How popular were SEGA games BITD?

[Robotron Jon]

I've mentioned this in other threads but I also own a Sega Jurassic Park Lost World ..this game always gets the most play of all the games I own when people are in the arcade. Kids love the dino theme. If you want a shooting game, this is worthy. I have the upright with the tube monitor.

I also owned a Virtua Cop II. Got boring.

This is just a guess, but I believe the House of the Dead series, Daytona USA and Jurassic Park games are Sega's highest grossing games.

 

[pookdolie]

I remember M.V.P. being the most popular game in our school's cafe in 1991. Never had so much fun watching an arcade baseball game.

Someone pried up the CP so that they could get free credits one afternoon. It was gone within hours, never to return...

 

[Schusler]

Sega didn't design or develop Frogger. They just had the US distribution rights. It was a Konami game.

Technically "yes". But, I always considered the name on the cab/ marquee trumped the name on the board.

Atari was famous for this. Do we consider Pole Position and Xevious Namco? To me, they're Atari. Taito also did this w/ numerous gamesas well. Another example I can think of is Track and Field. It's a Konami board BUT housed in a Centuri cab. Again, T&F is a Centuri game to me.....

 

[Schusler]

Anybody else notice Sega had a lull in the System 8 era? A lot of these I never recall seeing except for Pitfall 2 - which was at a 7-11.

 

[gamefixer]

Not sure how many other operators there are in this thread but I can tell you from first hand experience that Sega's games made tons of $$$ BITD. Some of them still do.

We had a DLX Hang On, Mini DLX Out Run, After Burner STD, After Burner DLX, Enduro Racer, Space Harrier and just about every other Sega game you could think of at the time. Even stuff that was Japanese only like I'm Sorry and one other game that I cant recall right now ("something" Boy I think). The DLX Out Run had right about 100,000 clicks on it 6 months after we bought it. Yup, $25k in 3 months. The game earned like that for almost 3 years. The DLX Hang On did even better, $25k in 2.5 months or so. AB DLX did about the same as Hang On. I had to replace the power cord on the Enduro about every 6 weeks cuz the game would get pulled away from the wall from people pulling on the controller so hard.

To be fair there wasnt a game in the place that did bad. Super Sprint paid for itself in no time. Gauntlet was NEVER empty...

It was a really fun time to be in the industry. Its not as crazy now but I do still have the occasional game that will pay for itself in less then 2 months.

 

[z3k3]

It was a really fun time to be in the industry. Its not as crazy now but I do still have the occasional game that will pay for itself in less then 2 months.

How come some of those neat Japanese (Sega or otherwise) cabs aren't imported statewide? There are some really neat Japanese arcade games over there. I'm thinking of that table flipping game in particular, but there are a number other neat titles also. It'd be great to see some of that stuff make its way over here.

 

[cadillacman]

there was alot of sega stuff in my area twoards the end of the 80s, early 90s,(my golden years) i guess thats why i have an affinity for it. I was born in 80 so i missed the really good old days, but by 86 or 87 the arcades were still areound for a little bit so i did get to "be there" while all the cool stuff was still out on location. by 89 most of the arcades were gone, i think the tilt arcade hung on the longest, i played race drivin there as often as possible, i still remember when it was "new, latest and greatest".. also remember time traveler, couple others. I want to say by 91-92 it was dead too. Sad day to get driven there and the place is empty... sniff..

 

[gamefixer]

How come some of those neat Japanese (Sega or otherwise) cabs aren't imported statewide? There are some really neat Japanese arcade games over there. I'm thinking of that table flipping game in particular, but there are a number other neat titles also. It'd be great to see some of that stuff make its way over here.

I honestly dont know. The OP I worked for back then had an "in" with Capcom, Data East and Sega so we got a lot of weird stuff from them (I put together the FIRST Ghost and Goblins to be operated in the states as a result of the relationship).

He would come back to the shop with a load of 20-30 games all the time. Some really crazy stuff too...

Capcom gave him a deal he couldn't refuse on a butt load of Street Fighter 1's. He bought something like 40 of the huge Atari built cabs and 60 or so 19" Dynamo's. Well, SF1 blew monkey nuts so when SFII came out his words were "eff that game." About 4 weeks later we were converting about 30 games a week to SFII for almost a year... Man I got sick of that stupid kit.

 

[roothorick]

It was a really fun time to be in the industry. Its not as crazy now but I do still have the occasional game that will pay for itself in less then 2 months.

Holy crap. Making $12k in two months on a single game, today, in 2011? You're talking about redemption, right? I'd have a really hard time believing otherwise... NONE of our new video has actually paid itself off yet, not even Time Crisis 4, and it's been four years... Bass Wheel on the other hand... WTF is up with Big Bass Wheel? It never fails to make $2000+ EVERY MONTH. I don't get it.

How come some of those neat Japanese (Sega or otherwise) cabs aren't imported statewide? There are some really neat Japanese arcade games over there. I'm thinking of that table flipping game in particular, but there are a number other neat titles also. It'd be great to see some of that stuff make its way over here.

Well, to be fair, the table-flipping game isn't actually out yet, it JUST made its debut at the JAMMA show...

But I think it's more of an issue with modern operators. They're too obsessed with redemption and proven earners like IT's games (hello, Golden Tee!), and saving a buck by putting old games that earn okay back out on the street. Like most industries in this sinking economy, they're mortally afraid of trying anything new. There's no demand for the quirky Japanese games, and there won't be until operators start getting more bold.

That said, there are several movements among hobbyists (in particular, candycabs and music games/Bemani) interested in getting these games across the ocean, with surprising success. There's already been talk in these groups of putting their machines out on location -- we may well be looking at a new generation of small-time operators that are willing to take a big risk on a game if they happen to like it themselves. So I guess, the public arcade is a barren, lifeless desert, but I think I see a sprout up on that hill over there.

 

[DarrenF]

Technically "yes". But, I always considered the name on the cab/ marquee trumped the name on the board.

Atari was famous for this. Do we consider Pole Position and Xevious Namco? To me, they're Atari. Taito also did this w/ numerous gamesas well. Another example I can think of is Track and Field. It's a Konami board BUT housed in a Centuri cab. Again, T&F is a Centuri game to me.....

Yes, I consider PP, Xevious, and Pac-Man, and Galaga, and Dig Dug to be Namco games. Space Invaders is similarly Taito's game, not Midway's. The company that designed/developed the game doesn't change, but who distributed it (and had their name on the cabinet/marquee, or even screen) often changed depending on the country in which it was sold. For example, games we in the US consider Atari or Midway might have been distributed under different names in Japan or Europe etc.

The MAME database (i.e. MAWS) is generally better about properly identifying a game's original designing company than the KLOV/IAM database.

 

[gamefixer]

Holy crap. Making $12k in two months on a single game, today, in 2011? You're talking about redemption, right? I'd have a really hard time believing otherwise... NONE of our new video has actually paid itself off yet, not even Time Crisis 4, and it's been four years... Bass Wheel on the other hand... WTF is up with Big Bass Wheel? It never fails to make $2000+ EVERY MONTH. I don't get it.

While redemption does earn well I was referring to Video. Terminator, Razing Storm and Guitar Hero are examples of games that paid for themselves within the time frame I pointed out.

 

[roothorick]

While redemption does earn well I was referring to Video. Terminator, Razing Storm and Guitar Hero are examples of games that paid for themselves within the time frame I pointed out.

Wow. Just... wow. Where were these games located? A popular mall? Bars?

 

[jcasetnl]

On the west coast, ninja and kung fu culture have always been pretty big, probably cause Bruce Lee lived out here.

Fighters and beat 'em ups were extremely popular throughout the 90s. Golden Axe and Shinobi were very common. I loved Space Harrier but it was not very common.

Outrun and Afterburner were also staples, the latter probably attributing some of its success to Top Gun.

The first Virtua Fighter was pretty popular, but the sequel much more so. Not many of my 2D fighter pals jumped ship for 3D until VF2.

 

[norton9478]

Altered Beast and Outrun really upped the industry.

Those two and Double Dragon really created some great memories during that era.

 

[Arcade74]

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 remember in the late 80s, I was passing Shinobi with 1 quater, noticed the SEGA label. I passed Golden Axe, then ESWAT with 1 quater too, and they were both from SEGA. I thought SEGA was awesome, so I bought my Genesis. Stop playing Arcade games by 1992 due to college, and later Capcom became big with Final Fight, and Streetfighter2... Went on with SEGA in Genesis, 32X, CD, and Saturn is where I stopped playing serious gaming. Rest is collecting SEGA, and now SEGA Arcades. Sega is a big deal for me and bitd.