Jump to content
IGNORED

Sega games on non-sega systems. Why?


Serguei2

Recommended Posts

Why did Sega release its games on non-sega systems?

 

Even Sonic, Ecco and Comix Zones are available on windows in 1995 when Genesis was still there?

 

That does not give me reasons to buy a genesis when their games are also available on pcs.

 

What would happen if Nintendo released its games on non-nintendo systems as well?

Edited by Serguei2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Id say because it was 1995. Sega of America knew that the kerfuffle with the 32X/Saturn was not gonna be pretty (SOA wanted to push the 32X, SOJ wanted to push the Saturn) and they figured this would be at least a few more dollars coming in, and since these were American releases of Genesis games on PC, SOA was trying to prove there was no reason to abandon the Genesis yet. SOA did NOT want to move on the Saturn while the Genesis was still pulling in money,.. why push a new console on people who were happy with what they had? And maybe even rope in a few more Genny customers while they were at it.

 

And Nintendo did release PC titles, games starring Mario (hell if they didn't star Mario it woulda been pointless!), just not ports of existing games.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because it once was business as usual before Nintendo. Sega just was the last console platform holder to discontinue the strategy.

 

Edit: The last bit actually isn't accurate. They didn't discontinue the policy, they exited being a platform holder. Sega kept porting games to the PC throughout the life of the Dreamcast.

Edited by Atariboy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, Torr said:

Id say because it was 1995. Sega of America knew that the kerfuffle with the 32X/Saturn was not gonna be pretty (SOA wanted to push the 32X, SOJ wanted to push the Saturn) and they figured this would be at least a few more dollars coming in, and since these were American releases of Genesis games on PC, SOA was trying to prove there was no reason to abandon the Genesis yet. SOA did NOT want to move on the Saturn while the Genesis was still pulling in money,.. why push a new console on people who were happy with what they had? And maybe even rope in a few more Genny customers while they were at it.

Not just on PC.

 

After Burner II (NES)

Alien Syndrome (NES)

Fantasy Zone (Turbografx-16)

Columns (SNES)

Outrun (Turbografx-16)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Torr said:

And Nintendo did release PC titles, games starring Mario (hell if they didn't star Mario it woulda been pointless!), just not ports of existing games.

I just checked megagames.

 

Yeah! There are Mario and other nintendo series on PC and other non-nintendo systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sega didn't release its games on competing platforms, they only licensed them. This was common bitd.

 

Hudson Soft was the biggest third party Famicom publisher and very close with Nintendo when they launched the PC Engine. They still continued to published games for Nintendo platforms and it was very profitable.

 

Nintendo did in fact let Hudson port Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros to Japanese computers. Nintendo also licensed many of its games to home consoles leading up to and following the release of the Famicom.

 

The Atari 7800 ports of Donkey Kong, DKJR and Mario Bros were released in 1988 during the height of NES mania.

 

The PC Engine had Sega's arcade games before the Mega Drive launched and continued to receive lots of Sega games, many of which turned out better than the Mega Drive versions. Sega got paid either way.

 

Unlike Nintendo, Sega was still a major arcade company. Keeping its arcade brand recognition strong through console ports was successful in helping them stay relevant in arcades for decades after Nintendo gave up.

 

Sega also didn't own the rights to all of its classic games. Westone was also a developer for Hudson abd  probably made more games for the PC Engine than Genesis. They even handled Hudson's Genesis/Sega-CD releases.

 

The Mega Drive received 3 Wonderboy/Monster World games. The PC Engine's very first game was one and it received 4 total.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Though to be honest, past 1985 there were only a selected few Nintendo games on other systems. Obviously they released inferior versions of Super Mario Bros on the NEC PC-88 and Sharp X1, partially as thanks to Sharp being their hardware manufacturer. There were also things like Hotel Mario on the Philips CD-i, again due to cooperation. I believe many of the above posters are correct: as Nintendo saw the sales increasing, they had little reason to license or port their killer apps to other systems, while Sega at the same time were struggling to be 2nd largest on the console market and may have been more willing to make money on getting some of their games available elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If we're talking about computers, remember they were different markets. Also, having several machines in a house was uncommon at best. If the father had shelved the money to get a brand new PC, then he wouldn't be getting a Master System or Megadrive soon.

Usually (and still to this day) getting a computer mean you're looking for different game styles, so a gamer choosing specifically to get a PC in 1995 wouldn't really be the prime target for a Megadrive or a Saturn.

As such, offering your main games to a different platform (especially one that isn't really competing with you) seems like a clever move. Maybe you'll attract the person to your ecosystem; maybe you'll get the computer's onwer kids to ask and get a Sega machine for Christmas.

Or maybe you don't, but you still got the money from the sales.

As for offering their games on Nintendo systems, it's akin to Nintendo publishing games on Atari (although to be fair those deals were mostly made prior to them releasing the Famicom) : it mean your name get well-know.

I'm not sure it was a thing in Europe but it probably was made in that fashion in the USA and Japan when Sega struggled to sell the SMS.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those games Nintendo did post-NES they're almost universally educational stuff.  Mario Teaches Typing 1 and 2, that Pokemon educational package above, pokemon print shop stuff which mario had too, pretty sure Mario's edutainment stuff on SNES was on the PC too.  The only time it really went off that track up until the era of mobile gaming on phones/tablets would have been the philips license for Hotel Mario and the 3 Zelda games, most of then weird CGI cartoon bits aside are good, only one a broken pure turd (zelda's adventure) but all not made by Nintendo.

 

Sega though, despite having their own hardware, through back channel stuff either hands off or even on in some levels, they did it.  Tengen had multiple SMS/arcade games on the NES, the PC got all sorts of Sega games too in the 90s in particular, hell they did some phenomenally great Saturn titles for Windows (I used to have some of them) and also even emulators with the sega smash packs.  Only after the DC imploded they really then had no choice and it ended up all over with selective releasing of this or that around.  But Sega had no problem putting many of their quality franchise games off their own console hardware because they didn't care about exclusivity vs making more profit.  They didn't like Nintendo have to be in utter control or else on their release stance on stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pokémon: Masters ArenaPokémon: Masters Arena is a Pokémon game compilation developed by ImaginEngine designed for young children. It contains eight games, testing the players' knowledge to prove themselves as a true Pokémon Master. On mastering all eight games, the player earns 8 posters, which can be printed.

Pokémon: Team TurboTeam Turbo is a Pokémon game developed by ImaginEngine that is a game compilation designed for young children. It contains five racing games which are used to earn power-ups for use in race courses. From the main menu, one can choose to do any of the 6 races, any of the 5 minigames, or do an "Adventure Mode" in which there are races in order, with minigames in between each to earn extra powerups.

 

These two are games on PC I'm still missing

Edited by high voltage
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, empsolo said:

Sega had deals with Sunsoft and Takara to license out Famicom ports of Afterburner II, Space Harrier, and Fantasy Zone 1 and 2 due to the fact that the Mark III failed to get any foothold in Japan.

Sunsoft also made Super Fantasy Zone from scratch and NEC ported Fantasy Zone and made another original Fantasy Zone game for PC Engine.

 

Sega made no Mega Drive Fantasy Zone games. No proper Shinobi follow up or port, a very un-Space Harrier sequel, no Quartet games, no new proper Wonderboy with or without Westone, no Alien Syndrome games...

 

Licensing out their properties isn't as baffling as why they didn't put out more of their great games on their 16-bit home console.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/26/2020 at 6:21 PM, Serguei2 said:

Why did Sega release its games on non-sega systems?

 

Even Sonic, Ecco and Comix Zones are available on windows in 1995 when Genesis was still there?

 

That does not give me reasons to buy a genesis when their games are also available on pcs.

 

What would happen if Nintendo released its games on non-nintendo systems as well?

The actual answer is that Sega wasn't really a strict competitor in the home system space.

 

Sega consoles were more like hubs for Sega games, and popular titles would be placed on other systems or licensed on other systems (like whem hudson remade Wonder Boy III for TG16)

 

It wasn't until curiously, Sega of Americas aggressive marketing when Sega started spending a lot more on the home front and started being more fierce as a competitor. Amplified by the overseas success of Sonic and later MK.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/28/2020 at 6:19 PM, empsolo said:

Sega had deals with Sunsoft and Takara to license out Famicom ports of Afterburner II, Space Harrier, and Fantasy Zone 1 and 2 due to the fact that the Mark III failed to get any foothold in Japan.

Not sure if it was sunsoft or not, but there were more sega games such as Shinobi and Alien Syndrome on those Tengen carts too.  Famicom had also Altered Beast but it was legit.

 

Since we're on Sega sending their goods off their hardware, let's not ignore the PC Engine as it got some stunning pieces of work there.  Afterburner, Altered Beast (hucard and cd), Columns, Fantasy Zone, Outrun, Power Drift, Shinobi, Space Harrier, and Thunderblade.  Not all of them were excellent, THunderblade was fairly bad, but others were handled very well.  I own a few such as Afterburner, Outrun and Shinobi, but I did at one point also have Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Not sure if it was sunsoft or not, but there were more sega games such as Shinobi and Alien Syndrome on those Tengen carts too.  Famicom had also Altered Beast but it was legit.

 

 

Shinobi was an NES NA exclusive since Tengen/Atari Games secured the rights from Sega. Alien Syndrome was ported by Sanritsu and published by Sunsoft in Japan. Tengen merely purchased the rights to the game for NA distribution in 1989.

Edited by empsolo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, Leeroy ST said:

Several even lower power arcade games could barely run on the Mega Drive. There were only so many games they could bring over.

That didn't stop them from bringing them to SMS.

 

Stuff like Mortal Kombat and SFII was much more impossoble to port and they turned out great.

 

Shinobi now has a near arcade perfect homebrew port for Mega Drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Not sure if it was sunsoft or not, but there were more sega games such as Shinobi and Alien Syndrome on those Tengen carts too.  Famicom had also Altered Beast but it was legit.

 

Since we're on Sega sending their goods off their hardware, let's not ignore the PC Engine as it got some stunning pieces of work there.  Afterburner, Altered Beast (hucard and cd), Columns, Fantasy Zone, Outrun, Power Drift, Shinobi, Space Harrier, and Thunderblade.  Not all of them were excellent, THunderblade was fairly bad, but others were handled very well.  I own a few such as Afterburner, Outrun and Shinobi, but I did at one point also have Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone.

Don't forget Gain Ground, Cotton, Bonanza Bros, Puyo Puyos, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, Black_Tiger said:

That didn't stop them from bringing them to SMS.

 

Stuff like Mortal Kombat and SFII was much more impossoble to port and they turned out great.

 

Shinobi now has a near arcade perfect homebrew port for Mega Drive.

They rarely brought games from the weaker arcade hardware on either, there are tons of Arcade only Sega games never brought over or where brought over years later on other systems.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...