Sega Dreamcast
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The Dreamcast was Sega's last video game console. Released in 1998 in Japan, and then in 1999 overseas, it was the first of the sixth generation consoles to be released. It was also the first system to be internet-ready straight out of the box. Downloadable content and such was quite common. Phantasy Star Online was the first console MMORPG ever when it was released in late 2000 (2001 overseas). It came bundled with a web browser.
In Europe, a free internet service called Dreamarena was used.
The early versions of the European browsers did not allow input for personal ISPs, so when it shut down in 2003, Sega Europe sent free browsers to anyone who requested it until 2010ish.
A special feature that separated the Dreamcast from all other gaming systems was its memory card. It was called a Visual Memory Unit (VMU). Unlike all the other competitors at its time, it was actually a sort of portable game console in itself, complete with buttons and a monochrome screen. It could connect with other VMUs without any need for cables. It plugged right into the controller, and through its window, the screen can be seen, and games usually did some animation during gameplay. Unfortunately, the VMU required the elusive CR-2032 batteries to function on its own, and ate them up quickly.
Not surprisingly, several games, such as the signature title Sonic Adventure, had minigames that could be transferred to the VMU. Connecting them in some games allowed for multiplayer gameplay. The most popular one was Chao Adventure, from Sonic Adventure. It was a virtual pet game, where your pets called Chao could be transferred from the real game to the minigame (similar to the Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver walker). Minigames frequently took up a lot of space.
Despite its superiority over all the consoles at the time, its popularity was quickly subdued by the PS2. The system was discontinued in 2001, and Sega became a third-party developer. Support continued well into the 2000's, with the final game being released in 2007.
The Dreamcast is still very popular for homebrew development, since it can read copied games without the need of a boot disk (for most of them).
Some info from Wikipedia, others from my own
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