Did anyone ever use this program, and to what result? Is it still useable if you have your Dreamcast connected online?
Dreamcast Web Browser
Did anyone ever use this program, and to what result? Is it still useable if you have your Dreamcast connected online?
Yes, I have used it to surf the Internet in the Dreamcast days. Heck, I even used the Saturn web browser. I actually remember the Saturn one more than the Dreamcast one. I was mainly using the Dreamcast online capabilities to play Quake III.
Assuming you have dial-up, and you put the disc in, it would probably only be semi-functional. Today's Internet pages obviously communicate in a different way from back then, so many sites would not load correctly I imagine.
This guy in Europe was able to make it work a little bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GjIn_7SJtc
Last edited by Orion Pimpdaddy; 08-22-2013 at 09:15 PM.
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I'd used the DC to browse the internet back in the day. It was my internet browser until I got a crappy Pentium II PC @ 2002. It was pretty primitive, even back in 2000. It's not like you could watch video clips using the DC.
I also used it back in the day for like a month and then got my bill and it was huge. Then I said heck with that and went back to my Web TV for like a month more, and then then got a new pc.
I used to use it as well. I pre-ordered my Dreamcast and I believe that it came with it if memory serves me right. Anyways, I used to use it on a big screen projection TV and it was "ok". Fun to tinker with but not a great browser at all. The text was also very hard to read IIRC on the screen. And typing with the controller was a pain in the ass until I got the keyboard. Very cool for it's time but never really worked too well in my opinion.
Luckily for me it didn't make my bill any higher. It wouldn't work out of the box though - I remember I needed to call my ISP to find out what settings I needed to enable or something to make it work - but they didn't charge me any extra over my normal bill to use it.
Now the Sega Channel. THAT KICKED ASS. And I miss it so dearly...
The only useful thing I can recall was the ability to download save files. That was the only way get all the characters in the JP version of Marvel v Capcom 2 unless you lived in JP since it required that you use your VMU at the arcade version to unlocked some of the characters.
Yeah, as has been said above, the browser was pretty basic, even for it's time. You would be able to visit the majority of websites, but certain content types like Flash or even Javascript aren't going to run on it. You can check out this 1999 Cnet article about the browser's limitations.
You could download save files and extra content to your VMU, like wiggyx was saying. I remember the Dreamcast Skies of Arcadia having some items you could only get through downloads, but I believe they were added in the retail version of Skies of Arcadia Legends?
^Correct, all the downloadable stuff can be found in Legends. I wonder if using the broadband adapter would make surfing on the DC more bearable? I'm sure more than one person on the forum has one lying around...
Not practical nowadays. Not only will few websites even load, you would have to either find a dialup service or pay a ransom for a broadband adapter.
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Hey all, you forgot Sega Swirl, which was a pretty cool little puzzle games and some versions of the browser disc did come with it for free. I know it was later released on the Sega Smash pack also, but before then, you got it free on the disc.
Rush 2049's Dreamcast port has a web browser built-in, and the music it plays is slightly different from the normal version.
Chu Chu Rocket has a hidden version of the Japanese web browser on the disk. I used it all the time untill the official us browser was updated. The first two versions were very basic. I think the final release was 3.0 and it supported mp3s and was pretty decent for the time.
I had AT&T DSL a few years back and with the subscription you got a free dial up connection. I tried surfing thd web on my Saturn and had all kinds of issues. Im not even sure if I got it to connect. The Dreamcast however connected just fine and it handled basic sites like forums and blogs as good as I could have expected.
Jet Grind Radio had a cool feature. If you were online with the DC web browser you could save .jpgs to the vmu and then your character would spray paint those images in the game. It was cool as hell.
If a god is willing to prevent evil, but not able, then he is not omnipotent. If he is able, but not willing, then he must be malevolent. If he is both willing and able, then why is there evil? If he is neither able or willing then why call him a god?
Official Dreamcast Magazine would put updated browsers on their demo discs. They would put Sega Swirl on damn near every disc as well. Just for the record: Speed Devils Online was video-crack to me.
I had a broadband connection for a time with the dc and it was pretty smooth, but as shown in that cnet article it was a bit limited.
Also sega swirl, there's a free windows version of it out there if you can still find it and it was pretty decent. I remember being helpful doing qa on it for the maker back then which was kind of fun. Weird game and easy to fail since eye swirl patterns are random.
Yeah I remember that one. I got that from my old web browser disc and copied it to my grandma's old windows 95 or 98 computer because all she had played before was solitaire. She became addicted to Sega Swirl very quickly. I wish she had made it past my high school years so I could have bought games and shared them with her.Originally Posted by T2KFreeker
[quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
I'm a collector, but only to a certain extent.
Not as extreme as Rickstilwell though.[/quote]
I think it used its own codec or something, because you could watch pixellated game trailers off Sega's website. I remember seeing a blocky Ecco the Dolphin trailer in full screen that way. I don't remember it taking all that long to load, either. It was impressive, considering I could only get maybe half speed with the 56K modem in the DC because of the crappy phone lines there.
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