Ah yeah, I remember the festive season of 1992/93 quite well. Shane Warne was mesmerising the opposition with his leggies and Sharon Stone was uncrossing her legs in Basic Instinct.
On the gaming front, it was all about the 16-bit beasts from Sega and Nintendo, but there was still some fighting spirit left in the 8-bit consoles. The Australian gaming charts for December/January 1992/93 show that it was Sonic 2 kicking ten shades out of the opposition on the Sega consoles, while the usual suspects were doing their thing on the Nintendo systems.
Who could forget the Sega Powerline – the guys on the hotline were there to help you beat Robotnik with a ‘Super Dash Attack’ – they did warn kids to seek their parents permission to call, as the 70c per minute was highway robbery.
Oh yeah, there was also the Sega Club. The Club was created to entice you to become a member and get your hands on some tasty exclusive Sega gear! With an annual membership cost of $20, it was well worth sending in your credit card details.
As per usual, Ocean was peddling their latest videogame film tie-in, Lethal Weapon. Slated for all 8 and 16-bit computers and consoles, the Master System version mysteriously didn’t make it due to unknown reasons – perhaps a blessing!
Still on the Ocean bandwagon, their wares were still going strong in the early 90s. The Dream Team consisted of games that transcended popular culture, from The Simpsons and wrestling, to the T800 Arnie becoming a good guy. I won’t be back to play!
Being the festive season, Sega was eager to cash in on the Christmas rush and wrestle you away from the Game Boy and buy their newfangled handheld, the Game Gear – the ultimate escape kit. Who could resist a bit of Streets Of Rage on the go!
With grunge popularity at its peak and the video gaming industry pumping out awesome games to keep us entertained, it definitely smelled like a great Christmas in 1992/93.