The better your accuracy at shooting the sci-fi themed targets, the better your rank. These types of machines are still popular today in bars/pubs or state fair events.Įarly 1960s – Space Ace – Chances are if you search for Sega Space Ace, you’ll get a majority of hits for the animated Don Bluth arcade adventure that was released on the Sega CD Long before that existed however, Sega had a Space Ace of their own, an EM gun game (which were very popular in the day) that was a miniaturized shooting gallery in a box. Also I will exclude pinball, pachinko, medal games, air hockey, basketball, ticket redemption and crane machines since those tend to fall into their own snug categories (and would take far too long to compile).ġ962 – Punching Bag – The first Sega made game used a concept that had already been around for many decades – the coin-op punching bag strength tester. For categorizing these, I will do it by year. I find them fascinating as the level of ingenuity needed to make an entertaining game without the use of a a video display is something we don’t come across too often anymore. So I was thinking about what to cover for the 55th, and thought, why not look at the games that Sega was producing 55 years ago, their Electro-Mechanical (EM) games.Īdmittedly I have come across very few of these in person. I have done various retrospectives that have included Sega before, including Simulators, 40 years of Arcade Games ( Part 1 Part 2). For a majority of that time, Sega (also known in this business as Sega Amusements, which is a different division from the home console side that many still associate the brand with) has been an amusement company, developing content for out-of-home entertainment such as arcade machines. The company existed as a vending machine distributor/producer before 1960 but was reorganized to begin developing entertainment products. I had thought that the date was June 6th, 1964 but perhaps not.
Here is the image shared to their Facebook page this morning: Today is an anniversary for a company very important to the arcade industry, as indicated in part by the amount of time they have been around – Sega at 55 years. It is anniversary season – combine Summer with a year ending in 5 and that seems to do the trick.