The Genesis of Sega

Posted by: Dylan James on September 6, 2010 at 2:25PM
	Tweet

I am as old as Sonic The Hedgehog

This came as quite a shock to me. I was raised on Sonic. My youth was spent collecting rings and beating Badnicks, all in under 10 minutes. I was plugging cartridges into other cartridges before I could write my name legibly. We had our ups, (Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles) and we had our downs (Sonic 3D, Sonic Spinball). But some of my fondest memories will always be racing through Zone after Zone collecting emeralds and stopping Robotnik. As I reflected on my youth, I realized that I knew very little about Sonic's history. How had Sonic, and really, how had SEGA come to be? Why hadn’t SEGA pulled through the console wars? And most importantly (to me anyway) what was the future of my beloved childhood friend?

The Genesis of SEGA

For as long as I can remember I have been a SEGA fan, a rare breed of gamer thought to have died out in the 90’s, in the aftermath of The Console Wars. Unknown to all but the most committed of SEGA fans, SEGA’s Genesis was not the “Genesis” of SEGA. See what I did there? SEGA actually began in 1945, as Standard Games based in Honolulu Hawaii. In 1951 it was decided that the company would move to Tokyo, and in May of 1952, "SErvice GAmes of Japan"was a registered business. This company began as a developer and manufacturer of coin-operated photo-booths, and eventually expanded into coin-operated electro-mechanical games.

In 1965 Service Games merged with Rosen Enterprises, and released a submarine simulator known as Periscope, that became a worldwide hit. Into the 70s and 80s, SEGA would release dozens of arcade stand-up games, such as Zaxxon and Hang-On. Finally, the SEGA we knew began to emerge. In 1986, SEGA of America released the Sega Master System to compete with Nintendo’s NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Though technologically superior to the NES, Nintendo’s highly effective marketing and development strategies prevented the Master System from securing a foothold in the North American and Japanese markets, limiting the Master System’s sales and fanbase to Europe.

Here we see the seeds of conflict; SEGA ruled most of the European market, but Nintendo had gained valuable ground in the quickly growing North American video game industry. It wasn’t until the next generation that the Console Wars truly began.