The Sega Channel Demo cartridge is back on eBay.

LocalH · Nov 24, 2009

I do not have possession of the cartridge yet, I assume it's in transit now. I have, however, seen pictures of the PCB, and have determined that the cart is most likely 8Mbit (same type of board as my S3 EPROM but without any wiring to make it compatible with 16Mbit of ROM, and the card part # is "8MEGA-4EPROM"), meaning I should have no problems dumping it. My Genesis+SMD is already hooked up at the moment, so as soon as I can get it dumped I will release it.

Hivebrain · Nov 25, 2009

ICEknight said:

An ebay auction was posted, then somebody from here who didn't want to contribute to the wiki got it.

That was it.
Click to expand...

Actually, that person never paid for it and the game was relisted. It was sold to an unknown party before I got the chance to post it here.

Kiddo Cabbusses · Nov 25, 2009

Aren't there a few ways to identify a buyer on eBay, actually? I'd need to check that Digitpress thread on that, they figured out quickly who "purchases" something on ebay often.

LocalH · Nov 27, 2009

I just received the cart in the mail today. Currently, I'm having to bounce back and forth between Mom's house with the internet and my apartment with my Genesis, so I'll get this dumped later today and post the ROM either tonight or tomorrow.

LocalH · Nov 27, 2009

Double posting to make sure anyone who has read my last post still sees it as new.

Have fun.

Interestingly, the ROM is only 4Mbit. Any time you go to an item that would require downloading, a "LOADING" screen comes up, but when it finishes "downloading", it just resets. I think this is a barebones hack of the actual BIOS, with any necessary data hardcoded and cable I/O routines disabled. There's also a "backdrop test" on the main menu that has a sound test included as well.

GoldS · Nov 28, 2009

Wow, awesome. It's been so long since I've heard the Sega Channel music.

I have to say I don't remember these Toejam and Earl style backgrounds. They were more detailed than that. Maybe I got in late.

Kiddo Cabbusses · Nov 28, 2009

The boot-up sequence with Sonic definately does NOT match the final versions. If you compare it to the "Sega Channel Memories" video, you'll see that used different sprites and a different movement pattern.

The Sega Channel Logo is also different.
Otherwise, it seems to have a lot of familiar-looking graphics, although it seems likely that Sega added new graphics later on in it's lifespan, taking a look at some of the stuff in the "Memories".

Unfortunatelly it seems the "Game Guides" section cues the download demos when I try to open them. It makes me wonder if they distributed those as separate ROMs.

... there doesn't seem to be any mention of The Punisher. This doesn't seem to be the Kiosk display I played that one day 14 years ago.
I still do not know whether that was an actual Sega Channel setup or a demo that actually had playable games...

The backdrop/Sound test is VERY neat.

Of course, the biggest question is fairly likely to be "Can we hack it to boot something?"... I wonder, myself. Hrm.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to getting this released. :D

TmEE · Nov 28, 2009

I'd like to see some scans or good photos of the board, both sides...

Shoemanbundy · Nov 28, 2009

Sound tests 13 to 15 are variations of the Sega Channel screen, while tests 17 and onwards seems to be varying takes on the intro with Sonic jumping on the cable or whatever.

Just pointing it out :p

Rika Chou · Nov 28, 2009

This is so cool. Messing around with the menus, the music, everything about it feels so nostalgic. Is that music from ecco I hear on some sections of it? I wonder if the parental control menu is on it, I don't remember how to access it.

Give my thanks to the guy who owns this.

Vague Rant · Nov 28, 2009

Rika Chou said:

I wonder if the parental control menu is on it, I don't remember how to access it.
Click to expand...

Can't say if the parental control menu's in there, but a quick browse though the ROM in a hex editor showed me this:

EDIT: And beginning at 0x3C3C:

THE PIN NUMBER YOU
ENTERED IS NOT
CORRECT. PLEASE PRESS
THE 'RESET' BUTTON
ON YOUR ADAPTOR AND
ENTER YOUR PIN AGAIN.
Click to expand...

Scarred Sun · Nov 28, 2009

Vague Rant said:

Rika Chou said:

I wonder if the parental control menu is on it, I don't remember how to access it.
Click to expand...

Can't say if the parental control menu's in there, but a quick browse though the ROM in a hex editor showed me this:

Click to expand...

I'm more intrigued by that "pay per view game" than anything else—as far as I recall, there were never any premium games distributed over the network, only the "all-you-can-eat" model.

Vague Rant · Nov 28, 2009

Meanwhile, I have zero knowledge of the Sega Channel and only ran this through Gens quickly before I started checking out the hex, but there's some weird stuff in here. Probably easily explained, but like I said, I'm not at all knowledgeable about this stuff.

At 0xE180:

You need:

1. 2 new tires, should be $31 per tire after mount and balance.
2. Put the 2 new tires on the front
3. put the 2 best remaining tires on the rear
4. You do need an alignment, if you don't get one, the new tires will wear faster
Click to expand...

With a truncated repeat at 0xE380.

At 0xE8AE:

Times Symbol Helvetica Book Antiqua & Century Gothic HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript LPT1: PSCRIPT HP LaserJet 4/4M PostScript
Click to expand...

At 0xFA43:

FUNCTION: CCell::BitmapToCell
DESCRIPTION: Converts a bitmap buffer to a cell. Will return the normalized
palette of the cell. This function currently assumes that the
cell is 4bpp with a palette byte on top. For other formats,
we will have to modify this function.
RETURNS: .
PARAMETERS: pointer to a raw 8bpp bitmap buffer (at least 8 pixels tall
width of the buffer;
SIDE EFFECTS: .
REVISIONS: 5/93 -jf-
Click to expand...

It's just full of weird shit.

Kiddo Cabbusses · Nov 28, 2009

I can't even fathom how "Pay-per-view games" could've even worked. As far as I know those never came to be, and I couldn't be more glad - the very way the system was set up, those would be a royal pain in the ass.

Any of the other error messages on there?

Vague Rant · Nov 28, 2009

Kiddo Cabbusses said:

Any of the other error messages on there?
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's got a fair few errors and similar messages.

ATTENTION!

YOUR SEGATV ADAPTER IS
NOT RECEIVING THE
SEGATV SIGNAL. PLEASE
CHECK YOUR INSTRUCTION
GUIDE TO MAKE SURE
YOUR SYSTEM IS SET UP
CORRECTLY. THEN PRESS
THE 'RESET' BUTTON AND
TRY YOUR SELECTION
AGAIN. IF THIS PROBLEM
CONTINUES, PLEASE CALL
YOUR LOCAL CABLE
SYSTEM.
Click to expand...

ATTENTION!

YOUR SEGATV ADAPTER IS
NOT RECEIVING THE
SEGATV SIGNAL
PROPERLY. PLEASE PRESS
THE 'RESET' BUTTON ON
THE ADAPTOR AND TRY
YOUR SELECTION AGAIN.

IF THIS PROBLEM
CONTINUES, PLEASE CALL
YOUR LOCAL CABLE
SYSTEM.
Click to expand...

ATTENTION!

YOU SELECTED GA, FOR
GENERAL AUDIENCES.

SEGATV IS AUTHORIZED
TO DOWNLOAD GAMES
RATED GA ONLY.
Click to expand...

Kiddo Cabbusses · Nov 28, 2009

Since I can't seem to access these "normally", it helps support LocalH's theory that this is pulled right from the Sega Channel's actual code.

Delicious <3

BTW, has anyone compared the data to the current Sega Channel BIOs rom dump?

EDIT: Also, another random thought.

LocalH, you said the ROM was on an 8mb EEPROM, right? Would it be possible that the ROM was 4mb because the other 4mb was reserved for the downloads?

I guess I should wait for the PCB Scans to think about that, though.

biggestsonicfan · Nov 30, 2009

SURE IS TOEJAM AND EARL IN THIS ROM

GoldS · Nov 30, 2009

So anyone know/played the Sonic 3 "Test Drive" while it was still on Sega Channel? Was it ever on?

Kiddo Cabbusses · Nov 30, 2009

Most people didn't hear of Sega Channel until well after Sonic 3 was out - they'd have much more likely played Sonic 3D Blast's "Test Drive".

As for Toejam and Earl, there's an ad saying "Toejam and Earl in Panic on Funkotron" was to be broadcast the following month. :P

ALSO, editing this in from the JP Sega Channel thread in the General Sonic Discussion forum;

moonmaster1 said:

Don't forget, ocean released alot of games around 94/95 that never had a cart release but instead was put on sega channel in the US.

Like Addams Family Values and Mr. Nutz 2.

Also I'm not sure if this will be found as a beta or a sega channel game but its better if I throw it out there. This was found on the recent demo cart dump.

(Credit goes to neovamp from sega-16)
Click to expand...

It clicked on me as I saw that that "The Magical Quest" was, as far as any of us knew up to this point, SNES exclusive up until the GBA remakes.

Oerg866 · Nov 30, 2009

So essentially, SEGATV was the prototype name for Sega Channel? That's pretty damn rad.

And I wonder if this uses SMPS =P

The Sega Channel Demo cartridge is back on eBay.

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