Entries in the ‘GONZO FIELD REPORTS’ Category:

THE SEGA ARENA “DREAMING FACTORY”

Via a man who received these from another man, who lives in “Japan”. We have no other relevant or more specific geographic data than that to pass on.

sega-arena 1

Photos taken with a Nikon E7600, if that helps at all.

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Nice sign. We’d buy that off the liquidators.

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SONIC / RUBBISH

We’ve almost certainly done this before, but we think it’s safe to assume that most people who would’ve seen it have either died or moved on, so here it is again.

sonic-bin-bournemouth

“I think you’ll agree that this photo – taken in an arcade in Bournemouth – is proof that Sonic will put his name on any old rubbish these days. The arcade on the pier opposite also had a Sonic air-hockey table. I couldn’t take a photo though because some kids were playing on it and I didn’t want to be branded a pedo” – Matt.

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SONIC BALLOON PART OF MARKETING EFFORT AT ‘OUTDOOR MARKETING FEST 2010’

A man went to an outdoor marketing event to see some major brands in action. One of which was SEGA-related, as SEGA must still have a lot of these balloons leftover from when Sonic Adventure launched for the first time.

You’d think they would’ve perished in storage by now.

little-boots-festival-sonic

“Above-average Sonic balloon enjoying Little Boots at Isle of Wight Festival. Note crease between head and body for increased blue hedgehog fidelity. Taken with inherited Sony DSC-P10 with dodgy battery” – Gav.

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KONTORLAND KT-103 – THE BEST VIDEO GAME SYSTEM

Not sure who that’s according to. Also not sure if Sonic has been turned black on purpose in an attempt at disguising him, or if it’s the result of poor lighting conditions, cheap print reproduction on the box and the submitter using an iPhone – creating a bad photograph ‘perfect storm’.

kontorland-1

“WARNING! this email contains horrible counterfeit graphic usage of Sonic (and Tails) and the Dreamcast spiral!”

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“Greetings from Istanbul, Turkey. I present you KONTORLAND. Here you
can see it is being marketed as THE BEST VIDEO GAME SYSTEM, with appearances from Sonic and Tails.”

kontorland-3

“But here’s the ugly truth. This machine is what we label here as an ‘underpass console’. They use grotesque yellow cartridges and are mostly sold at public underpasses, the last hope of videogaming for the ghetto kids because daddy’s bringing a PlayStation home.”

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“Oh no, wait. its a Kontorland! And a 999999999999 in 1 game cartridge! (still beats PlayStation though)”

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“Also the spiral like symbolism on the logo cannot go unnoticed. it surely challenges the limits of our imagination. Peace” – Ant.

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MARGINALLY TOPICAL SONIC GRAFFITI SIGHTING

Topical in that it was spotted outside a “polling station” by which we think the submitter means it was found on the walls of a school somewhere. How annoying that the one day you’re allowed to be in/near a school is the one day there’s no bloody point.

sonicgraffiti polling day

“Dodgy Sonic-related graffiti spotted an the wall of my local polling station. Sonic 4 PM” – Barry.

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“WORKING FOR A WORLD FREE OF PSP”

Let’s make it clear that we are IN NO WAY laughing at the degenerative brain disease Progressive Supranuclear Palsy or its sufferers, nor are we ‘taking it lightly’ at all. However, that said, it’s nice to know there are other organisations out there that are dedicated to eradicating PSP.

We have unknowingly been working toward a common goal.

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“So I’m out in the field (pub in Covent Garden) on the afternoon of the London Marathon, observing all the super-fit runners with their shiny medals while having an afternoon pint for breakfast and ordering some chips. I see some girl with her boyfriend. She has this promotional t-shirt on with the letters PSP and a slogan along the lines of ‘working for a world free of PSP’. Without thinking I go up to her and ask if I can take a picture of the back of her shirt where this slogan is. She asks why, her boyfriend looking pissy. I explain it’s an in joke thing to do with the letters PSP for a mate’s website. ‘I’d rather you didn’t’, she said, ‘it actually refers to an illness, which my father suffers from. So it’s not funny'” – Adam.

psp t-shirts

If you want to give some money to a charity they have a range of anti-PSP t-shirts for sale all branded “Working for a world free of PSP”. They would DEFINITELY work ironically in a video games environment.

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THE WORLD’S MOST APPROPRIATE IMAGE

The only thing that could improve this photo it if there was a stack of SEGA Saturn Magazines and some unrecognisable CD-Rs poking out of the top of the bin.

sega-logo-bin

“I saw this on the side of a bin in Shoreditch, London. Free advertising for the SEGA news shop there, or signs of a resurgence of the brand amongst the fashionable youth of today? I’d say ‘sorry for the photo quality’, but I won’t – was taken with my lovely HTC Hero phone” – Andy.

ABOUT ANDY’S HTC HERO
Sadly outdated a mere eight months after launch and lumbered with Android 1.5. You can’t pull the wool over our eyes, Andy.

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QUIZ: WHAT’S SEGA ABOUT THIS?

Here’s a photo sent in by a reader. Can you spot what’s SEGA about it? CLUE: It’s not the general sense of decay, or anything as obvious as “the sky”.

sonic malta 1

“Hello there. I was in Malta last year, and I just noticed Sonic has appeared in one of the photos. Now, he’s very small and distant, but I’m sure it’s him. I thought you might like it to play a sort of ‘Where’s Wally?’ with it. Perhaps not though, you might just want to pretend you never saw it. I’ll leave it up to you” – Chloe.

sonic malta 2

That’s what’s SEGA about it!

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SATURNS, ETC

If you can’t be bothered to flesh out the sign for your own business, you obviously haven’t got the mental strength to make it a success.

megagames-morecambe

“Here’s a photo of Megagames in Morecambe. It says they buy and sell ‘Saturns etc’ but as they appear to have closed down I couldn’t check. Perhaps they were unable to keep up with demand?” – Paul, Lancaster.

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MONKEY BALL BANANA LABEL PHOTOGRAPH

We got sent this photo of some bananas. Several times. We suspect (well, KNOW) it’s a promotional activity from SEGA, but the submitter seems to be suggesting he just happened to spot them on some bananas in his kitchen.

We replied asking “Are they promotional SEGA bananas you got from SEGA?” and he replied sending another photo taken at a higher resolution. So here it is. We’ll probably never get to the bottom of this.

monkey ball banana adverts

“Some game with some kind of animal from some weird company published on that strange white thing that I found out about when I was about to eat a banana. As you can see those bananas spent some time at my kitchen and I only noticed now that there is…(insert previous sentence)” – Dmitry.

UPDATE: BANANAS CONFIRMED AS “REAL”
“The Monkey Ball stickers on Dole bananas are a real thing. My girlfriend was cooking dinner last night and I saw one on a freshly purchased bunch from the Safeway in Redmond, Washington. I wanted to jump up and down and say “AHHH MONKEY BALL!!! I LOVE SEGA” and start singing one of the raps from Metropolis Street Racer but managed to contain myself. I think the banana was significantly more delicious than other non-SEGA-branded bananas though” – Colin.

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