This Steam-powered mini PC is the Dreamcast 2 we never got

The Dreamcast — Sega’s final home console before becoming a third-party game developer — was considered a commercial failure. But it lives on in the hearts of millennial gamers like me, who got their first twinges of RSI from Crazy Taxi and Power Stone 2.

And while the Dreamcast has been experiencing something of a retro revival as of late, no tribute is more intriguing than this crowdfunded Steam-focused mini PC on Indiegogo.

The EmuDeck Machines project comes from the makers of EmuDeck, a sort of one-stop shop for loading up classic game emulation on a Steam Deck or similar portable gaming PC. Naturally, it relies on a lot of the software work that’s already done on that end, but it’s partnered to a mini PC that’s loaded up with Bazzite, a game-focused Linux distribution. It uses the SteamOS interface from the Steam Deck and Steam’s Big Picture mode as its default UI.

The EmuDeck Machine isn’t exactly a speed demon, topping out with an AMD Ryzen 5 8600G APU and integrated Radeon 760M graphics, even on the beefier EM2 variant. But it’s the physical design that catches my eye. With that square footprint, circular molded top, and four USB ports on the front with rounded recesses, it’s an unmistakable homage to Sega’s magnum opus. Clearly I’m not the only one with fond memories of rolling around at the speed of sound.

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With those specs, the machine is clearly focused on retro emulation rather than running modern PC games, and the promoters aren’t recommending any 3D games on the $331 base model with Intel CPU and UHD graphics.

The more powerful variant claims to run Dolphin (GameCube/Wii), Cemu (Wii U), and RPCS3 (PS3) at up to 60 frames per second, but the Ryzen-powered EM2 is pretty pricey at $675 for “early bird” Indiegogo backers — not bad for the hardware, but hardly an impulse buy.

Want to turn it into a more conventional gaming PC? You can add on a sold-separately dock with an external Radeon 7600 GPU. That’ll boost the power enough to run Cyberpunk at 163 frames per second in 1080p (or 40 FPS if you bump it up to 4K). That’s about as good as a PS5, if it all comes together correctly. But the stylish add-on dock won’t be designed until the initial Indiegogo campaign ends.

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Assuming the campaign is successful, that is. While EmuDeck’s software has its fans, the hardware being shown off is only 3D renders right now — and not even consistent because you can see subtle variations in those don’t-call-them-controller-ports on the campaign page.

The campaign is on track to meet its $70,000 goal, but the team is pushing for an extremely aggressive development target, aiming to get a finished mini PC in backers’ hands before the end of the year.

Frankly, I’m skeptical that they can keep that timetable as newcomers to mass hardware production. And since the design isn’t finished, this doesn’t qualify for Indiegogo’s new money back guarantee.

I wish them all the best, but if I had my heart set on a Dreamcast that I could load up with emulators and Steam games, I’d probably just gut a real Dreamcast shell and build my own SFF PC inside.