Early '80's SEGA Ads Are... Interesting.

Thanks to the awesome free to use television archive site fuzzymemories.tv, operated by The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, I came across three very old SEGA ads for games released to arcades, Atari and ColecoVision consoles. That's right, these are pre-Master System ads! Funny how SEGA was a publisher then, and they're a publisher now. When you think about it, SEGA really wasn't in the console business for long when you look at their entire history as a company.

After the break, check out three old ads!

Even More Jazwares Sonic 20th Anniversary Figures!

I've held off on sharing a lot of these as I was awaiting to have every figure that I wanted in my hands. Now that that time has come, I can finally show off everything in one go, so prepare yourself for an epically sized Sonic action figure post. Hey, at least it's better than me spamming SEGA Memories with a new figure every day. Who wants an article dedicated to a Silver figure? I know I don't. After the break: a lot of stuff!

Dreamroom UK 2011 is Today!

Watch live streaming video from gagaman at livestream.com

Today is the day before the 12th anniversary of 9/9/99 and because I won't have time to livestream tomorrow just before barry's one I've decided to dedicate today for my show!

I will be starting at 1pm UK time (7:00am Eastern Standard Time) will take a couple hour break somewhere between 3 and 5pm, then return continue on into the night! That's a lot of Dreamcast gameplay!

So make sure to come and visit at the video link above sometime today for the celebrations! Then tomorrow it will be Barry's turn for him to treat you to some Dreamcast gaming goodness!

EDIT: It's over! Thanks to everyone who popped in! If you missed out you can watch it in the 'Dreamroom UK 2011' folder here. It was running for roughly a total of 8 and a half hours! Here is a list of the games that were played throughout the day:

• Mars Matrix
• Segagaga
• Gundam E.F.F vs Zeon DX
• Marvel Vs Capcom 2
• Rush 2049
• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
• Alien Front Online
• Daytona USA 2001
• Power Stone
• Pro Yakyu Team de Asobonet!
• Zombie Revenge (complete play-through of arcade mode)
• Densha Deo Go! 2
• Sengoku Turb - Fanfan I Love me Dunce doublentendre
• Fast Striker
• Heavy Metal Geomatrix
• 18 Wheeler

Sonic Generations Europe Collector's Edition: OH MY GOD.

...

So yeah, would you look at that. Sega have just revealed the European collector's edition of Sonic generations and boy is it something special. Here is Sega's announcement copy-pasted:

Celebrations continue in Europe for Sonic the Hedgehog’s 20th anniversary with an impressive collector’s edition for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 versions of the upcoming Sonic Generations game.

The Sonic Generations Collectors Edition combines limited edition collectables based on the upcoming game, as well as assets handpicked by Sonic Team to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary, which provide the ultimate celebration of Sonic for fans new and old.

Included in the collector’s edition is a collectable figurine featuring both Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic, an exclusive, individually numbered commemorative “Gold Ring”, and a “20 Years of Sonic Art” book, containing never before seen sketches and images from the past 20 years. Also contained in the Collector’s Edition are the ‘20th Anniversary Sonic Soundtrack’ featuring a selection of tracks handpicked by Sonic Team, and the ‘History of Sonic: Birth of an Icon’ documentary, an exclusive collection of interviews and footage charting Sonic’s life from inception through to becoming one of the most iconic characters in videogame history. Limited edition lenticular packaging and bonus additional downloadable content for the game are the final components that make up this unique collector’s edition for Sonic Generations.

So there it is. A statue, a gold ring, a soundtrack, a documentary DVD, downloadable content and an art book! It looks as though this is going to be Europe only for some reason, at least for the moment anyway, sorry Americans.

Take my money Sega, all of it.

EDIT: It has appeared on Amazon UK now for the price of £85. The retail price is apparently £99.

Jet Set Radio Fruit Machine (and more)

So recently in my eBay hunts for anything and everything Sega I came across this oddity. I had a crack at bidding on it but lost out though it didn't go for any where as much as I thought it would, but it's worth talking about I think.

Finding one of these in the UK is extremely rare as they were only seen in Japanese arcades. It's a jet Set radio fruit machine! The one on auction did not take money but rather tokens. The main draw of this machine the screen at the top of it which, judging from videos, uses in-game graphics from the Dreamcast game. Is this footage pre rendered videos or is this machine running on Naomi/Dreamcast like hardware?

There are a few videos of this neat machine on Youtube, which you can check out after the jump!

The Elusive McDonalds Eggman Toy Appears Once Again!

Regulars to SEGA Memories should know about the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 McDonalds toys and how Japanese fans were treated to a very different looking Eggman toy. Gagaman covered it not too long ago. While Westerners received an Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog design of Robotnik, the Japanese received the original in-game Eggman design. Since 1993, the alternate Eggman toy occasionally appeared in books (as Gagaman mentions in the above link), the Sonic 10th Birthday Pack and online. Most recently, the McDonalds Eggman appeared in an online auction at rinkya.com. The auction also includes Sonic, and both toys are unopened. The only downside, the price is set at over $50 and that doesn't even include whatever shipping is. Still, it's great to see more images of this elusive toy! After the break, check out two more images of Eggman and Sonic.

Classic Tails Can Party Like It's 1992

I'm back with another of the Jazwares Sonic 20th Anniversary figures! This time we're looking at an old favorite: Classic Tails and Grabber from 1992. This has got to be one of my favorite figures yet, as it represents my favorite Sonic game and includes a badnik from my favorite zone, Chemical Plant. Tails looks great. He has that wide-eyed happy Japanese design and looks great next to the classic Sonic figure.

Sonic 20th Anniversary Figures Are Here!

Jazwares has finally shipped the first wave of Sonic the Hedgehog 20th Anniversary figures to stores! I feel like we've been talking about this line forever. Since February, we here at SEGA Memories have been eagerly anticipating this action figure line that promised characters (and enemies) from Sonic's twenty year history. Details were spotty, but thanks to convention photos we were able to piece together what would be the collection. Now that the first wave has hit, and details have leaked about the second wave, we know what figures are out there and what to expect.

After the break we take a look at 1991 Sonic, 1998 Sonic, 2001 Shadow and 2010 Tails!

Awesome Vanquish Action Figure from Square Enix

I had always thought that Square Enix only churned out Final Fantasy action figures. But apparently they do more than just Cloud and Yuffie, they also have produced stunning figures of characters from Metal Gear Solid, Batman: Arkham Asylum and even SEGA's own Vanquish. Revealed at Comic Con is this amazingly detailed Sam Gideon. I mean, just LOOK at that thing! Makes my Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters figures of the 90's look like crap by comparison. Of course, with great details and articulation comes a great price: figures in the Play Arts Kai line retail for around $40-$50. Thats more than I spent on my copy of Vanquish! Of course, the figure looks great, so I could easily see the price being justified. Just think of it as a statue and the $50 doesn't seem so bad.

At the moment the figure has yet to go on sale, nor have I been able to find a pre-order link, so consider these to be a first look only at the moment.

[source: Kotaku]

Sonic Adventure 2 Era Fan Comic - "Chao Fan World"

Digging through my old image files, I came across these remnants of Sonic fandom past: my old Sonic Adventure 2 chao fan comic "Chao Fan World". Dated August 20th, 2001, these Sonic Adventure 2 inspired comics began when I frequented the forums at The Sonic Foundation . As forum members began to raise their chao, they shared photos and drawings of their weird creations. Thanks to SA2's hero/dark theme, players were able to raise some pretty crazy looking chao. From angels and rabbits with pumpkin heads to legless bat creatures with skull heads. At the time, I had wanted to create a Sonic fan comic, but wanted to create something a bit more offbeat. So, I ignored the main characters of the Sonic universe and instead focused on the chao. After putting out a call for forum members to share their chao, I put together a short lived fan comic called "Chao Fan World".

After the break, check out the four episodes of the comic along with a comic cast page!