Happy New Year!

It's just after midnight here in Thailand, so all the very best for 2010 (or 2553 as it is in the Thai Buddhist calendar)!

Happy New Year!

It's just after midnight here in Thailand, so all the very best for 2010 (or 2553 as it is in the Thai Buddhist calendar)!

My wife has a proper web presence now

Further to my post in my personal blog earlier this year listing all my different places on the web, I am pleased to say that my wife Su is now on Facebook, plus she has a Blog and a YouTube channel of her own too. Top girl!

My wife has a proper web presence now

Further to my post in my personal blog earlier this year listing all my different places on the web, I am pleased to say that my wife Su is now on Facebook, plus she has a Blog and a YouTube channel of her own too. Top girl!

Merry Christmas!

It's one minute past midnight here in Thailand, so it's officially Christmas Day here now! On that basis, even though it's probably not quite actually Christmas Day yet wherever you are reading this, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!!

I hope you've enjoyed my blogging this year - check out the rest of this blog here and my other blog here to make sure you haven't missed anything, because there are loads and loads of lovely free online games and wallpaper backgrounds listed throughout both blogs.

Merry Christmas!

It's one minute past midnight here in Thailand, so it's officially Christmas Day here now! On that basis, even though it's probably not quite actually Christmas Day yet wherever you are reading this, MERRY CHRISTMAS to you!!

I hope you've enjoyed my blogging this year - check out the rest of this blog here and my other blog here to make sure you haven't missed anything, because there are loads and loads of lovely free online games and wallpaper backgrounds listed throughout both blogs.

Sega Memories DeviantArt Group

Where have I been then? Not writing Sega memories articles that's for sure, poor Barry has been doing all the work lately! To sort of make up for it, today I set up a group on DeviantArt to collect all the best fan art I can find on the website, much like what I've done here before with the Sega Fan Art Showcase articles. If you're signed up to the website you can send in suggestions to add to the collection too. I still haven't got quite my head around every element of this newly made feature of DeviantArt, so bear with me, but there's already a small lump of art collected up to see.

The Top 10 Video Games of 2009

The Daily Telegraph newspaper recently published its idea of what the top 10 video games of 2009 were, and you can read a summary of their list here:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2. Street Fighter IV

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum

4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

6. Wii Sports Resort

7. Assassin's Creed II

8. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

9. Left 4 Dead 2

10. DJ Hero


TIME Magazine also recently published their version of the list (which you can check out in full detail via my other blog here), and it is quite different because it includes only 5 out of the 10 games in the Telegraph's list, and places the Telegraph's number 1 game at number 10:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

3. DJ Hero

4. Borderlands

5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

6. Geo-Defense Swarm

7. Scribblenauts

8. Halo 3: ODST

9. Assassin's Creed 2

10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves


To my way of thinking when comparing these two lists, "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" must really be the best game of 2009 because it is number 1 in TIME's list and number 4 in the Telegraph's list, with the runner-up being "Batman: Arkham Asylum" because it is number 2 in TIME's list and number 3 in the Telegraph's list. What do you think? :-)

The Top 10 Video Games of 2009

The Daily Telegraph newspaper recently published its idea of what the top 10 video games of 2009 were, and you can read a summary of their list here:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

2. Street Fighter IV

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum

4. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

5. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

6. Wii Sports Resort

7. Assassin's Creed II

8. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

9. Left 4 Dead 2

10. DJ Hero


TIME Magazine also recently published their version of the list (which you can check out in full detail via my other blog here), and it is quite different because it includes only 5 out of the 10 games in the Telegraph's list, and places the Telegraph's number 1 game at number 10:

1. Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

2. Batman: Arkham Asylum

3. DJ Hero

4. Borderlands

5. New Super Mario Bros. Wii

6. Geo-Defense Swarm

7. Scribblenauts

8. Halo 3: ODST

9. Assassin's Creed 2

10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves


To my way of thinking when comparing these two lists, "Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" must really be the best game of 2009 because it is number 1 in TIME's list and number 4 in the Telegraph's list, with the runner-up being "Batman: Arkham Asylum" because it is number 2 in TIME's list and number 3 in the Telegraph's list. What do you think? :-)

AoStH Volume 3 DVD Spindashes into Early 2010

TVShowsonDVD.com has recently reported that the long awaited third and final volume of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog will be released sometime in early 2010. Unlike the previous volumes, volume 3 will be exclusive to the Shout Factory online store. The reason for this exclusivity is that previous volumes did not sell well in retail, so to save some pennies the set will only be available in one place.

DVD producer Brian Ward assures fans that this will still be a factory produced DVD and not a DVD-R like the on-demand shows coming from Amazon.com. As for the packaging and extras, nothing has been revealed just yet. There is a chance that in cutting costs, the set might be reduced to being in a simpler DVD case, but the menus and video quality will remain the same. I've e-mailed Milton Knight to see if another drawing lesson or the recently released pilot footage will appear. If he writes back, I'll post it here.

Edit: Milton wrote back! There is a possibility that volume 3 will contain an additional bonus feature! I won't spoil it here as I don't want to overstep anything between Shout Factory and Milton. ;)

Volume 3 will be the final batch of 90's era non-Japanese Sonic cartoons on DVD

European AoStH fans who have the region free complete series are probably wondering why us Yanks won't just import that. Well, the Americans who already own two-thirds of the series probably would prefer to just get those final 21 episodes online within the country rather than rely on international ebay auctions.

The Old Sonic Adventure Website is Still Awesome

In terms of advertising, today's games share much in common with the games of ten years ago. Print, video and web are all heavily utilized methods of getting a game's name to the masses. While television and print adverts of the past stand up well to (and in some cases exceed) today's tv and print ads, one form of advertising has greatly evolved; website advertising.

Web advertising of today features streaming HD trailers, interactive interfaces, mini-games, countless connections to social networks and in-depth development diaries. Compared to gaming websites of the past, today's gaming websites technically blow them out of the water. But don't let flashy interfaces and slick buttons turn you completely off to old school gaming websites. Today I want to share a real gem of a website: the Japanese Sonic Adventure website!

Okay, it doesn't look like much. But that list of links feature a treasure trove of low resolution images, tiny video clips and hilarious Sonic Team snapshots of the golden years. Rather than go on and on about the website, I invite you to check it out yourself. After you check it out (or before, your choice) I will present:

Eleven Awesome Things on the Japanese Sonic Adventure Website!

1. The Recording Diary is hidden within one of the links and features photos from the New York, LA and Tokyo recording sessions of the soundtracks. Unfortunately, only the New York sessions were documented, with the LA and Tokyo sections "under construction".

Real life inspiration for Station Square?

Okay, this is more disturbing than awesome.

2. The Japanese Launch looked to be a blast! Check out the many photos taken of the event.

The Dream Team

3. Big Blue Painting. Not too much context for this, as I can't read the descriptive text. It looks to be a massive blue SA logo and Sonic painted outside on a wall.


4. Character Adverts. while all of these can be found on youtube, it's fun to see them in their original form. Remember when tiny mpeg videos were awesome? Here's my favorite:




5. Low Res Screenshots. Ah, the days when we'd move within inches of our screen and squint at tiny gameplay images.

Compare this (already full size):

To this (click for full size):

6. Chao Tossing

Sonic Team weren't shy with showing what sorts of abuse were possible

7. Sonic Reveal. Imagine that it's 1998 and up until then the only Sonic you knew was the short pudgy speedster of the Genesis days. One day Sonic Team teases you with this:



Then eventually all is revealed with this:


It must have been really exciting to see the brand new Sonic. Oh wait, I was there and it was exciting! Although, I was rather concerned that the in-game model would be a contorted freak. Thankfully, the artist renderings took many more liberties than the in-game models did.

8. The Yuji Naka Morning Show wasn't a reality. Rather, Naka posed for this picture while recording a radio spot for the game. Give it a listen. Isn't he adorable?


9. The Sonic Adventure Theme download was a straight forward mp3 download. No flash player, no restrictive access. Simply the full tune in three formats.

Rock it, Naka!

10. Dozens of vacation photos! That link was just a sampling of the many many pages of photos taken during Sonic Team's trip to South America to research Mayan temples as reference for the Mystic Ruins. If you ask me they just wanted a free vacation.

Llama racing never made it into the final build of the game.

11. Subway adverts. Before the logo and character art were revealed, this simple campaign was seen throughout the Japanese transit system. Compared to the cluttered adverts usually found on trains, this was eye catching in its simplicity.

Wish I could have been there... to pull one down and stuff it under my shirt.

There are many more treasures to be found on the Sonic Adventure website, and once you're through with that there are a number of other older sites on Sega of Japan's Sonic Channel. Happy hunting!