Dreamcast

The Dreamcast was SEGA's last console, released on November 27, 1998, in Japan, and September 9, 1999, in the United States.

Upon its launch, it impressed everyone with its graphical prowess, far superior to the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, offering graphical quality on par with arcade games of the time, sometimes even superior, as was the case with Soul Calibur.

Dreamcast highlights included games like Virtua Tennis, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, Shenmue, and others.

The Dreamcast also featured excellent games from Capcom, which provided excellent support for the console at the time and eventually released several games, including Power Stone, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

All of this made it seem like the Dreamcast would lead this new generation, then called 128-bit, but unfortunately, Sega wasn't in good financial shape, and sales in Japan weren't as strong as expected, in addition to competition from the PlayStation 2 when it launched.

In 2001, Sega decided to discontinue the Dreamcast, abandoning the hardware market and focusing on game development for all consoles.

Its hardware featured a 128-bit Hitachi SH4 processor running at 200MHz, 16MB of RAM, and 8MB of video memory.

Its GPU was an NEC Power VR2 running at 100MHz, and its sound chip was a Yamaha AICA with 64 audio channels.

The Dreamcast sold approximately 9 million units, and its most successful game was Sonic Adventure, which sold 2.5 million units worldwide.

Release date: November 27, 1998