I just walked into Myer (old school bricks and mortar department store), and as I was walking past the big screen tvs, and one was playing Sonic and Knuckles. I had to do a double take. Myer hasn't stocked video games for a few years now, due to the rise of JB Hifi, but they were flogging one of those crappy mega drive clones. It took me back to the first time I played Sonic 3, which was at a mega drive kiosk in Grace Bros (another department store, which in later years merged with Myer). When I first got hold of the controller, someone left it in 2 player mode, and I didn't understand why Sega took sonic in this split screen direction, but I soon figured how to get back to the main menu and start playing the game for real. I distinctly remember going to bed every night humming the hydrocity tune so I wouldn't forget it during the agonising wait until my birthday when I finally got to own Sonic 3. I'll have to swing by again and take a picture.
I remember a local shop having a Megadrive display in the window with Sonic 3 running, 2 weeks before release! Must have been a review copy or something, nothing different from what I remember!
My favorite memory of department store kiosks would have to be circa 2002, when Gamecube demo units had Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, and you could play City Escape. I'd gotten damn good at the level since it'd come out on Dreamcast, and I remember attracting a crowd of about at least a couple people around me every time I'd play it.
I was hoping this thread was going to be about moments in which you saw something pertaining to the Sonic fandom that was so bewildering that it made you question if you were awake or just having a fever dream.
Once I went to a local Six Flags park, and while walking around I spotted a Kiosk with Sonic Generations on a big screen... like, a month before the game was set to come out. It had Modern and Classic Green Hill and City Escape, if I remember correctly. I went up and played each stage a few times since there was no line or anyone besides the attendant, really. He was wearing a SEGA shirt, but I think he was a Six Flags employee. He didn't seem to know much about the game when I attempted to strike up conversation. That was pretty cool. I was pretty pumped for the game and didn't think I'd get to play it early.
Here's another one: There was a Woolworths (remember that?) in town which had a TV displaying Sonic 2 in the video game section as late as 2000 (Guess someone lost the key to the cabinet containing the Megadrive!)!
A local Gamestop back in 2005 had a copy of Sonic Gems Collection on the demo kiosk. A kid was playing Sonic the Fighters and this was the first time I had seen or heard of the game. Later that year, I bought a used copy and I didn't know the exact contents of the game, so imagine my surprise when I find out Sonic R is in it too (I still have the case, its one of those generic Gamestop/EB Games used covers). Ah, good times.
+3 But, about the subject on matter, I remember copies of Sonic 2 for the Mega Drive for sale at the flea markets, in Brazil, before the release date. Someone was playing a different version of "Aquatic Ruins" in the kiosk. Memory fails me right now, since I was way too young, but I didn't have a Mega Drive myself at that point (but my cousin did, and we would borrow from her regularly at some point). When Sonic 2 MD was released and my cousin got it, I always found it weird that the Aquatic Ruins I saw way before was different. However, a childhood friend got the game earlier in this very same place; he would say that he has gotten "this Japanese version of Sonic 2, where everything is different, and super hard to beat". I don't know where he got this creativity to call it a "Japanese version", but I didn't know any better, and wholeheartedly believed it, until I learned about what a prototype is. Yes, he was talking about what we call the Sonic 2 Simon Wai Beta. I also saw a curious Sonic 3 cardboard box at some point in my childhood.
In relation to the above post, sometime in 2000-01, QD (a British cheapo kind of shop chain) had a clearance on Megadrive games. In this clearance was a copy of Sonic & Knuckles but in a standard box (not the easily breakable cardboard one it usually comes in. Anyway, long story short we didn't buy it as we already had an unboxed S&K cartridge......Instead my dad bought Boogerman..... As time went on, I was beginning to doubt my own memory of seeing this but it was only until checking the wiki that I realised that there were such copies about. On an unrelated sidenote, I miss those days where you could find a Master system for £2 in a second-hand shop and get crap tons of games for 50p at a car boot sale. We have a copy of Sonic CD which we found for a measly £1 in a second hand shop. Price and purchase date stickers won't peel off. D:
The last build of S3 Alone was on November 20, 1993, so it's the final game on an EEPROM cart, nothing new.
I've never really had a moment like that, every time I went to stores growing up they usually didn't have a Sonic game on the machines, when I tried the Saturn it was SEGA Rally, when I tried the Dreamcast it was Crazy Taxi. I guess the closest thing that happened was hearing the Sonic music medley at video games live. Interesting, where does it mention this on the Wiki? All it says it that it was shipped in a cardboard box, those are the only versions I've ever seen, at least in North America.
Playing Sonic Adventure 2 on a Dreamcast demo unit at my local 'Wacky Warehouse' in 2000/2001. Later that year, I got a Nintendo Gamecube with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle.
I remember playing Sonic 3 on the Sega Bus at Longleat in 1994 while my parents & brother were playing Virtua Racing Deluxe =P They were promoing the 32X but I didn't have 3 at the time and it was far more interesting to me.
I remember playing Sonic 2 at a Fiesta grocery store before it was released (but only like a few days). I remember it was distinctly before Sonic Tuesday because I was counting down the days. I remember running, like literally running to the kiosk to play. The demo was on Chemical Plant Zone and I remember thinking it was the last level of the game because it reminded me of Scrap Brain Zone. I must have talked about that game the entire ride home, I was so incredibly stoked. I had to wait a while longer till christmas to play it proper.
GUYS I JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING. In the '90s, there was this police news TV show in Brazil that used to air on afternoons. Long story short, for whatever reason, they were showing kids somewhere else in Brazil playing in what appeared to be an event and/or an arcade (thing is, there have never been gaming conventions in Brazil until 2005), and I distinctively remeber a kid playing Sonic 2... in an arcade cabinet! :o I remember that image pretty well in my head, because I remember that the kid was sucking at (stuck, trying to get past) the quarter pipe right at the beginning of Chemical Plant for the entirety of the footage. And this happened way before the release of Sonic 2. Not even Sonic 2 for the Master Systems was released yet. What was that, anyways? Edit: this is the show, by the way. Indeed, it used to air from May 20th, 1991 to December 6th, 1997. This corroborates the info in my memory. I feel tempted to try to find episodes of this show between 1991 and December of 1992 to see if I find the aforementioned footage of Sonic 2. It seems that those things are almost impossible to find nowadays.
Come to think of it, I remember on Sonic 2sday, there was an appearance in town by a guy in a Sonic costume :P I remember giving him a high five (or a low five, seeing as I was 7) aaaaaaaaaaaand that's about it!
Maybe it was Sonic 2 at a Mega-Tech or a Mega-Play? Sure, those were released after the console version but who knows, maybe beta or foggy memories about the time that was...
The thought of it being one of those arcade machines definitely crossed my mind. And I'm quite sure that those are not foggy memories at all; I remember it clearly that my brother and I were waiting for the launch of Sonic 2 (SMS) during that period, so much that, when he arrived from his extra-curriculars, I told him: "they showed footage of Sonic 2 on the TV!" I was right about the fact that it was Sonic 2, at least. :P That's why I want to get ahold of the episodes of this TV show circa that time, but so far my research have been returning empty values.
