It’s well documented that Michael Jackson had a lot of involvement with Sega in the late 80s and early 90s. There is, for example, the clear evidence that he provided the main bulk of audio soundtrack work for Sonic 3. Albeit, without ever being officially credited since he was (according to the story) dissatisfied with the Megadrive/Genesis’ sampling quality.
One project that was long rumoured to exist, however, was a Sega motion simulator game in which Michael Jackson provided both video and voiceover work. We have to say ‘rumoured’ because while physical examples of ‘Scramble Training’ were known to exist, none ever went into the wild due to the allegations made against Michael Jackson immediately prior to its planned 1993 release. And in terms of the work he did on it, well, it was assumed that it was either locked in a deep dark Sega vault somewhere or more likely, it had been destroyed.
Following a video posted by YouTuber ‘ted909‘, however, not only has the ‘lost’ footage been recovered, but it was actually discovered at a UK car boot (For our US reader, think along the lines of a Flea Market).
Lost Michael Jackson SEGA Video Game Discovered!
The videotape (Japanese in nature) was reportedly purchased earlier at a UK car boot earlier this year with the seller claiming it came from some stuff a deceased uncle, who had formerly worked in Sega’s European arcade division, had lying around. – It presumably took the owner a fair amount of time to find the equivalent of a Japanese VHS player to actually run it, but upon doing so, they discovered that they’d just landed onto an exceptionally rare and possibly unique piece of video game history.
And yes, you want to see it for yourself now I expect. Well, I’ve posted the video for you below!
What Do We Think?
So, just when you thought the history and legacy of Michael Jackson couldn’t get any more bizarre, this turns up. – In truth though, I struggle to know which is crazier, him actually filming this in the first place or the lost footage turning up at a UK car boot!
Will SEGA care? At this stage, probably not. Still, though, I think the next time I’m at a local car boot, I might be paying a bit more attention to those masses of VHS cassettes piled up for £20 each. I mean, what’s next? Prince appearing in a cancelled Mario game?!?
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
