Well, the first (hopefully annual) Retro Valentine Giveaway is over, and the most-requested cards by a longshot from everyone who entered were these Sonic The Hedgehog cards. I wanted to get some Nintendo Valentines but couldn’t snag any, so I’m glad I was able to get some that were video-game themed.

These cards came out in 1994 at the height of Sonic-mania. I think I got my Sega Genesis in 1995 on my tenth birthday, and it came with Sonic II. I don’t know for sure, but I bet I had these Valentines at some point.

Sonic and Tails look pretty good on these cards, but I’m sure kids in 94 saved the Robotnik cards for their least-favorite friends (and teachers). “You’re so nice it’s disgusting!”….gee thanks.
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This year I finally remembered to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time before it was too late. For a while I’ve been hoarding unopened Valentine’s Day card boxes from the 80s and 90s, with the intention of just giving them out to people. For some reason I always forget to get it going before it’s too late, but this year I am on top of it. I ordered a bunch of new Valentine’s and have been preparing for a massive Vintage Valentines Giveaway!

It’s not a contest or anything, I just want to send you Valentines. I am pretty obsessed with vintage stuff and I get a kick out of seeing Valentines cards from when I was younger, and I figured that a lot of you would too. Who doesn’t remember decorating your cereal box and getting bombarded with cards in elementary school? I remember saving the most awesome cards in each box for my best friends and crushes.
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I was digging through stuff at my Grandpa’s house last weekend to see if there was anything I found sentimental and wanted to keep (he didn’t die, he’s just moving to a retirement home), and among the old photos, fishing paraphernalia, and random mothball-scented things, I found a 1993 Sears Catalog. I spotted it from a mile away and almost knocked my sister over who was looking through our Grandmother’s Christmas decorations trying to get to it.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a Christmas catalog. If it was, I would have snatched the whole thing and spent hours (days?) scanning the entire toy section. Alas, this was just a regular-type catalog which meant no toys. However, I remembered that even these boring catalogs still usually had video game sections and I quickly flipped past the pages of clothes, exercise equipment, and antique-looking computers to find them. I wasn’t disappointed.
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The Sega Genesis stands as one of the all-time best video game systems. Don’t believe me? IGN ranked it number five in its countdown of the 25 best. PC Mag picked it number four. Only the almighty Nintendo Entertainment System, Sony PlayStation 2, and Atari 2600 outweigh Genesis’ cultural and commercial significance.

Sega Genesis (a.k.a. Sega Mega Drive outside North America) was introduced in 1997 and sold around 40 million units in its lifetime. It even spawned two mildly successful add-ons, Sega CD and 32X, as well as the Sega Nomad handheld player. There was even a Sega Channel offered by some cable TV companies that would download games to your system.

The console is often compared to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System but Nintendo’s 16 bit game was introduced a full two years after the Genesis. Even at the height of the battle between these two legendary systems, Genesis/Mega Drive was able to maintain a lead in most markets.
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