SEGA Channel Adapter - 90's Hardware Review - Mega Drive/Genesis Games On Demand Service

[roryos]

another power adapter OOMMGGGG!! that's 4 now if you had the 32x and the mega CD, what a glutton of a power hog!

[dragonballZfreak199]

that is a tower!!!!

[Cptalbertweskerful]

I was just going over some of the videos I must of missed over the last couple of months, and oh my god, I have never heard of this! To think it was running til '98, you've teached me Martin! I now feel enlightened :D

[RetroGameTech]

@Cptalbertweskerful Surely not?! I didn't think that was actually possible! Haha

I was really surprised to find out about it, too. I was more surprised to hear that it was even available here in the UK. It looked like such a cool thing to have!

[Cptalbertweskerful]

@RetroGameTech I know! I'd of never guessed that it was available in the UK, and it was so ahead of it's time, crazy stuff, shame it's defunct now!

[shaggy2dope666]

"it takes an external power adapter" haha yeah, what piece of sega hardware didn't back in the 90's?

[SCBianchi]

There was a similar thing for the SNES with a few exclusive games. They are available via pirate multicarts thanks to someone having the foresight to save them however they could/did.

[DecepticonMecha]

Sega Channel on top of a 32X, on top of a Mega Drive, on top of a Mega CD. Tower of awesome!

[RyogaXvX]

I remember wanting this so bad xD

This and the X-Band

[8BitROB]

Wow! Nice add to the collection! :-)

[MrGamerboy99]

Can you show me how you modded your xbox because I have an xbox mod but its no fun I like yours

[james42519]

interesting. this is what this new cloud gaming thing is now though. years later there will be no way to access it. why i don't like dlc too.

[thomas3120]

Great video :) Never seen this. Pretty cool device. Thanks for showing and reviewing.

[SpinTheDemon]

I used to Love my Sega Channel back in the day. Mega Man Willy Wars was a Great Game that never made it here in the USA but was playable on Sega Channel. Great Video bro!

[lukemorse1]

great little pick up there man, too bad it isnt supported but ive heard that the net link for the saturn and the xband for snes still has some way to connect for head to head games I heard that it was done by some homebrew developers or something like that.

[KieranD212]

@lukemorse1 if you go to jerryterrifying channel he has a gameplay of him using the xband or whatever it was for saturn, basically it still works because you dial into another number there is no software or servers really just a direct dialled in connection but it costs you money on your home phone to do it

[KieranD212]

Interesting piece of gaming history if a bit pointless today.

[aNoobyKill]

holy crap! your scottish? i thought u were brittish ... im not very smart

[KieranD212]

@aNoobyKill Scotland is a country in Great Britain which is part of the UK.

[aNoobyKill]

@KieranD212 holy crap ... im not only not very smart, but im retarded ... what i meant was: he sounded more brittish then scottish the accents are similar but i usually can tell them apart

[liamjfriel]

@aNoobyKill Scottish people are British. There is no such thing as a "British" accent. 

[KieranD212]

@liamjfriel Yeah Scots are also technically Brits just like the Welsh and English are British.

[DaveSimonH]

Pretty cool, first time I've ever seen this

[SMAAAASHTV]

yeah, my friend had sega channel for a while. It was kinda weird, I remember Mortal Kombat 3 was split into 2 parts. I guess games had to be split depending on how big they were. From what I remember there was no time limit on any of the games but perhaps they only allowed you to play certain parts of the game.

[RetroGameTech]

@SMAAAASHTV Time limits were only applied to the 'Test Drive' demo games from what I've read. All the others (the 50 games they mention in the commercials) were full access just like buying and playing a regular game from a store. And yeah I heard some of the larger games needed to be edited slightly to reduce their size (removing some characters from fighting games etc).

[AutobotBlurr]

I would have loved this service when I was younger. Like yourself I live in Scotland and never knew this was even out back in the day only found out about it about a month ago. Great vid dude keep them coming

[RetroGameTech]

@AutobotBlurr Cheers, dude! Same here, games were crazy expensive back then and I was only allowed a couple of games a year (normally xmas and birthday lol). I was always borrowing/trading games with my friends. This would have almost definitely blown my mind! hahaha

[crunchinjelly]

You should get an XBAND

[P5ychoFox]

Great vid mate. I wonder if anyone filmed the thing in use back in the 90s?

[RetroGameTech]

@P5ychoFox Thanks :) . If you search on YouTube there's an awesome commercial for the service from the 90's, lol. There's also a few people who seem to have recorded gameplay on VHS from back in the day and have since uploaded it.

[P5ychoFox]

@RetroGameTech Great! Good old VHS. Thanks mate.

[iGuruRevolution]

Man I never heard of this before, I grew up in a cable area too.....think how many other games I could have played :D

[Federico84]

this is the sega monster :D

[XC0MB4TXEV0LV3D]

So all the games you brought from this back in the day you can't use them anymore?

[TheBladeJunker]

Well even in Canada at the time of Sega Channel cable service was still a luxury reserved for those with more money. Thanks for the education, its a cool bit of history worth looking back on. :)

[Chaoitcme]

I remember commercials for this as a kid. I wanted to get it but my mom would not let me. This was before I knew how to make money as a child and pay for things that I wanted to get.

[remixnick]

pretty cool. Would be awesome if there was something stored on the device, a little demo or 2 that you could play to this day. Still a nice bit of history the way it is mind you.

[roryos]

Another power adapter!? that's like 4 now, one for the console, one for the 32x, one for the mega cd and one for this!

[Polaventris]

Wow never even heard about this one before. Quite ahead of its time!

[RetroGameTech]

@Polaventris Me neither until a few weeks ago! The concept was definitely way ahead of it's time. I think the only other games console before this to have a service like it was the Intellivision. The Intellivision had a similar device called the PlayCable which allowed users to download games via their cable TV provider.

[TheUnbiasedGamer]

I have the sega channel. It only works for me though. The channel is only down for everyone that is not me!!! Lol!

[HDv1de0]

I didn't know it come out for the MegaDrive.

[HackerHandBook]

my parents were sent one of these back in the 90s before they made them available to everyone, when they lived in hawaii, they did a massive test of it out there to promote the service and test it to see how well people respond to it and stuff. im pretty sure theirs was free though? and they had to send it back

[RetroGameTech]

@HackerHandBook Living in Hawaii in the 90's playing Mega Drive games for free. Tough times! :P

[HackerHandBook]

@RetroGameTech hahaha

[HackerHandBook]

@RetroGameTech hahaha ya i know right.

[LarryBundyJr]

Was this released in the UK?

[RetroGameTech]

@LarryBundyJr Surprisingly yes. According to the Wiki page I found it was available in some areas on certain cable services. I grew up playing the Mega Drive and knew nothing about this service! Although, I grew up in the middle of nowhere and cable TV wasn't something that even existed as far as I was concerned. Considering how much games were back in those days, $15 a month seems likes amazing value for what you got!

[FullMoonStudio]

I am from the U.S. and I remember when my cable company had this. I never tried it. Did not want to spend 15 bucks a month :-) Maybe I need to get a mega drive or genesis again sometime.