The evolution of video game media

From jumper cards to hard disks, these are the cards, cartridges, and drives that have shaped the world of gaming.

Downloading Games



During the 1990s, Nintendo and Sega experimented with delivering games on demand via various transmission media. The Sega Channel was a subscription-based service that allowed Sega Genesis owners to temporarily download games to a local adapter (1) for play. The BS-X Satellaview provided similar functionality for the Super Famicom in Japan over Satellite TV networks. However, users could store downloaded games indefinitely in interchangeable Memory Paks (2) that would fit into a larger adapter (3).

Key: [1] Sega Channel Adapter (Genesis, 1994), [2] Nintendo BS-X Memory Pak & [3] Nintendo BS-X Special Broadcast Cassette (Super Famicom, 1995)

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