DreamCast

Type: Console
Publisher: Sega
Firstly released in: Japan
First release: 20 Nov 1998
Release and compatibility details: After Japan released in US at 9 September 1999 and in Europe 13 Oct 1999.

Success and unsuccess:

Most popular years: 1999-2001
Most popular countries: Japan, USA, Europe
Amount of games in database: 976 (list)
Amount of music records in database: 65 (list)
Amount of downloadable MOD tunes: 1 (list)
Amount of downloadable MIDI tunes: 30 (list)
Importance on the market in the most popular years: High

Characteristics:

This was first released 128-bit game console in the late 90s console's hype. It was released by Sega before PS2, X-Box and GameCube (these are big Sega's competitors on the console ground) and though we can't say it was absolute unsuccess, the reality is that after incoming of PS2 the DreamCast has been immediately set to second line. Sega also lost lot of valuable time in the US (Sega's past products had surprisingly better success in US than in Japan), where was shipped almost one year after Japanese release! After Dreamcast's relative unsuccess Sega announced that this is the last Sega's game console, but because now it's only 3 years after Dreamcast's release, they can easily change their mind..

Hardware specifications:

PowerVR 2DC graphics engine
3 million polygons per second
128-bit
56kbps modem (built-in)
Memory: 24 megabytes
Audio: 64-voice CD-quality

DreamCast has its own "GD" (Gigabyte Disc) media, which is very similar to CD, only it has a bit bigger capacty.

More info: http://www.gamerland.com/systems/cgi-bin/showsystem.cgi?id=46

Games and music info:

Most common media for storing games: CD
Average packed game size: 1GB (size of one GD - Dreamcast's Gigabyte Disc)
Music formats: WAV / Redbook Audio / MP3

Emulation info:

Emulators are now in very soon stage and don't offer some reasonable gameplay yet.

This emulation info was written on 20.January 2003. (This time is very important, because emulation info very depends on the time it was written - emulators can improve a lot after this time..).