dreamcast lcd screen made in china

...No, that’s not a typo! The Treamcast was a Chinese-market modification of the official Dreamcast, featuring region-free capability, a fold-down LCD screen, and it’s own official Treamcast controllers!

If there was a long-dead console system that gamers would like to see reborn in a portable format, the Sega Dreamcast would be at the top of the list. According to TechEBlog, “Chinese gamers” put this thing together: a custom-built portable system that plays Dreamcast games. It features a 7-inch widescreen display, stereo speakers, and a beautifully fabricated case.

The Dreamcasthome video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony"s PlayStation 2, Nintendo"s GameCube and Microsoft"s Xbox, and it was Sega"s final console, ending the company"s eighteen years in the console market.

The Dreamcast was developed by an internal Sega team led by Hideki Sato. In contrast to the expensive hardware of the unsuccessful Saturn, the Dreamcast was designed to reduce costs with "off-the-shelf" components, including a Hitachi SH-4 CPU and an NEC PowerVR2 GPU. Sega used the GD-ROM media format to avoid the expenses of DVD-ROM technology and a custom version of the Windows CE operating system to make porting PC games easy. The Dreamcast was the first console to include a built-in modular modem for internet access and online play.

Though released in Japan to a subdued reception, the Dreamcast had a successful US launch backed by a large marketing campaign. However, interest steadily declined as Sony built anticipation for the PlayStation 2. Dreamcast sales did not meet Sega"s expectations after several price cuts, and the company suffered significant financial losses. After a change in leadership, Sega discontinued the Dreamcast on March 31, 2001, withdrew from the console business, and restructured itself as a third-party developer. 9.13 million Dreamcast units were sold worldwide.

Despite its short lifespan and limited third-party support, reviewers have celebrated the Dreamcast as one of the greatest consoles. It is considered ahead of its time for pioneering concepts such as online play and downloadable content. Many of its games are regarded as innovative, including NAOMI arcade system board.

As early as 1995, reports surfaced that Sega would collaborate with Lockheed Martin, The 3DO Company, Matsushita, or Alliance Semiconductor to create a new graphics processing unit, which conflicting accounts said would be used for a 64-bit "Saturn 2" or an add-on peripheral.IBM"s Tatsuo Yamamoto to lead an 11-person team to work on a secret project in the United States with the codename Blackbelt. Accounts vary on how an internal team led by Hideki Sato also began development on Dreamcast hardware; one account specifies that Sega tasked both teams,Hitachi SH-4 processor architecture and the VideoLogic PowerVR2 graphics processor, manufactured by NEC, in the production of the mainboard. Initially known as Whitebelt,metallic female fighter from Sega"s

Knowing the Saturn had been set back by its high production costs and complex hardware, Sega took a different approach with the Dreamcast. Like previous Sega consoles, the Dreamcast was designed around intelligent subsystems working in parallel,Pentium II 200 in mind would run on the console.Isao Okawa, to include a modem with every Dreamcast under opposition from Okawa"s staff over the additional US$15 cost per unit.modular.GD-ROM media format;Yamaha, the GD-Rom could be mass-produced at a similar price to a normal CD-ROM,DVD-ROM technology, which was still fairly new at the time.Microsoft developed a custom Dreamcast version of Windows CE with DirectX API and dynamic-link libraries, making it easy to port PC games to the platform,

Sega held a public competition to name its new system and considered over 5,000 different entries before choosing "Dreamcast"—a portmanteau of "dream" and "broadcast".Kenji Eno submitted the name and created the Dreamcast"s spiral logo, but has not been officially credited by Sega.Ryuichi Sakamoto.PlayStation, but Irimajiri"s management team decided to retain it.US$50–80 million on hardware development, $150–200 million on software development, and US$300 million on worldwide promotion—a sum which Irimajiri, a former Honda executive, humorously likened to the investments required to design new automobiles.

With massive losses on the Saturn, including a 75 percent drop in half-year profits just before the Japanese launch of the Dreamcast, Sega was confident about the Dreamcast with significant outside interest and many pre-orders.PowerVR chipsets caused by a high failure rate in the manufacturing process.¥29,000, and the stock sold out by the end of the day. However, of the four games available at launch, only one—a port of 200,000–300,000 Dreamcast units could have been sold with sufficient supply.

Sega had announced that Sonic the Hedgehog, would launch with the Dreamcast and promoted it with a large-scale public demonstration at the Tokyo Kokusai Forum Hall,installed base sufficient to protect the Dreamcast after the arrival of competition from other manufacturers.¥19,900, effectively making it unprofitable but increasing sales. The reduction and the release of Namco"s

Before the Dreamcast"s release, Sega was dealt a blow when EA, the largest third-party video game publisher, announced it would not develop games for it. EA"s chief creative officer Bing Gordon said that Sega had "flip-flopped" on the hardware configuration, that EA developers did not want to work on it, and that Sega "was not acting like a competent hardware company". Gordon also said that Sega could not afford to give them the "kind of license that EA has had over the last five years".US$10 million purchase of the sports game developer Visual Concepts. While EA"s

Let"s take the conservative estimate of 250,000 Dreamcast units at presage—that"s a quarter of a million units at $200. We"ll have a ratio of 1.5 or two games for every Dreamcast unit sold. That"s half a million units of software. We think we"ll be .5 to one on VMUs and peripheral items such as extra controllers and what have you. This could be a $60 to 80 million 24-hour period. What has ever sold $60 to 80 million in the first 24 hours?

Working closely with Midway Games (which developed four launch games for the system) and taking advantage of the ten months following the Dreamcast"s release in Japan, Sega of America worked to ensure a more successful US launch with a minimum of 15 launch games.Hollywood Video in the months preceding its September launch.Peter Moore,Foote, Cone & Belding and Access Communications to develop the "It"s Thinking" campaign of 15-second television commercials, which emphasized the Dreamcast"s hardware power.

The Dreamcast launched in North America on September 9, 1999, at a price of $199, which Sega"s marketing dubbed "9/9/99 for $199".$98.4 million in what Moore called "the biggest 24 hours in entertainment retail history".fighting game Visual Concepts" football simulation

Sega released the Dreamcast in Europe on October 14, 1999,football clubs: Arsenal F.C. (England),AS Saint-Étienne (France),U.C. Sampdoria (Italy),Deportivo de La Coruña (Spain).

Through the regional distributor Ozisoft, the Dreamcast went on sale in Australia and New Zealand on November 30, 1999, at a price of A$499.first-party software included, and additional peripherals were not available in stores.

The Ozisoft representative Steve O"Leary, in a statement released the day of launch, explained that the Australian Customs Service had impounded virtually all the supplied launch software, including demo discs, due to insufficient labeling of their country of origin; Ozisoft had received them only two days before launch, resulting in few games that were catalogued and prepared for shipment in time. O"Leary also said that the Dreamcast"s high demand in other markets had reduced the number of peripherals allotted to the region.Telstra the day before launch. The online component was not ready until March 2000, at which point Ozisoft sent the necessary software to users who had sent in a filled-out reply paid card included with the console.

Though the Dreamcast launch was successful, Sony held 60 percent of the overall video game market share in North America with the PlayStation at the end of 1999.PlayStation 2 (PS2), which Ken Kutaragi claimed would allow video games to convey unprecedented emotions.DVD-ROM format, which could hold substantially more data than the Dreamcast"s GD-ROM,GameCube, would meet or exceed anything on the market, and Microsoft began development of its own console, the Xbox.

Moore became the president and chief operating officer of Sega of America on 8 May, 2000.SegaNet, the Dreamcast"s internet gaming service, at a subscription price of $21.95 per month.MTV Video Music Awards that day, which Sega sponsored for the second consecutive year.$149 (compared to the PS2"s US launch price of $299) and offered a rebate for the full $149 price of a Dreamcast, and a free Dreamcast keyboard, with every 18-month SegaNet subscription.

Moore said that the Dreamcast would need to sell 5 million units in the US by the end of 2000 to remain a viable platform; Sega fell short of this goal, with some 3 million units sold.¥17.98 billion ($163.11 million) loss, with a projected year-end loss of ¥23.6 billion.¥58.3 billion,¥51.7 billion ($417.5 million).PSone, a remodeled version of the original PlayStation, became the bestselling console in the US at the start of the 2000 holiday season.

We had a tremendous 18 months. Dreamcast was on fire - we really thought that we could do it. But then we had a target from Japan that said we had to make x hundreds of millions of dollars by the holiday season and shift x millions of units of hardware, otherwise, we just couldn"t sustain the business. Somehow I got to make that call, not the Japanese. I had to fire a lot of people; it was not a pleasant day. So on January 31st 2001 we said Sega is leaving hardware. We were selling 50,000 units a day, then 60,000, then 100,000, but it was just not going to be enough to get the critical mass to take on the launch of PS2. It was a big stakes game. Sega had the option of pouring in more money and going bankrupt and they decided they wanted to live to fight another day.

Nevertheless, on January 31, 2001, Sega announced the discontinuation of the Dreamcast after March 31 and the restructuring of the company as a "platform-agnostic" third-party developer.$99 to eliminate its unsold inventory, which was estimated at 930,000 units as of April 2001.$49.95.$500 million in 1999, died on March 16, 2001; shortly before his death, he forgave Sega"s debts to him and returned his $695 million worth of Sega and CSK stock, helping Sega survive the transition to third-party development.

The Dreamcast measures 190 mm × 195.8 mm × 75.5 mm (7.48 in × 7.71 in × 2.97 in) and weighs 1.5 kg (3.3 lb).CPU is a two-way 360 MIPS superscalar Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC,kB instruction cache and 16 kB data cache and a 128-bit graphics-oriented floating-point unit delivering 1.4 GFLOPS.NEC PowerVR2 rendering engine, integrated with the ASIC, can draw more than 3 million polygons per seconddeferred shading.

The Dreamcast can supply video through several accessories. It came with A/V cables, at the time the standard for video and audio connectivity. Sega and various third parties also manufactured RF modulator connectors and S-Video cables. A VGA adapter allows Dreamcast to connect on computer displays or enhanced-definition television sets in 480p.

Sega constructed numerous Dreamcast models, most of which were exclusive to Japan. The R7, a refurbished Dreamcast, was originally used as a network console in Japanese pachinko parlors. Another model, the Divers 2000 CX-1, is shaped similarly to Sonic"s head and includes a television and software for teleconferencing. A SeamanToyota also offered special Dreamcast units at 160 of its dealers in Japan.

The Dreamcast has four ports for controller inputs, and was sold with one controller. The controller is based on the Saturn 3D controller and includes an analog stick, a D-pad, four action buttons, start button and two analog triggers.1Up.com"s Sam KennedyGame Informer"s Andy McNamara.Hall effect sensors, which requires less calibration and leads to fewer issues with joystick drift.

Various third-party controllers, from companies such as Mad Catz, include additional buttons and other features;light guns in the US,motion controller and a keyboard for text entry.Soulcalibur is playable with the fishing controller, which translates vertical and horizontal movements into on-screen swordplay; IGN cited it as a predecessor to the Wii Remote.Activision, opted not to release it in the US.SNK"s Neo Geo Pocket Color, predating Nintendo"s GameCube – Game Boy Advance link cable.

Sega also produced the Dreameye, a digital camera that could be connected to the Dreamcast and used to exchange pictures and participate in video chat over the internet. Sega hoped developers would use the Dreameye for future software, as some later did with Sony"s similar EyeToy peripheral.Motorola the development of an internet-enabled cell phone that would use technology from the console to enable quick downloads of games and other data.

In contrast to the Sega CD and Sega Saturn, which included internal backup memory,memory card, the VMU, for data storage.LCD screen, audio output from a one-channel PWM sound source,non-volatile memory, a D-pad and four buttons.NFL 2K or raise virtual pets in Sonic Adventure.

Sega officials noted that the VMU could be used "as a private viewing area, the absence of which has prevented effective implementation of many types of games in the past".force feedback,Iomega announced a Dreamcast-compatible zip drive storing up to 100 MB on removable discs,

The Dreamcast library consists of over 600 games across all regions,regional lockout, only playing games released within its predetermined region; however, this is circumventable via modchip installation, boot discs, or cheat discs such as Datel"s Action Replay.July.indie developers were released later, an example being 2007"s Last Hope, developed by German studio NG:Dev.Team.

Sonic Team"s Sonic Adventure, the first fully 3D platform game starring Sega"s mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, was considered the "centerpiece" of the Dreamcast launch."s style of gameplay to appeal to console audiences.

UGA created the music game Crazy Taxi, an open-world arcade racing game known for its addictive gameplay with more than one million copies sold;inline skaters, is cited as a major example of Sega"s commitment to original concepts during the Dreamcast"s lifespan.Jet Set Radio also popularized cel shaded graphics,role-playing game Rieko Kodama,Jules Verne-inspired fantasy world of floating islands and sky pirates, charming protagonists, exciting airship battles and memorable plot.

AM2 developed what Sega hoped would be the Dreamcast"s killer app, Chinese cinema",simulated day-and-night cycle with variable weather, non-player characters with regular schedules, the ability to pick up and examine detailed objects, and introducing the quick-time event in its modern form,Shenmue went over budget and was rumored to have cost Sega over $50 million.Shenmue sold "extremely well", but had no chance of making a profit due to the Dreamcast"s limited installed base.

Before the launch of the Dreamcast in Japan, Sega announced its NAOMISega Model 3.flash ROM board in place of a GD-ROM drive, allowing nearly identical home conversions of arcade games.Capcom and Namco.III processors, allowing a handful of ports of PC games.

To appeal to the European market, Sega formed a French affiliate, No Cliché, which developed games such as Bizarre Creations to develop the racing game Acclaim, SNK, Ubisoft, Midway, Activision, Infogrames, and Capcom supported the Dreamcast during its first year,shoot "em ups, most notably Treasure"s Appaloosa Interactive"s

Dricas was an Internet service for Dreamcast consoles in Japan. The service launched the week of October 28, 1998, with its feature set expanded in the weeks preceding the Dreamcast"s launch in Japan on November 27, 1998.spun-off from Sega on November 26, 1999.GameCube port, on March 31, 2007.

SegaNet was an Internet service for dial-up-based online gaming on the Dreamcast in the United States. The service was created by Sega in collaboration with GTE through its GTE Internetworking division,Genuity.AT&T on August 4, 1999, making the AT&T WorldNet service the preferred ISP for Dreamcast in the United States,Excite@Home as the exclusive portal partner for SegaNet.Microsoft participated somewhat in the development of the service, but they terminated their relationship with Sega just a few months before its launch over differences in its direction.

Dreamarena was a free dial-up-based online gaming service provided for Dreamcast consoles in Europe, launching with the debut of the Dreamcast in Europe on October 14, 1999.ICL, BT and various ISPs.

In December 1999, Next Generation gave its future prognosis three out of five, noting that Sony and Nintendo were both due to release more powerful consoles.Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewers scored the Dreamcast 8.5, 8.5, 8.5, 8.0, and 9.0 out of 10.Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewers scored it 9.0, 9.0, 9.0, 9.0, and 9.5 out of 10.

Reasons cited for the failure of the Dreamcast include consumer excitement for the PS2;Squaresoft, the most popular third parties in the US and Japan respectively;GamePro, Blake Snow wrote of "the much beloved [Dreamcast] launched years ahead of the competition but ultimately struggled to shed the negative reputation [Sega] had gained during the Saturn, Sega 32X, and Sega CD days. As a result, casual gamers and jaded third-party developers doubted Sega"s ability to deliver."

In 2009, IGN named the Dreamcast the eighth-greatest video game console, praising its software and innovations, including its online play.PC Magazine"s Jeffrey L. Wilson named the Dreamcast the greatest console and said that it was "gone too soon".Edge named the Dreamcast the tenth-best console of the last 20 years, highlighting innovations including in-game voice chat, downloadable content, and second-screen technology through the use of VMUs. Edge wrote that "Sega"s console was undoubtedly ahead of its time, and it suffered at retail for that reason... [b]ut its influence can still be felt today."JFK. A progressive force in some ways, perhaps misguided in others, but nevertheless a promising life cut tragically short by dark shadowy forces, spawning complex conspiracy theories that endure to this day." He wrote that its short lifespan "may have sealed its reputation as one of the greatest consoles ever", as "nothing builds a cult like a tragic demise".IGN"s Travis Fahs, "Many hardware manufacturers have come and gone, but it"s unlikely any will go out with half as much class as Sega."

If ever a system deserved to succeed, it was Dreamcast. Dreamcast has a hell of a library. It"s dying now, 18 months old, with a larger library than the 5-year-old Nintendo 64. It"s a better library than the Nintendo 64. Dreamcast was a wonderful system.

The Dreamcast"s game library was celebrated.triple-A stuff like Soul Calibur, NBA 2K, and soon Crazy Taxi to kick around, we figure you"re happy you took the 128-bit plunge"."s Jeffrey L. Wilson referred to Dreamcast"s "killer library" and said that Sega"s creative influence and visual innovation had been at its peak.Edge agreed with this assessment of Dreamcast games, including Sega"s arcade conversions, stating that the system "delivered the first games that could meaningfully be described as arcade perfect".Crazy Taxi in the arcade knowing full well that a pixel-perfect conversion (and not some cut-down port) was set to arrive on the Dreamcast is an experience gamers are unlikely to witness again."

Nick Montfort and Mia Consalvo, writing in Loading... The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, argued that "the Dreamcast hosted a remarkable amount of video game development that went beyond the odd and unusual and is interesting when considered as avant-garde ... It is hard to imagine a commercial console game expressing strong resistance to the commodity perspective and to the view that game production is commerce. But even when it comes to resisting commercialization, it is arguable that Dreamcast games came closer to expressing this attitude than any other console games have."1Up.com"s Jeremy Parish favorably compared Sega"s Dreamcast output, which included some of "the most varied, creative, and fun [games] the company had ever produced", with its "enervated" status as a third-party.Steven L. Kent, "From Sonic Adventure and Shenmue to Space Channel 5 and Seaman, Dreamcast delivered and delivered and delivered."

Representatives from Ozisoft had different answers for the delay from October 25; one responded to Telecom New Zealand for both the console and the Internet access disc.ARN, that the delay was caused by high demand for international shipping along with chip manufacturing problems resulting from the then-recent earthquake in Taiwan; he also noted that Sega reallocated 50,000 Dreamcast units meant for the November 30 launch out of Australia due to heavy demand elsewhere.

Fahs, Travis (September 9, 2010). "IGN Presents the History of Dreamcast". Archived from the original on September 28, 2014. Retrieved October 31, 2014.

Perry, Douglass (September 9, 2009). "Features - The Rise And Fall Of The Dreamcast". Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

Hagiwara, Shiro; Oliver, Ian (November–December 1999). "Sega Dreamcast: Creating a Unified Entertainment World". 19 (6): 29–35. doi:10.1109/40.809375.

Borland, John (June 30, 2000). "Hackers break Dreamcast safeguards, distribute games online". Archived from the original on October 29, 2014. Retrieved October 28, 2014.

Langan, Matthew (July 26, 1999). "Famitsu Weekly Reviews Latest Dreamcast Games". Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014.

Gantayat, Anoop (September 9, 2008). "IGN Classics: Dreamcast Launch Guide". Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved October 29, 2014.

Langan, Matthew (October 22, 1999). "More On The Dreamcast Delay In Australia And New Zealand". IGN. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2021.

Norsa, Gerard (November 3, 1999). "Dreamcast delayed as retailers buy up". ARN. IDG Communications. Archived from the original on June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2021.

"Toyota to market Sega"s Dreamcast". Kyodo News International, Inc. January 28, 1999. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2014 – via The Free Library.

"Sega Dreamcast Launch Titles and Peripherals". BusinessWire. September 2, 1999. Archived from the original on December 7, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.

Oliveira, Otavio Dias de (September 11, 1999). "Sega Dreamcast estoura nas lojas". Folha de S.Paulo (in Portuguese). Vol. 79, no. 25728. São Paulo: Grupo Folha. pp. 5–3. ISSN 1414-5723. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.

Montfort, Nick; Consalvo, Mia. "The Dreamcast, Console of the Avant-Garde". Loading... The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association. 6 (9): 82–99.

Justice, Brandon (March 7, 2000). "Chu Chu Rocket". IGN. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved October 30, 2014. cf. Jay (May 2, 2000). "Chu Chu Rocket-Dreamcast". Game Informer. Archived from the original on December 5, 2000. Retrieved November 4, 2014. I consider it the best and most original puzzle game since cf.Nutt, Christian (December 13, 1999). "ChuChu Rocket! Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 15, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2014.

"Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved November 4, 2014. cf. Justice, Brandon (October 18, 2000). "Samba De Amigo". IGN. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014. cf. Gerstmann, Jeff (June 16, 2000). "Samba De Amigo Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 9, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2014.

"NFL 2K1 (Dreamcast)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2014. cf. "NFL 2K2 (Dreamcast)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved November 5, 2014. cf. "NBA 2K1 (Dreamcast)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2014. cf. "NBA 2K2 (Dreamcast)". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 17, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2014.

cf. "Toy Commander-Dreamcast". the original on December 3, 2000. Retrieved October 24, 2014. cf. Justice, Brandon (November 4, 1999). "Toy Commander". IGN. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved October 24, 2014.

Kamishima, Masaaki (November 30, 1998). "メールやチャットも楽しめるDreamcastのインターネット機能". Internet Watch (in Japanese). Impress Corporation. Retrieved June 17, 2021.

"「PHANTASY STAR ONLINE」 ドリームキャスト版およびゲームキューブ版 終了記念キャンペーンに関するご案内" [Information on "PHANTASY STAR ONLINE" Dreamcast Edition and GameCube Edition End Commemorative Campaign] (Press release) (in Japanese). ISAO Corporation. February 8, 2007. Archived from the original on August 10, 2007.

Parish, Jeremy (September 13, 2014). "What if Dreamcast Had Won?". USgamer. Archived from the original on December 15, 2014. Retrieved January 20, 2015.

Note from racketboy: Forum member, nick944 was kind enough to share this informative review about his portable Dreamcast system with us.  I hope you enjoy it!

The Treamcast is a Dreamcast with a screen attached and a few modifications. Yup, this is another one of those crazy modified systems from China.  As you may have figured out, its designed to play Dreamcast games in your car.  There are three different variations of the Treamcast, the original (white with a PSone screen), the widescreen (white with a horizontally stretched screen), and the SE (black with a high quality screen).

The original Tremcast has been said to have problems with the screen like dark areas turning completely black, and light areas turning completely white. The widescreen model is mostly useless, it stretches the games horizontally. Though it would be great for shmup games if the fan for the Treamcast wasn’t on the opposite side of a normal Dreamcast.

The SE model is the best by far, it looks identical to the original though with a Samsung TFT. One main thing many people don’t understand about the Treamcast is that it isn’t a clone. It uses original Dreamcast hardware with a few changes. It contains a modchip for booting imports, two speakers, an external power supply (Dreamcast has an internal power supply), a computer fan, a headphone jack, and a screen.

The first thing you will probably notice about the Treamcast if you own or have owned a Dreamcast, is that it is a bit smaller than a Dreamcast due to an external power supply.

One small gripe about the shell design is if you want to use a modem or BBA with it, you have to force it in and risk damaging the plastic. The quality of plastic is just what you would expect from a pirated system, cheap. It has a switch on the back of the system for turning the screen and speakers on and off.

The external power supply on my unit I’ve found either runs very hot or could be overheating after 30 minutes to an hour. The computer sized fan does a great job of keeping the Treamcast cool, and it usually doesn’t make much more noise than the standard Dreamcast fan.

You can connect a Treamcast to a TV with a normal (NTSC only) Dreamcast A/V cable, though the power cable is different than a normal Dreamcast. The screen is running in VGA mode on the newer SE model, with an internal VGA box. This means that some games won’t play (see the VGA compatibility list) but most will.The speakers are not the best quality, though alternatively you could hook up your own speakers to the headphone jack.

In high school, I found a website that really piqued my interest, benheck.com. Ben Heck is a hardware hacker who has done many projects involving video game consoles. I had been interested in modding my Xbox and had previously thought about how cool it would be to take apart a game console mount all the parts on a wall. So when I found Ben Heck I was hooked immediately. I never had the money or the time to tackle my own project until 2008, when I was getting ready to graduate from high school and finally had some time. I loved the Sega Dreamcast and decided that I was going to make a Dreamcast portable. Part of the draw was the fact that there were only 1 or 2 other people on the benheck.com forums that had been successful in creating a portable out of the Sega Dreamcast.

It wasn"t until after I got the Dreamcast from eBay that I found out that I had actually received one of the later versions of the Dreamcast which did not have a separate board for controlling the GD-ROM drive which meant that smashing this thing into a case was going to be a lot easier.

The next steps were to get the Dreamcast running off of a smaller power supply that could be run off a battery. For this, I chose the PICO PSU. It"s an ATX power supply intended for embedded systems using PICO or MICRO ITX boards. It provided all of the necessary power needs as the Dreamcast runs off of 12v, 5v, and 3.3v just as a PC does. The other advantage of the PICO PSU was that it could be run off of any 12V power source. Which means a battery can power it. Whereas the original power supply required 120V AC wall power which doesn"t work well in a portable.

For the screen of the portable, I used a 5" TFT LCD screen intended for hooking onto the top of an original Xbox in case you somehow could travel with it. Oddly enough I have used it in a car before. The screen already has built-in audio and headphone jacks which made it ideal for a portable.

In high school, I found a website that really piqued my interest, benheck.com. Ben Heck is a hardware hacker who has done many projects involving video game consoles. I had been interested in modding my Xbox and had previously thought about how cool it would be to take apart a game console mount all the parts on a wall. So when I found Ben Heck I was hooked immediately. I never had the money or the time to tackle my own project until 2008, when I was getting ready to graduate from high school and finally had some time. I loved the Sega Dreamcast and decided that I was going to make a Dreamcast portable. Part of the draw was the fact that there were only 1 or 2 other people on the benheck.com forums that had been successful in creating a portable out of the Sega Dreamcast.

It wasn"t until after I got the Dreamcast from eBay that I found out that I had actually received one of the later versions of the Dreamcast which did not have a separate board for controlling the GD-ROM drive which meant that smashing this thing into a case was going to be a lot easier.

The next steps were to get the Dreamcast running off of a smaller power supply that could be run off a battery. For this, I chose the PICO PSU. It"s an ATX power supply intended for embedded systems using PICO or MICRO ITX boards. It provided all of the necessary power needs as the Dreamcast runs off of 12v, 5v, and 3.3v just as a PC does. The other advantage of the PICO PSU was that it could be run off of any 12V power source. Which means a battery can power it. Whereas the original power supply required 120V AC wall power which doesn"t work well in a portable.

For the screen of the portable, I used a 5" TFT LCD screen intended for hooking onto the top of an original Xbox in case you somehow could travel with it. Oddly enough I have used it in a car before. The screen already has built-in audio and headphone jacks which made it ideal for a portable.

A company called Dreamware Enterprises has developed the VM2, an updated version of the Visual Memory Unit (VMU) that shipped with the SEGA Dreamcast. Billed as a "total reproduction and upgrade" on the original VMU, Dreamware Enterprises also claims that the VM2 eliminates all the original VMU"s flaws with the following upgrades:New monochrome backlit LCD

Hoping to recapture the video game market, Sega designed the Dreamcast to supersede both the PlayStation and the Nintendo 64. Originally released sixteen months before the PlayStation 2 (PS2), and three years before the Nintendo GameCube and the Microsoft Xbox, it was considered to be ahead of its time and was initially successful.

However, it failed to gain enough momentum before the release of Sony"s PlayStation 2 in March 2000, and Sega decided to discontinue the Dreamcast in January of 2001, withdrawing entirely from the console hardware business and becoming exclusively a third-party developer.

In 1997, the Saturn was struggling in North America, and Sega of America president Bernie Stolar pressed for Sega"s Japanese headquarters to develop a new platform which eventually became Dreamcast. At E3 1997, Stolar made public his opinion on the Saturn with his comment, "The Saturn is not our future" and referred to the doomed console as "the stillbirth".

When it was announced that Sega would be discontinuing the Saturn permanently in favor of Dreamcast, many third-party developers in Japan were angered, as it meant that they were putting money into developing titles for what would soon be a dead system.

The Japanese group led by Hideki Sato settled on an Hitachi SH4 processor with a PowerVR graphics processor developed by VideoLogicand manufactured by NEC. This was originally codenamed "White Belt". The first Japanese prototype boards were silk-screened "Guppy", and the later ones "Katana".

The U.S. skunk works group, 11 people in a secret suite away from the Sega of America headquarters led by Tatsuo Yamamoto settled on an Hitachi SH4 processor with a 3dfx Voodoo 2 graphics processor, which was originally codenamed "Black Belt". The first U.S. prototype boards were silk-screened "Shark" and later "Dural".

In July 1997, perhaps as a result of 3dfx"s IPO, it was decided that the Japanese "Katana" would be the chosen format, renamed Dreamcast. In September 1997, 3dfx filed a lawsuit against Sega and NEC later including VideoLogic, stating "breach of contract",

Dreamcast was released on November 27, 1998 in Japan; on September 9, 1999 in North America and on October 14, 1999 in Europe. The tagline used to promote the console in the U.S. was, "It"s thinking", and in Europe, "Up to 6 Billion Players".

Dreamcast was the first console to include a built-in modem and Internet support for Online Gaming. Previous consoles such as the Genesis/Mega Drive and Saturn had online capabilities, but these were comparably limited and/or required extra hardware (XBAND,NetLink).

Dreamcast enjoyed high sales in its first season, and was one of Sega"s most successful hardware units. In the United States alone, a record 300,000 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. In fact, due to high brisk sales and hardware shortages, Sega was unable to fulfill all of the advance orders.

Sega confirmed that it made $98.4 million on combined hardware and software sales with Dreamcast with its September 9, 1999 launch. 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.

Chris Gilbert, senior vice president of sales, Sega of America, said on the November 24, 1999: "By hitting the one million units sold landmark, it is clear that the Sega Dreamcast consumer has moved beyond the hard-core gamer and into the mass market."

Before the launch in the United States, Sega had already taken the extra step in displaying Dreamcast"s capabilities in stores nationwide. Much like the PlayStation"s launch in North America, the displays of titles such as Hydro Thunder helped Dreamcast succeed in the first year.

Although Dreamcast had none of EA"s popular sports games, due in part to EA"s losses from the Sega Saturn, Sega Sports titles helped to fill that void. The biggest competition between Sega Sports and EA Sports in the U.S. was their football games. Both games were highly regarded, NFL 2K1 having the advantage of online play, coinciding with release of SegaNet and Madden NFL 2001 arguably having a graphics edge. NFL 2K1 outsold Madden NFL 2001 with about 410,000 copies, which was about the number of PlayStation 2"s that had been sold in America at the time. The Dreamcast however suffered from poor to mediocre soccer titles, a sport popular in Europe.

In April 1999, Sony announced its PlayStation 2. The actual release of the PS2 was not until March 2000 in Japan, and late-October 2000 in the United States. 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. With the looming PS2 launch in Japan, Dreamcast was largely ignored in that territory. Dreamcast had great initial success in the United States, but had trouble maintaining this momentum after news of the PS2"s release.

Dreamcast sales grew 156.5% from July 23 1999 to September 30 1999 putting Sega ahead of Nintendo 64 in that period. For the month of November 2000, Dreamcast passed the Nintendo 64 as the second best selling system. During that time, the PlayStation 2 was plagued by production shortages, with people often paying in excess of $1000 on eBay for Sony"s next-generation console. However, Dreamcast"s online capabilities through SegaNet and a price cut around Autumn 2000 did little to help sales once the PlayStation 2 was launched.

A key to Sony"s relative ease for success with the PlayStation 2 was that they already enjoyed brand-name dominance over Sega after the huge success of the original PlayStation, while Sega"s reputation had been hurt due to commercial failure of the Sega Saturn, Sega 32X, and Sega CD. In particular, Sega"s attempt to quickly kill off the struggling Saturn (which lagged in North America) in favor of Dreamcast had angered many third-party developers in Japan, where the Saturn had still been able to hold its own. While initial Dreamcast sales were strong, many prospective buyers and game developers were still skeptical of Sega and they held off from committing, possibly to see which console would prevail. By early 2001, game publishers abandoned Dreamcast development en masse in favor of the PlayStation 2 and cancelled many nearly completed projects (notably

PS2"s main advantage over the Dreamcast was DVD playback capability. While the Dreamcast lacked this, PS2 did have it, and cost less than the average DVD player at the time of its release. This fact alone was possibly the biggest factor contributing to the console"s demise in Japan.

In 2000, the announcements of the Nintendo GameCube were widely regarded as the last straw for Dreamcast, which fueled speculation that Sega did not have the resources for a prolonged marketing campaign. The Xbox would help Sega even during the Dreamcasts lifespan

Sega had problems choosing suitable companies to promote Dreamcast outside the USA. Marketing in European countries was done somewhat poorly, whereas Sony marketed the PlayStation 2 in each country"s local medias, such as newspapers, street shows, etc. Sega recruited third-party companies to promote Dreamcast, some of which did not allocate sufficient money for advertising.

Some important games also lacked European releases. Many important titles were never released outside of Japan, and many were hard to find without importing them to the United Kingdom. Sega put most of its efforts into fighting the console war in the USA, disregarding European markets. While Dreamcast did receive a price cut in the USA to coincide with the PlayStation 2"s American release, the European pricing remained the same, even when the PlayStation 2 was released in Europe.

Sega Europe spent most of its promotional budget on sponsoring 4 football teams: Arsenal, St Etienne, Sampdoria and Deportivo La Coruna. In the year 2000, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was asked by a journalist what a Dreamcast actually was, he replied "a computer games console".

On January 31, 2001, Sega announced that production of Dreamcast hardware was to be discontinued by March 30 of that year, although the 50 to 60 titles still in production would be published. The last North American release was

Though Dreamcast was officially discontinued in early 2001, commercial games were still developed and released afterwards, particularly in Japan. Many consider the critically acclaimed arcade shooter Propeller Arena and

On February 24, 2004, Sega released their final Dreamcast game, Chaos Field released in December 2004, Trizeal released in April 2005, Radilgy released in February 2006, Under Defeat released in March 2006, and most recently Radium, Trigger Heart Exelica released February 2007, and Karous released March 2007.

Despite its short lifespan, as of 2007, Dreamcast is still a popular and highly-regarded console among many fans due to its impressive library of both mainstream and more offbeat titles. It is even starting to gain a cult following, as the system is becoming harder to find. In fact, although Dreamcast was officially discontinued in January 2001, Sega continued to produce the console for a short time afterwards due to rising demand, especially among collectors and hardcore fans.

Several Dreamcast emulation projects have emerged after Dreamcast"s end of production, with Chankast being the most notable, along with the recently released nullDC.

Another Dreamcast looks Very similar to the normal Dreamcast. There are holes in the back of the console. They were in-built-speakers pretty cool right? And it looks a lot similar to the Sega Saturn too.

On February 16, 2006, Sega once again began selling Dreamcast consoles through its online store, Sega Direct of Japan. The package deal included a refurbished Dreamcast, a cell phone card, and Radilgy — a new 2D shooter game by developer Milestone. A short time later, developer G.rev followed that game with a second new 2D shooter game called Under Defeat in March. Both releases were for the Japanese market alone. While the refurbished package has been discontinued, Sega Direct does still sell several Dreamcast software titles.

On May 30, 2006, the gaming website IGN officially relaunched IGN Dreamcast with the goal of revisiting the 243 North American-released Dreamcast games and give "new impressions, screens and videos" and compare them to the gaming experience provided by PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii games.

On February 22, 2007, a port of the Naomi powered 2D shooter Trigger Heart Exelica, developed by Warashi, was released on Dreamcast for the Japanese market with both a current and a limited edition release. Despite rumors that went around the internet, the game was not retitled to Trigger Heart Extension for the Dreamcast release.

In addition, Dreamcast continues to have a modest hacking enthusiast community. The availability of Windows CE software development kits on the Internet, as well as ports of Linux [1] and NetBSD/Dreamcast [2] operating systems, gave programmers a selection of familiar development tools to work with. A homebrew minimal operating system named KallistiOS offers good hardware support. 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 that can be booted by an unmodified Dreamcast. One of the unusual but interesting hack example is QNX Dreamcast Project [3].

After The discontinuation of the Dreamcast, Sega had most of their Sega games ported to the Xbox. Sega wanted most of their games on Xbox because of how popular it was. And since Microsoft worked with Sega on the Dreamcast, they made their Sega games Xbox Exclusive So they decided to only sell Sega games to Xbox (At the time)

The standard Dreamcast unit was made of white and grey plastic. The power light, like the Dreamcast logo in NTSC regions, was orange (this color was chosen because the Japanese consider it to be lucky). Games were sold in jewel cases. In North America, these initially had the Dreamcast name and logo on a white background, but later games used a black background. Japanese games used an orange-and-white scheme, and European and Australian games used blue.

Although there was no reset button on the Dreamcast system itself, there was a way to reset a game during play. If the player wanted to reset a game, they would have to press the A, B, X, and Y buttons altogether and then press the start button. This would then take them to the game"s main menu. If repeated, it would take players to the Dreamcast menu.

In North America, a black Dreamcast was released in limited numbers with a sports pack which included two Sega Sports titles. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website. Similar offerings were sold through the Lik Sang website. Cases of different colors like blue, red, orange, and green were sold for replacements of the original casing. In Japan, Sega released many varieties of the system, including a limited edition Sakura Taisen version, and a Hello Kitty version released in 2000 in Japan which, due to its limited production, has become an extremely rare collector"s piece. The package contains a keyboard, controller, VMU, mouse, and a Hello Kitty trivia game. The console and accessories came in both translucent pink and blue in color with some printed designs.

Dreamcast in Europe had a blue spiral logo, similar to the logo on earlier Sega systems. This change is thought to have been for copyright reasons. A German company, Tivola, had been using a similar swirl logo years before Sega branded Dreamcast with the orange swirl. As well as the VGA mode (again using an adapter), the European Dreamcast supported PAL video, in both 50 Hz and 60 Hz modes. This was a first for game consoles, as no previous PAL console had offered the option to play games at full speed, using the ability of many PAL televisions to operate at 60 Hz (a feature that was first discovered after the expansion of import gaming through chipping/modification of the Sony PlayStation, which forced PAL consoles into NTSC mode unlike the MegaDrive/SNES before it). This became a feature of all major consoles released since. The 60 Hz option had to be enabled on the game disc, however, but only a small number of games lacked this. Games in Europe were sold in jewel cases exactly twice as thick as their North American counterparts, possibly to enable the inclusion of thick instruction booklets containing instructions in multiple languages.

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. This small system with its fold-down display resembled the later PS One. Many companies included software and a remote with the unit that enabled it to play MP3s and Video CDs. When the internet import video game 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. In reality, this system is no different from a Dreamcast pre-modified with a third party shell, as the system"s internals still use first party hardware, and the only modifications are the outside casing and internal sound and video adjustments.

In 2005, the internet import store Lan-Kwei started selling a "Treamcast" portable modified Dreamcast with a 16:9 widescreen LCD. Aside from the cosmetic differences in the case to accommodate the larger screen, there are no differences between the original Treamcast and the newer widescreen model.

The Visual Memory Unit, or "VMU", was the Dreamcast memory card. It featured a monochrome LCD screen, a D-Pad, and two gaming buttons. The VMU could play mini-games loaded onto it from certain Dreamcast games, such as a Chao game transferable from Sonic Adventure. It could also display a list of the saved game data stored on it, and two VMUs could be connected together end-to-end to exchange data.

Standard memory cards could also be purchased without the additional features of the VMU. Most of these were manufactured by third-party companies, (such as the Nexus Memory Card), although Sega eventually released a 4X memory card. The 4X cards did not have the VMU screen or stand-alone abilities, but they had four times the space thanks to the ability to switch between four 200-block sectors.

The Dreamcast controller featured a similar design to the Sega Saturn"s analog controller, offering an analog stick, a D-pad, a Start button, four action buttons (labelled A, B, X, and Y, two buttons less than the Saturn), and two analog triggers on the underside. It also contained two slots which could hold memory cards or the rumble pack, with a window on the front of the controller through which the VMU"s display could be seen. The Dreamcast controller was somewhat larger than many other controllers, and some players found it difficult to hold.

Most Dreamcast games supported a rumble pack, officially known as the Jump Pack outside of Japan and the Puru Puru Pack in Japan, which was sold separately and could be plugged into the controller. The Tremor Pack is a third-party implementation by Performance.

Unique to Dreamcast was a VGA adapter for output to a computer display or HDTV compatible sets, providing much better quality than a standard television set. Not all games were compatible with the VGA adapter, but work-arounds existed to trick all but a handful of games into working with it.

Dreamcast supported a mouse as well as a keyboard, which were useful when using the included web browser, and also supported by certain games such as Quake 3, Phantasy Star Online and Railroad Tycoon 2. Other games such as REZ offered undocumented mouse support.

A heavy-duty Arcade Stick was put out by Sega, featuring a digital joystick with six buttons using the same micro switch assemblies as commercial arcade machines. Although it could not be used for many Dreamcast games due to the lack of an analog joystick, it was well received and helped cement Dreamcast"s reputation for playing 2D shooters and fighting games. Adapters are now available to use the Arcade Stick on other hardware platforms.

Third-party sticks were also made, like the ASCII Dreamcast fighting pad, which some regard as having a more comfortable 6-button configuration and a more precise digital direction pad.

Konami, through its Bemani devision, developed a dance mat for its dance games (Dance Dance Revolution 2ndMix Dreamcast Edition and Dance Dance Revolution Club Version Dreamcast Edition) and a Pop"n Music controller for its first four Pop"n Music games.

Toward the end of Dreamcast"s lifespan, Sega created and displayed prototypes of a high-capacity VMU/MP3 player, DVD player, and Zip drive peripherals. None of these items became available to the public.

The proprietary GD-ROM format was the only means of piracy protection and was quickly defeated. Using a combination of reverse-engineering and insecure firmware, one piracy method was made possible by 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 lead to the creation of the Utopia bootdisk. Mil-CD support was removed from the final Dreamcast revisions. It has been said upon discovery of this information and the addition of a boot-disc that over 100,000 additional Dreamcast units were sold within months.

As part of Sega"s promotions of the Dreamcast in Europe, the company sponsored four European football clubs: English team Arsenal F.C., French team AS Saint-Étienne, Italian team U.C. Sampdoria and Spanish club Deportivo de La Coruña.

In the television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the characters of Nick Stokes and Warrick Brown were hinted to be playing Dreamcast sports games, and Stokes was shown playing a Football game with a Dreamcast controller early in the first season.

In the sitcom My Wife and Kids, a Dreamcast can be seen played by Michael and Junior in various episodes. The console was replaced with a PlayStation 2 in later episodes.

In the 2001 hip hop-styled film The Wash, Snoop Dogg"s character Dee Loc can be seen playing a Dreamcast when Sean (Dr. Dre) asks him to turn the music down.

When the Saturn was phased out and the Sega Dreamcast released, Sanshiro"s end came in the form of a commercial involving a missile directed at the Tokyo headquarters of SEGA, implied to be launched by Sony and Nintendo. Sanshiro heroically jumps off the roof of the building, onto the missile, deflecting it into the atmosphere while riding it, in which he lives his last few moments chanting out "Sega Saturn Shiro!!" for one last time, and is killed in the subsequent explosion. Shinji Nakae narrates that "Segata Sanshiro will live on in your hearts," followed by a display of the game Segata Sanshirō Shinken Yūgi, a Sega Saturn game in which Sanshiro plays a major role.

Titles like Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventures, and some fighting games from Capcom will be able to share the same VMU. Some games have a larger requirement or cannot be moved around - like Soul Calibur"s base save. In the end, if your Dreamcast game library is larger than 10 games, it is quite likely you will need at least 1200 blocks of memory.

These VMUs are good and visually attractive BUT some Dreamcast games demand too much space. I rather forego the on-screen display in favor of more save spaces so I"d recommend having 1-3 of these for the "official Sega experience" but focus on getting Performance or InterAct"s cards with 4x the number of save blocks (albeit you need to move a switch to alternate between each of the four built-in cards).

I"ve run into a rather interesting problem. I just hooked up my Dreamcast to my TV using an S-video cable, and tested it with several games. All of them work perfectly fine. However, then I tried my Japanese copy of Marvel vs. Capcom (not part 2, the original one...part 2 works fine). I get the Dreamcast boot screen, and then I get the Capcom logo. However after that, my TV actually loses the video signal to the DC, but I still get the sound on the title screen.