After their Saturn console was a commercial failure Sega hit the drawing board once more. They decided to follow it up early with a super powered console that put the competition to the shame. They went with a proprietary media format called the GD-ROM, designed the hardware to be easy to develop for that allowed developers to push some truly impressive 3D graphics. They also included four controller ports, a modem (which was unheard of at the time) and designed memory cards that could be used as rudimentary handheld devices. A system is nothing without games, and Sega as well as third parties came out of the gates hard. This was Sega’s most innovative period. Unfortunately the looming PlayStation 2 killed a lot of hype for the system and most gamers simply didn’t trust Sega anymore. This was Sega’s last home console.
Official Names:
Dreamcast
Release Dates:
JP: 1998
US: 1999
EU: 1999
Power: 128-bit
Media Type: GD-ROM
Controller Ports: 4