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Games Entertainment

Dreamcast Mark II Prototype On Show 67

Posted by timothy from the mommy-what-were-vcrs? dept.
The good news / bad news out of Sega picks up a few details today, as reader The vm writes: "The folks over at Daily Radar are sporting an article with pictures of the new Dreamcast set top box that Pace and Sega have recently announced. So far it sounds a bit shaky since they haven't partnered with any content providers yet. Only time will tell if this 'Tivo meets Sega Channel' product will wither on the vine or grow into something with mass appeal."
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Dreamcast Mark II Prototype On Show More

Dreamcast Mark II Prototype On Show

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  • As an avid console gamer, i think you are full of shit. I've been playing video games all my life and when i read shit like this i just want to kill the dumb

    Nevermind. :)

  • If NetBSD is ported to the original Dreamcast, and older games run on the Mark II without modification, it should be a cinch to run NetBSD on it.
    --
  • Well, its likely that the content for this Dreamcast hybrid will be specially tailored for it. ie, they won't be trying to serve you existing games like Shenmue (3 discs + a bonus disc).

    SOME existing games could be served this way (some games are quite small in terms of total megabytes of data, Virtua Tennis springs to mind as a quality game but (relatively) small in size), but I'd bet they are largely going to focus on smaller games or perhaps cut down episodic versions of full games.

  • if you had read carefully then you would know that this is not SEGA hardware it is made by another company that is liscencing the DC technowlogy.
  • Because it's really fucking funny. I first read it without the mod, thought "what a load of crap". Then I read it after seeing the mod, read it with a sense of humor-- and it's hilarious.

    Well, to each his own I suppose.
  • i'm rather suprised that no one has brought up the no copy bit as this is exactly what it would be used for. its a proprietary game console/internet device that downloads games. this is the most obvious use ever for content protection.
  • Therefore, if we are participating in a 'virtual' reality (which really has just as much validity as reality), then we are just percieving a different environment in which things behave according to different laws.

    I think you're on, er, on to something. If all of these realities have equal validity, then it's in fact no worse/better to kill someone in one of these than in what we construe as "real life". We aren't simply playing at killing someone, we're killing someone in a different reality.

    This is all well and good in Quake, where the person respawns. But what about Rainbow 6, where there is no respawning? Is this murder? Could I prosecute someone for that? Case law, the DMCA, and the EULA say yes.

    With the Dreamcast set top unit, this will only become worse. So many realities downloadable in an instant, all wired up for multiplayer-- people are going to murder reality even faster than the original poster. Now that's a scary thought.
  • I think Denis Leary said it best (granted, this was in reference to a case a few years ago when Judas Priest were sued for causing a suicide):

    "Does this mean that I can sue Dan Fogelberg for turning me into a pu**y in the 70's?
    "'Your honor, between the defendant and James Taylor, I didn't get a bl*wj*b until I was 27.'"

    Maybe this is a little off-base, but I think it speaks to the issue raised: does media alone incite action?

    In case you can't tell from my post, I think it doesn't.

  • People keep saying this nonsense, but this story just said it was on display. People are interested.

    Please do not feed the trolls.


    --

  • First of all: The article says that this thing supports online gaming. That indicates to me that this box is built on the same platform as the Pace DOCSIS set-top box, which is based on the Cisco reference design (and QA on it was done by Cisco.) So not only will it support online gaming; Between you and people in your neighborhood, you'll have blinding fast connections. To anyone else it'll depend on what your ISP's upstream is like.

    Two: This thing will flail. Why? Because it doesn't have a damn GD-ROM drive in it. HELLO, PACE. If you're going to put a DC in the box, you have to make it people for people to buy a DC game off the shelf and load it. By "off the shelf", of course, I refer to all the usual methods for getting a CD, which includes ebay, and the discount rack at the store. If people can't do that, they won't be especially interested.

    Three: Pace has been working on a DOCSIS STB (again, that's set-top-box) for some time now. Their previous model seems to work. I don't know if they're scrapping that in favor of this, or what. I do recall in the first conversation on /. about SegaOA licensing the DC chipset/software out to other companies that some people were talking about what it would actually be good for; This is an excellent application, especially since they already have a TCP stack, Web Browser, and some sort of 3D-based GUI library, which appears to be in ROM; Note the screens on which you control memory cards and so on.

    Finally, if Pace only makes it possible for you to get games via their subscriber service, then anyone who buys this thing is a blithering idiot, unless they plan to run some flavor of BSD on it. Then there's an excuse. Of course, if it doesn't have Ethernet, and only has DOCSIS (over your CableCo coax), you're better off waiting a couple years for the STBs which have Ethernet and POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) coming out of them to hit the market. Those will probably have a DC built into them too. Or at this rate, a PS2. Let's hope those at least have a DVD-ROM built into them.


    --

  • Can't help but totally agree with you. It is even more general than kids. Why should I be forced to subscribe to some service to play games. Maybe I don't need a home internet connection (which I don't--I use my work account). Maybe I don't want to become a perpetual slave to some corporation. I'll tell you what, a pack of Bicycle Playing Cards [djmcadam.com] and Hoyle's Rules look more and more wonderful with each passing day.
  • Sega OUT of the console business, and instead doing what they do best. Making _software_.

    Everyone knows that Sega has some of the best franchises ever, and that they're developed in house. Having sega as a developer on your platform means you're guaranteed at least a few good games - none of this playstation2 launch bullshit.

    I love my dreamcast (first console i've owned since an 8bit nes) and while on one hand its disappointing to see the DC going away, its good that sega will have more focus on making their titles. Who cares what color the machine is as long as Sonic the hedgehog is still blue ? Plus, with the VF series on playstation hardware, maybe all those button mashing idiots (read: tekken fans :) will have some exposure to an interesting fighting game :)

  • So what? Should we go back to the plains of Africa? Our brains will evolve and adapt. Alas, Alzheimers doesn't kick in until you've already reproduced anyway. ADD has some evolutionary potential though. Really, our society is waaaay to safe. If everybody survives to reproduce, we're only going to stagnate from an evolutionary point of view.
  • is no reason in evolutionary psychology to suppose that we are capable of differentiating in the long term between different representations of reality, which are all in the end subjective.

    Isn't the classic example... a horrible tyrant (eg. Hitler) who's able to go home to his family and love them? Or a clergyman who can be saintly in front of his church and still commit sins when away from the public eye?

    IMHO, there are significant examples where a person is able to entertain two conflicting sets of morals in different circumstances, and still be able to cope relatively well. I don't see why different realities would be any different.
    --

  • If a game company could restrict the market from buying/selling used games, then it could greatly increase profits because everyone would have to give the game company money, when they wanted to play a game, as opposed to having the option to buy the game from someone who owns a copy that they no longer want.

    Destroying consumer ownership definitely throws the ball into the BIG CORPORATIONs' court.

    I am not being paranoid with this stuff either. Nintendo is one of many game companies that tried to make the renting of games, and buy/selling of used games illegal. Of course, the courts said "get out of here", but with a change of technology, anything is possible: even the loss of great amounts of freedom.
  • Well, for piracy issues, they'd probably have to encrypt the drive somehow, either in hardware or in software; otherwise, once you downloaded the games, what would stop you from hacking the hell out of the box, and burning them to CD for play on another Dreamcast?

    Which could also pose problems for the set-top hackers: having to decrypt the information on the drive to install *BSD, *nix, whatever, and then write that encryption scheme into the kernel...

    Of course, if you just used it for the purpose it was marketed, it could be nifty. :)
  • For some reason, I seem to remember Sega very recently stating they were getting out of the hardware business. Did I miss something?


    "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

  • Ummm ... you think the teenage underpaid clerk gives a care who rents their games? Lemme guess -- you also think that kids today need to _sneak_ into R rated movies too?
  • I'm confused by all of this, so anyone who kills something in a virtual reality is a murderer? Does this mean the authors who kill of characters are up there with america's most wanted? If not them then are people who kll other people's charecters in tabletop RPG's murderers as well? I'd like to belive people have a better grasp on reality than beliveing a virtual reality as real reality, I better stop those horrible UT Last man standing killing sprees of mine.
  • I thought they were making a "weird" move when they decided to stop producing Dreamcasts... I mean, it is pretty popular and it seemed like they were letting it die very early since it really wasn't performing too badly. This is just a Dreamcast with downloadable games (pay-per-play), right?? Cunning move... software isn't selling, so we make a new console, same software... and sell software as pay-per-play. Could also turn out to be a stupid move if it flops (has pay-per-view/play ever worked?!?).
  • You've basically got it right. However, the question is: do you need to stop your UT killing sprees, or start some up in RL?

    They're sure as hell not taking away my UT.

  • Perfect timing (Score:4)

    by thorsen ( 9515 ) on Sunday February 04, 2001 @10:12PM (#457356) Homepage
    Can someone tell me why on earth I should buy a machine that will probably have the same fate as the Dreamcast I -- they kill it completely just before launching DCII which means support for this platform is a dead end and will not be supported in a couple of years.

    Contrast this with Sony support on the Playstation. Just before they launch PS2, they refit the PS1 and start shipping this. Which is a clear sign to gamemakers that the PS1 is not dead even though PS2 is out.

    Sega has shown their intentions and has made sure that I for one will go for another platform if I decide to buy a console.
  • Yeah, but it's so much harder to swing a two-handed broadsword in real life. It's so heavy and stuff. That, and the fact that there are far too few zombie mercinaries plaguing my town.

    What I need is a video game weapon in real life. Like a Rocket Launcher that self reloads and a backpack that can store a few hundred rockets in it.

  • The controller cable issue (Score:3)

    by gnfnrf ( 39155 ) on Sunday February 04, 2001 @10:45PM (#457358) Homepage
    I find it interesting that the article attacks the non-standard positioning of the controller ports (on the top near the back of one side) for "asthetic" reasons. I suspect that decision was made for an entirely different purpose.

    As anyone who has tried to put a console system on top of a TV knows, there is a serious problem. The cables for the controller hang in front of the TV. I can only assume that the placement of the ports is an attempt to avoid this problem, though the guy on the opposite side is still probably screwed.

    The solution, if you really need a set TOP box, is to have a single, short cable that runs to a secondary controller port box, which goes UNDER the TV. I don't think any other configuration will work.

    Just my random musings. Continue debating the future of Sega now.
    --
    gnfnrf
  • Sega hasn't even considered implementations in America. They are most likely going to make a deal with Time Warner in the end if they ever do, but expect it to be even more shaky than the Disney and Time Warner deal(Remember NYC's ABC blackout. "Disney has taken ABC away from you). Sega, Sony, and Nintendo has always done product implementation differently in Japan than in America, and though Sega shouldn't have too much of a problem implementing their technology in Japan first, the rest of the East will be a different story, as the USA and Europe will be too.
    Sega goofed in making an underpowered and too-easy-to-manufacture dual purpose machine (the same Dreamcast technology is identical to their Arcade machine) and releasing it too early. I don't have much faith in this new device, period. Sega only wins when they support a powerful software library. They haven't had a big hit in the USA since Sonic 3.
  • I'm a mass-murderer in Risk.
    Unless I win, that is; then I'm a war hero.


    --
  • It's a prototype, already!
  • Simple: "Improved" doesn't sell. "New" gets the attention of the 8 to 18 year old consumer.

    Once people get a certain association in their brain between a label and a product, it's very hard to change it - especially for kids. That can be an advantage (name recognition) and a disadvantage (old embarassments).

    When you hear "Playstation 2", even if you know nothing about it, you're bound to think that it must be incrementally related to the Playstation 1. Your views of the Playstation 1 will taint your appraisal of the Playstation 2.

    On the other hand, when you hear "X Box", even if you've heard something about it, you still have a lot of unanswered questions. It's mysterious. It's unknown. Imagination fills in the gaps between news and rumor to make the unknown exactly what you hope for, and far far better than what you've got. That's what makes "new" so difficult for "improved" to compete with.

    As for why companies get into these vaporware hype contests, it's all about mindshare. If you're not being talked about, you're losing market share hand over fist - perhaps not at the sales counter but definitely in the media and consumer imagination. Hype does produce financially successful products. Just ask Microsoft!

  • It doesn't have to download the entire 500MB game fileset before the game can begin. Just replace loading scenes from the cdrom with loading scenes from the network. Add a background downloader thread that constantly grabs the next scene the player is likely to venture into, and cache that to the hard drive, and you're set for realtime play.

    The file transfer bandwidth on the CDRom drives in console boxes is probably not much beyond 300kbyte/sec. That's "only" 3mbit/sec - well within cable broadband capability. Even at a third that rate, you could still run today's console games over the network with full media content.

  • This Sega/Pace set-top box looks like a pretty hasty shift in marketing direction. I'm surprised Sega and Pace even allowed the press to broadcast pictures of such an obvious example of a preliminary slap-together prototype. It totally reminds me of the Consumer Electronics Shows of the eighties, when they were flooded with home PC companies trying to stake a claim in the emerging market.

    Back then, there was no concern for compatibility (or even quality it sometimes seemed). The big players at CES (Commodore, Atari, Tandy, TI--interestingly Apple and IBM often avoided these shows) always had busy booths and the odd new machine, but were notorious for making vapourous product announcements (I think they all said at one point that they would have built-in voice-synthysis and modems in at least one of their models. Of course, none of that ever surfaced). Smaller players (Coleco, Mattel, SpectraVideo, etc) were even worse. They would show non-functioning display prototypes (the first Coleco ADAM display was a hollow plastic case locked behind smoked glass--the working demo was powered by bare boards hidden elseware). Sometimes they would change their product announcements (pricing or specifications) to take the steam out of a competitors product launch (when Atari and Coleco announced the prices and specs of their new products, SpectraVideo actually SOLDERED MORE RAM CHIPS into their prototype machines--right on the trade show floor!).

    With such unsophisticated marketing strategies it is no wonder they all bit the dust. Now I see Sega and Pace doing the same thing--besides touting an early prototype, they allowed one of their marketroids to make a "cryptic, possibly un-informed" product announcement. They also left many very important questions unanswered or ambiguous (Who the hell is going to serve up the games? How do I pay for them? Is there a menu system for managing games the hard drive will store or what? Time-limit on storage of games? Use of encryption technology?). Given the current state of tech-stocks and the fact many tech writers remember the roller coaster ride of the 80's home computer industry and the more recent dot-com fiasco, Sega runs the risk of looking desperate and indecisive (are they a hardware or software company or both, and who is going to design and produce their platform in the future?).

    Histore really is doomed to repeat itself...
  • We aren't simply playing at killing someone, we're killing someone in a different reality.

    I think this is a funny way to look at it, so I most definitely would agree...

    This is all well and good in Quake, where the person respawns. But what about Rainbow 6, where there is no respawning? Is this murder? Could I prosecute someone for that?

    Well, sure, it is murder. So if there exist a court system in Rainbow 6 someone could probably prosecute you. But don't forget that that is in a different reality than this, so you can't be punished here for what you do in that other reality ;-)

    So I guess the Dreamcast will increase the total number of murders in all realities, but just don't forget that most of those murders will not be in this reality ;-)

  • For some reason, whenever companies make partnerships to make a superproduct i get nervous. I can't really see much wrong with this, but i have that little feeling the DC2 will have some little thing in it that will restrict users' abilities to do something in some way. I'm probably just being paranoid, but I've seen too many of these little partnerships end up as major problems.
  • That's a really weird way they have it there.

    If I lean back, the console better be crash-resistant.
  • the system wont fly because of all the hate them playstation juknies be spewin.
  • I know that games on the traditional, stand alone dreamcast box will still be available, but what upsets me is that more and more of the console gaming in the US and the world is going to take place in a connected environment, either on the internet model or on the pay per view model.

    A parent can feel safe letting their child play videogames without supervision because, unlike the internet, a parent can currently control all the access to specific videogames that a child might have. It costs a lot to buy the game, one need's parental permission to get it at the rental place.

    A parent cannot feel safe when a kid can go home and download the latest new thing, without having to check with parents. Yes there are passwords and safety features, but this is a far lower level of safety than the level afforded when a clerk at the video store requires adult presence to rent certain games.

  • Anybody know if this bad boy will run NetBSD? If so, I'm there.

  • Wither on the Vine! Wither on the Vine! (Score:3)

    by jpowers ( 32595 ) on Sunday February 04, 2001 @01:14PM (#457371) Homepage
    Sorry, but this thing is just a stock play by Sega while they reorganize for pure game dev. It's really a non-factor in their (and our) future. What's more interesting is that Sega's going to be making games for other platforms: Good games AND a decent controller. Yay!

    -jpowers
  • naw it's not just you....

    welcome to america

  • My first thought when I saw the picture in the article was, "Ick, it's a PC." While it may not exactly be a PC, it does, IMO, suffer from featuritis--a problem I see much too often these days. I can live with my game console, my VHS deck, and my DVD player [no, I don't actually have one] separate just fine, thankyouverymuch. I won't even go into the issue of more complexity = more bugs; I'm just getting tired of these so-called "all-in-one" solutions that never actually do all of what you want.

    --
    BACKNEXTFINISHCANCEL

  • This is a scam. It's just an off-the-shelf Dreamcast that was taken apart and loosely mounted into a slim-profile PC case?

    • The "controller port" is the front panel of a Dreamcast mounted facing upwards.
    • The power supply board (toward the front of the case) has the power cable connector attached to it, which runs under the other board and out the back of the case.
    • The "black thing" over the circuit board in the center of the unit is the standard GD-ROM drive mechanism.

    This is a Dreamcast set-top box that I could put together in a couple of hours. If this is the best that Sega's partner company can come up with, then the Dreamcast set-top box will probably never happen

    Cryptnotic

  • Re:NetBSD is dead (Score:3)

    by bugg ( 65930 ) on Sunday February 04, 2001 @02:55PM (#457375) Homepage
    Let's say there is about 20 times as much Linux traffic on USENET than BSD. Based on your 44,800 BSD user count, that means there are 896,000 Linux users. But http://counter.li.org/ estimates the count o be 16 million.

    Or how about this? There is an infinite amount more traffic on the official freebsd user mailing list as opposed to the linux official user mailing list, hence linux has zero users.

    Moral? These numbers don't prove a thing. I've seen this troll with every BSD post, and it's about time you give it up. If you believe that BSD is dead, suit yourself- there's no need to reassert it.

    Of course, I shouldn't feed the troll- it just gives you the attention that your parents never did.

  • Or... guys who can drink beer at the bar and talk smack with the boys, yet be clean and professional at the office?

    Humans can adapt.
    --

  • I want a set top box that emulates (older) game consoles , SNES or MAME stuff would be great !!
    Assuming that you've a Dreamcast, try Dream SNES [mc.pp.se], a port of SNES9x. Now with up to 1024 ROMS per CD!
  • ... more interesting than the article itself.

    Check it out: Fortunately, Daily Radar hasn't gone so far as to make the link on slashdot illegal without payment, but be warned: with the alleged failure of online advertising (news.com would make me think otherwise with it's huge annoying flash ads) and the deaths of so many 'networks', you can expect people to attempt to enforce things like this more and more in the future.
  • See kids!

    This is what happens to you if you play too many computer games!

  • I think it was David Kronenbourg on the subject of movie violence mandating film censorship who said (approximately) -

    "Where I live, people who can't differentiate fantasy from reality are called 'insane'"

    Si
  • Not so long ago /. featured a story where scientists found out that certain neurons fire in human brains that mirror the action taking place on tv or right in front of them. For example if someone is having his hand sliced, the person watching registers the same effects as if he himself is being sliced. These mirror neurons lead to the conclusion that what you see on TV would indeed effect you, violence or sex or whatever the taboo is. It would have the effect and thus induce (in some people) similar resoponces as seen in columbine. Enjoy!
  • "Sega only wins when they support a powerful software library."

    Have you *seen* the games on Dreamcast? They are easily the best line up of games in the first two years of a console on any system since the SNES. Unfortunately, they will be the only two years. What killed sega is that they had no money for marketing after the saturn failed and coin ops in general bombed. And Sony has a LOT of money for marketing.
  • from the pennant in early March, the Sega has already marked the Mark II for obsolescnense between now and the time it is released to the public.

    Mark II screenshots [ridiculopathy.com]

  • A parent cannot feel safe when a kid can go home and download the latest new thing, without having to check with parents. Last I checked, this isn't something you can really prevent, unless you don't own a computer.
  • People are taking this STB to be a Bad Thing (tm) I, for one, would welcome a service like this. I love my DirecTV system because I can rent movies without having to go to the video store. This service, I expect, will be much akin to renting video games. I do this a lot as well, and it eliminates my having to drive down to Blockbuster or Holywood Video to rent a game. I expect that this service will have a much larger game library, without having to worry about due dates, late fees and selection. I like to try before I buy, so if I like a game I rent off this service, I will then go out and buy it.

    I doubt piracy will be as big a deal as is suspected. Dreamcast games aren't terribly difficult to rip as it is, it just takes a good bit of technical knowledge and time to dump a game over the serial port, not to mention burn the game. I expect it will take the same amount of technical knowledge to rip games off this set top.

    This box seems more aimed towards casual gamers who might just want a quick game of Chu Chu Rocket or Sega Smash Pack rather than Skies of Arcadia or Phantasy Star Online. Just my $.02
  • Reality is something that we percieve, without ever knowing whether it truly exists. Therefore, if we are participating in a 'virtual' reality (which really has just as much validity as reality), then we are just percieving a different environment in which things behave according to different laws.

    Is it not then dangerous to play a console game in which agents are motivated by entirely different principles? There is no reason in evolutionary psychology to suppose that we are capable of differentiating in the long term between different representations of reality, which are all in the end subjective.I think it is dangerous that in this modern world there are so many differnt virtual universes for us to exist in. It could be that we are unnable to cope with this - our brains are made for the evolutionary plains of Africa, not the modern world of TV, books, consoles, the Internet, Radio, etc etc. We are suffering from an overload of representative realities. It has been speculated that this is the cause behind Alzhimers desease and Attention Deficit Disorder - the inability to be satisfied with just one reality.

    Consoles of this hyperrealistic nature could well greatly exarcerbate the minimal problems we have in this area at the moment.

    I just wish we knew more about these sorts of issues before we wantonly introduced new consoles.

    This post may have seemed a littled bit off base, I suppose, and I am sorry if it appeared so. I just had to get it off my chest. It is interesting though, if slightly worrying.

    You know exactly what to do-
    Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-

  • Sega is proving to be very nimble lately, and it is my opinion that this is the true mark of good management. With the latest price drop on console, the rebate for their internet service(free dreamcast) and cool peripherals actually making it to market (ethernet adaptor), they really look to be the most competent out of the motley bunch of platform manufacturers. Those others are not showing themselves to be quite as capable, instead being mastered by entirely different principles. We've all seen how sony screwed the pooch in their arrogance and I expect to MS to perform about the same for too much ambition. Nintendo is going to pull through though, notice how they are laying low and waiting for the clouds to part... But this suggest a little too much caution, to the point of cowardice. Overall, I am convinced that Sega will weather this storm of console wars and pull through in the end.

    But this box looks like a prototype for the Pace pitchsters, and they are merely playing the cut-throat salesman game with these press stunts. There is no telling what Sega is going to do next, based on these scanty pieces of speculatory journalism and dog-and-pony press events.

    I hope Sega figures out something quick though. As for this hardware, it sounds sweet enough, and I'm sure it will play my current dreamcast disks (the article seemed to imply you could play dreamcasts games by downloading them, neglecting to mention backwards-compatability with the dreamcast media), but it stands the chance of falling into the same trap as the PSX2. The consoles are a loss leader, and adding a Tivo is only going to make the problem worse. I've read that PSX2 is killing Sony in Japan because folks are buying the set-top box and ignoring the games, instead just using the hardware as a DVD player. This sounds dreadful until you remember that Sony is selling a major percentage of the DVD's as well... Oh-boy, there's just too many variables at play here. I can't figure it out. But at least one thing is certain- Indrema won't factor into things at all. And that's the real pity.


    :)Fudboy

  • Stillborn (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I hate to say it but this belongs in the same category as "holographic storage". I'll believe it when I can buy one.

    I really hope that Slashdot shows more restraint. An example from the print world are the magazines Popular Science and Popular Mechanics. If you were to believe these publications, by 2001 we should all have been commuting to work in solar powered gyrocopters from our $10K home made of low cost carbon composites, situated on 1 acre which includes a hyrdoponic garden for year 'round fresh vegetables.

    Slashdot, there is a lesson there if you are wise enough to see it.

  • It looks almost OK for the player sitting to the left. But what about the one on the right or the one(s) in the middle [if all four are playing]? You'll have to put some "extra hardware" like books, plants or soda cans to keep the controller cords to the left and right of the screen and avoiding them getting in the way.. tsk tsk tsk...
    --
    "No se rinde el gallo rojo, sólo cuando ya está muerto."
  • I doubt sincerely that his is a great idea, all they are trying to do is to avoid direct competition with technically superior products (such as the PS2 or even the XBox).

    I was under the impression the original Dreamcast had pretty much the necessary capabilities to be a set-top box. With the current shift away from desktop PCs, the "new" set top arrangement with the integrated Dreamcast will still face competition from Sony, TiVo, Microsoft, etc in both the game console and set-top markets. So it basically hasn't changed it's position.

    I want a set top box that emulates (older) game consoles , SNES or MAME [mame.net] stuff would be great !!
    --

  • The "controller port" is the front panel of a Dreamcast mounted facing upwards.

    Obviously it's a prototype, as advertised. Functionality comes first, then good looks.

    The power supply board (toward the front of the case) has the power cable connector attached to it, which runs under the other board and out the back of the case.

    Do you have any better ideas for getting power to the thing? (:

    The "black thing" over the circuit board in the center of the unit is the standard GD-ROM drive mechanism.

    Actually it's a heatsink [dailyradar.com] covering the CPU and PowerVR (pic [min.net]). The leads for where the GDROM drive would be [min.net], are going to the hard-drive looking apparatus at the front-left of the case. Coupled with the fact that it has what looks like an EPROM for the BIOS and two coax leads [dailyradar.com] coming out of the back-left of the box, maybe this thing is exactly what they claim it is, a prototype of a box that lets you download games onto a hard drive and play them.

  • Many of us already know that Dreamcast games are being pirated and made available online...so I have no doubt that this machine will work. However, many of these games will take a lot longer to download than they've advertised. I think I remember seeing something mentioned about less that five minutes per game. This is quite optomistic considering a lot of games are 500+ MB. Now, according to my calculations, this is over 13 megabits per second. Not sure how they can get such a figure unless they rip out the music from the games.

    I prefer having my Dreamcast seperate from my other home entertainment stuff. It's like the idea of a TV/VCR combo, if one of them breaks, the other is pretty much useless. Now, let's say you want a bigger TV but don't really need to buy a new VCR? Too bad. Same concept, let's say a much better model of this was released, do you want the Dreamcast still? Yes. Do you want to pay for that part again? No.

  • Cool (Score:2)

    by stepson ( 33039 )
    I think this would make a really neat product. With entertainment centers getting pretty crowded (TV, VCR, Stereo, Tuner/Receiver, DVD, Multiple game consoles, Cable box) it would be nice to have a unit that plays games AND records shows.

    OTOH, the old unix paradigm of 'Do one thing, do it well' may apply ... if its not as good as a Dreamcast or a Tivo, then it may not be worth it at all ...
  • Depends where you are. Up in northern Virginia, every theatre I've gone to has a cop (most likly a rent-a-cop in full uniform) standing behind the counter to be sure no under-17 types get into R movies. No doubt someone sued some theatres in the area after their darling sweet angel (don't look at the police report) snuck into an R movie and was tarnished for life.

    Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
  • > On the other hand, when you hear "X Box", even
    > if you've heard something about it, you still
    > have a lot of unanswered questions. It's
    > mysterious. It's unknown. Imagination fills in
    > the gaps..

    With Microsoft at the helm, my imagination can fill in quite a few gaps on X-box.

    Like it's just a cheap PC with Windows CE and Direct X in it, and a cheap 3D card (TV doesn't require much resolution.)

  • Contrast this with Sony support on the Playstation. Just before they launch PS2, they refit the PS1 and start shipping this. Which is a clear sign to gamemakers that the PS1 is not dead even though PS2 is out.

    Right after launching the SNES Nintendo refitted the original NES and started shipping it, selling it for $50. A clear sign to gamemakers that the NES was not dead even though the SNES was out. A wrong sign, of course. The NES died anyway, so fast that the refitted NESs now sell for upwards of $100 on eBay.
  • I know that games on the traditional, stand alone dreamcast box will still be available, but what upsets me is that more and more of the console gaming in the US and the world is going to take place in a connected environment, either on the internet model or on the pay per view model.

    A parent can feel safe letting their child play videogames without supervision because, unlike the internet, a parent can currently control all the access to specific videogames that a child might have. It costs a lot to buy the game, one need's parental permission to get it at the rental place.

    A parent cannot feel safe when a kid can go home and download the latest new thing, without having to check with parents. Yes there are passwords and safety features, but this is a far lower level of safety than the level afforded when a clerk at the video store requires adult presence to rent certain games.
  • The DC controller sucks, and I had no problem playing Gran Turismo with Sony's dual shock controller. I know it's not a popular opinion, but I'm siding with Sony on the anti-aliasing issue. Coders will find ways around it. Sega especially because they take the time to make their games right. And online play sucks. You want Counterstrike? buy a PC.

    -jpowers
  • With Sega's dumping of the dreamcast, and the unveiling of this Mark 2, I can't help but to think of Atari's class act on the marketplace. "Hey! Let's release another videogame system/computer even though we were as sucessful as Soul Asylum's last album!"
  • Ok, so if Sega really is having so much financial trouble, why are they going to make a new version of the Dreamcast? It seems like that money might be better used developing new tech for the current one (which is still awfully new in my book) rather than designing a NEW one.

    Of course, this might just be a ploy to keep their investers on board.

    On an unrelated note, is it just me or do there seem to be an awful lot of vaporware consoles lately? The X-Box (which might not actually be vapor), the nintendo thing, the PS 3, —whatever happened to traditional "wait until it's ready to be released until you promote it all over the place" marketing?

    -------

  • Hopefully they (sega) are not using thier money for this project. It won't find any support and will die a horrible death. I normally like being optimistic about these things but what makes Sega think that coupling the DC with a tv tuner will turn around the dying system? Maybe if they had done this about 6 months before they annouced that they would stop supporting the DC and develop games for the PS2 it would of worked. Who do you know thats willing to fork out cash for a certainly dead system. Especially one that WON'T be able to play backup discs/homebrew hacks. Sorry Sega you should fire the guy who came up with this idea.

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