TEXAN*s SEGA enthusiast thread - past and future hardware choices

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The Modem and WinCE are two things SEGA didn't need.

That's $30 per unit saved on the modem and $30 per unit saved on WinCE.

That's $60 shaved off the Bill Of Materials.
 
TEXAN* said:
The Modem and WinCE are two things SEGA didn't need.

That's $30 per unit saved on the modem and $30 per unit saved on WinCE.

That's $60 shaved off the Bill Of Materials.
Click to expand...

I never understood if WinCE was something used only by the developers, something that could be accessed by us, or if the general OS of the system was Win based.

I think the modem was a great idea. It backfired only because SEGA didnt execute well the feature. This was actually one of SEGA's strategic advantages at the time that unfortunately wasnt exploited

Lazy8s said:
Interesting revelations about older technology like Dreamcast still pop up through the years as homebrew programmers, modders, and hackers get access to dev tools and explore the system.

http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/kk430/verdantf/untitled.jpg
http://i310.photobucket.com/albums/kk430/verdantf/untitled2.jpg

Modding done with Shenmue has managed to switch the Passport model of Ryo, once believed to be too detailed for anything but a "head demo", into the actual game. The Dreamcast handles it rather admirably.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2agmLEuK3g

http://dcmedia.ign.com/media/news/image/E32K/Sega_Shenmue/bg16.jpg
[img]http://dcmedia.ign.com/media/news/image/E32K/Sega_Shenmue/bg15.jpg

Since Shenmue's opening, prologue cut-scene already features a Passport-like model of Shenhua in a full game environment, and the Passport disc features video of an unused cut-scene featuring the full, Passport model of Ryo down at the harbor, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise.[/QUOTE]
It makes me wonder why on earth didnt sega use these models.

If through homebrew it can be done then Sega could as well. And it is not like they didnt have those assets at the time of Shenmue's development. They had them. Because they showed them to us before the release of the original.
Click to expand...
 
Nesh said:
I never understood if WinCE was something used only by the developers, something that could be accessed by us, or if the general OS of the system was Win based.
Click to expand...
IIRC, WinCE was an option that a developer could choose to load with their game otherwise they just used Sega's more 'native' environment. I'm led to believe the majority chose the latter.

fearsomepirate; said:
And no, VGA support didn't bankrupt Sega.
Click to expand...
It's money they spent on the hardware that they didn't need to spend. That's the overall theme of Dreamcast: wasting money on features not enough people really cared about to make it worth it.
Click to expand...
What? :rolleyes: VGA was generated by CLX2 pretty much "for free".
 
TEXAN* said:
The Modem and WinCE are two things SEGA didn't need.

That's $30 per unit saved on the modem and $30 per unit saved on WinCE.

That's $60 shaved off the Bill Of Materials.
Click to expand...

That was as estimate I saw back in the day from some breakdown of DC costs. It might not be totally accurate, but it does give some idea of the huge (for Sega) upfront investment, and it makes them not following through on Stolar's plans for more online killer apps puzzling.

So much of Sega Europe's marketing was was based around the system having a modem. The early teaser adverts ("6 billion players"), free Chu Chu Rocket posted to every registered Dreamarena user, nationalistic stereotype "beat Johnny foreigner" based advertising that got banned ... they really blew a huge wad of their advertising budget on it. And at a time when they had either ZERO or (much later) ONE (Chu Chu Rocket) online game.

Great stuff Sega Europe! That, and your record breaking football sponsorship deals for a system that had no remotely decent football games, must have gone a long way to your terrific sales performance in Europe!

Nesh said:
I never understood if WinCE was something used only by the developers, something that could be accessed by us, or if the general OS of the system was Win based.
Click to expand...

I think it was included only as part of the games that used it, with most games not using it.

It makes me wonder why on earth didnt sega use these models.
Click to expand...

Maybe they weren't done in time for inclusion in the game's Japanese release as anything other than appendages, or maybe they used too many resources to work in all parts of the game. Or maybe they made some of the low poly NPCs - made out of approximately 2 polygons - look just too crude.
 
Nesh said:
It makes me wonder why on earth didnt sega use these models.
Click to expand...
Because that polygon model is around 15,000 polygons. Shenmue 1's high end polygon count is around 25,000 per frame. If you look carefully in one of the videos, there's slow down and a texture is missing (the nameplace for Fukuhara's room). Ryo's house is the only place that that model will work as well as it does.
 
TapamN said:
Because that polygon model is around 15,000 polygons. Shenmue 1's high end polygon count is around 25,000 per frame. If you look carefully in one of the videos, there's slow down and a texture is missing (the nameplace for Fukuhara's room). Ryo's house is the only place that that model will work as well as it does.
Click to expand...

That would explain it
 
It's most definitely arcade I know that. Keep digging around Texan you might just find what it is. Though I will say I believe it is an evolution of arcade designs that will deliver more power.
 
Or perhaps he got familiar with Sega's future plans and how they work when he used to have a job there and does not involve console gaming.

Well there are more chances Sonic will know better than what TEXAN can suspect from internet articles and such,
 
I have old contacts there, we go out for drinks from time to time. I'd never go back to working for them. Too much was involved emotionally when they left the console business.

I don't know any naming scheme for the new hardware or really any details on it. This isn't me giving ya hints and I know all about it. It's something a friend passed along to me saying it will be new hardware but visually it should be an experience the home won't be getting for a while. That and the pricerange. I'm glad you digged up those patents Texan because it might have something to do with this. Just like this forum did with the 360 and PS3 with uncovering patents I wonder if we can do the same with this.

I think it could be one of two things. A high end SEGA arcade board with two nice beefy CPU's and some type of dual GPU configuration. The 3D thing seems interesting though.

The only other thing my friend had said was regarding one piece of software being worked on for it. He said it had a very Tim Burton-esque look. That could mean a hundred different things.
 
Sonic said:
It will be new hardware but visually it should be an experience the home won't be getting for a while
Click to expand...

Now I'm certain that when your source mentions "visually" he's referring to 3D Stereoscopic hardware and not hardware such as CPU's and GPU's.

Why? simple because SEGA has already revealed the RINGEDGE as the successor to the Lindbergh. The visuals are superior but not worthy of a statement such as -

"visually it should be an experience the home won't be getting for a while"
 
JAMMA 2009 is going on as we speak and it doesn't seem like the new hardware has been revealed there.

So it seems like we'll have to wait until AOU 2010.
 
I'm sorry but you guys had to know it was coming...

tumblr_kq14h2oHeD1qa3i8uo1_500.jpg
 
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