The Dreamcast specs have been announced, and they are so unbelieveable that I fell completely out of my chair when I first gazed my eyes upon them. As I began to recover from the initial shock I began to ponder what could happen with these amazing specs, if Sega can deliver what they promise. The most startling aspect of the Dreamcast, in my opinion, was the modem that is to be included within it. While the final speed of the modem has not yet decided (I expect 33.6K in Japan and 56K for the U.S.), we can still think about what the modem can be used for, without having to worry about the speed itself.

First and foremost, the modem will be used for multi-player gaming. This is one aspect of gaming that remains seemingly untouched. The Nintendo 64 has started interest in multi-player gaming with games such as Goldeneye and WCW Vs. NWO that have 4 players competing on the same machine. While the Dreamcast will most likely have the 4 player matches like the Nintendo 64 does, it will include a certain feature that will make it stand out from all other consoles - the ability to use the internet. The biggest advantage to having a PC was being able to play games such as Quake 2 or Unreal against more than 32 players at any given time over internet servers. It will be interesting to see how Sega is going to setup servers and such and if gamers will be able to set up their own servers for gamers to play on. Though I would expect that having dedicated or temporary servers the player would have to upgrade their modem from the original speed to a cable or something similar for the reason that 33.6K and 56K just don't provide the bandwith or speed neccessary to run servers.

SegaSoft has confirmed with SegaNet and various other websites that they will be developing an online gaming service for use on the Dreamcast in the U.S., ready for the launch. But it is unclear how they will handle the Japanese market. SegaSoft now operates an online gaming service called Heat.Net (www.heat.net) and SegaSoft has stated that it will be similar in the way it works but it will be suited the special features that the Dreamcast has. Heat.Net right now is one of the fastest and most reliable services right now and if SegaSoft can port it to the Dreamcast correctly, gamers can look forward to having a grand old time.

Getting off the subject of multi-player games for a use of the modem, another way the modem could be used would be for downloading files off the internet. The most useful tool for this would be for software upgrades to existing games. You could download some new levels to your favorite first person shooter, new cars and tracks for you favorite racing game and maybe some new players for a sports game. Wow, that sounds awesome, doesn't it? Yes, indeed it does, but it does have some downsides to it. For one, a disturbing trend that has been happening in the PC industry is that developers will publish games that aren't finished yet and will use the gamers as beta testers for their games and will have them download patches every week. I hope this doesn't happen with the Dreamcast, but it is always a possibility.