[Black Squirrel]

From Mega Force (the Spanish edition) #22:

http://I.imgur.com/7rxFcAt.jpg

Japanese Sega Channel screenshots?

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

Black Squirrel, on 07 November 2014 - 06:44 AM, said:

From Mega Force (the Spanish edition) #22:

http://I.imgur.com/7rxFcAt.jpg

Japanese Sega Channel screenshots?

The menus have more in common in American Sega Channel, but that layout doesn't look like anything I'm familiar with.

[Black Squirrel]

This is why you can't find it

http://media.sonicsc...omic/120/15.jpg
(Sonic the Comic #120, January 1998)

The UK's Sega Channel was not a nationwide service - it was only available in the North of England.

Of course, as someone who lives in the North East I know the definitions of "North" can vary a bit. George Osborne likes to think he's a Northern Chancellor because his constituency is in Cheshire - a three hour drive south for me. The best bet might be to use ITV regions at the time (aka Tyne Tees and Border)

It might not be difficult to find details - this was exclusive to the Telewest cable service, and cable coverage was crap in the 90s (and is still pretty crap today - I don't think I can get it). That rules out big chunks of rural Cumbria and Northumberland.

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 25 March 2015 - 09:33 AM

[Overlord]

You're sure it never went any further South than that?

[Black Squirrel]

You'll have to ask Megadroid.


(...although Mean Machines Sega seem to think there was a South East England rollout too - idk).

I should point out that I think the UK's Sega Channel might have died around the time that issue went to print. I'm reading a late 1997 cut-off, although it might have kept running in early 1998.


I ran into this accidentally - every time I've looked into Sega Channel stuff I've run into dead ends, but as a lot of people had it in 1997, you can probably find out quite a bit with a bit of a dig. I dig too much though - someone else should dig.

[Pirate Dragon]

Telewest cable was pretty big in Bristol, possibly more popular than Sky in the 90s. I don't remember the Sega Channel ever launching there. However, I had satellite at that time and it was well past Mega Drive's prime when Sega Channel launched so it's quite possible that I just wasn't aware of it. Incidentally, Bristol had a long history of cable TV, so it likely had a far higher penetration than in most other parts of the UK.

This post has been edited by Pirate Dragon: 26 March 2015 - 05:21 AM

[Black Squirrel]

Okay

http://www.independe...ay-1338749.html
So it was launched in London in the Summer of 1996. And you'll never guess who was at the opening event:


Freaking Andi Peters

[Pirate Dragon]

Andi Peters hosted "Game Talk" on Live and Kicking.

Looking at Telewest's financial results for June 30, 1996 they had the following franchises;

                                  LONDON SOUTH   AVON  NORTH EAST SCOTLAND SOUTH EAST COSTWOLDS  NORTH WEST MIDLANDS   TOTAL 
                                  ------------ ------- ---------- -------- ---------- --------- ---------- -------- ---------
                                                                                                                             
CABLE TELEVISION                                                                                                             
----------------                                                                                                             
HOMES MARKETED                        358,732  249,793  127,025   385,825   109,348     44,513   444,157   302,230  2,021,623
CATV CUSTOMERS                         76,456   48,080   24,939    78,125    28,291     10,314    96,102    63,703    426,010
CATV PENETRATION                        21.3%    19.2%    19.6%     20.2%     25.9%      23.2%     21.6%     21.1%      21.1%

Quote

27.06.1996

Telewest has become the first cable operator to sign up the Sega Channel, which offers customers 25 Sega Mega Drive games each month for about pounds 10. The creative has been designed by ad agency Feref and advertising will feature in the regions as cable operators sign up the channel. The first press ads will appear in the south-east from Friday June 28 and the TV advertising will feature on cable and satellite in the appropriate regions. Flextech is handling the pounds 1m marketing campaign and distribution for the Sega Channel.

So out of those eight franchises North East & North West were still running in 1997 according to STC, whilst it supposedly also launched in South East.

This post has been edited by Pirate Dragon: 26 March 2015 - 01:17 PM

[Overlord]

>Andi Peters

That's amazing. Well, I guess it at least made London then (which makes sense, I don't see why the capital wouldn't get it when somewhere like the North East (no offense) did. Part of the problem is that this sort of era is JUST when the web was young enough to exist to the masses but the numbers were small so it's hard to dig for stuff. Newsgroups might not be a bad bet actually, they'd still have some weight at this point in time. Google Groups isn't being the most help, though.

[Black Squirrel]

Have some more juicy photos of watermarked Andi Peters Sonic Knuckles action


Some people might be able to work out where that is.

[ICEknight]

Seeing the pink Knuckles design again makes me wonder if there was ever a Sonic 3 prototype build with it, back when the game was still using Sonic 2 sprites.

Also, it's surprising to see Sonic's head spikes looking so on-model, in that suit.

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 26 March 2015 - 03:59 PM

[Black Squirrel]

STC Issue #84

http://media.sonicsc...omic/084/17.jpg
http://media.sonicsc...omic/084/18.jpg

This says a lot about the internet - scans of Sonic the Comic have been around for ages, but apparently nobody read this far (except this Sonic the Comic Wiki which might be taking the "wiki" thing to the extreme).

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 26 March 2015 - 04:09 PM

[Pirate Dragon]

Cool, so just South East (Essex and Kent) at launch followed by North East (1st of September), and North West (1st October). I guess the London "launch" was just a media launch rather than an actual service launch. I guess it never actually launched in South East until a bit later, probably July 1st based on the date of that STC issue and the dates of the other regions. Maybe it never launched in London after all, although Telewest seemed to have been limited to Croydon and nearby areas. I've only really come across posts by people from Liverpool and Newcastle who say that they had it, so I guess that's where Telewest's North East and North West franchises were focused.

[Pirate Dragon]

https://web.archive....out/franchises/



North West: Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens, Wigan, Blackpool
North East: Gateshead, South Tyneside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, North Tyneside
South East: Maidstone, Gravesend, Basildon, Chelmsford

I guess that after seeing the figures for those regions Telewest decided it wasn't worth the investment to install the necessary equipment in their other franchises. If only it had launched in the UK at the same time as the US whilst the Mega Drive was still relatively popular.

[Black Squirrel]

Canada
http://strategyonlin...12199-19960610/

Argentina
http://adage.com/art...-channel/11884/

also found me a clean photo.

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 27 March 2015 - 04:05 PM