Sut wrote:David wrote:Sega - they've really only had a small period of great success. The Genesis...
Hmm yes and no. Yes I get the point about their console output but a large part of Sega's legacy is in the arcades.
I agree with Sut, and I will go farther back in arcades to the electromechanical games predating microprocessors. While pinball is the topline EM genre, Sega was innovative in both creating and marketing EM games. I fondly remember Periscope for getting that WWII sub commander feeling, and the just fun Gun Fight. While Midways Sea Wolf is a video game like Periscope, no video games are like Gun Fight - an enclosed OK Corral type arena where you and your opponent on the other side move your gunfighters around.
- Gunfight_machine4.jpg (79.97 KiB) Viewed 553 times
Its not sophisticared game play, probably better than vibrating football but below foosball or pinball, but its a form of simple tactile fun not wholly replicated with video games.Its really very much like playing with your toy cowboys with your friend in the backyard, just without all the I got you, no you didn't stuff. Plus, its not an image of a cowboy that falls down, but a physical thing.
So Sega was what Bill Gates and Steve Jobs may have been playing in the arcades in the 60s and 70s before there was a Microsoft or an Apple. People like me played Sega arcade games for 30 years.
As for the console, yes, Sega's Genesis may be their only big console hit, but it was like the Giants beating the undefeated Patriots in the Superbowl to give them a spot in the history books. Nintendo had all the cards over the SMS, but Sega came back and played some really terrific seasons. Nintendo may get the technical win in the 16 bit wars, but what a fight to remember.