Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback m ...

developer,

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, with multiple offices around the world. The company's involvement in the

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade ...

industry began as a Japan-based distributor of coin-operated machines, including

pinball Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...

games and

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

es. Sega imported second-hand machines that required frequent maintenance. This necessitated the construction of replacement guns, flippers and other parts for the machines. According to former Sega director Akira Nagai, this is what led to the company into developing their own games.
Translation
by Shmuplations. ). Sega released '' Pong-Tron'', its first video-based game, in 1973.Horowitz 2018, pp. 14-16 The company prospered from the arcade game boom of the late 1970s, with revenues climbing to over million by 1979. Nagai has stated that ''

Hang-On is an arcade racing game released by Sega in 1985 and later ported to the Master System. In the game, the player controls a motorcycle against time and other computer-controlled bikes. It was one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit grap ...

'' and ''

Out Run (also stylized as ''OutRun'') is an arcade driving video game released by Sega in September 1986. It is known for its pioneering hardware and graphics, nonlinear gameplay, a selectable soundtrack with music composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi, an ...

'' helped to pull the arcade game market out of the 1983 downturn and created new genres of video games. In terms of arcades, Sega is the world's most prolific arcade game producer, having developed more than 500 games, 70 franchises, and 20

arcade system board An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...

s since 1981. It has been recognized by

Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for this achievement. The following list comprises the various arcade system boards developed and used by Sega in their arcade games.

Arcade system boards

Additional arcade hardware

Sega has developed and released additional arcade games that use technology other than their dedicated arcade system boards. The first arcade game manufactured by Sega was ''Periscope'', an

electromechanical In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...

game. This was followed by ''Missile'' in 1969.Horowitz 2018, pp. 8-13 Subsequent video-based games such as '' Pong-Tron'' (1973), '' Fonz'' (1976), and ''Monaco GP'' (1979) used

discrete logic A logic gate is an idealized or physical device implementing a Boolean function, a logical operation performed on one or more binary inputs that produces a single binary output. Depending on the context, the term may refer to an ideal logic gat ...

boards without a CPU microprocessor. ''

Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous river ...

'' (1981) used a system powered by two Z80 CPU microprocessors. Some titles, such as ''

Zaxxon is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1982, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the ...

'' (1982) were developed externally from Sega, a practice that was not uncommon at the time.Horowitz 2018, pp. 48-50

References

{{Bandai Namco Hardware

Sega arcade system boards

Arcade system boards

Additional arcade hardware

See also

References