The Gaming Adventures of Ed Semrad (Japanese Game Expo Videos)

[jlued686]

I just saw these YouTube videos of EGM's Ed Semrad at Tokyo Toy Show and the Consumer Soft Group trade show.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/7jcmx3trH0g
Consumer Soft Trade Show, March 24, 1991

Part 2: https://youtu.be/dje-I2c5sbE
Tokyo Toy Show - Part 1, June 7, 1991

Part 3: https://youtu.be/cQWrAG5wdrE
Tokyo Toy Show - Part 2 (PC Engine footage around 7:30-16:50, 22:10-49:00)

Enjoy!

[esteban]

I can't wait to watch these when I get home from work.

[jlued686]

There's a lot of good footage in there, but one of my personal favorite moments is when Ed's lining up a photo with his camera and a Japanese dude bumps into him and almost takes out his eye. Just a funny, random, WTF moment.

[xcrement5x]

I had seen these from a poster on Sega16 as well.  He included a 4th one which was this:

NOT an interview with Tomio Takami at Sega of Japans' Headquarters (September 27, 1991)

This one is fun because it's basically them wandering around Japan in 1991.


I love stuff like this because is shows, exactly how it was, back then in the industry.  All the ludicrous stuff now at E3 and TGS and the like is quite the contrast. 

[DragonmasterDan]

I had seen these from a poster on Sega16 as well.  He included a 4th one which was this:

NOT an interview with Tomio Takami at Sega of Japans' Headquarters (September 27, 1991)

This one is fun because it's basically them wandering around Japan in 1991.


I love stuff like this because is shows, exactly how it was, back then in the industry.  All the ludicrous stuff now at E3 and TGS and the like is quite the contrast. 

I was hitting my very first Summer CES's in 1991 and 1992 and while it was certainly a lot less busy I recall those events being much bigger and on par with E3 compared to whatever events they were attending in the videos.

Added in edit: For video context just look https://youtu.be/0BMnZYyz74Y

[ccovell]

This is awesome to watch.  I have some videos of guys randomly walking around Tokyo in the late '80s, but it's always cool to see game-specific stuff from that era.

My impressions so far: M. Alessi seems stoned all the time; Ed has to bark commands at him.
8:00 in the first video: Magical Chase tunes drown out other music.

[NE146]

Nice!  I was a big EGM fan back in the day.. since Ed Semrad was supposedly (probably not) the Sega Master System guy. 

The 16-bit days was when the Japan market was really coming to be a lot more known to people in the west (whereas in the NES days it was still relatively "mysterious") and EGM was one of the sole places to bring you info about it while other mags pretended things didn't exist until it hit the US market.  I loved that time man.

[blueraven]

Nice. I'll have to watch these later. Thanks for posting them.