Remember SEGA Channel from 1994?

Some of you might be to young to remember it ( or was not in your area) but SEGA Channel was one of the first ways to play downloadable games, even some demo's... (besides Cableplay in 1982)

You would go to your cable company and for $14.95 depending on were you live, (I payed $12.95) you would get an adapter that you plugged into your Genesis's game slot. When you turned on the Genesis you were greeted by a channel of some 50 or so Games.

One of the coolest features for this Channel was the way it knew what you liked, (meaning the games you played the most) it would keep for next month, because the games would change / update monthly.

I can't tell you how many endless hours I played this channel, all my friends would come over daily and we would fire up some games..

Just typing about SEGA Channel brings back some damn fine Gaming Memories..

Oh man, do I ever remember Sega Channel!

My family had this service until it was discontinued. I can't remember how long that was, but I don't think I bought or rented more than three games during that time. My SNES started to look pretty lonely.

I remember seeing billboards for it in my city (I live in a small, nowhere city in Canada), and it blew my mind. It was just a close up of Sonic the Hedgehog with the text, "24 hours was the best we could do." Whoa! Games 24 hours a day! They come through your cable?! What witchcraft is this?!

But yeah, certain games seemed to stick around every month, which was cool because I was always ready for more Skitchin'. It also allowed me the chance to play a bunch of games I never would have bothered to rent, but were awesome (note: Awesome Possum was not one of these games).

It's also worth noting that my family didn't even really have a computer until about 1999. And we didn't even know that the mass-popularity of the internet was just around the corner. To be able to temporarily download a game in about a minute seemed so surreal and magical.

Most of all though, I loved the music and sound effects on the interface. They tried so hard to be so awesome. The clip below has a bunch that I remember as well as some that I don't (it's not my video. Just another former Sega Channel user):

Never was able to get this as it wasn't offered in Canada for the first bit and then I got a saturn by the time it came out in canada.

I have to admit though...for a 16 bit era, that was one of the best videogame ideas ever.

I mean, this is pre internet, pre online...Sega channel is todays equivalent of a console being able to time travel.

Sadly I missed out as it was unavailable in my area :(

@disolitude

I'm going to quote you on the time travel comment.

I was a poor little kid back then. I wanted it though.

The super famicom had download content via the actual internet. 

It's nothing new, the nets been around since the 1960s, transferring games back then too :)

If I remember correctly the original famicom tried it's hand at some sort of download service but don't quote me on that.

yea SNES had online but obviously almost nobody got it. I remember they had Killer Instinct and Street Fighter 2 tournaments online, i really wanted to get it. As far as the Sega Channel goes i wish i could have gotten it, too poor at that time.

^ not internet but Satetllite for teh Super Famicom, hence the name

Satellaview.

O rly?  I heard from a site it was like normal DLC, lol, I was looking into the games that were on the service like BS Zelda. (really entertaining btw)

Arg... This was the biggest disappointment that I never was able to get this since I had a Genesis. For one my parents didn't have cable during the 16-bit era. I still remember when it came out how much I wanted it.