Editorial: Celebrating ten years of me (Barry) blogging about SEGA

I’m a sucker for anniversaries, and so I couldn’t pass up making a post talking about my personal ten year milestone of blogging about SEGA. Back in 2008 I was recently graduated from college and landed my first cushy job. Working a 9 to 5 in front of a computer, I did what everybody else does and browsed the internet between projects. I had recently returned to SEGA fandom, buying up PS2 games I had missed during my college years, saving up for an Xbox 360 and searching for SEGA news sites to keep me up to date on what was going on with the company and its fans.


I discovered sites like The Dreamcast Junkyard, The Saturn Junkyard and SEGA Memories and through the comments sections got to know the owners Tomleecee, Father K and The Gagaman. I loved the idea of a SEGA blog with a specific focus, so I thought it would be fun to start a Junkyard blog of my own. As a kid I loved the SEGA Genesis Nomad and SEGA Game Gear portables, and I had acquired an iPod Touch in 2007 which led to me getting into mobile games when the App Store launched in 2008. My idea for The Nomad Junkyard was to cover “oldies like the Nomad, Game Gear and Game Boy Advance” and “current mobile devices such as the iPhone”.

After a few weeks, the other Junkyard blogs took notice and approved of what I was doing. I was soon brought on as a contributor to their blogs and we eventually formed a webring of Junkyard and Memories blogs. In 2010, George started up SEGAbits with the help of other writers including Ryan (Sharky) and Aki-at. I was an avid reader of SEGAbits, and after a few months I was offered a writer role to form a bridge between SEGAbits and the Junkyard and Memories blogs. Eventually I moved up to an admin role on the site and my writing at the Junkyard and Memories blogs diminished, with The Nomad Junkyard shutting down in 2015.

Looking back, these past ten years have been a lot of fun! Thanks to the aforementioned people, I’ve been able to speak with several SEGA legends, attend some really fun events, and meet fellow fans. If I had any knowledge to impart from my experiences, I would say these three things:

  • Blogging should always be driven by your passion for your hobby.
  • Produce content that you yourself would enjoy and inevitably likeminded fans will find and enjoy your content.
  • After an interview, always send a friendly thank you note.
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9 responses to “Editorial: Celebrating ten years of me (Barry) blogging about SEGA

  1. Kev says:

    Barry! Barry! Barry!

    (Hoffman forever!)

  2. Centrale says:

    Congrats Barry! I hope you keep it up for many more years!

    • Barry says:

      Thanks! I think I will be. 2018 has definitely been a year where I reassessed the time I have to do this sort of stuff and tried to make it manageable. For the time being, I just don’t have the time for the involved articles and retrospectives. Shorter news posts and a/v content has been much easier to produce. I’m hoping by mid 2019 I’ll have more of a solid schedule to create fun stuff.

  3. Sonic Yoda says:

    Weird that we started at such a similar time! Happy SEGA bloggerversy, Barry!

  4. Deefy says:

    Happy anniversary Barry!!! 😉

  5. Bertodecosta says:

    Happy anniversary !!! Among of people you ever interviewed, who did you remember most?

  6. Tom Charnock says:

    Congrats Barry, agree that blogging should be enjoyable. When it isn’t anymore, it’s time to move on (like me). Thanks for the mention and all the content you provided for the DC Junkyard.

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