WEBVTT - The Sega Saga 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.960 tech Stuff from How Stuff workstot coming. Hello again everyone, 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.239 Welcome to Tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pouelette and 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.760 I'm an editor and sitting in front of me as 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:28.440 usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. Gee, I'm really sorry 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.559 your mom blew up, Ricky. I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:35.040 that one. That was That one has nothing to do 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.720 with what we're talking about. Awesome. Yeah, it's a great movie, 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:39.880 isn't it. Yes, if you have not seen that movie, 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.000 then you need to find out what that quote is 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:47.400 from and then go see that movie. He likes corn. 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.800 We could just quote that movie over this podcast, but 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.920 that would be finept it wouldn't cover the topic that 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:56.920 the title says true and it is one of our 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:03.360 favorite gaming companies that we're talking about the history of today. Sega. Yes. Yes, 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:05.520 Chris was the one who came up with the brilliant title, 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:10.360 the Sega Saga. Yes, it's an epic Sega saga, so 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.000 and and and it has nothing to do with Iceland, right, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.640 completely different saga. No, No, there's no Bayowolf in the well, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.320 they might have made a Baowolf game. I didn't go 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.560 through their entire arcade library anyway, and then it was 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.400 disgrendled anyway. Oh man, we're you can tell we've already 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:30.640 done one podcast this morning because we're really warmed up 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:35.400 with Lupi. Um. So, the funny thing is the Sega 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.360 still exists, so we are we are not burying a 0:01:38.400 --> 0:01:42.120 company as we did with Midway so much, but it 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:44.800 exists in a radically different form than it did many 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.200 years ago. And uh, many people and I had no 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.160 idea when I started the research for this, but many 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:56.280 people think of Sega as another one of those Japanese 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.600 arcade game companies. Are game companies like Nintendo or Tito 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:05.880 or Sony and some of the others not so much. Well, 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:11.160 it is, but it began as an American company, Yes, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:17.720 in Honolulu, Hawaii, which I guess technically in Honolulu still 0:02:17.840 --> 0:02:20.679 was not in an American It was an American territory, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:23.440 wasn't a statement. I think you'd probably still call it 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.520 an American company. And its name comes from Standard Games. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:31.280 Actually it comes from the second name. Standard Games was 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.240 their original name. Yes, but they then changed the Service 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.400 games because they took they took the SE from service 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.760 and the g A from games and became Sega. Now 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:46.080 why was it called service Games because early on in 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:51.000 its history the company made coin operated amusements. Yes, right, 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:54.080 so these are the kind of the old style penny 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.799 arcade type games and they made them specifically, they would 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.359 they were making them for a very niche market, niche 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.399 military basis. Yes, And that's where you got the name 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:10.640 Service Games because they were in the service exactly. And 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.480 they the company had been around for a few years 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:18.079 when um, they kind of got this idea of relocating 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:22.080 to Japan. Yes, the company, originally as Standard Games, was 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:27.160 founded by Martin Bromily, Irvan Bromberg, and James Humpert. And 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:32.359 they started in um I, you know, oddly enough, right 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:36.360 before the United States entered World War two. Um with Japan. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:42.160 Of course, um event that happened in Hawaii, yes, um, 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.200 but in one Bromiley was the one that said let's 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.839 move to Tokyo. And that actually, uh, you might say, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:51.680 why did you bring that up right after the war thing? 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:53.360 It actually had a lot to do with the war, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:59.200 not just because they were originally creating games for service locations, 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:04.720 but also because you know, Japan had been damaged pretty 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.680 heavily in the last days of the war, pretty heavily, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.280 very heavily, and um the country. The country was rebuilding, 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.400 and they saw an opportunity to get in on the 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:17.000 ground floor of and and create an industry that that 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.440 really didn't exist in Japan like it did in the 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.920 United States. And the United States they had competition from 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:25.520 other game manufacturers, where in Japan they would have a 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:32.320 much more open market. Yeah, this was really amazing foresight, right, 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:36.840 because you have to remember at this time in history, 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:39.760 no one was really looking to Japan to become a 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.680 leader in electronics or or any any of those kind 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:46.680 of industries. I mean, Japan was a country that had 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.679 been devastated by war, and UM and the United States 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.000 of course invested quite heavily in in rebuilding Japan, as 0:04:54.040 --> 0:04:58.960 did other nations, and Japan, for its part, didn't just 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:04.080 accept money and you know and coast the Japanese people, 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:10.159 the Japanese government really dedicated themselves to building a new Japan. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.159 And and boy did they The electronics industry alone became 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.320 so important to Japan and they became so innovative that 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:22.800 it in Japan, you could argue, became the leader in 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:29.160 several electronics sub categories, to the point where you had 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:33.720 countries like America say, wow, what happened? We were we 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.560 were away in the lead there. What how did that happen? 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.600 And the reason that happened was companies like Sega really 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:47.919 saw the opportunity and seized it. Um. Yeah, So in 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:53.720 Sega merged with another company, rosen Enterprises, again founded by 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:59.160 an American, David rosen In, and they that company had 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:04.760 been working on an instant photo booths and mechanical arcade games. Um. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.359 I think of that being sort of like pinball machines 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.720 and those things with the cranes that never seem to work, yes, 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:13.480 or the games where you get the coins that are 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:15.680 right there on the edge and all it's gonna take 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.760 is one more coin and it'll knock all those coins 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:21.440 and you'll be rich. But somehow, despite the laws of 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.480 gravity and the conservation of energy, it just doesn't work, 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.240 which shows you that science is a lie. Okay, that 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:30.919 last part was a joke. I'm going to send in 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:35.440 the stuff to blow your mind staff and they can 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.280 they can have a talk with you about that. Explain 0:06:37.279 --> 0:06:41.360 how this is scientifically possible, I dare you. But it 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.200 wasn't long after that that Sega released its first major hit, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:48.240 at least that I saw a reference, and that's called Periscope. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:52.120 It's a sub submarine simulator again with the war theme. 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:58.000 UM and UH in giving you the concise history here 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.600 and which is the one that's on the same A website. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:05.039 In sixty nine, Sega, Rosenan and the other people who 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:07.799 were shareholders in Sega decided to sell out to Gulf 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:12.440 and Western, which, according to Britannica, was founded in ninety 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.520 eight uh and just became a It was a huge 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:20.440 conglomerate company. UM. It owned Paramount Pictures UM and then 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.800 it changed its name Gulf and Western. I remember seeing 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:25.480 that on the Paramount logo and wondering what the connection was. Well, 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:29.560 it changed its name to Paramount Communications UH in nine 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:34.920 and then Viacom gobbled it up in UM. But that 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.000 that's uh, you know, sort of sort of how it 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:39.960 became a worldwide entity, because first it had to hit 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:44.720 with with Periscope, and then it was you know, became 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:50.160 part of a very large media distribution company, right and UH, 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:52.440 I thought it was interesting that just this's just kind 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:53.960 of an aside that I don't really have a whole 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:56.080 lot of de tail about this. But then in the seventies, 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.640 Sega really kind of tried to branch out beyond just 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.680 doing the amusements and the games and created its own 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:09.320 Sega branded television screen TV. Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.160 it's one of those just odd things. Obviously it was 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.280 not not the it what ended up not being the 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.360 direction the company moved in, but it was something that 0:08:17.400 --> 0:08:19.560 they were, you know, they were trying out different things, 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:26.120 and UH, as the arcade game began to evolve, you know, 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.320 late seventies, that's when we started seeing arcade games up here. 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.120 As I began to involve, Sega got involved in that 0:08:32.160 --> 0:08:34.680 because you know, that was sort of Sega's thing was 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.600 they were they were all about coin operated amusements. And 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:43.760 then after the coin operated UH games started to really 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:46.360 take off, that's when you started to see companies developed 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:52.400 the home game consoles. Now, um, I have to say 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:54.600 that as I was doing research for this, I started 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.720 of course with Sega, but ended up on a really 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:02.480 awesome lengthy history of Sega at I g N, done 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.920 by Travis Foss f h s and Uh. He really 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.120 gets into a lot of depth about the company UM. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.439 According to his article, UM, it was Space Invaders release 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:18.560 in by Tito UM causing a coin shortage in Japan. 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:24.559 Uh that helped spur the industry, the video game industry 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:29.360 in in Japan and UM. Sega at that point picked 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.480 up an American company called Gremlin Industries to come up 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:37.000 with ideas for arcade games. Did they feed them after midnight? 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:41.880 It's always midnight somewhere, well, not always, but at the 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.640 top of the hour, um, and head On was the 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:52.480 result of that. Applied directly to forehead it was Amazed game. UM. 0:09:52.520 --> 0:10:00.000 Amazing No uh not not completely dissimilar to another famous 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:05.960 May's game not created by Sega. Yes, UM. But I 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:10.600 remember some of the games that Mr Foss mentions in 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.600 his article, including Zaxon, which was a three D space 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:18.640 shooter that was a great game. I loved Zaxon, fantastic game. Um. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.320 And he also mentioned Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom, which 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:22.959 I can't remember if it was in the corner of 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.480 Pizza Place where I used to spend all my parents quarters. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:30.120 For me, it was skate country, but was the name 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.840 of the skating rink at my hometown. This was that's 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.720 a pizza. There's some free plugs for businesses that no 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:43.000 longer exist. Yeah, but as Jonathan mentioned, uh, they started 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.080 getting into home games with some They started out with 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:50.640 a very very very ugly console named SG one thousand. Yeah. 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:54.000 Now this was marketed only in Japan. Yes, it did 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.000 not get worldwide distribution, and it's probably a good thing. 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:00.800 It came out around and it was a card cartridge 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.160 based system, right, Yeah, that was That was during the 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.680 game crash that we talked about in an earlier podcast, 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.640 which is interesting because it came out. I would say 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.400 that was the second wave of home big wave of 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.520 home consoles and Sega. Sega had some amazing timing with 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.160 its console releases, of the first being that releasing a 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:23.280 console shortly after the massive home gaming crash that happened 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.239 if you remember from our podcast about that that that crash. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.040 What happened was that the market became glutted with various 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:35.680 consoles and games, many of which were of a poor quality, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:41.600 and so the home market enthusiasts became disenchanted with video 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.560 games in general, and a lot of people were making 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.959 the move towards looking at personal computers, which really had 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:51.040 not hit big time yet, but we're starting to gain 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.480 a lot of traction. So home consoles were hurting at 0:11:54.520 --> 0:12:00.920 this time now. And the the this console that Sega released, 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.480 the s G one thousand, it had some problems. Uh, 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.160 it only had RF connection, so if you were to 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:10.160 buy one today, you would actually have to probably find 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:13.240 an adapter in order to play it. I have one 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:18.480 and r F adapter, yeah, yeah, somewhere, and you haven't. No, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:21.000 I don't have an S one. You know, they were 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.880 pretty affordable. They only cost fifteen thousand yen, which you 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.960 know was about hundred thirty dollars according to I haven't. 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:30.839 I didn't need the pricing for today. I can look 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.400 it up on That's all right. I didn't do I 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:36.800 got I got messages last time. How irritating it was 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.400 do the full conversion. But it did launch on July 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:46.280 fifte at the same day as you know the fan Colm, Yes, 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:50.400 the famicom, which was known to those of us in 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:55.040 the United States as entertainment system. So yes, right out 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.199 of the gate, Sega released this on the same day 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.520 as a an icon in the video game industry. Now, 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:04.240 of course, then Nintendo Entertainment System would make its way 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.840 to the United States a little later, yes, but the 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.480 does not. And let me tell a little bit more. 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.080 I'll give you a little more detail about this this console. Uh. 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.480 It also had a hardwired, permanently attached joystick, so it 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.840 wasn't a joystick that you would unplug and pack up, 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:24.880 and the reason for that was that it made it 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:29.440 less expensive to produce. But apparently the joystick had problems. 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:31.920 It was had poor response time. You had to really 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.920 press on it to get things done. And it was rectangular, 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.360 kind of like the shape of a remote control, with 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.160 a joystick towards the top end in the center and 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.520 buttons on either side. Not the most comfortable thing in 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.960 the world to hold. Actually, read an article in Wired 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.000 where one of the Wired writers found one while attending 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:55.559 a game conference in Japan and purchased it for about 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.760 fifty eight dollars to bring it back and try it out, 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.120 because hardly anyone bought this thing. That then Tendo beat 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:03.800 the pants off of it in Japan, and of course 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.320 never saw worldwide distribution. Yes, so his review was that 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.439 you could see why never saw worldwide distribution the games. 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.800 He said, we're pretty much not that great, and the 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:18.240 controls were really difficult, and the Nintendo was just a 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:22.280 superior system. Yep, yep, and in fact, it scared away 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:26.520 the corporate parent. Now, lest you have paused the podcast 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:31.480 and corrected me on Viacom owning Sega, UM Golf and 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.160 Western before Paramount even entered the picture, before they changed 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.760 their name, they said okay, no, Mr Rosen, you want 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:43.000 your company back. Um. And they were asking thirty eight 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:47.960 million dollars for Sega, which you know I would have 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:53.000 considered a bargain in today's terms, probably right. Um. So basically, uh, 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:58.160 David Rosen found some other willing partners and uh uh 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:03.640 including a company named c s K Holdings UM, a 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.600 Japanese company. UM. And basically they bought it back from 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:13.560 Gulf and Western headquartered in Japan, and uh Rosen stayed 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:21.040 in Los Angeles, California to manage the United States operation. UM. So, yeah, 0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:23.600 the ST one thousand not a hit, and Gulf and 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.560 Western says, no, no, no, you go ahead, you can 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:29.840 have it back. And a couple of years later, Sega 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:35.400 launches a new console, the Sega Master System. So we're 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.240 skipping the SG one two. Yeah, I'm skipping all the twos. 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.720 Most of the several of the consoles will be talking 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:48.080 about had follow up consoles and Sega Mark three, let's 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:50.360 let's just talk about the ones that are important. It's 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.160 funny if you if you go back to the if 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.720 you go back to the um list of if you 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:59.840 go find this article and find these boxes, they are 0:15:59.920 --> 0:16:05.400 the most depressing looking beige chunks of plastic kind of 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.800 kind of reflects their their their eventual fate, yes, however, 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:14.760 but not their eventual successes, which looked far cooler. So 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:17.160 the Master System, the Sega Master System you have thought, 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.280 it came out in Japan around and then it got 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.800 worldwide release the next year, and that was another eight 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.280 bit based video game console system. So this is the 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:31.720 same same general processing level as the Nintendo Entertainment System. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.160 It was a thirty two color system as opposed to 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:40.520 the sixteen from the previous UH console, and again cartridge based, 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:45.920 but it also had a slot for a card system. 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:50.560 The cards would actually hold games that were not as complicated, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.840 that didn't need the full capacity that a cartridge could hold. 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:56.200 But you could like walk around with the whole pocket 0:16:56.240 --> 0:16:59.080 full of games and and trade them with your friends. Right, 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:02.800 these would be the it's like pog now, these were them. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:04.640 You could play Pog with the cards if you really 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:07.000 wanted to. Now that the cards were for the games 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.760 that were much less complicated, So you might have uh, 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.679 you know, You're You're a title games. Those would all 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.320 be on cartridges because they needed that space. But then 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.120 you would have these very simple games that were not 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.119 that uh demanding as far as um storage space goes, 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.040 and so those would be used on the cards. The 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.760 card thing did not last very long. The later versions 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:32.239 of the Sega Master System just did away with it 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.959 because hardly anyone was purchasing these card games, and then 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.200 they would just they would release like batches of these 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:42.879 card games all contained to one cartridge instead. So it's 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:47.080 kind of like if you've ever played a more modern 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.880 console where they release the classic games, where you'll get 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.840 like maybe thirty or forty classic games on one desk. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:59.000 It was kind of the equivalent to that, uh and 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.240 that one was around two hundred dollars when it launched. 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:07.040 Now at this point, UH I believe a man named 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.639 Hayao naka Yama was in charge of Sega in in 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.040 Japan and Rosen was handling things here in the United States. 0:18:14.480 --> 0:18:20.560 They didn't always so much get along. Um. And that 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.919 that's important because that story is going on behind the 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.480 scenes here. We don't really see that. Those of us 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.800 who are are Sega fans, Um, we don't really see 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.280 all that stuff because you know, this is not the 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:35.840 kind of thing where you know, you would typically know 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.800 about that. What you're looking at is you know whether 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:44.880 or not uh, Space Harrier and out Run and Zaxon 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.280 are coming into your house. Um. But the thing is 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:54.480 that the decisions made by Sega in Japan and Sega 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.320 in America had a great deal to do with the 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.520 successes and failures of the companies we're gonna see coming 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:04.960 up shortly because at this point, this is when uh, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:11.120 Nintendo was launching Super Mario Brothers. Yeah, around that time, 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:16.360 the Sega Master System was seeing some success in Europe. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.080 They were they were actually selling fairly well in Europe, 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:21.680 but in the United States and Japan they were trailing 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:27.440 sales of the in s and uh. Really the Sega's 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.000 strong suit at this point was their intellectual property for 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.000 their arcade games, like you were saying, right, and they 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:38.600 had that leverage, and Nintendo had Mario. Right, Nintendo had 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:43.920 an identifiable mascot, yes, right, and and Sega needed something 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:46.600 like that because I mean you could say that Atari 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.040 had pac Man. True, yeah, Atari had licensed pac Man 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:55.919 from Namco for you or for worse that that was 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:01.680 another podcast. Um, but yeah, it's uh um. They were 0:20:01.720 --> 0:20:05.080 really looking for some character that they could use, they 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.280 could leverage, and I know who you're thinking of, but 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:11.359 it wasn't him yet. It was Alex Kidd that they 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.600 settled on. If you haven't heard of him, that shows 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:19.119 that it was not a huge success, right. Um. No, 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:22.199 They tried to make him into a franchiseable character that 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:25.320 they could parlay at home, but he just didn't. Alex 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.560 Kidd in Miracle World just didn't take off like they 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:29.600 hoped it would. Well, who would have thought that jump 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:35.960 Man would eventually become an iconic character. I mean, a 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:41.080 shortish plumber and overalls Mario started off as jump Man. 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.199 No one would have thought this guy is going to 0:20:43.280 --> 0:20:47.080 become the icon for a company. Yeah, and he did 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.080 showed us. So at this time, we're getting into the 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.359 late eighties, Saga starts to plan its next big console. 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:00.520 How do you follow up? Name the mass your system, 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.120 especially one that didn't do so well in the United States. 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.240 In Japan, well, you could call it the Mega Drive 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.840 if you want to do, but why would you do that. 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:11.840 Well it did do that for some countries, but in 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:20.600 the United States it was called Genesis. Yes, not that Genesis. 0:21:20.760 --> 0:21:24.280 What it was This thing didn't like make dead planets 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:28.280 turn alive. This is I never bought one. Then the 0:21:29.080 --> 0:21:32.080 Master system was was had changed from that really boring 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.199 beige color to black, but it still looked like a 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:39.000 box with ports on it. The Genesis was black and 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:45.879 shiny and round, round dish, It had curves, and it 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:49.040 was a lot cooler looking than it's previous. Not that 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:53.119 that sells, however, altered beast being packaged with the system 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.639 that helps. And I'll keep in mind the Sega Genesis 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.160 was still a cartridge based system. We haven't moved away 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:05.160 from cartridges yet, but it was superior to the NES. 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:08.639 It was a sixteen bit system, yes it was. The 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.399 NES was an eight bit system, and when it came 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:17.520 out in Japan that was before the Supernintendo. Yes, not 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.360 a whole lot longer before the Supernintendo, but but long 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:23.240 enough so that Sega had a jump on the sixteen 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:26.440 bit market. Yes. Now, the the I g N article 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.240 points out that it didn't take off right out of 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:32.600 the gate in Japan, maybe partially due to and I 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:34.919 didn't know this either, that Super Mario Brothers three had 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.840 been released the week before, great timing Sega, so everybody 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:41.399 was still kind of invested in Well, yeah, Nintendo had 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.240 an amazing market penetration to so you get to some 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.720 point it's just like, you know, the to to jump 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:51.360 over to another company for a second PlayStation had such 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:56.199 a great depth of games that the the original PlayStation 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.080 was going strong well after the PlayStation two came out, 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:00.760 and then when the play stay and three came out, 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:02.800 the PlayStation two did the same thing. In fact, they 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:05.840 were still making PlayStation two games long after the PS 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:08.840 three came out, So there's a there's a level of 0:23:08.880 --> 0:23:11.919 loyalty among gamers. Also. I mean, let's face it, it 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.760 costs a lot of money to upgrade from one system 0:23:14.760 --> 0:23:18.719 to another. So if you are a gamer and you 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.440 have a console and they're still getting new games coming 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:25.119 out for that console, there's not a whole lot of 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.200 reason for you to jump ship to another system unless 0:23:28.760 --> 0:23:34.040 the games are just phenomenally better. Now, you could argue 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:36.800 that the Genesis games were at least phenomenally better from 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:39.840 a graphical standpoint or or even sound effects standpoint. The 0:23:40.359 --> 0:23:44.800 specs on the Genesis were superior to the nes. But again, 0:23:44.840 --> 0:23:48.560 the market penetration that Nintendo had, particularly in Japan, was 0:23:48.800 --> 0:23:53.720 hard to to to just dismiss. Yeah, the Genesis only 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:57.600 sold four hundred thousand units in its first year, which 0:23:57.680 --> 0:24:00.959 is not I mean, especially by today's standard, where gaming 0:24:01.040 --> 0:24:04.879 is far more um entrenched in the market than it 0:24:04.960 --> 0:24:07.720 used to be. That's that's nothing. But in the United 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.080 States they got a guy named Michael Kat's to take 0:24:10.160 --> 0:24:15.159 over UM and um. Basically, they named Hi president of 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:20.000 Sega of America one month after the Genesis launched. And uh, 0:24:20.160 --> 0:24:24.119 the company was really trying to push selling a million systems, 0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:31.399 which again in today's standards, seems tiny. Um. But Nintendo 0:24:31.640 --> 0:24:37.880 had the licensees locked up as well, um to use uh, 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:42.320 to use reference and uh yeah, I mean they had 0:24:42.680 --> 0:24:45.119 contracts with them, they were binding that said, you know, 0:24:45.200 --> 0:24:49.720 if you developed for other systems, you can, And because 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:52.919 Nintendo had such a huge customer base, everyone wanted to 0:24:52.920 --> 0:24:55.200 develop for Nintendo. Now, for some of you this might 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.680 sound familiar because we're seeing similar things in today's market, 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:03.120 not necessarily with the video game consoles, but let's talk 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:08.240 about developing apps for various platforms. This might sound very 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:12.120 familiar to you. Yes, so that's not an old idea 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:14.320 or am I Rather, it is an old idea, it's 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:17.000 not a new idea. So this was around the time 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:19.680 where Sega finally did come up with a mascot that 0:25:19.760 --> 0:25:26.200 actually stuck. Yes, is in that we saw a certain 0:25:27.000 --> 0:25:30.760 blue rodent that can move really really fast. Actually, I 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:33.359