David Rosen, RIP
Keith Stuart (tweet, Hacker News, Reddit, Wikipedia):
The co-founder of Sega, who remained a director of the company until 1996, was instrumental in the birth and rise of the video game business in Japan, and in the 1980s and 90s oversaw the establishment of Sega of America and the huge success of the Mega Drive console.
[…]
For the next 15 years, Sega innovated in the arcade sector, switching from importing games to designing its own, and moving on from jukeboxes and pinball tables to electromechanical arcade games such as the submarine shooting sim Periscope and, in 1972, Killer Shark, a shark hunting game which would briefly feature in Jaws. Sega also began to set up its own arcades allowing the company close control over every facet of its business.
[…]
While Nintendo was all about family entertainment, the titles doing well on the Master System were teen-focused brawlers, such as Golden Axe and Shinobi. When it came to release the new Sega Mega Drive console in Japan in 1988, Rosen insisted on changing its name to Genesis for the US launch, emphasising a new beginning and a more mature outlook.
[…]
Spurred on by Rosen’s vision, Katz marketed the Genesis as a games console for teenagers, not children, using TV ads which combined video game visuals with flashing images and rock music and the immortal phrase: Genesis does what Nintendon’t.
Previously:
