Thoughts on a Dreamcast Mini?

[willis]

I'm sure most of you have seen some form of rumor or mention on various sites saying Sega may be teasing a Dreamcast mini at some point. What do you all think of that? I wonder if it ever did come to fruition, what it would run on and how fast everyone would be to hack into it like all the other mini consoles. If Sega was thinking about this, then I'm sure they are fully aware of what people will do to it as well ha! So it would be interesting to see the possibility of how friendly they make it to hack into. Have it function like a GDemu and load it full of every game and homebrew projects.

[Cass]

Conceptually this is very interesting. I'd argue the actual Dreamcast brand thanks to nostalgia and legacy, it's library, short commercial life, online play and the boom in gaming over the last two decades is still worth millions to Sega in PR.

It's a story that is regularly retold on gaming platforms with all the positive talking points of the system and games.Part of the continuing life in the brand is also due to the fact that the DC community refused to let the lights go off - dreampi - homebrew - Shenmue 3.

Look at the reaction to the Atomiswave ports. All of this pollenates and gamers of all ages know what a Dreamcast is.

What do Sega want to do with a DC mini - a quick money grab a la PlayStation mini probably but I really hope not.

What I'd do - ironically I'd be 1997 Bernie Stollar. A DC mini has to be online and have internal storage. Price point I hear you say - unapologetic £200. A VMU display could be an app on your phone.

Who's the market Dad's/older gamers / retro gamers. There's enough of us worldwide to sell a ton of these.

There is so much Sega could do to hype this and blow this up - so many open goals and opportunities for little to no effort. Just Imagine Sega kept quiet on plans for a mini but on the anniversary of the DC launch dropped a translated iso of Segaga online for the DC community thanking them for the last 20 years along with a cheeky tweet saying still thinking. An uber cool, worldwide, feels generating gaming headline for the cost of some intern grinding through the source code.

I don't think a DC mini is imminent. That's a good thing. certainly there are existing FGPA and chipset solutions but the tech is iterating at a fast pace along with emulation. Get the timing right and Sega will get the processing power they need at the right price. Have an online store - why not throw in a Naomi game or two, port the Genesis mini library hell even a port of some model 2 games like scud race - Megavolt85's already sorted the Atomiswave . Make it a gateway to classic Sega goodness and reach out to homebrew and indie devs for content and support. The Dreamcast was the most ambitious console ever launched its only fitting that a DC mini should have the spirit

[megavolt85]

I will be the first to call the one who bought this shit an idiot
there are two types of people who buy mini versions, the first type is collectors, the second type is idiots who do not understand that for the same money you can buy an emulator much more powerful

[mistamontiel]

Don't care for emulation don't care for digitized HDMI! Fakery filter this that borders there blehblehbleh I've everything and hooked up proud ta stay in the 90s+00s

Only good thing from these toys is the officialization of Star Fox 2 xP And now that lives in my SD2SNES

[willis]

I will be the first to call the one who bought this shit an idiot
there are two types of people who buy mini versions, the first type is collectors, the second type is idiots who do not understand that for the same money you can buy an emulator much more powerful

Haha I like your take on this megavolt!

Curious, do you run everything on emulation or do you still use actual Dreamcast hardware from time to time?

[megavolt85]

Curious, do you run everything on emulation or do you still use actual Dreamcast hardware from time to time?

i use emulators to debug code
I play only on real hardware

[willis]

Have you used the DCHDMI mod or do you run vga out of dreamcast?

[megavolt85]

i'm use VGA
my monitor don't have HDMI
and to be honest, I don't like the picture after the upscaler

[mistamontiel]

ANALOGGG er nada

[DCGX]

I will be the first to call the one who bought this shit an idiot
there are two types of people who buy mini versions, the first type is collectors, the second type is idiots who do not understand that for the same money you can buy an emulator much more powerful

Actually, most purchasers would fall into a third category: people that aren't tech savvy enough and/or don't want to deal with the emulation process themselves. I bought the minis I bought for that reason. I can hook them up...done! I also like the look of each
(and before you start, people also don't want to buy a shell or 3D print something blah blah blah).

And that doesn't make those people idiots.

My point is the ease of these minis, which, for most people, is the number one selling point.

On topic, I'd probably pass on a DC mini because I have a DC and the games. But that's the reason I bought the Turbo-Grafx, SNES and Genesis minis. I don't have any of those systems, and subsequently, I don't have almost all of the game, and I don't want to mess with a Pi or anything.