Digital distribution is par for the course these days — regardless of your platform of choice. Sure, the PC gamers have Steam and GOG, but the consoles are heavily entrenched in the world of digital distribution as well. With the Xbox 360 and PS3, these concepts finally made their way into the mainstream, and the current generation is even better in that respect. Even so, the concepts behind digital distribution have been around for decades — long before household internet connections were common.

Since 1981, the gaming industry has been actively trying to solve the problem of digital distribution. Custom cable services, direct connections over phone lines, and screwball modem accessories are all artifacts from the 1980s and 1990s. It was very much the wild west in terms of networking, and we owe much of our enjoyment to the toil these companies went through to deliver games over the wires. To pay homage, let’s take a look back to see just how downloadable content and digital distribution came to be.

PlayCable

For a short period of time in the early 1980s, Intellivision owners could buy a novel add-on device called the PlayCable. When connected to participating cable networks, this device actually allowed small titles to be downloaded directly to the system. For a monthly fee, the PlayCable allowed access to a cycling library of titles, and effectively introduced the idea of downloadable video games. Sadly, this expensive peripheral never saw widespread adoption, and it was discontinued only a few years after its release.

GameLine

Designed to work with the Atari 2600, this third-party device was capable of downloading new games over a common telephone line. Using this unique modem accessory, users could dial directly into a server and access a selection of titles. By relying on the telephone network instead of custom cable systems, anyone with a reasonably clear telephone line could directly download new games. While this specific service only lasted for a short while, the company behind the GameLine eventually garnered success under the name America Online.

Sega Meganet

In 1990, Sega launched its Meganet service exclusively in Japan. With the use of an expensive modem accessory, Mega Drive owners could connect over phone lines to download small, simplistic games from Sega’s servers. Due to the limitations of the hardware itself, the downloadable games remained extremely simple, and the library had very little crossover with full retail games. In the end, the service didn’t gain enough traction among developers to make it outside of Japan, and it quickly died out. Meganet wasn’t much of a success, but that didn’t stop Sega from iterating on the concept over and over again.

Sega Channel

Three years later, Sega announced a brand new service aimed at bringing downloadable games to the Mega Drive (better known as the Genesis in the US). Dubbed the Sega Channel, this add-on sat inside the cartridge port on the Mega Drive, and was wired into the household cable line via standard coaxial cable. With dozens of full-fledged games available to download at any given time, this implementation was substantially more robust than the failed Meganet service.

Despite significant support from its cable partners, the Sega Channel only maintained roughly a quarter-million subscribers during its peak. By the time the hardware rolled out to consumers, the next generation of game consoles was well on its way. In spite of its poor timing, the Sega Channel properly delivered on the promise of downloadable games until it was discontinued in 1998.

Dreamcast

Sega continued tooling around with online connectivity with the NetLink modem for its Saturn Platform, but it wasn’t until the Dreamcast made its debut that Sega returned to the idea of downloadable games. With a built-in modem, and the ability to upgrade to a broadband adaptor, the Dreamcast was the first online-ready console released to the public. While complete games were never released digitally on the Dreamcast, it did offer downloadable content for a number of retail titles. For example, Phantasy Star Online received a number of new items and quests directly from the development team — a very novel idea at the time.

Sega constantly pushed the envelope with connectivity and downloadable content on its consoles, but its countless business mistakes eventually caught up with the Tokyo company. Less than three years later, Sega exited the hardware market completely. Thankfully, Microsoft picked up right where Sega left off.

Next page: Microsoft, Sony, and the modern era