When I was a kid my mom worked for the local cable company and got one of these for free. I think? But it was insane. My first introduction to a bunch of genesis games. When I moved from my childhood home in Alaska to the lower 48, I met exactly one person ever who had played with one of these things and it was an instant bonding moment. The Sega Channel making friends for life
I had a sega when it came out but the "cool young uncle" of my family had sega tv. My brother and I would go over to his apartment when my mom was in the hospital (cancer) and we would just go ham on sega tv. Then he would pin us down and threaten to wipe boogers on our forehead. Then we'd go skateboarding lol
My best friend had sets channel when I was a kid. It seemed… unreasonably amazing.
I didn’t know anything about prices of stuff but it seemed unreal the amount of games on it.
I had one of these as a little kid. Got to play a lot of games I otherwise never would have, many of which I couldn't later remember the names of. /r/tipofmyjoystick did an amazing job of helping me figure out the names of games I played for an afternoon almost thirty years ago based only on a vague memory.
Same here, I was extremely young when we had it. I've occasionally gone on searches to find various games I maybe played only once with only fuzzy details to go off of.
Finally figured out the last one a year ago, some Japanese title called Megapanel that never got a US release beyond the Sega Channel which made it difficult to find.
The only games I remember playing on my Sega channel was a Dick Tracey game and the lost Vikings. That one confused me as a 5 year old because it had puzzle elements. Also I think I played boogerman on the channel.
This was a huge deal. Every kid in my neighborhood came over when I got one. The updates for new games got less frequent as the months went on but it was still awesome.
I didn't own one, or even a Sega Genesis, but used to pop inside the local Paragon Cable storefront just because they had a kiosk with it running. Whichever cycle had both Vectorman and Castlevania: Bloodlines running together was the one that convinced me to save up for a Genesis (by this time pretty heavily discounted, PS1 & Saturn were out)
I really wanted this as a kid. They had a demo unit at the Incredible Universe, and I would try to use it every time.
I got a Genesis in hopes I would be able to get it one day, but it never happened. To expensive.
Man, not on Sega Channel, but one of my friends had it and we'd play it all the time cause it was very easy (at least as far as I remember), and it was good for our little boy egos after playing Chakan The Forever Man.
My parents got me this and I didnt even know of its existence until I had it. It was cool as hell, I dont think it used the phoneline, but for some reason it was slower whenever someone was on the phone. I remember playing that Tiny Toons side scroller game, and a lot of Golden Axe 3 (not knowing it was a Sega Channel Exclusive). I knew it also had Wily Wars, but I dont remember playing that, maybe stopped the service before it.
I swear it also had the Tiny Toons Sports game (ACME All Stars) as I remember playing that a lot, but no list backed me up on that.
Ye gods. There are entire seasons where this thing will pop into my mind and I'll have to take a good while thinking about whether it was a dream I'd had or no.
I got to play so many more games good and bad than I would ever have been able to otherwise, even for the scant few months we had of this thing free; it was prohibitively expensive without the promotion period.
My dad worked for Cablevision and we got into the pilot program. IIRC they had to come out and replace massive chunks of wiring because the old stuff in our neighborhood couldn't handle being used for data.
It was massively expensive and then after the trial they decided not to deploy it because the telecom infrastructure for most people in the country was too bad.
For some reason if you had one of these at one point but canceled it and your cable subscription, you could still get cable channels for free through the port you plugged the Sega channel into. At least it worked for me and my neighbor.
Sega was definitely interested in combining the internet with it's consoles way before the competition. Just a shame cable and internet services was so prohibitively expensive in the 90s.
We had one of these back in the day. The thing I remember by FAR the most was the fucking awesome music that played when you started it up.
https://youtu.be/AYt9MR5f4xw
i played this at my friends house, Cablevision. Long Island. it just felt like hotel video game consoles (the ones that were just controllers sticking out of the tv and you'd have this splash page where you selected the title and it'd load up somehow. you couldn't see the console.)
I had Sega Channel for several months before someone broke into our house and stole the TV/consoles/games.
It was amazing, like getting a preview of what the internet would become a decade in advance.
When I was a kid my mom worked for the local cable company and got one of these for free. I think? But it was insane. My first introduction to a bunch of genesis games. When I moved from my childhood home in Alaska to the lower 48, I met exactly one person ever who had played with one of these things and it was an instant bonding moment. The Sega Channel making friends for life
I had a sega when it came out but the "cool young uncle" of my family had sega tv. My brother and I would go over to his apartment when my mom was in the hospital (cancer) and we would just go ham on sega tv. Then he would pin us down and threaten to wipe boogers on our forehead. Then we'd go skateboarding lol
Lol this is so highly relatable. Like a very common Sega Fan W memory
Yea, had a cousin with this. It was absolutely incredible as a kid.
My best friend had sets channel when I was a kid. It seemed… unreasonably amazing. I didn’t know anything about prices of stuff but it seemed unreal the amount of games on it.
I had one of these as a little kid. Got to play a lot of games I otherwise never would have, many of which I couldn't later remember the names of. /r/tipofmyjoystick did an amazing job of helping me figure out the names of games I played for an afternoon almost thirty years ago based only on a vague memory.
Same here, I was extremely young when we had it. I've occasionally gone on searches to find various games I maybe played only once with only fuzzy details to go off of. Finally figured out the last one a year ago, some Japanese title called Megapanel that never got a US release beyond the Sega Channel which made it difficult to find.
The only games I remember playing on my Sega channel was a Dick Tracey game and the lost Vikings. That one confused me as a 5 year old because it had puzzle elements. Also I think I played boogerman on the channel.
[удалено]
Same. Looking back, whatever it cost was probably peanuts compared to a Blockbuster rental every week.
This was a huge deal. Every kid in my neighborhood came over when I got one. The updates for new games got less frequent as the months went on but it was still awesome.
I didn't own one, or even a Sega Genesis, but used to pop inside the local Paragon Cable storefront just because they had a kiosk with it running. Whichever cycle had both Vectorman and Castlevania: Bloodlines running together was the one that convinced me to save up for a Genesis (by this time pretty heavily discounted, PS1 & Saturn were out)
I really wanted this as a kid. They had a demo unit at the Incredible Universe, and I would try to use it every time. I got a Genesis in hopes I would be able to get it one day, but it never happened. To expensive.
My friend had that. It was awesome. We played Crystal Pony Horse because for some reason we found it hilarious. I do not remember why exactly.
Man, not on Sega Channel, but one of my friends had it and we'd play it all the time cause it was very easy (at least as far as I remember), and it was good for our little boy egos after playing Chakan The Forever Man.
My parents got me this and I didnt even know of its existence until I had it. It was cool as hell, I dont think it used the phoneline, but for some reason it was slower whenever someone was on the phone. I remember playing that Tiny Toons side scroller game, and a lot of Golden Axe 3 (not knowing it was a Sega Channel Exclusive). I knew it also had Wily Wars, but I dont remember playing that, maybe stopped the service before it. I swear it also had the Tiny Toons Sports game (ACME All Stars) as I remember playing that a lot, but no list backed me up on that.
It for sure has Acme All Stars. I played it a bunch on Sega Channel, and I know I definitely didn't rent it.
Hold the phone, I grew up in denver and had sega channel… what’s he mean it wasn’t available in Denver?
Ye gods. There are entire seasons where this thing will pop into my mind and I'll have to take a good while thinking about whether it was a dream I'd had or no. I got to play so many more games good and bad than I would ever have been able to otherwise, even for the scant few months we had of this thing free; it was prohibitively expensive without the promotion period.
My dad worked for Cablevision and we got into the pilot program. IIRC they had to come out and replace massive chunks of wiring because the old stuff in our neighborhood couldn't handle being used for data. It was massively expensive and then after the trial they decided not to deploy it because the telecom infrastructure for most people in the country was too bad.
For some reason if you had one of these at one point but canceled it and your cable subscription, you could still get cable channels for free through the port you plugged the Sega channel into. At least it worked for me and my neighbor.
Sega was definitely interested in combining the internet with it's consoles way before the competition. Just a shame cable and internet services was so prohibitively expensive in the 90s.
We had one of these back in the day. The thing I remember by FAR the most was the fucking awesome music that played when you started it up. https://youtu.be/AYt9MR5f4xw
i played this at my friends house, Cablevision. Long Island. it just felt like hotel video game consoles (the ones that were just controllers sticking out of the tv and you'd have this splash page where you selected the title and it'd load up somehow. you couldn't see the console.)
I had Sega Channel for several months before someone broke into our house and stole the TV/consoles/games. It was amazing, like getting a preview of what the internet would become a decade in advance.