Ladies and gentlemen, today is a historic day as the Dreamcast’s very first online game is now back online thanks to Shuouma! That game, released all the way back in January of 1999 is Sega Rally 2! Or more specifically the Japanese version of the game as apparently anyone outside of Japan wasn’t deserving of the game’s online functionality, as was the case with many other Japanese titles at the time. But regardless, in the amazing year of 2026, anyone in the world can now experience the game’s online mode. Racing via the internet in Sega Rally 2 allows you to compete with up to three other racers and it’s an overall solid experience. The online lobby and functionality remind me very much of Daytona USA, almost as if they copy and pasted things from this game into that one. So if you’re familiar with the icon-based navigation of Daytona, you should feel right at home here. While the lobby is mostly in Japanese, there is a lot of English as well, and once you memorize the various navigation icons, it’s no problem to find your way around. As for the gameplay itself, the game runs very smoothly from our testing so far. It really feels just like an offline match with very little discernable lag. Considering this was the very first test of what the Dreamcast’s built-in modem could do, I’d say Japanese players were probably thrilled back in the day, and I have no doubt modern-day players will enjoy it just as much.
If you’d like to jump online yourself, you’ll need to update to the recently released DreamPi 2.1 and you’ll need a unique “Login ID” in your web browser settings as this will be used as your account name when playing online. If you still have your ID set to “dream”, you won’t be able to connect to the server. As always, be sure to check the Connection Guide for all the info you need on how to connect.
If you have any issues with the server, feel free to report them in the comments below. A huge thank you as always to Shuouma for his continuing pursuit to bring us even more online games to enjoy!