Curiously, an archive of Sega S.A.'s 90s flash website suggests a start year of 1923 - when Irv Bromberg left his used car sales job to be a vending distributor, the most generous interpretation of the timeline by far.
Particularly frustrated because they require two-weeks notice, good thing i wasn't trying to schedule around free time in february! Do you think if i sent a donation to their library founding campaign they'd notice my request sooner?
Does anyone know good contact info for the International Arcade Museum Library/Museum of the Game? Been trying to reserve some research time for a couple months now but haven't gotten a response. Tried both staff2020 and library2024.
a headline from the june 1st '98 issue of Game Machine, covering Nishi's demotion from president of ASCII
CSK would end up obtaining ASCII corp in '98, and is responsible for triaging Nishi away from critical business.
The CSK buyout of Sega ended the talks, and hardware engineer Ishikawa was loaned out to CRI after the Mark III's release to help design an education-oriented computer more in line with CSK's business computer sensibilities.
Sega print ad sourced from December '84 issue of Micom Basic. The info blurb in the lower left includes the MSX compatibility claim.
Instead, the SF-7000, originally concieved as an expansion slot cage for the SC, had been fully developed into a floppy drive bay and ram expansion unit. Curiously, Sega advertised it having "wide compatibility", including MSX, though it is currently unknown how this would have worked.
Excerpt of an interview with Sega hardware designer mr. Ishikawa, commentting on Mr. Sato's meetings with Mr. Nishi, and about the MSX. sourced from 4gamer
In 1984, Sato had been in talks with Mr. Nishi of ASCII corp. about joining the MSX group. Sega's home computers didn't recieve a new model after its originally planned SC-5000 (released as the SC-3000H) like the SG-1000 did, possibly in anticipation of an MSX deal.
Despite not bringing his transcript or medical history, and a call back to the university not being cooperative, Sega decided to hire him that same day, March 25th 1971, and he became part of April's inauguration class. [sourced from an interview with Hitotsubashi University's IIR]
Sega's HR politely obliged his request to be shown their facility, and Sato showed interest in their R&D and P&E (production/engineering) departments. He lucked out as one of their three recent hires there didn't show, so he was directed to the department head for an impromptu interview.
A flyer for Tomy caught his attention, since he liked their toys and wouldn't be against assembly work, but they had ended their hiring period early. There was also a Sega flyer, and noting that their offices were only a few train stops down from the university, he decided to head over in person.
While an undergrad, Sato originally aimed to join an overseas agriculture program, mostly for its perk more than anything. When he wasn't selected, and a school counselor declined to help, he went looking through brochures at his school's hiring resource center.
In memoriam of Hideki Sato (1950 -2026), this shall be a thread for rarities and curios about his life and career.
if you played sonic the hedgehog and put down the controller, sonic would look at you and tap his foot impatiently. this was proof that sega genesis cartridges had souls. the decision was made to make the storage cases a lot larger than the cartridges so they would have room to move around in there
i'm not gonna sugar-coat it — your intuition is absolutely correct, the sega master system release of Shanghai (1988) definitely released after Sega was actively working to utilize AI into their ecosystem.
rational brain: Unaltered Yagi Double Sega Logo is probably a one-off fluke, it can't hurt you
the Unaltered Yagi Double Sega Logo:
Rosen's time at Sega outlasted even Nakayama's tenure, stepping down from chairman in '96 shortly after Kalinske resigned over the handling of the Saturn and 32X, and retiring from directorship in '98, just ahead of the dreamcast's japanese launch.
In 1983 Rosen announced that at the end of the year he would step down from active involvement, with Jeffrey Rochliss taking over as president of the US office while he remained chairman... This was short lived since later in 84 he helped negotiate the buyout of japanese Sega by Isao Okawa's CSK.
After obtaining Esco Trading and installing Hayao Nakayama as President, Rosen moved to a california office in 1974 to focus on bookkeeping tasks as CEO, and liason between sega and its direct parent in the G+W conglomerate, Paramount.
Even in Japan, Sega and Taito had partnered in the rollout of a new type of "skill based" slot machine, dubbed the Olympia line, hinting at the original goal of milking tourists during the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Revisions of the line continued for a decade.
In fact, Sega had been continually pumping tens of millions of dollars out of american government and GIs alike in Vietnam via corrupt salesmen like William Crum. The old fruit machine business was now booming in the UK, plus pinballs and jukeboxes in Spain and Italy.
During this PR push, Rosen went over a breakdown Sega's operations a couple times, disclosing that in the late 60s there was still a full "Military Sales" department, though he expressed intent to close that part down by the end of the decade. It did not close down.
By the time Periscope saw international release in 68, Rosen was drumming up a bunch of PR support for the price increase. The games saw modest success, and most importantly cemented the quarter as a reasonable cost for the games moving forward.
While it's theoretically possible Sega aped the Periscope design from Mayfield, since Bromley was living in London by this point and attending their trade shows, the full original Sega design is the much larger three-player style that Nakamura created, suggesting that was the original and basis.
By 1966, Marty Bromley looked to push the change by offering a line of premium machines, hopefully seen as worth a quarter. The initial three were copies of preexisting japanese games (Helicopter from Taito, Periscope from Namco, and their own Motopolo) with the addition of a sound effect system.
in fall 1950, american operators rallied behind an increased cost of a dime per play for shuffleboard, and this change quickly spread to other amusements. In the early 60s, a movement started to push it up to a quarter, but failed to reach enough operators to sign off on it.
Sega wasn't even the first copycat, as Mayfield Electronics showcased their "Torpedo Shoot" Nov. 30th 1965, with a slimmed down, singleplayer design. What did Sega's version bring to the table, and why was it such a major point in their history?
Legend has it that 1966's Periscope originated from a rough sketch of the mechanics from Rosen, handed to the engineer team led by Ochi Shikanosuke. While Sega still touts Periscope in its histories, the machine was originally created the year prior by the nakamura manufacturing company (namco).
This pivot to Rosen becoming Sega's public figure was a great move, as Rosen and his love of the culture was already pretty well known in Japan, and his wife Masako had been involved in business operations as well. This also allowed the laundering of ideas from "up top".
196?, Sega donates a jukebox to a teen activity club.
1968, Sega donates pool tables to military hospitals in Japan.
When Rosen and Sega merged, Rosen became the face of operations, giving interviews to press, handling industry shows, and donating overstock to local facilities.
pumps up your jam, making it big and round
