Sega/Gremlin 8-Bit Arcade Information

[aguyinarpg]

Howdy all!

I'm currently working on a year by year video game history project and I've started to look a bit more deeply into Sega's pre-console days, of which there are great accounts in The Ultimate History of Video Games as well as Service Games: The Rise and Fall of Sega. I will certainly be exploring Sega's later history and decision making as I go through the series, but particularly their arcade games are of interest. There are three titles I'm looking to garner information about and wanted to see if anyone had any leads regarding date of release, development history, or anything about them. They were all released under the Sega-Gremlin partnership in the US, though one is made by Konami. There's a good article on this site that explains a bit about Turbo, but I thought I might as well pry for some further knowledge if anyone has run across any.


Frogger:



Basically any source about this game redirects you to the many console ports by Parker Brothers, rather than anything to do with the original arcade game. Arcade History lists it as a June release, presumably for North America, but I don't find Arcade History to be a reliable source because they never cite how they actually come up with these dates. Wikipedia cites them blindly though.



005:



This is interesting, because I may have found some information that disproves the 1981 release date. Here's the US Service Manual (PDF) which has a copyright date of 1982. Of course, that doesn't mean it didn't come out a year earlier in Japan, but I haven't seen a Japanese manual if there is one. Can anyone make out a date on the Japanese poster? Posters didn't usually list dates, but it's worth a shot.



Turbo:



An October release date is given in this interview with Sega's Steve Hanawa. I'm inclined to believe this statement because the article is very particular about sorting the arcade games listing in order, and goes into a small story about the creation of the game. That's far from conclusive, and it doesn't say if this was the Japanese or American release, but it's a better lead than I have on the other two games.

Thanks for giving a look see, and hopefully I didn't fool you via the title. I mean, it is information! Just without direction. Even f I can't discover any more information about these titles, I hope that any other obscure information that you guys have we can share and hopefully establish a relationship here.


I'm real intent on telling the story of Sega and others right, so anyone that's curious about my project, feel free to ask anything.

[Centrale]

I don't recall Gremlin being involved with Turbo. Have you got a source on that?

Also, regarding source material, I haven't read the "Service Games" book but I have read people online criticizing it for mistakes and unsourced claims.

[aguyinarpg]

TAFTA lists the Turbo posters under the Sega-Gremlin banner through all of 1981, sans Japan. It would only make sense, unless you have reason to believe that Sega also had an independent US distributing arm at the same time?

flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=archive&db=videodb&name=Turbo&year=&manu=&source=&submit=Search+the+Archive

Will look a bit more into Service games. I've only read the first few pages via Google books, though that is obviously a concern. Where else do you really go if you want to learn about the SG-1000 or Master System though? Here, obviously, but I always like to keep options open.

[Centrale]

Thanks for the flyer links. I think it's interesting because I don't recall seeing the Gremlin logo on the Turbo cabinets themselves, while I do remember seeing it for certain other games.

Famitsu published two books, Sega Consumer History and Sega Arcade History, that are authorized histories of Sega up to about 2001. The catch being that you'll need to be able to translate them from Japanese. I have the Consumer History book, and it's fascinating to look at but obviously I'm missing out on so much by not being able to read it... for example, there are some fairly extensive interviews with developers. But it does have readable release dates in Japan, so I expect Arcade History does as well.

Sega's Japanese website has also had a lot of historical information at various times... I haven't checked it this year, though.

I know it's a tall order but seeing as so much of Sega is Japanese (although founded by an American), I think anyone researching their history should have someone fluent in Japanese on their research team. As far as where else to go, I would think you've gotta try to reach out to current and former employees.

[aguyinarpg]

Feb 28, 2015 16:11:37 GMT Centrale said:

I know it's a tall order but seeing as so much of Sega is Japanese (although founded by an American), I think anyone researching their history should have someone fluent in Japanese on their research team. 

Ha! Assuming I have a team. Believe me, I'd love to have some help on that front, but that's a lot to ask of someone for a non-commercial project. I have a friend that speaks Cantonese, so that's the extent I could reach out for help. Even knowing someone who speaks French would be great for the History of Nintendo books.


Japanese/English speakers are highly desirable on a professional level, so I really doubt I'll be able to get someone to work with me on a hobby level, though if anyone has any Japanese skills at all (literally any) I'd love to have you on, as with anyone who is just generally interested in the project.

Thanks for the advise though. Will keep those books in mind, and unless some good luck blows my way, wait and see if anyone has translated the information elsewhere.

[Centrale]

Yeah, it makes sense considering how many fan translations have stalled out over the years... most translators have to just focus on professional work.

I can try and look up any info in the Consumer History book... dates, at least. And sometimes I can read the copyright information (although that's usually readily available via title screens). Most of the release dates are specific to the month and year, with the more recent era sometimes being specific to the day. Hopefully I'll get the Arcade History book one of these days. They're quite interesting to look at even though I can only read the occasional English word in them.

With Sega's Japanese website, you can try your luck with Google translate of course.

[aguyinarpg]

Thanks, friend! I have some luck here and there with the Google Translate stuff, mainly because it itself is broken. That's how I confirmed the release date for the SG-1000 and I believe looked up a few things on Suzuki.

My list is still in the making so I don't have any Master System games on it yet, and may not at all, but any bit of help towards what gives me a greater perspective of the games will be excellent.

I'll send you a link to the database as it is now. If anyone else wants a look, give me a message. I'll send segments of the script if anyone wants to review them.