Interview: Al Nilsen

[Melf]

Working at Sega of America during its heyday offered a chance to see a company on the rise. From the birth of a certain blue hedgehog to the introduction of a CD add-on, there was always something Sega-related in the news. One of the people responsible for ensuring that the company was always in the limelight was Al Nilsen, former head of Sega's marketing division. During his tenure, he oversaw the birth of Sonic, the creation of Sega Visions, and the much beloved Sega Scream. Sega-16 recently chatted with Mr. Nilsen and got the goods on a bunch of 16-bit morsels of news. Read the full interview and grab some popcorn!

[Joe Redifer]

Awesome interview! Phone interviews always offer the most potential. Although I like the name "Genesis", it's too bad that "Mega Drive" was already trademarked, as it would have been nice to have the same console name around the world as was the case with all of the other Sega consoles (let's not talk about the Mark III, that's the odd man out).

A couple of anal-retentive notes:
-It is TurboGrafx-16, not Turbo<space>Grafx-16. But at least you got all of the letters correct which is more than can be said for over half of the internet gaming population.
-Typo at the end of this sentence: where the girls were hanging out, !

Also: why did this forum's location swap with the Review forum?

[Melf]

Awesome interview! Phone interviews always offer the most potential.

I love doing them, and Nilsen was really great about it. He's even offered to do another one about Sonic later one.

A couple of anal-retentive notes:
-It is TurboGrafx-16, not Turbo<space>Grafx-16. But at least you got all of the letters correct which is more than can be said for over half of the internet gaming population.
-Typo at the end of this sentence: where the girls were hanging out, !

Fixed!

Also: why did this forum's location swap with the Review forum?

After seeing reviews come before features for so long on the main page, it kind of got to me, so I swapped 'em.

[Iron Lizard]

Great interview. I love hearing about the good old days.

[Rusty Venture]

How I loved the "Sega Scream" commercials.

Finest bit of advertising in the video game world.

[108 Stars]

Actually, the whole Genesis does what Nintendon´t-campaign was new to me when I joined Sega-16. And even today I don´t know what the Sega-scream is. I don´t know if such campaigns were made somewhere else in Europe, but not in Germany. We had crap-slogans like "The better one wins" and "They must be mad!".

[Iron Lizard]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eVL3uW9uV4E

I will always remember the scream from this ad.

[TmEE]

this is such a great article, I loved the part where Al said Americans didn't know what a hedgehog is xD

[Zebbe]

What a great interview, it is already up there with the Kalinske one. There is nothing more to say, I enjoyed reading everything from the beginning to the end. Splendid work, Melf!

That Sega scream is heard in the beginning of Sonic 3D by the way. I prefer the old classic one from Sonic 1 to Sonic & Knuckles.

[megabomberman]

Very nice, a history lesson for me and I imagine many of the non us gamers who didn't have a clue about sega's us marketing campaign.

One thing of note though, was it just me or did some of his answers seem funny... At times it was like he didn't know certain things he should have like the "The" reference, which lead me to believe that they may not have been to do with him??

[GameUser-16-32-128]

What a wonderful article that was! I'm very curious to find out the different advertising in each country was at the time. That would make a great feature.

[Rusty Venture]

Actually, the whole Genesis does what Nintendon´t-campaign was new to me when I joined Sega-16. And even today I don´t know what the Sega-scream is. I don´t know if such campaigns were made somewhere else in Europe, but not in Germany. We had crap-slogans like "The better one wins" and "They must be mad!".

This (IMO) was the best they ever put out.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=y-XOw0IT-vU


This one is also good.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dVPno1eYbVM

[VinnyT]

Wow, awesome job! It's nice to see how we're able to procure more phone interviews now, as they pretty much just make for a nicer read all around!

[StarMist]

Four and a half years after the last response this is still a great interview.
I wonder if in teaching Americans what a hedgehog is he remembered to mention they're not normally blue.