Sega's re-releasing the Dreamcast in Japan?

Sega's not flapping their yapper so far as we can tell, but German gaming site Gamefront.de is claiming they're going to be re-releasing the frickin' Dreamcast bundled with Radilgy and some limited edition telephone card or something. But our wish come true from the Ghost of Hackable Consoles Past will probably be Japan-only though, distributed through Sega Direct for ¥10,000 (about $83 US) — still, could this be the triumphant return of Sega hardware, even if only just nostalgia-gear? Apparently we'll find out February 16th (or sooner).

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I'd buy two just for nostalgia's sake - especially if they came with the broadband adapter or sega re-released that with them.

[Hmmm @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Funny that it would sell more than Xbox 360.

[charlie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

LOL, I remember when they were liquidating these things, you could get the console and any 5 games for $50 at one point.

[Aresef @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Hallelujah.

[Timmay @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Dude... Tennis on the Dream cast was awesome... and now we can put a VGA output on it. That would be freckin sweet!

TImmay

[Bazza @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

heh heh!! still got mine and 10 games. The true next gen of its time.

[Jon wright @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

My Son loves his dreamcast he plays it before the PS2 and the X-Box. And even today you can still get new games. Long live the dreamcast!

[Doug teh H-Nut @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

If the Dreamcast controller and the Xbox's first controller got into a fight, who would win?

I never got one of these. Thankfully, all the games I REALLY wanted for it (Sonic) were ported to the GCN as well as one really cool one I hadn't known about (Skies of Arcadia).

[Cody S @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Those controllers made my hands cramp up after 30 minutes of play time, and the Joystick on it was a peice of crap. Graphics were good though.

[Raptor @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

AHHHHWWWWWW YEEEEAAAAAHHH!!
Still got mine and like 100 Japanese games! WOO HAAA! I am so freaken happy! Love Sega always did. Thank CHRIST!

[Adrian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

God I wish I had a dreamcast.

They never sold them here in South Africa, and the cheapest I can find one is like $200 or something.

I figure I'm just going to get one on ebay when I am in canada or the US next.

[mike street @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I'd get this before a Revolution. Dreamcast is still my favorite gaming system

[Jon wright @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

What's wrong with the Dreamcast controller? My 6 year old boy can use it just find as I can at 51 years of age.

[the_game_master @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Maybe Sega is testing the video game console market waters with this Dreamcast re-release.

With that new system board Lindberg they're getting ready to unleash for the arcades, maybe a new home console is plan. My mere speculation.

Could there be a Sega "Enterprise" game system in the works? (If so I think that's what it should be called).

[Jico @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

This makes me so happy. Who knows, we might even see a few more titles developed for it.

Oh, and "Hmmmm", not to rain on your little fanboy parade, but the 360 *did* sell out in japan within a few hours. Sure, it won't touch the ps3 over there, but it might have moderate success.

[Anonym @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

What is that little thing to the right and what does it do?

[the_game_master @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

That little thing to the right is Sega Dreamcast's Visual Memory Unit. It acts a memory card, a miniture game unit, and can act as an in game assistant. It should be noted that that little device was thought up by Sony at first to be used on the PlayStation, anyone remember the PocketStation back in 1998, the device when it finally came out never crossed the Pacific to the Americas.

[Jay @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

the greatest modern console ever. next to the Cube. still way behind the Mega Drive.

[the_game_master @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Yeah I agree, the Genesis was what made Sega a leader here in America.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

"What is that little thing to the right and what does it do?"

My goodness. It wasn't *that* long ago that the Dreamcast was on the market, people! Are we all three years old or something?

Anyway, that's a VMU. It's the Dreamcast's memory card, and you can take them out and play mini-games too, depending on the game. In some games, the only way to get certain items was to play the VMU mini-games. It's also how you trained your chao in Sonic.

A good idea and I actually did use mine to play those mini-games sometimes, but the annoying thing is the batteries ran out very quickly and when they did, the VMU's would emit this horrible high-pitched beep when you turned on the Dreamcast - like a fire alarm or something. To replace the batteries, you also had to actually unscrew the back of the unit. And the batteries were CR2032's, which are actually pretty easy to find but a lot of people didn't know it and complained endlessly about not knowing where to buy them.

VMU's could also show you on the LCD what was going on in certain games as you played them on the Dreamcast. In NFL2Kx games, for example, you could use them to pick plays without letting your opponent see. In Virtua Tennis, you could actually play the game without even looking at your TV - the VMU would show you the exact same action as your TV with little stick figure tennis players, which was actually pretty cool.

[Tamo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I doubt that Sega will release an entirly new system since it will have to compete with three competetors instead of two when it went under. The re-release of the Dreamcast is for us fans and other gamers who never got the chance to play this awsome system. The system had such good games that almost all of the good ones got ported to other systems.

[MadaMadaDane @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

#16, you've got des cartes before des horse. Sony released the PocketStation because they were sure Sega had the coolest new peripheral and they were gonna be left behind.

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/feature.php?featuretype=ret&fea=DreamcastHardware
(scroll down to VMU)

[alex webb @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I love dreamcast, I bought one of those 50 dollar dreamcasts in addition to the one i got on launch day!

Its still unopened too!

Anyone wanna explain to me what the
"compatible with windows CE" thing on the front of the dreamcast means?

[Aresef @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

The Dreamcast's OS was a custom version of Windows CE, making it easy for developers to port Windows apps and games to it. However, the only software to really make use of that was the Web Browser.

[the_game_master @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

#20 "I doubt that Sega will release an entirly new system since it will have to compete with three competetors instead of two when it went under."

In 1995 Sega w/ its band of sega systems the aging Genesis, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn systems were up against a onslaught.

Nintendo - SNES
3DO Company - 3DO FZ-10
Atari - Jaguar & Jaguar CD
SNK - NeoGeo CD
Sony - PlayStation

[Sheshymaroii @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

OMG!!!!!! YAYYYY!!!! W00T!

Now, if it come out, I can finnaly get the brodband adapter for less then $300! Yayyyy

-still has my dreacast =D -

[Fortyseven @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Bob bless the Dreamcast and it's little CD-R reading heart.

[Xomphos @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Yeah! If that is true, I might just as well import one. I really wish I had a Dreamcast...

[Sheshymaroii @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Yes yes... thank God for the CD-R reading lil thing, cause i have over like 40 CD-R games eehehehehehhhehehhe

[Tamo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

#25 Wasn't the age of the Saturn the begining of the end for Sega systems? Don't get me wrong I loved the system, Dragon Force and Panzer Dragoon Saga are still awsome, but it didn't sell as well as the other systems. Also when I say competitors, I mean REAL ones. The Jaguar, 3DO, and NeoGeo only got a barely noticable marketshare and if you put these systems to light, its the equivilant of calling the N-Gage a competitor for the DS and PSP. So the only REAL competition the Dreamcast had was the N64 and Sony's PS1 and PS2.
Besides, Sega likes being profitable and I'm sure it doesn't want to go in the red again with making a new system.

[jaysins @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I predict dreamcast will outsell 360, ps3 and revolution combined :) Now that would be funny.

[Bootes @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I heart my Dreamcast. :) Best of the current gen consoles. :)

[snarkey @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Best Dreamcast title?

Ecco the Dolphin

So real. So Dolphin-y.

[GyroVorbis @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Uhhmm... We're still pumping out Dreamcast games. A friend just gave me a link to this here topic. Good news.
I'm a Dreamcast homebrew developer and there are a crapload of people like me. Yesterday we just had the finest single DC emulator release ever. An NES emulator complete with car scans, box scans, instruction manuals, NSF player, etc. To this day Dreamcast remains the leading emulator/homebrew console.
Didn't know all this?
http://demu.co.uk/
http://dreamcast-scene.com/
http://tcr.xtleague.com/

[Omar Mir @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

YES! Maybe they will remake the broadband adapter and I then I could finally buy one for under $50!!! God I love the dreamcast, with games like skies of arcadia, grandia 2, railroad tycoon and soo many others its way better than my Xbox (which i now use as a Standalone AVI/MPEG player), and well for me it is as good as the PS2 only because both systems have a HUGE library of good games!
*Begging sega* Please release the broadband adapter *sobbing and weeping*

[nullsmack @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

24, Actually that's not entirely accurate. The dreamcast didn't run windows ce in 90% of the games. Most games were written to run directly on the hardware without an os. There were a few games that DID use windows ce though, those usually had something on the intro screens saying it was windows ce. Hidden & Dangerous was one of those games.

I'm also 99% certain that the option screen that came up without a game in the system didn't use windows ce.

[GyroVorbis @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

You're correct. Mostly PC ports (Resident Evil 2, Omikron the Nomad Soul, etc.) made use of the WinCE devkit. And yeah, it said WinCE by Sega at startup. Most people used the more efficient Sega kits. Sega just gave the option to use either, because they learned from the Saturn that people hated hardware that was hard to work with.

No, the bios screen has nothing to do with WinCE.

[pandafresh @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

i got my dreamcast and about 15 games for free, but i see them at gamestop from time to time for about $15

[sheepbat @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Those of you hoping for the dreamcast's ability to play MIL-format CDs may want to hold off on these units. The later production runs had that particular ability removed for obvious reasons, and these will likely also not have that capability.

[Brandon @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

all I have to say is Samba de Amigo >>>>> __________

[KJA @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Where can I buy myself a NAOMI v2 System? I want the Arcade Games.

[Cliff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Will Japanese games run on US Dreamcasts?

[GyroVorbis @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Not sure about the Naomi2...

But yeah, there are homebrew bootdiscs that'll let US DCs play out-of-region games. Alone it couldn't, but you can just download something like GameShark CDX or another bootdisc for free.

[Tamo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

#41 You need to get a converter or what my fiends used which was a disc that ran on the Dreamcast and afterwards put the game in to play. Google it and look for it on EBay. It shouldn't be too hard to find since Sega wasn't being an ass about not letting players mod their systems.

[Casey R Williams @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Wow. Maybe Sega realised that they could sell the Dreamcast as a platform for playing all of their games up to the point that they pulled out of the console race. Nintendo is seriously hoping that people will buy a Revolution to play NES and SNES games, so why wouldn't people buy a Dreamcast to play Genesis and SMS games? Oh yeah, and Crazy Taxi 3!

[Kassandra @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I'd buy 10 of em'! Well okay, maybe not 10 of em, but 2 anyways, and like a bunch of games I missed for it back in the day. I have one, and several games, actually, I've been through 3 dreamcasts, 3!

Yay for the best console ever! Well, best Sega one anyways, and certainly way ahead of it's time. I'd love to see Sega get back into hardware within the next few years.

[Tsietisin @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

I love the dreamcast. So much so I have 2 of them. Both work, I just wanted one for each of the rooms I play games in.

Absolutely love REZ on the system and you never know, maybe online will take off again.

[C-Jo @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

hands down best console ever

[Rare Hare @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

if Sega would pull their heads out of their asses and get real with their material, they could totally re-enter the hardware market.

the Genesis was (appropriately) my first console (barring my original Game Boy). Sega was a contender then, and if they can get with it they could be a contender now.

if i thought it showed promise, i'd most definately purchase a Sega Exodus or Sega DreamCast 2 if they decided to develop it.

i know that it's kind of a reach to think that they will get into hardware again.. but it sure would shake things up in a good way.

[fat_bunnies @ Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM]

Dreamcast was by far my favorite of all the consoles and i have been praying that sega in secret was developing a dremcast 2. that would be so fuckin sweet.