It really bugs me when someone’s facts or logic are way off. I don’t just mean theologically, either. Actually, I should clarify that in this instance I don’t mean theology at all. If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s people who are wrong about something and then arrogant because they think they’re right. Kind of like the time back in 1998 when my co-workers at McDonald’s tried to tell me that the Star Wars movies were based off of novels. They didn’t ask if they were, they didn’t say, “I heard that . . . ,” they flat out told me that they were, and even that wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t argued with me when I (politely, at first) corrected them. It’s scary sometimes how things like this rattle me so bad, and it’s only been the last year or two in which I’ve been able to approach situations like this with a little bit more rationality. Now, let’s get to the inspiration for this rant:

Last night I was looking through one of my nerd groups on Facebook, the one that was started as a group for vintage-Nintendo lovers, but has expanded to just be a group for fans of games spanning the history of home consoles. One thing that people do in this group that tends to bug me is post pictures of their disgustingly huge video game collections. Some of them put up as many as 40 pictures! It’s usually pretty sad, but this time someone is a genuine video game collector. This guy has some unique titles, and even some that are widely known to be little more than pieces of trash, all for the sake of having full collections from different consoles and different franchises. In these photos, he had one of a select group of Sonic the Hedgehog titles. Two of these were the original Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, except they were for the Sega Master System (see here). This intrigued me, because Sonic was introduced on the Sega Genesis console in 1991, nearly 2 years after the Genesis was introduced and the Master System was put to rest. I don’t know exactly when they stopped making games for the Master System, but I know that it was by 1990, for sure. The fact that these two cartridges exist means that, for some reason unknown to me, Sega programmed, manufactured, and distributed the first two Sonic titles as 8-bit cartridges for their dead system. Crazy, right? I know! So I pose my inquiry on this to the poster of the picture, as I would think that the man who owns the game would know the story. Please see the exchange below, even though you probably already saw it if you clicked on the link earlier:

Braden Eugene Bost wrote at 11:26pm yesterday
How were there Sonics on the Master System? Please enlighten me.
Alexander Badr wrote at 8:55am
That’s like asking how there’s Mario on the Nintendo Entertainment System. It’s Sega. Who’s Sega’s mascot? Sonic! Always was, and always will be. Alex Kidd “thought” he was, at first, but it was always Sonic. Oh, by the way, the Sonic games were only released in Europe, but they work on all Master System consoles, and they all kick ass!
So apparently they were European releases, but that’s moot at this point. This guy is dead-wrong and has no clue. This is where “getting-older-and-more-mature” Braden would step in and say nothing and let morons be morons and let them eat themselves to death with there ignorance, but this will eat at me if I don’t write SOMETHING. It’s not like asking how Mario is on the NES. The NES came out in 1984, Super Mario Bros. came out in 1985, followed by 2 1/2 sequels on the same system before moving to the Super Nintendo in 1991. Sonic was not “always” Sega’s mascot. Sega’s mascot was Alex Kidd until 1991, when Sonic was introduced and replaced him. To say that Alex Kidd “was, at first, but it was always Sonic” is like saying that The Dodgers have always been in Los Angeles; they only thought they were in Brooklyn, at first, but they’ve really been in Los Angeles the whole time.
Yes, I do have more important things to worry about, but I’m on break and my tasks for the rest of the day are pretty monotonous.