Dreamcast

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Dreamcast

PAL Joypad with NTSC Dreamcast
Manufacturer	Sega
Type	Video game console
Generation	Sixth generation era
Retail availability	JP November 27, 1998 NA September 9, 1999 EU October 14, 1999 AUS October 14, 1999 PAL March 17, 1999
Discontinued	NA: 2001 EU: 2002 AUS: 2002 JP: 2006 PAL: 2009
Units sold	10.6 million[1][2]
Media	CD, 1.2 GB GD-ROM, DVD (unreleased)
CPU	200 MHz Hitachi SH4 RISC
Storage capacity	VMU, Nexus Memory Card, Zip Drive (unreleased)
Graphics	100 MHz PowerVR2 CLX2
Online services	SegaNet, Dreamarena
Best-selling game	Sonic Adventure, 2.5 million (as of June 2006)[3]
Predecessor	Sega Saturn

The Dreamcast (ドリームキャスト, Dorīmukyasuto^?) is the last video game console made by Sega, and is the successor to the Sega Saturn. The Dreamcast is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles and was released in late 1998, before its contemporaries - the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox.

After facing strong competition from Sony's recently released PlayStation 2, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast in March 2001 and withdrew entirely from the console hardware business. However, support of the system continued in Japan where consoles were still sold until 2006 and new licensed games continued to be released.

Despite its short lifespan, Dreamcast was widely hailed as ahead of its time, and is still held in high regard for pioneering online console gaming - being the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online gaming.^[4][5] As of 2009, the console is still supported through various homebrew video game releases.

Contents 1 History 2 Models 3 Hardware and accessories 3.1 Technical specifications 3.2 Accessories 4 Games 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

In 1997, the Saturn was struggling in North America, and Sega of America president Bernie Stolar pressed for Sega's Japanese headquarters to develop a new platform. Two competing teams were tasked with developing the console - a Skunkworks group headed by IBM researcher Tatsuo Yamamoto and another team led by Sega hardware engineer Hideki Sato.

Sato and his group chose the Hitachi SH4 processor architecture and the VideoLogic PowerVR2 graphics processor for their prototype. Yamamoto and his Skunkworks group also opted for the SH4, but with 3dfx hardware. Initially Sega opted to use the Skunkworks group's 3dfx-based hardware, even suggesting to 3dfx that they would do so. However, they eventually chose Sato's PowerVR based design. Sega's shift in design prompted a lawsuit by 3dfx that was eventually settled. ^{[6][7] [8][9]}

The Dreamcast was released in November 1998 in Japan; in September 1999 in North America and on October 14, 1999 in Europe. Despite problems with the Japan launch,^[5] the system's launch in the United States was successful. In the United States alone, a record 300,000 units^[10] had been pre-ordered^[5] and Sega sold 500,000 consoles in just two weeks (including a record 225,132 sold during the first 24 hours). In fact, due to brisk sales and hardware shortages, Sega was unable to fulfill all of the advance orders. Sega confirmed that it made US$98.4 million on combined hardware and software sales with Dreamcast with its September 9, 1999 launch.^[11] Four days after its launch in the US, Sega stated 372,000 units were sold bringing in US$132 million in sales.^[5]

Launch titles such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone, and Hydro Thunder helped Dreamcast succeed in the first year.^[12] Sega Sports titles helped fill the void with no Electronic Arts sports games on the system. ^[13] Dreamcast sales grew 156.5% from July 23, 2000 to September 30, 2000 putting Sega ahead of the Nintendo 64 in that period.^[14] However, Sony's launch of the much-hyped PlayStation 2 that year marked the beginning of the end for the Dreamcast.^[15]

On January 31, 2001, Sega announced that it was ending production of Dreamcast hardware by March of that year^[16] although the 50 to 60 titles still in production would be published.^{[citation needed]} The last North American release was NHL 2K2, which was released in February 2002. With the company announcing no plans to develop a next-generation successor to Dreamcast, this was Sega's last foray into the home console business.

Although production of the Dreamcast ended, commercial games were still developed and released afterwards, particularly in Japan. Unreleased games like Propeller Arena and Half-Life were released on the Internet through warez groups and independent hackers. On February 24, 2004, Sega released their final first-party Dreamcast game, Puyo Pop Fever. Afterwards, a small number of games continued to be released, which were mostly conversions of arcade shooters based on the Sega's similar NAOMI arcade hardware.

The last Dreamcast units that Sega itself sold were sold through the Sega Direct division of Japan in early 2006. Although they were only refurbished units, they did come with the new Radilgy game and a phone card.

Software support of the console continues, with a variety of homebrew games, emulators and utilities being released for the system, such as a port of the Neo Geo game Last Hope. A variety of homebrew game development tools is available. In addition, several Dreamcast emulation projects have emerged including Chankast and nullDC.

[edit] Models

Due to its short production span, only a few official Dreamcast models were released. The primary models released in 1999 had a grey tint and a weaker and quieter system fan while the later models of 2000 were white colored with a stronger system fan and a faster, louder laser disc reader. The power light, like the Dreamcast logo in NTSC regions, was orange (this color was chosen because the Japanese consider it to be lucky). In Europe, the orange logo on the system was changed to blue due to a copyright claim from a European children's game company who had already used an orange swirl as their logo.^{[citation needed]}

Some special Dreamcast models were released in certain regions. In North America, a limited edition black Dreamcast was released with a Sega Sports logo below the Dreamcast logo on the lid, along with matching Sega Sports-branded black controllers. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website. In Japan, Sega released many varieties of the system, including a limited edition Sonic anniversary version, a pink Sakura Taisen version, and a Hello Kitty version released in 2000 in Japan which, due to its limited production, has become an extremely rare collector's piece. The package contains a keyboard, controller, VMU, mouse, and a Hello Kitty trivia game. The console and accessories came in both translucent pink and blue in color with some printed designs.

Online retailers such as Lik Sang sold various unofficial Dreamcast modifications, include case replacements of various colors. They also sold the Treamcast, a portable Dreamcast which used the original first-party Dreamcast components with internal sound and video adjustments, inside a custom made plastic casing. This small system with its fold-down display resembled the later PS One. Many companies included software and a remote control with the unit that enabled it to play MP3s and Video CDs. However, Lik Sang was unable to obtain permission from Sega to sell an officially licensed, modified version of the system.

[edit] Hardware and accessories

[edit] Technical specifications

The system's processor is a 200 MHz SH-4 with an on-die 128-bit vector graphics engine, 360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS (single precision), using the vector graphics engine. The graphics hardware is a PowerVR2 CLX2 chipset, capable of 7.0 million polygons/second peak performance and trilinear filtering. Graphics hardware effects include gouraud shading, z-buffering, anti-aliasing, per-pixel translucency sorting and bump mapping. The system supports approximately 16.78 million colors (24-bit) color output and displays interlaced or progressive scan video at 640x480 video resolution.

For sound, the system features a Yamaha AICA Sound Processor with a 22.5 MHz 32-Bit ARM7 RISC CPU operating at 45 MHz,^[17], 64 channel PCM/ADPCM sampler (4:1 compression), XG MIDI support and 128 step DSP.

The Dreamcast has 16 MB 64 Bit 100 MHz of main RAM, 8 MB 4x16-bit 100 MHz video RAM and 2 MB 16-bit 66 MHz sound RAM. ^[18] The hardware supports VQ Texture Compression (5:1 texture compression)^[17]

The system reads media using a 12x maximum speed (Constant Angular Velocity) Yamaha GD-ROM Drive. The Dreamcast can also read data from a Visual Memory Unit ("VMU") removable storage device and 4x memory cards that hold four times as much data. Input devices such as game controllers are connected to four USB-like "Maple Bus" ports.

In most regions, the Dreamcast included a removable modem. The original Asia/Japan model had a 33.6 kbit/s; consoles sold in Japan after September 9, 1999 had a 56 kbit/s modem. All American models had a 56 kbit/s modem, while all PAL models had a 33.6 kbit/s modem. Brazilian models manufactured under license by Tec Toy did not include a modem, which was available separately. The regular modem could be replaced with a broadband adapter that was sold separately.

[edit] Accessories

Various accessories for the Dreamcast were released, by both third parties and Sega itself. These included various game controllers, from the standard Dreamcast controller to specialized controllers such as a fishing rod and maracas. Various kinds of memory cards were also released, including the console's unique VMU accessory - a memory card with a small screen that provided a variety of functions for various games. The Dreamcast was packaged with a video cable which supported composite video and stereo sound. An RGB SCART cable, an S-Video cable, an RF connector (included as standard in the UK, Germany, Italy and Portugal) were available separately, as well as a VGA adapter that allowed certain Dreamcast games to played on computer displays or television sets equipped with VGA connectors.

[edit] Games

As of November 2007, the Dreamcast has more than 325 official games available in its library. Over 100 games were released only in Japan. There are also numerous homebrew games for the Dreamcast and games continue to be released by certain companies.^[19] Games were sold in jewel cases; jewel cases in Europe were twice as thick as their North American counterparts, possibly to have space for thick, multilingual instruction manuals.

Among the official games are Dreamcast online games that could be played over the Internet. The online servers were run by SegaNet, Dreamarena, and GameSpy networks. Online game support was particularly popular in Japan, with releases of network compatible games such as Tech Romancer and Project Justice. Web browsers were developed by independent companies such as Planetweb to allow access to web sites and included features like Java, uploads, movies, and mouse support. Dreamarena came with games such as Sonic Adventure, and Chu Chu Rocket.

There are five games that can still be played online. Quake III Arena and Maximum Pool are still accessible via various servers. 4x4 Evolution and Starlancer are still online through Gamespy. SEGA Swirl can be also be played online with its play by e-mail game.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sega Dreamcast

• Dreamcast at the Open Directory Project

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