Dreamcast Delta

Elie Ahovi is an industrial designer whose work appears to embrace simplicity and sleek lines. His remarkable body of work ranges from bicycles and mobile phones to medical massagers and washing machines; all of which can be viewed here. However, one particular part of his portfolio caught my eye - concept designs for a gaming system named Dreamcast Delta. Before you get too excited, these concepts are just that - mock-ups created for a design project that was completed several years ago, but the amount of effort that has clearly been poured into this project mean that it stands head and shoulders above most other Dreamcast 2 fabrications.

Clearly the work of a Sega fan, the Dreamcast Delta eschews the square form factor of most other systems and opts for a triangular (or delta) shape. Elsewhere, some of the more interesting features of this particular would-be design for the Dreamcast's successor include being able to use a smartphone or a tablet as a controller and a wireless charging plate on the top of the system (that rules out resting empty beer cans on it, then). In practice, using a smartphone as a controller would be pretty horrible...but top marks for creativity. Below are some selected images from the gallery - but be sure to go here and check out the rest of Mr Ahovi's stuff too, as its all quite impressive.


6 comments:

Robert Jones said...

What a sleek looking piece of kit. I like how this accounts for ports and heat dissipation too. If only it were real! It would look a lot better sitting under your TV than the stock Dreamcast that's for sure.

Tom Charnock said...

It does look pretty sweet - has a hint of the Wii about it with the blue light inside the drive tray. Not sure about using my BlackBerry as a controller though - I can barely stand using it as a phone haha!

fanat said...

It's a solid presentation per se. One thing, when he says that he found the desing language.. well i i don't think he did. The main design language which I haven't seen anyone comment on is that dreamcast's design is literally Human Interface. Because it's supposed to look like a human. Both it's controller and the console itself. It's in the lines. The buttons etc. So when you hold the controller in your hands with the console assumingly in front of you it looks like two persons facing eachother, or meeting. Which is what the dreamcast was all about. The whole internet and (online) multiplayer thing.

So there you have it, the dreamcast (video games in general?) was thought of by it's designers as a substitute to human interaction. Partly, there are other reasons behind the design as well of which the main one was mentioned above.

fanat said...

Why didn't you allow my comment about the dreamcast's design language? Mighty weird thing to do..

Tom Charnock said...

Sorry about that fanat - your comment must have been marked as spam by the filter. We get so many spam comments that I just skim-read them sometimes and yours was missed. Apologies.

fanat said...

Oh, cool. I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on my opinion though. Do you think there might be something to it? The whole human interaction idea as a product design? Or do you have another understanding of it?