SEGA may have pulled the plug on Dreamcast but a growing band of amateur programmers certainly haven't.

Dreamcast was, until recently, the most powerful video games console you could buy. Based on tried 'n' tested components, mostly cast-offs from the PC, it packs the punch of a Pentium III chip at a fraction of the cost.

That cheap muscle, and the fact Dreamcast utilises a version of Windows and the Direct X programme used to run games on the PC, has made it a favourite with back-room hackers who love to tinker.

Right now you can surf the net and download small programmes that will transform your Dreamcast into a different console entirely.

Using a process known as emulation - a clever piece of programming that fools a piece of software into thinking it is running on an entirely different machine - they can massively expand the Dreamcast software library.

And because Dreamcast is both powerful and flexible, just about the only machine it can't emulate (at the moment) is the Nintendo 64.

Emulators are already available that can fool a Dreamcast into thinking it is a Super Nintendo, a Sinclair Spectrum, an MSX, a Sega Mega-Drive and, most controversial of all, a Sony PlayStation.

This last programme is the only one that is likely to be sold commercially.

Created by Bleem! - the company behind a PlayStation emulator disk for the PC that's already on sale - the Bleem-cast programme allows your PSX games to run on a much better system.

The result is likely to be a huge embarrassment to Sony, not least because Bleem-cast looks better than PSX games running on the PlayStation 2. Unsurprisingly, Sony has sought to bury Bleem in the courts by claiming copyright infringement.

The Japanese giant recently solved a similar argument with a company called Connectix by buying it lock, stock and barrel.

When Gadgetman contacted Bleem, the company couldn't give a release date for Bleem-cast.

Sean Kauppinen, director of marketing, claimed the programme will run all regional variants of PSX.

"When it is available we will be selling it through our website, www.bleem.com," he added.

The other emulators are all part-time projects but no less professional for all that. SegaGen, a Mega-Drive emulator, looks as good as its Windows cousin Kgen. Rumour has it that this piece of software uses Sega's own emulator (you can buy a compilation of Mega-Drive hits in the USA) modified to run any game from the 500 or so released for the venerable Sega console.

The Super Nintendo emulator (called Sintendo) is equally impressive, but games tend to run a bit slowly at the moment.

All these projects are still of the "work in progress" variety but they demonstrate the range of talent available on the Dreamcast dev scene at the moment.

Someone is even attempting to do a Saturn emulator, something Sega said was impossible. Although it's not available yet, the author claims to have some games up and running already.

* For more details, surf your way to www.dcemulation.com. Remember, you must already own a game before you can play it on an emulator. Piracy is a crime.