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History Of Sega
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Sega are a games company to be remembered, not only for their success but for their failures too!! Sega were one of the original game giants that established the industry we love now, and made games as they should be, fun to play and packed with original ideas!! So here is a look back at what Sega has achieved and also why they failed.
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The Master System
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 Sega originally started out making arcade games like Hang On, but first stepped in to the console market with their 8-bit wonder, the Master System in 1985 to do battle with rival company Nintendo and their Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES to everyone else. The Master System was a nifty little console that was technically more powerful than the NES and had a lot of cool stuff going for it, like an in-built game Alex The Kidd, which is a classic retro game that many retro gamers would remember!! The Master System was the first console I ever came into contact with, and the games looked a hell of a lot better than that of the NES. Unfortunately, the Master System wasn’t as popular as the NES because of Nintendo’s best game and leading mascot, Mario. So as the 8-bit consoles evolved into the 16-bit consoles, Sega were determined to have another go with the Mega Drive!!
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The MegaDrive AKA SEGA Genesis
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 Sega came up with the MegaDrive, also known as the Genesis in America, to burst Nintendo’s bubble. The fact Nintendo didn’t come up with their 16-bit console, the SNES, till a year after the MegaDrive gave Sega chance to start making some great games, and they also gained some third party support that previously had only supported Nintendo. The MegaDrive was one of my favourite consoles, and known to be Sega’s most successful console. I personally would want to play on a MegaDrive than a SNES cos it seemed to have the best games out there. The 6-button control pad also helped make gaming more interactive, especially for top beat em ups like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat!! Some of the best MegaDrive games I ever played were Streets Of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi, Shining Force, Phantasy Star, and of course, Sonic The Hedgehog!!
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Birth Of Sonic The Hedgehog
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 Nintendo had a very powerful mascot in Mario, as Mario games were the best thing since sliced bread. Sega needed to come up with a successful mascot to make the MegaDrive a success, so it was up to a chappy named Yuji Naka to design a new cool character. Sega’s mascot ended up being a cool blue hedgehog, named Sonic, who ran through colourful levels collecting rings and chaos emeralds to save the world from the evil Dr Robotnik!! Sonic was incredibly successful and knocked Mario for six. Maybe it was because Sonic made a refreshing change to Mario’s slow paced plodding levels, plus Sonic was cooler!! Sonic have a variety of sequels on all consoles to come (including the Dreamcast!!) and is now celebrating his tenth birthday!! The only reason I got a MegaDrive in the first place was because I saw the beauty of Sonic and fell in love with him straight away!!
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The GameGear
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 Handheld’s are a console you carry around with you and power with batteries, and the market seemed to have a lot of potential. Nintendo had already began dominating the market with their 8-bit handheld the Gameboy, so Sega introduced their sexier handheld, the Game Gear!! Unfortunately, Sega never got a grip on the handheld market as the Gameboy was a hell of a lot more popular, maybe because the Game Gear sucked up battery life quicker than a vacuum cleaner!! Nintendo has always dominated the handheld market and anyone who dares challenge them, like the Neo Geo Pocket or the WonderSwan tend to die at the hands of Pokemon!! Just to assure total domination, Nintendo Gameboy Advance has just landed!!
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The Mega CD AKA SEGA CD
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 The Mega CD represented new technology as cartridges became CD ROMs, and was an add on that connected to the MegaDrive. The Mega CD was very pricey and didn’t attract much interest, despite the sharper graphics, cool FMV and music. Thus, many herald it a mistake for Sega, yet made game producers aware of the evils of “interactive movies” where you just press the odd button every now and then!! Despite its criticism, I got hold of a 2nd hand one and hand good times with it, among my favourite games being Sonic CD, Night Trap, Road Avenger and Sol Feace!!
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The 32X
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 Yet another add on for the MegaDrive, this one boosts the graphics from 16 bit to 32 bit!! Unfortunately this add on failed too, mainly because there weren’t many games for it and news was going around about Sega’s next console, also 32 bit, that would have more support. As with the Mega CD, I quite like the 32X and had some great gaming moments with it. My fave games being Chaotix, Virtua Racing and the all-powerful Doom!!
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The Saturn
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 Sega's next console and 32 bit had a lot of things to deal with, in the form of Nintendo’s 64 bit N64, and new contender, the Playstation. The Saturn had a good start, despite programming difficulties, and had many great games such as Sonics creators Sonic Team making Sonic R, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, and other gaming beauties came from other great Sega departments such as the Panzer Dragoon series, the return of the Shining series and the new Virtua series of games, including the ever famous Virtua Fighter and Virtua Cop games!! I loved my Saturn dearly but it was known as a failure by all, killed off by Sony and Nintendo. However, determined to have one last go and prove their worth, rumours went around about Segas next console, which under went many different names such as Dural, Katana, and Blackbelt, but finally was unveiled as the Dreamcast!!
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And Finally... The Dreamcast
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 The Dreamcast made quite a few gaming revolutions before it was even released!! As the first 128-bit console, it promised graphics to the quality of arcade games. It also promised to improve on the mistakes made by the Saturn and it sure kept them!! The graphics of the thing was good enough for some people, but with big names like Hitachi, Yamaha, Microsoft and Video Logic being used to make it, the Dreamcast looked set to take over the world!! Then the cool thing happened – Sega announced that the console would have a modem included for Internet access and online gaming!! They teamed up with BT to make this a reality. Although there were fears that the Dreamcast would only be able to handle arcade conversions, the Dreamcast had loads of great fun and original games!! A few of these being Sonic Adventure, Shenmue, Ecco The Dolphin, Samba De Amigo, Skies Of Arcadia, Metropolis Street Racer, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi etc. The Dreamcast also had some great third part titles coming from great gaming companies like Capcom and Namco who made Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Soul Calibur!! The Dreamcast also has the coolest memory card ever created – the Visual Memory Unit, or VM, which allowed you to play mini games!! The Dreamcast also had criticism over its online gaming campaign, although it has a good selection of online games including the worlds first online console RPG Phantasy Star Online, Quake 3 Arena, Speed Devils Online and the first online console game, Chu Chu Rocket! Although Sega has ceased to continue making Dreamcast consoles, and it appears to be heading for its death, the Dreamcast isn’t dead just yet, and has a good list of games headed for it in the near future including PSO V.2, Shenmue 2, Virtua Tennis 2, Headhunter and Outrigger!!
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SEGA's Future
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So now that Sega has stopped producing Dreamcast consoles, it is heading into the direction of becoming the worlds best software producer. Unfortunately this means Segas games are going to other consoles!! But Sega must now do what they are best at. Making the best games ever!! Although games will be heading for the next gen consoles, the Playstation 2, X-Box, GameCube and Gameboy Advance, Sega will continue to support the Dreamcast while there is demand.
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