Sega Visions magazine...

[simonbelmont7]

Was i the only lucky child, or did anyone else randomly get a free subscription to this magazine years ago? I remember coming home from school one day, checking the mail and what did I find but a video game magazine devoted to my fave system at the time! I think i got those every other month or so for quite awhile too.... Ahh the memories, ha

[maxlords]

Heh...I got a free issue every so often in the mail too. I don't know how regularly it actually came out, but I still have one or two issues lying around :D

[samuraiX]

I remeber sending in for my free issues with Sega games I bought. I got like 8 copies of the first one and a few of the second. Never manages to get past those two though. I was curious how many different issues were made. anyone know?

[digitalpress]

Did you know that my man Bill Kunkel was one of the editors? Go take a look.

Then note banner below :)

[Sega Hitman]

I recieved 2 or 3 issues as well. I don't remember even sending in a warranty card from the system or a game though. I remember thinking how strange it was that they got my address out of nowhere like that.

-Hitman-

[simonbelmont7]

yeah, the only thing i could figure was they got my name from that "Buy a system get one Free game" promo (I think thats what it was) Where you could pick Super Thunder Blade, Buster Douglas, Super Monaco GP, Columns, and something else which escapes me. =) I picked Monaco. =) I still have those things sitting in my closest, i should scan one and post it! Anyway, i never sent in my warranty either, so thats the only thing i could think of... :)

[NEOFREAK9189]

I recieved 2 or 3 issues as well. LOL

[norkusa]

I have pretty much all the Sega Vision issues. I sent in the free subscription card I got when I bought my Genesis and they just kept sending me issues untill they stoped giving away freebies. Don't think the magazine was around long after that.

It was a pretty shitty magazine, but it's still fun to read once in a while. Rember the Niles Nemo comic strip? They tried to portray Niles as the Fonzie of the videogame world, but he came off looking like the biggest rod of all time. There was one comic where he was playing his Game Gear in the front row of a bad-ass rock concert. I was only 14 when I first read that one and thought the guy was totally pathetic.

[Bratwurst]

It was a pretty shitty magazine,

I'll second that. Even more biased than Nintendo Power, horrible layout, the screenshots of games in reviews were blurry as hell and their criticism rarely made sense.

[tynstar]

Yeah I used to get them every once and awhile for no reason. I don't remember if the mag was any good or not.

[BillKunkel]

Having been there since the beginning, I recall about 7 or 8 issues of Sega Visions -- and if some of our readers thought "Niles Nemo" was bad, they should have seen what Sega originally wanted -- a typical "Captain Sega" mock superhero which I absolutely refused to write. The Niles Nemo in Segaland thing, for any readers with even the slightest sense of comics history, is an homage to the classic early comic strip "Little Nemo in Slumberland" in which Nemo would eat Welsch Rarebit and have wild dreams. In SV, we had to push some special Sega title -- Columns I remember as being the best -- each issue and only had two pages to do it.

Sega wanted a character who had lots of "attitude" (think "Poochy" on The Simpsons), which meant a kid wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket in those days. Anywho, Niles would eat a pineapple pizza (from "Bob & Al's Pizzaria") while playing a game, fall asleep and go INSIDE that game in his reverie. We then played with the game from a "backstage" POV. Can't recall anyone else having done something along those lines. In any case, they paid me $750 a page to write the damned thing so I'm still very fond of it. :)

Actually, I think Sega Visions was either inspired by or was the inspiration for Nintendo Power, only SoA brought in this wanky group of "professional magazine editors" (at the time, Arnie and I had probably edited more magazines than that entire crew of pricey consultants, but Sega was just throwing the money around in those days) which didn't help. But hey, I also got paid like $3,000 for a half page Game Doctor column.

So my memories of SV are actually quite fond -- and some day I'll scan in the covers and Nemo strips and a more adult audience can determine if they're as bad as some of you remember. In any case, with the May/June '92 issue, Al Nilsen and Bob Harris left as publishers and it went entirely down the toilet. The artist on the Niles strips, btw, was Dave Sullivan, who always did a great job no matter how little space we had.

And anyone who thinks the Sonic comic that took over for it was better, well, we'll just have to meet in the schoolyard to settle that one... :)

[Bratwurst]

In any case, with the May/June '92 issue, Al Nilsen and Bob Harris left as publishers and it went entirely down the toilet. The artist on the Niles strips, btw, was Dave Sullivan, who always did a great job no matter how little space we had.

And anyone who thinks the Sonic comic that took over for it was better, well, we'll just have to meet in the schoolyard to settle that one... :)

My memories are more affected from the later issues (Coverage after Sonic 2, the Sega CD years and after, etc.) I mean, come on, they made full page maps for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 levels, which I think is a great game, but you don't need a map for it.. ;)

I remember the early issues being very thin but they covered Master System games! Lots of cool promotions like the Power Base Converter mail offer. Unfortunately, you could still pick up those PR vibes in their letter section. Stuff like 'you should not import from Japan' with bullcrap reasons and so forth. :D

[wberdan]

i must have at least 5 of those.. maybe more if i didnt throw them out.
i have one with sonic on the cover that hasnt even been opened yet. they sent me two of that issue for some reason

LOL

willie

[simonbelmont7]

For some reason i got two of the first issues, which if i remember correctly had Joe Montana on the front.. =) ahhh the memories...

[thekeepr]

I have about 17 issues, spanning from Fall 91 thru May 95.....were there more before or after these dates?? The Keeper :roll:

[dan2357]

One of the Genny games I bought a few days ago has that card in it still to get the mag. I was thinking about sending it in just for fun. I know I would laugh if I worked for sega and someone sent in something from 10 years ago for a free mag.
After all there is no experation date on it.