The SEGA Channel

Episode 372 - The Sega Channel was ahead of its time, offering downloadable games that were often changed out. What games were on the Sega Channel that weren't released in North America? Let's find out.
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[@NarmyHiiragi]

I'm pretty sure the Sega Channel did have game saves. I remember playing a lot of RPGs on there and I don't think I would play them if they didn't save. Maybe it only kept saves for one game at a time or something?

[@GameSack]

Yeah judging from yours and other comments, I'm thinking that it retained saves as long as the Sega Channel adapter itself didn't lose power. It didn't have an on/off switch after all, and you could remove it from the cartridge slot to play normal games and it would remain powered.

[@voldem0rt]

It did not save games past the play session.

[@RSK412]

i would just leave it on and turn the tv off playing Landstalker. Once I got through the final dungeon I lost to the last boss and finally gave up and turned it off.

[@owllymannstein7113]

I had it and am confident it didn't save games.

[@gimanjay]

is greendawg on sega channel?

[@truckster915]

Just seeing those menus again is so incredibly nostalgic. My dad for YEARS would joke about how I was always mysteriously too sick to go to school at the beginning of every month (because of the refresh). What great memories.

[@skins4thewin]

Sounds like you have a pretty cool dad.

[@JoseAyala19]

Had a teacher at my school grow up with this and wouldn't stop talking about this service. Must have been real dope back in the day

[@truckster915]

@@JoseAyala19 It really was. It’s still so hard to believe nothing came even close until Xbox Game Pass became a thing.

[@jamieoiler5690]

no

[@skins4thewin]

@@jamieoiler5690 Ya me either don't feel bad lol.

[@D.E._Sarcarean]

I used the Sega Channel back in 1995. I had traveled to LA, and at the hotel (it was a more upscale hotel), had a Sega genesis with Sega channel in every room. I played on it until 2AM. My thinking at the time, was that this was something soo cool that it would be offered in every major city by the end of the year.

[@greenkoopa]

It could've if Sega had been managed better

[@jamieoiler5690]

it bombed though

[@greenkoopa]

@@jamieoiler5690 I lived in Battle Creek Michigan and we had Sega channel for 2 years. It didn't bomb at all they just should've transitioned it into the Saturn to help that system sell units. Really, it could've been like the Switch online service 25 years early. It lasted for 4 years in multiple countries, the back 3 of those years were after the end of life of the console itself. Black Adam bombed. Ant Man 3 bombed.

[@jamieoiler5690]

@@greenkoopa uh no none of those films bombed you are in denial over the failure of the sega channel and its okay jim

[@greenkoopa]

@@jamieoiler5690 Steel and Batman &Robin bombed. You're clearly delusional (does THIS look like a delusion??) Open your mind, Quaid. *OPEN YOUR MINNNNNNNND*

[@CorporalDanLives]

Back in the 90s my buddy bought one of these at a garage sale. We thought it wouldn't work without a subscription but we took it home and plugged into the cable and it worked perfectly. We were in gaming heaven for months. (And the cable company never knew)

[@xdomeman]

Wow

[@grantm902]

Hello, I am Mr. Cable Company, and you owe me months plus interest!

[@area3125]

good times

[@UncleUncleRj]

lol, meanwhile those people who sold it to you were going, "Why do we keep getting billed for Sega channel?!"

[@jay112281]

Back then if you could get a cable line into your house you could also get the basic cable without paying. When Comcast first came out with cable internet I split the line to my tv and I could watch basic cable.

[@MCastleberry1980]

I remember when my next door neighbors got this. Played Mega Man on it not knowing it was a Sega Channel exclusive game in the states. Just seemed like the coolest concept ever.

[@priestfan81]

That flapping mothwing effect in alien soldier looks amazing even now.

[@darkcoeficient]

Yep. My jaw dropped.

[@joseystrife]

DUDE! YES! That shocked the Hell out of me the first time I saw that!

[@kiwibro6454]

its almost like a flat polygon if you will, there was an even more impressive unused boss called " love penguin "...IT WAS A HAND WITH A FACE. the boss is still in the games files, I'm surprised then didn't add him since he looks impressive and fun to fight

[@joshdietrich5080]

It’s crazy how ahead of its time Sega Channel was! I miss this era of Sega!

[@CommodoreFan64]

I do, and I don't miss this era of SEGA, and by that I mean I miss Sega of America's innovations, but I don't miss how Sega of Japan always screwed them over, and mismanaged them thus making their ideas seem 1/2 assed like the 32X, or the unreleased Neptune project(32X, and Genesis in one sleek unit). I feel SEGA would still be around as a hardware company had this not happened, as it put distrust into consumers buying them projects, more, and more over time, which is why the Saturn more, or less failed here in North America, and the Dreamcast while starting out strong ended up very rocky.

[@gwarriorfromhell]

Sega always knew how to set the bar or up the ante. The only thing that hurt them was their rush to market and poor timing.

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

@@CommodoreFan64 Oh yeah... their amazing innovations like the Activator and the Menacer. LOL. Those totally didn't soil the company's reputation, along with a slew of substandard Western-developed games replacing localizations of great Japanese games. Stop with this nonsense from self-serving memoirs or SoA employees. The sucked. The only thing they were good at, was marketing, The Neptune was a horrific idea too. Sega' legacy is based on amazing Japanese hardware and software.

[@NIProductionsLLC]

I had the Sega Channel from it's beginning all the way until they cancelled the service. I don't ever remember seeing Dyna Brothers 2, but I really DO remember Nightmare Circus (and the hype the "News Section" gave it). Towards the end of the service, the games mostly repeated with maybe one or two new titles that they would hype up a lot. My clearest memory (and also my worst) was the Primal Rage Tournaments they tried to do. You actually played against other players in real time, but the game would ALWAYS crash at the end and no one could win the promised Primal Rage Arcade Machine. I remember when the tournaments ended, they said something like "sorry.. technical errors prevented us from crowning a winner" and they just left it at that.

[@alexk8792]

Oh, damn, what a bummer!

[@brianhartman2960]

I remember the Primal Rage tournaments. I could never get it work. I wanted that machine too.

[@EQOAnostalgia]

Oh man wow... that's almost as much of a bummer as Sword Quest being shuddered.

[@ByGeorge846]

I love waking up to a new Game Sack video on Sunday morning. I really do.

[@Godsgood111]

Especially when it's a bonus surprise sack like last Sunday.

[@TimCampbell76]

Me too. Bring back Dave. Or don’t. I don’t care.

[@jak3w]

When I wake up on Sunday I immediately check my sack

[@RetroMMA]

@@jak3w That's nuts. Mr. Nutz.

[@lordsosa9383]

im the big bad man i would drop you in a real fight punk come at me bro hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha bye bye noobie

[@krono5el]

I rode that baby out till the end, went through the game changes from monthly to bi-weekly, to the price drops and all. Gave me some incredible gaming memories and that menu music is forever with me : P

[@popularvote3613]

Serious question, do you remember ever playing Garfield: The Lost Levels? It was like three or four levels that didn't get finished in time for Garfield: Caught in the Act.

[@krono5el]

@@popularvote3613 i dont think so, same with the card game they showed i never played that one, but going through the list they seem to have most games i remember being available.

[@joseystrife]

I agree, the menus in there were cool and the music really stuck with me, gotta love that Sega Genesis sound!

[@CutBackDropTurn]

I had the SEGA Channel when I was very young. I remember playing Sonic 3D Blast, but the game was cut into two parts and you needed a code from the end of the first part to play the second part. I also remember playing some Barney game and realizing that you couldn’t lose or get hurt. It was the first game I got bored with and realized that games needed consequences.

[@GameSack]

That's interesting. The game must have been too big to fit entirely into the Sega Channel RAM.

[@ScatterbrainPete]

@@GameSack Jon Burton actually confirmed all of this on his GameHut channel.

[@BigBangBlitz]

@@GameSack A few other games did that too. MK3 and Super Street Fighter had to be broken into parts with a different selection of characters for each. I'm pretty sure Virtua Fighter 2 was as well, though it might have just omitted some characters.

[@Midori_Hoshi]

One of the basic requirements for a game is to have a lose condition. If you can't lose the game, then it's not really a game. It's just software.

[@GameTimeWhy]

​@@Midori_Hoshi you can't "lose" at Journey and yet it's a fantastic game.

[@EmptyTelevision]

I would stay up till 12 at night at the end of the month to see what new games were available! They tended to reupload a lot of the same games over the course of time but it was such an awesome service.

[@4BlueHero]

Me and my big brother were so lucky to have grown up with the Sega Channel! It's thanks to this that we are life long Sega fans!

[@astra6712]

Too bad SEGA has been dead for 20 years

[@drunkensailor112]

​@@astra6712 no it's not. I play Sega games every day

[@i-dont-burn-under-the-sun]

@@astra6712 Damn, i was playing Two Point Hospital a moment ago, why didn't anybody warn me.

[@Lilbroda]

​@@astra6712 n00b

[@astra6712]

@@drunkensailor112 on the Nintendo switch?

[@fargoretro]

Heck yeah the Sega Channel blew my mind when it came out. It was such a blast, and I got to play so many great RPGs I didn't know the system had.

[@UltimateGamerCC]

yup, SEGA Channel was the best. i played so many games on there that my grandpa never would've bought for me and a ton of other games that i never knew existed. i have since enjoyed emulation of SEGA Genesis and other old consoles that no longer are being manufactured and/or sold, exploring the libraries of games like an 8-bit Indiana Jones.

[@IronBuddha80]

I was lucky growing up we had the sega channel. It was actually my introduction to RPG's. I learned the hard way when you were done playing you'd lose your save progress so I would just leave the Genesis on sometimes for a whole day or 2 until I got back on the game. I remember beating Shining Force 1 and 2 that way

[@wusaint]

Not gonna lie....this brings a tear to my eye. Sega Channel was like a dream come true when I was younger. My buddy had it and we all would stay over at his house and play games all night. Every month when the games would update we would have a sleepover to play the new stuff. So many good memories.

[@michaelrivas9948]

I had the sega channel. The device acted like a cartridge. The version i had kept the game on it long as you didnt write over it. Also could save game progress also.

[@UltimateGamerCC]

yup, only power outages that totally shut off the cart would delete my save files. i've beaten Phantasy Star 4 and both Shining Force games on it.

[@Zenoff64]

@@UltimateGamerCC I had my dad connect a UPS power supply to the sega power brick specifically to keep me from losing a long save.

[@UltimateGamerCC]

@@Zenoff64 W dad

[@pyrocard]

Blows me away that this service wasn't available in Denver, I live in Grand Junction Colorado and my family had the Sega Channel. I always thought it was such a cool service

[@jessodum3103]

I was also surprised he said it wasn't in Denver, because we had it in Boulder!

[@AdCosmo]

I had it in Englewood. Game Sack's parents definitely were lying to him.

[@dillonandon]

I finally noticed that Alien Soldier's title screen is boasting about setting the Mega Drive's CPU on fire. That's kind of awesome honestly. More games should do that.

[@ScatterbrainPete]

This was actually Sega's slogan for their Japanese Mega Drive commercials

[@EchoLog]

Crisis wasn't the first.

[@tslodemi]

Sega Channel user here, I remember staying up late night on the end of the month waiting for the game lineup and screen to change.

[@tubinonyou]

You got my like for the following: "You can play 2 player if you actually have any friends... but I'm pretty sure that you don't."

[@JosephLamb1989]

Joe is the kinda guy who comes over and eats all your pizza bites, says your mom is hot, and all your games suck

[@royb5820]

Classic Game Sack joke. They’ve been casually hating on us for having no friends for like a decade+

[@videostash413]

every gaming channel makes that joke a lot. welcome.

[@tubinonyou]

@@videostash413 The more gaming channels you watch, the less friends you have!

[@shawnwilliam466]

I feel lucky than, I had plenty of friends and family members ready to play along 🎉

[@bigdeez314]

I had the Sega Channel from 1995-1997 through TCI here in St. Louis, it was a key component of my video game experience back then there was only so many games that I could rent from Blockbuster and having the Sega Channel meant I got to play games that probably would’ve never even touched otherwise. I still remember so vividly making sure that the cable was tightened on the back of the adapter so I wouldn’t get that “Attention!” screen even though you run across it a few times. I even got to play games that are now considered lost or haven’t even been dumped in ROM form yet such as Garfield: The Lost Levels and even the Genesis version of the Flintstones movie video game. What was maddening back then was because of the memory size of the adapter, they wasn’t able to play certain full games like Super Street Fighter II only had half the roster to play as and Mortal Kombat 3 when it first came out had to be split into two parts. Also, noticed certain games made by Acclaim or had a big license such as NBA wasn’t even able to be played on there mainly due to licensing issues I’m sure, even if it was made by Sega themselves so I still had to go to Blockbuster for some of those games. BTW, Pulseman was never translated on the Channel but it was still a fun game and I could never for the life of me figure out why it never got released here in the US at least physically. The Sega Channel will always go down as one of those “you had to be there” moments in gaming, something I will truly cherish forever.

[@commonsensei8719]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1728">28:48</a> I truly appreciate these skits you do. They are very well timed and placed and your dry humor is just spot on. I think these put you next to AVGN (In his good days) in how you can convey these funny jokes with just your facial expressions alone. You are a great actor

[@FlarryFlats]

I second this notion! The skits are quirky, creative,genuine and often (like this episode's) completely hilarious 🤣 Plus, anytime Craig Statler shows up, I'm in 😂😂😂

[@iamredrunt172]

I had this when it came out in SF Bay Area. Had cable service,from local provider, Worked great. I lived right behind SEGA of America in Foster City Ca. Saw them grow.

[@teen_laqueefa]

Joe Redifer is retro gaming royalty...

[@lordsosa9383]

i would destroy you in any sega game punk what you gonna do about it boy ahahahahahahahahahahahaha noob

[@Brooklyn727]

Another Craig Stadler cameo! We are truly blessed by his presence.

[@BillyTime]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="140">2:20</a> Yeah, that was me. I made an edit to include the games I wanted to when making my SC Revival hack and I made a point to avoid SRAM enabled games. :p Excellent video!

[@sppspharmdude]

Thank you!

[@JohnnyProctor9]

Could've put at least ONE RPG on there though, a Shining Force and/or a Phantasy Star...they had a warning message that starting an RPG would delete the save file from any different game saved on there, didn't they? I seem to recall there being something of the sort when loading up RPGs and other games with save features like Wily Wars or Sonic 3...

[@BillyTime]

@@JohnnyProctor9 with the way SC Revival is set up, SRAM doesn't quite work. I have since put SRAM enabled RPGS such as Shining Force and Phantasy Star on later revisions. A custom boot loader is utilized with SC Revival and doesn't work exactly the same way the old Sega Channel did.

[@JohnnyProctor9]

@@BillyTime - Thanks, I'll have to look into that!

[@BeefyRavioli]

I had Sega channel for the entire duration in Tulsa Oklahoma. Absolutely loved it. Alien soldier and megaman were definite standouts. I remember the morning sonic and knuckles came out because I woke up super early to play it. When the service shut down, my dad told me in the ride home from school. I cried - we only had 3 games other than Sega channel.

[@chosencuttlefish]

I remember my neighbor had it and it bewildered me. I would play Mortal Kombat 3 when I wasn't allowed to rent it at home 🙃

[@chipgarrett3139]

East Coast staying up late to get my sack for the week!! Love this channel!!

[@MurasakiBunny]

One thing you got wrong, the Sega Channel did have part of it's powered ram used for the menu data act as battery backup as you COULD save your games on battery backup games... though there was a limit to how many before the game saves of OTHER games would get overridden, or if you unplugged the unit which you wouldn't so since you'd have to spend probably 20 minutes for it to re-flash the monthly data.

[@renakunisaki]

Several people say it saved, and several say it didn't. Probably there were different versions.

[@narakuoni]

I had the Sega Channel back in the day and loved it! It was so cool to show off new games to friends.

[@boriscrosshairs6682]

You don't have to make up stuff to try and be cool

[@LVPB]

How did it run/play ? Was it laggy?

[@narakuoni]

@@LVPB it was pretty seamless once you got into game but the menus had a lot going on and would have some slowdown. Best of my memory of course.

[@boriscrosshairs6682]

​@@LVPB he didn't really have it he just wants to be cool

[@narakuoni]

@@boriscrosshairs6682 I swear! Just like my girlfriend who goes to a different school...in Canada. That's why you can't meet her.

[@Tjoeb123]

It's worth noting that if you own a Nintendo Switch, Mega Man and Pulseman are both available on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service. (although the text/subtitles in Pulseman remains in Japanese) Mega Man The Wily Wars is also on the 1st Genesis Mini (the one that looks like the Model 1).

[@gligarguy4010]

Wily Wars is also on there. My first time playing it was there.

[@ZeldaDD]

Alien Soldier is as well.

[@kennethd4958]

I remember wanting the Sega Channel so bad.. I lived an hour away from Pittsburgh and was hoping it would be offered in my area but I never saw it.

[@Noslack412]

I had it in Pittsburgh 🤷‍♂️

[@shitbrick5030]

I was 45 minutes north of pittsburgh. We had it

[@kennethd4958]

@@shitbrick5030 I’m about an hour west in Ohio.. I was young but asked my parents for it maybe they just said it wasn’t available as a way to get me to stop asking haha

[@lfroncek]

My friend and I discovered Shadowrun on Sega Channel and played the hell out of it for 2 days and then it vanished as the month ended. Was really peeved by that.

[@flioink]

Craig Stadler appearances never get old😆

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Craig's gonna have his way with that boy!

[@Godsgood111]

Is he finally gonna get it inside mine?

[@-Rottenapple-]

Drained it!

[@michaelchauvin7219]

Think YOU can get it inside mine???

[@tomyyoung2624]

Yes it!

[@vallaurianv6024]

Blows my mind that Sega did this in 94! I never knew anyone who had this in the UK although I believe it came out here. Some of these games - Alien Soldier and to a lesser degree Pulseman - are bangers

[@Carsonj13]

And JUST when I was about to go to bed, a new Game Sack!

[@JonReid01]

Classic Saturdays with Joe

[@leadbones]

I had a friend who had SEGA Channel. We played it constantly while it was available. I don't remember Dino Bros. but I do remember hating Nightmare Circus and being unimpressed by the Genesis' attempt to recreate NES Mega Man. I remember enjoying Golden Axe 3 a lot, first playing Bloodlines, and not liking Alien Soldier at all. I did do a bunch of mushrooms and play Crystal's Pony Tale on there for half a day one time.

[@brennanpatrick]

My grandparents bought me a SEGA channel subscription through TCI cable in Tulsa, OK when I was 10 in 1995. I had it for over a year. I would have a hard time going to sleep on the last day of the month knowing that the games would be updated the following morning. I loved that I could play demos for new games. I remember one month it had the 3D sonic game. what a blast from the past. Thanks for sharing this.

[@frozyre7854]

One game that wasn't mentioned but was exclusive to Sega Channel - Breakthru! This was the puzzle game by the same guy who made Tetris. It got a SNES release and a PC release. But not many knew that there was a Genesis release too, though it was Sega Channel only.

[@ChairmanMeow1]

This was so incredibly ahead of its time. I had a rich friend who had one and it was like my childhood brain couldnt even comprehend how it worked. How in the world were video games coming through cable tv I wondered? Looking back on it though this wasnt a rich person thing even though it felt like that. $15 a month was equivalent to what, four in box games? But parents hated the idea of a subscription back then. edit - Also, Alien Soldier was so dope. Treasure made some real bangers.

[@wizardwhohasmorempthanhp]

I had a friend from a poor family that had one. Just cool parents

[@ChairmanMeow1]

@@wizardwhohasmorempthanhp I remember my parents just hated the idea of a subscription. Back in the 90s subscriptions were generally viewed as some kind of scam, you'd see most of them on TV for magazines or weird music collections that you could never cancel.

[@pokey4200]

It's like Saturday morning cartoons, only it's Sunday, and not cartoons...😁

[@BluesElwoo2]

Hey Joe, my cousin and I grew up in Denver, and he had the Sega Channel. I don't think it was here long though. I was so jealous of him! He played some RPGs, and as long as he didn't load up a new game, it would keep his saves. Once he loaded up something else, his saves were gone. Man Sega Channel was cool back in the day.

[@DuskLord]

Us europeans were cursed to live without Sega Channel... Me as a stupid little kiddo with absolutely minimal information about the entire subject still managed to hear or read a tiny bit of rumor that there was a thing in existence with practically unlimited games for your Megadrive that has something to do with adjusting your tv settings and tuning your channels again or smth. So I tried all sorts of stuff, several, SEVERAL times, to no avail, haha... Thank you for all your analytical and comedic content, sir, been watching your videos for quite a while already. Your humor is definitely getting even better as you progress with the channel, am I the only one to think so? Some of the jokes remind me a bit of the YT channel Huggbees with his "How it's really made" series with such sudden transitions from regular commentary to an out-of-nowhere killer :D Stay awesome. Greetings from Finland, and... THE REAL BATTLE STARTS RIGHT NOW.

[@WhatIsMatter101]

When I was young, this was ground breaking. But then you find out the SNES had Satellaview, and the Famicom Disk System even had online stock exchange service.

[@Marcus_K]

Sega Channel was groundbreaking as the first significant online game platform on console. The Satellaview was released a year later and it never made it out of Japan.

[@CommodoreFan64]

​@@Marcus_K Plus the Satellaview had some limations like having to be there at specific times of the day for the Satellite broadcast do too the limits of the technology, with them also using the same satelites for TV/audio broadcast limiting their bandwidth, so if you missed it for whatever reason you had no chance to get what you paid for again, and that's not even mentioning all the expensive addon hardware for the Super Famicom you needed to make the service even work, along with the more expensive Satellite service fees.

[@JaimieRain]

I'm in New Zealand, we were a Sega country, and in 1994 we were still an international backwater. I mean we still are, but the internet sort of helped us catch up to the rest of the world in regards to these sorts of things. The Sega Channel was something you'd see in gaming magazines, but know you'd never get. We didn't have cable back then, just 3 tv channels, and there were like 4 satellite channels which was our 'cable' equivalent. I might be wrong though, maybe there were some rich people that had access to it somehow, but The Sega Channel was only something you could dream about 😆 I look at it now and think how cool it would have been though, like to come home from work one day, excited about what games were new to the channel that month. If you were a game rental type it would have been so much better than going back and forth to the video store. And I like the fact that you're kinda 'stuck' with whatever they're offering you that month, so you just have to give everything a chance, games you wouldn't ever bother usually buying/renting.

[@davidford3968]

I remember that so well!!!! I never knew Pittsburgh was the first city to have it, so I guess I was really lucky to live in Pittsburgh. I remember it being advertised and that was my Christmas present that year, along with a Sega. I was in heaven!!!

[@JAGO_Tech]

I 100% played a version of this is in a hotel ... it charged the room. I remember asking my mom permission & playing Sonic for 20 or 30 mins. So there was some commercial interation of this at least tested. This was in either Houston or San Antonio in early to mid 90s 👍. Any info internet friends? I can only find details on the airline offering in Asia. [EDIT - also seeing Beaumont, TX listed as 1 of 12 test markets & could've been a hotel there as I have family in area ... maybe it was part of OG test 🤔!?]

[@noteptp]

Hey Jago! This is Note from RB. Awesome you experienced one of these in the 90s! Never had a chance to try Sega Channel back then, but I did play a similar service at a hotel which I believe was the Nintendo Gateway System with LodgeNet. I remember playing Super Bonk on it! I think it was at a hotel during a family vacation to Seattle.

[@Noslack412]

Load times and having a service tech out multiple times is my memory of it. Elementary school age tho I still loved it.

[@jovalleau]

We had Sega Channel growing up. So many great games I never would have played, otherwise.

[@Br0tha5]

I'm from Denver, Montbello to be specific. My step cousin in Aurora had the Sega channel in the trailer park my uncle lived in. It was fun when he could get it to work. I remember going over there and not being able to play because the games took forever to download.

[@TheRealAkaRai]

One of my cousins had this. Eight year old me thought this was the coolest thing ever. I remember thinking it was way cooler than cable. I first played Comix Zone, Beyond Oasis and X-Men 2 on it. I remember X-Men started immediately with you playing as a random character starting right away on the first level with no introduction, and thinking this was perfect for the service because it made it feel like you were being dropped into a game already in progress, like you were just taking part in a broadcast.

[@starwindamada5313]

I was just playing that game an hour ago on my PC in Emuhawk. Not the actual cartridge or even a Genesis but I am using the Sega-endorsed six-button controller with USB.

[@hpalvz]

I remember that it was available in my city (Buenos Aires, Argentina) back then, but it was super expensive (like 50 or 60 USD). I was pretty suprised when they announced it here.

[@lordsosa9383]

im a real bad man wanna fight me tuff guy drop your location i will be there to beat you up and you better boit bring a gun so dont even try it punk

[@Aqua_Toad]

I have a good friend that grew up in Denver and then moved up to Keenesburg and I've heard many fond memories of her and her family playing it. It definitely was offered in Colorado.

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

Got a good chuckle out of your "Klondike Solitaire" intro.

[@robotempires]

My cartridge looked a lot different and I'd have to constantly mess with the coaxial to get it to work, but it was worth it.

[@dwood78part23]

I remember hearing about the Sega Channel back them. So this is going to be interesting.

[@phattjohnson]

Maybe comment AFTER watching the video? 🤣

[@Dac_vak]

Hey Joe, I hope you read this. I’m a relatively new viewer of the channel (about one month or so) but I’ve already watched over half of your videos. Thank you SO MUCH for continuing to make such excellent content. As a new viewer, I hugely appreciate it. Keep it up!!

[@GameSack]

Thanks man! :)

[@RyneMcKinney]

This was very similar to the Super Famicom's satellaview add on. But this definitely looked a lot easier to set up. The satellaview required you to have a satellite dish atop your house, and Japan didn't have that many due to how small the homes are. On top of that you needed equipment and subscription from the company St. Giga as well. The Sega Channel only required you to request the accessory from a cable company, pay the activation fee/monthly subscription plug in a coax cable, and boom.

[@Afgrahamistan]

That's weird you weren't able to get Sega Channel in Denver? I remember having it in Aurora through TCI for a few months. It was cool seeing the new menus and music each month, even doing themes that fit the month (fireworks in July, Halloween for October, etc). But it was thanks to it I discovered Treasure playing Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes, Alien Solider, and even Light Crusader, still my all time favorite developer to this day.

[@gillianseed4419]

yeah I knew someone that had it in thornton, must have been different providers in different areas back then

[@jessodum3103]

We had it in Boulder!

[@a3HeadedMonkey]

Awesome! Game Sack Sunday time!

[@Skatedudeguy]

I loved having Sega Channel as it truly allowed me to play a lot of titles I would not have. Wily Wars may have been my favorite exclusive, but I really enjoyed Power Drive as I got a Super Off Road feel from it. I remember playing Battle Frenzy and being confused about how to play it! I also remember playing a early version of Pinocchio and thinking the game was actually only a few minutes long.

[@TrueSolunar]

Pulseman’s Volteccer lives on through the Pikachu line as Volt Tackle…

[@HerecomestheCalavera]

I remember hearing about the Sega Channel back in the day but not really knowing what it was all about. Back then we had a C-Band Satellite Dish. One time a technician was at the house and I asked him if we could get the Sega Channel. But nope cable only :(

[@CaptAwesumNo1Zone]

This was MY era of SEGA!!🎉🎉

[@nelsoncabrera6464]

My rich cousins had this. I used to love going to their house to play, it was so mind-blowingly futuristic to my 12 year old self.

[@1417ga]

I loved the SEGA channel!! The signal strength (connection issues) was my only frustration. Paragon Cable/Time Warner Cable was at my house every other month in Minnesota.

[@_____7704]

Great peripheral we sadly never got here in Australia... would be good to see what work has gone in to building a way to communicate with it today via a PC

[@ksysinf]

You'll probably have to have a TV modulator for this that can tranfer roms and technical information over the cable. To think of it that can be done if there are specs for what exactly this scientific atlanta is and what it recieves

[@SilverOver9000]

As a Brazilian, I can attest to Tectoy's abscence of standards. Guys keep refurbishing the Genesis and Master System with random games pre loaded, no cartridge slots and dubious parts (especially the crappy audio chip) till this day! Don't mind any Tectoy fanboys whining, they're people who believe Tectoy will someday get the rights to produce the Dreamcast 2, a console they firmly believe is feasible.

[@charlesdebarber2997]

I had Sega Channel when TCI Cable offered it in Northeastern Ohio back in the 90s. It exposed me to many favorites - Landstalker, Shining Force I & II, the Phantasy Star series, Pirates! Gold, and Gemfire to name a few. It was such a great offer and one of the many ways Sega was *way* ahead of its time.

[@scaniatex]

My Dad was cool enough to let me get Sega Channel when I finally had decent grades in school. Oh how I loved this service! Also, this was how I was introduced to GENERAL CHAOS. A Great RTS for the Genesis!

[@brianeych]

This really cranks up my tude, thanks Joe.

[@redwolflancer3051]

I remember when this came out when I was 14 ,thought wow I'm living in the future, but looking back now😂 p.s I don't remember dyna brothers on it, pulse man was

[@OddlerTheHousehusband]

I loved Sega Channel. I miss is so much. I do believe the rpg section was called Role Playing, as thats how I learned the term. I played Shining Force 1 & 2, Shining In the Darkness, Landstalker & Beyond Oasis. I remember staying up late at night to watch the background change every month.

[@Citizenryan82]

We had Sega Channel in little old Sioux City, IA of all places. I LOVED it.

[@cloudair4154]

my friend had the sega channel, it was great.. i remember my first time goin to his house to play it i got the tv remote and said “what channel is it?” and he laughed and was like its not an actual channel and he showed me how it worked

[@BigBangBlitz]

I have played Dyna Bros 2 on Sega Channel. A lot of people probably didn't because it was hidden, as were some other games like Worms. You had to move to a specific menu and move the selection off the screen then press a button to find it. Not every month had hidden games and some had more than one. Yes it was very cool. I THINK another one was a Genesis port of Sonic's card agmes with classical music I'll never get out of my head. It's possible that wasn't hidden, I just vaguely recall it was. Edit: It might be that Solitaire game, but the music isn't right, and there were Sonic cards.

[@Bubbabyte99]

Was Super Fantasy Zone on there as well? Cuz that's another unconfirmed one.

[@BigBangBlitz]

@@Bubbabyte99 I certainly remember playing that. Since I live in the U.S. and could not have bought nor rented it, I must assume it was. I couldn't have played it anywhere else. The music is still fresh in my mind.

[@EmperorFoxx]

I had Sega Channel growing up and I didn’t live far from you, in Aurora. I remember playing tons of Mega Bomberman and General Chaos. This was a great revisit Joe, thanks!

[@fretburner8981]

Great video on The Sega Channel that I also was unable to see in its day. And I love that bit at the end, too funny!

[@Yeahhhhthisisgood]

This old online services interest me so much. It’s interesting to see how sega and Nintendo were ahead of their time in some things but the Nintendo of today refuses to acknowledge certain technology

[@phattjohnson]

Nintendo today still can't emulate Ocarina of Time accurately on their own Switch console..

[@crosstie417]

​@@phattjohnson that's funny it works great on my 60 dollar smart phone.....

[@redacted2275]

Nintendo never cared about online stuff until recently. They were always against emulation... if you want an excuse to thrash Nintendo, at least don't be a sIoth.

[@thecunninlynguist]

Sega really only. Nintendo was never really ahead of its time. Nomad = Switch.

[@arielnunez0612]

No matter what video I watch, there's always some cool games to learn about and I love this channel for that. god bless the sack

[@spectrefalling]

Glad to see im not the only one to do a video on this boi! I loved sega channel! Best way to get introduced to some amazing games!

[@vladimirdolapchev2226]

I love this Outrunners theme opening the episode! The best thing about the Outrunners for Mega Drive.

[@MissingLinx]

Had the Sega channel and I do remember that you could save with it. Since I remember beating some isometric 3d adventure game with it. Even though I always thought the saves were cloud like based.

[@RSK412]

MUH CHILDHOOD. it was so amazing. I lived about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. I played so many games, in hindsight I was kind of privileged to have the experience. My favorite game to play was Landstalker.

[@remakeyourself]

I had Sega Channel for a couple years in podunk lake town in rural texas where our cable boxes were only a 2-digit LED box and two buttons with NO remote. It was incredible, and my friends and I would stay up until midnight on the first of every night to see what the new month releases would be. Definitely did NOT have saves, because I discovered Shining Force 2 via Sega Channel and replayed the intro multiple times before just leaving the console on all weekend while I played through it.

[@manuginobilisbaldspot424]

Scientific Atlanta. All my Gen Xers with the infamous “black boxes” of the 90s know all about them. Wrestling, boxing, and “special” movies all unscrambled. Good times.

[@jameswalt1]

Truly I think Alien Soldier is one of, if not the, best looking games of the 16 bit generation.

[@benitosierrajr3958]

I’m happy that Game Sack covered the SEGA Channel first before the Gaming Historian because I wanted to know a bit more about it.

[@benitosierrajr3958]

Also Mr. Nutz did saw a North American physical release, but only on the Super Nintendo, and the Game Boy Color.

[@ketxxx1]

After watching 373 episodes, you sir, have yourself a new sub :D

[@MindofSmoothie]

I did have the Sega Channel but I don't recall my experiences with it. I do know that I played Theme Park a lot! Also by getting the Sega Channel in my room I got access to all the cable channels we had at the time, and one of those was Skimamax, I mean Cinemax! Great video and great stroll down memory lane.

[@777crig]

Imagine if we had this kinda deal now days...crazy how good this was for the time. Pure magic it seemed like. refreshed often enough you always had somthin to play was insane.

[@flandrble]

We do.

[@ninetendopesaitama2107]

Gamepass is a steal. ☮️

[@zachary_attackery]

We had things like this BEFORE Sega Channel. There was one for the 2600

[@StelerSteel]

I've had your epic SEGA Channel skit on loop for the past week and then I see this! I guess Joe knew I wanted more!

[@shaunreinert5202]

We had this at our house and it was awesome. I remember one time the last day of the month was either a Friday or Saturday, we stayed up til midnight, expecting the games to switch right at midnight on the 1st, but it didn't, so we went to bed. In the morning though, they were different

[@commentresurrection1841]

I was one of the lucky ones to have The Sega Channel! I played every single game on that thing

[@troyshilanski380]

Always love your stop motion teardowns. And i didnt even know this was a thing. Probably because i was rockin my 66 mgh pentium with Doom.

[@videogameobsession]

I had something like this. I called it the Super Magic Drive (or just .SMD for short). I'd pick my favorite games from WHQ BBS sites. They had every Genesis game, even imports, all up to the day releases.. Some even weeks before they were hitting stores. The price was also amazing too. It was only the price of a long distance call, so I stuck in the 518 and didn't have to pay anything. If you owned the additional Super Magic Drive floppy drive you could save your games to floppy disk (1.6Mb formatted disks held 12 megabit games, 3x 4Mbit games, 6x 2Mbit games, and so on..). I'm sure Sega loved this device, and the people who spread the releases far and wide. Greetz to Fairlight, SpooNDox, SpooNMan, PAN-ATX, and TWK-ATK Over and out... SEGA! -mrH ;)

[@requiemforameme1]

The technology behind this is mind-blowing. Sega programmers would compile monthly game assets onto a CD-ROM, which was physically delivered to Denver, CO. That station then uploaded it to a satellite which beamed it down to local cable stations. Those stations would then provide games via coaxial cable transmission to your Sega Channel cartridge which stored purchases until the system shut down. This was all nearly a decade before most US homes would get "high speed internet" and WiFi was common. I work in streaming media and sometimes need to integrate content onto oldschool linear cable TV set top boxes. It's insane how Sega engineered games-as-a-service over coaxial cable networks (headends) in 1994. The signals and technology behind coaxial cable signals is pretty rough (even today), and the markup languages (SCTE-35) aren't easy to work with. So I'm curious as to how in the hell they managed to arrange clear cable signals for thousands of users to download ~5MB games. That said, playing a lightgun game on a CRT which was provided via satellite is absolute 100% peak 90's technology vibes.

[@oceman5446]

loved it got it back in late 94 a couple of friends were the first to access it here in pittsburgh