While watching a Youtuber by the name of Ghostrobo “Let’s Play” Lego City Undercover, I noticed a Outrun reference, if you look at the background, one of the banners advertising the Crater has a very familiar font. There are many references in this game including Titanic, the Matrix, Mario and now a outrun reference! Is there any other SEGA games referenced? We will just have to keep our eyes open! To see what the Outrun logo looks like hit the jump!

Want to advertise the work you do on the internet but don’t know where? Well, now I accepting sound clips to air over Sonic Radio during my show to help spread the word of what ever it is you do!

How do I do this, you ask. Well simply record a MP3 message* advertising your work and send it to Segaharrier@gmail.com. Simple as that! 

* Advertisement must be no longer than 40 seconds!

It has been a while since the last interview, so I hope this makes up for it! Hit the jump to read my interview with John Doherty!

Hey John!

 How are you?
Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Heya Doc!

I’m excellent! Just got back from Disneyland and am now sitting on my couch with my cat. Long story short, things couldn’t get any better.

So, a bit about myself. Well, I’m a 25 year old game developer who loves to cook and hang out with my cat. I like cartoons and consider myself a big kid at heart. I really enjoy sitting back on my couch with my cat and watching cheesy b-movie horror movies. I’ll eat anything with pesto on it and I don’t really like raw tomatoes.

I used to work at a rock club doing everything from bouncing, to running light shows. As I got older I realized I wanted to pursue my dream of making games, so I headed off to school and now here I am! I’ve worked on AAA games before but I’m currently pursuing a career with smaller studios. Making the decision to go back to school and pursue my dream was the best (and scariest!) decision I’ve ever made.

Cool, now as this is a Sega Fansite would you like to tell us how you became a fan of the company?

I remember my dad having an NES when I was really young. I would occasionally play games on it but they never hooked me. Then for Christmas I got the most extreme gift a kid could get in the 90s, a Sega Genesis. The console came packed in with Sonic 2. I remember the first time I saw Sonic running, I was blown away. It was so fast and so intense that I immediately became addicted to it. The graphics and music were so much better than the NES, which was my only gaming experience. It made me think I was gaming in the future, as corny as that sounds. I just couldn’t get this game out of my head. When I was at school I would draw out the levels in my notebook and pretend I was playing them. I would rush home every day and try to get faster and faster. I was absolutely in love with this hedgehog and the system.

My Sega fandom stayed with me throughout the 16 bit wars and has lead me to where I am now.

Were there any other Sega franchises you loved when you were a child?

The games that stuck with me from my childhood are generally all Sega games or franchises from Sega consoles. Toejam and Earl, Streets of Rage, Jet Grind Radio and Ristar are all games that have really big places in my heart.

Do you think Sega is one of many reasons why you pursued a career in the gaming industry?

Sega is without a doubt the biggest reason why I’ve pursued a career in the games industry. Not only did they shape a huge portion of my life, but they inspired me to be more then myself. I grew up dreaming about making games, but as a kid there was no such thing as game school. Once I got older and they became very prevalent, it was a no brainer to pursue it because Sega molded my love of games.

Now moving on to the work you do on the internet. Could you tell us what you do on Sega-Addicts?

Well, nowadays I don’t do a whole lot. I used to post news, review games, and write Take Cover!  Now I co-host the Sega Addicts Kids Table podcast. I’d love to be able to do more, but I’m always working >,<.

The podcast is really my contribution now. We like to think of it as the incredibly lax, usually obscene, take on Sega and games in general. It’s been really fun to do, and it never ceases to amaze me that people like to listen to me talk. I do live in the forums quite regularly as well, so I guess that’s another thing I do .

How did you start working Sega Addicts?

I got my start on Sega Addicts by being a very active community member. I constantly posted in the forums, and in the comments on the site. One day, Alex mentioned on the forums that they needed another staff writer. I nervously responded and was writing for the site shortly after! I wrote Take Cover, which is probably what I’m most proud of. I riffed on bad box covers and had a great time doing it.

Moving on to your work in the gaming industry, could you tell us what company you work for and what you do exactly?

So I’ve only been in the industry for about a year. I started doing QA at Treyarch, and am credited on Black Ops 2 because of it.

Now, I’m an Associate Producer at a small studio. We make fun games for kids, and I love every moment of it! Being a producer at a small studio is amazing because I do a little bit of everything. My main duties include: scheduling resources, maintaining the vision of the game, directing the progress of the game, and designing the game and it’s systems. My responsibilities don’t stop there though. Every single day at a small studio is different, and I need to fill any gaps that appear from day to day. I’ve designed levels, created art assets, programmed small snippets of code, edited audio, created art delivery pipelines, and just helped out team members wherever needed.

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I wake up everyday and get to go to a job I love.

What qualifications did you need to work in the gaming industry?

In my current role, my qualifications came from all sorts of places. Before I was in the video game industry, I was a light designer and stage manager at a famous rock club in LA. I essentially ensured that shows went off without a hitch. This taught me how to take something from its infancy, and steer it along until it was complete. My education also formed the bulk of my qualifications. My education taught me how to take a game from existing on paper, and get it in the user’s hands. I learned how to do everything from programming, to 3D modeling, to sound design, which puts me in a unique position to interface better with more people on a development team. I think my most important qualification however is my passion for games. Without this, I could never do the things I do. It informs every decision I make, and helps me stay on focus when things get tough.

Finally what would you say to people who want to work in the gaming industry, got any tips?

My best advice is to do it! I was really nervous when I first made the jump, and it has had plenty of ups and downs, but I would never change my decision to work in games. If it’s something you’re truly passionate about doing then you shouldn’t let anything stop you!

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 8 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

This week we interview the one and only Gareth Spriggs (FTA) from FindTheComputerRoom. Hit the jump to read the full interview! 

Hey FTA!
How are you?
Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Howdy! I’m very well thanks, how are you? Okie doke, well in west Philadelphia born and raised, in the playground is where I spent most of my days…. I grew up a life long Sonic fan, while the NES was the first console I ever received, the Mega Drive was the first console I ever wanted to get, and after getting Sonic 2 I was hooked. While growing up a love of movies and movie making took over me, that’s what I studied, that’s what I do for my profession now, and I’m very lucky to be able to mix two of my biggest passions into one lowly YouTube channel.

Could you tell us how you became a fan of the Sonic The Hedgehog series?

My earliest memory of the Blue Blur is being about 4 or 5 and being at a parents friends house for a party and seeing the box for Sonic 2, I had never heard of the franchise before and just from seeing that box, I was hooked. After that I eventually got a Mega Drive with Sonic 2 and played that to death, before working my way through the entire 16-bit Sonic catalogue. At the same time my brother was also a fan and was collecting the Fleetway produced ‘Sonic The Comic’, which I would also read, as well as watching both ‘Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog’ and ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ (SatAM) on TV. I remember seeing the intro for SatAM for the first time, I was expecting AoStH to be shown but instead got SatAM and I thought it was the greatest opening of a cartoon show ever, and that got me hooked on watching Sonic cartoons…..until Underground came along and killed that notion.

What do you think it was about Sonic that got you hooked?

In all honesty I think it was the fact there was a lot of media around the games that helped me get immersed more within the world of the games and the characters, more so than other franchises. Apart from playing the games, which as everyone knows are just some of the best games around (at least the Mega Drive ones), I grew up with the comic, 2 different cartoons and a large selection of toys; all of which I guess just made me connect more with Sonic. As a child and to this day I still play games staring Mario and Kirby, but I’m no where near as intimate with those as with the hedgehog.

Is there any other Video Game franchises that you have fell in love with?

Mario and Kirby. As I said earlier, the first console I ever owned was NES and the first game I ever owned was Super Mario Bros 3, and since then I’ve always kept up with Mario, though I must admit my passion for the Italian Stallion has wavered over the last few years, I still keep up with Kirby. Though his games may be really easy and considered too childlike, I have more fun playing them than most other franchises. I also dabble in the occasional game based off a franchise I follow, like the Transformers: War for/Fall of Cybertron, The Arkham Batman games and various Spider-Man and TMNT games.

Now moving onto the work you have done on the internet. Could you tell us about FindTheComputerRoom.com?

FindTheComputerRoom.com started over 6 years ago, and it still isn’t online so that shows you the amount of skill I have. Years ago I and one of my closest friends who some might know as Torch, were massive fans of an internet Sonic sprite comic called ‘Power Rings’, it made us laugh on a weekly basis so one day we decided to make our own. We spent weeks writing ideas and scripts for very basic 4 panel sprite comics and even made a few before one of us (I forget which) had the idea to do turn it into a full fledged Sonic The Hedgehog fansite in the vein of sites like The Sonic Stadium. We knew we needed something to set us apart so I suggested doing audio commentaries on the old DiC Sonic based cartoons, which was inspired from something a Transformers fan named Chris McFeely was doing for the old G1 cartoon. We started doing them and uploading to YouTube and they proved to be somewhat successful so we went on from there. From those I got into doing playthroughs on Sonic games with a few commentary groups such as HellfireComms, CommandAndCommentary and BrainScratchComms before finally doing a few on the FTCR site directly. Some of the things I’ve done for the site which I’m most proud of are the interviews I’ve been able to get with key people from the Sonic franchise. Thanks to people like Svend “Dreadknux” Joscelyne and the Summer of Sonic conventions FTCR has been able to score some exclusive interviews with people like Jun Senoue, Steve Lycett and Takashi Iizuka.

Could you tell us how you got involved with HellfireComms, CommandAndCommentary and BrainScratchComms?

I got involved with HellfireComms due to NTom64 being a fan of the audio commentaries I was doing with Torch; he messaged me one day saying as much and I suggested we do something together, which became the commentary for the Sonic OVA. From that we started doing game playthroughs and things went from there. I was lucky enough to get to do guest spots on CommandAndCommentary and BrainScratchComms due to them being fans of the stuff I had done with HFC and asking me to do some guest commentary with them.

How has FindTheComputerRoom.com evolved since you started it?

The website itself haven’t evolved, due to the fact it still isn’t up yet. In terms of the YouTube account and the content it has, that has evolved since its inception due to me basically getting better at video editing and production. In the beginning I would upload commentaries and random comedy videos, but often the picture and audio quality would be subpar, aspect ratios would be wrong and on the whole they would just be bad. But over the years, thanks to combination of studying Film production at university and just always practising different types of video and audio editing, I’ve been able to start uploading videos (like the various interviews with key Sonic people and the Sonic 4 commentaries) I can say I’m proud of, which isn’t something I could say 4 years ago. But this wasn’t a solo thing, it’s thanks to many people such as SonicMovies, Karto, Crysisdude, ShadowtheGlitchhog, SegaSky, NTom64 and friends from CommandAndCommentary and BrainScratchComms that FTCR has evolved into what it is today.

How, in your opinion, do you think you have grown your fanbase? The sheer awesomeness of yourself, or the variety of videos you have made?

I think the FTCR fan base has grown for a few reasons, the main one being; Sonic fans like to watch videos about Sonic. The sheer size of the Blue Blurs fan base just shows there is an audience of the kinds of videos that FTCR puts out. I don’t for one second think anyone tunes into FTCR just for the “awesomeness” of myself, but I do like to think we put out pretty decent content that people enjoy watching, and we aren’t just a commentary group, we try to put out different types of videos from commentaries, to interviews, documentaries or even just little comedic shorts, that hopefully mix things up enough that people aren’t just bored when a new video is uploaded.

Although you have made a lot of well made and humorous videos, is there anything you have uploaded that you have regretted posting for the whole world to see?

I used to have a bunch of videos that I took down earlier in the year, for both reasons. Kinda like SEGA did a few years back when they removed all Sonic games with bad critical reception to improve brand recognition, all sup par FTCR videos were deleted. The ones that lacked decent production value I simply reedited to be of a higher standard. The others were just of a terrible quality and deserve to rot in Hell.

Out of all the videos you have produced, do you have any favorites?

Out of everything I’ve uploaded, if I had to pick some favourites I’d pick the Jason Griffith and Mike Pollock interviews, SonicMovies and I did, and the Sonic 4 commentary with Sega Sky and SonicMovies. Those I’d say are the best videos I’ve produced.

Are there any exciting things you are working on at the moment that we should be on the look out for? Any hints to what it might be?

I am currently busy in the editing of a lot of new videos to upload. I have a lot of interviews with key Sonic people waiting to go online, as well as documentaries, a new series about Sonic themed cakes and more commentaries. SonicMovies and I are also in the very early planning stages of 2 videos, that if we are able to get off the ground will be amazing, and something every Sonic fan would want to see.

I look forward to those videos! To finish the interview off could you give us your opinion on the Nintendo WiiU? Will you pick it up if you haven’t already?

I haven’t spent too much time with it, I’ve played it, wasn’t too impressed to be honest. Although I said the same about the Wii, so maybe that will change. I have no plans to pick one up at the moment, but I’m sure when it goes down in price and/or the WiiU exclusive Sonic game comes out, I’ll pick one up.

Anyway, thank you very much for taking the time to have this interview with me! It was great to learn a bit more information about FTCR and yourself!

Thanks for taking the time to speak with me good sir, it was a pleasure.

While listening to some music earlier in the day I realized that the first few notes in ‘Cruising Together’ from Nights Journey Of Dreams sounded a lot like Dreams Of An Absolution from Sonic The Hedgehog (2006). This has probably already been noticed but I just wanted to share this with you.  Hit the jump to have a listen!

Hey Matt!
How are you doing?
Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Well, I’m 15 years old. I live in Georgia, and I’m a Sonic fan. I have been for all my life. That’s pretty much it.

Hmm, interesting. You’ve gotta give me more to more to work with man! Could you tell us how you first became a fan of sonic, if you can remember?

Well, my cousin actually introduced me to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise when I was about two years old. He put in a game on his old Genesis, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. A logo that said Sonic the Hedgehog 3 popped up and he started the game. Sonic was on this amazing island, he told me it was named Angel Island. “How is this Hedgehog running so fast?” I asked him. I can’t really remember his response, but still. I was hooked.

And from that experience when did you get your first Sonic game?

 got my first Sonic game back in the Adventure era. My first Sonic game was Sonic Adventure 2 for the Gamecube.

Had any fond memories of that game?

Just how free it was, especially in the speed stages (Sonic and Shadow). Other than that, I used to play the 2 player battles with my friends a lot. And also, I spent many hours in the beloved Chao Garden.

Is there any other Video Game franchise you are a fan of?

I’m a huge fan of Nintendo games, such as Mario, Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Metroid and etc… and that’s pretty much all of them I can remember from the top of my head.

Whoops.

Wait.

Not done.

I’m a huge fan of Nintendo games, such as Mario, Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Metroid and etc… I’m also a huge fan of games like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy.

Before we move onto your work you have done on the internet, have you had any horrific memories playing a sonic game?

Welcome to the second installment of the weekly interviews. Last week we interviewed KC from RadioSEGA, this week we interviewed the one and only NTom64 from HellFire Commentaries. Hit the jump to read the interview!

Hey NTom64! How are you? Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi there! I’m fine, thank you. A bit about myself, eh…hmm. Well, I suppose I should clear up the obvious stuff first:

- My name is Tom

- I record video games for the internet

- I talk over the video games

I’m the head commentator of Hellfire Commentaries and oversee the majority of things within the group, such as organising various playthroughs/commentaries (depending on who you’re dealing with this can be a bit of a challenge to manage), recording the footage for our work, editing it together, uploading it and advertising it on Twitter, Facebook and so on.

Oh, and I also run the HFC Livestream over on Twitch. Because, you know, if you can’t get enough of this nasally voice in an archived video you can always listen to it live!

Nice, seems like hard work! Now since this is a Sega Fansite, could you tell us how you became a fan of Sega?

I forget the exact date, but I got my first ever console when I was about four to five years old and it was a SEGA Master System! Of course being as young as I was I had no idea that you had to actually put games into a system before it would work and just flipped it on…but then Alex Kidd started up!

Looking back on that I suppose I should have been surprised, but it all seemed natural to me at the time. Of course, you can’t speak about SEGA without bringing up their OTHER mascot, Sonic. I got the MS version of Sonic 1 along with the console and pretty much fell in love with it. The music, the level design, it all just seemed to click with me.

Of course I had no skills at the time and pretty much just watched my mum play the game, but it was thrilling nevertheless. Soon after that I’d get my Mega-Drive and start reading the UK Sonic the Comic that would come out every week or so. My grandad used to read the comic for me and I think that’s where my love for the Sonic franchise was cemented, as it were.

And ever since then I’ve been a fan of SEGA!

Have you had any fond or not so fond memories playing any Sega games? If so, would you like to share them with us?

Most of my fondest memories come from the Sonic games, and those moments have been felt by thousands of other gamers over the years so I won’t waste your time in detailing them all, but the fight with Super Metallix at the end of Knuckles story in S3+K definitely stood out for me.

Could you tell us what it is about Sega that you like so much?

 SEGA always had a very arcade-like feel to me. Pick up the game, play without any hassle whatsoever. Maybe it was the fact that Sonic was easier overall compared to the Mario games, but I would always pop in S3+K compared to, say, Mario World when given a chance.

That and they have some fantastic musicians. Some of the best in the gaming industry for sure.

What other Video Game companies have you feel in love with?

Nintendo. Goes without saying, really, but a year or so after I got my Mega Drive I got a Super Nintendo and a copy of Super Mario Allstars + World and ever since then I’ve been a fan of the company. They’ve definitely fallen out of favour with me over the past few years and I’m not as big of a fan as I used to be, but at the end of the day I love Nintendo and I’m looking forward to what they do with the Wii U.

Now, moving onto the work you do on the internet. Could you tell us how HellFire Commentaries came about?

Originally, there was just my NTom64 account. I did commentaries on there like Pokemon Emerald, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and the like.

During that time I met such people as The Helldragon and Fastest Thing Alive and we sort of unofficially formed a commentary group. It didn’t have a name at the time, we were just recording things for fun and whatnot.

Then came the infamous Sonic Unleashed leak and I made the stupid mistake of putting up a few of the leaked images and the trailer…and then my account got banned. It came as quite a shock to me the following day when I woke up and saw what had happened as I was uploading part of the Sonic Adventure DX playthrough at the time haha.

After that I jokingly suggested to Helldragon that we should form a group called Hellfire Commentaries and that, as they say, is that!

How did you first meet FTA and The Hell Dragon? Is it a adventurous story?

Before HFC came into being. FTA and his friend Torch were doing commentaries on the various Sonic cartoons. I started watched them, loved them, and asked if he wanted to do something similar sometime. The result of that was our movie commentary on the Sonic OVA.

Helldragon I met through him asking me for helping setting up a playthrough of his own. That playthrough would eventually become Dragonball Advance Adventure.

How has HellFire Commentaries evolved since you first started?

Since becoming a full fledged group, HFC has gone on to become a Youtube partner and we now have our own site! In the time it took us to reach this point, however, we tried out hands at many things such as movie commentaries, podcasts and livestreams. A lot of these things were semi-successful, some weren’t, but we’ve always tried to forge ahead regardless.

In terms of technical evolution, we’ve come extremely far from where we were when we first started. Gone is the SD-quality of the Dazzle Platinum and in with the Hauppage HD-PVR. Out with the old, rough recording program Pamela (a skype program that records both voices on a single track) and in with each commentator recording their own side of the call via Audacity.

Overall, though we’ve had some major missteps (such as a 9 month hiatus that was mostly due to technical misunderstands) I think we’ve vastly improved and have nowhere to go but up.

How, in your opinion, do you think you have grown your fan base  The sheer awesomeness of you, NTom64, or the variety of games you have commentated over?

I think it’s less to do with myself (I don’t really see myself as that interesting of a person) and more to do with the combination of games and co-commentators. They’re an extremely talented bunch and I’m proud to have had a chance to work with them.

What has been your favorite and least favorite moments so far on HellFire Commentaries?

My favourite moment of HFC would probably be the time where I was able to finally start doing commentary for a living. I was at a low place in my life at that point but since then things have come along quite a bit. It’s given me purpose and help keep me disciplined, which goes a long way in helping to deal with life’s other problems.

My least favourite moment would definitely be the moments where commentary sessions would start to become further and further apart and I’d have no choice but to just sit there until the other person decided they want to start working again. Usually this would be in the middle of a playthrough or something and it was a very frustrating experience. I would usually have to explain to the fans over and over why there were no new parts and basically shoulder the blame while the other person would be blissfully unaware this was happening.

This didn’t happen with every commentator in this situation (some were very helpful with keeping a dialogue going with the fans), but a certain few definitely made things harder than they needed to be.

Are there any exciting things you are working on at the moment that we should be on the look out for, any hints to what it might be?

We’re working on getting back into the groove of things and currently have several playthroughs in the works. They’re mostly in the planning stages, but I can reveal that one of them will be on Super Mario 3D Land.

Of course, all of this is subject to change and playthroughs may be dropped before they reach the final stages and so on. Beyond that, I’m hoping to do a Zelda livestream marathon and revive the movie commentary side of the group. We’re planning to have a new one done by Christmas, but again, until it’s actually up on Youtube etc. things are tentative for now.

Now time for a question from one of your fans. ZealousZombie asks “hello Nintendo Tom 64, can you please explain to everyone why Kid Icarus: Uprising is the worst piece of cowabunga shit I’ve ever played. Thanks in advance.”

The game is simply not suited to the 3DS as is. If there was a second analogue stick, maybe it’d be perfectly playable, but as is the controls are crippled and no amount of alternate button layouts is going to fix that.

Anyway, thank you very much for taking the time to answer all these questions! Is there anything else you would like to say?

We hope you’re all looking forward to the playthroughs and other content we have coming your way in the rest of 2012 and 2013 onwards.

Have a good one y’all!

Unfortunately I do not think I will be able to post a interview this weekend. But instead I would like to ask all of you if you have any questions for NTom64 from HellFire Commentaries. If you do have any questions, please leave a comment below!