My Favourite Game Alan Denton

The US writer on TV Sonic versus classic Sonic and being a patient player.

Alan Denton is a writer for children’s TV, and was creative consultant and story editor for Cartoon Network’s warmly received Sonic Boom, the first cartoon series starring Sega’s mascot to be produced in almost a decade. Here, Denton shows why his involvement in the show was anything but coincidental.

How did you get the job on Sonic Boom? 

I knew and had worked with Bill Freiberger, who they hired as head writer. When he told me I got the job on Sonic, I lit up and just started asking him a bunch of follow-up questions. “Is it classic Sonic? Is it modern Sonic? Is Big the Cat in it? Is Knuckles in it? Is Shadow in it?” And he was like, “I don’t know any of this yet.” (laughs) But that probably made him realise that maybe I’d be an asset.

Was Sonic one of your earliest gaming experiences, then? 

I got the Genesis in 1992, which came bundled with Sonic 2. It was my primary system through elementary school. I did have an NES before a Genesis, but my family had an Atari 7800 before that – I must’ve been three years old playing that. The Atari 7800 actually came out in North America the same year as the NES; my grandparents had one, we went over to their house and then we had to have it.