 November 1998 saw the release of Sega’s new Dreamcast in Japan. It used new 1GB GD-ROM discs vs the 700mb CD-ROMs of the time. Powered by a new Hitachi SH-4 CPU and a NEC PowerVR2 GPU, they allowed for amazing new arcade game ports. Like Virtua Fighter 3, Crazy Taxi, Soul Calibur, and others. It was also the first console with a built in modem. Along with the new VMU the Dreamcast was pretty forward thinking. Roll on the year 2000, the Millennium, the future!!! Sega, along with CSK (their parent company), and Fuji Television bring to market the Divers 2000 Series CX-1. A CRT television with a Dreamcast console built in. It came with its own matching Dreamcast controller, QWERTY keyboard, DreamEye camera, and microphone headset. , Also a TV Remote, built in modem and even MIDI ports. Exclusively available in Japan for 88,888 Yen. Reports vary with how limited release numbers were, I have seen the amounts: 200, 500, 2000 or even 5000 units made, being stated. I just know they are now pretty rare and not cheap. Visually the TV has a 14” screen diagonal, set into this gorgeous futuristic looking blue bubble. With four plastic transparent green antennae pointing out, two at the top and two at the bottom, which are purely aesthetic. Along the top are four round silver rocker buttons: Power, Mode, Volume, and Channel. They line up with the four controller ports along the bottom. The screen gets flanked by stereo speakers grills. From the side you can see the blue body slopes from front to the back along the top, and from the bottom it curls up to meet it, similar to a speed cyclist’s helmet, or a sideways comma. The Divers 2000’s sides have a transparent dark window, that gives you a glimpse of its inner workings, but more importantly a curved column of LEDs that light up as a VU meter, responding to sound in Dreamcast mode. Embedded in the top is a flip-top lid in silver that reveals the GD-ROM drive for the discs. As stated earlier the controller is a beautiful matching transparent green like the antennae. Also matching is the keyboard, the DreamEye camera, and the headset interface. All these accessories are to help facilitate the main intended purpose, for the Divers to be an internet telecommunications device. You could surf the World Wide Web through the modem, use the DreamEye as a stand alone digital camera, take pictures and email them. Or use the DreamEye, docked in its stand, with the headset for video chat. The MIDI ports around back, allowed you to connect musical instruments and create music with O.to.i.Re: Dreamcast Sequencer. There is Audio Out RCA connectors for better sound, and standard Yellow, White and Red AV input connectors. A port is there to connect a phone line to the modem, and a screw type coaxial connector for analogue RF signals. The transparent power cable has a nifty Japanese two prong connector on the end, that can swivel 180 degrees back and forth. One falsehood that has been circulating, is that you require the TV remote to power on the Dreamcast portion of the Divers. This is not true. The first face button, is actually on a rocker, like the volume button. Down turns the TV on/off, and Up powers the Dreamcast. I love that Sega dreamed a forecast of a connected future, manufacturing this rare oddity. It is just a shame the world was not ready. - Asobi Quang DX February 2021 Back |