VGHF manage to recover and preserve all SEGA Channel games

Christmas has come early this year thanks to the Video Game History Foundation. The famous non-profit organization dedicated to video game preservation has achieved a true Christmas miracle: rescuing nothing less than the extinct SEGA Channel. Long before Game Pass existed, SEGA experimented with a revolutionary idea that was completely ahead of its time: a game subscription service for its SEGA Genesis console, which they implemented in 1994 prior to the widespread penetration of the internet in most American homes (and globally).

What was SEGA Channel?

This service was available exclusively in the United States from December 1994 until July 1998 and allowed its users to establish a satellite connection through the coaxial cable of cable TV operators. Thanks to this, users could download games that were temporarily stored on the cartridge in order to run them. They could also access demos, trial versions, and game prototypes to try them out. The service featured a periodic rotation of titles very similar to what we see today on modern platforms such as Game Pass. It even came to have some exclusive releases that could only be obtained by being subscribed to the service. Unfortunately, it never fully took off, achieving a peak of only 250,000 subscribers, when SEGA itself expected to surpass one million in its first year of life. Both the exclusive SEGA Channel games and their cartridge-available variants have for years been part of the memories of the few who experienced it and the speculation of those who did not get to live it, until now.

Video Game History Foundation recovers more than 100 SEGA Channel ROMs

After a titanic effort that lasted more than two years by this preservation group and the external collaboration of several people, among them SEGA Channel’s own Vice President of Programming Michael Shorrock, it was possible to recover all the games that were available on the platform. And not only the games—full versions, demos, and prototypes—but also the very menus that were used month by month (with some exceptions). And even versions of these, including French translations intended for the Canadian market, and a bilingual Spanish version for the Argentine and Chilean markets.

Clearly, several of these ROMs correspond to the service’s own menus and interfaces and not only to games themselves, but there are also many games among them, ranging from versions almost identical to their cartridge counterparts, to reduced versions, divided versions, and even versions limited in their content to adapt to the system’s limitations.

Obviously, the main highlight is above all the exclusive games, which until now were considered lost forever. Best of all, all of these ROMs are available to be downloaded at this link. In addition to the ROMs, a collection was created within the VGHF digital library titled Michael Shorrock Collection, which compiles commercials, press releases, promotional articles, and even internal SEGA Channel reports donated by its former Vice President of Programming.

Complete List of Recovered Games

SEGA Channel Exclusive Games

• The Berenstain Bears’ A School Day
• BreakThru
• The Flintstones
• Garfield: Caught in the Act – The Lost Levels
• Iron Hammer
• Waterworld

Variants

• The Adventures of Batman and Robin, Test Drive version
• Comix Zone, Test Drive version (1)
• Comix Zone, Test Drive version (2)
• Earthworm Jim, Test Drive version
• Earthworm Jim VideoHints (1)
• Earthworm Jim VideoHints (2)
• The Great Earthworm Jim Race
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Part A
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Part B
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Test Drive version
• NCAA Final Four Basketball: Special Edition (1)
• NCAA Final Four Basketball: Special Edition (2)
• Mortal Kombat 3, Part A
• Mortal Kombat 3, Part B
• Scholastic’s The Magic School Bus: Space Exploration Game, Test Drive version
• Sonic 3D Blast, Part A
• Sonic 3D Blast, Part B
• Super Street Fighter II: Limited Edition
• Triple Play Baseball 96: Special Edition
• Virtua Fighter 2, Part A
• Virtua Fighter 2, Part B
• World Series Baseball ’96: Limited Edition*
• X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Test Drive version

Prototypes

• Al Unser Jr.’s Road to the Top
• Dan Marino Football
• Light Crusader
• Nick Faldo’s Championship Golf
• Popeye in High Seas High-Jinks
• Shadows of the Wind
• WildSnake
• Wrath of the Demon
• Yogi Bear [Yogi Bear’s Cartoon Capers]

Data Differences

• Body Count (US revision)
• Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
• Primal Rage
• Pulseman
• Richard Scarry’s Busytown*
• Shining Force II

Header Difference Only

• Battle Frenzy (US header)
• Power Drive (US header)
• QuackShot
• Super Hang-On
• Wacky Worlds Creativity Studio
• X-Men 2: Clone Wars