The Sega Dreamcast released in 1998 in Japan and 1999 in North America and Europe, and was Sega's last console before exiting the hardware industry. The Sega Dreamcast was the first sixth-generation console, however despite its amazing features it only sold 9 million units and was discontinued in 2001. In modern day, the Sega Dreamcast has been ranked as one of the greatest consoles of all time, and possibly the most underrated console OF ALL TIME. The Sega Dreamcast had so much amazing features on it: the first fully 3D Sonic game, PC ports and Windows CE support, identical arcade game conversions, but most importantly, it was the first console to have a built in modem to support online play.
The Sega Dreamcast had a built in 56K modem to be used with dial up internet connection service. The Sega Dreamcast also had browser capabilities, with PlanetWeb and the Sega Dreamcast Web Browser in North America, and Dreamkey in Australia and Europe. However, the Dreamcast took it a step further by making games that would use online features. The first game to use the online functionalities was ChuChu Rocket!, a game which players must place arrows on a board to lead mice into escape rockets while avoiding cats. However what made Dreamcast a real competitor in terms of online gaming was PHANTASY STAR ONLINE, the first highly successful online RPG that made online gaming stand a chance. Quake III Arena, a famous PC game, was ported to the Dreamcast, and had online functionalities which were successful too (The Dreamcast also had a keyboard and a mouse) :o Dreamcast also had browser capabilities to talk in forums in famous games like Sonic Adventure. SegaNet and Dreamarena were the browsers in the Dreamcast, and they are still online even today! Most games were free, other than a monthly subscription to SegaNet which was relatively cheap. But it all went tumbling down when Sega realised that the sales of the Dreamcast were extremely low, and they announced their permanent exit of the hardware industry, and subsequently the online features taken down. But did it? The passionate homebrew community of the Dreamcast managed to get a lot of games online again, and people are still playing online through either real hardware using a DreamPi or the Flycast emulator! I literally logged in Quake III Arena online yesterday just to see 40 people playing! The Dreamcast will never be forgotten for its service to the evolution of online gaming. Its legacy still lives on for today
