From the slot machines to the Dreamcast, the 60 years of SEGA
To celebrate the anniversary of its long history, SEGA has announced the Game Gear Micro, a micro-console for retrogaming
To celebrate its long history, SEGA has announced SEGA Game Gear Micro, a series of four micro-consoles, as little as a credit card, which will debut in Japan on October 6 at the launch price of 4,980 yen, about 40 euro. The portable retro-console which will have a 1.15" display and challenge the presbyopia problems of longtime fans, will be available in four color variants: yellow, red, blue and black. Each variant will contain 4 different pre-installed games. The black version in addition to the titles Out Run, Puyo Puyo Tsu, Royal Stone, will also include the legendary Sonic Hedgehog.
The debut
Sega Enterprises was born unofficially on June 3, 1960 when Nihon Goraku Bussan and Nihon Kikai Seizō took over the activities of Service Games of Japan, a company that supplied slot machines. A year later Nihon Goraku Bussan bought Rosen Enterprises and started the activities of SEGA which for most of the sixties continued to produce coin-operated slot machines.
From the 60s to the 80s
In the mid-sixties SEGA began its slow detachment from gambling game, focusing its interest on the nascent electronic games market. In 1966 SEGA gave birth to Periscope, a shooter that simulated the attack of a submarine on warships. In 1971 Hideki Sato, who will work in the Pong Tron development team, officially joined SEGA, bringing the company into the future. His hardware development team created products that have entered the history of the video game such as: Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn and the incredible Dreamcast.
An important event in the company's affirmation was the publication in Japan of its first commercial video game in 1973, a version of the original Pong, by the American Atari, called Pong Tron . From 1973 to 1983 SEGA developed 53 arcade video games.
Late 80's and beginning of 90's: the success of SEGA Mega Drive
The SEGA Mega Drive, marketed as a Sega Genesis in the United States, debuted in 1988 in Japan. The 16-bit console, which was advertised as an entertainment system aimed at a more adult audience, wanted to intercept that large portion of the market indifferent to the fantasy world, but sometimes perceived as boyish, proposed by Nintendo.
SEGA wanted a distinctive sign, a stylistic code that tickled the imagination not only of Japanese buyers but also of western ones. From this vision projected overseas was born the cobalt blue hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, which gave the Mega Drive a worldwide success with over 30 million units sold in its nine years of history. During this period SEGA dethroned Nintendo from the top spot on the top selling console.
Dreamcast
The second millennium was coming to an end when SEGA launched a home console as beautiful as unfortunate. The Dreamcast was a gem that included innovative integrated internet features for playing online titles like Shenmue, Soulcalibur, Quake III, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure and Phantasy Star Online, to name a few.
The new millennium for SEGA, however, proved to be nefarious when the PlayStation 2 arrived on the market, a machine that to date has sold 157 million pieces worldwide. The disaster was such that the company withdrew from the home console market to devote itself solely to the production of video games.
Today its line-up sees titles like Shenmue, Yakuza, the new version of Sonic that has made peace with Super Mario and together participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Nostalgic titles once released for the SEGA Mega Drive can be now played on the new SEGA Game Gear Micro!
