SG-1000
Developer: Sega
Year Released: 1983
Generation: 3rd
In 1983, the Japanese console business was still in its infancy, but the two arcade giants began to evolve rapidly at the same time. Nintendo released the Famicon and SEGA released the SG-1000. The SG-1000 marked Sega’s first stab at manufacturing and selling a home console of it’s own. Its hardware showed none of the ingenuity SEGA brought to their arcade games, but instead used off the shelf parts that left the system virtually identical to the older ColecoVision console. The SG-1000 wasn’t a success in terms of market share, but it was a valuable experience for the company. SEGA established a new console R and D division, and some of the company’s greatest creative minds started off working with the SG-1000 hardware.