Printing "Officially" From Your Sega Dreamcast was Possible All Along!

As many Junkyard readers will know, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with the possibility of printing from the Dreamcast. Back in the day, readers of UK Dreamcast magazines would write in asking if Sega had any plans to release a compatible printer for the Dreamcast, or if there was a way they could print webpages and the like from their console. Alas, a Dreamcast-branded printer was never released.

Indeed, I even turned this subject into an April Fools gag a few years ago with the alleged discovery of the Canon Dreamcast Inkjet prototype (model number 5L-00FLIRPA). This, of course, was a fake.

Official Dreamcast Magazine, issue 1.

Dreamcast Magazine (unofficial), issue 22.

You can see above that in issue 22 of the UK’s unofficial Dreamcast Magazine they even said on the record that printing from a Dreamcast was not possible. Well, here we are, all these years later, we're proving them factually incorrect! You see, there was an official Sega printer that was released only in Japan. And now I have one.

But does this mean that I can finally fulfil my dream and print off Spirit of Speed 1937 screenshots directly from my Dreamcast console? Let’s find out...

The printer in question, the “Pri Fun”, is a video hobby printer designed to capture and convert single frames of composite video into physical prints. Released by Sega in late 1995 in Japan, it’s fundamentally a rudimentary capture device that should work with pretty much anything you can plug into it with a composite cable.

At the time, Sega's educational console aimed at kids, the Pico, was pretty popular and the idea was that you could combine it with the Pri Fun to print off pictures that you'd made in the games onto photographic paper. Two games were made which officially supported the printer, Petapeta Chokkin Asoberu Zukan: Doubutsu and Sanrio Festival Tanoshii Card, but the text on the back of the box also brags that it would work with VCRs, TVs, camcorders... even a LaserDisc player! Of course, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have also spotted that along with the Sega Pico, a Sega Saturn is also displayed on the box as an option. Any game console will work with the Pri Fun as long as it outputs a composite video signal.

Unlike regular computer printers which receive precise instructions on how to print a page, this printer simply prints the current frame of video. Printing generates 4x6-inch pictures on specially adapted paper using thermal dye and each printer roll can produce up to 30 full-colour prints.

When I found out about this device, immediately my mind went into “DREAMCAST PRINTER!!” mode, and so I tracked one down from Japan. So without further ado, here's the Pri Fun printer in all its glory...

Why does this Paw Patrol toy sound like a Sega Dreamcast web browser?

I was in Bath this week. Not in the bath, you understand. I mean in Bath. The city of Bath. In Somerset. You know, the place that looks like it was built by Charles Dickens and Isambard Kingdom Brunel while they were both off their faces on opium. Also famous for being the home of many of Future Publishing's gaming magazines in the 90s and 2000s. Anyway, I was in Bath, and while I was there I visited the local branch of TK Maxx (that's TJ Maxx to you Americans) to see what kinds of useless, overpriced tat they had on sale. I didn't find anything I wanted, so I started to make my way to the exit, and as I did so, I heard a familiar sound. 

I couldn't tell where it was coming from initially, but I heard it again...and again. Not sure if I was hallucinating or in the prelimary stages of a Dreamcast-themed fugue state, I looked around a bit to see where these sounds were coming from; and there, around a corner was a small child sat in pram holding a toy dog in a cardboard box. Said child was repeatedly mashing the buttons on the toy dog, and the sounds which were emanating from it were unmistakable - they were the sounds a Dreamcast web browser makes as you navigate around the menus.

Everything you need to surf the Information Superhighway.

These sounds are etched into the very folds of my brain, as I spent countless hours using my Dreamcast as a web browsing device back in the late 1990s. They are as recognisable to me as the 'door opening' sound in DOOM, or the 'select' effect used in the Sega Rally menu. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing or hearing, so I tried to get a look at what the toy was called before security was radioed directly to my location, and then turned to Google to see if this thing was legit. Turns out the 'Storytime with Marshall' toy is a real thing that kids apparently play with, and lo and behold it is readily availible from all good toy stores. And TK Maxx.

The toy in question, replete with box.

Now, if you search for this toy, you'll discover that it is a plastic dog called Marshall which is a character from a hugely popular animated children's series called Paw Patrol. The toy is manufactured by LeapFrog, a company which specialises in educational toys and has some pretty recognisable brands in its arsenal - think Peppa Pig, Dora the Explorer and so on and so forth. Anyway, this Marshall thing is modelled after a character who is a fire and rescue dog, and somehow it has the same sound effects included as the Dreamcast web browser. Specifically, the Dreamkey/Dreamarena browser which shipped with PAL Dreamcasts. Here's a mashup of the Paw Patrol 'Storytime with Marshall' sound effects and the Dreamcast browser sounds, courtesy of my fellow Junkyarder Jaz (credit for the original Paw Patrol video goes to Pup Toys):

Now, my best guess is that these effects are from some kind of licensable stock library and it just so happens that Sega Europe used them back in the day for Dreamkey/Dreamarena; and they have subsequently gone on to be used by LeapFrog in their Paw Patrol toys. And that's the story. There's no big reveal here, I just thought it was quite random that I was in TK Maxx, heard Dreamcast web browser sound effects, and then discovered that they were coming from a plastic toy dog. Just another day in the ghetto (Bath).

I know it was technically 'Dreamkey,' but I couldn't find a good PNG.

Are you a Dreamcast-owning parent who has had the Dreamkey browser effects drilled into your brain via the medium of Paw Patrol toys? If so, please feel free to let us know about your anguish in the comments.