The Story of the Unreleased Sega Dreamcast Zip Drive

This is the story of the unreleased zip drive add-on for the Sega Dreamcast, a device that promised extra storage as well as an early form of DLC.
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#RetroGaming #History #Sega

[@steveandrade3477]

There are so many ideas for the Dreamcast, it's mind blowing. I always wanted a hard drive and DVD player attachment for storing DLC, small games, and saves. Dreamcast games on DVD would probably have given the console a couple more years of life with devs being able to fit DC ports of PS2 and GameCube games into one. I was all for the zip drive and remember seeing it in magazines and kind of scratched my head at what 100MB of storage could do (even back then) to expand games when they were already filling up a GD-ROM

[@dreamcaster4754]

So many great ideas but using those easy to pirate GD-ROMs was the terrible idea that made sure the great ones never made it.

[@madmax2069]

1:30 ahh what?

[@edgardeitz2784]

5:34 - *Where* can I GET one of that, and *why* wasn't it released?

[@alynicholls3230]

does anyone else think it sounds like seaman says "GET STUFFED", at the end of its commercial.

[@janielramirez9181]

They should should have what playstation 2 did. Then the dreamcast would have survived

[@will_it_work]

Adding a DVD player in 1998 would have been way too expensive for Sega. Sony was a much larger company producing DVD players already. It was much more economical for them to add one in 2000.

[@dovic2293]

it's sad it only takes not being able to watch movies on a GAME SYSTEM to make it fail which i find to be really dumb sense it is a GAME SYSTEM after all.....

[@maquesim4296]

I wouldn't necessarily call it a failure. Yes, for Sega, it was a flop. However, the system itself wasn't. I mean, hell, there are still releases coming out independently to this day. It was incredibly flexible and an awesome platform for emulators. I also love the controller as well. I have massive hands so controllers like the ones used for DC or the Duke for the og Xbox were perfect for me and actually quite comfortable. It could have used another analog stick but otherwise was very comfortable. A dvd add on or even an updated unit that plays DVDs (with a price cut for the non dvd unit) would have helped it's longevity. I don't think it would have saved the DC from being abandoned officially but it would have helped. The ps2 was my first dvd player and this was true for many others as well. When ps2 dropped, $300 was cheap as hell for JUST a dvd player. $300 for a console as legendary as the ps2 AND a dvd player was borderline insane. As far as the comment above - the ps2 was a glimpse into the future as far as consoles go. IMO this was when the transition began from strictly gaming systems to all-in-one entertainment centers and therefore the lack of a dvd player was a much bigger deal than it seemed even at the time.

[@DubsBrown]

Listen, people didn’t buy the Xbox to play DVDs, they bought it to play halo. The Dreamcast just needed to have GTA3 as an exclusive and it would have been gravy. Instead they let Rockstar go because they made Shenmue so expensive, every single Dreamcast owner would need to buy it. The real problem was Sega needed such an overwhelming success that their crazy debt could be controlled.

[@TheFrenchy82]

Thanks God, they didn't launch this zip drive : I got the infamous "click of Death" with my Zip drive on PC.... Shitty technology , if you ask me !!!