I particularly liked this part of the article : "Special thanks should also be given to Sega Retro. Nearly every time I went looking for a good link to provide further reading on a topic broached by this article, there was already a Sega Retro article to fit the bill. They’re doing great work over there."
Almost lost to time, this Dreamcast controller. The "pearl blue" and "pearl pink" variants were noted, but not this "pearl white" one. And it's easy to guess why - in crappy ebay photos it just looks like a regular white pad. But it's not, it's pearl white - it's ever so slightly shinier, was only sold in Japan, and you had to go through the online Dreamcast Direct service to get one. There's a matching VMU but we had that one written down. There are no words.
The analog thumb pad, directional pad, start button and most noticeably the VMU window seem nearly white, rather than grey like the regular controller. Presumably the back of the controller is the same way.
This reminded me of that carpet octogon they had which was supposed to detect body movement like Kinect and those kind of devices. Not sure how it was named or if it ever made to stores, but I was curious about having one on those days. And a glove. Not sure if it was Sega's, but it was there long before Carreybotnik used one.
The Sega Activator. Only ever saw one on the Genesis box, not in person. I've heard it sucked, though. The Power Glove?
Actually tried one of those for the first time ever at a Play Expo last year. I was able to make Sonic jump once and that was enough for me.
Dreamarena killed off, requiring a new Dreamkey. https://web.archive.org/web/20030301153716/http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/news/6578.html Except in Spain & Portugual which have a slightly different set up. Dreamarena replacement sega-europe.com killed off exactly 12 months later; https://web.archive.org/web/20030430094048/http://www.playsega.com:80/dc/Termination_UK.html In December 2002 Spanish users could order a Dreamkey 3.1 (but not a month earlier), the first report of someone receiving one on Feb 11 2003. Sent from the UK, so probably available from Feb 01 2003, if similar situation to 3.0. It has 2003 copyright title screen and packaging. That makes it the very last PAL Dreamcast (or any Sega console) release, and only 2003 release.
I do remember at the time Dreamarena being closed down, with some sort of replacement filling the gap. But we barely had dial-up at the time so I never checked for myself. In fact other than to check it out once and to get that free copy of ChuChu Rocket, I'm not sure I ever used the service. In other weird Dreamcast-related news: Shenmue's development is confusing and just liike the game itself, Sega spent perhaps a bit too much money on promoting it. There's plenty of material, but it's a mixture of Shenmue 1 and Shenmue II (and maybe Shenmue III) because the dividing lines between chapters hadn't been set yet. The above photos are from "Network Jungle II" (ネットワークジャングル II) from May 1999. They had a big stone wall with TV screens on it showing footage of the game, then some props in a forest area, then some playable demos (there was a stage which was used to announce things too). What I hadn't realised... https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:DCM_JP_19990507_1999-15.pdf&page=54 ... is that there was an in-engine version. Obviously it's paired back from the real thing, but most developers would slap together a quick menu - not AM2, they had to make a simulation out of it, even though the game was already delayed at this point. And better yet, the first chapter of Shenmue, which this event would ultimately be promoting... doesn't even have a forest. This style of area doesn't turn up until the latter half of Shenmue II - released a full two years after this event took place. Eek.
The fictional region of Sotenbori is Yakuza's second most popular tourist destination. First seen in Yakzua 2, it's based on the Dotonbori district of Osaka, to the point where you could practically import Google Maps data and not know the difference. Like Kamurocho it has a Club Sega: In real life, while they might adhere to the same colour scheme, every Club Sega is unique. The one in Kamurocho continues this trend as it doesn't resemble any specific venue in the real world. But Sotenbori's, less so: This was Club Sega Dotonbori prior to its closure in 2008. Yakuza 2 is set in December 2006, so it is essentially a simulation of a real Club Sega venue. Sotenbori also exists in Yakuza 5 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon, except those games take place in 2012 and 2019, respectively. The Club Sega exists in both, but its real-life countepart in Dotonbori had at this point been closed, given a facelift, and reopened as a clothes shop. Neither version (nor Kiwami 2's) is quite as accurate as the PS2 Yakuza 2 original, with slightly different signage. Yakuza 0, set in 1988, has a Hi-Tech Sega in this spot. That's not accurate either - the Dotonbori location actually came from the Sammy side of the Sega-Sammy merger, back when Sammy had a go at becoming a high street name. The arcade originally opened in 2003 as "Sammy's Regno", with "Sammy EBISU Plaza" (which has been left out of more recent games) serving food and drink the following year. I don't think Sega were really big enough to be playing in this part of Japan back in the day (and as I said in the other topic, they wouldn't have had that logo). Also unlike the real Dotonbori, in Sotenbori you can slam people's faces into walls without fear of prosecution.
I dunno about anyone else but the one thing that annoyed me about Yakuza Like a Dragon (despite my own distaste for turn-based combat, surprised I'm up to Chapter 10 tbh) was the fact that Virtua Fighter 5 and adverts for things like MaiMai were present in Kamurocho's Club SEGA during the chapters set in 2000
I'd just thought I'd mention this here for posterity. 2020: PS5 launches Xbox Series X launches Dreamcast gets 30 new games (indie releases and unofficial Atomiswave ports) Dreamcast - Always current gen.
I'm sure someone will point out how obvious this was, but I didn't know and it wasn't written down, so one for the collectors: This is what a launch Dreamcast box looks like. It's orange and folds open from the front. Other than some special models, Sega were using orange boxes until the mid-2000s, when they shifted over to white boxes that open from the sides (matching a box shape used elsewhere in the world). But the Dreamcast is too good for one box. So starting on launch day, there were two designs for the back: 1) Eight clips of Hidekazu Yukawa acting 2) One big photograph of Hidekazu Yukawa looking confused while getting into a car. The contents, as far as I can make out, were exactly the same - you just had a choice of box (although "choice" is relative - console shortages were a huge problem in the first few months, to the point where Yukawa here was apologising for it on TV). I thought one would be a later revision, but nope, and while I suppose it makes for some more interesting displays, I think the Dreamcast is the only console in history to offer the user a choice of box at launch (in addition to the only console in history to use an executive's face to sell itself). Too bad they didn't have much choice of games at launch am i rite
Yes, I checked out and that's it, there's not even a candidate for mistaking. Seeing there have been so many references to it in different media even made me wonder how it was possible for me to not have a clue about it. When I opened my Dreamcast (spanish here), I checked out what I needed to connect it to the internet, and gave up. What you've explained here is/was even more discouraging.
Every time I do something Dreamcast related for Sega Retro, I run into a piece of weird, mostly undocumented software: Today it's "Dreamcast Middleware Conference Demo Disc Part. 2". Our man Kiddo has footage on YouTube: Want to see the Sonic Adventure introduction video rendered on the Utah teapot? Only on Dreamcast!.. and probably many other places by now. Those Saturn videos might be better than ones found in the original games. If you don't follow things closely, we have a list of confusing discs. There's always plenty of mysteries to solve at Sega Retro if you're in the mood.
I'm not sure of all the details, but here is an article at The Dreamcast Junkyard http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.uk/2020/11/lets-play-some-atomiswave-games-on.html
One for the pile: https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:DCM_JP_20010119.pdf&page=8 In 2001 Sega developed a interactive point-of-sale conveyor belt thing for Japanese sushi restaurants. Because that's what video game companies do. It's an evolution of Fish Life, in which rather than just looking at fake living fish, you get to eat real dead ones. Details are thin on the ground. I don't know if it was a big deal 20 years ago, though my understanding now is quite a lot of the big Japanese inner-city sushi restaurants run automated services like these. Maybe Western ones do too.