Dreamcast: More info about Online services in Europe

[flipacholas]

By David Mackenzie:

There are a couple of things in the Dreamcast page, specifically with regards to online connectivity, that could maybe do with clarification. Since none of the 3 main Sega regions had anything aligned, there were a ton of differences with Dreamcast online services between regions. And since the English internet is quite US-specific, and the machine had such a short lifespan, a lot of this info has been lost to time.

Sega provided two services: SegaNet (used in America and Japan) and Dreamarena (the European counterpart).

SegaNet was an optional ISP geared towards Dreamcast gamers that Sega of America launched about a year into the system's life. In the US, I don't think there was a Sega-specific ISP at launch. You had to find your own. And, I don't think this brand was ever used in Japan. The Japanese equivalent, I think, was Dricas.

Players registered with a service using DreamKey, an extra disc that was bundled with some games. DreamKey provided a web browser to register an account. Initially, DreamKey came as a pre-configured service depending on the region, but later revisions allowed users to alter its ISP settings to connect to any of them.

DreamKey was the name for the European localization of the original Japanese web browser disc, which was called DreamPassport. Both are based on a platform called NetFront, made by a company called Access (which is still around). DreamKey was in fact bundled with all Dreamcasts sold in Europe. Updated versions were bundled with a very small number of games.

As the 3 regions could never coordinate anything, the Americas used a totally different browser called... "Web Browser". This was a completely different piece of software licensed from a company called PlanetWeb. PlanetWeb also made the web browser for the Sega Saturn Netlink in the US region, so perhaps Sega had an existing contractual arrangement with them, or just enjoyed working with them.

The American (and I'm 99% sure, Japanese) browser discs allowed you to choose your own ISP phone number and login details from day one. Given the huge geographic diversity of the USA, a one-size-fits-all solution would ever have worked for that region. Only Europe was locked into hard-coded phone numbers being written into the DC's flash memory. I got around this problem by borrowing a US-based friend's browser disc and changing the ISP details, so saved a ton of money on per-minute calls to play Phantasy Star Online.

Unfortunately, SegaNet and Dreamarena were discontinued two years after launch. Thus, games that exclusively relied on them became unusable, unless such services are emulated using extra tools (like the DreamPi, a Raspberry Pi image that replicates them with the help of servers maintained by a community of users).

That's actually describing two separate events. SegaNet was an ISP, and DreamArena was Sega Europe's catch-all term for online gaming, which included the ISP of the same name. As you say, the final version, DreamKey 3, let users input their own ISP details to keep their Dreamcasts online, once the DreamArena-branded ISPs were shut down across Europe.

So, while the Sega-branded ISPs disappeared, users could still play Dreamcast games online by using an alternative ISP - at least for a year or two. The actual game servers lasted longer and did not go offline at the same time as the European ISP services. I think Phantasy Star Online lasted until late 2003.

Near the end of the system's life, some games were released in Europe with their online features cut out. Unreal Tournament, Daytona USA, and Outrigger all suffered from this.

DreamKey 3 could be ordered from Sega for free, and it was also bundled with Phantasy Star Online version 2 in Europe, since the game would soon become unplayable without it. That's the only game DK3 was bundled with. The only other instance I know of where the browser was bundled with a game was with retail copies of ChuChu Rocket, which came with DreamKey 1.5, which I think only added support for an Ireland ISP number. Sega of Europe gave copies of ChuChu away for free to users who connected their Dreamcast to the internet and signed in to the DreamArena web portal. Those copies did not contain a bundled browser.

Fun aside fact: the first versions of DreamKey did not support the mouse. In fact, I don't think that worked until DreamKey 3. DK3 finally appeared, with some promising sounding features cut, far too late. Looking through the PowerVR texture data and other files on those browser discs is very interesting, as they suggest some features - such as DRM'd MP3 music downloads and an instant messaging system - that were apparently planned for the European market, but never made it.

Anyway, I digress. Sorry if you found any of this too pedantic. Dreamcast was my thing as a teen. It was such a weird and brief time in technology and online gaming, and a lot of these details specific to the European market have been essentially forgotten online.

Best
David