Sega have officially announced their new console, to be called the 
Dreamcast in Japan at least. We'll have more as it breaks, but for now 
here's Sega's press release verbatim.... 

"SEGA UNVEILS 128-BIT SUPER CONSOLE: "DREAMCAST" 

Sega Europe's parent company Sega Enterprises Ltd, today unveiled its 
new 128-bit ultimate video game machine Dreamcast with the power to 
out-perform all in-home gaming platforms. Dreamcast launches on 
November 20 1998 in Japan and in time for Christmas 1999 in Europe and 
the United States. 

Dreamcast incorporates key technologies from global innovators 
including Hitachi, Microsoft, NEC, VideoLogic and Yamaha as well as 
cutting-edge digital contents from Sega Enterprises Ltd. 

Dreamcast achieves 128-bit performance from RISC CPU and an indepedant 
3D graphics engine. In addition a dedicated 3D sound chip processor 
surrounds players with 64 channels of music, voices and gameplay sound 
effects at a quality rivalling professional audio equipment. This 
technology delivers three million polygons per second allowing games 
to display revolutionary new types of realistic 3D computer graphics. 
For example, human movements, fog and water effects and shading appear 
so real that they might be mistaken for real images. With this kind of 
graphics capability the passage of time from day to night can 
naturally be portrayed in real time. 

Among the revolutionary features of Dreamcast is "the standard" 
networking capability. Another is the Visual Memory System (VMS) which 
is both a memory card and the world's smallest portable games system 
with built-in LCD screen. The VMS card can store up to four megabytes 
of data - more than some other next generation consoles. Plugged into 
the Dreamcast controller, the LCD screen lets players set up secret 
moves against their opponents. Pull out the VMS card and it becomes a 
portable electronic game machine no bigger than a business card. 

CEO of Sega Europe, Kazutoshi Miyake said: "Our goal is to deliver 
unprecedented gaming experiences to European consumers. Dreamcast will 
achieve this goal. All prominent publishers/ developers are already 
supporting Dreamcast, guaranteeing from day one the strongest software
line-up ever available for a new videogame console." 

Stephen Fulljames

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