While there's a lot to be said for buying physical games, either because you're a collector or you like the option of being able to trade your games in to fund the next purchase, exclusively downloadable software is most likely the future we're heading toward. However, it isn't a new technology. If you look back through the annals of gaming history, you'll find a number of antiquated hardware systems that offered downloadable software as an option and by and large they all worked and only really differed in their availability and hardware. There was the Nintendo Satellaview that offered exclusive titles for the Super Nintendo (some of which have been the subject of admirable preservation efforts); and there was a similar service offered by Sega in the form of the Sega Channel. There are earlier examples still, and you can find a rudimentary run down of some of them here.
The Dreamcast too, offered such a service and it was called Dream Library. Unlike the aforementioned utilities though, Dream Library didn't offer Dreamcast games for download; instead it offered Japanese gamers the option to use their Dreamcast as an emulation device with which to download and play a selection of Mega Drive and PC Engine games right in their browser. Similarities with Nintendo's popular Virtual Console are quite apparent, but Dream Library precedes Virtual Console by six years, give or take; and the main difference is that games were rented temporarily with Dream Library, rather than bought outright.
A fairly short-lived service, Dream Library ran from June 2000 to January 2003, and it did suffer from a few technical issues that meant it wasn't as perfect as it probably initially sounds. Still, it was quite an ingenious service and another example of Sega's thinking outside the box when it came to pushing the Dreamcast as a jack of all trades. Not only was Sega pushing its hardware as a gaming machine, but also a business machine, an affordable alternative to a web browsing computer and also an emulation device. I'm still wondering how the console failed to crack the mainstream during its natural lifespan, but as usual I'm digressing.
Dream Passport 3's rather garish main start screen |
Once a user had access to the repository of Mega Drive and PC Engine titles offered by Dream Library (it appears that it was an option offered in the Dricas interface), they could effectively rent their chosen title for a set period of time (either two nights or seven nights, approximately) in a similar fashion to how you would rent a movie back in the days of Blockbuster Video, and the game could effectively be downloaded and re-downloaded as many times as required in that period. Which brings us neatly to one of the main shortcomings of the Dream Library service.
The PC Engine in all its glory |
The Dream Library start screen, with DC and PCE icons |
This probably says that it isn't going to work |
As shown in Dricaschan's video above, if you have either a Dream Passport 3 or Dream Passport Premier disc, simply head to the URL address window and enter the following, with the numbers 1 through 9 as the final digit after the back slash to launch a number of emulated Mega Drive titles or bonus software hidden on the disc:
x-avefront://---.dream/proc/launch/
- Guru Guru Onsen Petit
- Dream Flyer Light
- Columns (demo version)
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts (demo version)
- Flicky (demo version)
- Pengo (demo version)
- Puyo Puyo (demo version)
- Dream Library
- Dream Passport 2.1
So for Columns, enter 'x-avefront://---.dream/proc/launch/3' and hit return. All of these demos have a time limit of around 15 minutes and are simply designed to be just that - demonstrations of what Dream Library could do. Curiously, there are demo versions of other software too and I'd hazard a guess that these were intended to be accessed through portals on Dricas that advertised them. It's worth noting that if you're using an NTSC-J Dreamcast to access these demos, if your console already has previous user data stored on it, it will try to contact Dricas and restore the old account and as such you won't be able to access the URL entry window. When I work out (with the help of dreamcastcollector), I'll update this article with instructions.
Quite useless, but intriguing nonetheless |
Still, this is an interesting remnant from the days of Dream Library and it's important that this functionality is preserved in some form be it here written in English at the Junkyard, stored as knowledge in the minds of you, our readers, or in its original form on long forgotten forum threads or Japanese GeoCities sites. As a side note, Aaron Foster did cover this topic a while back here at the Junkyard and DreamcastGaga has also covered it in the past, but I thought it was worth putting a bit more of a spotlight on the topic and investigating it myself.
Finally, these have some use! |
Columns. On Dreamcast. For 15 minutes. |
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It was certainly ambitious and ahead of its time. Sadly the Megadrive emulator bever seemed to have decent sound. The PC engine one was spot on though I think. There is a video on YouTube I think. Also due to the popularity of the PC Engine in Japan it made perfect sense to do that machine over there. As you say potentially they could have them rolled this out to include Master System and Game Gear (particularly the Master System would have benefitted from making lots of the European exclusives playable in Japan) I guess other systems may have followed too. Shame but again shows how Sega was on the right track
ReplyDeleteJust to translate the in-Library menu from the Japanese (roughly)
ReplyDelete1 - Start the game from the beginning
2 - Return to the Game
3 - Installation of the Controller (likely just the Controls)
4 - Save to Memory Card
5 - Staff Roll
6 - End The Game