The Melancholy Of Sega

Oh Sega, you were once a prince but now you've become a servant to the kings of the video game world. It’s sad to see, seeing as once you were a powerful foe against Nintendo. While you never quite won the console wars of yesteryear, you still held your own. What happened? Well... let’s take a look...
Despite popular belief, Sega's very very start was in Hawaii, not Japan. It began life in 1940 in a company called Service Games.  In 1951 the company was moved to Tokyo, Japan. There they began to develop and distribute coin-operated games like slot machines and jukeboxes. Not too long after this, the company began bringing these machines to American bases throughout Japan.
Sega's roots do not solely come from one company though. David Rosen, a US Air Force officer, launched a photo booth business in Tokyo. It started importing coin operated games to Japan three years later. It grew to a chain of over 200 arcades. The company’s only competitor, Service Games, was enticed by Rosen with a merger offer. The companies become one, using the first two letters in "Service" and "Games". Clever, huh. Rosen became the chief executive of the new company.
Rosen eventually sold Sega to Gulf & Western Industries, but remained the CEO. During the 1970's the arcade boom allowed Sega to grow which would lead them into the home console market.
On July 15th, 1983 the first Sega console, the SG-1000, was released. This is also the day that Nintendo released their Famicom (the Japanese name for the original NES).  It was designed by Hideki Sato. It had minor success and was released in New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France and South America. It never saw an official American release. About a year later, the SG-1000 II, was released. This upgrade was mostly for aesthetic purposes.
The SC 3000 was also released in 1983 and was a computerized-version of the SG-1000. It could run all SG-1000 games, but also was able to run computer applications and users were able to create programs using BASIC as well as machine code. It was much more successful and outsold the SG-1000.
The Sega Mark III, or as it was later known, the Sega Master System, hit stores in 1985 in Japan, and 1986 in the US.  The Master System was technically superior to the NES, yet failed to outsell it.  This is most likely due to the poor game quality for the Master System, while the NES had a large library of quality games. It did, however, bring us Sega's first non-official mascot: Alex the Kidd.
In 1998 Sega's 16-bit console, the Sega Mega Drive, was released in Japan. Unfortunately, the name "Mega Drive" could not be obtained in America, so it was renamed the Genesis. PAL regions however saw the console under its original name.  These are considered the "golden years" for Sega.
The Mega Drive/Genesis was Sega's best selling system.  Nintendo's 16-bit console would not appear on the scene until about two years after the Genesis. The first ad campaign in the US capitalized on this with the slogan "Sega does what Nintendon't". Unlike the Master System, the Genesis enjoyed a large and quality selection of games.  The most popular series, Sonic the Hedgehog, was released in 1991. Sonic instantly became Sega's mascot. He was meant to be more "hip" mascot than Nintendo's mascot Mario as a counter to the SNES release (which happened in 1990).  The console war between Nintendo and Sega raged on, and for a short time Sega enjoyed 65% of the gaming market. (Look for a full article on the different console wars coming soon!!).
In 1993, Sega introduced the Videogame Rating Council (V.R.C.) due to public outcry over some of the more violent games being released.  Mortal Kombat was being released on both Sega Genesis and Nintendo SNES. While Nintendo was very strict about what was on their consoles, Sega was a bit more relaxed. Nintendo's release of Mortal Kombat had its gore and blood toned down. Sega did this as well, but had a secret mode that would restore the game to its original state. To be able to do this, they had to create the V.R.C. Though, it still twisted a lot of panties among parents and US senators.
An add-on, the Sega Mega CD (or Sega CD)  was released in 1991. It added faster CPU, more memory, another sound chip, enhanced graphics, and games on CD roms.  It brought some quality games to the Genesis but never took off fully. In 1994, Sega introduced the 32X add on for the Genesis. It was marketed as the "poor man's 32-bit machine". It did poorly, for a number of reasons.  For one, it made your Genesis look like Frankenstein's monster. The second is it came out a couple months after Sega's newest console, the Sega Saturn. The third is it just did not attract many developers.  Only 665,000 were sold worldwide.
The Sega Saturn came into living rooms in 1994. While popular in Japan, America did not embrace it compared to the new Sony Playstation or (later on) N64. To compete with the Playstation, Sega added a second CPU. It also sported six other processors. While the machine was powerful, developers found it difficult to harness this power. Sega lost third party support to Sony (giving the Playstation quite the impressive library of games). The other big issue was the cost of making each machine. While Nintendo and Sony were able to drop the price of their systems, Sega was not. By the later part of 1997, many planned games were cancelled. The life of the system was cut short.
The Saturn did gain ground in Japan though, in part thanks to a fantastic ad campaign. Hiroshi Fujioka played the role of Segata Sanshiro, a fictional dan (a black belt)  holder for multiple Japanese martial arts. The ads still live on thanks to the internet, and many fans still sing along to “Segata Sanshiro” even in the states.
Devices similar (and obviously meant to be Saturns) appeared in a couple of animes. Ones can be seen in episode 23 (alongside a Sega-badged TV) in Neon Genesis Evangelion and You’re Under Arrest (episode 48).

In 1998 the Sega’s final system, The Dreamcast, was released. In the USA it was released on September 9th, 1999. During its first year of life, the Dreamcast flourished. It had great launch titles such as Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, and Marvel vs. Capcom. Sales grew 156% from July to September in 2000. This placed them ahead of the Nintendo 64 for that time. However, the good times would not last. In 2000, the Playstation 2 was launched. Its popularity exploded, leaving Sega in the dust. On January 31, 2001, Sega announced the end of production on its Dreamcast system.

The Dreamcast held on for sometime. Sega Direct (in Japan only) sold refurbished systems until 2006. The last games were released in 2007. The system is still living by the grace of its fans. Homebrew developers are still making games. Two games are being released later this year, Gun-Lord and Sturmwind, 11 years after the system’s “death”.

Sega continues to live as a software developer. Many of its classic franchises like Sonic, Super Monkey Ball, and Phantasy Star are seeing new titles currently in development.

Sega was a fantastic company that always seemed to jump the gun. They released the first 3D game SubRoc 3D to arcades in 1982. Seganet for the Sega Saturn was the first net-based connection for gamers that allowed players to use their own ISP to connect. Their systems hardware was, for the most part, was much more impressive than the other systems that were currently on the market (at least during their initial releases). Sega was a company about innovation, though it cost them in the long run.  While we will not be seeing them again in the console race, their classic and future projects live on. Oh Sega, we still love you.