10 years ago this month, SEGA named its then-new upcoming Katana console, Dreamcast

[Brian Deuel]

To quote my previous post:

Dreamcast first-person shooters:

Quake III: Arena
Soldier of Fortune
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Unreal Tournament

You forgot Outtrigger

[BocoDragon]

I just got into Dreamcast this year and was blown away... not only by the very unique game library, but the hardware. It's the epitome of 90s style arcade hardware in a console... pair it with VGA and you're set for some high quality gaming.

I mean... I played this thing for the first time after 360 and PS3, and came away impressed!... I don't see how anyone could hate on it.

[vespertillio]

2 words "Half Life"
It was awesome and still is. Understandable it wasn't released due to financial woes, but it really showed what the old DC can do. I still fire up the kisok and play it quite a few times a month.

[parallaxscroll]

One thing that gets forgotten, that before the final form & name of Dreamcast was announced in May 1998, there was much debate during 1997 on message boards and usenet about exactly what would power the new Sega console.


From 1995 to 1997 as Sega was developing various concepts for a successor to Saturn, it was widely expected that Lockheed Martin was working on the 3D subsystem for Saturn 2. In the arcades, the 3D power behind Sega's impressive boards was General Electric Aerospace (Model 1), Martin Marietta (Model 2) and Real3D / Lockheed Martin (Model 3). It was natural to assume this would be carried over to the new console. Sega made the mistake of not doing this with the Saturn. The Saturn was designed with Hitachi processors and off-the-shelf components, none of them suited to doing true 3D polygon graphics.

In 1997, it came somewhat as a surprise that Black Belt and Katana were using 3D technology from the PC 3D accelerator industry. 3Dfx and PowerVR were gaining acceptance in the PC industry but were only being tested in the arcades, and came up short next to the awesome Lockheed Martin Real3D powered Model 3 board. Thankfully, Katana/Dreamcast would not being using first-generation PowerVR tech, but more advanced second-generation PowerVR.

Even though PowerVR2 was not 100% equal to Real3D-powered Model 3 in every area (anti-aliasing, textures), PowerVR2 more or less brought consumer 3D upto roughly the same level as highend arcade 3D, at a very small fraction of the cost. 3Dfx had not achieved this by 1997. Sure they did later, in 1999-2000, but that was far too late to influence the decision on the 3D component of Dreamcast, which had to be set in stone in late 1997. The decision had already been made July 1997 when NEC & Videologic won the contract while 3Dfx lost.

[Superman]

The Dreamcast was codename Katana. I forgot about that.

I know looking back on it some people see it differently, but after learning about it, most people I talked to or heard talking about games couldn't wait for 9-9-99.

[Trevelyan]

10 years ago I was settled into the N64 & PC games when the DC was released (October 1999, Brit-land). I was very much focused on the release of Half Life: Opposing Force which dropped in the same month, and I think it was shipped with Team Fortress Classic (a watershed in Online gaming for me) here in the UK.

Understanding why it failed (& I think it did by industry standards, here in the UK), is complicated for me! Timing was an issue imo & PC & Nintendo magazines also had an influence if I recall. I felt the Sega CD, 32 X & the Saturn had bad press too. Poor Sega, I loved my Mega Drive & my old SMS. I'll get around to reading a book about the console wars one day.

[Steven]

jesus dreamcast fans are the most annoying and obnoxious fanboys ever.

every freaking year (several times actually, one for 'announced' one for 'released' one for 'died' etc) these threads come up.

its a miserable failure of a console, both hardware wise and software.
it is single handedly responsible for the fall of one of the biggest and well loved video game hardware manufacturers ever.
it is a massive disappointment to level-headed gamers everywhere, yet drives the sticky fanboys wild.

let. it. die.

Oh man, I bet you can't wait for 9-9-09 eh? The big 10 year US anniversary is going to draw HUNDREDS of nostalgic posts and articles ALL over the net.

Hell, a bud of mine is already planning to do something "big" on that day:







Good guy, but too bad he never really got his site off the ground. Still, he vows to unleash whatever it is he has up his sleeve on the big 1-0 US anniversary.

[Viraneth]

Ah dreamcast. At first, my rainy day console since 2004, now, one of my favorite peices of hardware. Simple, well made, innovative. It was a failed at being successful but what it caused in the gaming industry is still felt today. I'm still waiting for a modern system to use VMU style cards.

Maybe sega will announce a new system 9/9/09. Nice three day late birthday present for me

I say Maken X is still one of the most challenging console games made, since most console games are easy in a very asinine way.

[Rob2600]

The Dreamcast was codename Katana. I forgot about that.

Wasn't it also codenamed Dural?

[parallaxscroll]

Wasn't it also codenamed Dural?

I believe so, at the time anyway. However there is some confusion over this.
I myself am a little confused also.

Here's how I understand it:

Back in 1997, it was widely reported on the internet and in magazines that one of the systems being developed was codenamed Black Belt. The other one, which was being made in Japan and using PowerVR was supposedly codenamed Dural. However that codename was not *official* AFAIK. Sega didn't mention the name Dural, at least not in connection with Katana/Dreamcast. The system that was thought to be called Dural was officially codenamed Katana, and of course finally named Dreamcast for consumers.

Now years later, going by what I read on Wikipedia and elsewhere, it seems that Dural was actually one of the other names for the SoA-designed, 3Dfx-based Black Belt, and not Katana/Dreamcast.


edit: here's what's on Wiki

Katana/Dreamcast:

The Japanese group led by Hideki Sato settled on an Hitachi SH4 processor with a PowerVR graphics processor developed by VideoLogic (now Imagination Technologies) and manufactured by NEC. This was originally codenamed "White Belt". The first Japanese prototype boards were silkscreened "Guppy", and the later ones "Katana".

Black Belt:

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 silkscreened "Shark" and later "Dural" (whose name was taken from the shiny character from Sega's own Virtua Fighter series).

However this says Dural was one of the names for Katana/Dreamcast:

The US skunkworks group (in a secret suite at the 303 Twin Dolphin Drive building) led by Tatsuo Yamamoto settled on an IBM/Motorola PowerPC 603e processor with a 3dfx Voodoo 2 graphics processor, which was originally codenamed "Black Belt". The first US prototype boards were silkscreened "Shark".

The Japanese hardware was codenamed "Dural", then later, "Katana". "Black Belt" and "Shark" were the only codenames used by the US hardware team (the hardware team was called "Black Belt team"; the "Shark" was in response to the Japanese team's "Guppy").

So....

Sega of Japan console (selected as the winner):
White Belt / Dural / Guppy / Katana / Dreamcast

Sega of America console (the losing hardware):
Black Belt / Shark

[Nick Goracke]

The Dreamcast is one of those small handful of systems (along with the SNES, Neo Geo, GBA and maybe the Playstation 1 or 2) that there's pretty much no real debate over. It's quality and recognized as such.

What a weird comment to make. If we're including the Dreamcast and Neo Geo in this category, both of which are very much niche systems with very small but dedicated fanbases, what could you honestly exlcude from the list.

[Greg2600]

Poofta, the 3dfx card was the best out there, and they had flawless drivers to boot. I haven't bought an ATI or NVidia card in several years, but in the 90's and early 2000's, they're stuff was unbelievably difficult to get to work. Hardware was probably fine, but their drivers were garbage and technical support even worse.

Dreamcast is a decent system, but that's it. You simply cannot make ANY argument over the PS2, XBox, or even the Gamecube. Most of the games SEGA licensed out on those systems too later on. SEGA once again dropped a superior technical product on the market, but it was rushed as usual and soon to be eclipsed by other consoles. SEGA's reputation doomed it most of all. I remember when it came out, and I saw it in the stores, and had my usual internal chuckle at how it would last a year or two and SEGA would give up again. They did.

Isn't Dreamcast up there with Colecovision in terms of hardware durability? Meaning not good. Not sure you can celebrate a system that was surpassed by its contemporaries and prone to failure?

[NayusDante]

Half Life 2 and CSS on a Voodoo 3

Doom 3 on a Voodoo 2

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

What a weird comment to make. If we're including the Dreamcast and Neo Geo in this category, both of which are very much niche systems with very small but dedicated fanbases, what could you honestly exlcude from the list.

Any system that's not current is going to have a very small fanbase. I don't think the fanbase for a system like the Neo Geo is any smaller than the current fanbase for the SNES, NES or any other classic system even though they were more popular in their own day. We're all niche gamers here. You know that, right?


...word is bondage...

[Zap!]

What's wrong with the Dreamcast hardware? The controllers were decent, but the console itself was actually quite good.

While I don't think it had an amazing library like some other people do, it definitely had a handful of great games.



No, that was the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. The Dreamcast was the victim of "too little, too late."

It can be argued that Sony indirectly killed Sega (and severely wounded Nintendo too), which is why I loath Sony with a passion. Thankfully, Nintendo survived its wounds.

[Greg2600]

Half Life 2 and CSS on a Voodoo 3

Doom 3 on a Voodoo 2

Ah, thanks for the backup! I was really aggravated when they suddenly went out of business. There was literally nothing I couldn't get to run on my Voodoo3 easily, until Video RAM requirements exceeded 16MB. What a shame.

[NayusDante]

If you read the history of 3dfx, it all makes (tragic) sense. The corporate execs spent more than they were making on lunches and such. Their assets were sold off to nVidia, and many speculate that the in-development tech from 3dfx lives on in the GeForce line.

[Nick Goracke]

Any system that's not current is going to have a very small fanbase.

It didn't have a big fan base when it was current.

I don't think the fanbase for a system like the Neo Geo is any smaller than the current fanbase for the SNES, NES or any other classic system even though they were more popular in their own day.

That's a completely counterintuitive conclusion to reach.

For the sake of argument though, lets say it was true! How does it refute this statement: If we're including the Dreamcast and Neo Geo in this category, both of which are very much niche systems with very small but dedicated fanbases, what could you honestly exlcude from the list? If fanbases for these classic systems are all pretty much equal, despite how popular they were in their prime, what would you exclude from the list of systems that are "known to be quality"?

[parallaxscroll]

If you read the history of 3dfx, it all makes (tragic) sense. The corporate execs spent more than they were making on lunches and such. Their assets were sold off to nVidia, and many speculate that the in-development tech from 3dfx lives on in the GeForce line.

It's not speculation, it's fact. Nvidia has even mentioned that 3Dfx tech was fused into the GeForce line. Nvidia just won't say precisely what 3Dfx tech. However it's known that the FX was the first GeForce to get a significant amount of 3Dfx tech. The vastly better & more successful NV40 / GF 6800 series is said to have the "Texture Computer" from 3Dfx's unfinished Rampage, in some form.

[NayusDante]

It's not speculation, it's fact. Nvidia has even mentioned that 3Dfx tech was fused into the GeForce line. Nvidia just won't say precisely what 3Dfx tech. However it's known that the FX was the first GeForce to get a significant amount of 3Dfx tech. The vastly better & more successful NV40 / GF 6800 series is said to have the "Texture Computer" from 3Dfx's unfinished Rampage, in some form.

That explains why Doom 3 runs, to an extent. The 6000 series and Doom 3 coincided, so you could argue that the underlying architecture was there.