In 2000, Seaman was released for the Sega Dreamcast. No one can blame you if you have never heard of it, but the game’s unique mechanics and… interesting gameplay has garnered it something of a cult following since its release. The game has made a bit of a resurfacing as of late since The Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed it about two years ago.
Recently, Yoot Saito, the game’s creator, has tweeted some messages about Seaman that seem to imply that a sequel, or at least a new game in the franchise, may be on its way. The first of these tweets contained a picture of a CD that appears to contain the audio files of Leonard Nimoy’s narration that was used in the original Seaman.
Just dug out from studio strage.,,How many of you know what this means ?#dreamcastpic.twitter.com/wbtL34uffv
— 斎藤由多加 (@YootSaito) May 22, 2017
The next tweet showed a picture of Saito’s team, all wearing shirts with Seaman‘s logo and tagline, “DON’T PANIC!” on the backs.
Seemingly, a new project is being started. Guess what from the web-address on their back. pic.twitter.com/h9eiUjGosL
— 斎藤由多加 (@YootSaito) May 25, 2017
The website on the backs of the shirts that Saito is referring to is www.seaman.ai. When you go to this website, you are simply met with a single page featuring the Seaman logo and the words, “Under Construction.”
The original Seaman game featured an amphibious animal with a humanoid face with which the player could talk to using the Dreamcast’s rarely utilized microphone. The Seaman creature would respond to the player using an artificial intelligence algorithm, similar to the more recent Cleverbot. Keeping these mechanics in mind, it seems likely that the website provided, which ends with a “.ai” rather than the usual “.com,” may be the home for the new game once it comes out.