Technology · 2

Which video game company released a console in 1998 that was the first home system built with a modem for online play?

Answer

Sega

Sega's Dreamcast launched in 1998 with a built-in 56k modem, letting owners connect to the internet and play online games right out of the box, years before rivals offered similar functionality.

💡 Did you know?

Sega's Dreamcast included a modem and internet connection in 1998, making it the first home console built for online gaming—five years before Xbox Live.

Other options people guess

  • Nintendo
  • Sony
  • Microsoft

Topics

  • video-games
  • dreamcast
  • sega
  • internet
  • 1990s

Know your technology trivia?

Play a free Technology quiz and see how many you get right — no signup needed to start.

More Technology facts

Technology

In the mid-1990s, which search engine became the first to let users search the full text of web pages rather than just titles and summaries, briefly making it the go-to tool before Google's rise?

Altavista, the 1990s search giant, rejected an acquisition offer from Google for under $1 million in 1997, choosing to remain independent before eventual irrelevance.

Technology

Which programming language, created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994, became the dominant server-side language powering early dynamic websites?

PHP was originally two scripts Lerdorf wrote to track who was reading his online résumé — he never intended it to become a programming language at all.

Technology

Which online bookstore, launched in July 1995 by Jeff Bezos out of a garage in Bellevue, Washington, became one of the first major retail websites on the World Wide Web?

Jeff Bezos originally planned to name Amazon 'Relentless.com' — type that URL today and it still redirects to Amazon.com.

Technology

Which programming language, created by Guido van Rossum and first released in 1991, was named after a British comedy group rather than the snake?

Guido van Rossum wrote Python's first implementation during a single week over the 1989 Christmas holiday while looking for a programming project to keep himself busy.

Technology

Which company launched the first widely used web-based free email service in 1996, popularising the idea of accessing email through a browser?

Hotmail launched on American Independence Day 1996 as a deliberate symbol of freedom — freedom from having to use your employer's or university's email server to send messages.

Technology

In 1947, technicians investigating a malfunction in Harvard's Mark II computer found which insect trapped in a relay, giving rise to the term 'computer bug'?

A moth trapped inside Harvard's Mark II computer in 1947 became the first recorded 'bug'—researchers taped the actual insect into their logbook as evidence.