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Happy Birthday Sega - 55 Years of The Gaming Giant!


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Sega (as we all know) is a Japanese multinational video game developer, publisher, and entertainment holding company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. This year, they are celebrating 55 years of being in the business.

 

Sega's early history has many strands that wove themselves into the fabric we would later know so well. Its story goes hand in hand with that of Japan and its relationship with America. Marty Bromley had formed Standard Games in 1940 to provide coin operated amusements to military bases in Hawaii. He was in Hawaii when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, where he maintained the base's slot machines, but he never harbored the negative feelings toward the Japanese that so many others at the time did. In 1952, when the United States outlawed slot machines, he saw the emerging Japanese market as an opportunity. He purchased slot machines from the government, and set up a company to import them to Japan. He called it Service Games.

 

Around this time, a man named David Rosen set out on a business venture of his own. Rosen was a New Yorker, stationed in Japan during the Korean War. His sharp business sense and tireless determination would serve as a guiding force for his company for the next 45 years. He opened a series of photo booths to provide inexpensive pictures to be used for IDs needed for work and travel. As the US's military operations brought more money into Japan, he finally decided it was time for fun, and he began importing electromechanical arcade games.

 

In 1964, the two paths converged. Rosen Enterprises negotiated a merger with Service Games, resulting in the abbreviated Sega Enterprises Ltd. The two companies seemed a logical fit; an appealing blend of American and Japanese business culture with a strong, stable foothold in the market

 

In 1966, they began designing and manufacturing original arcade machines. Their first was a submarine-themed shooting game called Periscope. The colossal machine was nearly ten feet deep and six feet wide and cost twice as much to play as competing machines, but audiences and arcade owners agreed that it was worth it. Periscope was so successful that Sega began exporting their games to America, establishing them as an international company with a Japanese base.

 

In 1984, Sega released the Sega Master System and their first game "Alex Kidd", who would be Sega's unofficial mascot until he was replaced by Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991. While the Master System was technically superior to the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), it failed to capture market share in North America and Japan due to highly aggressive strategies by Nintendo and ineffective marketing by Tonka, who marketed the console on behalf of Sega in the United States. However, the Master System was highly successful in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil with games still being sold well into the 1990s alongside the Mega Drive and Nintendo's NES and SNES.

 

As a kid, I have fond memories of playing Alex Kidd and Sonic The Hedgehog on my Sega Mega Drive. I think the first 3 Sonic games are fantastic. It also worth mentioning, that Sega has 3 arcade titles that I will always enjoy, that being Out Run, Crazy Taxi and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. These are also console titles, but I think the arcade version are much superior. Even though Sega does have a strong presence like it used to, and in honesty, their games have not been as great as the 1980-1990 period. I still have found memories of all the old Sega games, and nothing will beat them. There will never be another Sega.

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