Sega Dreamcast

The Dreamcast features games with the following ratings from the ESRB:. Some players use leet, which is also referred to as "dewd" speak, and Internet slang is quite common among users of the game. The Sega Dreamcast currently has over 276 games available in its library.[5]. Some terms like these, while coined in EverQuest, have migrated to other MMORPGs. Sega also developed the Dreameye, a digital camera for the Dreamcast, as well as a Zip drive for the console, but these products were never released to the public. One is the habit of calling monsters MOBs or mobs which is a contraction of Mobile Objects and stems from old text-based MUD's use of the term. The Arcade Stick itself has lived on beyond the Dreamcast, and adaptors are now available to use it on other hardware platforms. A number of terms used in-game have been coined by players from a wide variety of other MMORPGs or players of EverQuest specifically.

Although it could not be used for many Dreamcast games, due to the lack of the analogue joystick, this helped cement the Dreamcast's reputation for 2D shooters and fighting games. In-game chatting can practically be a foreign language to anyone who has not played it extensively. Sega also released the extremely heavy-duty and well-regarded Arcade Stick, a digital joystick and six buttons using the same switches internally as an arcade machine. While mostly consistent, there are also some differences in jargon between servers, and between the Asian, European and American gaming communities. The only other light gun compatible games were Death Crimson OX and its Japanese only prequel, Virtua Cop 2 on the Sega Smash Pack, and a light gun minigame in Demolition Racer No Exit. For example, SoW (which stands for Spirit of Wolf, a popular spell which accelerates players' movement), and vernacular usages such as 'crack' or 'mind candy' which within the context of EQ refer to mana regeneration spells such as Clarity or KEI (an acronym for Koadic's Endless Intellect). Several third parties made compatible guns for the few light gun games released, including House of the Dead 2 and Confidential Mission. EverQuest carries an internal language and culture of its own, including a plethora of arcane abbreviations aiding communication between players.

American versions of light gun games even blocked out using the official gun. Although technically against the EULA, it is unlikely that you will be banned or otherwise punished for playing on an EMU, unless you admit to it, ingame, in front of Sony support staff. Sega also produced a light gun for the system, although this was not sold in the US presumably because Sega did not want its name on a gun in the light of recent school shootings. It has not gained the same popularity as server emulators for Ultima Online. Steering wheel controllers and dance pads were also available. Running such an emulator is a violation of EQ's end user license agreement and could result in a player being banned from Sony's EverQuest servers if caught doing so. Other peripherals included a fishing rod controller (used for all Dreamcast fishing games) and the maracas for Samba de Amigo. Fans have created the open source server emulator EQEmu, allowing users to run their own servers with custom rules.

There was a microphone peripheral used for Alien Front Online, version 2.6 of the Planetweb Web browser (long distance calling support), the European Planet Ring collection and Seaman. Champions of Norrath, the d20 tabletop RPG EverQuest Role-Playing Game, several books, and player gatherings (Fan Faires) have also been spawned from EverQuest. The Dreamcast supported a mouse as well as a keyboard which was useful when using the included web browser, but was also supported by certain games such as The Typing of the Dead, Quake 3 and Phantasy Star Online. EverQuest II, a sequel to EverQuest, was launched in November 2004. Unique to the Dreamcast among current console gaming systems, it could use a VGA adapter for output to a computer display and HDTV compatible sets (which provided much better quality than a television set). EverQuest Online Adventures, released in February 2003, is an MMORPG for the PlayStation 2 console. The Dreamcast controller was somewhat large and a few players found it difficult to hold. After many months of the "Legends" community pleading for communication with Sony about its future, nothing was said until a sudden announcement in December '05 that Sony was closing the EQ flagship server.

It also contained two slots which fit memory cards or the rumble pack; the uppermost one had a window through which the VMU's display could be seen. Many players saw this as a way to charge players more money for a level of service which should have existed without the fee). The Dreamcast controller offered an analog stick, a D-pad, a Start button, four gaming buttons (labeled A, B, X, and Y), and two analog index finger triggers on the underside. Several servers have been introduced with alternate rule-sets, including one which allows player killing, another, Firiona Vie, that has a set of rules more friendly to role-playing (although it also contained other rule changes that also made it attractive to non-role-players which some argue defeated the purpose), and a premium flagship server titled Stormhammer Legends server (which, for a higher fee provided a greater level of in-game customer service. In Japan, the Jump Pack was named the "Puru Puru Pack". There are many spin-off products from EverQuest. Most Dreamcast games supported a rumble pack ("Jump Pack"), which was sold separately and could be plugged into the controller. See also: EverQuest timeline.

The 4X cards did not have the VMU screen or stand-alone abilities, but they had four times the space by switching between four 200-block sectors. The EQ expansions to date:. Most of these were manufactured by third-party companies (such as the Nexus Memory Card), although Sega eventually released a 4X memory card. Additionally, the game is updated regularly through downloadable patches. Standard memory cards could also be purchased without the additional features of the VMU. Expansions are purchased separately and add significant content to the game (for example, new races, classes, continents, quests, and equipment). It could also display a list of the saved game data stored on it, and two VMUs could be connected together (end-to-end, needing no other hardware) to exchange data. There have been several expansions to the original game since release.

It could play minigames loaded onto it (a Chao game was obtainable in Sonic Adventure, for example). Referring to a character in EverQuest as an eBay character or to an individual as an eBayer are derogatory comments used to suggest both that an individual did not develop his own character and that he has not learned how to properly play it. It had a monochrome LCD screen, a D-Pad, and two gaming buttons. To a lesser extent this is also true of individuals who purchase equipment far stronger then they should reasonably have (known in-game as "twinks"), and pay for help from high level characters in order to raise a newly created character into high levels quickly with little risk (known as "power leveling" or simply "PL"). The Visual Memory Unit, or "VMU", was the Dreamcast's memory card. Due to the difficulty in learning the role a specific class plays within a group, and of learning the best way to fulfil this role, individuals who purchase high level characters without prior playing experience with a similar character are considered sub-par to those who have developed characters normally. Aside from the cosmetic differences in the case to accommodate the larger screen, there are no differences between the original Treamcast portable modified Dreamcast and the newer widescreen model. It is now common to encounter an account on its second or third owner, especially in the higher end game.

Recently, in 2005, the internet import store, Lan-Kwei, has started selling a "Treamcast" portable modified Dreamcast with a 16:9 widescreen LCD. While Sony's official stance on EverQuest is still against real market transactions, any real enforcement of this faded years ago. In reality, this system is not any different than selling a Dreamcast pre-modified with a third party shell, as the system's internals still use first party hardware, and contain no modifications whatsoever aside from the outside casing and modifications for internal sound and video. [2]. When the internet import videogame store, Lik-Sang, contacted Sega to ask permission to sell a modified version of the system with Sega trademarks on the system, they were told that Sega did not approve of the unit, and felt that it violated their trademarks. At this point this system only applies to select EverQuest II servers; none of the pre-Station Exchange EverQuest II or EverQuest servers are affected. Many companies included software and a remote with the unit that enabled it to play MP3s and Video CDs. The program facilitates buying in-game items for real money from fellow players for a nominal fee.

This small system with its fold-down display resembled the later PS One. Sony officially discouraged the payment of real-world money for online goods until July 2005, when they launched Station Exchange. A third-party company from China named Treamcast released a portable modified Dreamcast which used the original first party Dreamcast components with a custom made plastic casing. A player could exchange a house in The Sims Online for EverQuest platinum pieces, depending solely on market laws of supply and demand. Games in Europe were sold in jewel cases exactly twice as thick as their US counterparts, possibly to enable the inclusion of thick instruction booklets containing instructions in multiple languages. Other firms, such as the Gaming Open Market, specialized in exchanging money between games. The 60Hz option had to be enabled on the game disc, however, but only a small number of games lacked it. After some time, the firm moved to Mexico, as the salaries for Mexican players are far less.

This was a first for games consoles, as no previous PAL console had offered the user an option to play games at full speed, using the ability of more modern PAL televisions to operate at 60Hz; and is a feature of all major consoles released since. Black Snow Interactive was founded as a company that created characters, leveled them to make them powerful, and then resold the characters. As well as the VGA mode (again using an adapter), the European Dreamcast supported PAL video, in both 50Hz and 60Hz modes. This led some gamers to start playing professionally, as after some hours of play they could earn income by selling off in-game items. A German company, Tivola, had been using a similar swirl logo years before Sega branded the Dreamcast with the orange swirl. dollar which is worth about 113 Yen), and its GDP per capita is higher than that of China and India. This change in logo is thought to have been for copyright reasons. The researchers discovered, to their surprise, that EQ's money was in fact more valuable than the Yen (although this is no longer the case; there are now about 2900 platinum to a U.S.

The Dreamcast in Europe had its spiral logo in blue, similar to the logo on earlier Sega systems. This led some economists, among them Edward Castronova, to study the economics of EverQuest and other MMORPGs. Units manufactured with the version number of 2 would not read CD-R media and therefore could not be used to play pirated games, and also had the unfortunate side effect of not being able to play independent games such as the three bleemcast! discs, Feet of Fury, Inhabitants, or Maqiupai. Because these items are also sold on eBay, an actual exchange rate between platinum pieces and real life dollars can be calculated. The Sega Dreamcast Hello Kitty special edition was also available in a blue with all the same accessories. EverQuest has many in-game items that are hard to produce and/or to find, and most can be traded among players via the game's currency (platinum pieces). The console and accessories are translucent pink in color with some printed designs. Although it is true that some formerly-busy zones are now deserted, SOE continues to release expansion packs, and certain zones continue to be crowded during peak game-playing hours.

The package contains a keyboard, a controller, a VMU, a mouse, and a Hello Kitty trivia game. As it enters its seventh year, there is a perception among some longtime players that Everquest's best days are behind it, and indeed many have abandoned EQ in favor of some of the newer MMORPGs on the market, such as City of Heroes and World of Warcraft. Due to its limited production, it has become an extremely rare collector's piece. [1] The studies make use of data gathered from player surveys and discuss topics like virtual relationships, player personalities, gender issues, and more. The Sega Dreamcast Hello Kitty was released in 2000 in Japan. The sociological aspects of EverQuest (and other MMORPGs) are further explored in a series of online studies on a site known as "the HUB". In Japan, Sega released many varieties of the system, including limited edition Sonic anniversary editions, and Hello Kitty outfits. An infamous rant titled "EQ: What You Really Get From An Online Game" appeared on Slashdot in 2002, and brought this issue of EverQuest addiction to the forefront of many message boards across the Internet.

Cases of different colors like blue, red, orange, and green were sold for replacements of the original casing. However, the same could be said for any other addictive and obsessive activity. Similar offerings were sold through the Lik-Sang website. The capacity of the game to absorb time and money, and to distract players from a possibly-dull life on the other side of the screen, are appealing features to its users. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website. Relationships broken because of obsessive playing resulted in the creation of an online support group called EverQuest Widows and sites like GamerWidow.com. In the United States, a black Dreamcast was released in limited numbers with a sports pack which included two Sega Sports titles. EQ is very time-consuming for many people, and there have been some well-publicized suicides of EverQuest users, such as that of Shawn Woolley.

Available separately were an S-Video cable, a RF connector (included as standard in the UK) and a VGA adapter (see accessories below). Many refer to it half-jokingly as "NeverRest" and "EverCrack" (a reference to crack cocaine). The unit was packaged with a video cable which supports composite video and right/left stereo audio. The game is renowned and berated (by some psychologists specializing in computer addiction) for its addictive qualities. (This color was used as it is considered to be lucky in Japan.) Games were sold in jewel cases which initially had the Dreamcast name and logo on a white background, but later games used a black background (blue in Europe). Monotonous in-game-activities are referred to as timesinks. The power light, like the Dreamcast logo in NTSC regions, is orange. Some gamers have nicknamed it "LevelQuest", implying that the purpose of the game is to only acquire levels.

The standard Dreamcast unit is made of white and grey plastic. Critics of EQ's overall design deride it as "simplistic", and this has led to a satirical game called Progress Quest to appear on the Internet. Phantasy Star Online, Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament , Outtrigger, Bomberman Online, and POD Speedzone included support for this device. Gordon Wrinn ("Abashi") was the spokesperson of Verant, followed by Alan VanCouvering ("Absor") for SOE; a team now presents plans to the players. The modem module in the Dreamcast could easily be replaced with a broadband module to allow networked gaming over Ethernet. Changes in management have caused changes in company-to-customer representatives who defend or promote said policies. As the DreamKey web browser was customised to only work with Dreamarena, Sega subsequently offered a free replacement version which would allow connection with the user's own Internet service provider. Patches have stopped some of the most serious cheats, but controversy also surrounds SOE's policies, once seen as heavy-handed and subjective, now generally perceived as lighter than deserved in many instances.

Dreamarena ran until the beginning of March 2002. The game has always had problems with exploiting, cheating, and hacking. The service was free, and the game servers hosted within it could not otherwise be accessed from the Internet. For a time, such auctions were immediately removed, which created market conditions that allowed a number of upstart auction sites to specialize in this new virtual economy. This was created and operated for Sega Europe by a partnership between ICL and BT (ICL developed the web sites and software, with BT providing the dial-up capabilities and network infrastructure). The developers of EQ have always forbidden the practice and in January 2001 asked eBay to stop listing such auctions. In Europe, the online service was known as Dreamarena. One example involves the sale of in-game objects for real currency (often through eBay).

The games still playable online are Quake III Arena, Starlancer, 4x4 Evolution, Phantasy Star Online, Maximum Pool Online, and Sega Swirl, which still have dozens of players online. EverQuest has lived through its share of controversy, much of it shared by the entire MMORPG genre. Fans have developed servers for playing Phantasy Star Online; the North American version of Quake III Arena can still be played online by finding or setting up a server using software and a map pack released by Sega. These zones represent a wide variety of geographical features, including plains, oceans, cities, deserts, and other planes of existence. Although the online features of most commercially-released online-capable Dreamcast games are no longer supported, some games are still playable online[4]. The EverQuest universe is divided into nearly 400 zones. Other major online games include 4x4 Evolution (first crossplatform online game), Starlancer, and Ferrari F355 Challenge. As of 2004, Sony reports subscription numbers close to 450,000.

About twenty-two games, including Quake III Arena and Phantasy Star Online, supported SegaNet. Numbers continued rising at a steady rate until mid-2001 when growth slowed. The SegaNet online dial-up service (US$29/month membership) attracted 750,000 subscribers in America alone. By the end of the year, it had surpassed the leading competitor, Ultima Online in number of subscriptions. The Dreamcast was one of the first home console systems to offer online gameplay with the game ChuChu Rocket! (which was distributed free to Dreamcast owners in Europe). EverQuest launched with some technical difficulties on March 16, 1999 but quickly became successful. In Europe, the final version of DreamKey was 3.0. Sony Online Entertainment later purchased Verant, and SOE runs and distributes EverQuest currently.

Version 3.0 of Planetweb included broadband capabilities, Java, Flash, and mouse support. 989 Studios funded development and initially published the game, before Verant Interactive took management after 989 Studios unilaterally canceled all of its PC projects. Dream Passport was the Japanese browser, Planetweb was used in America and DreamKey in Europe. The idea of the "MMORPG" (Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game) is credited to Ultima Online, the first of its genre. Dreamcast consoles came packed with a disc containing web browser software allowing dial-up Internet access. Many other people have worked on EverQuest through the many updates and expansion packs that have been released as the service has operated continually since 1999. Other well known implementations in graphics started on Sega's console by developers were cel-shading and bump mapping. While the original concept is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost, much of the original product design was done by Brian Canary, Ryan Palacio, Roger Uzun and Geoffrey "GZ" Zatkin.

Also, a few notable games were not compatible with this mode, including certain Capcom fighting games and 2D shoot-'em-up games. . This was likely due to lack of knowledge on the subject. Less skilled guilds may take as many as a hundred tries to beat the same event, if they are able to accomplish it at all, due to the level of strategy and teamwork required to defeat modern EverQuest encounters. However, the feature was underused by the public despite the potential for improved video quality with the use of a PC monitor. Some of the most complex 'modern' raid events can take a very experienced guild dozens of attempts before they succeed. The system, when combined with the VGA adapter accessory (mentioned below), switched to the mode for the high-res, non-interlaced picture. As EverQuest has aged, tactics have become more and more involved.

The Dreamcast is also able to output true 640x480 VGA, which set it apart from other consoles of its day. Zerging (A term that comes from another popular computer game, Starcraft) is when a raid's main strategy is to overwhelm an enemy by sheer force of numbers. However the DC has less memory, and all of it´s games are on G-Rom format. Normally the number of players range from 36 to 72, limiting factors being the maximum number of people allowed in a "raid window" (72) and the maximum number of people allowed in certain instanced zones in more recent expansions. The Sega NAOMI arcade game hardware platform uses the same technology as the Dreamcast, and therefore NAOMI-based games such as Crazy Taxi were easily ported to the Dreamcast. A large force of gamers gathered together to perform one task, is referred to as a "raid". The only Windows CE application most users saw was the pack-in CD containing a CE-based dialer and web browser. Most parts of the game can be completed with small groups of up to six or so people, but the most challenging (and rewarding) encounters require the cooperation of many players, possibly totalling 72 players, although the trend in recent expansions tends towards 54 as a maximum.

When developers took advantage of the easy development time offered by Windows CE, the resulting games (e.g., Sega Rally 2) lagged in performance and framerate. A single character will be unable to complete many of the encounters in EverQuest. Windows CE offered easy porting to the Dreamcast of existing PC applications on the Dreamcast, but offered limited capabilities relative to the Dreamcast's native operating system. While some parts of EverQuest can be experienced alone, without the help of other players, EQ generally remains a very group-centric game. Microsoft co-operated with Sega in hopes of promoting its Windows CE operating system for video games. Beyond that, a player can explore the large world, socialize, role-play, join player guilds, master trade skills, and duel other players (in restricted situations — EQ only allows Player versus Player (PvP) combat on the PvP-specific server, in designated arenas, or in a consensual duel in a limited number of locations. Many emulators and other tools such as MP3 and DivX players and image viewers have been ported to or written for the console, taking advantage of the relative ease with, which a home user can burn a CD which is bootable by an unmodified Dreamcast. The main aspect of gameplay involves grouping with fellow players to kill monsters for experience and gear.

A homebrew minimal operating system named KallistiOS offers good hardware support (though does not provide multitasking, which is generally unimportant for games anyway). After selecting a server, a player can create multiple characters by choosing from a variety of classes and races (e.g., humans, gnomes, trolls, halflings, elves, etc.). The availability of Windows CE software development kits on the Internet, as well as ports of Linux [2] and NetBSD/Dreamcast [3] operating systems, gave programmers a selection of familiar development tools to work with. Multiple instances of the world exist on various servers, each one hosting between 1000 and 3000 simultaneous players online during peak times. The Dreamcast continues to have a modest hacking enthusiast community. The geography of the EverQuest universe is vast—few have visited all of the nearly 400 zones. Rather than downsampling the audio and video the hackers compressed the video game data on the disc and wrote a small program to decompress the data on the fly. The game features a rich 3D environment set in the fictional world of Norrath, its moon Luclin and alternate planes of reality.

Some even denote a high amount of hardware and software knowledge, like the method used on the Echelon release of Skies of Arcadia. Many of the elements from EverQuest have also been drawn from text-based MUD (multi-user dungeon) games, especially DikuMUD. However, downgrading or removing audio and video streams wasn't the only method used by release groups. In structure and rules, the game is a direct descendant of the famed Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. "Ripping" in the Dreamcast piracy context means to completely remove some parts of game audio and video, since they are simply too large to downgrade with any success. Players can also procure powerful items for their characters in a variety of ways: through slaying monsters (and then looting whatever items they were carrying), doing "quests" (tasks and adventures given by non-player characters ( NPCs ) in which a reward is given upon success), or by gathering raw materials and then fashioning them, via numerous trade skills such as tailoring or blacksmithing, into useful (or not-so-useful, but nevertheless fun) items. This may be due to the process of "ripping", different from the alternate definition of copying the contents of a CD to a hard drive. As they progress, players advance in level, gaining power, prestige and abilities.

Although this method is usually successful, a few games, most noticeably Shenmue II and Sonic Adventure, are missing sound and sometimes video on pirated versions. In the game, players explore a Tolkienesque fantasy world of sword and sorcery, fighting monsters and enemies for treasure and experience points and interacting with other players. Games that did take advantage of the GD-ROM's extra capacity required some tinkering from hackers; the most common method was to downgrade the video and audio portions of the disc to a lower bitrate, so they would take up less space. EverQuest was, for a time, the most popular MMORPG in the industry. The curious thing about how pirates managed to copy games stored on a GD-ROM, which can supposedly hold about 1.2 gigabytes of data, to a CD-R, which commonly holds 700 megabytes of data (though 870 megabyte discs exist, they are extremely uncommon) was that many games simply did not use the maximum capacity of a GD-ROM, and therefore fit on a standard CD-R with no modification. To play, one must initially pay for the game software and then pay a recurring monthly fee; a free trial is also available for those who wish to experience the game before paying. Some pirated games do not have this trait, presumably because they need the empty space, and therefore have longer loading times and choppy music and video (because the data cannot be loaded fast enough). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest.

Therefore, the data should, optimally, be as close to the outer edge of the disk as possible, for the fastest loading times. It was developed by Verant Interactive (which had recently parted from 989 Studios) and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). This practice is called "dummying." They do this because CD-Rs are written in CLV mode, and the Dreamcast will not read data from them very fast if the data is close to the inner edge. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost. Therefore, when burned, the data would be pushed further outward on the disc, mimicking the layout of an actual GD-ROM. EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. But since the Dreamcast works in CAV mode, occasionally, when there was space to spare on the CD-R, Dreamcast game pirates would fill the disk image on which the game was distributed with empty space at the beginning, so the disk image size would be about 700 MB. 72–84.

Therefore, to receive the data at a constant speed, the drive must slow the disc down as the data ring enlarges. Fortune, pp. CLV exists because the diameter of the data ring on the disc becomes wider as the disc progresses, and the data moves past the laser at a faster rate than inner rings. "From Megs to Riches". This is different from a normal CD-ROM drive, which spins the disc in CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) mode, where the disc spins progressively slower as the laser moves further away from the disc's center. 28, 2005). The optical drive in the Dreamcast works in CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) mode, which spins the disc at a constant speed regardless of the laser's position. Parloff, Roger (Nov.

Sega's decision to implement a "CD-ROM" (the common public reference to the GD-ROM) was also an effort to save costs, but this disappointed potential customers who had expected DVD support; the rival PlayStation 2 sold well partly because of its support for DVD media. Prophecy of Ro (announced) (February 2006). Mil-CD support was removed from the final Dreamcast revisions toward the end of the console's life, but rampant piracy is often cited as one of the major reasons for the failure of the Dreamcast. Depths of Darkhollow (September 2005). The primary reason this was possible was the existence of regular-CD booting code in the Dreamcast BIOS to enable multimedia functions (called Mil-CD) for music CD releases on the Japanese market; this was eventually discovered and exploited by pirates. Dragons of Norrath (February 2005). However, the first run of discs had a high rate of defects; and eventually pirates managed to copy the games anyway (in some cases distributing them before the release of the legitimate versions). Omens of War (September 2004).

Dreamcast used a proprietary format called GD-ROM (Gigabyte Disc Read Only Memory) or "GigaDisc" for storing games in order to discourage software pirates, although it had similar overall technology to the CD-ROM. Gates of Discord (February 2004). Several Dreamcast emulation projects have emerged after the Dreamcast's end of production, with Chankast being the most notable. Lost Dungeons of Norrath (September 2003). It is even starting to become a cult classic, as the system is getting harder to find (in fact, although the Dreamcast was officially discontinued in January 2001, Sega continued to produce the console for a short time afterwards due to rising demand, not least among collectors and hard-core fans). The Legacy of Ykesha (March 2003). Despite its short lifespan, the Dreamcast is still a very popular and highly-regarded console among many fans due to its impressive library of both mainstream and quirky titles. The Planes of Power (October 2002).

On February 24, 2004, Sega released their final Dreamcast game, Puyo Pop Fever, although a small number of third-party games are still being released, such as the recent release of Trizeal, released in April 2005, or the upcoming releases for 2006, Rajirugi and Under Defeat. The Shadows of Luclin (December 2001). Hacked unreleased games like Propeller Arena and Half-Life continued to become available to the public by program decoders like Echelon. The Scars of Velious (December 2000). It was released in September 2002 in Japan only after a large amount of speculation on the game's fate; its US release was on the Nintendo GameCube in April 2003. The Ruins of Kunark (March 2000). Many consider the critically acclaimed arcade shooter Ikaruga developed by Treasure to be the Dreamcast's swan song.

Though the Dreamcast was officially discontinued in early 2001, commercial games were still developed and released afterwards, particularly in Japan. By the time Sega decided to cease development of the Dreamcast, about 10 million consoles had been sold. With the company announcing no plans to develop a next-generation successor to the Dreamcast, this was Sega's last foray into the home console business. The last North American release was NHL 2K2.

In January 2001, Sega announced that production of Dreamcast hardware was to be discontinued by March of that year, although the 50 to 60 titles still in production would be published. In 2000, the announcement of the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube was widely regarded as the last straw for the Dreamcast, since both competitors had deep pockets (like Sony) which fueled speculation that Sega did not have the resources for a prolonged marketing campaign. As a result of these three developments, the Dreamcast began to lose momentum as gamers waited to see which console would come out on top. Electronic Arts also threw its support to the PS2 and their titles helped to negate an otherwise unimpressive PS2 launch.

Even though Sega touted the Dreamcast's online capabilities (the PS2 would not go online until late 2002), much public attention was focused upon the PlayStation 2's ability to play DVDs. Sony's press release, despite being a year ahead of the launch of the PS2, was enough to divert a lot of attention from Sega. In April 1999, Sony announced its PlayStation 2, designed to be backwards-compatible with the older PlayStation, and released the unit in Japan in March 2000. Although Electronic Arts declined to support the Dreamcast which included the omission of its popular sports games (due in part to EA's losses from the past Sega Saturn), Sega Sports titles helped to fill that void.

Much like the PlayStation's launch in North America, the displays of titles such as Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Power Stone and Hydro Thunder helped the Dreamcast succeed in the first year. Before the launch in the United States, Sega had already taken the extra step in displaying Dreamcast's capabilities in stores nationwide. Sega even compared the record figure to the opening day gross of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which made $28.5 million during the first 24 hours in theaters. Sega confirmed that it made $98.4 million on combined hardware and software sales with the Dreamcast with its September 9, 1999 launch.

In fact, due to brisk sales and hardware shortages, Sega was unable to fulfill all of the advance orders. In the United States alone, a record 200,000 units had been pre-ordered before launch and Sega sold 500,000 consoles in just two weeks (including 225,000 sold on the first 24 hours which became a video game record until the PlayStation 2 launched a year later). It enjoyed brisk sales in its first season and was one of Sega's most successful hardware units. Many Americans knew that the Dreamcast was coming, but didn't know what one was.) The Dreamcast was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for online gaming.

(The vagueness of these campaigns and almost total lack of any in game footage has been touted as one of the reasons for the Dreamcast's eventual downfall. The tagline used to promote the console in the US was "It's thinking", and in Europe "Up to 6 Billion Players". The Dreamcast was released on November 27, 1998 in Japan, on September 9, 1999 in the United States (the date 9/9/99 featured heavily in US promotion) and on October 14, 1999 in Europe. [1] A timeline of the development of the console's GPU may be found here.

In September 1997, 3Dfx filed a lawsuit against Sega and NEC (later including VideoLogic), claiming "breach of contract", although they later settled. In July 1997, it was decided that the Japanese "Katana" would be the chosen format, renamed Dreamcast. This codename was only used by the US group, and in fact, the US hardware team called themselves the "Dural team". Contrary to popular misinformation, the Japanese hardware was never codenamed "Dural".

The first US prototype boards were silkscreened "Shark" (in response to the Japanese "Guppy") and the later ones "Dural". The US skunkworks group (in a secret suite at the 303 Twin Dolphin Drive building) led by Tatsuo Yamamoto settled on an SH4 processor with a 3Dfx Voodoo 2 graphics processor, which was originally codenamed "Black Belt". The first Japanese prototype boards were silkscreened "Guppy" and the later ones "Katana". This was originally codenamed "White Belt".

The Japanese group led by Hideki Sato settled on an SH4 processor with a PowerVR graphics processor developed by VideoLogic which was later bought by NEC. However, it soon became apparent that the existing Japanese hardware group led by Hideki Sato did not want to relinquish control of hardware, and so there were two competing designs led by two different groups. He hired Tatsuo Yamamoto from IBM Austin to head a skunkworks group to develop the next-generation console. When the time came to design the successor to the Sega Saturn, the new President of Sega, Shoichiro Irimajiri, took the unusual step of hiring an outsider.

. After the Dreamcast was discontinued, Sega withdrew from the console hardware business. An attempt to recapture the console market with a next-generation system, it was designed to supersede Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's N64, and although generally considered to be "ahead of its time", it failed to gather enough momentum before the release of the PlayStation 2 a year later. The Sega Dreamcast (Japanese: ドリームキャスト; code-named "Blackbelt", "Dural" and "Katana" during development) was Sega's last video game console.

Storage: Visual Memory Unit ("VMU") 1 Mbit (128 KByte) removable storage device and 4x memory cards that hold four times as much data. 16.78 million simultaneous colors (24 bit). Color Output: Approx. Broadband: these adapters are available separately and replace the removable modem.

Modem: Removable; Original Asia/Japan model had a 33.6 kbit/s; models released after September 9, 1999 had a 56 kbit/s modem. Color: White. Weight: 1.9 kg (4.4 lb). Dimensions: 189 mm x 195 mm x 76 mm (7 7/16" x 7 11/16" x 3").

Four ports support devices such as digital and analog controllers, steering wheels, joysticks, keyboards and mice, and more. Inputs: USB-like "Maple Bus". A normal CD-ROM holds 700 megabytes. GD-ROM: Holds up to 1.2 GB of data.

GD-ROM Drive: 12x maximum speed (when running in Constant Angular Velocity mode). Sound Engine: Super Intelligent (Yamaha) Sound Processor with 47MHz 32-Bit ARM7 RISC CPU core built-in (64 channel PCM/ADPCM). Memory: Main RAM: 16 MB (Hyundai), Video RAM: 8 MB, Sound RAM: 2 MB. Graphics Engine: PowerVR2 CLX2, capable of drawing around 4-6 million polygons per second (though rarely pushed this far; the models for the polygons would become a limiting factor, chipping away video memory for the textures).

CPU: SH-4 RISC CPU with 128 bit graphic computational engine built-in (operating frequency: 206 MHz 360 MIPS/1.4 GFLOPS). Mature: 32. Teen: 93. Everyone: 151.