Dreamcast

This article is about Dreamcast's startup logos. For their commercial tag, see Dreamcast (Commercial Tag).

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious

Editions by
mr3urious, RetroWeezer95, zman1997, DatuDimatablan and SBF2004

Background

The Dreamcast was the last video game console produced by Sega. After the failure of the Sega Saturn, Sega created the Dreamcast to cut the prohibitive costs of their last console. Despite a successful American launch and a generally high-quality library, interest for the Dreamcast was hampered by the hype for the PlayStation 2 and its release, not helped by Sega's American image being damaged by both the Saturn's stunted launch as well as the poor reception of the Sega CD and especially the 32X add-ons for the Genesis, limited third-party support, and a change in leadership, the console was discontinued only three years after its original launch, and Sega quit the console market for good. Despite this, Sega allowed most of their studios to continue developing Dreamcast titles until 2004, when the last first-party game for the console (a port of Puyo Pop Fever) was released.

1st Logo (1998)

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Visuals: On a white background, a red dot bounces in from the right side of the screen and begins forming a red 3D swirl. The swirl at first goes inward and outward while it forms, but it finishes going inward first. The swirl revolves around as it forms, then it leaps back as the word "Dreamcast" in black with blue sides backflips in below it and quickly land letter by letter. The swirl and the letters become 2D images and the swirl's shadow disappears.

Variant: A blue variant was used on PAL consoles intended for sale in Europe and Australia. This was done to avoid trademark issues with Tivola Publishing, as that company had a red swirl in their logo three years before the Dreamcast used a similar one.

Technique: 3D graphics rendered in real-time.

Audio: A glissando of dreamy synthesized chimes, followed by a 12-note synth theme that ends in a flourish. The composer for it is unknown, but it could possibly be by Hideki Abe due to its similarities to the music heard from the Puyo Puyo games.

Availability: As the logo was only used as a prototype startup before the Dreamcast was available for commercial use, it is almost impossible to find it, though Katana development kits have the logo. The blue variant is even more difficult to find.

2nd Logo (November 27, 1998 - March 31, 2001 [end of production], March 8, 2007 [last game])

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Visuals: On a white background, there is a red dot coming from the left of the screen. Then it "bounces" forming the word "Dreamcast" letter by letter. The trademark symbol forms with the "t" in Dreamcast. After the word is completely formed, the red dot forms a red swirl above "Dreamcast", inward to outward.

Variants:

• A blue swirl appears on PAL consoles in a similar fashion to the previous logo. Again, this was done to avoid trademark issues with Tivola.
• If you turn on a Dreamcast while the disc cover is open, a still version of the completed logo appears.
• If you press the ‘START’ button if you have a MIL-CD disc into the console, during the animation, the logo would cut to white and then fade to the finished logo.

Technique: 2D animation running in real-time.

Audio: A dreamy synth chord with a dreamy synth note played in reverse as the dot drops down. When it bounces, a series of waterdrop-like sounds are played to the formation of the letters, along with a synthesized cymbal crescendo. When the orange swirl forms, two drumbeat-like synth sounds are heard. Composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Availability: Appears when a Dreamcast console is turned on.

References

◄ Sega Saturn

Dreamcast