Due to its short production span, only a few official Dreamcast models were released. The primary models released in 1999 had a grey tint and a weaker and quieter system fan while the later models of 2000 were a light grey-white colored tint with a stronger system fan and a faster, louder laser disc reader.[citation needed] The later model disc drives did not feature faster load times, except it was needed for protection against piracy. Since some consumers noticed the CD-R and CD-RW discs would not load on these drives, was due to the disc burns at certain speeds. The discs will not load at all due to the laser passing the data with the optical lense twice instead of once to read the CD-Rs. The power light, like the Dreamcast logo in NTSC regions, was orange. In the PAL Regions, the logo was blue. This was changed to avoid a trademark dispute with the German video game/DVD publisher Tivola, whom already used an orange swirl as their company logo.
Some special Dreamcast models were released in certain regions. In North America, a limited edition black Dreamcast was released with a Sega Sports logo below the Dreamcast logo on the lid, along with matching Sega Sports-branded black controllers. Electronics Boutique offered a blue Dreamcast through its website. In Japan, Sega released many varieties of the system, including a pink Sakura Taisen version, and a Hello Kitty version released in 2000 in Japan which, due to its limited production, has become an extremely rare collector’s piece. The package contains a keyboard, controller, VMU, mouse, and a Hello Kitty trivia game. The console and accessories came in both translucent pink and blue in color with some printed designs.
Outside of the generations there werent any changes made. The color is just for the bundle it was released with.
I have the black “Sports” edition and can tell you, there is no difference at all from the regular DC. It even plays burnt CD-Roms just like my old one.
Edit…Either Wikipedia is wrong or I’m just lucky…but I also have a launch day DC and one of the last revised grey DC’s and all of them play CD-Roms that were burnt at different speeds. Also, I’ve noticed the fan makes almost no sound, but the laser is loud as hell on all of them.
I know people have been saying that forever, but I really really do not believe it to be true, especially if the disc is made with a 45000 LBA (the same as legit discs) instead of the 11702/11700 LBA that most home made self boot discs used. I haven’t met a DC yet that TDC Final v2 wouldn’t play on.
I agree. I love my sports model. The only thing I wish would be different is if I could get a replacement shell so my broad band adapter in it would match, instead of the glaring white side panel it has now.
I’ve had 1 or 2 gray/white consoles crap out on me, but my black sports edition never gave me any guff. I exclusively own/hunt for the black sports edition one because I believe they last longer. I don’t know why that is, probably not even true, but at the very least, I think it’s true. :looney:
They differ under the hood for sure. I will try to find some pics for you from my DC and some others…
Edit: I have to look in my other external harddrive for you. I know the fan system in Dreamcast has different solutions, some have heat pipes, other don´t for example. If it is better or not I do not know but if you collect black consoles then go for that.
Were the japanese dreamcasts more yellowish? I remember playing sonic on a japanese one in a store when it came out and seemed yellow, like old pc case yellow