|
|
|
History
The story of the Sega Mark III does not begin in Japan, nor even in video games. In 1940, three American businessmen, Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert, formed a company called Standard Games in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their business was simple: place coin-operated amusement machines, mostly slot machines and jukeboxes, on the military bases that were filling up with American servicemen. After the war, the partners wound down Standard Games and set up a new company named Service Games, a name that nodded to its military clientele.
The company soon moved its operations to Japan, and in May 1952 “Service Games of Japan” was registered. It is from this name that Sega takes its own: SErvice GAmes. The early years were not smooth. Service Games ran into trouble with authorities over alleged bribery and tax evasion, and between 1959 and 1960 it was banned from US air bases in Japan and the Philippines, which were its main customers. On May 31, 1960, Service Games of Japan was formally dissolved. A few days later, on June 3, 1960, a successor company called Nihon Goraku Bussan (“Japan Entertainment Products”) was founded, and it took over the assets of its predecessor.
Meanwhile, a second American in Tokyo was building a very different business. In 1954, David Rosen moved to Japan and founded Rosen Enterprises, originally to export Japanese art. When Rosen imported coin-operated instant photo booths, they became a surprise hit with the Japanese public, and the company expanded into importing coin-operated electro-mechanical games. In 1965, Nihon Goraku Bussan acquired Rosen Enterprises, and the merged company became Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Rosen took the lead of the new company. A year later, Sega released Periscope, a submarine-simulation game that became a worldwide arcade hit.
In 1969, Sega was sold to the American conglomerate Gulf+Western, although Rosen stayed on as head of the Sega division. In 1974, Gulf+Western made Sega a subsidiary of a newly created American company, Sega Enterprises, Inc. In 1979, Sega acquired Esco Boueki (Esco Trading), an arcade distribution company founded and owned by a Japanese businessman named Hayao Nakayama. That acquisition would prove to be one of the most important of the company’s history, because Nakayama would soon become its leader.
By the early 1980s, Sega was one of the top five arcade game manufacturers active in the United States, and its revenues had climbed to $214 million. Then came the arcade downturn of 1982. Hit hard, Gulf+Western sold Sega’s North American arcade manufacturing business and the licensing rights to its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing in September 1983, keeping only the North American R&D operation and the Japanese subsidiary, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Nakayama, by then president of the Japanese company, argued that Sega should use its hardware expertise to enter the home console market in Japan, which was still in its infancy.
The result would be the SG-1000.
Release
The SG-1000 was first released in Japan on July 15, 1983, at JP¥15,000. It was released on the same day as Nintendo launched the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan. While Sega themselves only released the SG-1000 in Japan, rebranded versions were released in several other markets worldwide. Released at nearly the same time as the Japanese version, the SG-1000 was released in Australia through John Sands Electronics, in New Zealand by Grandstand Leisure, in Taiwan by Aaronix and also in Italy and Spain.
Internally, the SG-1000 has largely identical hardware to the ColecoVision, but with the SG-1000 having a faster VRAM chip (by Fujitsu). This led to the release in Taiwan of an unauthorized clone that plays both SG-1000 and ColecoVision games named Dina 2 in 1 . The console was later released in the U.S. under the brand Telegames Personal Arcade.
As the SG-1000 was based on the same hardware as the SC-3000, the console could run all SC-3000 games and applications, with the exception of Music and Basic Cartridge.
Demise
The SG-1000’s launch did not prove to be successful. The three launch games, all of which were ported from Sega’s VIC dual-arcade board, lacked the name recognition of Famicom launch games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and Popeye. Due in part to the SG-1000’s steadier stream of releases (21 SG-1000 games by the end of 1983, as compared to only 9 Famicom games), and in part to a recall on Famicom units necessitated by a faulty circuit, the SG-1000 chalked up 160,000 units in sales in 1983, far exceeding Sega’s projection of 50,000 units.
By 1984, the Famicom‘s success began to outpace the SG-1000. The Famicom had more advanced hardware, allowing it to perform smoother scrolling and more colorful sprites, and Nintendo boosted its games library by courting third-party developers, whereas Sega was less than eager to collaborate with the same companies they were competing with in arcades. The SG-1000 was also right in the middle of the Japanese Console War, coming up against 7 other game consoles. In July 1984, Sega decided to discontinue the SG-1000 and pursue with the SG-1000 II, and updated version of their current console.
Games
Sega published 68 games for the console while the Othello Multivision, a licensed clone published 7, for a grand total of 75 compatible games.
- Bank Panic (1985)
- The Black Onyx (1987)
- Bomb Jack (1985)
- Borderline (1983)
- The Castle (1986)
- Chack’n Pop (1985)
- Champion Baseball (1983)
- Champion Billiards (1986)
- Champion Boxing (1984)
- Champion Golf (1983)
- Champion Ice Hockey (1985)
- Champion Kendou (1986)
- Champion Pro Wrestling (1985)
- Championship Lode Runner (1985)
- Champion Soccer (1984)
- Champion Tennis (1983)
- Choplifter (1985)
- Congo Bongo (1983)
- C_So! (1985)
- Doki Doki Penguin Land (1985)
- Dragon Wang (1985)
- Drol (1985)
- Elevator Action (1985)
- Exerion (1983)
- Flicky (1984)
- Girl’s Garden (1984)
- Golgo 13 (1984)
- GP World (1985)
- Gulkave (1986)
- Hang On II (1985)
- H.E.R.O. (1985)
- Home Mahjong (1984)
- Hustle Chumy (1984)
- Hyper Sports (1985)
- Lode Runner (1984)
- Loretta no Shouzou: Sherlock Holmes (1987)
- Mahjong (1983)
- Monaco GP (1983)
- Ninja Princess (1986)
- N-Sub (1983)
- Orguss (1984)
- Othello (1985)
- Pacar (1983)
- Pachinko (1983)
- Pachinko II (1984)
- Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns (1985)
- Pop Flamer (1983)
- Rock n’ Bolt (1985)
- Safari Hunting (1983)
- Safari Race (1984)
- Sega Flipper (1983)
- Sega Galaga (1983)
- Serizawa Hachidan no Tsumeshogi (1983)
- Shinnyuushain Tooru-Kun (1985)
- Sindbad Mystery (1983)
- Soukoban (1985)
- Space Armor (1984)
- Space Invaders (1985)
- Space Slalom (1983)
- Star Force (1985)
- Star Jacker (1983)
- Super Tank (1986)
- Terebi Oekaki (1986)
- Wonder Boy (1986)
- Yamato (1983)
- Zaxxon (1985)
- Zippy Race (1983)
- Zoom 909 (1985)
Othello Multivision
- 007 James Bond (1984)
- Challenge Derby (1984)
- Guzzler (1983)
- Okamoto Ayako no Match Play Golf (1984)
- Q*bert (1983)
- San-nin Mahjong (1984)
- Space Mountain (1984)