Seaman for Sega Dreamcast

Seaman is a shining example of the innovation that Sega and Dreamcast stood for in 2000. They were forging ahead by making Dreamcast the gamer's game machine, partially through embracing unique new approaches to games, including Space Channel 5, Phantasy Star Online, Jet Grind Radio, and Seaman.

My first experience with this "game" was at E3 2000. It was a very pissed-off and odd looking fish-man-hybrid. Convention goers had been tapping on the glass and flicking him all day. He wasn't saying anything interesting, despite the booth guys saying that he would if he weren't so pissed.

My first though was, "this isn't the type of game that usually gets released in the US." Sega had a lot they were showing off that didn't get a US release, or released at all, including a Sega branded stand alone DVD player, an Iomega zip drive that docked beneath the Dreamcast, and the Dreameye, an Eye Toy type concept that never came to full fruition. I thought Seaman might not make it to the US, just like each of these products.

I was wrong. Later that year Seaman saw a domestic release, complete with pack-in microphone.

Getting the game started was something else. It took me a while to realize that I had to get the nautilus to eat the little spermazoa looking critters. Thanks be to Lenard Nimoy's constant advice on the start up screen. Once you get the hang of it, you raise one Seaman through their various stages of development to adulthood.

To keep them healthy, the temperature and oxygen levels must be monitored, requiring players to login once a day. They have to be fed too; you start out with food pellets and then cultivate larva in a moth cage. Run out of larva and moths, and the game is over.

The poop-slinging creatures don't talk much at first. As they mature, the game allows for more conversation. Seaman will never really have interactive conversations with you. At various points, about once per 24 hours, he will ask questions, at which point a pre-programmed conversation can take place. Outside of these events, they don't talk much. However, they are programmed to respond to specific words and phrases. Despite that, it was still cool to talk to your TV screen. My then-four year old thought so too, when I broke it out for him to play with a year ago.

As with Highlander, there can be only one. Whether you start off with four, five, or six gillmen, you will only have by the end of the game, as they will kill each other off, (cold-blooded murder before your very eyes), as the game progresses. There's
nothing quite like talking to one of them and another comes along and kills him with the same member that they use to have sex with and shit with.

By the end of the game, Seaman is out of pre-programmed conversations. You can keep him around like that if you want, but you're given the choice to release him. Once you let him go, that's it - nothing more to do.