Amusingly enough, I was going through some old artwork and found this unused cover for my ancient fanzine, Continue? This was going to be published in the third issue sometime around January or February 1998 (which was actually the fourth issue, thanks to issue 2 1/2 – don’t ask) along with a chunk of Sega-related articles. The story behind the cover goes something like this: By 1998, Sega was in a bit of a pickle, as the Saturn had pretty much fallen off the map and the Dreamcast was a year away. Meanwhile, Sony’s PlayStation was ruling the roost and games like Parappa The Rapper were rewriting the book on originality in game design and a few other innovations.

I imagined poor Sonic and Tails unemployed (well, between consoles) and out on the street one day as a familiar (and flatter) figure strolled by. No, I wasn’t a Sega-hater at that time, folks. I was just taking a look at the company’s missteps and hiccups in the mid to late 90’s that put Sonic on the street for a bit. I also planned to run copies of all the correspondence I’d gotten from Sega’s wonderfully cool customer service team from the early to mid 90’s (back when you could write a letter and get some neat stuff back in the post), so it wasn’t going to be a complete poke in the eye issue.

Of course, Parappa is long gone and Sonic is back on top (or close to it) these days. I just haven’t even thought of reworking this piece to reflect that. Perhaps one day… but I’ll have to make sure the rapping paper dog and pals aren’t popping back up on the Vita or whatever anytime soon first…