Did anyone have this? I totally forgot about this. When it was around I couldnt afford it, but I dont recall even any friends who had it. Just did some reading on it to brush up on what it was again, and man what a great idea! The Sega Channel I still remember it like it was yesterday. The first time my mother came home with that special mystery cartridge from the cable company, my heart almost melted into a pile of pleasant smelling goo. Weighing in as the first and only cable gaming network ever, the Sega Channel kept my brother and I glued to our television sets for hours every day. Tested in late 1994 and launched shortly thereafter, The Sega Channel may just have been the single greatest achievement of the 16-bit era. At only $15 dollars a month, and guaranteed to deliver 50 new Genesis titles every couple of weeks the inexpensive add-on was a milestone in modern gaming. Not only could you download rare and unreleased titles that never quite made distribution (like Mega Man: The Wiley Wars), but you could also participate in monthly contests that could snag you some very cool prizes, money, or a whole bunch of games. Years ahead of its time, The Sega Channel was and is the coolest peripheral idea in the history of video games.
Oh YES! The Sega Channel was the best! I never had it myself either, but I DID have a friend who had it, and it was absolutely the coolest thing ever at the time! Sega was always just a few years ahead of their time, which commercially was part of their downfall. So many people rag on Sega CD and the FMV games, and I do admit I never liked Sewer Shark back then, but overall, they were damn awesome! Seeing that cheezy Sonic CD intro cartoon and the Spider-man vs. the Kingpin cutscenes were all too awesome! I used to hook up my VCR between the Sega and TV to record them! Well, enough rambling on how cool the Sega CD was, heh... Anyway, I remember playing an unreleased game based on an afternoon cartoon which was popular at the time, I think I was a disney one with a tiger or something (can't quite remember). None the less, it was really awesome to be playing an unfinished and unreleased game. I really wish so much that I knew how to hack this stuff up back then and dump it, because I'm sure there are many protos/demos that have been lost. I've gotten a hold of some of these Sega Channel carts in recent years, but they don't have much use anymore for anything other than a collection. If the Sega Channel had exploded in popularity, the gaming world would be in a different place today! I wish so much that it had lasted. It completely beat renting games!
I had it, it was great! I still remember staying up at the end of the month just to watch them build the new backgrounds and roms
I had it, and it was semi interesting. Few facts: -I remember hearing about it around the OJ Simpson trial, so I dare say it came out a little before that. God, that must have been more then 10 or so years ago. -The system was one of the first mainstream cable transport systems for a piece of hardware. You had to use a cable and slowly connect to the database. From the looks of it, the ROMS were on a temporary storage system that allowed the game to play until you quit or turned off the system. -The game selection varied. Most of the time, you either got a bunch of crappy licensed games (Bearstein Bears game, Barney), or older games (Earthworm Jim and the first Sonic the Hedgehog). -There was several menus, which I dare say was different servers that the software had to retrieve games from. Each had a semi-colorful backround with a list (I think around 5-10 per server/menu) where you could play the games. There was also pay to play games (Which I think were timed. They were around $9.99 per month to play one pay to play game). -Connection was also a pain in the ass. Sometimes, it would take up to 3-5 minutes just to connect to the server. Other times, it would give you a error message. -Game selections were updated a little after the first day of the month, and lasted until the next month. -Hardware was around $50 where I lived, and $15 per month (Not bad since many MMORPG's cost around the same). -From what I can remember, mine was a bit different. Instead of looking like a square like most peoples, mine was more like a 32X (Also good to note that mine had a different startup screen then what most people could remember. Multiple models?) -The hardware became less popular around 1996, and service stopped a little after that (I dare say around 97-98). You know, when I think about it, it's entirely possible to hack the currently existing Sega Channel hardware and somehow make a beta software-like transfer device!
Yeah, there were two different US models - the General Instruments unit which was styld like the Japanese version, and the uglier blocky Scientific Atlanta unit.
Do you, by any chance, have pictures of these models? Right now, my memory is telling me that the one I had was shaped like the 32X, and I need some reassurance (After seeing other peoples models listed on ebay and other sites).
I don't remember a Sega Channel but I remember watching Sonc the Hedgehog TV show around 1994/95 as a kid!
Exactly what Microsoft wants to do with the Xbox 360 and Live. You don't think that downloading game demos is going to be the only thing it wants to make available, eh? -hl718
man i remember my brothers friend had it, it seemed kidna a cool, but the times it took to download a game were anoying(this was before cable internet was released) i only played it once or twice, never had it due to nto having a genesis. I remember it was kinda cool since it had exclusive games on it you couldnt get( i heard alien solder was actually released in the U.S. through sega channel, despite not having a retail release). I even heard sega released some games on it that had some special hacks and features (such as nintendo did with bs satelite view).
I had it. It sounds better than it actually was but maybe that's because I'm not the biggest Genesis fan. As mentioned the load times sucked and often had problems connecting at all. Also the selection of games wasn't always the best. It had games like Phantasy Star series which you couldn't save and other games like Street Fighter II: CE didn't include the full roster. Being able to play some games not available was nice but in my opinion the cost and downsides outweighed the benefits.
yeah at the time it seemed cool, but even i felt it wasnt really worth the extra 15.00 on the bill,of course thats not much these days, but this was back when the economy was different and everything was alot cheaper. Whats funny was in my area where cox offered it, it was on channel 72, yet ironicly you still had to leave the channel on 3 to play the genesis, i know that doesnt make sense but thats how it was, in fact my bro friend said you had to pay extra if you used your own games, is this true? As well i also heard that alot of times they seemed to recylce some games, it seemed cool at first, but in the long run i hear it wasnt as great as it seemed. Still i really wish i did have a genesis and the service, since that was the only way to play alien soldier in the U.S.,sigh i guess i will never get to play alien soldier on real genesis/mega drive hardware.
You could save with the PS games. You just couldn't download a different game or it wiped out the cart. As long as you continued to play the same game, you could actually use the save feature. It was also a nice loophole if the game you were playing didn't happen to be offered when they switched months. As I recall, they had a VERY short list of games for the system and only ever changed about 5-10 each month.
Yeah it was out in the UK, but only in one region as a trial (I forget which one) I think me and Antipasta looked into hacking it, and even tracked down the guy who wrote the server side application, but he never came back to us.
There were indeed 2 versions of the sega channel, one of which still lies undumped, the one with the jumping sonic intro I think..
This is the type of adaptor I had. You might also want to check these sites out Archive of Sega Channel website (Shows what was playing at the time) http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sega.com/channel/ Technical info http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/courses/ee4984/Projects1995/gutolazz.html
There was a UK version released by Radio&Wireles or what ever they were called back then. We had it in Liverpool !! I remember playing Golden Axe 3 on the test station in the city center shop being amazed because it was never going to get a PAL release and they were bragging as this was the only way to play it. We never had cable though in my home at that time due to being so poor as my mum would say. Yakumo
Snow, thats what I had as well. I was young back then but I dont recall any of these slow download problems others are complaining about. Then again, I didnt even know the internet existed back then lol. Seems like there were a few variations: http://www.crunkgames.com/therest/e3/2004/photos/e3052.jpg http://www.geocities.com/sylph55/segachannel.jpg http://www.sega-16.com/Features%20Sections/Sega%20Channel/channel.jpg (the one I had) Haha good nostaliga: http://www.tomsimpson.org/albums/utah/landscape_Utah_photography_Sega_channel_by_Tom_Simpson.jpg
