Paul Street – The Sonic Stadium

Well, I’ve spent a good two weeks in Tokyo with a bunch of close pals (including T-Bird, who came home with a truckload of Sonic merch – check out his latest article here) and had a real blast. Again, it seems Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t quite at the forefront of gamer’s minds in Japan as he is in the West – it makes for a bit of a strange culture shock. We’ve had many funny looks from otherwise courteous Japanese store assistants every time we asked for some ‘Sonikku za Hejihoggu’ merchandise. I guess they’re more into their Pokemon and Dragon Quests there.

Either way, it’s good to be back in Blighty, and my first port of call is to grace TSS’ guest editor, Paul Street, with a huge chunk of special thanks as he rode the site through an awesome Mario and Sonic exclusive for you, as well as keeping you up to date on the latest blue blur happenings. Many thanks to the rest of the TSS team as well as they kept about their business and filled in the blanks for me. You guys are great!

I’m spending the week re-couperating from the holiday so to speak – friends to meet, timezones to adjust to, work to catch up on – but I’ll be whipping up a few more TSS skins for you guys, rebuilding the SEGASonic Radio website and working on a few new pages in the Music Zone as well as working hard on an information page for a few games.

I’ll write in detail my Tokyo journey at a later date. For now, it’s a ‘hello again’ and a business as usual sign. A little reminder by the way that the Xbox 360 competition is now CLOSED and I will be showcasing all the entries (and picking a winner) in a few days time.

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xxOLDSite Updates

Greetings From The Guest Editor

20th April 200920th April 2009

Paul Street

19 Comments

Hi people. It’s the start of a new week here at TSS and now that Dreadknux and T-Bird have been gone for a few days I’ve decided it’s time to introduce myself properly and explain the plan of action while the boss is away.

As a lifelong Sonic fan I’ve been an admirer of TSS for a while now but first started visiting the site regularly when I heard about Summer of Sonic last year. A few of you might have seen me stumbling around there in a daze; I’d driven down from Leeds to London and was overwhelmed by the 200 or so other people at the phenomenally successful event. I met Dreadknux and some other TSS staff members properly for the first time at the Sonic Unleashed Community Day a few months later, hosted by the always awesome ArchangelUK at Sega’s London HQ. Everyone was very friendly and it was encouraged to see so many people of a similar age as passionate about a speedy blue hedgehog as I am.

So when I received an e-mail from Dreadknux asking if I would look over TSS while he was on holiday I jumped at the chance to help him out. I’m fairly sure I offered my services to help any way I could but never expected anything like being a guest editor so it’s all quite exciting. You should see no change in the website while the boss away and it’s very much business as usual. Shadzter and Brad have already been posting as normal and I might chip in from time to time should I feel the need.

Oh, and you might want to keep your eyes peeled towards the end of next week here for something a little bit special. I’m not going to say too much about it right now but you’ll like it, I’m sure.

Anyway, I’d like to thank Dreadknux for trusting me with his baby and I’ll see the rest of you in the forums and maybe at Summer of Sonic this year!

xxOLDSite Updates

Turning Japanese…

16th April 2009

Dreadknux

12 Comments

Hey guys, this will be my last update in quite a while – I’m off to Japan to enjoy the sights of Tokyo and Kyoto for two weeks! The last time I went to the land of the rising sun, I covered the Tokyo Game Show (in 2007) as well, which was awesome buy kind of rushed the rest of my time there (which was my actual holiday).

But who will look after the coop while I’m gone? Well, T-Bird’s going with me, so he won’t be here either, but Shadzter, Bolt and Brad will still be on call to cover Sonic happenings. Overseeing the whole site will be our Guest Editor, Paul Street. You might have met him if you went to Summer of Sonic last year, and also writes some excellent stuff for TSSZ News too. Give him a warm welcome – no doubt he will write a few update columns in my place if he fancies getting to know you all.

I’m due to leave the house tonight, and my plane will leave tomorrow afternoon. Wish me a good 12-hour flight (well, at least it’s better than 14 hours with a connecting flight – never doing that again). In my last day of ‘not-really-here-but-rather-packing-and-leaving-the-computer-to-do-stuff’, I’m uploading the last missing pieces of Soundtracks to the Media Portal. I’ve also created a few new pages to the Music archive on the website, so you can look at Sonic Boom, Sonic the Fighters and a few others now.

So it’s off to Nippon I go – land of vending machines, noodles, Super Potato (!) and Bubble Man drinks. Although we probably won’t dress as a vending machine like the chap in the picture, there. See you guys in two weeks!