As the countdown to Christmas began, someone at Woolworths noticed that there were rather a lot of big brown boxes still sat in the warehouse with 'Sega' printed on their sides. They did what all retail professionals are trained to do - panic. A media blitz began in the tabloids, with Mega Drive prices slashed to £99 in the retail emporium more famous for its buttons and bows than its leading edge gaming systems.

The rest of retail looked on in horror, with every other chain store immediately price-matching and, it's alleged, asking Sega to make up the difference in their profits. The Mega Drive market went bananas and many independent shops, who actually paid more than £99 for their stock, were forced to de-bundle the games and sell them as standalone products in an attempt to compete, which meant there were a number of Mega Drives (minus games) being sold for £79 or even less. Oh no, wailed Sega, our careful product positioning is being all screwed up...

At this point I normally trot out a glib, final sentence which wraps the whole thing up, in a sort of 'and they all lived happily ever after' way, but there wasn't a neat ending to this episode. Mega Drive sales never really recovered from all the surplus stock swilling around, and we all got fed up of them, particularly as all these packs contained Mega Drive II machines with the inferior TV modulator. Yes, okay, the venerable 16bitter was reaching the end of its life anyway, but a more disciplined market might have allowed it to bow out with a little more dignity...