Sega Goes Gaming With CE

Sega has confirmed the use of Windows CE as the new operating system for its newly announced 64-bit Dreamcast console system.

Although the PC market has seen just a little of what CE can do on - from smaller handheld computers to an upcoming palm-sized machine set to compete with the insanely popular PalmPilot - here's an explaination of the benefits of the new operating system to both Sega and gamers. And while only console gamers who opt for Dreamcast will experience these benefits, PC gamers might be tempted to delve into console gaming after hearing the following.

Why would Sega want to go with an operating system made by Microsoft? Compatibility is one reason. There are loads of PC developers who would love to take their top titles and rework them for a console. Unfortunately, traditional consoles use a proprietary language that only consoles understand. For example, you can't pop a Saturn disk in a PlayStation and make it run because the operating systems in each don't understand the other's format. When a company that makes PC games decides to rework the game for a particular console, the company has to either spend money getting the equipment to rework the game or hire an outside developer - at substantial cost - to do it for them.

By using Microsoft's Windows CE OS, companies that build games for Windows using DirectX 5.0 can easily and economically rework their games for console owners. Rather than having to wait years for a popular PC title to come to a platform, the title could be reworked in a matter of months. Imagine having Quake II come out for a system only a few months after it arrived on the PC. So owning a Dreamcast system has a giant up side for gamers - and be bad news for the other console manufacturers.

So why can't you just take a PC game and pop it into a Dreamcast? Once again, the answer is compatibility. Since the Dreamcast has to think about controllers, modem, rendering enemies, and putting all that stuff on your TV, CE is a completely different operating system, and parts of the games need to be reworked to fit onto the console. It might even be easier to make the console version of the game before the PC version because the hardware in the console never changes whereas PC hardware is basically one big circus of varying hardware standards.

Will it crash like Windows 95 on my PC? Nope. CE is a different type of system that is far more stable than Windows 95 or its big brother Windows NT. Since there is no boot time on CE systems, you get to work or play right away.

Are the likenesses between DirectX for Windows 95 and DirectX in the Dreamcast really close? The following technical parameters exist for both applications of DirectX:

DirectDraw processes 2D graphics code and manages full-screen video memory.

Direct3D supports transformation, lighting, and rendering of 3D graphics objects along with tapping the awesome 3D power contained in the new PowerVR SG processor.

DirectSound manages sound when inputted or outputted along with managing how sound memory is used.

DirectPlay is the technology behind the Dreamcast's Internet and modem communications for multiplayer gaming, chatting, and e-mail.

DirectInput controls how the controllers talk to the Dreamcast system.

DirectShow runs digital audio and video playback with support for MPEG1-encoded AVI movies. AVI, if you didn't know, is the standard format for Windows 95 movies. DirectShow will manage how cutscenes and other forms of video are presented in Dreamcast games.

Dreamcast is still a console, so you may not want to rustle up the necessary funds to go out and buy one. But at least now you'll know just how close Dreamcast comes to PC gaming.