I saw the siiiiggggggnn and it opened up my eyes, I saw the siiiigggggn…. Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there. For some reason I felt like crankin’ up Ace of Base today and dance like it’s 1994. Oh yeah, and I guess this video, too. My hometown boy Chris Bieniek over at Video Game Ephemera recently (a week is recent, right?) uploaded a video that he ripped from a VHS tape that SEGA’s PR firm sent to VideoGames magazine eons ago.
Absolutely Rose Street was a half-hour infomercial created by SEGA to spread the word of the (then) up-and-coming 32x peripheral for the SEGA Genesis. Because SEGA believed that the Saturn would not reached these shores in time, the SEGA 32x was considered to be an entirely new console. This add-on failed to attract third-party developers due to the coinciding release of the SEGA Saturn in Japan and in the end was considered a commercial failure. But enough about doom and gloom, let’s go back to that totally rad video!
You could tell that this video came out of the early 90s; Those haircuts, that denim, dem graphics. SEGA tried to appeal to the insomniacs/twentysomethings/stoners by airing this video late at night. The video came off as a pilot episode to a show similar to 90210 or My So-Called Life. The plot of the video surrounds a group of young folks and their show called Game Beat, “a cable TV show hosted by Christina Savage and her hotheaded sort-of boyfriend Max Jackson.” The video even has cameo appearances from Sam Nicholson (produced Tomcat Alley and Midnight Raiders) and American McGee of Doom and Alice fame.
Needless to say, this is a fantastic piece of Nostalgia and I’m glad Chris was able to upload this so we can bask in all its grungy SEGA glory. What are your favorite memories of the SEGA 32x? Discuss below!
