Sega Nerds

System Review: Treamcast

by Graham on November 27th, 2006

The Portable Dreamcast.

It has been several years now since the news of a portable Dreamcast machine came to light throughout the ‘underground gaming world’. Some of you will not have heard about this or many of you may have only heard the rumours about this machine.

The ‘Treamcast’ is a completely unofficial hybrid of Sega’s Dreamcast console. It has a small LCD screen attached to it –somewhat similar to that of the PSone’s attachable LCD screen, but the Treamcast’s is non-removable. It is also region free- meaning that it can play Dreamcast games that are released in the different areas of the world –Japan NTSC (Asia), America NTSC and UK PAL (Europe). So effectively it can be sold anywhere in the world without the need to alter any part of the machines interior or it can be imported without the worry of having to ‘mod’ it or get a boot disk to play your games.

It seems that because Sega stopped the production of the Dreamcast, it is perfectly legal for this (unknown) company to release this machine- either that or Sega can’t be bothered to sue them. However, the vast majority of official Sega suppliers, as well as other suppliers, are very reluctant to sell the Treamcast –resulting in quite low sales, low-key advertising of the product (only by word of mouth/ Internet chat rooms) and thusly little commercial interest from bigger companies that might be willing to endorse in the product.
But there are still a few companies- mainly web-based- that are willing to sell it as well as the main supply depot somewhere in Hong Kong, only told on a need-to-know-basis, so it is still possible for you to purchase one or several.

The machine looks pretty much like a Dreamcast- though with some minor differences, as well as the obvious ones.
The more obvious differences are that it now has a rather large bit on top- the LCD screen- the screen is folding, so when you need to carry it around it won’t get damaged or scratched.
It no longer has the Sega logo or the ‘Dreamcast Swirl’- essentially that would make the product illegal if it did have them, as they show the product is official (which this is not).
The plug is different, at least compared to the UK (PAL) Dreamcasts that I am used to, instead of the normal ‘kettle lead’ – the ones you have with Cd/Cassette players and Hi-fi’s- it has a large plug similar to those that you used to get with Game Gears or MegaDrives (you’ll understand when you see it) and this plug seems to have an inbuilt fan in it- to keep it cool. That could be the norm in Japan or America, but I have never seen a fan in a plug, so I was quite impressed when I first saw it.
Also it does not come with a built in modem, but it still has an attachment on the side for one- but I have had problems with this- I shall explain later.
The minor differences are that the machine is slightly thinner- only really noticeable when put next to a Dreamcast.
It is a squarer shape than the Dreamcast- again only really noticeable when put next to a Dreamcast. The Dreamcast has quite a curvy top to it – the back end is in a slight peak, where as the front (close to the power and open buttons) has a sudden slope to it and the lid on the Dreamcast has a slight bump effect to it- where the Treamcast one is completely flat.
There is a headphone socket at the front right of the machine- where the ‘Compatible with Windows CE’ logo should be.
There is a small and rather dodgy looking Treamcast Swirl at the front just above the controller ports. The Treamcast Swirl is a square version of the Dreamcast Swirl-but reversed.
There are two speakers now built in to the sides of the machine, for stereo sound. The one on the right is where the air intake/fan is positioned on the Dreamcast. The left speaker is directly opposite (nothing there on the Dreamcast) – Now where is the fan? You may wonder. Well that is now on the left to the back of the machine.
The underneath (base) of the machine is almost exactly the same, the little air intake slots and the little plastic legs (that raise the machine about 2 mms off the floor) right down to the little square bits of rubber (you may actually need to look at your machine now to understand what I’m saying) are in exactly the same positions. The only real differences are that a few extra random bits of plastic (that I assume help to raise it off the floor, to little avail) have been omitted and the large sticker stating that this is a ‘Class 1 Laser Product’, with all the Model and Patent mumbo-jumbo and that there is danger of electrocution has been replaced by a much smaller, less interesting black square.
Now down to the much more interesting and nitty-gritty information. What do you get with it?

The Treamcast is packaged in a slightly more desirable way than any other console I have come across. It doesn’t come in a useless, space-wasting box. Instead it comes in a lovely little carry-case- bearing the Treamcast logo and ‘Swirl’ in big orange letters.
In the carry case you get:

-The Treamcast console (obviously)

-A US adapter. Depending on where you get it- you can get it with a free converter for your country. Mine came with a UK converter –

-Two Treamcast Fighter pads. These are the same design as the (Official) Sega Saturn MkII control pads, but with turbo switches and a different D-Pad. These controllers are brilliant for the 2D fighters on the Dreamcast, but not much good for other games. In fact you cannot play all the Dreamcast games with these controllers, as you have only one form of controlling the game- Dreamcast has two with the D-Pad and Analogue stick. And for some games this means that you are less two buttons- the Saturn/Fighter Pads have two ‘normal’ buttons extra over the Dreamcast controllers (C and Z) but some Dreamcast games use the four directional buttons (Up, Down, Left, Right) on the D-Pad as replacements for these buttons. So technically the Treamcast controller is less two buttons and as most Dreamcast games automatically have the analogue stick set for controlling the game (and the Treamcast doesn’t have an analogue stick) the game assumes you have a normal controller –meaning that the D-Pad is rendered useless and the game cannot be played properly. This isn’t the case with all games, but should be considered before purchase. One thing that should be taken into account is that the Treamcast controllers have no slots for rumble packs or memory cards in them and the machine doesn’t have any slots either. But I think that this shouldn’t be a problem at all. Most people who would buy this would already have a Dreamcast and therefore should have a few controllers already- as the Treamcast can use Dreamcast controllers (to their full extent) and even if you don’t own a Dreamcast- the controllers are so easy to find, online stores, eBay and even quite a few general games stores will have a few second-hand ones in stock, for very little.

-An in-car adapter. This plugs into your cigarette lighter, allowing you to play on those long car journeys- the main purpose of the LCD screen put to use in these situations.

-A VCD/Mp3 player. Now originally I was led to believe that the Treamcast could naturally play VCDs –like the PS2 with DVDs- but that is not so. Instead they have very kindly supplied you with a VCD attachment of sorts. You can buy these separately for your normal Dreamcast, from places such as Lik-Sang, Play Asia or (Rob Webb), but its always better when it’s included for free.
The VCD pack comes with, the VCD sensor- similar to the one you get to play DVDs on your X-Box, though less aesthetically pleasing. A remote control (batteries included) and a special VCD/Mp3 boot disk that you insert before you can play a VCD or Mp3 cd.
Now I always get asked this (for some reason). “Can it play DVDs?” The answer is NO. No it cannot. For one thing the Dreamcast’s laser is not designed to read DVDs only GDs and CDs. VCDs (for those who don’t know-and believe me I have had many people asking) are movies on CDs –Video CDs- they can only hold the same amount of data as a CD, which usually means that the movie comes on two discs. They are very popular in Japan and Asia but never really hit off in the western world- what with VHS dominating the market and VCDs being non-recordable up until recently.

So what’s the machine like in action?

Well now, the machine plays exactly the same as a Dreamcast- surprising- eh? There is no difference in speed or anything like that, as far as I can tell.
The main purpose of the Treamcast was for car journeys and it doesn’t let down. The LCD Screen is pretty decent, however I have had a few problems with it. Sometimes the screen seems to be far too dark, and getting the contrast just right can be a real pain in the arse. You would think that once you have adjusted the brightness and contrast of the screen (using the little dials on the side of the machine) that it would be suited for all games. But no, for some reason each game appears differently on the screen, and if you have made one game perfect to look at, when you place a new disk in you’ll find that the background is too dark, or the characters look like large shadows on screen. But with a small amount of patience, you can adjust the screen back to how you want it to look. I also find that just by moving the screen forward and back or angling it (moving the hinge) that you can get a clearer image for play. But I would say that the LCD screen, even when you get a clear image is no way near as good as using a television, there is usually something on screen that doesn’t look quite right.

One great thing about using it whilst you are travelling is that you don’t need to use the built in speakers. If you have one of those portable CD player car attachments, that allow you to play cds off your Discman –when you only have a tape deck- you can use that to link to the Treamcast- simply via the built in headphone adapter and listen to games in full, decent stereo, rather than the two small little speakers in the machine. And it sounds really great.
Also, as you may have guessed, you can use the headphone socket to use headphones to listen to the game- that way you don’t annoy your parents with strange noises from a game and they can still listen to the radio.

But you don’t need to use the screen you can also hook the Treamcast up to your TV, like any other console, using the RF Lead that comes originally with your Dreamcast. Which leaves you in a bit of a Catch 22 situation. To hook your Treamcast up to the TV you would really need to own a Dreamcast already. But if you own a Dreamcast already, you don’t have any real need to play the Treamcast on a big screen…unless you own or are intending to get some import titles. Like I said, the Treamcast is multi-region, with no need for a boot disk or modifying the machine. This is one reason that I got a Treamcast for, I have a few import titles, Japanese and American- I usually just use a Utopia boot disk to play them, but one of the games I own, D2, has more than one disk. The game runs fine on the first disk (once booted from the Utopia cd) but once you get to the end of the first disk you need to switch over. This is a problem- because as soon as you open the disk drive, the machine reverts back to the original PAL setting. I even tried to make it so that the machine didn’t know the drive was open (by taping down the switch inside) but that means that the drive is still spinning and trying to take a disk off when it’s moving it quite hard- as is putting a new one on a spinning drive. I tried to slow it down with my finger- but that just caused the drive to stop completely- reverting back to PAL again. But now, with the Treamcast I do not have that problem. I can play my import games as though they were PAL ones (apart from the Japanese writing). And in case you are wondering- you can turn the screen off and fold it down whilst you play on a television, otherwise you might find two screens a little distracting.
Though there is one problem with using the Treamcast, in Europe, on a normal television set, it comes out black and white….sometimes- depends on your set- my Sony one its Black and White- but I have a Ferguson one which is fine. The Treamcast video output is set for NTSC televisions (even though the disk drive is multi-region), so in order to play a game (even a PAL one) in colour on a European set, you either need an NTSC converter switch or an NTSC compatible set (which the vast majority of sets are these days). It’s not a major problem, for me at least, as I just use my normal Dreamcast for the job. Also, for those of you that live in America and Japan- don’t worry, as you are not affected by this and should get full colour, like with any console.

Now I mentioned earlier that I had some difficulties with the modem, remember? (If not just scroll back up) The Treamcast doesn’t actually come with a built in modem, like the Dreamcast does. But it does have a blank piece of plastic covering the attachment slot. I managed to get the plastic cover off, easily, but I cannot actually fit my modem into the slot. The connection seems to be the right size and everything- but the Treamcast shape is just slightly out of position, by (literally) millimetres, and therefore I cannot get the modem attachment to line up properly with the slot. Now it might be possible if I force it, but I don’t really want to run the risk of damaging the modem or the Treamcast. Unless the American modem is a slightly different size or something, you might have trouble trying to get it online, in which case it would be best to keep a Dreamcast, for online gaming and surfing.

Worth Buying Now?

If you really enjoy playing your Dreamcast and want to play it on the go, then really this is the best way- other than learning to modify your existing Dreamcast to use an LCD and plug into your cigarette lighter. Also it makes for good gimmicky item to have in your console collection- albeit a little bit expensive.

If you don’t have a Dreamcast already then I’m not too sure about getting this. Yes it offers some extra things you don’t normally get- but you can pick up a Dreamcast for very cheap these days, but a Treamcast is harder to get, a lot more expensive (around the $150-200 mark, and you would still need to buy proper DC controllers if you want to save anything, or even play most games- that require most of the buttons or analogue only controls. But if you can afford it, then it would be worth getting.

Summary:

A great little device. It’s a pity that Sega never wanted to endorse the product, because they could have made it a bit better and I know that many Dreamcast fans out there want to get their hands on the system, but are too afraid, because of ‘legal issues’ and also it is hard to find and expensive.
The only let downs are the small problems, with the LCD Screen- not always quite right for some games, the control pads won’t work properly on all DC games and the modem doesn’t seem to fit. Other than that, the system is just like a Dreamcast, but slightly better.

….And it goes on?

The Widescreen Treamcast…..

~G~

Tags: Dreamcast, Fan Stuff

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POSTED IN: Retro, Review