No one is more aware of that than Sega. As they say in the video-game industry, the games make the machine. And for the moment at least, Dreamcast games have the edge. Consider The Floigan Brothers, an adventure game due out late this year from Visual Concepts, a Sega-owned game-development studio in San Rafael, Calif. It's the kind of game that will make good use of Dreamcast's powerful Hitachi processor and NEC graphics chip, a 128-bit engine able to churn out more picture elements than its competito rs. Floigan features a goofy little guy in red suspenders named Hoigle and his brother Moigle, a big galoot who is by turns irritating and endearing. They live in a junkyard, but they're more like Steinbeck's Lennie and George than Sanford and Son. Player s control Hoigle but must interact with Moigle, whose behavior is unpredictable (and varied by the game's artificial intelligence). The visuals are stunning and comical. When Moigle is happy, his smile is so wide you can see his uvula flapping at the back of his throat. If Hoigle tiptoes, Moigle may mimic him, his big belly flopping over his waistband. Sometimes Moigle will just lie down on the floor for a short snooze.

"We think Floigan will do for Dreamcast what Mario did for Nintendo," says Greg Thomas, Visual Concepts' president. Bernie Stolar, Sega's top gun on this side of the Pacific, says it's the kind of game that will sell Dreamcasts.

Here's another thing that may sell them:Net access. Dreamcast gamers will be able to browse the Web, send e-mail and play online games, though Sega has yet to name a service provider or a host network. The Dreamcast modem will be upgraded to 56K in time for the U.S. launch. There's also a slot for an ethernet card, so users can connect the modem to a high-speed home network, if and when they get one. Some people might just buy a Dreamcast as a relatively cheap way to go online -- which means that if it does take off, the latest greatest video-game machine will also be a convergence dream come true. Those struggling to lure Web users from the PC in the den to the TV in the living room will finally have a role model.

VM Labs aside, do Nintendo and Sony have anything to fear? Sega's new machine comes at a time when the PlayStation and Nintendo 64-not to mention the games for them-are at their peak. Both machines are also at their lowest price ($129). Not only that, both companies are hard at work on their own next-generation systems. Sony's next PlayStation, due out in the U.S. in the fall of 2000, will support even greater graphics than the Dreamcast, armed with a 128-bit processor said to be more powerful than Intel's new Pentium III chip. The PlayStation 2 will also be able to connect to the Internet, which evens the score with Dreamcast on what could have been a big advantage. And the new PlayStation will read games on DVD and CD-ROM, though Sony officials are not saying yet whether the box will also play DVD movies (VM Labs better hope not). That's not all: PlayStation 2 will be able to run all the old 32-bit PlayStation games, making it the first "backward compatible" video-game console ever -- and a surefire way for Sony to keep its 50 million-user base loyal.

Much less is known about the next Nintendo, except that it's at least two years away. No matter: The Legend of Zelda, an adventure game introduced last Thanksgiving, sold 2 million copies in two months. Now if The Floigan Brothers could sell even half that, we might just see that three-way death match. -- With reporting by Sachiko Sakamaki and Mari Calder/Tokyo