NovaXpress Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 While fondly looking over a picture of a Space Odyssey cab, I noticed the Sega/Gremlin label. I recall most or all of the old Sega games having that Gremlin addend on. Was this a separate company? Anyone know the deal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Max Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Gremlin was a seperate company from Sega. I believe that they also imported Moon Cresta and some other games. They went out of business when the game companies figured out their own US distribution schemes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Is that the same Gremlin that wrote tons and tons of Atari ST games in the 90's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 I believe Gremlin wrote many arcade games and Sega licensed them. I think Frogger was originally written by Gremlin for instance. Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory DG Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Is this the same Gremlin? http://www.atarilegend.com/games/games_sea...ublisher_id=303 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 I believe Gremlin wrote many arcade games and Sega licensed them. I think Frogger was originally written by Gremlin for instance. Tempest Didn't Konami develop Frogger? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempest Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Didn't Konami develop Frogger? Yes you're right. I swear I read somewhere that Gremlin did, but KLOV says it's Konami. BTW did you know there was a sequel to Frogger? http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_i...d=9310&letter=R Tempest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc74 Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 According to the Sega feature in Retro Gamer Issue 5, Sega bought Gremlin (a San Diego-based arcade company) in 1980. Is this the same Gremlin?http://www.atarilegend.com/games/games_search.php?publisher_id=303 That's Gremlin Graphics (later Gremlin Interactive), a completely different, British software publisher. They did stuff like the Monty Mole games on the Spectrum. They were around until a few years ago, when the InfoAtari behemoth swallowed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Famicoman Posted February 8, 2005 Share Posted February 8, 2005 Are you sure, I thought Gremlin bought Sega. I'm probobly wrong though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 8, 2005 Author Share Posted February 8, 2005 At the time we're talking of, Sega was an American company owned by Paramount Pictures (hence the Star Trek license). I assume this Gremlin company was American as well. So perhaps Gremlin purchased Sega from the original Japanses owners and both fell under Paramount's umbrella? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malc74 Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I'm only going by what the Retro Gamer article says, but it infers that Sega bought Gremlin and then shortly thereafter were themselves bought by Paramount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Acording to The Ultimate History of Video Games, Sega was owned by Gulf & Western (an oil company) at the time & was based out of the Far East (HK I believe) It says they bought out Gremlin & it was established as an American based manufacturering arm for Sega. The relationship between Sega & Paramount is only briefly touched on and it doesn't read like Paramount bought Sega out, only like there was some sort of partnership. Sega CEOs were brought on on Paramount Group boards & Paramount onto Sega. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 Paramount was the entertainment arm of Gulf Western at the time. Here's the story: http://www.planetdreamcast.com/about/sega/ Sega was a Japanese company sold to Gulf Western and was 100% American from 1970 until it was sold to a group of Japanese investors. Still nothing about Gremlin though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 Seag was definitely 100% American in the classic years. The Paramount days are well-documented. So Gremlin was a US maker they just took over, maybe it was similar to the Atari/Kee Games relationship? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Max Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 So Gremlin was a US maker they just took over, maybe it was similar to the Atari/Kee Games relationship? Similar idea...I believe there were a few others like this too. Sega used Gremlin's distribution after they acquired them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cootster Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 Didn't Konami develop Frogger? Yes you're right. I swear I read somewhere that Gremlin did, but KLOV says it's Konami. BTW did you know there was a sequel to Frogger? http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_i...d=9310&letter=R Tempest Sounds more like a highly expanded sequel to Mattel's Frog Bog than one to Frogger, really. Is it MAME-compatible? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I have wondered about Sega/Gremlin many times. This leads to the next question, one I've never found out the answer to: who programmed arcade Zaxxon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I thought Sega started out as an American company, not a Japanese one. I'm going from memory, but an American serviceman who was stationed in Japan after the war started the company to import gaming machines (I'm not sure if it was US machines to Japan, or Japanese games to the US). That's why it's called Sega - Service Games, or something similar to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost Monkey Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I have wondered about Sega/Gremlin many times. This leads to the next question, one I've never found out the answer to: who programmed arcade Zaxxon? It would make sense that Zaxxon was an original Sega property. There is no mention of it being a "license" on the KLOV and Sega also retained the rights to program "Zaxxon Motherbase ????" for the 32X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 I thought Sega started out as an American company, not a Japanese one. I'm going from memory, but an American serviceman who was stationed in Japan after the war started the company to import gaming machines (I'm not sure if it was US machines to Japan, or Japanese games to the US). That's why it's called Sega - Service Games, or something similar to that. It was started by Americans. But the company was based in Japan. And I think Nova's got it right. Gulf & Western was a conglomerate that included Paramount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toucan Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 The way I always thought of it was that there were 2 Sega's. There was a U.S. division and also a Japanese division. I talked with Sam Palahnuk who programmed the Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator game in the U.S. He mentioned something along the lines that there were some arcades also developed in Japan. Here's something he told me a while back: ---------------------------------------------------- Up ‘n Down was made in Japan, I don’t know the person who made that game. In terms of your list: -Tac-Scan – this was a Mike Hendricks project -Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom – came from Japan -Congo Bongo – came from Japan -Zaxxon – came from Japan -Super Zaxxon – came from Japan -Up 'n Down – came from Japan Tac-Scan was made in the U.S. though according to him. I'm not completely sure on the Sega setup, but it does seem there was a U.S. and Japanese branch of the company. So I'm not sure if Sega was ever 100% American at any point, since they still seemed to be doing most of the arcade development in Japan in the early 80s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NovaXpress Posted February 9, 2005 Author Share Posted February 9, 2005 Damn it, why do you guys still debate this after we've gone out to look up the answer? You can find this in quite a few places on the web: Seag was formed in 1940 in Hawaii by Americans as Standard Games, becoming Sega after a move to Tokyo in 1952. Sega merged with an electronic amusement maker called Rosen Enterprises and began to make arcade games in 1965. In 1969, Gulf+Western purchased the company and ran it as two divisions, one in Japan and one in the US but BOTH OWNED BY G+W and their entertainment division Paramount (look at any old movie and you'll see they say Paramount, a GW company) In 1983 GW sold Sega America to Bally (Bally owned them during the release of 2600 Up/Down and Tapper) while Sega Japan was split off and sold back to a company called CSK, owned by Rosen and other Japan-based investors. Bally didn't do much with the Sega name, but the Japanese sure did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
video game addict Posted February 9, 2005 Share Posted February 9, 2005 The deal between Gulf & Western & Sega included a stipulation that required David Rosen to remain the CEO & chairman thru 1972. He built a good relationship with the Chairman & Pres of Gulf & Western, and they decided to keep him around. It was in 1974 that they decided to spin out Sega into a US listed company, (Sega Enterprises) prior to 74 it was Japan only. It was during this time that they acquired Gremlin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColecoFan1981 Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 The "Gremlin/Sega" or "Sega/Gremlin" labels appeared from 1979 to 1982. The Gremlin name was last seen on Zaxxon, released in early 1982. Games with the S/G label were: Invinco (1979) Monaco GP (1979) Carnival (1980) Pro Monaco GP (1980) Turbo (1981) Frogger (1981) (under license from Konami) Space Fury (1981) Zaxxon (1982) For some reason, Turbo (1981) and Monaco GP (1979) only read "Sega" on the cabinets, even though in flyers the Sega/Gremlin combined moniker was used. During 1982, Gremlin Industries was renamed as Sega Electronics, Inc. (using the same San Diego address as Gremlin Industries -- 16250 Technology Drive). One of the first Sega games released since the renaming from Gremlin to Sega Electronics was Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator, released between October 1982 and January 1983. ~Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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