The Dreamcast is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998 in Japan, September 9, 1999 in North America, and October 14, 1999 in Europe. This is the first in the sixth generation video game console, which precedes Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Microsoft Xbox. Dreamcast is Sega's final home console, marking the end of an 18-year-old company in the console market.
Unlike the expensive hardware from Sega Saturn that is not working, Dreamcast is designed to reduce costs with "off-the-shelf" components, including Hitachi SH-4 CPU and NEC PowerVR2 GPU. Released in Japan for quiet reception, Dreamcast enjoys a successful US launch backed by a huge marketing campaign, but interest in the system continues to decline as Sony builds up the hype for the upcoming PlayStation 2. Sales did not meet Sega's expectations despite some cuts, and the company continued to experience significant financial losses. After a change in leadership, Sega stopped Dreamcast on March 31, 2001, withdrew from the console business and restructured itself as a third-party publisher. 9.13 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide.
Although Dreamcast has a short life span and limited third party support, reviewers have considered the console prematurely. The library contains many creative and innovative games, including Crazy Taxi , Jet Set Radio and Shenmue , as well as a high quality port from Sega's NAOMI system board arcade. Dreamcast is also the first console that includes an internal modem for Internet support and online games.
Video Dreamcast
History
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Released in 1988, Sega Genesis (known as Sega Mega Drive in Japan, Europe and Brazil) is a Sega entry to the fourth generation video game console. Selling 30.75 million units worldwide, Genesis is the most successful Sega console ever released. The Genesis successor, Sega Saturn, was released in Japan in 1994. Saturn is a CD-ROM-based console featuring 2D and 3D computer graphics, but the complex dual-CPU architecture makes it harder to program. from its main competitor, Sony PlayStation. Although Saturn made its debut before the PlayStation in Japan and the United States, the surprising US launch - which came four months earlier than its original schedule - was undermined by a lack of distribution, which remains an ongoing problem for the system. In addition, Sega's initial release was undermined by Sony's simultaneous announcement that the PlayStation would sell for US $ 299 - compared to Saturn's initial price of $ 399. The old Nintendo delays in releasing competing 3D consoles and the damage that occurred to Sega's reputation by add-on which is not well supported for Genesis (especially Sega 32X) allows Sony to build a foothold in the market. The PlayStation was immediately successful in the US, in part because of the massive advertising campaigns and strong third party support generated by Sony's excellent development tools and liberal $ 10 license fees. Sony's success is further aided by price wars where Sega lowered Saturn's price from $ 399 to $ 299 and then from $ 299 to $ 199 to match the PlayStation price - even though Saturn's hardware is more expensive to produce and the PlayStation enjoys a larger software library. The loss on Saturn's hardware contributed to Sega's financial problems, which saw a decline in corporate earnings between 1992 and 1995 as part of an industry-wide slowdown. Furthermore, Sega's focus on Saturn on Genesis prevents it from fully exploiting the continued strength of the 16-bit market.
Due to a long dispute with Sega Japan, Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske became less interested in his position. On July 16, 1996, Sega announced that Shoichiro Irimajiri had been appointed as chairman and CEO of Sega of America, while Kalinske would leave Sega after September 30 that year. Sega also announced that Sega Enterprises founder David Rosen and Sega of Japanese CEO Hayao Nakayama had resigned from their position as chairman and deputy chairman of Sega of America, although both remained with the company. Bernie Stolar, a former executive at Sony Computer Entertainment of America, named Sega America's executive vice president responsible for product development and third-party relationships. Stolar does not support Saturn because of its belief that the hardware was poorly designed and publicly announced on E3 1997 that "Saturn is not our future." After the launch of Nintendo 64, sales of Saturn and Sega 32-bit software were sharply reduced. In August 1997, Sony controlled 47 percent of the console market, Nintendo controlled 40 percent, and Sega controlled only 12 percent. Both price cuts and high profile games prove to be fruitful for Saturn's success. Due to Saturn's poor performance in North America, Sega of America laid off 60 of its 200 employees in the fall of 1997.
As a result of the deterioration of the company's financial situation, Nakayama resigned as president of Sega in January 1998 to support Irimajiri. Stolar will then approve to become CEO and president of Sega of America. After five years of general profit decline, in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998, Sega suffered its first parent and consolidated financial loss since its 1988 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Due to a 54.8% decline in consumer product sales (including a 75.4% drop overseas), the company reported a consolidated net loss of ¥ 35.6 billion (US $ 269.8 million). Shortly before announcing his financial loss, Sega revealed that it was stopping Saturn in North America, in order to prepare for the launch of its successor. This decision effectively left the Western market without Sega games for more than a year. Rumors about the upcoming Dreamcast - spreading mainly by Sega itself - leaked publicly before the last Saturn game was released.
Development
In early 1995, reports emerged that Sega would collaborate with Lockheed Martin, The 3DO Company, Matsushita, or Alliance Semiconductor to create a new graphics processing unit, which the conflicting account said would be used for 64-bit "Saturn 2" or peripheral add-on. Dreamcast development is completely unrelated to this rumored project. Given the poor performance of the Saturn market, Irimajiri decided to start looking outside the company's internal hardware development division to create a new console. In 1997, Irimajiri registered IBM Tatsuo Yamamoto's service to lead an 11-person team to work on a secret hardware project in the United States, referred to as "Blackbelt". Accounts vary as to how the internal team led by Hideki Sato also began developing Dreamcast hardware; One account determined that Sega from Japan assigned both teams, while others pointed out that Sato was distracted by Irimajiri's choice to start development externally and chose to have his hardware team begin development. Sato and his group chose the Hitachi SH-4 processor architecture and the VideoVideo2 PowerVR2 graphics processor, manufactured by NEC, in their mainboard production. Originally known as "Whitebelt", the project was later codenamed "Dural", after the metal female combat aircraft of Sega's Virtua Fighter series.
The Yamamoto group chose to use 3dfx Voodoo 2 and the Voodoo Banshee graphics processor with the central processing unit of Motorola PowerPC 603e (CPU), but Sega's management then asked them to also use the SH-4 chip. Both processors have been described as "off the shelf" components. In 1997, 3dfx started its IPO, and as a result of a legal obligation announcing its contract with Sega, including the development of a new console. This angered Sega from Japanese executives, who finally decided to use Dural chipset and disconnect with 3dfx. According to former vice president of Sega of America communications and former NEC brand manager Charles Bellfield, the game presentation using NEC solutions showcased the performance and low cost delivered by the SH-4 and PowerVR architectures. He further stated that "Sega's relationship with NEC, the Japanese company, might make a difference [in Sega's decision to adopt Japanese team design] as well." Stolar, on the other hand, "feels the US version, the 3Dfx version, should be used." Japan wants the Japanese version, and Japan wins. " As a result, 3dfx filed a lawsuit against Sega and NEC which claimed a breach of contract, which would eventually be settled out of court. Option to use PowerVR architecture related to Electronic Arts (EA), old developer for Sega console. EA has invested in 3dfx but is unfamiliar with the selected architecture, which is reportedly less robust. As Shiro Hagiwara (general manager of the hardware division of Sega) and Ian Oliver (Sega's subsidiary director of Cross Products), SH-4 was selected while still in development and following a long process of consideration because it is the only processor available "can adapt to provide the required 3D geometry calculation performance." In February 1998, Sega had renamed Dural "Katana" (after the Japanese sword), although certain hardware specifications such as random access memory (RAM) had not been completed.
Knowing that Sega Saturn has been determined by high production costs and complex hardware, Sega takes a different approach to the Dreamcast. Like the Sega console before, Dreamcast is designed around smart subsystems that work in parallel with each other, but hardware selection is more in line with what's common in personal computers than video game consoles, reducing system costs. According to Damien McFerran, "the motherboard is a clean work, neat design and compatibility." The Chinese economist and future Sega.com CEO, Brad Huang, convinced the Sega chairman, Isao Okawa, to enter the modem with every Dreamcast despite significant opposition from Okawa's staff regarding an additional $ 15 per unit fee. To account for the rapid changes in home data delivery, Sega designed the modem of Dreamcast to be modular. Sega selects the GD-ROM media format for the system. The GD-ROM, developed jointly by Sega and Yamaha Corporation, can be mass-produced at the same price as a normal CD-ROM, thus avoiding the greater costs of DVD-ROM technology. Because the GD-ROM format can store about 1 GB of data, illegally copying Dreamcast games to 650 MB CD-ROMs sometimes requires removal of certain game features, although this does not prevent the copying of Dreamcast software. Microsoft developed a special Windows CE Dreamcast version with DirectX API and dynamic link library, making it easy to port PC games to the platform, although programmers will ultimately prefer Sega's development tools rather than those from Microsoft.
Sega held a public competition for the new system name and considered more than 5,000 different entries before selecting "Dreamcast" - portmanteau "dream" and "broadcast". According to Katsutoshi Eguchi, Japanese game developer Kenji Eno submitted the name and created the Dreamcast spiral logo, but this claim has not been verified by Sega. The start-up sound of Dreamcast was composed by Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Because Saturn has tarnished Sega's reputation, the company plans to remove its name from the console completely and create a brand new game similar to Sony's PlayStation, but Irimajiri's management team finally decided to keep the Sega logo on the exterior of the Dreamcast. Sega spends US $ 50-80 million on hardware development, $ 150-200 million for software development, and $ 300 million for promotions worldwide - the number that Irimajiri, a former Honda executive, is funny compared to the investment required to design cars new.
Launch
Despite taking huge losses on Saturn, including a 75 percent drop in half-year profit shortly before the Dreamcast launch in Japan, Sega was confident about its new system. The Dreamcast attracts significant interest and attracts a lot of pre-orders. Sega announced that Sonic Adventure, the next game starring Sonic the Hedgehog company mascot, will arrive on time for the Dreamcast launch and promote games with large-scale public demonstrations at Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall. However, Sega was unable to achieve its delivery destination for the Japan Dreamcast launch due to PowerVR's lack of chipsets caused by the high failure rate in the manufacturing process. Since more than half of the limited stock has been booked before, Sega stopped pre-orders in Japan. On November 27, 1998, the Dreamcast was launched in Japan for JP Â ¥ 29,000, and the entire stock was sold out at the end of the day. However, of the four games available at launch, only one - port of Virtua Fighter 3 , Sega's most successful arcade game ever released in Japan - sold well. Sega estimates that an additional 200,000-300,000 Dreamcast units can be sold with sufficient supplies. The Game Key Dreamcast Sonic Adventure and Sega Rally Championship 2 , which has been delayed, arrives in the following weeks, but sales remain slower than expected. Irimajiri hoped to sell more than 1 million Dreamcast units in Japan in February 1999, but less than 900,000 were sold, undermining Sega's efforts to build a sufficient installed base to ensure the continuity of the Dreamcast after the arrival of competition from other manufacturers. There are reports of disheartened Japanese consumers who returned their Dreamcast and used a refund to purchase additional PlayStation software. Seafarers , released in July 1999, was considered the first major hit of Dreamcast in Japan. Prior to the Western launch, Sega reduced the price of Dreamcast to JP Â 19,900, effectively making unprofitable hardware but increasing sales. The reduction in prices and the release of Namco Soul Calibur helped Sega to gain 17 percent of its shares.
In collaboration with Midway Games (which developed four launch games for the system) and took advantage of the ten months after the Dreamcast release in Japan, Sega of America is working to ensure a more successful US launch with at least 15 launch games. Despite the bitterness remaining over Saturn's initial release, Stolar managed to improve relationships with major US retailers, with whom Sega launched 300,000 Dreamcast units. In addition, pre-launch promotions enabled consumers to hire systems from Hollywood Video in the months before the September launch. Sega of senior vice president of marketing Peter Moore, a fan of previous attitudes related to the Sega brand, works with Foote, Cone & amp; Belding and Access Communications to develop the "It's Thinking" campaign from a 15-second television commercial, which emphasizes the power of the Dreamcast hardware. According to Moore, "We need to create something that will really arouse consumer interest, rather apologize for the past, but begging for everything we love about Sega, especially from Genesis days." On August 11, Sega of America confirmed that Stolar had been sacked, leaving Moore to direct the launch.
Prior to the release of Dreamcast, Sega suffered a blow when EA - the largest third-party video game publisher - announced it would not develop games for the system. EA executive Bing Gordon claims "[Sega] is not able to give us the same [EA] license that EA had for the past five years," but Stolar tells us that EA president Larry Probst wants "exclusive rights to become just a sports brand in the Dreamcast" which is unacceptable to the Stones due to the recent purchase of Sega $ 10 million from the developers of the Visual Concept sports game. While the Dreamcast will not have any of EA's popular sports games, the game "Sega Sports" developed primarily by the Visual Concept helps fill that void.
Dreamcast was launched in North America on September 9, 1999 for $ 199 - which Sega marketing dubbed "9/9/99 for $ 199". Eighteen games launched are available for Dreamcast in the US. Sega set a new sales record by selling more than 225,132 Dreamcast units in 24 hours, generating $ 98.4 million in what Moore called "the biggest 24 hours in entertainment retail history". Within two weeks, sales of the US Dreamcast exceeded 500,000. At Christmas, Sega controls 31 percent of North America's video game market share. Significant launch games include Soul Calibur , an arcade fighting game that is graphically upgraded for the system and goes to sell one million units, and high quality soccer simulations from Visual Concepts NFL 2K
Sega released the Dreamcast in Europe on October 14, 1999, for the price of GB? 200. On 24 November, 400,000 consoles have been sold in Europe. At Christmas 1999, Sega of Europe reported selling 500,000 units, placing it six months ahead of schedule. Sales did not continue at this pace, and in October 2000, Sega only sold about 1 million units in Europe. As part of Sega's promotion of the Dreamcast in Europe, the company sponsors four European football clubs: Arsenal F.C. (UK), US Saint-ÃÆ'â € ° tienne (France), U.C. Sampdoria (Italy), and Deportivo de La CoruÃÆ' Â ± a (Spain).
Competition
Despite the successful launch of the Dreamcast, Sony still holds 60 percent of the overall video game market share in North America with the PlayStation at the end of 1999. On March 2, 1999, in what one report called "highly publicized, vaporware-like announcement" Sony revealed the first details of the "next generation PlayStation", which Ken Kutaragi claims will allow video games to convey an unprecedented emotion. The upcoming Sony and PlayStation 2 marketing plan center itself is a new CPU (clock 294 MHz) developed jointly by Sony and Toshiba - "Emotion Engine" - which Kutaragi announced will feature graphics processors with 1,000 times more bandwidth than PC graphics processors contemporary and floating-point performance calculations of 6.2 gigaflops, rivaling most of the supercomputers. Sony, which invested $ 1.2 billion in two large-scale semiconductor integration manufacturing plants to produce Emotion Engine and PlayStation 2 "Synthesizer Graphics", designed the engine to drive more raw polygons than any video game console in history. Sony claims the PlayStation 2 can make 75 million raw polygons per second with no effect at all, and 38 million without taking into account features such as texture, artificial intelligence, or physics. With such effects, Sony estimates the PlayStation 2 to make 7.5 million to 16 million polygons per second, while independent estimates range from 3 million to 20 million, compared to Sega estimates of more than 3 million to 6 million for the Dreamcast. The system will also use DVD-ROM format, which can store much more data than the Dreamcast GD-ROM format. Being able to connect to the Internet while playing movies, music and video games, Sony shrinks the PlayStation 2 as the future of home entertainment. Rumors are spreading that PlayStation 2 is a supercomputer capable of guiding missiles and displaying Toy Story-quality graphics, while Kutaragi boasting of his online capabilities will give consumers the ability to "jack up into the 'Matrix' > In addition, Sony stressed that the PlayStation 2 will be compatible with hundreds of popular PlayStation games. Sony's specifications seem to make Dreamcast's outdated months before the US launch, although reports later surfaced that the PlayStation 2 was not as strong as expected and obviously difficult to program the game. That same year, Nintendo announced that the next generation console would meet or exceed anything in the marketplace, and Microsoft started developing its own console.
Sega's initial momentum proved to be short because the US Dreamcast sales - which surpassed 1.5 million at the end of 1999 - began to decline in early January 2000. Poor Japanese sales contributed to Sega's consolidated net loss of  ¥ 42.88 billion ($ 404 million) in the fiscal year ending March 2000, which followed a similar loss  ¥ 42.881 billion the previous year and marked the third consecutive annual loss of Sega. Although Sega's overall sales for the term increased by 27.4%, and the sales of Dreamcast in North America and Europe greatly exceeded the company's expectations, this sales increase coincided with a decrease in profitability due to the investment required to launch the Dreamcast in the Western market and bad software sales in Japan. At the same time, the worsening market conditions reduced the profitability of the Japanese arcade business Sega, prompting the company to close 246 locations. Knowing that "they should lure where the fish bite", Sega of America president Peter Moore (who took the position after Stolar was fired) and Sega from Japanese developers focus on the US market to prepare for the upcoming PS2 launch.. To that end, Sega of America launched its own Internet service provider, Sega.com, led by CEO Brad Huang. On September 7, 2000, Sega.com launched SegaNet, the Internet Dreamcast game service, for a subscription price of $ 21.95 per month. Although Sega previously only released one Dreamcast game in the US featuring online multiplayer ( ChuChu Rocket!), A puzzle game developed by Sonic Team), the launch of SegaNet (which allows users to chat, send email, and surf the web) combined with NFL 2K1 (a football game including a strong online component) is meant to boost Dreamcast demand in the US market. This service will support games including Bomberman Online , Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament . The Sept. 7 launch coincided with a new advertising campaign to promote SegaNet, including through the MTV Video Music Awards on the same day, sponsored by Sega for the second year in a row. Sega uses aggressive pricing strategies related to online games. In Japan, every Dreamcast sold includes years of free Internet access, which Okawa personally pays. Prior to the SegaNet launch, Sega had offered a $ 200 discount to every Dreamcast owner who bought two years of Internet access from Sega.com. To increase SegaNet's appeal in the US Sega lowered the Dreamcast price to $ 149 (compared to the $ 299 US PS2 launch price) and offered a $ 149 discount from the Dreamcast (and free Dreamcast keyboard) with every 18 SegaNet monthly subscriptions.
Moore stated that Dreamcast would need to sell 5 million units in the US by the end of 2000 to remain a viable platform, but Sega eventually failed to achieve this goal with about 3 million units sold. In addition, Sega's efforts to spur the increase in Dreamcast sales through lower prices and cash rebates led to increased financial losses. Instead of the expected profit, for the six months ended September 2000, Sega posted a 17.98 billion ($ 163.11 million) loss, with the company projected a year-end loss of ¥ 23.6 billion. This estimate more than doubled to Ã, ¥ 58.3 billion, and in March 2001, Sega posted a consolidated net loss of ¥ 51.7 billion ($ 417.5 million). While the October 26 launch of the US PS2 was undermined by a shortage - with only 500,000 units being planned for 1 million units shipped due to manufacturing errors - this did not benefit Dreamcast as much as expected, as many disappointed consumers continued to wait for the PS2 - while PSone, a remodeled version of the original PlayStation, was the best-selling console in the US at the start of the 2000 holiday season. According to Moore, "the PlayStation 2 effect that we rely on does not work for us... people will survive as long as possible... What happens effectively is the lack of PlayStation 2 availability freeze market". Finally, Sony and Nintendo hold 50 and 35 percent of the US video game market, while Sega holds only 15 percent. According to Bellfield, Dreamcast software is sold at an 8-to-1 ratio with hardware, but this ratio "on a small installation base does not give us revenue... to keep this platform in the medium to long term."
Decline
On May 22, 2000, Okawa replaced Irimajiri as president of Sega. Okawa has long openly advocated Sega to leave the console business. The sentiment is not unique; Co-founder Sega David Rosen has "always felt it was a bit of a folly for them to limit their potential for Sega hardware", and the Stones previously suggested that Sega should sell their company to Microsoft. In September 2000, in a meeting with Japanese executives Sega and the head of the company's major Japanese game development studio, Moore and Bellfield recommended that Sega leave the console business and focus solely on the software - which drives the studio's head to walk out. However, on January 31, 2001, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast after March 31 and the restructuring of the company as an "agnostic third party developer". The decision belonged to Moore. Sega also announced a decrease in the Dreamcast price to $ 99 to eliminate unsold inventory, estimated at 930,000 units in April 2001. After a further reduction to $ 79, Dreamcast was cleared from the store at $ 49.95. The final Dreamcast unit to be produced is signed by the heads of all nine of Sega's internal game development studios as well as heads of Visual and Wave Master Concepts and is awarded with 55 first-party Dreamcast games through competitions hosted by GamePro magazine. Okawa, who previously lent Sega $ 500 million in the summer of 1999, died on March 16, 2001; Shortly before his death, he forgave Sega's debt to him and returned Sega and CSK shares worth $ 695 million, helping the company survive a third-party transition. As part of this restructuring, nearly a third of Sega Tokyo's workforce was dismissed in 2001.
9.13 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide. After the discontinuation of Dreamcast, commercial games are still developed and released for the system, especially in Japan. In the United States, game releases continued until the end of the first half of 2002. Sega Japan continued to improve the Dreamcast unit until 2007. In 2014, the console is still supported through various independent releases of MIL-CD. After five consecutive years of financial losses, Sega finally posted a profit for the fiscal year ending March 2003.
Reasons cited for Dreamcast failure include hype for PS2; lack of support from EA and Squaresoft, considered the most popular third parties in the US and Japan; disputes among Sega executives about the company's future, and lack of Okawa's commitment to the product; Sega lacks advertising money, with Bellfield doubting that Sega spent the "half" $ 100 million promised to promote the Dreamcast in the US; that the market is not ready for online games; Sega's focus on "hardcore" gamers over mainstream consumers; and a bad time. Perhaps the most commonly cited reason is the damage to Sega's reputation caused by some previously unsupported Sega platforms. Writing for GamePro, Blake Snow states that "The beloved console was launched many years before the competition but eventually struggled to release the negative reputation [Sega] gained during Saturn's days, Sega 32X, and Sega CD As a result, casual gamers and third-party developers are undecided about Sega's ability to deliver. "And Whitehead Eurogamer notes that" waiting and seeing "the consumer approach and lack of support from EA is a symptom that somewhat causes Sega's decline, concluding" Sega's misfortune during the 1990s has made gamers and publishers wary of any new platform that exists. " According to Jeremy's 1UP.com Parish, "While it would be easy to show finger accusing at Sony and blame them for killing the Dreamcast by going beyond PS2... there's a certain degree of intellectual dishonesty in that position... [The weak US support against Sega for devices hard as Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn make gamers shy.Many consumers feel burned after investing in expensive Sega machines and finding relatively less libraries. "
The announcement of Sega's third party transition was greeted with widespread enthusiasm. According to Travis Fahs of IGN, "Sega is a creatively fertile company with a thriving stability of properties to pull it in. It seems they are in a perfect position to start a new life as a developer/publisher." Former President of Design Work Victor Ireland writes that "This is actually a good thing... because now Sega will survive, doing what they do best: software." The staff of Newsweek says "From Sonic to Shenmue , the Sega programmer has produced some of the most exciting experiences in the history of interactive media.. Without further ado by the platform hard-working consoles, this world-class software developer platoon can do what's best for any machine on the market ". Rosen estimates "they have the potential to capture Electronic Arts". Game Informer , commenting on Sega's tendency to produce a less appreciated classic, stated: "Let's rejoice in the fact that Sega is making the same game among the current plant console, so history will not happen again."
Maps Dreamcast
Technical specifications
Hardware
Physically, the Dreamcast measures 190 mm - 195.8 mm - 75.5 mm (7.48 inches 7.71 inches at 2.97 inches) and weighs 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds). The main CPU Dreamcast is a two-way 360-MIPS superscalar Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC clocked at 200 MHz with 8 Kbyte instruction cache and 16 Kbyte cache data and 128-bit graphically oriented floating-point unit providing 1.4 GFLOPS. The NEC PowerVR2 100-MHz rendering engine, integrated with ASIC systems, is capable of drawing more than 3 million polygons per second and suspended shadows. Sega estimates that the Dreamcast is theoretically capable of rendering 7 million polygons raw per second, or 6 million with texture and lighting, but noting that "game logic and physics reduce peak performance charts." Graphical hardware effects include trilinear filtering, gouraud shading, z-buffering, spatial anti-aliasing, per-pixel sorting and translucent lump mapping. The system can produce approximately 16.77 million colors simultaneously and display interlaced or progressive video scans at a resolution of 640 Ã, 480 pixels. The AICA 67Ã, MHz Yamaha sound processor, with 32-bit ARM7 RISC CPU cores, can produce 64 sounds with PCM or ADPCM, providing ten times the performance of the Saturn sound system. Dreamcast has a 16 MB main RAM, along with an additional 8 MB RAM for graphics texture and 2 MB of RAM for sound. The media reading system uses a 12x speed Yamaha GD-ROM Drive. In addition to Windows CE, Dreamcast supports several Sega application programming interfaces and middleware. In most areas, Dreamcast includes a removable modem for online connectivity, which is modular for future improvements. The original Japanese model and all PAL models have a transfer rate of 33.6 kbit/s, while consoles sold in the US and in Japan after 9 September 1999 feature a 56 kbit/s dial-up modem.
Model
Sega built many Dreamcast models, most of which are exclusive to Japan. The updated Dreamcast known as R7 was originally used as a network console in Japanese pachinko parlors. Another model, Divers 2000 CX-1, has a shape similar to Sonic's head and includes television and teleconferencing software. The Hello Kitty version, limited to 2000 units produced, is targeted at Japanese female gamers. A custom edition was created for Seafarers and Citizenship Codes: Veronica . Color variations are sold through a service called "Dreamcast Direct" in Japan. Toyota also offers a special edition of Dreamcast units at its 160 dealerships in Japan. In North America, a limited edition black Dreamcast was released with the Sega Sports logo on the lid, which included matching of the Sega Sports branded black handler and two games.
Accessories
The Dreamcast controller includes an analog stick and digital pad, four action buttons, and two analog triggers. The system has four ports for the controller input, although it's bundled with just one controller. The Dreamcast controller design, described by Edge staff as "the ugly evolution of the Saturn 3D controller," is called the "not great" by Sam Kennedy 1UP.com and "paralyzed" by Game Informer , Andy McNamara. The IGN staff wrote that "unlike most controllers, the Sega pad forces the user's hand into an uncomfortable parallel position." In contrast to Sega CD and Sega Saturn, which include internal backup memory, Dreamcast uses a 128 kbyte memory card called VMU (or "Visual Memory Unit") for data storage. The VMU has a small LCD display, audio output from a single-channel PWM sound source, non-volatile memory, directional pad, and four buttons. The VMU can present game information, used as a minimal handheld gaming device, and connect to certain Sega arcade machines. For example, players use VMU to call a game on NFL 2K or raise a virtual pet in Sonic Adventure . Sega officials noted that the VMU can be used "as a private viewing area, the absence of which has prevented the effective implementation of many types of games in the past." Once the VMU slot is inserted into the control design, the Sega engineer finds many additional uses for it, so the second slot is added. These slots are commonly used for vibration packs providing force feedback such as Sega's "Jump Pack" and "Tremor Pack" Performance, although they can also be used for other peripherals including microphones that allow voice control and player communication. Various third-party cards provide storage, and some contain additional LCD displays. Iomega announced a Dreamcast compatible zip drive that can store up to 100 MB of data on removable disks, but never released.
Third party controllers from companies like Mad Catz include additional buttons and other additional features; third parties also produce arcade-style joysticks for fighting games, such as Arcade Stick Agetech and Interact's Alloy Arcade Stick. Mad Catz and Agetec create racing wheels for racing games. Sega decided not to release its official light weapons in the US, but some third-party light weapons were available. The Dreamcast supports the "reel and rod" motion controller Sega fishing and keyboard for text entry. Although it is designed for fishing games like Sega Bass Fishing, Soul Calibur is played with a fishing rod, which translates vertical and horizontal movements into sword play on screen in a way that is retroactively referred to as " Wii Remote predecessor. Port Dreamcast Japan Sega Cyber ​​Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram supports the device "Twin Sticks", but the American publisher of the game, Activision, chose not to release it in the US The Dreamcast can connect to SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color, which precedes the Nintendo GameCube-Game Boy Advance link cable. Sega also manufactures Dreameye, a digital camera that can be connected to the Dreamcast and is used to exchange images and participate in video chats via the system's Internet connection. Sega hopes developers will use Dreameye for future software, as some later perform with similar Sony EyeToy devices. In addition, Sega investigates a system that will allow users to make phone calls with Dreamcast, and discuss with Motorola mobile phone development using the Internet that will use technology from the console to enable fast downloading of games and other data.
This console can provide videos through several different accessories. The console is equipped with an A/V cable, considered at the time to be the standard for video and audio connectivity. Sega and various third parties also manufacture RF modulator and S-Video cable connector. The VGA adapter allows Dreamcast games to be played on computer displays or Enhanced-definition television sets in 480p.
Game library
Prior to the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan, Sega announced the launch of the Arcade Machine Arcade (NAOMI) arcade board, which serves as a cheaper alternative to Sega Model 3. NAOMI shares the same technology with the Dreamcast - albeit with twice as many systems, videos and memory audio and 160 mbyte flash ROM board in place of the GD-ROM drive - allowing nearly identical home conversions from arcade games. The game was moved from NAOMI to Dreamcast by some of Japan's leading arcade companies, including Capcom ( Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Project Justice ), Tecmo ( Dead or Live 2 ), Treasure ( Ikaruga ), and Sega itself ( F355 Challenge and Crazy Taxi ).
In the so-called "brief moment of extraordinary creativity", in 2000, Sega restructured the arcade and its development team into nine semi-autonomous studios led by the company's top designers. Studios include United Game Artists (UGA) (headed by former Sega Rally Championship producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi), Hitmaker (led by Crazy Taxi creator and future president of Hisao Oguchi) , Smilebit (Led by Shun Arai and including many former Panzer Dragoon and future developers of Yakuza from Team Andromeda), Overworks (led by Noriyoshi Oba and composed of developers from Sega franchise including Sakura Wars , Shinobi and Streets of Rage ), Sega AM2 (Sega's most famous arcade studio and Sega developer Virtua Fighter game fighting series, led by top company developer Yu Suzuki), and Sonic Team (the flagship developer of Sega series, Sonic the Hedgehog), headed by Yuji Naka). Sega design houses are encouraged to experiment and benefit from relatively weak approval processes, resulting in games like Rez (attempts to simulate synaesthesia in the form of rifle shooters), The Typing of the Dead (the The House of the Dead 2 version is re-created as a touch typing trainer), Seemed (a pet simulator in which players use microphones to interact with terrible humanoid fish whose growth is narrated by Leonard Nimoy), and Commerce (an exclusive Japanese role-playing game that uses comments about the abundance of excessive sequels produced by the video game industry, where players are tasked with preventing Sega from getting out of business). Sega also revived franchises from the Genesis era, such as Ecco the Dolphin . Sega's internal studios were consolidated starting in 2003, with Mizuguchi leaving the company after the incorporation of UGA with Sonic Team.
UGA created the Space Channel 5 music game, where players help female space news reporters Ulala fight the aliens with "flow energy" by dancing. Aimed at "regular female" audiences, the Space Channel 5 is considered one of Sega's "boldest and most daring" original properties, combining "challenging retro sound" and "exciting" with "dazzling" and "" Colorful visual presentations - despite the "lack of real game substance." Both Space Channel 5 and UGA Rez are commercially successful, and Rez > available only in the US market via PS2 ports released in limited numbers. Hitmaker's arcade ports include Crazy Taxi - an open arcade racing game known for its addictive game, which sold over a million copies and is often cited as one of the best Dreamcast games - and Virtua Tennis - which revitalizes the genre of tennis games with a simple two-button control scheme and the use of minigames to test player techniques. Smilebit's Jet Set Radio - where players controlled Tokyo-based youth gang, called "GG", which uses graffiti to claim territory from competing gangs while avoiding the oppressive police force- cited as a major example of Sega's commitment to the original game concept during the Dreamcast lifetime. Hailed for the song composer "punchy, psychedelic" Hideki Naganuma's composer who combines elements of "J-pop and electro-funk" as well as messages of "self-expression and non-violent dissent", the game also popularized graphics. Despite widespread praise for style, some criticized Gameplay Jet Set as mediocre, and failed to meet Sega's sales expectations. Produced by Rieko Kodama, the traditional Overlays-developed role-playing game Skies of Arcadia is recognized for the fantasy world inspired by the Jules Verne floating island and the sky pirate, the charming protagonist, a unique emphasis on the environments of weapons, aircraft battles an interesting, and unforgettable plot (including sequences viewed from various perspectives).
AM2 developed what Sega expects to be the killer application of Dreamcast, Shenmue , "the epic of revenge in Chinese cinema tradition." The action-adventure game involves searching for the protagonist Ryo Hazuki to avenge his father's murder, but his main selling point is the airing of the Japanese city of Yokosuka, which includes a level of detail that is considered unprecedented for a video game. Combining day/night cycle simulations with variable weather, non-player characters with regular schedules, and the ability to retrieve and examine detailed objects (also introducing Quick-time events in their modern form), Shenmue over budget and rumored cost Sega more than $ 50 million. Originally planned as the first installment in the 11-part saga, Shenmue finally streamlined into a trilogy - and only one sequel was ever released. While Shenmue is praised for innovation, visual and music, its critical acceptance varies; Critical points include the "invisible wall" that limits the sense of player freedom, the boredom caused by the inability to progress without waiting for events scheduled to occur at any given time, excessive game cutscene and lack of challenge. According to Moore, Shenmue sold "very well", but this game has no chance to make a profit because of the limited base of the Dreamcast installed. Shenmue II "finished for a more reasonable amount", while Sato defended Shenmue as an investment that will someday be replaced "because of" the development progress we are studying.... can be applied to other games ". In addition to mixed acceptance for Shenmue, Travis Fahs IGN states that "the [Dreamcast] era is not as good as [AM2] as it was in previous years" - quotes (among other things) F355 Challenge as famous "arcade" games that "do not have much effect at home", and Genki's port of Virtua Fighter 3 because of losing to the arcade version, "which has been a few years and never as popular as its predecessor." Serial Virtua Fighter will experience a "remarkable comeback" with the universally recognized Virtua Fighter 4 - which sees the console release exclusively on PS2.
As the first fully 3D platforming game starring Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Adventure is considered the "center of the [Dreamcast]" launch. Adventure garnered criticisms for technical issues including unclear camera angles and distractions, but was praised for its "beautiful" visual, "wide and winding environment" and iconic pieces - including the segment in which Sonic ran down. the side of a skyscraper - and has been described as the creative peak of the Sonic series . However, it failed "to catch up with players in almost as it did [Nintendo] Mario 64 ," probably due to the lack of depth of perceived gameplay. Differentiated by the innovative use of various storylines with various forms of game, Adventure sold 2.5 million copies, making it a Dreamcast best-selling game. Sonic Team also developed the first online game Dreamcast - ChuChu Rocket! - widely praised for addictive puzzle games and multiplayer "panic" games, and the highly successful music game Samba de Amigo, renowned for its expensive and colorful perennial aesthetics. Perhaps the most influential of Sonic's Dreamcast release is Phantasy Star Online , the first online RPG console. Developed after Okawa requested an online game from Sonic Team, PSO was heavily influenced by the action RPG PC Diablo , but refined and simplified the style of the game to attract entertaining audiences.
In sports, the NFL 2K ' NKL 2K concept of critically acclaimed football and basketball series NBA 2K . NFL 2K is considered a great launching game because of its high visual quality and "extensive, context-friendly, and, yes, even funny" comments, while NFL 2K1 featuring breakthroughs online multiplayer early from its main competitor, the EJ Madden NFL series . Madden and 2K continued to compete on other platforms until 2004 - with the series 2K introducing innovations such as the first-person perspective new to the genre, and finally launching < i> ESPN NFL 2K5 at an aggressive low price point of $ 19.95 - until EA signed an exclusive agreement with the National Football League, "effectively putting every other pro-football game out of business." After Sega sold Visual Concepts for $ 24 million in 2005, the NBA 2K series continued with Take-Two Interactive publishers. During the lifetime of the Dreamcast, Visual Concepts also collaborates with Sonic the Hedgehog level designer Hirokazu Yasuhara in Floigan Bros. action-adventure game. and developed a very successful action game Ooga Booga .
To attract the European market, Sega formed a French affiliate named No ClichÃÆ'Â ©, who developed games such as Toy Commander . Sega Europe also approached Bizarre Creations to develop the highly successful racing game Metropolis Street Racer , featuring a detailed rendering of London, Tokyo and San Francisco - complete with consistent time zones and fictional radio stations - and 262 individual racing tracks.
Although Acclaim, SNK, Ubisoft, Midway, Activision, Infogrames and Capcom supported this system during the first year, third party developer support proved difficult to obtain due to Sega Saturn's failure and publishing profitability for the PlayStation. Namco Soul Calibur , for example, was released for the Dreamcast due to the relatively unpopular series of the Soul at the time; Namco more successful Tekken franchises are associated with PlayStation consoles and PlayStation-based arcade boards. Nevertheless, Soul Calibur received tremendous critical acclaim and has often been described as one of the best games for the system. Capcom produced a number of fighting games for the system, including the Power Stone series, in addition to the temporary exclusive in the popular Resident Evil series called Resident Evil Code: Veronica. The Dreamcast is also known for some shoot 'em ups, especially Treasure's Bangai-O and Ikaruga .
In January 2000, three months after the launch of the North American system, Electronic Gaming Monthly offered praise for the game library, stating, "... with triple-A stuff like Soul Calibur >, NBA 2K , and soon Gila Taxi to kick, we think you're glad you took a 128-bit plunge. "In retrospective, PC Magazine Jeffrey L. Wilson refers to the "librarian killer" of Dreamcast and emphasizes the creative influence of Sega and visual innovation as its peak during the lifetime of the system. The Edge staff agreed with this assessment on the original Dreamcast game, as well as the Sega arcade conversion, stating that the system "delivered the first game that could be described as a perfect arcade." GamePro author Blake Snow refers to the library as "highly celebrated". Damien McFerran of Retro Gamer praised the arcade port of NAOMI Dreamcast, arguing that the "Crazy Taxi" sigma play in the arcade knows well that pixel-perfect conversion (and not some cut-down port ) is set to arrive at Dreamcast is a gamer experience impossible to witness anymore. "Nick Montfort and Mia Consalvo, writing in The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, argue that" The Dreamcast hosts a vast number of videogame developments that go beyond the strange and unusual and interesting when considered as avant-garde... it's hard to imagine a commercial console game that expresses strong resilience to commodity perspectives and the view that game production is trading. But even when it comes to denying commercialization, it's arguable that the Dreamcast game comes closer to expressing this attitude than games other consoles. "Jeremy's parent 1UP.com is better than Segcast's Dreamcast output, which includes some of the" most varied, creative, and fun "games the company has ever produced", with the status of "attenuated" as a third party. Fahs said, "The Dreamcast's life is fast paced, but it's filled with impressive titles, most of which are really new properties." According to author Steven L. Kent, "From Sonic Adventure and Shenmue to Channel 5 and Seafarers , Dreamcast delivered and delivered and delivered. "
Reception and inheritance
In December 1999, Next Generation rated Dreamcast 4 out of 5 stars and stated, â € Å"If you want the most powerful system right now, featuring the best graphics at a reasonable price, this system is right for you. "However, the Next Generation rated Dreamcast's future prognosis as 3 stars out of 5 in the same article, noting that Sony will deliver superior hardware products on the PlayStation 2 next year, and Nintendo says it will do the thing the same as GameCube.In early 2000, Monthly Electronic Games had five Dreamcast 8.5, 8.5, 8.5, 8.0, and 9.0 review scores of 10 points.In 2001, reviewers for Electronic Gaming Monthly scored Dreamcast 9.0, 9.0, 9.0, 9.0 and 9.5 out of 10. BusinessWeek recognized Dreamcast as one of the best products of 1999.
In 2009, IGN named Dreamcast the 8th largest video game console of all time, giving credit for innovation and software for the system. According to IGN, "Dreamcast is the first console that incorporates an internal modem to play online, and while the network does not have the polishing and perfection of its successor, it is the first time users can smoothly turn on and play with users around the globe." In 2010, > PC Magazine 's Jeffrey L. Wilson named Dreamcast the largest video game console, stressing that the system is "too fast". In 2013, Edge named Dreamcast as the 10th best console in the last 20 years, highlighting innovations added to video game consoles, including in-game voice chat, downloadable content, and second-screen technology through the use of VMU. Edge describes poor system performance by stating, "Sega console no doubt precedes its time, and it suffers in retail for that reason... [b] its influence can still be felt today." Writing in 1001 Video Games You Should Play Before You Die , Duncan Harris notes "One of the reasons older gamers grieve for the loss of the Dreamcast is that it marks the demise of the arcade game culture... Sega's Console gives hope that things will not turn out to be bad and that the bright and bright, exciting graphics principles will not sink into the swamps of realistic brown and green war games. "Parish, writing for the USGamer, compared the various libraries of Dreamcast with a" choking sense of conservatism "that encompassed the gaming industry in the next decade.And Whitehead of Eurogamer, discussed the depiction of the Dreamcast" as a small, square, white plastic JFK ", commented that the short-lived system it "may have sealed its reputation as one of the greatest consoles ever": "No one built a cult like the tragic of death." According to Travis Fahs of IGN, "Many hardware manufacturers have come and gone, but there is no way that anyone will come out with half more classes like Sega. "
Note
References
Bibliography
- Mott, Tony (2013). 1001 Video Games You Should Play Before You Die . New York City: Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2.
- DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (2004). High Score !: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games . Emeryville, California: McGraw-Hill/Osborne. ISBN: 0-07-223172-6.
- Kent, Steven L. (2001). The Ultimate History of Video Games: The Story Behind the Craze That Touches Our Lives and Transforms the World . Roseville, California: Prima Publishing. ISBN 0-7615-3643-4.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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