6th Generation - Dreamcast

The Dreamcast video game system was released in 1998 by Sega and it was the first to make part of the sixth generation of game consoles. The console was also the last home console developed by Sega and it was discontinued in 2001, although in Japan service to repair the console was still available until 2007.

Dreamcast had a Hitachi SH-4 32-bit CPU running at 200MHz, 128 Kb VMU storage, main memory RAM of 16MB, video RAM of 8 MB and sound memory of 2 MB. The system could display about 16.77 million colors simultaneously on a screen of 640x480 pixels. The Dreamcast was the first console to be sold with a built-in 56k modem, and broadband adapters were available later on, which allowed the console to connect to the internet.

The Dreamcast was built with already made components, including the CPU and the GPU, in order to reduce the cost of the system. When it was first released in Japan, the system was a great success, given it was the very first 128-bit console. In fact, in the first two weeks after its release it sold about 500,000 units, which led to some hardware shortages. Business Week Magazine also said that the Dreamcast was one of the “Best products of 1999” for its advanced technology and original games. But as Sony released the PlayStation 2 sales started to decrease for Sega. Until the Dreamcast was discontinued, 10.6 million units were sold.

Figure 1 - Sega Dreamcast console

Some of the video games that could be played on the Dreamcast home console where specifically made to show the console’s online capabilities, like Phantasy Star Online. Other games that could be played on this console include Rez, Resident Evil 2, Virtua Tennis and Chicken Run. 

Bibliography:  

Shinforce.com, (2015). Business Week Award. [online] Available at: http://www.shinforce.com/dreamcast/Awards-Business_Week_12_11_1999.htm [Accessed 6 May 2015]

Venturebeat.com, (2013). Consoles that won’t die: The Sega Dreamcast. [online] Available at: http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/17/consoles-that-wont-die-the-sega-dreamcast/ [Accessed 6 May 2015]

Wikipedia.org, (2015). Dreamcast. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamcast [Accessed 6 May 2015]

Segaretro.org, (2015). Sega Dreamcast. [online] Available at: http://www.segaretro.org/Sega_Dreamcast [Accessed 6 May 2015]