RetroVision – Glance Into The Life of A Sega Game Tester

Ever wondered what it would be like to test games for a living back in the 90s? I certainly did! For many it was the dream job for anyone who grew playing on Nintnendo or Sega’s iconic 16-bit consoles. However, did the reality live up to the dream?

Well now you can find out, as Green Mill Filmworks have made public the training video that they created for Sega’s brand new video game testers back in the 90s. This 28 minute “trainumentary” really does give one hell of an insight. It also lives up to all of the stereotypes that surrounded this mysterious job back in the 8 and 16-bit eras.

Lead tester Dave Dodge sums up the varied experience that was being a Sega game tester back when he states:

We’ve got jocks who are into sports game, we’ve got guys who are in Dungeons & Dragons guilds that are running around throwing dice and playing around with all their friends. It’s never boring around here. You can always find someone with an extremely different background than your own.

The video isn’t all fluff either. You see, not only does it feature the likes of Sega of America’s former  President and CEO Tom Kalinske, but it was also filmed at Sega of America’s office in Redwood City. What’s more, it doesn’t shy away from some of the harder aspects of the job, such as the long hours and the sometimes gruelling nature of trying to break your favourite game.

Sega Bug Classification
Sega’s bug grading system as seen from the training video.

All in all, if you have any interest in the business of gaming back in the 90s, then you definitely want to give this watch. It’ll either destroy your vision of what being a Sega game tester back in the 90s was like, or it’ll just make you wish that was you even more. For me, I’ll stick to my childhood dream of wanting to be a video game journalist. That’s got to be glamorous job eh?

Sophia Aubrey Drake

A lifelong gamer with a fanatical love of all things Nintendo and Japan. So much so that she's written a thesis on one and lived in the other. Currently on a quest to catch every last Pokémon. Follow me on twitter via @DivaXChill or @RingsandCoins.

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