Ok for almost nine years I've owned this odd dreamcast with a manufacture date of May 1999 even though the dreamcast didn't come in the U.S. until September 1999 and even more odd is it doesn't play certain games, it has loud fan, weird screws (which are not on the other dreamcast I own) and came with no modem does anyone know why this model is like this.
Wow, a DC with no modem. If memory serves me right, originally the US Dreamcast was going to be sold without a modem. It was going to be sold as an option. Could you have one of those early models?
Wait a minute I heard somewhere (don't remember where) it said these models were rental models but this was never confirmed and seems unlikely but developer test seems more likely cause this model cannot run certain games and has special screws so it can't opened but its anyones guess on what it is.
It could be a rental model too. Mine don't have any labels on the bottom, just the fcc warning and a serial.
Mine has a serial and what's really odd is was the store it came from was babages (now that location is not even there anymore)
Hong Kong / Asian Dreamcasts also had no modems. They came in a strange DC box with white front and orange sides. Is there no model HKT-**** sticker on the console?
Its an NTSC/U model number HKT-3020 and it has the letters TK the other model I have was manufactured in August 2000 same model number but with the letters WK and yes my other model has a modem.
They did, disabling mil-cd compatibility. This bios was also in a few other special edition Dreamcasts out there too, mainly in Japan. Other than that and the Katana kit bios I only know of three versions, didn't know there was a specialty bios for devs on early DCs though. Well familiar with early DC rentals in the USA though as well as the "Limited Edition" of Sonic Adventure that exists because of rentals. Saw this at Target once years ago. Damn Hollywood Video never had any DCs available and wanted to charge us for a "deposit" to rent games as they were supposedly getting stolen. The DC is still the ONLY console I've never rented a game for since the Genesis era....at least that I owned while still in a thriving life cycle. I'd swear all kiosk units out there had this on the bottom: Though I'm happy to be wrong. MetaFox used to have one or three of these but he has since disappeared.
One of mine I just looked at is a TK from July 1999 and its "DU" number is around 588K. If everything after "DU94" is the individual production number, over 350K units in that span is pretty impressive.
Sega sold a huge number of Dreamcasts at Japan's launch and the United States' as well. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't make 350k in a few months to keep up with demand. Would explain the stories I recall hearing about having so many Dreamcasts as extra stock they were practically giving them away way back when.
