More Sega Channel prototypes dumped.

Yeah that was me, took me a couple of days to get in to SR. Still hoping that I didn't violate any rules or anything.

 

Thank you for posting it! Im not a staff member, but I am pretty sure that you're not violating any rules. Thank you for preserving this, seriously

 

Here's a couple of documents that might be useful to someone...

 

https://segaretro.org/Sega_Channel

Not really... but these should give you an idea of how the Sega Channel worked and the purpose of those monthly image discs:

https://segaretro.org/File:SegaChannel_Applications_ScientificAtlanta_Document.pdf

https://segaretro.org/File:Sega_Channel_Digital_Transcoder_US_Manual_(General_Instrument).pdf

https://segaretro.org/File:Sega_Gam...l_Computer_US_Manual_(General_Instrument).pdf

https://segaretro.org/File:Sega_Cha...uter_ACC-4000_Manual_(General_Instrument).pdf

 

oooh

Sega Channel US schedule
September 1996 is a month we don't have a listing for, so well worth someone running some magic on that disc dump. Alongside all the other reasons.

I don't know what an "SA Format" is.

 

Yeah... I'm also curious to know what's on that disc... and I'm not a "techie" when it comes to these things... so if someone more knowledgeable can come forward, all the better...

 

Awesome! I always hoped that some of these would show up. SA = Scientific Atlantic?

Edit: Partial content for September 1996;
Edit 2: Think Tank, which means this may contain undumped Chessmaster and/or Klondike.

 

Thanks for the info! Yeah I've been scouring the internet for more info on this, I had the Sega Channel when I was a kid and I loved it until one day they took it away. I actually still have the SA adapter, that would be awesomely cool if there was a way to load the data back into it just to see it work again. I've downloaded the prototype and demo ROMs and tried those but they just don't have the same "magic feeling" as the original downloads did and the game that you clicked on suddenly appears.

 

So... Any progress on this?... Maybe show it to the Hidden Palace guys and see what they can come up with?... Or is it just going to sit here and gather dust?

 

Assuming it's a good dump, it's not mountable in Windows, so probably not ISO 9660. It might be High Sierra format as looking through the Sega Channel dev discs there is a Sierra folder (also, maybe SA = Sierra), which is mountable on Linux. I don't have Linux installed on my current PC yet, but I'll look into doing that tomorrow. I suspect that it might be difficult to make any sense of the code on the disc even if we can read it, but maybe we'll be lucky.

In other Sega Channel news (so much lately!), Billy Time! (thanks to GhostCorpsGenesis for originally recording and sharing) has uploaded a tonne of videos from Sega Channel, mostly late 1997/early 1998, which is later than we currently have schedules. Unfortunately it's difficult to exactly date them, so may have to be added to the schedule as unknown dates.

Some interesting things I've noticed.

This guy claimed that BreakThru! was on the Sega Channel, but there was never any proof, until now! The MD version of BreakThru! wasn't unreleased after all;



Also some pages for Chessmaster and Klondike;





There's four of these later ones (with Cheater Cheater in the menu) which all show the full schedule and all have The Lost World: Jurassic Park. As that didn't release until September 1997 it dates those to after then (the service ended after June 1998).



There is a small clip of from earlier in 1997 from after Test Drive was no longer a regular section (not much to put in there by this time), but whilst Prize-O-Rama was still included. The Info Pit has more info here too, including Digital Spotlight, where they digitised viewers artworks.



Compared to the original artwork from Sega's website;



There are also two more from earlier than this (maybe early 1997, possibly 1996) where we only get a partial look at the arcade sections;



Image limit, continues below

 

There's also footage of Earthworm Jim VideoHints 1 (there was also a 2nd one), which is just a rolling demo showing you how to beat bosses etc. A few new screens for that;



There's also footage of Pulseman which shows it still had Japanese and wasn't fully localised, along with footage of Mega Man: The Wily Wars which "the Wily Wars copyright info matches what is in the Genesis Mini ROM." according to Kiddo Cabbusses in the comments, so I guess we have the US version of that.

It's interesting to see how they dealt with games which were too big for the adapter. At first they just cut content in order to squeeze them down to size and called them "Limited Edition" (Super Street Fighter, World Series Baseball '96), later releases got split into 2 parts. I should try to document all of those;

 

Without wanting to sound like a smart arse or offend you... the Sierra folder is just the Sierra 68000 C Compiler from Sierra Systems (Larry Rosenthal)...

 

The discs were inserted into one of these Computers

which contained this "Data Delivery Board"

 

Yeah, although that's for overseas, in the US it's a bit more complicated due to being broadcast by satellite to the cable headends.

But maybe the disc contents aren't obfuscated and it's the software on the computer that deals with all of the complicated stuff.

 

https://segaretro.org/File:Sega_Gam...l_Computer_US_Manual_(General_Instrument).pdf
See pages 7 and 8...

 

Here's a copy of the SA Data Delivery system Install manual missing the first couple of pages..
https://retrocdn.net/images/4/42/Sega_Channel_SA_Data_Delivery_System.PDF

 

Wow!... That's the spirit!... Thank you very much, mate...

 

Just try'n to pitch in where I can. I also found this GI SGT-3000 adapter installers manual, I don't know if this has been around but I've never seen it before, might be useful somewhere somehow.

https://retrocdn.net/images/f/fa/GI_Sega_Channel_Adapter_SGT-3000_Installers_Manual.PDF

 

Dude, anything related to the Sega Channel is useful to us (be it documents or even a simple sticker) so don't be shy about sharing anything with us. And even though you're new here, we're all a family...

 

Thanks!

I might be nearing the bottom of my magic hat but I'll keep looking, I know that I saw some docs on the data delivery system for the SA digital music system, before it was named DMX I think, although it's not part of the Sega Channel the architecture looks to be very similar complete with QPR modulators and all. I'll see if I can get that stuff scanned and posted tonight.