Close Menu
  • CURRENT ISSUE
    • Cover Story
    • Profiles – Companies, Products & People
    • Spotlight Feature
    • VR Spotlight
    • Favorites & Special Reports
    • Bob Cooney Special Reports
    • Editorial
    • Datebook
    • Columns
      • Q&A with AMOA
      • Q&A with AAMA
      • NOW TRENDING by Howard McAuliffe & Nick DiMatteo
      • George McAuliffe’s GAMEROOM GURU
      • Adam Pratt’s ENDGAME
      • Jack Guarnieri’s JERSEY JACK
      • Beth Standlee’s PARTY PROFESSOR
      • Clint Novak’s PRIZE PATROL
      • FUN ACROSS AMERICA
      • Frank Seninsky’s FRANK TALK
      • Tom Fricke’s REDEMPTION & THE LAW
      • Randy White GUEST ESSAY
  • INSTANT REPLAY
  • PODCASTS & VIDEOS
    • The RePlay Podcast
    • Machines, Myths & Legends
    • Older Audio/Video Archive
  • GET REPLAY
    • Subscriptions
    • Sample Copies
    • Order Back Issues
    • Index
  • ABOUT
    • About RePlay Magazine
    • Meet the Team
    • Cookie Policy
  • LINKS
  • CONTACT
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Trending
  • First National Darts Day Rousing Success for BullShooter
  • VNEA Names Mike Wiltse New Executive Director
  • QubicaAMF Launches New Scoring System
  • K1 Speed Opening Kansas City Location
  • Semnox Makes First Install in Finland
  • IAAPA Expo Asia Continues Growth
  • Darnelle Simmons Joins Zooom Studios Team
  • Valo Motion Installs 100th ValoArena
X (Twitter) Facebook RSS Instagram YouTube
RePlay Magazine
  • CURRENT ISSUE
    • Cover Story
    • Profiles – Companies, Products & People
    • Spotlight Feature
    • VR Spotlight
    • Favorites & Special Reports
    • Bob Cooney Special Reports
    • Editorial
    • Datebook
    • Columns
      • Q&A with AMOA
      • Q&A with AAMA
      • NOW TRENDING by Howard McAuliffe & Nick DiMatteo
      • George McAuliffe’s GAMEROOM GURU
      • Adam Pratt’s ENDGAME
      • Jack Guarnieri’s JERSEY JACK
      • Beth Standlee’s PARTY PROFESSOR
      • Clint Novak’s PRIZE PATROL
      • FUN ACROSS AMERICA
      • Frank Seninsky’s FRANK TALK
      • Tom Fricke’s REDEMPTION & THE LAW
      • Randy White GUEST ESSAY
  • INSTANT REPLAY
  • PODCASTS & VIDEOS
    • The RePlay Podcast
    • Machines, Myths & Legends
    • Older Audio/Video Archive
  • GET REPLAY
    • Subscriptions
    • Sample Copies
    • Order Back Issues
    • Index
  • ABOUT
    • About RePlay Magazine
    • Meet the Team
    • Cookie Policy
  • LINKS
  • CONTACT
RePlay Magazine
You are at:Home»INSTANT REPLAY»Sega Co-Founder Dave Rosen in HOF

Sega Co-Founder Dave Rosen in HOF

0
By Matt Harding on May 2, 2023 INSTANT REPLAY

By Eddie Adlum

For many legitimate reasons, most people consider Sega to be a Japanese company. But it was really formed by a broad collection of expatriates back in Tokyo in the 1950s whose combined activities in operating, importing, distributing and finally manufacturing went into a mix officially molded together and called “Sega” by 1960.

Sega’s pioneers included Marty Bromley, Dick Stewart, Ray Lemaire, Scott Dodderer and a guy from Brooklyn named David Rosen. Since the U.S. industry already had a Dave Rosen in Philadelphia back then, we called this new chap Sega Dave Rosen. He would become the American face of the company beginning in the late ’60s when he brought to America a huge submarine shooting attraction called Periscope.

I worked at Cash Box magazine back then, from an office on Broadway in New York, right up the Great White Way from an arcade that distributor Al Simon ran. I checked Periscope out and my first thought was how the heck do you get something this big crated and shipped all the way over from Japan? I had no idea at the time how many Sega games would be imported over the decades to come.

One of Rosen’s many talents was marketing, and he not only sold a surprising number of this made-in-Japan gun game but put it on 2-for-a-quarter play when most American games were set on dime play, 3-plays for 2-bits. When the first video games came out in 1973, single-quarter play began to arrive and a few years later, so did Sega’s Monaco GP driver – another hit for this upstart “Japanese” gamesmith.

Sega planted its manufacturing flag in the U.S. around the beginning of 1980 by buying a San Diego wall game manufacturer called Gremlin Games. (Gremlin was also famous for designing and building a maze video game called Blockade.) In June, Sega called its U.S. distributors to a meeting at their San Diego plant to greet a respectable new Gremlin upright called Carnival (video shooter). At a press briefing, Rosen was asked if the video “gold rush” was a staple situation in coin-op or just a flash in the pan. His response was typical long-range Japanese business thinking:

“I don’t think there’s a man here who won’t agree that business for good video games has never been better. But, it’s also necessary to remember that this industry is cyclical and before long, pinballs will be coming back strong. Right now, our eyes are on the state of the video game throughout 1980, 1981 and the things we intend to do to keep that favor among operators.”

The coin-op world had become dominated by video games by then, and Sega shelved Gremlin’s wall games and put video uprights like Xaxxon and other fine titles on the production line instead. The Gremlin brand name was discarded after a period and eventually, so was the San Diego factory when video’s boom days ended in the mid-80s, though Sega had its share of video hits during the boom.

Eventually, the company turned to more deluxe items like the Daytona 500 driver, along with motorcycle games like Hang On. Such large attractions, along with merchandising machines, dominate their menu today.

Amusement Industry Hall of Fame Dave Rosen sega
Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleNATMC Touts Resolution Recognizing Cash Importance
Next Article Pipeline Games Sold

Related Posts

First National Darts Day Rousing Success for BullShooter

VNEA Names Mike Wiltse New Executive Director

QubicaAMF Launches New Scoring System

Comments are closed.







RePlay Logo

RePlay Magazine is a monthly trade publication covering the game center and route business. Since 1975, RePlay has been reporting on the equipment, people and trends that have made "coin-op" a fun and exciting business.

Get the FREE Instant RePlay Newsletter

Sign up and receive newsletters to keep you in the know.


© 2025 RePlay Magazine - All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce content, email editor@replaymag.com.
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.