# Sega Channel

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 25, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404 "2003-02-25T15:19:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJ555_The_Golfer)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404/1 "2003-02-25T15:19:22Z")

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Did Sega have a TV channel where you could play games? How did it work?

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**Author:** ![TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@TJ555\_The\_Golfer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJ555_The_Golfer)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404/2 "2003-02-25T15:34:21Z")

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I just found some information on the web here:

[http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/courses/ee4984/Projects1995/gutolazz.html](http://fiddle.visc.vt.edu/courses/ee4984/Projects1995/gutolazz.html)  
However, it didn’t answer some questions.

Could you against other players through the cable connection? Could play the games and not be connected after you downloaded them?

Did anyone here have this?

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**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404/3 "2003-02-25T16:11:39Z")

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I don’t remember how it worked, but I’ll post just to say “yeah, I remember that too.” I think you needed to own a Sega Genesis for it to work (i.e., you couldn’t just play with a regular TV remote).

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**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404/4 "2003-02-25T18:24:54Z")

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I remember hearing about that too, though I didn’t know if it actually ever came to be. It was basically just like renting the game, you couldn’t play against other people or anything.

Kind of like those new on demand movie channels with digital cable service.

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**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sega-channel/157404/5 "2003-02-25T23:30:42Z")

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Basically, here’s how it worked. There was an adapter that plugged into the Genesis’ cartridge slot. The games were downloaded to it and remained in memory until you turned the Genesis off. The channel featured a few games each month, and sometimes new games would be pre-released on the channel. IIRC, it cost something like 9.95/mo.

The problem was, almost no one got it. I always wanted it, but there was no way for me to. Sounded cool, but I bet it wasn’t.