Al Nilsen is best known for his tenure at Sega of America where he headed up marketing during the 16-bit era. But he started in the video game industry as a buyer for JC Penney and then as a product manager for Mattel where he worked with Intellivision.Part I of our interview with Al focuses on those early years. Al talks about Atari, Pac-Man, E.T., Intellivision, the video game crash, and Nintendo’s knitting machine (with some Sega mixed in there too). On the next episode of the /r/retrogaming podcast we’ll get in-depth with Al about all things Sega. After all, his blood runs Sonic blue.