254 pointsby n1b0m3 days ago15 comments
  • honkycat3 days ago
    SEGA has lost it's shine over the years, but IMO they are the greatest game company of all time. Their arcade output was STELLAR, their game dev teams were the most elite all through the mid 00's.

    Seriously, look at their list of output. Just banger after banger. Not to mention their arcade hardware was top notch and was widely adopted.

    Rest in peace David! Thank you!

    • tombert3 days ago
      They do what Nintendon't!

      Even though I haven't liked a lot by Sega in quite awhile, I really respect at how amenable they seem to be with fan projects, so much so that they hired one of the biggest Sonic hackers (Christian Whitehead) to make Sonic Mania. I'm sure Sega is aware of most of the fan projects (e.g. Sonic Robo Blast 2), and they seem to be somewhere between "not caring" and "supportive", which is pretty cool.

      Sega also embraced emulation pretty early. I remember as a kid I had "Sega Smash Pack" on my PC, which used Kega Fusion, and on Steam I have "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics", which is using vanilla Genesis ROMs that I believe you can load in virtually any emulator.

      Compare this to Nintendo, who took down stuff like AM2R, and multiple Switch emulators.

  • sbarre3 days ago
    I never knew that "Sega" was "Service Games" shortened.
    • echelon3 days ago
      I never knew it had an American founder. All of my life I'd assumed Sega was entirely a Japanese company, founded by Japanese engineers.
      • flykespice3 days ago
        Same thing with Taito, founded by ukranian jew Michael Kogan. The company that created the phenomenal Space Invaders and spark the japanese video game industry from a niche hobby to mainstream.
      • Klonoar3 days ago
        This has been a fun trivia bit I’ve brought up to people over the years.
      • tombert3 days ago
        IIRC, Sonic 2 was actually developed within the US, in California.
        • boomboomsubban3 days ago
          Yes, but largely by a Japanese team moved over out of hopes they could train the Americans and corporate politics.
        • framapotari2 days ago
          And I believe Tommy Tallarico was the first American to work on the Sonic franchise, ever.
          • cholantesh2 days ago
            Still? Pretty sure it's widely acknowledged as one of his many fabrications.
          • LocalHa day ago
            He absolutely was not. The first Sonic game involving American developers was Sonic 2 on Genesis (developed at Sega Technical Institute with a combined American and Japanese crew), and he did not work on that game.
    • coro_13 days ago
      Right. Check out the products they started with. Lots of YouTube out there on the topic.
  • hyperluz3 days ago
    The Sega Genesis was the last console with a "game console", "non-domestic-PC", and "non-toy" auras, for me. At a non-internet time, game consoles were like magnets for socialization and for making friends through shared experiences. I never knew who David Rosen was. Unfortunately only today I know who he was. And he was the kind of person that did significant work that influenced and nourished the imagination and experiences of many young people and adults. Thanks a lot for Sega, for the arcades, for the Master System, for Akai Koudan Zillion and for the Mega Drive/Genesis, Mr. David Rosen. Rest in peace.
  • RyanShook3 days ago
    If you’re interested in David Rosen’s story or Sega history in general I highly recommend Console Wars by Blake Harris. https://amzn.to/4q3YaOl
    • gryson3 days ago
      In Rosen's last Sega-related interview with Keith Stuart for the book Mega Drive Collected Works, he disagrees with the Sega internal conflict narrative as presented in Console Wars and says it was just Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske being unable to understand why certain decisions had to be made.

      After Console Wars, he apparently stopped giving interviews because he didn't like that game historians were constantly getting the Sega story wrong.

      • dmix3 days ago
        > After Console Wars, he apparently stopped giving interviews because he didn't like that game historians were constantly getting the Sega story wrong.

        Classic, nobody dislikes journalism as much as someone who lived through something journalists have covered. They always get stuff wrong in pursuit of an angle or narrative.

        • robotresearcher3 days ago
          I worked on a project with tech and animals. We were cautious about media, because any work with animals naturally invites welfare questions. Our project was aimed at improving welfare, and we really cared about this. So we refused to allow the media to film the animals at all, let alone our experiments. We provided them with our own professionally filmed footage, and I prepped carefully to avoid traps in interviews, which went well.

          A national TV news network dubbed the sound of alarmed animals over our provided footage for their broadcast. Apparently the original audio of happy animals making happy sounds was not exciting enough to use, despite the contentment of the animals being the point of the work. I was so mad and sad.

        • theshackleford3 days ago
          I learned my lesson about the media after a spate of interviews I did about a decade ago. The difference between what I said, and what they cut and edited it into was completely wild. It completely changed the narrative.

          It as a result completely changed how I see everything in the media. It's not that I distrust it as such, but...I try to ensure I can get as many angles as possible to converge into a more whole picture, as opposed to fewer sources.

      • stuaxo3 days ago
        Oh, "Collected Works" - for a moment I thought this was a book with a wacky name.
  • pupppet3 days ago
    Wow I saw this come up and just assumed he had co-founded Sega USA, not Sega period.
    • bsimpson3 days ago
      Definitely didn't expect one of Japan's most famous video game companies to have been started by a GI named David.
    • aquova3 days ago
      It's part of the strange history of Sega. Even back in their heyday, Sega of Japan had a pattern of treating its American and European offices as subordinate, yet the founders of the company just a few decades earlier were Americans
  • becomevocal3 days ago
    Thank you, David. One last Sega! for ya
  • EvanAnderson3 days ago
    For those so-inclined the They Create Worlds podcast did a nice episode on the history of Sega: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-untold-history-of...
  • alphadatavault17 hours ago
    Sega's legacy in gaming is undeniable. Whether you loved their hardware or not, they consistently pushed the industry forward with innovation and creative risks. From arcade dominance to the Genesis and Dreamcast, they shaped what the industry became. Rest in peace to David Rosen—a true pioneer.
  • toomuchtodo3 days ago
    • pwdisswordfishy3 days ago
      Not to be confused with the (much younger) David Rosen who co-created Humble Bundle and Wolfire Games.
  • spankibalt3 days ago
    SEGA does what Nintendon't!
  • davidthewatson3 days ago
    Does anyone know Rosen's role in Sega Saturn? I owned one and loved it so much. It was ahead of its time, given few mastered its design intricacies while those who did are legendary.
  • websiteapi3 days ago
    RIP, we will always remember him.
  • agumonkey3 days ago
    o7

    cultural landmark for 80s kids

  • fidotron3 days ago
    [flagged]
  • carra3 days ago
    So, 2 people submitted the same thing earlier today and got ignored, but this time it makes the front page? And this seems to be happening often here. Not the most encouraging system to submit something...
    • Larrikin3 days ago
      Are you submitting for Internet points or because you think something is interesting, important, or cool? Discussion is more interesting, even if it is limited, when you aren't trying to just get points.
      • carraa day ago
        My point here is that submissions were the exact same thing. Is it deemed "interesting" or not depending solely on the user? Logic does not check here.
    • bookofjoe3 days ago
      Happens 2-4 times/week with my submissions, usually 3-7 days later.
      • jaffa22 days ago
        Just wait 3-7 days before posting your submission next time.