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SEGA Fan Chronicles: Vol II: Chapter VI: Turbo

Hello and welcome to yet another SEGA Fan Chronicles! This time we interview the (current) backbone, soul and heart of SEGASonic Radio's own Turbo. Yes, we discuss his SEGA interests as well as a couple of tidbits here and there. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride!

 

VOLUME II: CHAPTER VI: TURBO

  • Name: John 'Turbo' Finlay
  • Contact Info: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TURBOXLR
  • What You Do: Host of SSR Livecast Turbo Drive Live and TDL Let Plays; guest commentator for Last Minute Continue
  • Favorite SEGA Game: "Too many to count or seperate xD"
  • Favorite SEGA Console: Dreamcast

How was it like growing up alongside the SEGA of the 90s?

It was a great time cause SEGA dominated the UK during that time. You would see lots of SEGA ads and items like games and merch. Granted during that period I was on the lower end of the SEGA boom as my family was not well off and I didn't get a Mega Drive till the near end of its life in 1998 through most of the 90s I was playing the Master System with Sonic 1, 2 and Master of Darkness while I would rent other games like Mortal Kombat and my fav 8-bit Sonic game Sonic Chaos.

May you explain a bit more about why that's your favorite console? Any particular memories?
 
The Dreamcast was a birthday gift to me in 1999. It was a new generation of consoles and it was the console I wanted the DC ever since my brother borrowed one from a friend but before he did I actually bought the very second issue of Offical Dreamcast Magazine where it had the Dreamon Vol 2 demo disk in it which had 2 demos Millenium Soldier: Expendable and (of course) Sonic Adventure and I still have that disk to this day. I would play the demo on that borrowed DC as much as I could when my brother was not around. Eventually he would give the DC back but it wouldn't be long before I would get my DC later that year and would support it as much as I could to the very end.
 
What are your favorite SEGA series of games?
 
Its mainly the Sonic series as it was that series that made me not only a SEGA fan but a fan of games in general. I do like the series of games done by Platinum Games when they had their deal with SEGA bring forth games like Madworld, Bayonetta and their final game in their deal Anarchy Reigns.
 
What was your first major connection with SEGA itself (like meeting a notable person from the company, attending one of their events, etc)
 
Well it would be with one Kevin Eva aka AAUK as back in the day he was SEGA Europe's Community Manager in the UK. It was him colaberating with Svend aka Dreadknux to make the first Summer of Sonic in 2008 I was able to meet him and since then he has invited me to other SEGA events like the Sonic Spinball Alton Towers community event and eventually meeting other big SEGA names like Jun Senoue, Yuji Naka and Takashi Iizuka when they all came to Summer of Sonic.
 
Now onto your connection with The Sonic Stadium, we're gonna go into a bit detail about your current gig as a DJ and what not. Firstly; how did you hear of TSS and by extension TSS Founder Dreadknux? How was that like?
 
Well I was just surfing the net looking at other sites like The Sonic Foundation and Team Artail while in school (cause I didn't have any internet at home) I would find TSS eventually through those sites and when I would get my own broadband conection I would end up joining the SSMB and enjoy the shows that were around on SSR like Hawkz in the House and The Raccoon Hour. They were asking for people to try out to become new DJ's for SSR, I threw my hat in and would end up being part of SSR for a long time after that. As for getting to know Dreadknux it was mainly through his Summer of Sonic project when he made the convention version in 2008 and he was looking for help and I offered my services and we would be good friends working on the project he loved.

You have formed bonds with many notable people from the Sonic/SEGA fan scene, such as the aforementioned Dreadknux, AAUK, TBird and the like. Mind telling us a bit about said (and/or other) relationships that were formed throughout your time in the Sonic community?
 
Oh boy its just a long "connect the dots" style of how I became friends with people in the Sonic Community. By being a DJ for SSR I would be able to help in Summer of Sonic thus being friends with everyone tied to the event. Basicly if I was not made a DJ for SSR I would not be friends with anyone at TSS and would never be apart of everything tied to being part of TSS and wouldn't be here at all.

You're currently the longest-active SS:R DJ with the longest, weekly, episodic livecast SEGASonic Radio has (see what I did there? Hahahaha...) . How was it like during the Zone Radio Network era compared to now? 
 
Back in the day being part of ZRN ment if anything happen to the network there (which happened a lot) we couldn't do a show and with all of the DJ's that would get annoying fast. There was even one time when it was gone for nearly a year that ment no live shows for nearly a year, as time would go by the technology would be more affordable to do in house in TSS thanks to Bmn and his skills. Frankly if we didn't have Bmn SSR would be gone just like ZRN is now.

Do you believe SS:R has reached its peak, or you still feel there's still some like left in the ol' dog? Are you still in contact with some of the older DJs of the site as well as the newer ones?
 
I wouldn't think that SSR has reached its peak, there is always room for SSR to evolve with new talent and inovative ideas. As for me personally keeping in touch with other DJ's past and present I just let people do what they want to do, my door or inbox is always open for DJ's to talk to me just they feel they are fine to go it their own which I have done before unless I wanted to ask about something or suggest something.

How was your time doing the show on RadioSEGA when SS:R as a station itself was going through downtime? Anything you wish could have gone differently while you were part of us?
 
Well as I was happy enough to have TDL just take time off during that downtime but Gavvie being kind enough to allow me to continue broadcasting on RS, which he didn't have to do but I was very gratefull for being allowed to do air on RS while SSR was down. During my time there I made it like an N.W.O style invasion which Gavvie was cool about, other than that I just kept to my regular schedule and be respecful to the other RS DJ's who had shows right after mine by (trying) to finish within the hour I schedule my show at.

SS:R, on occasion, hosts an event called Project 24, a 24-hour continuous broadcast of SS:R shows, both past and present (initially) and currently joined with other stations. How was it to help create and take part in such an event? 
 
It has been great to team up and help create a massive project that provides a full 24 hour event of fun and surprises. The very first 24 hour continuous live broadcast Sonic's Super 16th was originally concieved by DJ HyperSonic when he was part of SSR, it was something that filled in the gap between Summer of Sonic 2006 (the web event) and the convention of Summer of Sonic 2008 (which at that time was silently in the works). Basically DJ HyperSonic just came up with the idea, approched me first and asked me if I would like to support the idea, I said yes and we asked everyone else in SSR and we did made something awesome that would eventually evolved into the Project 24 event we all know of now.

Moving onto your role at the Summer of Sonic, how was it like to have taken part in the very first convention back in 2008?
 
Seriously it was magical. I knew it was going to be something special and I wanted to help in anyway I could for the cause. It was also very emotional for me to see that many people that passionate for the Sonic series thinking I was the only one and to meet so many great people and have quite the few memories from just that first year alone that can still tear me up now.

Your role at SoS is namely the main/lead DJ of the event, overseeing that music that attendees can jam to while trekking through the con. How was that like?
 
It was always fun cause from time to time I would get a few people actually enjoying the tracks I play that they might have not heard before, like the Sonic Adventure Remix album ,a very under-realized album in my opinion, and I always make it a mission every year to play a couple of tracks from that album. I have don't requests for people too and am always happy to do that for the people there.

Of course, with every edition of SoS the venues are larger, the hype is bigger and the event itself is even more hectic to plan out, especially with last year's. Tell us how that is like.

It is hectic,hard, and tiring work to have everything sorted before the day and something bad could happen at the last second. With that said, even having that all happen, at the end of the day it is always an amazing feeling seeing so many people with smiles on their faces and me personally feeling great to help in part of it all.
 
What was your favorite moment(s) from any of the Summer of Sonic events you were a part of and why?
 
Oh man there is so many moments that I could talk about. In 2008 Elson "Darkspeeds" Wong was awesome to me and the rest of the gang by giving us our own personalised certificates. In 2009 sitting down and interviewing Steve Lycett about Sonic & SEGA All Stars Racing. In 2010 playing a special request for a young Shadow fan called Kati who later came back to Summer of Sonic in 2011 to perform in a community showcase. Being the host of the Cosplay Contest in 2013 and of course meeting not only all the special guests that attended each year but being able to work with and be friends with the guys and girls who helped put it all together. Also providing so much energy as well to each Summer of Sonic is a great moment as well, especially in 2013.

You also host a Twitch stream called Turbo Power Plays every Saturday, tell us how that came about and how things are with that. 
 
Well TDL Lets Plays was just me wanting to play the games I liked and wanted to showcase them my own way. Granted everyone is doing it but the main reason for me to do it was to do it for fun. I don't do it for profit as I work a regular job so I am sorted. Kevin (AAUK) came up to me and asked if he could take my live shows and edit them into parts to be shown for his latest project Last Minute Continue. It was cool for him to do that; I have even played some games by his reqest. Although they have not all been that great to play but he likes the matiral he gets from me so overall its all for the sake of entertainment cause that's what I want to do is to try and entertain people with TDL Lets Plays.

One last important question...You are now part of a sitcom that stars you and one notable SEGA figure. Who would that be and why? 
 
Blaze the Cat. I like cats personally though the wacky moments that me and Blaze could get into with her power over fire and oh the terrible puns based on her fire abilities would be sitcom comedy Silver, not gold (yeah that was a bad joke I am sorry).

Ok there's ONE more thing before we sign off...anything else you would like to add?
 
If you want to check out all of my projects live like Turbo Drive Live on every Friday at 8PM UK Time on SEGASonic: Radio (radio[dot]sonicstadium[dot]org) and also TDL Lets Plays every Saturday at 7PM UK Time over on www[dot]twitch[dot]tv/turbodrivelive live or
catch the edited enhanced versions thats for Last Minute Continue on its youtube page which is www[dot]youtube[dot]com/sonicwrecks. Also, don't forget to follow me on Twitter "[at]TURBOXLR"to keep up to date on anything Turbo Drive Live related. All thats left to say is thank you for letting me be featured here and hope you all enjoy seeing what I had to say and please check out all the shows and projects I do and I hope you can enjoy them all. Cheers.
 
~~~~~~~~~
 
Another SEGA Fan Chronicles is in the bag! Sorry for the rushed nature of this edition itself, running low of time to put this up! Thanks to those who took the time to read this quite lenghty interview. With that said, the next guest is going to be someone in the artistic/drawing community, and a quite popular one at that. Another thing I want to discuss is when the next SFC will be up. With certain issues going on in my personal life, the bi-weekly nature of this may not hold true. Sorry for those who has been inconvienced, but there will be another edition when things has cleared up a bit for me. Until then, this has been TCB and I'll see you all next time. 

4th August, 2014 - 02:03 GMT TCB Article viewed 2465 times 0 Comments

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