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Dreamcast News - The Latest in Emulation and Homebrew is a News and downloads site for Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn and Vintage Sega Consoles like the Megadrive, Master System and 32X, We have all the latest emulators, hack, homebrew, commercial games and all the downloads on this site, the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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December 16th, 2013, 20:18 Posted By: wraggster
<center style='font: 14px/22.39px "Open Sans", Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;'> </center>Sony Pictures has registered several web domains that suggest a film based on the Sonic the Hedgehog universe could be in the works. Kotaku noticed that "sonicthehedgehog-movie.com," "sonicthehedgehog-movie.net" and "sonicthehedgehogmovie.net" were registered to Sony last week, though Sony themselves have yet to announce any film adaptation of Sega's iconic mascot.
Sony Pictures Animation has created both fully-animated (Open Season) and live-action-plus-CG (The Smurfs) in the past, so it's hard to say which way a Sonic movie, should it ever be made, would go. If it's the latter, we're telling you right now Sony, making it dark and edgy - complete with Dr. Robotnik/Eggman torturing someone - has already been done.
Sonic the Hedgehog - The Movie. Coming sometime. Possibly. Running time (if it happens): fast.
http://www.joystiq.com/2013/12/14/so...edgehog-movie/
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December 11th, 2013, 12:12 Posted By: wraggster
SBWin, the SEGA Genesis ROM converter for Windows, has been updated to version 3.2.0.
This new version contains a number of changes and bug fixes. Here is partial list of what’s new:
- Zip compression bugs fixed
- The conversion setting is now selected using radio buttons instead of a combo box
- Fixed issue where some MGD files could not be added
- Combined compression was removed due to a design decision (but individual compression is still included)
- Some menu options were renamed or removed to make the interface a bit cleaner.
More changes are coming in the future (including an eventual rewrite of the application).
http://www.codeisle.com/
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December 10th, 2013, 12:16 Posted By: wraggster
via http://www.aep-emu.de/
BizHawk is a multi-system emulator in C#.
Supported Systems
Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom / Famicom Disk System (NES/FDS)
Nintendo 64 (N64) (Uses the Mupen64Plus v2.0 core)
Super Nintendo (SNES) (Uses v87 of bsnes)
Gameboy / Gameboy Color (uses the Gambatte emulator SVN revision 344 core)
Super Gameboy
Sega Master System
Sega Saturn (Uses the Yabause 9.2 core)
SG-1000
Game Gear
PC-Engine (TurboGrafx-16) / CD-ROM
SuperGrafx
Atari 2600
Atari 7800
ColecoVision
TI-83 Calculator
Unofficially Released
Sega Genesis (Experimental)
Commodore 64
Gameboy Advance
Sony PSP
Mattel Intellivision
Sony Playstation
Quote:
Bizhawk 1.5.3
- Windows Binary
- Released December 1, 2013
- Revision Range 3525 - 5457
- Some project renaming, including renaming the client to EmuHawk
- DO NOT extract this release over a previous release, it needs to be in its folder, and a fresh config.ini
- Lua
- Events library
- integrate all events into the registered function System
- Allow all events to have multiple functions registered
- Remove all legacy register events in favor of the events library (for more info see the Lua documentation for more information)
- Add event.onmemoryexecute() for some cores (for more info see the Lua documentation for more information)
- Add more core support for event.onmemoryread() and event.onmemorywrite()
- emu.oninputpoll() - Support all cores
- Function reorg - move many client specific function out of the emu library, other misc changes (for more info see the Lua documentation for more information)
- Add emu.getregister() and emu.getregisters()
- EmuHawk
- Fix black screen on AV capture when OSD is turned on
- Fix exception thrown in Path Config on various browse folder buttons
- Fix scrub input hotkey, on trunk a slight refactoring now that more things are in client.common
- If throwing a fatal exception, EmuHawk will detect if a movie is loaded, ask if you want to save and attempt to save it.
- Turn off rewind for "medium" states, as SNES problems still occur with default settings and it isn´t worth it
- also change the default rewind frequency to 4 (if the user does turn it on, this frequency still gives a smooth rewind experience
- Fix the encoding mode of the NES Game Genie Encoder/Decoder dialog
- FirmwaresConfigInfo dialog to show you more information about a firmware (such as which options the DB is allowing)
- VirtualPads
- Fix numeric box updating on Analog forms
- Fix bug where numeric boxes could not be typed into
- Fix bug where analog control panel was not updating on mouse movie
- Add clear button
- Allow smaller minimum size
- Lua Console - Autoscroll the output window as text gets added
- Registered Function dialog
- Change hotkey to F12
- Fix bug where Call and Remove were affecting the wrong scripts
- Allow multi-highlight to call and remove methods
- Add Remove All button
- Misc dialog fixes
- Ram Search
- Fix defaulting to fast mode
- Fix defauling to float for N64 and GBA, now defaults to unsigned
- Misc other fixes
- Play Movie
- Fix exception thrown in Play movie dialog when opening a file with board properties set
- Add Fps and Frame count to the Details grid
- Cheats
- Numerous fixes to the cheat system that were causing it to misbehave, not freeze addresses, throw exceptions and not be able to edit cheats
- N64Hawk
- Capture PAL flag into movies
- SRAM is now saved into Bizhawk´s saveram file instead of m64p´s own .sra file
- Flashram is now saved into Bizhawk´s saveram file instead of m64p´s own .fla file
- TI83Hawk
- Unhide the load TI file menu item
- Keypad - fix tooltips that were broken in a past release
- use newer firmware hashes
- GBHawk
- Fix to sound processing - huge speed boost
- Fix RTC in movies
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December 5th, 2013, 23:49 Posted By: wraggster
A book detailing the history of the Sega Mega Drive has more than doubled its Kickstarter target with four days to go.
SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works will, according to its authors at Read-Only Memory, be "the ultimate retrospective of the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis".
When CVG first reported on the book in early November, it had already received nearly a third of its £30,000 target in its just two days.
Now, with four days of funding remaining, the target has been smashed, with £79,256 pledged at the time of writing.
Read-Only Memory has stated that it will reinvest the extra funds in the book to increase its quality.
"I must confess I had absolutely no idea the campaign would go like this," wrote designer Darren Wall, "so I was entirely unprepared for this situation arising.
"My immediate instinct is to direct the money back at the book itself, so everybody benefits from a book with more pages, better production values (they were budgeted to be pretty darn nice already!) and even more impressive cover finishes."
Originally planned to be a 300-page hardback book with more than 35,000 words of Mega Drive information and interviews, the book will now be extended to 340 pages.
A number of new interviewees have also been announced, on top of the 23 previously confirmed. These include Greg Johnson (co-creator of ToeJam & Earl), Ed Annunziata (creator of Ecco the Dolphin), Peter Morawiec (creator of Comix Zone), Michael Latham (producer of Eternal Champions) and Rich Karpp (developer of Vectorman).
The book will be published in June 2014. Those interested in it can still pledge until Monday December 9, with a £30 pledge guaranteeing a copy.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ews-confirmed/
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November 30th, 2013, 01:47 Posted By: wraggster
Sega Sammy chief operating officer Naoya Tsurumi has said that Atlus is free to develop games for 'dormant' Sega IPs should it wish.
Sega acquired Atlus parent company Index Corporation earlier this year, and in a new Famitsu interview (translated by Siliconera) Tsurumi has discussed some of the benefits of the acquisition.
<figure style='font: 14px/23.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 460px; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' class="responsive single-article__canvas single-article__canvas--full zoomhover" title="" data-media992="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3097/image_309730_460.jpg" data-media768="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3097/image_309730_700.jpg" data-media480="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3097/image_309730_480.jpg" data-media="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_3097/image_309730_320.jpg"> </figure>In particular, Tsurumi notes that Sega has never had great success with RPGs, and that the Atlus association will reverse this.
"I believe that the addition of genres is a crucial factor," he said. "Especially with regard to the fact that Sega have never excelled in RPG titles. With consideration towards Atlus' strengths, Japanese RPGs would be a prime example [of an added benefit]."
Tsurumi also said that Atlus is free to develop games for other dormant Sega properties, which include the likes of Jet Set Radio and Sakura Wars, among others.
"While we have no intention of forcing this, we'd definitely love to have them utilize any of Sega's dormant IPs," he said.
Atlus is responsible for the Shin Megami Tensei RPG series. It will release series installment Persona 5 in 2014 along with three other associated titles for 3DS, Vita and PS3.
Sega acquired Atlus in September in a deal believed to be worth $140 million.
In a statement, Altus chief executive Naoto Hiraoka said "we are extremely happy to be able to continue with our business, and be able to report this good news to our fans and customers."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ected-sega-ip/
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November 28th, 2013, 00:35 Posted By: wraggster
The Shenmue 3 trademark application to a European office is the latest hoax in a line of fake submissions, likely from the same person, CVG understands.
On Tuesday, an application for the Shenmue 3 trademark was filed to the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market (OHIM), though tellingly it was not submitted to any other trademark office, and has yet to be examined.
<figure style='font: 14px/23.79px "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; width: 460px; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); text-transform: none; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: block; white-space: normal; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;' class="responsive single-article__canvas single-article__canvas--full has-caption zoomhover" title="" data-media992="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_2749/image_274921_460.jpg" data-media768="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_2749/image_274921_700.jpg" data-media480="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_2749/image_274921_480.jpg" data-media="http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/dir_2749/image_274921_320.jpg"> <figcaption style="margin: 5px 0px 0px; padding: 1em; border-radius: 0px 2px; border: 0px currentColor; left: 0px; top: auto; right: auto; bottom: 0px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.35em; font-size: 1.2rem; display: block; position: absolute; background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.65098);" class="zeta caption-bl">Sega cancelled the Shenmue series back in 2003, following poor sales of its predecessor</figcaption></figure>Last week, a trademark for Fallout 4 was submitted to the OHIM but it was eventually examined by officials and discarded. In October, a bogus Half-Life 3 application appeared online but was also discarded after being examined.
A spokesperson for OHIM could not comment on individual cases, but provided CVG with documents which explained how anyone can apply for a trademark - meaning the website is exposed to fakes for a short period of time.
One key sign for all community trademark applications of this kind is a "classification examination" tick box. Until OHIM officials tick this box, the application is unverified.
Though Sega has talked down any possibilities for future Shenmue games over the past ten years, the games community has been sensitive to even the slightest possible hints that the series could return.
On Tuesday, it was confirmed that Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki has been lined up to discuss the creation of the series at the Game Developers Conference next March.
In a special one-hour session, Suzuki will discuss all aspects of Shenmue's creation, from its original prototype as a Virtua Fighter RPG on the Saturn to its eventual release on the Dreamcast.
Suzuki, who is no longer working at Sega, does not own the Shenmue IP.
Sega was unavailable to comment at the time of going to press.
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...posed-as-hoax/
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November 27th, 2013, 21:07 Posted By: wraggster
It seems Sega has filed a trademark for the long-awaited Shenmue 3 video game.
A post on the NeoGAF forum contains an image of the filing which has been made on the EU trademarks and designs registration office website.
Shenmue originally arrived on the Sega Dreamcast console back in 1999, before a sequel launched in 2001. This also later hit the Xbox.
The original adventure title is regarded as one of the greatest video games on the Dreamcast but drew disappointing sales.
There has been plenty of rumour and speculation surrounding Shenmue 3 in recent years, but fans will still have to wait for any sort of official announcement from Sega.
http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...by-sega/032600
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November 25th, 2013, 00:13 Posted By: wraggster
via http://www.emucr.com/
SBWin Converter v3.2.0 is released. SBWin Converter is a SEGA Genesis ROM batch conversion utility for Microsoft Windows. It supports SMD (Super Magic Drive), BIN (Binary), and MD/MGD (Multi Game Doctor) files. It also supports two modes of compression.
Features:
- Completely graphical interface (no black console boxes)
- Easily convert between the most popular SEGA Genesis ROM formats
- Blazing fast speeds allow conversion of dozens of files in seconds
- Compression support allows files to be zipped for easy file portability
- Compatible with operating systems from Windows XP to Windows 7
- Completely free to use
SBWin Converter v3.2.0 Changelog:
- Zip compression bugs fixed
- The conversion setting is now selected using radio buttons instead of a drop-down menu
- Fixed issue where some MGD files could not be added
- Combined compression was removed due to a design decision (but individual compression is still included)
- Some menu options were renamed or removed to make the interface a bit cleaner
http://www.codeisle.com/
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November 20th, 2013, 00:29 Posted By: wraggster
The industry remembers the man behind Sega's last console marketing campaign
Former Sega of America vice president Charles Bellfield died in San Francisco on Friday night after an illustrious career that included a key role in the launch of the Sega Dreamcast console.
Bellfield, a UK native, began his decades-long run in the games industry at NEC Electronics with subsequent roles at Codemasters, Capcom, and motion control pioneer companies EmotionPlay and 3DV Systems.
He most recently worked at internet radio firm Pure North America after leaving gaming behind.
Bellfield rose to fame when he helped NEC Electronics get its contract with Sega for the Dreamcast, and served as Sega's spokesperson for the console's launch.
Perhaps his most important work was done when as vice president of strategic planning and corporate affairs he, along with then Sega of America president Peter Moore, helped guide the company away from hardware production after the demise of the Dreamcast to its current role as a software outfit.
His passing resulted in an outpouring of grief and fond remembrances on Twitter and Facebook, including a post from his former boss, Moore.
"Together we would take on Sony, joust with EA, and even battle with our own parent company back in Tokyo," wrote Moore (now EA's COO) in response to the Facebook post from Bellfield's brother Edward.
"All with a sense of irreverence and good natured competitive spirit that Charlie and I believed embodied what Sega needed to be about. He was smart and mischievous, with a dry humor and a classic sense of right and wrong. Long after we parted ways at Sega, we were (and are) friends to the end. He was a friend and mentor to my children."
http://www.develop-online.net/news/o...lfield/0186148
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November 16th, 2013, 02:26 Posted By: Christuserloeser
The Dreamcast version of Pier Solar, titled Pier Solar HD, has been delayed to March 2014. Here's the update from Pier Solar HD's Kickstarter page:
We are here today with fresh news about the development stages of Pier Solar HD for you. Since all of the topics for this update are major, we decided to produce a video where Tulio talks about everything you want to know.
We hope you all will be excited with the great news we have, and most of all, we count on your kind support during the last steps of the game completion.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...d/posts/662840
The video shows the game on two additional platforms, PS3 and PS4, and also demonstrates the possible combinations of 16-bit graphics and music and HD graphics and CD music which can be changed in game.
Interestingly, the programmer in charge of porting Pier Solar to Dreamcast, Wii U, & co. is no other than Chui, 'our' Chui of Neo4all fame!
The Dreamcast version can be pre-ordered at http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/factory/shop/
PS: In other news, WM is still looking for sprite artists for their SNES and Genesis games:
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November 11th, 2013, 19:55 Posted By: wraggster
Any self-respecting gamer in their mid 20s or older should take one look at this and get excited.
Sega Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works is a Kickstarter project that, if successful, will result in what will surely be the most impressive book covering the history of what was arguably Sega's finest console.
 A 300-page hardback book with more than 35,000 words of Mega Drive musings, it will also feature interviews with more than 20 key names in the Mega Drive story, many of whom have never been interviewed before. The full list is:- Naoto Oshima, Game Designer: Sonic the Hedgehog
- Yu Suzuki, Game Designer: Space Harrier, OutRun, After Burner, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter
- Makoto Uchida, Planner: Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Alien Storm
- Yuji Naka, Game Designer: Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic & Knuckles
- Masami Ishikawa, Product Designer: Mega Drive/Genesis hardware
- Mitsushige Shiraiwa, Product Designer: Mega Drive/Genesis outer casing
- Tomohiro Kondo, Planner: Shadow Dancer
- Yuzo Koshiro, Sound Designer: The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi, Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage
- Akira Nishino, Planning Director: Ristar the Shooting Star/Ristar
- Kan Naito, Programmer: Shining Force
- Kazuyuki Hoshino, Art Director: Knuckles Chaotix
- Keisuke Tsukahara, Sound Designer: Shadow Dancer, Alien Storm (arcade)
- Kotaro Hayashida, Game Designer: Alex Kidd, Space Harrier II
- Manabu Kusunoki, Graphic Designer: Bonanza Bros.
- Naohiro Warama (credited as Taro Shizuoka), Designer: Revenge of Shinobi/The Super Shinobi
- Noriyoshi Ohba, Director: The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi, Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage
- Ryuichi Nishizawa, Director: Wonder Boy
- Koji Tsuchida, Director: Shadow Squadron/Stellar Assault
- Tomoyuki Ito, Director: The Super Shinobi II/Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
- Toru Yoshida, Designer: Phantasy Star II, III, IV
- Tombo Arikawa, Designer: Rent A Hero
- Ryutaro Nonaka, Planner: Metal Head
- Naofumi Hataya, Sound: Golden Axe II, Virtua Racing Deluxe
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ok-just-do-it/
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November 11th, 2013, 02:04 Posted By: wraggster
via http://www.emucr.com/
Gens-ReRecording SVN r346 is released. Gens Rerecording, formerly known as Gens Movie Test, is a modification of the highly popular Gens emulator. This modification includes slowdown, recording and playback of controller input logs, dumping of AVI files, and Lua scripting. This emulator is primarily used by the Nesvideos community.
Gens-ReRecording SVN changelog:
r346
How could I NOT forget these two, right?
---------------------
r345
- Started the HexEditor dialog. Can show M68K RAM (not swapped like RAM Search shows it). - Fixed bug when Hog CPU would disable the turbo mode controls.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/omames
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November 9th, 2013, 20:46 Posted By: wraggster
Continuing the trend with lots of love for anything Sega, this week we jump to December of 1996 with issue 14 of the Official Sega Saturn Magazine.
We start of with a feature on the incredible Christmas NiGHTS, then move on to an in-depth showcase for Virtua Cop 2. After all this we have not one, but two interviews. The first one is with Lobotomy Software on Exhumed, while the second one talks to Sega AM#3 about the Saturn conversion of Virtual On. And finally we look at two reviews: Daytona USA CCE and Virtua Cop 2.
http://www.outofprintarchive.com/cat...ne/OSSM14.html
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October 29th, 2013, 01:18 Posted By: wraggster
via http://emu-russia.net/en/
Russian Sega Dreamcast/Naomi/Naomi2/Atomiswave/Gaelco/Hikaru emulator has been updated recently. Changes:
ATOMISWAVE: Crash fix
CORE: Autoregion if booted without disk fix
CORE: SSE2 optimizations, critical core corruptions fixed, much more stability
CORE: Savestates fix
CORE: Various fixes from the Issue tracker
DC: Dev.Box bios autoregion
DX10: NAOMI2 irq fix
DX11: Aspect ratio for 2nd shader filter's pass fix
DX11: Framebuffer rendering fix
DX11: Ignore z-write disable for PuchThrough (fix Bust-A-Move 4)
DX11: Rotate 90/270 fullscreen aspect fix
GDR: gdrDemul is back from grave
GPU: Aica dsp fix
GPU: Full screen added to cave3rd and hikaru
GPU: Lightgun mark fix
GPU: YUV transfer out of RAM fix
HIKARU: Minor fixes and speedup
NAOMI2: Club Kart little controls fix
NAOMI2: Color/diffuse lerp value
NAOMI2: Delay irq and TL status
NAOMI2: Diffuse and specular intensity
NAOMI2: Fake shadow fix
NAOMI2: Layouts
NAOMI2: Znear/zfar fixes
NAOMI2: Spot/point lights fix
NAOMI2: Opaque modifiers
NAOMI2: Optimize/refactor
NAOMI2: VS3 stupid bug fix
NAOMI2: shadow intensity fix
NAOMI: 18 Wheeler DX Steering fix
NAOMI: Soul Surfer floormat/controls
PAD: Fixed jump to the BIOS when focus lost
PAD: more precision for analogs/guns
PAD: xinput stick, xinput crashes and compatibility fix, xinput rumble support
PVR2: fix single modifiers (Soul Calibur)
PVR2: fix specular
SH4: Exception generate optimization, dinarec optimizations, minor speedup (major speedup for some game, like Under Defeat)
SH4: MMU fix critical bug and speedup, all WinCE games are playable now
SPU: Sound stretching for the slow machines
VMU: beep fixed, speedup
VMU: default setting changed, VMU screen disable option added
File: Download
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October 28th, 2013, 22:56 Posted By: wraggster
via http://www.dcemulation.org/?title=Main_Page.
via famitsu.com / polygon.com
Tadashi Takezaki, these days, works at Sega in the position of "head of project implementation department, president's office," which doesn't describe very well the things he's been involved with since joining up in 1993. A veteran of Sega's marketing and PR department in Japan, Takezaki was involved with the launch of both the Saturn and Dreamcast — Sega's final two home game consoles. He was also the man who wrote an emotional online message "to all Sega supporters" in January 31, 2001 to announce that Sega was halting Dreamcast production and becoming a third-party software company.
That certainly wasn't the plan back in 1998, when Sega launched a new system that did its best to learn from previous mistakes. "When we developed the hardware, we looked over the mistakes we made with the Saturn and completely reworked our approach," Takezaki recalled in an interview with Famitsu magazine published this week. "Developing for the Saturn and its two CPUs was difficult enough in itself, but the development environment was also chided for being too lacking. So we fully fleshed out our libraries to make development easier. Even today, the Dreamcast gets a lot of praise for its dev environment."
The Dreamcast was more than dev-friendly, though — it was also casual-friendly, going completely away from the hardcore gamer-oriented trend they established with the 16-bit Genesis and 32-bit Saturn. "We did our best to make the console approachable to a mass audience," Takezaki said, "from the system's design and coloring to the name itself. As a result, we went with a compact, simple design with a warm color scheme, something completely different in look from older Sega systems. I think it was the console that we took the most complete marketing approach with."
So why did the system fail? "In essence, it was a pure matter of cost," replied Takezaki. "It was because we were forced into a discount war when we were already losing money on system sales. Sony [whose PlayStation 2 came out March 2000 in Japan] was part of the team that developed the DVD standard, and they could develop a system around that completely internally with their own chips. Sega, meanwhile, was buying everything from outside companies, so it was at a distinct cost disadvantage. We couldn't easily cut costs on manufacturing, the software wasn't selling the numbers it used to, and then we were forced to discount the system."
It's hard enough to balance hardware costs with profits, but with everything Sega attempted in one go with the Dreamcast, the situation was even more dire than usual. "It's one of those things where the more consoles you sell, the more you lose, so we had to cover that with software sales," Takezaki explained. "But those sales weren't going up, and at the same time, we were busy trying to bring the idea of online gaming to users with the system. Our concept with the Dreamcast was to bring something new to gamers, to build an environment where they could connect with each other from around the world. Sega's whole business model was to build a userbase of cheap network devices, then provide services and products through the Internet; the Dreamcast was our ticket to making that dream come true."
A lot of people in the industry have commented that Sega perhaps pulled the trigger a few years too early with the Dreamcast and its online-centric design. Takezaki doesn't think so. "I think it was the right choice to aim for a net-centric strategy at that time," he said. "However, we went through with it even though our break-even was far too high for it to work. The idea of accessing the net for free at that time was simply fantastic, and we were the ones footing the bill, so in a weird way, Sega was the company paying out the most money for its users at the time."
Looking back, Takezaki sees the Dreamcast as an incredibly revolutionary system, but one that was probably destined to be Sega's last no matter how sales turned out. "I think the Dreamcast really symbolized the changing of the guard that took place around that time," he explained. "PCs really began to evolve and improve at a dizzying rate beginning then, and it made people begin to wonder if a console tuned exclusively for games had any chance of surviving any longer. Still, our experiments with network gaming led to things like Phantasy Star Online, and lots of people are still enjoying that series. The seeds we sowed with the Dreamcast are finally bearing fruit at this point in time. In some ways we were going by the seat of our pants, but it was part of the Sega credo at the time -- if it's fun, then go for it."
Source: famitsu.com // English translation by By Kevin Gifford of polygon.com
Link: <!-- m -->http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/7/4599588 ... looks-back<!-- m -->
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