SEGA

Sega, (name formed from their original name, SErvice GAmes), is one of the best known and loved video game brands in the world, they have had success in both arcades and the home console market. They are now out of the consumer console business.

The company is actually made up of various research and development teams, originally named AM1, AM2 etc. they now have more memorable monikers.

• AM1[?] became Wow Entertainment[?] -
• AM2[?] kept its name, so well known amongst gamers for the Virtua Fighter series of arcade games
• AM3[?] became Hitmaker[?] -
• AM4[?] became Amusement Vision[?] - Known for Super Monkey Ball[?]
• AM5[?] became Sega Rosso[?]
• AM6[?] became Smilebit[?] -
• AM7[?] became OverWorks[?] -
• Sonic Team - renamed themselves from AM8[?] many years ago, funnily enough, soon after they completed Sonic the Hedgehog
• AM9[?] became United Game Artists[?] -
• Digital Media[?] became Wave Master[?] -

There is a healthy sense of competition between the various teams which has resulted in some of the most remarkable and innovative gaming events.

A list of Sega consoles over the years:

• Sega SG-1000[?] Sega's first game console, which was adadpted from the Sega SC-3000, a computer similar to the MSX
• Sega Master System
• Sega Master System II and Master System III - less-expensive, more powerful and less popular successors to the Master System
• Sega Genesis - Sega's most successful console (known as the Sega Mega Drive in Japan, Europe and Australasia)
• Game Gear - a portable Master System, it could play Master System games with an adapter
• Sega CD - a CD-ROM peripheral for the Genesis
• Sega 32X - hardware upgrade peripheral for the Genesis
• Sega Pico - an educational computer.
• Sega Nomad - a portable Genesis that played the same cartridges
• Sega Saturn - a CD-based console that was largely unsuccessful outside Japan
• Dreamcast - the last Sega console

The Sega v. Accolade[?] case over independently produced software for the Sega Genesis console that copied a small amount of Sega's code set a precedent that copyrights do not extend to non-expressive content in software that is required by another system to be present in order for that system to run the software. The case in question stems from the nature of the console video game market. Hardware companies often sell their systems at or below cost, and rely on other revenue streams such as in this case, game licensing. Sega was attempting to "lock out" game companies from making Genesis games unless they paid Sega a fee (ostensibly to maintain a consistent level of quality of games for their system.) Their strategy was to make the hardware reject any catridge that did not include a sega trademark. If an unlicensed company included this trademark in their game (which they had to, if they wanted the game to work) Sega could sue the company for trademark infringment. Though Sega lost this lawsuit, the Sega Dreamcast seems to incorporate a similar hardware requirement.

Unfortunately Sega has fallen on hard times recently and is moving out of hardware manufacturing, at least in the home, the arcade SEGA Naomi units are still being produced. Fortunately the company has knowledge acquired over several decades and hundreds of talented developers to realize its vision.

Several webcomics have been produced starring the Sega characters, one of the more popular ones being That's My Sonic!