The Dreamcast is a home video game console by Sega, the first one introduced in the sixth generation of video game consoles. With the release of the Dreamcast in 1998 amid the dot-com bubble and mounting losses from the development and introduction of its new home console, Sega made a major gamble in attempting to take advantage of the growing public interest in the Internet by including online capabilities in the console as a selling point. As such, the Dreamcast was the first console to include a built-in modem for Internet support and online play. Sega would end up leaning heavily into the online capabilities to sell the Dreamcast as hype grew for Sony's then-upcoming competitor, the PlayStation 2, which also promised online gaming in addition to its DVD capabilities.
To create further incentive for use of the Dreamcast's online capabilities, Sega went beyond the scope of their prior online ventures and invested heavily in the development of unified online services for it, a concept that predated former partner Microsoft's Xbox Live service by a few years. Sega also predated Microsoft in pioneering the concept of downloadable content for games released on a console, though it was hampered by the small memory of the VMU. Despite the foresight Sega had in the emergence of broadband Internet access by making the modem modular and upgradeable with a broadband adapter, the services mainly supported dial-up Internet access throughout their lifetimes; only in Japan did broadband service arrive for the Dreamcast before Sega discontinued it in 2001, abandoning the console business altogether with its transition to third-party publishing. The services were gradually discontinued by Sega in the subsequent years; the last remaining service lingered on in Japan before it was shut down in 2007. In response, hobbyists have revived parts of the online services by creating private servers for a handful of games that had their official servers shut down.
Hardware
Sega produced two networking accessories for the Dreamcast worldwide, one for dial-up connections and one for broadband connections. A third accessory, also intended for broadband connections, was only available in Japan. All adapters are visually similar; however, the first accessory includes a telephone jack while the latter two accessories include an Ethernet jack instead. The adapters attach flush to an expansion port, named "Extension," on the side of the Dreamcast. Sega also produced a keyboard and a computer mouse for easier navigation of the Internet on the Dreamcast.
Modem Adapter
The Modem Adapter is a dial-up modem that was included with all Dreamcast consoles sold worldwide except for Brazil, where it was excluded due to the high price of the console there. As a result, Brazil was the only region where the adapter was sold separately; the adapter retailed there for R$49.99 as the Dreamcast Link. European, Australian, and early Japanese models came with a 33.6 kbit/s modem, while North American and most Japanese models included a 56 kbit/s modem. However, with no region lock present, it is possible for models bundled with the 33.6 kbit/s modem to use the 56 kbit/s one instead for faster Internet access. To produce the modem, Sega partnered with Rockwell International through its semiconductor division, which was spun off as Conexant on January 4, 1999.
There are two models of the modem adapter, 670-14140A and 670-14140B. The "A" model can use power from the Dreamcast game console to allow it to operate without the need of power from the telephone line. The "B" model does not use power from the Dreamcast; thus, it is dependent on the power from the telephone line or a modem that runs power through the telephone line.
Custom dial-up server
There are multiple ways to create a server between a Dreamcast and a personal computer (PC) using the standard modem which allows the Dreamcast to share the PC's network connection.
PC-DC Server using Windows 95/98. PC-DC Server using a Linux distribution like Ubuntu. Dial-up Network by using a LAN modem (like a Netopia R2020) with a telephone line simulator. PC-DC Server using Dreamcast Now software on a Raspberry Pi.