I was born in 1984. I was a kid when Sonic had just made his big debut in America. Ah, I remember those times well... I was between 5-10 at the time. I was frequently visiting one of my mother's friends whom I affectionately called Lady Liz at the time. Her husband, a bit of a man child, had gotten a G1 Genesis and as many games for it as he could. This included the coveted SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1. God, I loved visiting and playing that game! I would play others when I got tired of it. I was young, and beating games was not my strong suit. I could maybe get past 3-5 levels of any one game at best. I was saddened when I learned, some time later (I want to say a few years, but not too many), that she had sold the Genesis and its games in a garage sale. She felt sorry because she would have gladly given it to me for free had she known how much I loved that system. But my mother felt so bad that she got me a G2 Genesis around the next gift-giving holiday. God, I loved it so much! I had to get as many Sonic games for it as I could as well as all the other Sega games I enjoyed and any other extras I could get my hands on. Keep in mind, at the time, I all ready had a NES. I had gotten one when I was younger. But by this particular moment in my life, I had a best friend who was getting me interested in more video games and helping me expand my collection. That's right, Sonic was in my life BEFORE I had any actual friends. And as soon as I had my hands on every Sonic game for the Genesis (minus Mean Bean Machine), I played them until my wrists gave out! I was beating levels just as good as the real Sonic, had all the motions down. I was so good, I could perfectly imitate those demos you see if you never press the START button, and I could even play better then that! My friends were all stupified when I knew all the secrets to max out the extra lives as soon as possible and even knew how to do some speed runs. ...But the best part of my story is how Sonic came back into my life. Genesis was great, and over the years I explored a few other games, but I quickly grew tired of everything I had. I was in my high school years. All my friends were leaving to pursue their lives and had no time for me. All I had were the MP3s I could find on the internet, back when file-sharing programs were popular and no one was using bittorrents. I found myself with a void in my life, and by sheer coincidence, I found MP3s of songs from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. No one I knew had even HEARD of the Dreamcast at the time! As soon as I was able, I got a Dreamcast and rekindled my love for Sonic the Hedgehog. I've been a die-hard Sonic fan ever since. He's a good friend who will never leave my side, no matter how fast he may run. I might not play video games as often as I use to. I can't do speedruns, and sometimes I don't even beat the games. But as a Sonic fan, I'm here to stay.
Oyy this would have to be Christmas one year I received my first Genesis. As you may have assumed,it came bundled with Sonic 2. I believe I was around 5 or 6, because my dad had to help with the setup of both the Genesis and the game itself. What really surprised me was that my dad was playing just as much as me in the beginning run, even going so far as to get mad at me if I reached a level he hasn't. I distinctly remember one night I had snuck upstairs after everyone went to bed and was playing one of the special stages, not remembering if it was the third or fourth emerald. In any case, I was overly excited at winning this gem and yelled in excitement really loud only to have the controller whisked out of my hands moments later by an upset father. I was then grounded for a couple days after that, but I did get the joy of watching dad attempt special stages in that time only to lose at some of the easier ones before. After a while he lost interest in the game, only making it as far as Oil Ocean so I then was left to my own devices and later on beat the game as well as these special stages. The franchise has kind of stuck with me since.
I was very young, but I am quite sure he ran into a Motobug and thus ended his own life. Vague memories of Spring Yard Zone, being amazed by its visuals and finding it quite a difficult level and if I finally make it through the Labyrinth Zone would more than likely be the death of me. Although there is one memory that burns brightly. It was common for my father's employee to find gaming carts in houses before they demolished them, apparently he found a bunch of them and my father knowing that I liked to play games quite often got a couple of them, and in the pile were Sonic3 and Sonic&Knuckles, previous Sonic games were quite hard for me so I'd play them until I get a game over, and Chaos Emeralds were out of the question to gather all. Sonic3&Knuckles had a save feature, which prompted me to play the game knowing that even if I had a game over, I'd still have some progress and the game was much easier than the previous ones in general, so I was hooked on this massive game that had (at the time) endless possibilities, you could play as three characters, they all had their special route and trademark, the colours were simple but blue, red and yellow as their own back then defined them too as different. It blew my young mind and with some extensive gaming I ended up gathering all the Chaos Emeralds and unlocking Super Sonic which I imagined was quite the secret character. I couldn't of asked for a better gaming experience, that was when Sonic ran into my life.
Ah... I've wanted to answer this question. Warms my heart up. Hope you have taken a deep seat... I'm about to go on a classic KingofHarts rambling session. I'm proud to say that despite being the mere age of 2, Sonic had been a part of my life since his very debut in 1991. At that time, I obviously couldn't play worth shit, and probably didn't do too much past the first Motobug. But my mom would play it a lot. The image of the cool blue hedgehog and the grass and palm trees is one of the few memories of those early years of my life that I still remember vividly. It left enough of a lasting impression that I had always wanted to play. Unfortunately, due to events I don't even recall, My mom and I were separated from one of the earliest released copies of what I thought was the greatest thing to grace a TV. So much so, that for the next 4 years, I was unhappy... wanting to play it again, drawing horrible crayon renditions of the lovable blue critter. When I was 5/6 I recall playing Sonic 2 with my babysitter. I remember her. Her name was Janet and she lived just down the road from me in the neighboring town of what I now call my hometown of Littleton, NH. Finally, prayers were answered on Christmas Day, 1996. To this day, it stands the test of time as the all-time greatest Christmas I ever had. My little brother, a year old at the time, got a giant bouncy house with balls galore. (Mind out of gutter you guys) and I got a Sega Genesis package with Sonic 2 included... but that wasn't all. I also got Sonic 1 with it! World Series Baseball and Prime Time NFL Football w/ Deion Sanders were a part of the package, but my dad enjoyed those more than I did. You'd never guess based on this story that my mom was poor at the time, she couldn't get her baby boys much on Christmas that year... but I remember that day, I had already gotten much more than I had even asked for. I didn't really care for much else for my birthday or for Christmas after that... other than finding out that Sonic had more games out there... But that day will stand as one of the greatest of my entire life, and the sole reason I am a true CLASSIC Sonic fan. I had that old system for 10 years, before I let some "friend" borrow it, just for him to never return it. I hope to see that fucker in hell.... After that... I had no interest in the then-"Modern Era" games, and obtained a Sonic Action 4 Pack for the PC, with Sonic R, Sonic CD, S&K Collection, and SEGA Smash Pack 2. I would then give that to my brother, as I finally gave in and started playing the more modern (and dissappointing) games of Sonic, as well as a PS2 Collection of Sonic/Sega Classics, entitled Sonic Mega Collection +. This was the only thing keeping me attached to the series for some time. Finally, we fast forward to 2 years ago, to THIS EXACT DAY. Amazingly, I knew nothing about the existence of hacks. I knew of emulators, but didnt bother getting one. I watched a YouTube entry of Sonic Megamix, and Welcome to Sonic Retro, KingofHarts! The rest... is history. The greatest gift I could ever receive now, besides my girlfriend, is some classic hardware and an old piece of shit CRT TV to run it on... with a Mega EverDrive. I don't need much else after that. I'll gladly receive donations under the table
