Several VHS recordings of never before seen Sega Channel found and preserved online

The Sega Channel, a long dormant online games-on-demand service for the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive, has long been an enigma in the years since its official sunset in 1998. Very little material from the service has been preserved or documented, and there is still so much that only those who subscribed to the service and have vivid memories of it would know for sure. Thankfully, @Ghostsencore and prolific Genesis romhacker Billy Time Games have come across a smorgasbord of archived VHS tapes containing recordings of someone, presumably the person who recorded the footage in the first place, perusing the menus of Sega Channel during a few months where the service was still alive and well.

To our knowledge, the bulk of this footage is of several periods in Sega Channel history of which visuals and music were never preserved since. The footage comes from two separate VHS tapes dated 1997 and 1998, so we’re looking at moments of Sega Channel from the last couple of months where it was online. While the games shown are stuff we already knew was part of the service, there are some things to note. First, the Earthworm Jim hints video, which was never preserved, is shown here for the first time since the late 90’s. Second, it shows gameplay footage of Pulseman (1994), one of the more well known import games available in North America only via Sega Channel (Which is now currently available again through a different games on demand online service: Nintendo Switch Online). Third, one of the videos shows some Vectorman fan art that one especially creative Sega Channel subscriber sent in to have viewable to other subscribers. Finally, videos show a category made up exclusively of Sonic games on Genesis titled “Sonic Mania”. Who knows if that’s where the Sonic Mania you’re thinking of got its name from?

Plus, the first video also contains footage from a tv series showcasing reviews and strategies for video games called Twitch. (Not to be confused with the popular internet livestreaming platform Twitch.tv.) This is, otherwise, unrelated to Sega Channel, but just happens to be there anyway.

Here’s all the videos in numerical order, coming at you from Billy Time Games’s YouTube channel.

Don’t watch this last one if you don’t want the endings of Beyond Oasis (1995), Valis III (1991), Phantasy Star IV (1995), or Mega Man 4 (1992) spoiled for you.

So what do you think of all this footage? Do you find it all to be a fascinating look at Sega Channel? If you were a subscriber back then, is any of this bringing back any memories for you? Let us all know about it in the comments below.

And, by the way, if you wanna see another Sega Channel related discovery, check out this footage of Garfield: The Lost Levels, playable for the first time since Sega Channel was still around.