Full Sega Channel assets and literature released!

[Greg2600]

The Secrets of Sega Channel: VGHF recovers over 100 Sega Channel ROMs (and more) | Video Game History Foundation
https://gamehistory.org/segachannel/
Our project to preserve the history of Sega Channel — including over 100 new Sega Channel ROMs.


Amazing how much of the Sega Channel finds were due to a chance encounter at GDC. A very worthwhile project. Frankly I think the information gathered by former Channel executive Michael Shorrock a lot more interesting than the roms. "Express Games," the selected successor to the Channel, was previously unknown. I'd also like to see how they were delivering web content to the Genesis of all things. Granted I suspect much of that may have become moot once the Saturn Net Link came into being.

[Steve W]

I love hearing about things like this. We know a lot about the Super Famicom Satellaview, but I've heard hardly anything about the background of the Sega Channel. It's a shame that they couldn't have gotten the service up before 1994, when all the next generation consoles were hitting the market. I wonder how it would have done if it had hit around 1991 or 1992, when it was all about 16-bit machines.

[Greg2600]

I love hearing about things like this. We know a lot about the Super Famicom Satellaview, but I've heard hardly anything about the background of the Sega Channel. It's a shame that they couldn't have gotten the service up before 1994, when all the next generation consoles were hitting the market. I wonder how it would have done if it had hit around 1991 or 1992, when it was all about 16-bit machines.

I don't know how successful it could have ever been, frankly, relying on the cable infrastructure of the day. It was almost entirely decentralized, and you wouldn't see the majority of the smaller independents gobbled up by Comcast, Time Warner, ATT, Charter, TCI, etc. until the latter half of the 90's. At which point, SEGA had shifted towards dial up, and Microsoft came in and skipped that for broadband. Trying to get a channel distributed to all those smaller entities was pretty difficult back then. I found the X-Band modem service back then to have far more potential for gamers.

[Tron 2.0]

Amazing how much of the Sega Channel finds were due to a chance encounter at GDC. A very worthwhile project. Frankly I think the information gathered by former Channel executive Michael Shorrock a lot more interesting than the roms. "Express Games," the selected successor to the Channel, was previously unknown. I'd also like to see how they were delivering web content to the Genesis of all things. Granted I suspect much of that may have become moot once the Saturn Net Link came into being.

I approve for the longest time garfeild caught in the act the lost levels well were consider lost media finally after all this time it's been found.I was lucky enough to have the sega channel in the 90's this was the adapter i had.
https://cdn.consolevariations.com/13257/sega-channel-adapter-other-1597238834-37.webp

[Greg2600]

https://www.youtube.com/live/RJwR8jXuZzc

Frank Cifaldi did a stream the other day where he also did a "mystery prototype rom dump" live, which was cool. They had a ton of Imagesoft EPROMS but they were blank. However, there was a fairly large number of Tengen roms, which were full of many surprises. Pit Fighter, Police Academy, etc.

https://hiddenpalace.org/VGHF_Tengen_lot

[Az]

Never in a million years did I expect to see the Pit Fighter II ROM surface, much less one that was so far along in development. This and the black bar SF2 prototypes were the two biggest holy grails to me as a teenage Sega fan boy.

Also, what's the connection between Tengen and these prototypes from seemingly unrelated companies? Like Outrun 2019, Thunder Force IV, Spiderman, and a few others. Strange that they'd have prototype versions of games they have nothing to do with stored on a HDD with their own work.

[Gameguy]

It's really nice to see something like this posted here, definitely something exciting to see. I really thought this information and data would be lost for good. Really reminds me of the old Digital Press days with interesting info getting posted regularly.


I approve for the longest time garfeild caught in the act the lost levels well were consider lost media finally after all this time it's been found.I was lucky enough to have the sega channel in the 90's this was the adapter i had.
That's the first game I thought of when hearing about this. I played through the cartridge game and wondered what the extra Sega Channel levels were like. Maybe I'll have to see about playing these once I figure out how to download the ROMs. It's been years since I've tried emulating anything on a PC.

I never had the Sega Channel back then but I did find an adapter in a thrift store years ago, a different design than the one you have.

Is your image hotlinked by the way? I thought we weren't supposed to do that here?

[Tron 2.0]

It's really nice to see something like this posted here, definitely something exciting to see. I really thought this information and data would be lost for good. Really reminds me of the old Digital Press days with interesting info getting posted regularly.


That's the first game I thought of when hearing about this. I played through the cartridge game and wondered what the extra Sega Channel levels were like. Maybe I'll have to see about playing these once I figure out how to download the ROMs. It's been years since I've tried emulating anything on a PC.

I never had the Sega Channel back then but I did find an adapter in a thrift store years ago, a different design than the one you have.

Is your image hotlinked by the way? I thought we weren't supposed to do that here?
Yeah there were a few version of the sega channel adapter.For those recently discovered roms i never mess with genesis emulation so i don't know how it works.I do wonder if they will play on genesis directly using a everdrive.

[SparTonberry]

Also, what's the connection between Tengen and these prototypes from seemingly unrelated companies? Like Outrun 2019, Thunder Force IV, Spiderman, and a few others. Strange that they'd have prototype versions of games they have nothing to do with stored on a HDD with their own work.

I've heard it wasn't uncommon for game devs to use their dev boards for a little bit of casual piracy.

[Tron 2.0]

If you have the mister.
https://retrorgb.com/sega-channel-on-mister.html