The Dreamcast was an odd system particularly with the VMU acting as a memory card that also had games on it (though it is kind of interesting though that the Nintendo Switch at least nominally borrowed this idea of an all-in-one regular console + mobile gaming experience).
Dreamcast aside - the story of the rise and fall of Sega is pretty fascinating. They fragmented the hell out their product offerings - at one point in the mid-90s having seven platforms - Genesis, Saturn, Game Gear, Pico, Sega CD, 32X, and the 32X CD.
A memory card that is also a Tamagotchi is a design choice that could only ever be made circa 1997. And Tamagotchi like games is really the limit of the device, it's very basic, not even really at say the original Gameboy level.
Some Dreamcast games used Windows CE (hence the logo on the console) and DirectX, but most used Sega's own "Katana" SDK, which I don't think uses Linux either. Like most consoles prior to the HD systems, it didn't really have a resident "OS", whatever was loaded from the disc has control of the system, I assume the Katana SDK provided "OS" functions that were linked into each binary.
Dreamcast browser discs did exist, they used an Access browser (and Katana SDK?) IIRC. Unpatchable web browsers on optical discs sounds like such a bizzare thing nowadays, especially as browser exploits have been a rich vein of console hacking, although the Dreamcast had rather more obvious issues with it's "DRM" for that to be an issue.
PlayStation 2 was the system with an official Linux kit (and early on PS3 could run Linux as well, before THINGS happened).
the ps1 had caetla (programmable with a parallel port and cheat cartridge) and yaroze (official sony devkits for hobbyists), but i think that was on some custom sony os services library in rom.
edit: ahh yeah, there was the wince internet explorer goofy thing, but also a linux port where someone broke the bootloader lock via some multimedia cd feature.
The Dreamcast was an odd system particularly with the VMU acting as a memory card that also had games on it (though it is kind of interesting though that the Nintendo Switch at least nominally borrowed this idea of an all-in-one regular console + mobile gaming experience).
Dreamcast aside - the story of the rise and fall of Sega is pretty fascinating. They fragmented the hell out their product offerings - at one point in the mid-90s having seven platforms - Genesis, Saturn, Game Gear, Pico, Sega CD, 32X, and the 32X CD.
A memory card that is also a Tamagotchi is a design choice that could only ever be made circa 1997. And Tamagotchi like games is really the limit of the device, it's very basic, not even really at say the original Gameboy level.
iirc it had a browser and used linux under the hood for the os.
i think they even had a downloadable unlocked linux distro for it that couldn't play games.
Some Dreamcast games used Windows CE (hence the logo on the console) and DirectX, but most used Sega's own "Katana" SDK, which I don't think uses Linux either. Like most consoles prior to the HD systems, it didn't really have a resident "OS", whatever was loaded from the disc has control of the system, I assume the Katana SDK provided "OS" functions that were linked into each binary.
Dreamcast browser discs did exist, they used an Access browser (and Katana SDK?) IIRC. Unpatchable web browsers on optical discs sounds like such a bizzare thing nowadays, especially as browser exploits have been a rich vein of console hacking, although the Dreamcast had rather more obvious issues with it's "DRM" for that to be an issue.
PlayStation 2 was the system with an official Linux kit (and early on PS3 could run Linux as well, before THINGS happened).
maybe it was wince. it has been a very long time!
the ps1 had caetla (programmable with a parallel port and cheat cartridge) and yaroze (official sony devkits for hobbyists), but i think that was on some custom sony os services library in rom.
edit: ahh yeah, there was the wince internet explorer goofy thing, but also a linux port where someone broke the bootloader lock via some multimedia cd feature.
Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/arts/sega-dreamcast-shenm...
https://archive.ph/ZRpFY