Dreamcast Zip Drive.......

Hello

I know this topic has been covered many times on different forums across the internet but I need to point something out!

The last I looked about this online - I found a few websites where people claimed the Dreamcast Zip Drive that came up for sale on ebay acouple of years ago was fake! - I was surpried by this and even more surprised to find that people thought the whole thing was fake purely because of the sticker on the actuall zip disk? (and because of the slightly faded zip drive unit - people said it had been sprayed because it was slightly different colour to the Dreamcast)

Firstly I've owned loads of Dreamcasts and they fade VERY easily in my experience - I have 3 in my cupboard that all a slightly different shade!

Secondly - does it really mean its fake just because the sticker is slightly different? They may have had a few different styles, etc?

I really think that it may have been real - to custom make this unit wouldnt be entirely impossible but it would be bloody hard - the front panel would be easly replicated with the right skills - the unit itself is the same unit that the karaoke unit was made from the but the hardest bit to replicate would be the USB plug on the side! If you look you'll noticed it re-cesed back from the join line of the unit. To do this perfectly would be majorly hard!

Also someone said that they had written to Sega to ask if it was real and that they had replyed saying it was fake - isnt it obvious SEga would WANT this to be fake and to want everybody else to think its fale so they dissmiss it?

I really want to get hold of the Zip Drive unit - if I'd have seen this on ebay when it was up I've had bought it for the original asking price of $10,000! (credit cards are sweet)

Is there anyway to get hold of the original seller - I managed to find him on ebay and have emailed him twice but no reply (in fact I think he isnt actually active on there anymore)

What do you all think about this - could it have been real?

 

It was probably real, as in the actual model made by Sega, but was never working. Just like the MP3 player vmu. Just a nice plastic dummy.

 

The zip drive that was on eBay WAS a real model - plastic shell with electronics inside. But since the seller didn't have any disks to pop into the DC with that supported the zip drive it was as useful as a paperweight.

The MP3 playing vmu was, afaik, a plastic shell mockup. Not sure of the Dreamcast DVD player though, likely a functional DVD player in a shell without any DC components.

As the owner of 2 Dreamcasts - one I got X-mas 99 and the other recently - they have the same shade of grey. Mine I know has been kept out of the sun most of it's life where as the other I cannot account for. Stickers being applied to a unit will fade differently than the rest of the console. However the adhesive will show obvious signs of degradation that cannot be faked to my knowledge. I've handled plenty of 50 year old reel-to-reel tapes that have old scotch tape on them, presumably 50+ years old. The stuff just flakes off and leaves behind what little is left of the adhesive. Same goes with cart labels and such from Colecovision and 2600 games. A Dreamcast clearly isn't that old but the label will still show some signs of age.

Writing to Sega and asking them if it's real? Please, as if the PR of today has any knowledge of prototypes of an administration a decade old. Why don't we ask Nolan Bushnell of 2600 prototypes? Go look at the thread here about the Wii Start-up disc that was listed on the Wii box early on and now Nintendo denies it's very existence only for one of our members to find a Wii actually ASKING for this very disc.

 

Good to know it was genuinely real!

I really want to get hold of it - can't really do alot more than what i have (emailed the ebay seller) - no joy.

 

There needs to be a AssemblerGames wiki for things like this that keep coming up.

 

I remember reading that there WAS one but it's closed now.

 

Spam and lack of maintenance = no more wiki.

 

Makes sense, I wonder if there is a demand to revive it.

 

I figure if its cut off to well established members only so that not anyone can post then it'd be a good idea.

 

I've got that terrible feeling of déjà vu.

 

Maybe the guy joined just to ask, or sell 360 dev stuff. But yeah this is why a wiki would be nice. Hell the reason I found this place was I got bored and looked up SNES CD stuff, guess where half the results were from?

 

With no real website the people that find results here come onto the forums to ask about it. There used to be a full website that had information about certain items but thats long gone and the backup RoarVGM had I can't find anymore. I think it a real website system was put into place and respected members would write articles and submit them all it would take was a quick read to check its all good then they could be put straight onto the website.

 

:-0 Geez, wonder what would have made them spam your wiki as apposed to another one.

 

A real website is the way to go ASSEMbler :nod: i used to love the old site before it went down. I know it's a lot of work but you could do a little each week like I do with my site. That's always having new stuff added to it even though it's not actually new to me.

Yakumo

 

You could always keep the wiki privileges closed, or just to a small group of posters.

Bridge the wiki with vBulletin and have a userclass/group with access to post on the wiki and voilá!

But... It is always good to make a CMS from scratch if you are the only one who is gonna publish/update.

 

Truth be told the website is what brought me here originally.