Before:
In 1940, a company known as Standard Games (later named Service Games) was founded in Honolulu, Hawaii to provide coin-op games for American servicemen to provide entertainment. In 1951 the company moved to Japan and in 1952 Service Games of Japan was registered. In 1954, Rosen Enterprises was founded to export art. The company later found popularity in instant photo booths that they imported, so the company also decided to import coin-op mechanical games. In 1965, Rosen Enterprises and Service Games merged to form Sega Enterprises. One of the first games Sega produced was a submarine simulator called Periscope.
"It's better than playing with shit."
The game was a huge hit worldwide. As the company continued to prosper, it was bought by Gulf+Western. One of Sega's more popular video arcade was Zaxxon which was the first game to use axonmetric projection.
"Why is there a plane on my motherboard?"
In 1983, Sega made it's first home console, the SG-1000, but the system was only available in Japan and Australia.
"Damn Aussies."
Also in 1983, Sega produced the first ever 3D arcade game SubRoc-3D.
"It looks like someone threw up on the game."
The same year Sega produced the first ever laserdisc game, Astron Belt.
"EXPLOSIONS!"
Sega was a very successful company, but ended up as one of the victims of the video game crash and was bought out in 1984 by CSK and had its new headquarters in Japan. In 1986 Sega of America released the Sega Master System. Even though the Sega Master System was superior to the NES, it didn't appeal to the American mass market. The unofficial mascot for Sega was Alex Kidd who's first game was Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
"Did his hand get stung by a bee?"
In 1989, Sega released the Sega Genesis or Mega Drive.
"It's sound system sounds like someone taking a shit on a funk album."
The company used an anti-Nintendo campaign to promote the console.
"Genesis does what Nintendon't until 1991."
In 1991, Nintendo released the Super Nintendo, a far more superior console to the Sega Genesis. This caused Sega to change it's slogan to "Welcome to the next level". In the same year Sega decided they needed a new mascot that needed to be "cooler" than Mario. Sega came up with a mascot and that mascot was Sonic the Hedgehog.
"He looked so different back then."
After:
Originally the Sonic we know today was very different than the Sonic that was first planned. Originally Sonic was to be in a band as the lead singer and would be featured in a sound test screen of Sonic the Hedgehog. In addition, Sonic was to have a human girlfriend and fangs, but once the game was given to Sega of America they got rid of all that stuff.
"This makes no sense."
The game was released for the Sega Master System and the Sega Genesis and were extremely popular. The game was later packaged with the Sega Genesis to promote their new mascot. Sonic the Hedgehog featured graphics revolutionary for its time and allowed the player to travel very quickly across the map.
"Before that annoying prick Tails follows you around."
The main point of the Sonic the Hedgehog is to collect the six Chaos Emeralds to prevent Dr. Robotnik from getting them. Each zone has its own chaos emerald until the final zone and at the end of each zone you had to fight a big machine built by Dr. Robotnik with Dr. Robotnik controlling it.
"Look out, its a giant ball!"
"That's what she said."
Sonic the Hedgehog later had a sequal released, Sonic the hedgehog 2. The game features a new playable character, Tails, but who wants to play as him. The main point of the game is to collect the seven Chaos Emerals from the eleven different zones in the game. As you play you will always have Tails follow you and if you manage to finally lose him he'll fly back to you for he's invincible. I have nightmares about him. Once all the emeralds are collected, you go Super Sonic and fly off to the Death Egg to defeat Dr. Robotnik.
"No Tails! I don't want you to see me this way."
The sequal to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is Sonic the Hedgehog 3. This game is the first game to feature Knuckles. The main point of the game is to progress through the six levels, but in order to fully complete the game you must collect the seven Chaos Emeralds. There is an expansion pack that allows you to play as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3 and allows you to explore new areas.
"Who wouldn't play as Knuckles?"
Sega continued to make systems after the Sega Genesis, but they were rushed in order to compete with othe newer systems. They first produced add-ons to the Sega Genesis such as the Sega-CD and 32X, but the games for the system got poor reviews and the add-ons themselves were too damn expensive.
"The video game equivalent to Frankenstein's monster."
Also, the Sega Saturn had the same problems the Sega-CD and 32X had by having crappy games and also the graphics failed in comparison to its competitors such as the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.
"At least its not an Atari Jaguar."
Sega did make a comeback with the Dreamcast, but fans of Sega lost hope of Sega redeeming themselves and the release of the PlayStation 2 didn't help either. Even though the system had good games, low sales caused Sega to discontinue the Dreamcast two years after its release in the US.
" Sega Dreamcast RIP 1999-2001"
Since then, Sega has not produced any new systems, but has remained a 3rd party gaming company producing games for the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. In recent years, there have been a slew of Sonic games that have been crappy, but there is hope. There has been the announcement of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and is a throwback edition in the Sonic series and is expected to save the series. Also, compared to the original Sonic the Hedgehog the graphic are way more improved to show how far the series has come.
"Finally! At least he doesn't turn into a werewolf or has a sword."
i grew up in a house of sega lovers, we still have a lot of the consoles but why does no-one remember the sega multi-mega. It was a mega drive and a mega-cd put together.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good blog but...um...ah...well...i cant think of any bad thing actually