Jeremy Parish

Segaiden #008: Arcade Extravaganza (Patreon)

Published:

2021-03-10 14:00:04

Edited:

2021-03-16 13:20:42

Imported:

2024-04

Tags:

Galaga Head On Jaleco namco sega segaiden

Content

Back to the regular Segaiden format here, with four (four!) arcade conversions or interpretations for SG-1000. Admittedly, not all of these games are winners—I'm looking at you, Pop Flamer—but they do a lot more to make SG-1000's case than something like Safari Hunting or, God forbid, Congo Bongo. You can really get a sense of Sega getting a handle on what it means to make a good home console title here. For example: "paying Namco to handle their own arcade conversions."

As with Monaco GP, this is another of those episodes with ties to recent videos in other series: Pacar's inspiration Head On was covered in Game Boy Works last year, and Galaga appeared for the first of MANY times on Atari 7800/NES Works Gaiden. This is why I decided to go back to the early days of Japanese consoles in the first place! Time, squared circle, etc.

Files

Sega Flipper / Pop Flamer / Pacar / Sega-Galaga retrospective: Arcade cavalcade | Segaiden #008

Sega has always been an arcade powerhouse—even now, they run arcades in Japan. I bought taiyaki in the shape of the Sega logo at their Akihabara location a year ago! And this episode showcases just how heavily Sega ploughed the arcade-to-home conversion furrow from the very start, with four games based heavily on arcade properties or concepts: Sega Flipper, arguably the first true arcade-style video console pinball game; Pop Flamer, a port of a weird Jaleco coin-op; Pacar, a sequel in all but name to Head On; and Sega-Galaga... which is just Galaga, but for Sega. They're not all winners, but they're mostly good! Just pretend Pop Flamer never happened. That game could never live up to its delirious box art... This series has been made possible in part by the work of Omar Cornut, the Game Developers Research Institute, segaretro.org, iFixRetro, and Analogue Co. Video Works is funded via Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/gamespite) — support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its YouTube debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (http://www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.