SEGA DREAMCAST CONSOLE.

 

On November 27, 1998, Sega, the home-computer-game giant, released its latest video-game hardware: Dreamcast. The first shipment of about 150,000 units sold out in a single day - yet through poor marketing many Australians still to this day do not know about this phenomenal Console.

 

The Sega Dreamcast was (and still is) one of the most fantastic and innovative products of its time. Impressive technical specifications, great games and an imaginative advertising campaign (in Japan) heralded the arrival of the latest system of the time, from a company known for groundbreaking video game systems and a company that has always been light years ahead of its competition in terms of Video Game Technology and innovation -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEGA THE MASTERS OF THE SYSTEM

 

 

 

 

SEGA History

 

 

 

SEGA KATANA - DREAMCAST

 

 

An established leader in the arcade, Sega entered the home market right on the heels of Nintendo. Renamed the Sega Master System, the system known as the Mark III in Japan debuted in the United States in 1986. The Sega Master System used an 8-bit CPU, 128K ROM-based operating system and had a 128K of RAM. Games came on two types of cartridges: a large cartridge that could hold a megabit of game code, and a smaller cartridge that held 256 kilobits of game code.

 

 

In 1989, Sega introduced the world's first 16-bit home video game system, the Genesis. Based on Motorola's 68000 processor, the system was technically superior to anything else on the market. But the sheer dominance of Nintendo overshadowed the Genesis, when the rival company debuted the Super Nintendo Entertainment System later that same year.

 

 

Sega beat Sony and Nintendo to the punch with a 32-bit system. The Saturn was officially launched on May 11, 1995. Not only was it the first 32-bit system, but it had two 28.8 MHz 32-bit Hitachi SH-2 processors working in parallel! Sega's Saturn was an amazing system with an incredible architecture, but quickly fell behind the other 32-bit system released that year, Sony's PlayStation.
Code-named Katana, the Dreamcast was released in the fall of 1999, the first system to provide a built-in modem and 128-bit graphics. The manufacturer also had plans for an external addon Hard disc drive which could use 100M Iomega Zip Discs as a storage medium for online browsing and huge capacity for game saves and data transfer (As seen below)

 

 

 

 

Like the N64 and the PlayStation, the CPU in the Dreamcast is a RISC processor. RISC stands for reduced instruction set computer, and means that the instructions and computations performed by the processor are simpler and fewer. Also, RISC chips are superscalar -- they can perform multiple instructions simultaneously. This combination of capabilities, performing more instructions simultaneously and completing each instruction faster because it is simpler, allows the CPU to perform better than many chips with a much faster clock speed.

SEGA - Before their time

 

 

The Dreamcast is the first console that has a built-in 56 Kbps modem. It was added to enable online play over a phone line and web browsing and email, allowing users to play games against each other across long distances. In addition to the built-in modem, Sega also distributed later a cable or DSL external modem.

 

Broadband networks are still being set up by gamers worldwide that take advantage of such a modem and enable fast online games for the Dreamcast. It is also important to note that The Sega Saturn also used Modem adaptors, VCD Mpeg player adaptors and keyboards well before other companies had even considered those avenues for gamers.

While Dreamcast games are similar to CD-ROM, the actual optical disc used is proprietary, and can hold up to 1.2 gigabytes of information. This was at the time a lot of space -- most games used only a fraction of it for the actual game but many Dreamcast games included incredible full motion video intros and intermissions that could not have fit on the standard CD media of the time.

 

 

 

 

SEGA : INNOVATIVE DESIGN INNOVATIVE MARKETING

 

 

Another thing that gained lots of attention for Dreamcast was an unusual series of TV commercials that starred Eiichi Yukawa, then a director of Sega Enterprises. The advertising campaign was quite unusual in that -they had bad things to say about Sega and praise for the company's rivals' products!

 

 

One of these popular TV commercials featured some elementary-school kids saying derogative things about the company: "Sega is so uncool," "PlayStation is a lot more fun," and so on. Yukawa, who happens to overhear the kids bad-mouthing his company, gets upset by this; he then sees his day go from bad to worse until he hears a voice from nowhere telling him to get up and fight back. The company produced and aired the sequels to this ad after it proved a huge success, bringing Sega back into the public eye (and maybe getting some pity for poor Yukawa, who had such a terrible time in them). Check out the sceen cuts below - Anyone who owned an original Japanese Dreamcast packaged in a bright orange box (Not Asian one w/out- Modem in white box) would recognise the man below.

 

 

 

................................................................ ooooh velly good Yukawa a "dream-caster"

Demand for the new game machines was huge on launch, and only people who had reserved a Dreamcast unit in advance were able to buy one of the first shipment. But even these people, who were guaranteed of being able to buy one, lined up in front of stores around Tokyo the night before the game went on sale. Yukawa himself showed up at some of these stores, cheerfully greeting and shaking hands with customers. But after the huge launch in Japan sales slumped and the companies director accepted a demotion. But the former director remains a highly popular figure among children. He even made his debut as a singer, when a record company came out with his CD--appropriately titled "Dreamcast."

What Flavour of Dreamcast would you like?

 

 

-----------------------

In Japan Only a TV Set for Kids with Dreamcast Built in.

------

--- ---- ---- --