Unwrapping Sega games on Christmas Morning circa 1991-1998

[Lan Di]

Good video. You were a fortunate kid indeed. I was well into my adulthood 1991-1998.

I'm old.

[ShinobiMan]

Nice vid, thanks for sharing. Takes me back to my own childhood.

You're welcome man.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. It amazes me how well this video has been received. An article over at Kotaku, and also Nintendolife.com... the thing that blew my mind though was Sega themselves tweeted the video and tweeted me personally claiming they loved the video and that it was "making it's rounds around the office."

Really, with how personal this video is to me and how much of a tribute it is to my Dad... to have Sega themselves thank me for sharing my cherished memories of Sega and my father... I got a little emotional I'm not going to lie.

Guys, this is all so cool. Thank you for your support!

[IrishNinja]

^that's pretty awesome! you had such a great christmas, it kinda carried over to this one, haha.

[Blades]

My parents were hell bent on video games being addictive and corrupting, I even had to read an entire review to my dad before I could buy Ghouls N Ghosts with my own money. My mom flipped out when I bought Doom for 32X. Meanwhile they both spent all of their leisure time watching the evening news and whatever else was on TV until they passed out.

Damn sounds familiar.

I had to read the lyrics of CDs I wanted. Anything with one of those parental advisory stickers was an automatic no.

[Barone]

Just watched this video; awesome! Thanks for sharing it!
Not by the amount of games or for their monetary value, but your father surely loved you and knew how to make a kid really happy!
He might be playing some Sega games right now, somewhere, in complete peace...

[EclecticGroove]

Hah, Compton Encyclopedia is one thing nobody ever owned. I should pick that one up just for the "Sega CD was nothing but FMV" crowd. I had to buy each game system myself. The 2600 is the only game system my family ever bought and it was a years old thrift store pick up. That alone doesn't bother me at all, I just always found the zoned out TV drone attitude self contradictory. At least games are interactive and require you to stay awake.

Yeah, I know... I mean, I can (a lot less now that I'm older) absolutely sit down for some marathon game sessions... Especially if it's an awesome game, or really engrossing. Much like a good book a good game will make me want to keep going to see how things go next. Even the ones that are quick should make me want to keep playing, or fire it up again right after.

Cut to the parents who can watch NFL/NBA/PGA/etc games all day long for an entire weekend of doing nothing but sitting there watching it.. with maybe a bit of yelling if it's an important game or some such.

I don't see much difference in those, except it's still not as socially acceptable to go talk about that game you and a friend may have been playing for a few hours the night before as it is to talk about a game some other people played on a field somewhere for a few hours the night before. hah

[4Runner]

That Ninja Turtle at 0:38 was awesome! Do you remember which one it was?

[jefis]

That was an awesome video! You sure got hell of a lot games every Christmas!

[ShinobiMan]

That Ninja Turtle at 0:38 was awesome! Do you remember which one it was?

I have no idea but I do know I got Super Shredder and one other that year.

That was an awesome video! You sure got hell of a lot games every Christmas!

Thanks so much!

[Bottino]

That's a beautiful video man and a great homage to your late father. It sure has put a big smile on my face.

You're gonna go far with your videos , kid!

[ShinobiMan]

That's a beautiful video man and a great homage to your late father. It sure has put a big smile on my face.

You're gonna go far with your videos , kid!

Thanks buddy.

I wanted to share this with you all. It's a blurb I wrote for 8bitevolution.com who posted an article about the video. It's a little bit more background on my dad and his love of gaming.

"Some of my most cherished memories are of unwrapping video games on Christmas Morning. My parents loved the holidays and always went all out to make it very special for me. My Dad in particular loved video games. He was a 20-something in the Atari 2600 days. He with my Aunt and Uncle would run out to the nearest department store and bring home the likes of Pitfall, Adventure and Frogger. That love of gaming only increased as the years went on.

When I was turning out to be quite the gamer myself by age 3 in 1989, my Dad really latched onto the hobby and the two of us for years bonded over it. As a result, my Christmas’ were filled with video games, and the number of games I received seemed to increase each year as our love of the hobby grew with the industry.

There was so much excitement in our house with new game releases. Before the days of the internet, my Dad and I would even make video game related TV shows with our home video camcorder. One such show was called the “Genesis Power Team!” He hosted it and I was more or less just there, but as I got older I became the host.

We’d send these videos to my cousins in New York. Often our two families traded video tapes of us playing video games, as I suspect others did in those days. Such wonderful memories.

I put together this compilation as something special I could share for the Christmas holidays with Sega fans and retrogamers alike. My Dad passed away in 2007, and the video is dedicated in his memory. There are so many seasons in life that I go through where I find myself missing him dearly, but what I hold onto are the memories.

I’m now married and one day will have children of my own. I can’t wait to love on them the same way my Dad loved on me. This video is something I can share with them one day as a portrait of who their Grandfather was. A big kid with a big heart. And I share it with all of you with the hope that it might bring some joy to your holiday season. Thank you."

Merry Christmas everyone!

[NostalgicMachine]

This video was AMAZING; I could taste the nostalgia on this one! Nothing will ever replace the feeling of seeing those rectangular-wrapped "mysteries" scattered under the tree. I can feel the cellophane just thinking about it!

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Cucollins12]

you are the luckiest man in the world : )

[NeoGeoFanatic]

When I got my NES as a kid back in 1986, I remember waking up during the night b/c my parents were being loud....i walked into the living room to see them playing Super Mario Bros....I thought nothing of it then, but now I wish my parents were still into video games.....they need to loosen up some....I don't even ask them to give me video games for Christmas anymore b/c they don't know Xbox from PlayStation....now its just a matter of them giving me money for me to buy my games I want....they don't use eBay or Craigslist, so I can often get more for the money by getting better deals than just going to Walmart or Best Buy

[genesisguy]

Very cool video!! I lost my dad too and oddly enough tonight is the 12th year anniversary of his death.
My dad would play NES with me but that was about it. That said, I have similar memories of Christmas mornings like those shown in your video. I even noticed the Ninja Turtles you had in the background. What a good childhood huh? Ninja Turtles and Sega!
Thanks for sharing that!