Absolutely fascinating stuff, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Great to see a museum keeping this stuff alive!
More Sega Channel prototypes dumped. Even earlier ones.
#287
Posted 10 February 2019 - 09:44 PM

rganders, on 10 February 2019 - 11:11 AM, said:
Also of interest. It looks like he is able to select a game from the menu and it calls from an SD card. You have to go down a few lines of text to select the game again from that short menu....but it's kind of working again.
Sega Channel Demo
Sega Channel Demo
This post has been edited by ICEknight: 10 February 2019 - 09:54 PM
#288
Posted 11 February 2019 - 03:05 AM

This might be farfetched, but this guy wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of The Great Earthworm Jim Race, the Mortal Kombat III contest, the "Limited Edition" Super Street Fighter II versions or Garfield: the Lost Levels, would he?
#289
Posted 11 February 2019 - 01:20 PM

ICEknight, on 10 February 2019 - 09:44 PM, said:
rganders, on 10 February 2019 - 11:11 AM, said:
Also of interest. It looks like he is able to select a game from the menu and it calls from an SD card. You have to go down a few lines of text to select the game again from that short menu....but it's kind of working again.
Sega Channel Demo
Sega Channel Demo
I think it's maybe the closest we could get to actually recreating the service. The original adapters received the monthly information in a data carousel in something close to DSM CC format but with some proprietary tweaks depending on if the gear changing the img file sent to the Sega Channel was the SA or GI gear. Information received was in interleaved packets once the adapter tuned itself and was able to receive the encrypted information. Something like recreating that would be a herculean feat unless the adapter was tricked somehow into reading a feed from a computer or server as that signal. I saw he only got the one game to boot, but I'm curious if there has to be some sort of manual coding to each menu ROM to get this to work. Not a programmer, so best I can offer is a shrug on how it actually works.
Kiddo Cabbusses, on 11 February 2019 - 03:05 AM, said:
This might be farfetched, but this guy wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of The Great Earthworm Jim Race, the Mortal Kombat III contest, the "Limited Edition" Super Street Fighter II versions or Garfield: the Lost Levels, would he?
I had the same question. He does have some old DDS2 tapes from the server that backed up the img file they received from the studio (I believe Foley Hi-Tech). They are from March and April '95 and October '96. The first two may have test drive versions of some games and I think a Sega Channel version of a PICO game. The October '96 tape doesn't have a list online that I could find...so there's an outside shot that a lost game such as Lost Levels is there. I would just need to acquire them or borrow for the display and get them read (and cross my everything they still work).
#290
Posted 11 February 2019 - 05:25 PM

rganders, on 11 February 2019 - 01:20 PM, said:
ICEknight, on 10 February 2019 - 09:44 PM, said:
rganders, on 10 February 2019 - 11:11 AM, said:
Also of interest. It looks like he is able to select a game from the menu and it calls from an SD card. You have to go down a few lines of text to select the game again from that short menu....but it's kind of working again.
Sega Channel Demo
Sega Channel Demo
I think it's maybe the closest we could get to actually recreating the service. The original adapters received the monthly information in a data carousel in something close to DSM CC format but with some proprietary tweaks depending on if the gear changing the img file sent to the Sega Channel was the SA or GI gear. Information received was in interleaved packets once the adapter tuned itself and was able to receive the encrypted information. Something like recreating that would be a herculean feat unless the adapter was tricked somehow into reading a feed from a computer or server as that signal. I saw he only got the one game to boot, but I'm curious if there has to be some sort of manual coding to each menu ROM to get this to work. Not a programmer, so best I can offer is a shrug on how it actually works.
Kiddo Cabbusses, on 11 February 2019 - 03:05 AM, said:
This might be farfetched, but this guy wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of The Great Earthworm Jim Race, the Mortal Kombat III contest, the "Limited Edition" Super Street Fighter II versions or Garfield: the Lost Levels, would he?
I had the same question. He does have some old DDS2 tapes from the server that backed up the img file they received from the studio (I believe Foley Hi-Tech). They are from March and April '95 and October '96. The first two may have test drive versions of some games and I think a Sega Channel version of a PICO game. The October '96 tape doesn't have a list online that I could find...so there's an outside shot that a lost game such as Lost Levels is there. I would just need to acquire them or borrow for the display and get them read (and cross my everything they still work).
Or maybe The Flintstones (Ocean) ... Foley Hi-Tech developed it... www.fht.com (archived) ; www.fht.com/games/ (archived)
This post has been edited by Asagoth: 11 February 2019 - 05:33 PM
#291
Posted 11 February 2019 - 10:23 PM

Asagoth, could be as well. Will have no idea unless I secure the tapes and can wrangle the data off of them. Only way to know is with the tapes or if anyone happens to have a list of the October 1996 lineup. Either way, cross our fingers all and hope I can acquire these suckers.
Also, as far as I know on my prototype, the ROM likely has bitstream code that would feed to whatever chip would be mounted in the center...which is long since lost as the prototype came as is from an electronics recycler. Whatever code it is, once I have a local buddy dump it I will post it for you guys to mess with and for archive purposes.
Also, as far as I know on my prototype, the ROM likely has bitstream code that would feed to whatever chip would be mounted in the center...which is long since lost as the prototype came as is from an electronics recycler. Whatever code it is, once I have a local buddy dump it I will post it for you guys to mess with and for archive purposes.
This post has been edited by rganders: 11 February 2019 - 10:23 PM