Sonic CD is my life.

Sonic CD is something of a special game to me. game play and level layout wise, it's not my favourite game and not even my favourite Sonic game, but the art style, soundtrack and general tone of the game is by far the one that has stuck with me the most ever since I played it in 1994 when I was 8. Incoming long ramble about Sonic CD inspired moments of my childhood and beyond!

The first Sonic game I played was Sonic 2, although I think it may have actually been both the cartoons and the fleetway comic that first got me into the character. We got a second hand Mega CD out of the local newspaper classified section and it came with a bunch of games including Sonic CD. I have owned this copy of the game ever since, mainly because barring eBay I have never seen another copy for sale since, same case with most of my Mega CD games.

Childhood doodles and my top 20 favorite pieces of music from the game after the jump!

A Goldmine of Sega Marketing waffle!

UK: Resistance, the original Sega nutters website and one of the main inspirations behind this blog, have stumbled across a video that pretty much sums up everything that made Sega so huge in the UK back in the 16-bit era, particularly in 1994. This two video spilt into two parts for Youtube and submitted there by Shenmueaddit, gives us a glimpse into all the marketing pies Sega had their fingers in at the time, from TV commercials (Remember the Pirate TV campaign I told you about? You'll see more of it here), radio competitions (Sonic CD music on the radio, folks!), merchandise, that awful Right Said Fred song, the Sega tour buses, the food promotions (Sonic tomato ketchup!), even the sponsorship with Damon Hill!

This, my friends, is why Sega ruled the world (or at least the UK), during my childhood. These videos pretty much sum up what this blog is all about, and the exact kind of content I've been looking for. If anyone can recall and bring up details on any of the stuff seen here (like photos, videos, magazine scans etc), please send it my way and I'll be more than happy to share it here. =)

Sonic 6th Birthday event in Hamleys, 1997

Sonic the Comic were good to me. Hell, Sega in general have been good to me as a fan, but Sonic the Comic really did throw some good stuff my way when I was a wee lad. Not only did I win a Sonic 2 patch from them when I sent in some self drawn Sonic comics, get my artwork in an issues Graphic Zone section which won me a watch, but I also manged to win a competition they held in 1997 for a exclusive 6th Birthday party event in London. Only 100 invites could be won and you could take a mate along with you, so there was a total of 200 of us (excluding parents) going to this one-off party.

Here's the invite they sent me when I won. Yes, I still own it. How sad is that? I also have a letter they sent along with it..

 

Photos of the event after the jump! Whoopie!

My Sonic collection is fairly moderate

Gaga's not the only one who can arrange a decade's worth of Sonic related stuff and take photos of it, clearly. Now, one thing that is obvious is Gaga has far more stuff than I ever will, partly because he's older and was around for slightly more of the stuff, partly because I have lost a handful of things on the way and partly because he has deep issues that have materialised in the form of blue hedgehog memorabilia. Of course, if that's what having issues entails, I'm all for it. Now, I was far less comprehensive about this than Gaga, so I know I've definitely omitted a few things and I've generally just been quite lazy about it. Also, I know there are few things I used to have that have gone walkies, but are ultimately around my house somewhere. I remember specifically having the Sonic pencil cases and two different Sonic rulers(!), the staples to any nerds stationary needs.

More after the jump..

My Sonic Collection is Morbidly Obese.

I got bored yesterday and decided to climb back into the loft and shuffle amongst all the Sonic stuff that is stored up there, and somehow it led to me dragging it all down to take photos of it all together, just to see how much of it I've ended up hoarding onto. There's a few things missing: mainly all the clothing, a bunch of badges and obviously the games, but you'll get the idea that I generally have a feck load of Sonic junk, ranging from toys and books to odd junk like shampoo bottles and an air freshener. I took quite a few photos because this lot took bloody ages to set up. Click to see them in big ol' detail.

Most of this stuff was purchased back when it came out, and after time stored away so it didn't clutter up the place. There is some of the modern Sonic stuff but I don't generally touch any of that mostly ugly Sonic X stuff. A lot of this stuff is nigh on impossible to find now, so I'm glad I kept a lot of it. When I got a lot of this stuff I bought two sets so I could have one packed away brand new and one set to play with. I'm such a geek. =D

Many more photos after the jump.

I got me art in Sonic the Comic, I did!

I promised I would work on scanning as much interesting stuff out of my Sonic the Comic collection (in 300dpi) as I could, so I made a start tonight. This particular scan below more a personal thing than anything, because it's a scan of when, as a lad of twelve, I got a piece of artwork I drew into the pages of the British Sonic comic, in issue 130 released May 1998, to be exact!
You see the comic had a section every issue called the 'Graphic Zone' which is basically a fancy name for a fan art section. Getting an image in there would win you a little Sonic watch of some sort (worth a tenner). I always liked how one of the optional fields next to your name was what Sega consoles you had. I'd like to think stating you owned a Playstation would have S.T.C send shit through your mailbox. At the time I had a Mega Drive II, Mega CD II, Sega Saturn and a Game Gear. Oh how I miss that battery eating lump of plastic. Why did I sell it off so I could get a Game Boy Colour?

It's not just the fact they printed my art, but they also gave it an entire half-page of space, plus this was for the comic's 5th anniversary so the art is featured in a rather special issue. I'm surprised they didn't give that picture below it the bigger page space though, as it's much nicer. maybe all the white on mine saved on ink. Anyway, here's the watch I won from them, which in all honesty I never wore: it just got packed away with all the other Sonic junk I've got sitting in the loft, still in it's package!

This wasn't the first or only time that I had won something in S.T.C, mind. One time I sent in some Sonic comics I scribbled up (it was pretty much all I did draw at the time, hundreds upon hundreds of Sonic comics), and in return they sent me a Sonic 2 jacket patch...which I don't have a photo of right now, but I'll go get one later and edit it into this post. There was also something else I won from them, but I'll leave that topic for another time..

Sega World Videos!

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of love for the old SegaWorld Indoor Park that used to be in London (now just one floor of arcade games called 'FunLand'), but at least there is Arcade Heroes, who back in October got their hands on some juicy SegaWorld videos! The first video they managed to lay their hands on was is a promotional video showing off all the 3D concept planning of the place, and a bunch of footage of the rides that were there which bring back vague but fond memories. It also shows brief clips of what appears to be a Pirate Sega commercial for Virtua Racing on the Mega Drive!

Videos after the jump.

SegaWorld Part 4

Clearly SegaWorld was something extremely important to Sega fans. And by Sega fans, I mean Sonic freaks like Gagaman and myself. As such, I feel it’s only appropriate for me to write about this glorious place in my first entry for this blog.

I actually lived in London whilst SegaWorld was up and running, which meant I got to visit it a good handful of times, which was great for me. However, I’m pretty sure these trips were about 7-9 years ago, so a lot of the details are hazy, but whatever – I can remember a few things.

SegaWorld Part 3

While I have run out of photos I took myself of SegaWorld, I've stumbled across some more SegaWorld related stuff I had up in the loft with my countless other Sonic junk. Firstly, here's a three-page preview of the place featured in a 1996 Summer special Sonic comic, and contains many details (such as the names of the areas and rides) which I had forgotten. Just click to full view and try to ignore the awful 'radical' talk throughout it.

More after the jump.

SegaWorld Part 2

I promised I'd scan in some photos (what small amount I have, anyway) of the now closed down SegaWorld (see further down for the previous article about it) and here they are. Click to full view.

This is the photo you could pay to have done as you walked in from the two flights of escalators. We had two done on this first visit, and I've scanned the one with the least people, as it's the Sonic statue your all interested in. Seesh, I'm even doing a Sonic-ish pose, judging by the hands and feet. I'm surprised I wasn't wearing one of my jackets smothered in Sonic patches, actually.

More after the jump.

SegaWorld Part 1

One of the reasons I wanted to set up Sega Memories was to, quite simply, reminisce about some cool Sega related stuff from the past I remember, particularly the stuff you can't find anywhere on the Internet. One of these is the SegaWorld indoor theme park that was located in the Trocodero, Piccadilly Circus, London from 1996 to around sometime in 2000/2001, when the seven floors were blocked off and one floor has been made room for some of the arcade cabinets in an area they now call "Fun Land". I have some proper photos and other random stuff from the place to show, but for now here's some screen caps I took from an old home video of my first visit, back around the time it opened with a bunch of school mates. Take note these are grabbed from a DVD rip old video cam footage, so there not the best of shots.

More after the jump.