As FastFeet Media reported back here, the Golden Joysticks are the gaming industries awards ceremony held every year essentially. This year SEGA and Sonic the Hedgehog are into the final voting round with quite a few nominations. Sonic Unleashed is in several categories to win and, Football Manager and MadWorld are 2 other titles which Sega have been nominated for too and of course SEGA themselves could even win a Golden Joystick.

Cast your vote by visiting this page, if you do you’re also in with a chance of winning some gaming goodies too! My vote says it’s time Sega and Sonic won one of these shiny things…

Okay, so it’s not actually in the magazine but we are on their website, it’s only recently been added but the article is a set of interviews from Insert Coin ‘09, which we attended and DJ-ed at of course last month. I was fortunate enough to bump into Ben Talbot who is the community manager of Official Xbox 360 Mag (you’ll also see him in our SEGASonic:TV Insert Coin episode). After having a bit of a discussion around the DJ set we went off and did an interview.

Of course this is the other thing we did at Insert Coin, so don’t forget to check out the Peoww interview and of course below is the link to the Insert Coin ‘09 feature.

• Insert Coin 09: Arcade Memories

It may only be 24 hours away but I’m starting my trek to the first ever Insert Coin Arcade Convention. It’s going to be an interesting weekend as this is the first major event I’ve been to since Summer of Sonic 2008 and once again I’ll be DJ-ing for everyone attending.

With the exception that this time I will be laying down some pixelated beats all weekend, the convention takes place 10am – 8pm on both Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th. There will be a hefty display of both Sega and Sonic music but also an array of Video Game music too – ranging from Tekken 2 to Pop ‘n’ Twinbee and everything inbetween!

So how can you get involved? If you’re stuck at home or in another country for starters show me some comments guys by replying to this blog entry! But you can also request music and shoutouts by texting 44 78808 66405 – that number will work no matter what country you are in! Above all it’s stadard rate so it doesn’t cost anymore than usual!

For those of you who are not in the UK Radio 1 isessentially the biggest and most popular radio station that is listened to across the country. During the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend (22nd to 25th May) Radio 1 will be covering lots of games based content ranging from reviews, leaderboards and even a games surgery to help out fellow gamers. BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra will be hosting an online poll to find the greatest ever video game. A panel of industry experts will compile a list of their top 100 games and then listeners will be invited to choose their top three from the list.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend is that for once, video games soundtracks will be played and heard by millions over commercial radio – something that very rarely happens. Most of the music can be listened to on the Monday (25th), so it’s something worth tuning into!

You can give Sega and Sonic your support by calling in, but whether you’re in the UK or not you can listen to the events on Radio 1 via their website.

Think back to the days of the Dreamcast, feels like quite a while ago now doesn’t it? It’s been even longer since we’ve seen some of the finest games Sega has ever released. One game Sonic fans would immediately agree with is the Dreamcast’s incarnation of Sonic Adventure, so thinking along those lines a fantastic idea for a new Sega game is what I’d like to call ‘Jet Set Radio Past’.

Jet Set Radio (Known as Jet Grind Radio in the USA)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Jet Set Radio (JSR) games the idea is simple. You’re a skater (not the Tony Hawks kind, think 4 wheels on each foot) and your objective is to spray paint your ‘artwork’, marking your turf across the city of Tokyo-to whilst battling the government and fellow rival gangs. Sounds like an average videogame upon first glance, but there are several things that make JSR really stand out from the crowd. JSR was the first videogame to use a technique known as cel shading, essentially making objects appear cartoon-like and look 2D even though you’re actually in a 3D environment. This looked outstanding back in 2000 and still does today, since then cel shading has been used in a variety of games with some techniques even implemented into blockbuster films.