Nice write up frenchfrynoob, I enjoyed reading it.
Atari, later Sega, always appealed to me more than Nintendo. I enjoyed all the Mario games, but as a child I did not see any appeal or desire to have a overweight, believed to be Italian, plumber as a role model. Sonic was fast, had a somewhat sarcastic/smart talking persona and early on had a more prominent pro-enviromental message, which went along with Captain Planet and other cartoons airing on TV at the time. So that all hooked me quite early.
A bit later, I also picked up from the evening news that Nintendo was somewhat of a cheerleader for the Parents Music Resource Center and Parents Television & Media Council, so they were frankly lame to me. Sega allowing blood in Mortal Kombat was an important issue at the time, ha.
I always played the Sega demo units when I went to stores with my parents and I would guess I first encountered Sonic in 1991 at the electronics section inside a Montgomery Ward that was an anchor store to my somewhat (20-30 min drive) local mall. I definitely know now that those employees working there were wondering when I would leave. My parents would just leave me there and go about their business. That demo unit tradition never stopped until the early 2000s.
Even when I was working and driving, if I stopped into the mall, I would see what was new for the Sega Saturn, Game Gear and later Dreamcast.
Now I am old and invest in Sega. The company oddly means a lot to me, from arcades to home consoles and even amusements. The first cutting board I got for my camper van was a wooden Sonic the Hedgehog one, heh. :) though sadly it got destroyed over the past very cold winter.
Nice write up frenchfrynoob, I enjoyed reading it.
Atari, later Sega, always appealed to me more than Nintendo. I enjoyed all the Mario games, but as a child I did not see any appeal or desire to have a overweight, believed to be Italian, plumber as a role model. Sonic was fast, had a somewhat sarcastic/smart talking persona and early on had a more prominent pro-enviromental message, which went along with Captain Planet and other cartoons airing on TV at the time. So that all hooked me quite early.
A bit later, I also picked up from the evening news that Nintendo was somewhat of a cheerleader for the Parents Music Resource Center and Parents Television & Media Council, so they were frankly lame to me. Sega allowing blood in Mortal Kombat was an important issue at the time, ha.
I always played the Sega demo units when I went to stores with my parents and I would guess I first encountered Sonic in 1991 at the electronics section inside a Montgomery Ward that was an anchor store to my somewhat (20-30 min drive) local mall. I definitely know now that those employees working there were wondering when I would leave. My parents would just leave me there and go about their business. That demo unit tradition never stopped until the early 2000s.
Even when I was working and driving, if I stopped into the mall, I would see what was new for the Sega Saturn, Game Gear and later Dreamcast.
Now I am old and invest in Sega. The company oddly means a lot to me, from arcades to home consoles and even amusements. The first cutting board I got for my camper van was a wooden Sonic the Hedgehog one, heh. :) though sadly it got destroyed over the past very cold winter.