Sonic Retro is seeking a professional designer to commission for a project with abstract interpretations of classic or obscure Sega properties. Experience in apparel design, printwork or severe color restriction is a plus. Please e-mail [email protected] with a portfolio (Behance, Dribbble, standalone, etc.) and a desired hourly rate. We pay competitively based on experience, and are willing to pay a premium rate for premium design. No e-mails without portfolios will be considered. Your DeviantART is not a portfolio.
(Thanks, whoever made this on /v/.)
In the modern video game landscape, it takes a lot to get me upset. I pledge no allegiance to any console. I’m not all that fussed about hype around upcoming games. I’m weirdly cool with online video game culture being dominated by male voices. What I am not cool with? Getting facts wrong. I don’t like it when clothing manufacturers get their heritage branding wrong, and I don’t like it when video game companies do it, either. So don’t tell me Sega was established in 1951.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have been working on and off for the past two years on a book about the history of Sega up to 1973 (when the company underwent a restructure and started to look much more like the Sega we’d recognize today), so I will be glossing over certain facts that I could give in more detail…to protect my own research. I do have solid paperwork and interviews for everything being stated here, though.
Now, I will say in fairness to Sega that their own history is not the easiest to understand, I fully understand how they got to the 1951 date. However, it’s not historically accurate: they should have chosen either 1945 or 1956, but not 1951. Heck, they could have even picked 1965 for Sega Enterprises as opposed to the Service Games branch. Let’s go.
If you’re a coffee addict in the UK (and/or you just want to sabotage Costa Coffee), Starbucks is offering a free download of Sonic 4: Episode 1 for iOS now through the 21st in their UK locations. Simply pick up one of the small cards (usually near the register) and the promotional code will be on the back. Please note that for all of you who think you’re going to be sneaky and have a friend pick up codes that they are only redeemable with a UK iTunes account.
For the record, I would have preferred a grown-up Sonic mug that I would not be embarrassed to drink out of, like my current Starbucks mug. Seriously Sega, give me a merchandise license so I can make things 30 year olds wouldn’t have secret shame about owning. 
Most people are at least vaguely aware that Sonic Retro also runs a companion website, Sega Retro, to document all Sega-related history that isn’t explicitly Sonic-y in nature. As part of that documentation, there’s a lot of very basic tasks that haven’t been done that we’re trying to accomplish for the basic good of video game research.
One of those is to get pictures of every single video game made for a Sega system. This seems like it should be an easy task–after all,somebody must have done this before–but it turns out that it takes a lot more time and effort than anyone would have realized. And no, no one else has bothered to try to get good photos of everything.
This is where you come in, dear reader! Each week, we’re going to highlight various items we need scans donated for in hopes that we can build the world’s biggest database of Sega knowledge together. One region, one system, one thing, and a list of what we need. 
How can I help?
We ask that volunteers go through their collections of Sega games and see if they have what we are looking for. This week, we’re focusing on Sega Genesis cartridges from the US or Canada. If you live in Europe or Brazil or South Korea or Japan, don’t worry! We’ll be highlighting things we need from those regions, too–we just don’t want to overwhelm people. A cartridge that is a good candidate to scan will be free of any stickers (such as from a rental place or a price tag) with a clear label that has no scratches or tears on it. This picture of Asterix and the Great Rescue is a great example of a cart scan. If you’re new to scanning, check out our guides on Sega Retro, but if you’re used to scanning, know we prefer 600DPI images digitally downsampled to 300DPI using Photoshop or another high-quality image editor. You can upload the image yourself on Sega Retro if you’re comfortable, or else post in the Sega Retro forum or leave a comment wherever you read this story (front page, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest.) You may also e-mail us scans at [email protected]
So, without further ado, the list of Sega Genesis cartridges we currently need scans of!
