How popular were SEGA games BITD?

jow

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
28,378
Reaction score
1,473
Location
California
A recent repair thread got me talking to a Euro KLOVer and he mentioned how huge Super Hang On was in the late 80s over seas. The more google fu I did, it seems ALL Sega Racers - OutRun, Super Hang On, etc were huge in Europe BITD. Would you all who experienced the golden age agree the same went for the US? I was 6-7 years old when OutRun, Super Hang On and Afterburner etc were out and I LOVED playing them as a kid. Literally, every time I saw one I played it. I dont have the best memory though, so I don't know if these games were that huge in the US BITD? Anyone care to share stories?
 
I recall seeing Out Run on location at the local bowling alley for years. I was never that big into it, but of all the Sega Games, that one just stands out to me and the music in particular. It must have been a fairly popular game for them to keep it around for a long while.
 
I'm not a Golden Age gamer, but up to 1990, I remember playing these games as a kid, especially the co-op ones with my older brother.

Shinobi (1987)
ESWAT (1988)
Altered Beast (1989)
Golden Axe (1989)
MJ's Moonwalker (1990)

Golden Axe is probably my favorite on this list.
 
I recall seeing Out Run on location at the local bowling alley for years. I was never that big into it, but of all the Sega Games, that one just stands out to me and the music in particular. It must have been a fairly popular game for them to keep it around for a long while.

Yep, everytime I mention OutRun people say "what game is that" and I say "you drove a Ferrari with a blonde chick in it" and they all say "ohhh yeah, I used to play that all the time!"

I'm not a Golden Age gamer, but up to 1990, I remember playing these games as a kid, especially the co-op ones with my older brother.

Shinobi (1987)
ESWAT (1988)
Altered Beast (1989)
Golden Axe (1989)
MJ's Moonwalker (1990)

Golden Axe is probably my favorite on this list.

Did you play OutRun or Super Hang On at all?
 
Did you play OutRun or Super Hang On at all?

Yes, I played both. Sorry, I thought we were talking about any Sega games from BITD and those were the most memorable ones to me.

Outrun and Super Hang On were great games, but I didn't really like drivers back then even though it was cool to ride a "motorcycle" and the full on moving Outrun was pretty sweet.
 
I started in the arcades first and turned to home systems second, so Sega's arcade lineup sold me on getting their home systems at the time. I went to a local mall almost every day as a kid with a 50 cent budget. A lot of my quarters went to Sega's stuff back then: Eswat, Golden Axe, Shinobi, After Burner, Super Hang-On, Rad Mobile, Turbo Outrun, Outrun, G-LOC, and towards the end a small bit of Virtua Fighter.

When I got into collecting arcade games, one of the first games I built was an Altered Beast so I could play all of the system16 lineup. Since a lot of these had suicided and were otherwise in poor shape, that helped me learn about board repair, which is the aspect of the hobby I am into now. (Out of room for more cabs like everyone else).
 
When I think of Sega I think of Star Trek, Frogger, Zaxxon, and Congo Bongo. I recall all of them were popular (if the Star Trek was working.)

I agree - of your list, OutRun is the only one I can recall that was really popular.
 
I think I played most of the Sega games back then. I have also owned quite a few recently. The sega games I have owned are fun in very short bursts, but not really suitable for a small game room. I have had Outrun, Afterburner, Hang On, and Altered Beast. All fun to play, but I would have to have a much larger game room to buy them again.

Edit: After seeing the next post, I realized I forgot about Zaxxon. It was interesting back then because of the weird viewpoint, but it is probably the only game I have sold that I really disliked. Just no fun there for me.
 
Last edited:
I think I played Zaxxon the most of the Sega games during the glory days, and a bit of Star Trek captain's chair but it wasn't in the arcades all that long (at least in the arcades I frequented). I didn't play many of their games later on. I pretty much stopped going to arcades around 1985.
 
Sega was huge in the new York, nj region during that time period.

It started with shin obi, followed by less popular quartet and alien syndrome. Once hang on came out, they were everywhere. I saw afterburner and outrun in every arcade.

Golden axe was harder to find though, and I think that's when it started to die out a little.
 
I'm not a Golden Age gamer, but up to 1990, I remember playing these games as a kid, especially the co-op ones with my older brother.

Shinobi (1987)
ESWAT (1988)
Altered Beast (1989)
Golden Axe (1989)
MJ's Moonwalker (1990)

Golden Axe is probably my favorite on this list.
Oh man Golden Axe was huge too! I used to play that one at the roller rink along with Street Fighter 2 and Double Dragon quite a bit. I never did become good at roller skating, but I did kick some ass in Street Fighter 2! :D
 
When I talk about Sega it's hard not to recall the Yu Suzuki era of games like Space Harrier, Outrun, Hangon, and Afterburner. All came out at the perfect time to be released on the Home console too. Which, in part, strengthed their significance.
 
Sega really took off in 1986. I think they're one of the few companies that kept arcades going in the 90s before arcades took a turn for the worse when home consoles were just as good as the arcade hardware. Think of all the classics they've had since 86.

Outrun
After Burner
Space Harrier
Shinobi
Altered Beast
Golden Axe
Virtua Fighter
Daytona USA
Virtual On
House of the Dead
Virtua Fighter 2
Star Wars Arcade Trilogy
 
After Burner and Outrun were the two major late 80's Sega titles in my area/age group. Golden Axe was about as popular as any new beat-em up at the time. I'm not trying to say it isn't a good game, but I remember it being in the ether for about a month, then losing its hotness once the next big beat-em up came out (of course, when SF2 came everyone dumped beat-em ups pretty quickly).

I actually have a soft spot for early to mid 90's Sega arcade titles. Specifically AM2. I remember Virtua Racing felt like something futuristic that was brewed in a lab (ends up it was supposed to just be a demo for AM2's tech and wasn't originally meant to be a released game). I could go on forever about Virtua Fighter 1 and 2. Everything they were doing felt like a major push towards this fascinating new world of 3D game technology. You have to keep in mind, this was also when Sega was one of the big boys. I know, hard to imagine now days. :(
 
All the Yu Suzuki games were super popular at least here in NY. Every arcade had Outrun, Afterburner, Hand-on, Space Harrier, Enduro Racer, etc. and they all had amazing sound tracks!
 
As someone that lived through the "Golden Age", I played a ton of Hang On. It was one of my favorite games. By the time Super Hang On came out in 87, I was spending more time with girls and less time in the arcades. Didn't really play it much.
 
There was a Sega Turbo (not Turbo Outrun) cockpit in the middle of the arcade I frequented for a while BITD. Other than that, it seems Sega was a bit of a 2nd tier also-ran in the early 80s. With a few minor exceptions (Star Trek, Zaxxon etc). Yeah, Outrun was pretty popular in my local arcade when it was new; as was Afterburner. Racers kinda put Sega on the map to me.

After about 87 or 88 I didn't really see much of arcades for several years until a friend in college showed me Virtua Racing.
 
Yeah, Sega was a monster from the mid 80's/90's here on Long Island.

Pretty much the same list as above. I never really got into Afterburner or Space Harrier though.

Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Shinobi. Golden Axe was always busy, hard to get onto that machine.

The Model 2 games really seemed to hit their stride though in my area. God was I hooked on Virtual-On.

-Hans
 
I liked all the simulators that Sega did, from the Space Harrier motion cabinet, Power Drift motion, Enduro Racer, Galaxy Force turning cabinet, After Burners/G-LOC/R360, Hang-Ons, Monaco GP cockpit, Virtua Racing, Rave Runner, Top Skater, 18 Wheeler, Crazy Taxi, all the way to the new Let's Go Jungle/Island series and After Burner Climaxx. Don't get me wrong, the non simulators were great also like the ones mentioned before. Try going through the Sega game list and try saying to yourself you didn't enjoy playing a large amount of games on that list. There was just so many games Sega had that were great, but also had some fails like Funky Head Boxing.
 
Back
Top Bottom