The Sega Club

When I was in 4th grade, video games were gaining popularity, with the Nintendo Entertainment System being the most popular. Comparatively, Atari games couldn't compete. More and more kids at school were owning NESs and talking about all these cool games. I wanted one and made sure it was on my Christmas list.

🎄 Christmas Morning

Christmas morning, I was surprised that my parents bought a Sega Master System. I finally got a video game system, but it wasn't the NES.

It came with World Grand Prix and Astro Warrior. Later, I would get games like Space Harrier, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, My Hero, and Teddy Boy, but there was no Mario or Excite Bike. My emotions were mixed.

Trying to Fit In

While I loved my Sega, I felt like an outsider to all the kids that had Nintendos. They would share stories about their Nintendo games with each other. When I talked about my Sega, they either didn't know what that was or they thought it was lame. Either way they were not interested.

Luckily, my best friend, Matthew, had a Sega. He was very smart and he would tell me how the console was technically superior to the Nintendo. He would talk about the chipsets, bits, graphics, color range, chiptunes, and such. All of this was new to me.

Matthew and I would hang out on the playground at lunch and talk about our Sega games. Sometimes a kid would wander by and ask us what we were doing. After we answered, he would walk away. We decided to create the Sega club and invite members who had a Sega. However, there weren't many. In fact, the club never grew beyond its two founders.

While this isn't a terribly exciting story, it's a story of being young, trying things that fail, looking for identity. And after 40 years, Matthew and I still remember our Sega Club. And that makes it worth sharing.