Color / 28 min. / 1996
John Amirkhan, “Assistant Manager”, is
listed as a Tester for Sega and thanked in credits up until 2001. I saw an actor on IMDB with the same name, but no idea if it’s the same guy because of the beard.
Mark Paniagua, “Producer-Tester”, was
listed as Testerfor Sega games until 1998. Works at HP now I think?
Joe Damon, “Tester” with the goatee, was
listed as doing testing until 2000. Then listed as an artist on 3DO High Heat Baseball 2003/2004. Seems to be working as a UI Artist since then.
Rich Kirnock, “Tester” with the lip ring, is
listed as doing testing until 2000. No idea what he’s doing since then.
Tracy Johnson, the “Producer-Tester” who liked to troll kids at Toys R Us, has a
mountain of credits up until 2006, mostly as a Producer in the later years, but also a couple of music and design credits. Looks like he’s been at Midway since 2004.
Joel Breton, “Lead Tester” who always looked like he just got back from surfing, has his own
impressive Wikipedia page, worked at Bethesda, apparently setting up their Russian dev studio, did some casual games, then joined Take-Two and produced some sports games, went to Hudson and produced Bomberman Live, Bonk’s Adventure, Diner Dash. He’s apparently now a professor of social game design at The Games Academy in SF.
Janine Cook, “Tech Coordinator-Tester” and smoking enthusiast, is
listed as Tester until 1996 (she has a couple Japan-only Sega titles on another site). According to this
Broken Joysticks article she still works for Sega as a producer...not sure why her more recent credits aren’t showing up.
Steve Apour, “Producer-Test Manager” who looks like he just stepped out of Clerks, has
done various thingsin the industry; a stint as Producer, then it looks like he went into the biz side.
Steve Patterson, “Producer-Test manager” with the X-Men poster behind him (he worked on design and story for the X-Men Mega Drive game),
worked on Testing and as a Producer/Designer until 1999. Seems to have worked at Leapfrog and Nokia afterwards, and is now a freelance? product manager and producer.
Kim Rogers, “Tester”, fan of fighting games, and mega-babe, is
listed as doing Tester and Producer roles at Sega until 2012. She still works at Sega as a Business Planning Coordinator.
Mark Griffin, “Pico Tester”, seems to have survived his traumatic Pico experience and has stayed in the industry. Was
listed at a Tester until 2000. He has credit thanks on games like BioShock, Fallout 3, so maybe he worked at Bethesda? Worked at OnLive, and last year was working at Nintendo..I think doing dev relations.
His Twitter, though he hasn’t posted since last year. Now working at VR Ventures... VR tech maybe?
Chris Muchich, “Tester” and Virtua Cop stuntman, is
listed doing testing until 1998, but has some design and producer credits until 2003. Oddly listed as a “Dialogue Editor” for Shenmue, whatever that is. Not sure what he’s doing now.
Jeff Junio, “Tester” and martial arts expert, has
worked at several companies and roles after Sega, including 3DO, EA, Zynga, and Rockstar. He was a Game Designer on Midnight Club 3 and “Ambient Designer” (not sure what this is...NPCs and such?) on Red Dead Redemption. Not sure where he’s at now.
Dave Dodge, “Lead Tester” and hero of the story, is
listed under many roles at Sega until 1997, from Tester to 2D Animation to Level Layout. Looks like he worked at 3DO after Sega, and is now a
founder at a startup called CodaKid focused on teaching kids how to do game design. He no longer has his long curly locks.
Tom Kalinske, “CEO, Sega of America” and meddling school principal in many 1980's teen movies, is currently the Executive Chairman of Global Education Learning, a “company dedicated to children’s education in China”.
