The Sega Dreamcast saw a Japanese release on November 25, 1998, and launched in the United States on September 9, 1999, as Sega’s hardware follow-up to the Sega Saturn console. It sported an Hitachi SH-4 RISC processor (200 MHz, 360 MIPS), 16 MB of main RAM, with 8 MB of video and 2 MB of sound RAM, special 1.2-GB GD-ROM discs for the games, and a 56-Kbps modem in the United States (although only 33.3 Kbps in Europe and earlier Japanese models). In some ways, it’s an intergenerational piece of hardware—more powerful than the PlayStation or Sega Saturn, but with weaker hardware than the PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Xbox.

Although the Japanese version of the console has a Designed-for-Windows CE logo on the front, in reality, a very small amount of games actually use the Windows CE working environment, preferring instead Sega’s custom libraries. While reasonably successful in terms of software diversity, the Dreamcast didn’t really build up enough of an installed base to break through. Sega finally discontinued it in early 2001, with software support sputtering out shortly afterwards in all territories except Japan, which still sees the release of occasional niche titles.

One major advantage of Dreamcast hacking is the price. You’re likely to see it for $30 at most brick-and-mortar retailers or online stores. It’s still fairly plentiful in the States, so you should have no trouble finding one. eBay also often has good bundle deals available; try to find a machine with at least one visual memory unit (VMU) memory card included if you want to try VMU hacking ( [Hack #52] ).

If you’re researching that all-important Pop N’ Music controller or a Seaman plush toy, you can goggle at them online; the excellent Dreamcast History page (http://www.dreamcasthistory.com/) has a multitude of galleries, information pieces, and rare information on obscure titles, bonuses, and peripherals for the DC.

When buying or hacking a Dreamcast, common wisdom says that you need a unit manufactured before November 2000. Toward the end of the Dreamcast’s life, Sega altered the machine’s BIOS so it no longer booted its specialized MIL-CD format; as a result, you may not be able to run any homebrew CD-R discs you’ve created yourself. It’s difficult to be sure, though. DCEmulation has done a survey (http://www.dcemulation.com/article-supported.htm) and has yet to find any Dreamcasts that won’t boot MIL-CDs, but, naturally, your mileage may vary.

The date of manufacture should appear on the base of the unit; it should even show through a hole in the packaging, should you happen to find an unopened Dreamcast retail bundle anywhere. However, probably only 10 to 20% of all Dreamcasts were manufactured after this cut-off date, so you are fairly unlikely to run into an incompatible second-edition model.

Also, don’t be concerned if the prompt to set the Dreamcast’s clock pops up when you load the machine; the Dreamcast has a rechargable battery that occasionally fails completely after the console has spent a very long period of time disconnected. If this happens to you, you’ll need to set the time each time you boot the machine, but it won’t affect more vital settings such as your Internet ISP settings. Those live elsewhere in the Dreamcast’s innards and won’t be wiped out by this glitch.

Finally, if you happen to find one of the early Japanese Dreamcasts, then you have a very special console on your hands: the first ever water-cooled games machine. Although there are no outward signs, these early launch versions of the DC have a fan at the side, near the front of the machine, attached to the chips that are cooled right in the middle of the motherboard by a metal rod that has liquid (or at least water vapor) running through it—very unorthodox! Some people claim this version of the console is quieter, though that’s debatable, considering that it still has a fan. After a while, the screechy GD-ROM drive access is the noisiest thing in the Dreamcast, anyhow. Still, it’s an entertaining diversion.

Hopefully, your Dreamcast will come with a controller. If not, pick up one of the standard, first-party white Sega controllers. You’ll need it. Otherwise, if you want to save anything in terms of save games, preferences, and such (apart from ISP settings and such for Internet access), you’ll need a memory card. Find one of the official Sega VMU memory cards that have 200 blocks of memory. This is enough for multiple saves, though some games take up to 150 blocks. These cards also have LCD screens, making them suitable for further hacking ( [Hack #52] ).