This Changed The Sega Dreamcast 

In wondering what happened with this hardware, i thought "I bet a disagreement between Sega Japan and Sega America killed this one too." and then that turned out to be the case. Imagine how different gaming history could've been if the two regional branches of Sega were in unison rather than at odds, as seemed tp be the case once the Genesis took off in the American markets.

As usual, Sega was its own worst enemy by its own subdivisions not communicating

Another problem was that by the time of the Dreamcast, Zip drives were best known for the “click of death.” Not exactly what you want to think of when buying a storage device.

I was one of maybe 3 people who used a SCSI Zip drive as a bootable hard drive for my Amiga. Compared to a normal hard drive, it wasn't too much slower but it was a LOT quieter (especially since it would stop spinning when not in use). And if I ran out of space, I could just format another zip disk for a fresh bootable drive ... another 100 megs of space! (Unlike most computer systems, the Amiga supported dynamic sized RAM drive, so it was possible to store the commonly used OS files on the RAM drive. This could easily eliminate or dramatically reduce the amount of disc swapping needed for basic OS tasks. The Amiga OS was perhaps the only fully multitasking OS that was truly usable on removable media.)

Imagine how much more life this would have given Zip drives when USB flash drives were coming.

Such a great system. I had the mouse and keyboard. I used it to play a lot of quake 3 online.

The Dreamcast was the very 1st console that I had ever played online with my internet (with no additional fees believe it or not unlike the others who require you to pay to just use your already purchased internet service's. It was alot of fun and I remember hearing about this in the official DC magazine.

If this happened, imagine if future Dreamcast games supported the ZIP drive add-on and include a "file operation" menu that allowed users to manage save data and DLC among the VMUs, ZIP drive and FAT32-formatted USB drives. That way, you can load and save game data from the ZIP or USB without needing a VMU. This would be perfect for Dreamcast arcade sticks and controller adapters without VMU slots. Eventually the Xbox happened, and with a hard disk included in the system a Memory Unit is no longer required to load and save game progress. Not only that, the DreamShell SD Card adapter also came out, but I wished Dreamcast games were hacked to include SD card saving. There are arcade sticks and controller adapters that don't have a VMU slot, and many Dreamcast games will only load and save from Socket A-1, which I think is ridiculous.

As I sit here in my living room looking at my Sega Dreamcast sitting next to the TV. Absolutely love the Dreamcast and it was absolutely mind-blowing for its time. The online aspect of the system was way ahead of its time and it's a shame it never really took off.

I remember seeing this addon in magazines, and I used zip drives at college.

Man this device would have been so great. I would have bought it. It would have seen a lot of RPG's then made through "RPG Studio".

Nice one! This sounds like a Sega deja vu where the left hand doesn't talk to the right hand...

Remember those iomega drives. My mother had those for her work at home for storing webpages and similar stuff. Crazy where we are today with 1tb micro sd cards the size of a fingernail.

I was planning to get a Dreamcast, and this Zip drive was part of my plans. I was going to get the PC version, too. In college, I found one. I bought a "drive" media, whatever you call the thing to insert it into the actual drive. Either that or I found a offshoot of it.

It's fun and interesting to hear these stories about the Sega Dreamcast and what was going on with Sega at the time. It makes me think what If Sega stayed in the gaming console industry. Cool video. ^_^

Released 9.9.99 (September 9th, 1999). Oh what a glorious Thursday that was! Fantastic video, as always.

The Dreamcast was so awesome they steal both my systems Hope there still getting played.

I really like your new videos about lost consoles and addons in last generations we didn't know

Honestly, I can see people modding the "ZIP" out of games with this add-on. It's like an early concept of mods.

I wonder if you could have used it as a form of cache for the games to load into whilst playing a game? It obviously wouldn't be as fast as a hard drive; but would it help load games quicker when you were already playing a game?

Never heard of this - thanks for showing it to us all! $10k seems like a bargain nowadays for such a one off collecters item.

Does anyone remember Sega Channel? Where you could play all kinds of sega games through a cartridge that had a coax connection around 1995?

I got a notion that after Sega realized the PS2 was going to have a DVD player built in (An incredible feat when dedicated DVD players were just barely making inroads). It basically deflated their sails, and they also knew magnetic storage was at the "end" of its lifetime. Now don't get me wrong, a Zip Drive was a cool gadget. I had two, and used them on my PC for storing games as they were 100mb a pop. And the fact a Dreamcast could support one, well that was forward thinking. But what Sega should have done was, using the same idea as the Zip Drive, they should have created a DVD mini drive, or even something like Sony's UMD mini drive for the PSP. Now that would have gone well!! Imagine a next generation "Tower of Power" like the Genesis/SegaCD/Master System Adapter/32X. But instead, a Dreamcast with Dreamcast/Zip Drive/DVD/Saturn Adapter all stacked one on top like the Genesis. Now THAT would have been cool!!

Learned something new from this video! It could have been interesting to see what they could have done for this add on and what game content they could've developed for it

I got the Dreamcast on day 1. I loved the Dreamcast & the controller is still my favorite till this day. Even loved the VMU.

I like that, Power Stone was on loop, during the beginning of the video, and I thank you.

I'm sure Sega swirl type games could have easily run off of a zip drive. Ikagura was 24mb and zip disks were 100-150mb

The biggest problem I would have seen is less the fragile nature of ZIP diskettes but rather that it was an attachment consumers first had to purchase separately. As much as I love both SEGA and Nintendo for their crazy addons for earlier consoles, I too can see why things such as the 64DD and now here the Zip Drive failed.

The Dreamcast is underrated, I remember getting that as a high school graduation gift back in 2000. I thoroughly enjoyed it

I have said it before, and I'll keep saying it until the day I die, "GOD DAMN YOU, SEGA OF JAPAN!!"

Funny, I remember thinking "Why not just use zip disks" while watching one of the many 64DD videos out there

Where is the thumbnail artwork of chun li from? I've never seen it before.

Well... ya got me here, friend-o... not only have I never seen this thing... I have never even heard of it AT ALL. Thanks for teaching me something!

I really like your videos. Please keep making them.

the dreamcast gave me besides the psone even with his short lifespan, the best gaming memories.

This kinda feels like a 64DD situation, only where as that ended up being a commercial failure, this had no chance to even prove itself and sadly probably wouldn't have done all that well from the start. Now granted being able to store stuff like DLC content without taking up any space on the VMU is a great idea and probably would be VERY handy for those wanting to store a lot of things like custom ChuChu Rocket Levels for example. It probably could have introduced the ability to have game patches for stuff like PSO so people who had Ver.1 could download the needed files to essentially turn their copies into Ver.2, heck maybe it could have gotten content we'd later get in Ep 1&2 for the Gamecube/Xbox. But then you'd have to take into account that back then while games during that time were small, 100 MB still wasn't a whole lot. Plus you would have had one HELL of a phone bill downloading so much content in a single go. And even if they were going to introduce bigger DLC that the drive could use, they still would have had to introduce SOME WAY to add compatibility with the drive for games released prior to it, either by adding data to the VMU which would have been the very thing they were trying to avoid in the first place or release some sort of update disk for the system or the games, which at that point just release new versions of the game which again, would have been the very thing they were trying to avoid. Honestly, I don't see how this would have worked had it come to fruition. It more than likely would have been abandoned very quickly shortly after its release, especially since zipdrives around the time were having the infamous click of death which would have killed support INCREDIBLY fast.

That explains what that thing was in the pile of Iomega barf that turned up at the Deseret Industries thrift store in nearby Ogden, Utah, back in the 2000s. It was either 2003 or 2006. I forget. A bunch of Zip, Jaz, and Clik crap showed up. There were even a couple of very early Zip drives that looked strange inside with CNC machined parts with sharp edges and burrs like they were prototypes. I bought a big box of 100 and 250MB Zip disks for $10. Had I even cared about the Dreamcast, I would have bought that drive for sure since it was like $5. I don't think anyone bought it. It was there for almost a month. But so were the Clik drives. People actually bought those stupid things.

I vaguely remember hearing about this back in the day.

dreamcast actually had dlc and updates for games like Sonic Adventure, they didnt save to a zip drive though, they saved to the vmu

Love the use of Vampire (Darkstalkers) music.

Hey - thanks for another dreamcast video 📹 😀

Really I am not surprised when I first got my Dreamcast there were some noticeable things on the console you can tell where they were can add additional things. We have also come a long way with storage. To think you have something like a micro card that is the size of your thumb that can store up to 1tb.

Great review, Big daddy Top Hat!

I've still got loads of zip discs "!!!!!! LOL

Considering Nintendo was also doing the same moves (floppy disk drive, failed cd addon, virtual boy), the only reason Nintendidn't die as well was most likely the success of the gameboy. Sega also tried the Gamegear that in some aspects beat the gameboy, but in others failed miserably, one of them not being able to sell enough to justify support and to keep the company afloat.

It's wild how much top hat rubbing the Dreamcast b roll is on this video lol

10:28 - is that a remarkable coincidence that Matthew Perry appears in a clip about death?

Classic story of Sega’s management and HQ in Japan. Sadly, it’s not too different even now.

You have the best stories

Cool, I have 5 Dreamcast and they all need to be revived. God bless.

I want to live in a multiverse where Dreamcast survived to be another dominant power to PS2. :(

Didn't know the Dreamcast had time to change 😂

Had SEGA went ahead with the Dreamcast Zip Drive, just imagine DLC for games like Shenmue or even Phantasy Star Online. Guess it never came to fruition.

2:19 vintage grime FTW... 🤣

I'm always impressed with anyone that still has a Dreamcast that's stayed so white! Mine is a murky shade of yellow these days 🤮

I installed a Zip drive in my first computer in anticipation of this being released, and then it never came out.

The downfall of the Dreamcast was due to Sega's stupid gimmicks of their add-ons. The lack if its medium not being a DVD-ROM drive. The lack of buttons on their controller could have been remedied by a revision release, but not having the DVD drive is was killed them.

I've been watching you for years. Idk why i was not subscribed yet. My bad bro lol

Yes I have the disk drive I so love it so much.

So this was basically Dreamcast's version of the 64DD

So the sega genesis had access to online games via sega channel. Maybe they should have saved that for a dreamcast exclusive.

Hey top hat,what about the original Xbox being able to play Mugen and mod on its initial release,just thought it be something to bring up later man.

What is the difference between the orange and blue swirl logo? NTSC/PAL?

The Zip drive was for sell and I was trying to get it but my credit card limit was 3500€ so I couldn’t compete with the final price 😢

I am never selling my DC... the last Sega console ever. I wish I never lost my Sega CDX either. Another super unique Sega console.

4:57 you mean wait for the download for 3-5 days to finish 😅

As I remember it the Dreamcast died due to its lack of any robust copy protections. I knew I guy that would sell you a copy of any game for $10 and they worked on a completely stock machine. The zip drive would have only made it worse. Still the best console ever released IMO

Sega should make a portable comeback.

Click...Click...Click... That would've been really maddening to lose access to your files once the drive developed the click of death.

Another case of brilliant ideas not syncing up.

I've been avoiding your channel Big Daddy Top hat. :| Because once i watch ONE of your videos i have to watch all the ones i've missed. :p

Pretty sure Halflife load times would still suck even if they were loading from a Zip drive...

You say "download instantly" a few times... I was alive for this age... I dont remember anything internet related being instant, well instant headache at the dial tone

What game is shown at 0:07?

Great video, with interesting content and information, but why does the thumbnail for the video show something entirely different to what's actually featured in the video itself? The thumbnail photo looks as though there's a small controller that's connecting to the front/underneath of the console, and bears no resemblance to what this actually is, and is shown in the video. I clicked on the video, only because I thought there was some sort of controller that I had no idea existed for the Dreamcast. Lol.

I miss when sega made consiles 😢

Oh my God, to their dying breath they were coming up with stupid add ons that would never sell.

Sad that sega of America and sega of Japan could rarely see eye to eye….

thumbnail? thumbnail.

Sega of Japan was the biggest hinderance of Sega as a hardware company. So many bad ideas came from them. They even wanted to axe Sonic The Hedgehog, which now their biggest selling ip ever.

Paradim shift? If you don't write your own script don't be afraid to ask someone how to pronounce a new word or phrase.

Just like the N64 DD zip Drive

Most likely Sega of Japan worried about the drive being used to pirate games.

everyone remembers iomega zip but what about iomega jaz

Age old story, at least when it comes to the end of SEGA. SOJ gets mad at SOA for something and cuts off their nose to spite their face

I understand the need for storage space, but a zip disk?, really?, in a machine that works natively with dvds like?

It's amazing to see how much the Dreamcast influenced the Xbox and how Xbox in turn pushed Sony to innovate in order to compete with the Xbox.

Who drew the chun li its fantastic?

what is the game at 11:17 ?

Ppl making new games for all these old school consoles Id like to see ppl max out the capabilities of the "flawed" Sega CD.... It really did have a flawed run tho....

Wait wait wait a minute. I loved my Sega Saturn and playing Daytona USA and Guardian heroes and Shining Force.... Okay sorry. Back to the video 1:06

😊👍

But Sega is Coming back and soon the console called The Spartan! In 2024-25 is going to be the year of the return of SEGA!!

If Sega wasn’t utterly wrong terrible at communication and alienating developers with an inflation of hardware (like the Genesis/Mega Drive add-ons) I feel like we could have seen Sega potentially dominate with the Dreamcast. Also if they had the foresight of DVD on a console lol

While I think zip drives were a joke I like to think this could have helped the dreamcast to pioneer more new areas. Instead it needed an hdd.

It's sad. The internet connection used to be so poor at that time. The online gaming would of really sucked. Thanks Top Hat for the great content as usual 👌

Why did that dreamcast have a blue logo

It's so sad Sega quitted console race. I'm sure they could be opponent to Nintendo

Chun-Li is not going to be happy.

Border Down level 1 playing in the background. Dreamcasts greatest shooter 👍