It was the console that marked the end of Sega’s part in the console market, but the Dreamcast was an impressive swansong: with its online connectivity, novel controller and impressive library of games, the system retains a loyal fanbase almost two decades on from its launch in 1998.
British publisher Read Only Memory have, over the past few years, released some quite stunning books about the history of videogames, one of them being 2014’s Sega Mega Drive/Genesis Collected Works, which contained interviews, a lengthy essay about the classic 16-bit system, plus tonnes of artwork, plan drawings and other rarely-seen illustrations. Clad in thick black boards and beautifully designed, it was a handsome love letter to a beloved console.
Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works is, predictably, a companion piece to that earlier volume: a hand-picked selection of artwork and documents from the console’s finest games – most obviously Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Shenmue and Jet Set Radio – plus interviews with some of the tech geniuses who made those games happen, including Sonic designer Yuji Naka and Rez creator Tetsuya Miziguchi. Spread out over 300 pages, seductively designed by Darren Wall, it looks like another vital addition to our sagging geek bookshelf.
The response to the book’s been enthusiastic so far, with its minimum goal of £68,000 almost reached at the time of writing – impressive, given the Kickstarter campaign‘s been live for little more than a day or two. Cheaper, early-bird editions of the book have already sold out, but £35 will still snag you a copy – and given how good Read Only Memory’s previous books have been, we’re confident that this will be another corker.
Sega Dreamcast: Collected Works will be published in the autumn of 2018.