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...