There it was staring me in the face, "Sega Dreamcast Web Browser" in my shelf of Console Gaming CD's and curiousity got the better of me and I said, "What the heck, why not..." My Dreamcast came with a modem and a long phone cord. The modem was already attached so I simply plugged in the cord and connected it to the recepticle that my computer phone cord usually goes into. I put in the CD in and turned on the Dreamcast. Sure enough, a psudo desktop appeared. It wanted me to dial in using AT&T World Net, but I decided to use my own ISP instead since this makes more sense than paying TWO internet service bills. To do so I had to input all my ISP information like phone number and DNS #, my login name, and password. I also had to define the location of my email server address, and all that fun stuff. Frankly I was really skeptical it would even work at all, but in fact it did. Man, was I shocked. I first had to register with Seganet or whatever their calling it, then I registered for a Free Keyboard for the thing. Choosing to bypass the Sega "Buy Everything on this and Read all the biased Hype Page" I clicked on the top of the Browser in the URL bar and typed the address of Final Fantasy VIII: The Adventure Continues, and sure enough it loaded. There seemed to be a couple HTML TEXT COLOR command conflicts and the viewing area was cutting out the background, but other than that they look quite similar. It was just plain eerie for me to see my website on both my computer AND my TV at the same time. I even checked my E-mail, and lo and behold the thing downloaded my E-mail. I read the letter that the guy sent me about making and "Odyssey of Hyrule" T-Shirt (Congradulations you're the first E-mail to be read on my Dreamcast) In reply, I will say that that's a really cool idea, but I don't have the money to buy shirts and pay for the imprinting cost. Otherwise I would do it. When I clicked the Next button, it crashed, and I lost the other 27 messages that downloaded when I reset the system. Sorry to you guys who E-mailed me on 9/11 and really early on 9/12, my Sega ate my E-mail. I really don't know why this happened but the thing did hitch up before on the browser, but I managed to get out of it somehow. What amazed me was how fast my sites, "The Odyssey of Hyrule" and "The Adventure Continues" downloaded onto the Dreamcast. In fact it almost rivaled my computer! Close but no cigar though. I tried to download a MIDI file and it was a no go, an error message appeared saying that that version of the browser didn't support that file type.

Overall, believe it or not, this feature made me start to like the Dreamcast even more. Why (I did crash on me right) do I say this? Well for one, think about it. For $199 you get a 128-bit 3-D console gaming system (I still can't say enough good things about Soul Caliber's graphics, sound, gameplay, presentation, etc.) with a modem and the ability to surf the web. That's a pretty good deal when you consider the cost of a new computer, and not every family can afford one. I was amazed what the little white machine could do. Web TV offers about the same thing in terms of internet browsing, but can you play games on it? No. I know, I know, I hear grumblings out there that the Playstation 2 and Nintendo's "Project Dolphin" will totally blow the thing away in a year or so from now, but until then this is the coolest thing going. Currently there are some crappy games for it (Ready to Rumble Boxing, Bass Fishing, etc. ) with great graphics, but there are titles coming like Castlevania, a sequel to the Phantasy Star series, and Shenmue that will show the real power of this thing.

Speaking of Shenmue, have you heard about this game? Well from what I've heard it's a kind of RPG, but it's VERY REALISTIC with people actually looking like people, day and night, real time weather conditions, all aspects of the real world duplicated, 1200 rooms/ 3-D areas to explore each with many objects to pick up in one part of the game. From what I investigated this game will be the most immersive game ever made to date. The graphics from what I've seen are phenomenal with even the details of sunlight reflecting off the surface of people's eyes all in real-time. - that's extremely realisic folks. Want to buy a coke? You can, but you'll have to have money to put into the vending machine. I'm not sure yet if this game is coming to America, but it is planned to be released early next year in Japan.

Seeing the 'Hog back in his own game better than that crap on Saturn is a welcome site indeed. It's about time Sonic had a decent revival although I see this game as geared toward a younger teen audience but still rather fun to play nevertheless. I remember when I got a Genesis back in 1990 for the first time and thought Sonic The Hedgehog was the coolest thing ever and eventually watched Sega run into the ground when Super Nintendo, then Playstation released and became popular. Feeble attempts with the SegaCD, The 32X (what the hell was that?), and the Saturn just never really put Sega back on the Gaming Map. Perhaps if they gain some momentum with the Dreamcast we can again see the glory days of Sega back in the limelight with great games (at least for a year or so anyway). Let's give them a shot at it shall we gamers. It just remains to be seen whether Sega will hold up it's end of the bargain for Dreamcast owners like myself and provide us with great titles to choose from but I'm optimistic. I really don't think the company can afford to screw up anymore considering the stiff opposition of Nintendo and Sony. Their marketing Strategy currently seems to be gearing itself predominantly toward older teens and Sports Fans with the release of various Sega Sports titles (The Football and Basketball look pretty good). I really wouldn't rule out Sega at this point, because they are the first kid on the Next-Generation Console block and they currently have the advantage to take the market if they play their cards right and make wise decisions.

For RPG and Fighting game fans the modem provides an interesting avenue of gameplay. Suppose you could fight or battle with gamers from around the world in gaming forums. That would be cool. Furthermore in RPG's your party could now fight in real time against monsters WITHOUT TURN BASED ATTACKS. That right, you and whatever partners across the internet you could find to participate in the RPG could actively participate in the battling without the windows and limitations of waiting for a characters ATB to reach maximum. Kind of Like a multiplayer brawl with monsters or warriors where a gamer's skill determines victory rather than simply his or her level. The possibilities are numerous if the bandwidth permits.