Mark Cerny (Sonic 2, Marble Madness, et cetera) showing Michael Jackson around at Sega in 1988.
Update: Cerny confirms that this was indeed 1988, at the Sega of Japan office. Commenters have suggested that the young child with him is Jimmy Safechuck, with whom Jackson acted in a Pepsi commercial.

Update 2: Cerny adds: “For what it’s worth, the monkey stayed in the limo and did NOT take part in the tour. Not a joke.”

Courtesy a really old issue of Nintendo Power.

Brandon’s note: To accompany your viewing, here is one of the only good Anthrax songs from that era, which you’ll note is actually written by Joe Jackson. I once saw guitarist Scott Ian in an airport, and couldn’t think of anything profound to say, so I just pointed at him and said: “SCOTT IAN.” He agreed.

Hey, since we’re in a birthday celebrating mood, I thought I’d dig up this neat piece of history from my stupidly large collection of old videogame magazines.

These are, as far as I know, the very first screenshots ever taken of the original Sonic the Hedgehog, from Sega’s display at the Tokyo Toy Show, June 7, 1990. The game was about two months into its fourteen-month development cycle, so there probably wasn’t very much there yet.

I scanned these from old issues of EGM (#s 13 and 16, for those playing along at home), so God only knows if EGM actually took these or if they stole them from a Japanese magazine. If anyone has a collection of Japanese mags from that era, take a look and let us know if there are any others.

The preview that accompanied these was pretty vague (“In Sonic Hedgehog, you control a super rodent on a mission to defeat the evil creatures that have populated your home.”), so I don’t know if the game was actually playable or if it was just a video feed or something. Regardless, it’s neat to see such an iconic game in such an early, embryonic state.