Here’s a nice thing about Manx TT Superbike from 1996, when SEGA was merrily burning through the nest-egg it built up during the previous years by paying to put its logo in places and on clothes.

“I was sorting through a few things at the weekend and found these two pics that I thought I would send you. They are from when we sponsored a bike team that we entered into the Isle of Man TT races to promote Manx TT on Saturn in 1996. The Riders were called Jim Moodie & Shaun Harris. They not only raced on the IOM, they also raced at Brands Hatch in the Production TT series that Jim won.”

“The design of the bikes & leathers were done in house by the two guys responsible for most of the cool stuff produced by SEGA in the Saturn era – Steve Cross & Mark Hartley. Didn’t overly do much for the sales of Manx TT though but it was good fun going to the races. The best bit about Manx TT was the Sheep cheat…”

“…which was born on my stag weekend in the IOM when I met Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the team who were putting the original Arcade game together, we got them pissed in a bar and convinced them to put in the level, it was ported over to the Saturn but didn’t help much with sales” – Andy.

UNSORTED.

It came as a 688k PNG with 300 words and a threat. From “Jon” again.

THE BACKSTORY:

“Someone in the comments suggested that a reader – with too much free time, a vague interest and a basic understanding of ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ – should consider doing something like this at some point.

//Artistic thought process//

“A moment of inspiration struck me on Thursday, and I sought out that choice image of Mr. Kutaragi (courtesy of UK:R’s bandwidth). I decided against the customary ‘Save Image As’ menu command, opting instead to swiftly drag the image to my desktop (a feature that makes Macs so very lovely for doing unproductive crap like this).

“For comic effect, I enlarged the photo. Next, I cut around the heads using the tool that looks like a knotted umbilical cord, and spent at least 15 minutes trying to line up the estranged body parts. The results were very satisfying.

“Several other ideas were then tossed around on MSN, such as the inclusion of a prototype PlayStation 3 on the bench, party hats, and one of those animal cages found at the end of an act in Sonic the Hedgehog. Unfortunately, these additions seemingly detracted from my original, horrific vision.

“I fully encourage… no, scrap that… I fully expect, demand and require the UK:R community to step up, churn out and e-mail in a collection of uninspiring spin-offs, so as to extend my fifteen minutes of fame and further contribute to the downfall of modern society.

– Jon

“P.S. If you use this photo on a t-shirt, please can I have one? Actually, make that two… I’ll give one to a friend, as he is likely losing his job, and will soon be spending every waking moment in a grotty gym called Zeus, drinking cartons of Ribena alongside women who actually look more manly than him.

“P.P.S. Please don’t tinker with my paragraph formatting again.”

We’ve checked with someone still in their 20s, and have been told that a “boombox” is a bit like a radio only mainly used for the playing of urban music in which the protagonists aggressively shout about buying a car that’s more expensive than their rival’s car over a repetitive loop of sound.

We hope that clears it all up for you.

It works, has a screen and controller ports, and would therefore let you play Dreamcast games anywhere there’s a plug socket. A bit like a… Dreamcast. Loads more photos of the Dreamcast-in-a-radio modification can be found here and there’s a literally appalling video of it in action here, if you’re as bored as we are of today already.

It’s fair to say the printed word loses virtually all of its magic when reduced down to five CD-ROMs with felt-tip pen descriptions.

Auction here, if you know someone who knows someone who inherited the rights to the ZZAP! brand name and back catalogue and think a complaint might be in order.

A man failed to win the proper prize, but was given these promotional Pirate TV “dog tags” for simply being brave enough to take part. SEGA – always giving comfort to the downtrodden.

“I appreciate that what with the SEGA world being the newsworthy place that it is today, you don’t have many slow news days. But just in case you do ever find yourself in such a situation, here is some random SEGA merchandise for your perusal.”

“When I was a kid I went to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, and there was a SEGA bus demoing Sonic 2 and the Mega CD. There was a speed compo on Sonic 2 and needless to say, I didn’t win. But I did get these amazing Pirate TV dog tags.”

“One of the pictures has 1 English pound for scale. I used a pound because it was nice and shiny, like Sonic’s rings :(” – Anthony.

Incorporating Reader’s Podgy & Under-Exercised Legs.

“My friend told me to email this over to you. This is what life looked like under the last Conservative government. I spent many hours digitally masking the faces using the latest in ‘big white square’ technology. I have two more photos, but the technique is very tiring. You may only be interested in the t-shirt, but the overall compilation of the shot – from the contrasting shades of green, to the menacing fence in the background – deserves special praise.

“This is irrefutable proof that I was leading the charge against Sony’s evil PlayStation brand long before UK:R joined the fight. Shame on you. Oh, and don’t bother looking for any metadata… USB was only introduced five months earlier, and didn’t gain any serious traction in the marketplace until 1998” – Jon.

Here are some photos of whatever Nintendo’s latest revision of whatever that plastic standy-on thing’s called. Sorry we can’t be any more accurate than that, we really have not been paying attention to anything about games at least the last 18 months.

Don’t know what terrifies us more – having to do exercise, being near women in sports clothes, or being made to take our shoes off in a public place.

OFFICIAL CAPTION:
“In this photo provided by the American Heart Association and Nintendo of America, consumer Erica Maynard of Newport News, Va., demonstrates how active-play video games like Wii Fit Plus can be a part of a healthy lifestyle.”

OFFICIAL CAPTION:
“In this photo provided by the American Heart Association and Nintendo of America, Neil Meltzer, American Heart Association chairman of the board, enjoys playing Wii Sports Resort for Nintendo’s Wii console after announcing a new strategic relationship between the two organizations at an event in New York on May 17, 2010. The American Heart Association and Nintendo will be joining forces to promote physically active play as part of a healthy lifestyle.”

It’s not really to do with games, but it’s got guns in it and games also have guns in them and people like guns and this isn’t today’s “main” update ANYWAY.

Read the thing about it here, including a rather panicked explanation about it definitely not representing that man you’re not supposed to do drawings of.

Viral marketing. Dreamcast 2. Blah blah blah. Good god, we’re even bored of listening to our own predictable internal monologue. How much longer must we endure this… this… this LIFE?

Found here and sent in by a “Bitmupp”.

Or it might just be how the French do games adverts.

There’s another one up on VG247 if you’re suddenly more than a bit interested in another bloody game about driving.