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December 23rd, 2015 
Carl Williams 
Sega is not working on the Dreamcast 2 console. The headlines that you are reading around the web are on par with the “Coleco is Back” bull crap that RETRO Video Game Systems Inc is trying to hand out. This is a fan project that is only using the press to push your nostalgic love button. We all know Sega has stopped making consoles. Their swan song was the Sega Dreamcast, which actually sold fewer units than their Saturn console. For whatever reason, Sega exited the hardware market rather shortly after releasing the Dreamcast (less than two years officially supported). What you are seeing about a Dreamcast 2 console/PC hybrid is completely false and misleading. That would be like me stating that RGM is the follow up to Gamefan because myself, Michael Crisman and Nick Abrams (co-owner of RGM) worked on Gamefan in the past. RGM is not and neither is the Dreamcast 2 a follow up to the original. At best, it is no different than the Retron 5 or any other clone system.
This all started off of a Change.org petition that saw over 23,000 signatures. That was NOT a petition setup by Sega so it will likely go nowhere. Much like those petitions that get hundreds of thousands of signatures from people demanding UFO disclosure- not going to change anything. Not one bit.
Source: Twitter.com
Sites like The Epoch Times mention that this project looks to revive the Dreamcast name. It doesn’t. They are going with another name, why because Sega owns Dreamcast and is NOT connected with this project. The only connection with Sega of Japan is a tenuous one at best.
The “Sega Dreamcast 2” group claim to be working with Sega of Japan “interns” and independent OEM designers (this went so well for the RETRO VGS/Coleco Chameleon). At least the Coleco Chameleon guys licensed the name rather than just name dropping that they were in talks with the people that hold the Coleco name rights. RVGS Inc did that with other companies instead.
At least Kotaku got the headline right for the Dreamcast 2, if not the Coleco Chameleon. Good job over there!
What we are seeing with the “Dreamcast 2” is a PC that will run a special front end on top of probably a Linux distribution. Possibly one of the more powerful Raspberry Pi’s will be used for the silicon in the “Ringedge Zero” as they are calling this thing. The team behind it, run this Facebook group, think the name will be instantly recognizable to former licensees of Sega’s. I am not too sure on that.
According to the Change.org petition, this thing will feature Wifi, wireless controllers, 720p or 1080p HD upscaling via an HDMI port. Also, there will be an internal 500 gigabyte hard drive and a freaking GD-ROM drive (I guess they found a warehouse of these things?). There is no more information available on what else is under the hood of this thing.
They are purportedly going to be able to play Sega Dreamcast games off the GD-ROM discs (how will they combat piracy though?). They will also apparently have an online store full of “Dreamcast Classics”. That means they are going to try and license old games? I doubt they will have much luck licensing anything by Ubi Soft, Capcom or Sega. They might pull it off but I see them getting rights to homebrew like Feet of Fury and the like rather than commercial product.
Hardware emulation for the Dreamcast is nearly 100% so actually making this thing run DC games is possible. The problems arise in getting support for this thing, not only from Sega but from anyone looking to publish games for it. With the market getting quite crowded, I just don’t see the Dreamcast 2 being more than a small blip on the radar after the 15 minutes of fame fades.
Did I forget to mention that they will be making each system “to order”? We know how well that worked out for the Pandora portable, don’t we?
Personally, I would not hold my breath on this getting any official support from Sega. Without that support they will have to scale back their goals QUITE A BIT because to run Dreamcast emulators you will need a BIOS file. You guessed it, without Sega licensing that piece of software out they won’t be able to “emulate” or play Dreamcast games. Kind of takes all of the wind out of this thing before it even gets started.
Source: Change.org and Facebook
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[…] on creating his own console to make lower costing games. I wonder if Mr. Scott has heard of the Dreamcast 2 or the Coleco Chameleon, maybe he will use his funds to help either of those “consoles” […]
Yea the emulators are the key. What most people don’t see to get is if you don’t have Sega support or at least permission you’re use of emulators in this context is illegal. You can get away with it as a private citizen because Sega doesn’t know or care about going after 1 person or even a few thousand, but someone actually trying to make money off there work without their permission – not a chance.
Exactly. Thank you for pointing out the importance of the emulators. Everyone that I see writing about this are only focusing on the headline- that the Dreamcast 2 is coming. No, no it is not. Without official support of Sega this project is dead. Notice they are not intending to use the name “Dreamcast 2” but have already chosen a name that is not owned by Sega? I believe they are only dropping Sega’s name so that they can get headlines, interviews, etc. Without that tenuous connection this story is dead in the water. Without that hope that Sega would actually entertain this, it is dead.