Classic Toys from a Madman's Youth: Advent 2019 Day 8

If you have been keeping track of this year's advent, then you'll know that I don't have very good luck picking great toys for my Christmas wish lists. Today's featured toy is proof that I tend to put my support behind the wrong franchises as we look at the Sega Master System.

In 1986-87, my uncle got married. With the new aunt came a couple of new cousins. At this time, I became introduced to the Nintendo. My cousins had one and I played it some. I also had a friend in my neighborhood name Alex who had a Nintendo. Again, I would play Zelda and Super Mario Bros. But I just wasn't impressed with it. 

So in 1988, when it came time to make my Christmas wish list, I decided to ask for a completely different gaming system. One of which I had no prior experience with. But I wanted to be different from everyone else. So I asked Santa for a Sega!

When Christmas 1988 rolled around, I got my Sega. I was thrilled. I got several games and compared to the Nintendo- the graphics were amazing. But Sega's games had some serious bugs. 

For example, the game I looked forward to the most was Ghostbusters. The game stated with a map in which you had to drive the Ecto-1 through a map of New York to bust a ghost. However, I never could get past the map! My dad tried! My mom tried! We even bought a magazine that offered tips! We just never could get past that stupid map!

And then were the numerous times that you'd get near the end of an important level and the damn game would freeze. Or the entire gaming platform would reset itself. There were some major glitches in the first Sega systems. 

By 1990. the Sega Master System was defeated by the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Sega company stopped making new games in exchange for the much improved Sega Genesis. But by that point, I had moved on to the NES- which was now considerably cheaper than the Genesis system. 

This sort of process would be the first of many interactions with new technology as I am the guy who waits until prices drop steeply before I jump on board. What can I say? I've got bad instincts with this stuff and I'm old school. 

So for today's Advent, I wanted to present you with just how bad the Ghostbusters video game was. If you remember the horror that was Atari's E.T. video game, you'll experience flashbacks here. The video is about 20 minutes long but I wouldn't blame you for giving up on this after about the 90 second mark.

Enjoy!