SEGA Dreamcast
SEGA Dreamcast Specifications
The Sega Dreamcast was released on 27 November 1998 in Japan, 9 September 1999 in North America and 14 October 1999 in Europe. It was the last console Sega released.
After problems with the Saturn, such as high production costs and very complex hardware, Sega took a different approach with the Dreamcast, building it largely from off-the-shelf components to keep costs down and make it easier to develop for.
The console sold well at first, helped by a large marketing campaign for its US launch, but interest fell quickly once Sony began building hype for the PlayStation 2.
The Dreamcast’s failure to meet sales expectations, along with tough competition from the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo’s GameCube, was one of the main reasons Sega left the console market in 2001.
Despite its short life and limited support, the Dreamcast has been praised as ahead of its time.
Its library includes Crazy Taxi, Shenmue and Jet Set Radio, as well as high quality ports of games from Sega’s NAOMI arcade board.
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SEGA Dreamcast Emulators
DEmul is a closed source Dreamcast emulator for Windows that also emulates Sega's NAOMI and Sammy's Atomiswave arcade boards, using a DirectX 11 renderer.
Flycast is an open source Dreamcast, NAOMI and Atomiswave emulator derived from Reicast, with builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and more.
Redream is a Dreamcast emulator by inolen that needs no BIOS files. It is free to use, with a paid upgrade that adds high-definition rendering.
Chankast was one of the first Dreamcast emulators to run commercial games. Development stopped after a few months, leaving it buggy and outdated.
NullDC is an open source Dreamcast emulator for Windows, known for its compatibility. It is no longer developed; its work continues in Reicast and Flycast.
Reicast is a discontinued Dreamcast emulator from former NullDC developers, aimed mainly at Android. Its successor, Flycast, is actively developed.
