Broadband adapter, which gave the Dreamcast, faster Broadband speed internet
access, unfortunately this was never released in the UK, perhaps, because
at the time, broadband access was still very expensive in the UK, and many
people still used dial-up internet access, either via a fixed monthly fee,
or using a pay as you go type plan.
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