Miscellaneous

Let’s Pretend It’s 1994 For Ten Minutes

Every once in a while, something that has been lost to the ages will creep up out of nowhere, be uploaded on YouTube and promptly ignored for weeks before someone goes “oh man, is that guy playing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in a top hat?”



Uploaded by Chris Bieniek who was a writer for numerous gaming magazines in the 80’s and editor of the gaming mag VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, the video is clearly something that was meant to be cut up with voiceovers by local news anchors talking about groundhogs and hedgehogs and echidnas (oh my). Even if the film drags a little because it is meant to be edited, it is still pretty entertaining, especially when you get to see the crowds of people both playing the game and looking at the Sonic balloon from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which was dragged out of storage for the occasion. Everyone there is so very 90’s. But most important of all, it’s a rare look at just how popular Sonic was back then. Sure, we hear of the statistics that Sonic was the most recognizable character at the time, and seeing the sea of merchandise related to the hedgehog shows he was everywhere, but how often do you get to actually see it in a social context? Aside from hazy memories, that is.

Also, I hope that kid got a copy of Sonic 3. Even if he had one “B” in there. C’mon, mother of 1994, give the kid a break! Do you not realize that there’s a Sonic drought on the way?! You’re definitely not getting that kid a 32X.

Thanks goes to Retro forum member SonikkuForever for mentioning the footage was uploaded in the first place.

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25 Comments

  • Reply

    That was awesome 😀

  • Reply

    Dude Sonic was so over the top in the 90s here in the states. 

    • Reply

      if it wasn’t for the Sega Saturn and it’s games, Sonic would be over the top even by today. Hell, he would even be considered the best video game character of all time, instead of that dick-head mario!

  • Reply

    Maybe I’ve been outta the loop for a bit – but what the hell is the song playing at 7:40 during the 2-player Race?

    • Reply

      Oh Wait…
      It’s just the tail-end of the tune.
      good lord I need to go re-listen to that piece.

  • Reply

    Wow, those people must have been enjoying that a lot. Also, the sound of Azure Lake apparently means SEGA was showcasing the multiplayer capabilities of Sonic 3 as well, which is cool.

  • Reply

    Thanks for posting! I see that the kiosk I have is a variant of the ones at that event. Now I also know the image of Sonic I’m missing on my other one! I wish I could re-live the excitement I felt back when I was about 6 and Sonic 3 came out..

  • Reply

    I like how games back then were considered huge, but nowadays you could fit over a thousand copies of this game on a typical hard drive. Gotta love the advancement of technology.

    • Reply

      true, but when you want to compare how “huge” a classic Sonic game is compared to the modern Sonic games we have today, they will dwarf them.

      • Reply

        Indeed, but it’s still funny to me in retrospect.

  • Reply

    Actually, probably over a million could fit on a 1TB hdd. Maybe more.

    • Reply

      Exactly 262,144 copies of Sonic 3 could fit on a 1TB HDD.

      (1TB = 1024^2 MB, (1024^2) MB/4 MB = 262,144)

  • Reply

    Oh, how I wish I could go back to that magically time.

  • Reply

    Up Up Down Down UP-UP-UP-UP!!!

  • Reply

    A dude can only dream when Sonic gets his blue tail back at the parades. Come to think of it, isn’t it odd how Mario never got a balloon and Pikachu and some other Pokemon have one every year? Here I am thinking Mario was pretty damn popular too.

  • Reply

    I…
    Want…
    That…
    Sonic hat…
    >.<

    • Reply

      lol. well if you want to place a wish on owning something that you saw in that video, you might as well wish for that floating Sonic balloon!

  • Reply

    *sniff* makes me kind of tear up….This makes me think about all the good times sonic’s been through and the not so good times. 20 years and still going strong!!WOOOOOOOOOOOO!

  • Reply

    TOP Hats FTW and OMG this is awesome! Miss the 90’s man..

  • Reply

    playin’ Sonic
    LIKE A BOSS

  • Reply

    I feel sorry for Sega when I look back at 1994 and see how successful it was. It’s a shame to know that ever since then things were not doing so good for Sega. True, they dug their own grave with their own hands by releasing one ill-fated piece of hardware after another. The Saturn is what really bolted the nails on Sega’s coffin. The Saturn’s loss hit Sega so badly that it wasn’t able to recover even with launch of the Dreamcast, which is OFFICIALLY recognized as the MOST succesfull console launch of ALL TIME. If it wern’t for the Saturn, Sega would be as popular as Nintendo, or even more.

    • Reply

      Amen. But mostly, the Saturn wasn’t a bad console in itself. You cannot forget about this small thing:

      Bernie Stolar. He insulted Tekken, a remarkably good fighting game that was going to be released on the SEGA Saturn, but was released in Playstation later on. He criticized Japanese games and RPGs. He said America wasn’t interested in these things. The Saturn actually was a success in Japan. What made SEGA get in deep problems was this:

      The SEGA CD and SEGA 32X were sorta supposed to be the SEGA Saturn. 

      Think about it. 32 bit(though premature at the time)+CD technology= SEGA Saturn?

      SoA’s Bernie Stolar shouldn’t have risked so much with the 32X nor the Saturn’s lack of games and horrible marketing techniques. That’s what pretty much made SEGA get in deep trouble.

  • Reply

    I wonder what the hell happened to those awesome arcade cabinets that they were playing Sonic 3 in???

  • Reply

    AT THE END
    THAT AD
    OH MY GOD, I ALMOST DIED.
    THAT WAS HILARIOUS.

    still, wow. defnetly shows just how crazy the yanks were about sonic in the 90’s.
    well, they still are.
    hm.

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