Even though I know for a fact that the SC-3000 was released in Australia, and I held physical proof in my hands, it never really felt "real" to me. I was too young to know about it during its lifespan in the early to mid-80s. I wasn't even ever really sure if it had a widespread release or was limited to just the big cities or certain states. I grew up in regional New South Wales, and I never saw one.
Nowadays, it is such a niche and esoteric artefact to a forgotten age that is almost feels ethereal, as if it never really existed, or only exists in a vacuum in which I'm one of only a few who can still see it. It left almost zero impact on gaming culture in Australia. I never saw it mentioned in catalogues or Australian gaming mags and hardly anyone knows about it or talks about it (maybe I'm just talking to the wrong people).
And then, one of the research boffins at segaretro.org stumbled upon this:
Seeing a commercial from the era, for prominent Australian cereal brand Uncle Tobys no less, with celebrity endorsement from Olympic swimming champ Lisa Curry, and suddenly the ghostly visage of the John Sands Sega SC-3000 is brought to life in grainy VHS recorded video. It feels very much real now. It was indeed a mass market product. It really did exist.
This is really cool, and I'd just like to say that I really enjoy whenever SG-1000 junkyard is updated. I don't know a lot about this era, and it's all fascinating to me.
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