Sega AM1

From Sega Retro

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Sega AM1
Founded: 1984
Defunct: 2000-04-21
Merged into: Sega AM3 (1990), WOW Entertainment (2000)
Headquarters:
Japan

Sega Amusement Machine Research and Development Department #1, (Sega AM R&D Dept. #1) was a division within Sega Enterprises. It was formed in primarily to create arcade (or "amusement") games. In May 1999 it became Sega Software R&D Dept. 1, and later WOW Entertainment in 2000.[1][2]

AM1 is supposed to be the oldest development division within Sega[3]. Koichi Izumi who then was at the sister arcade division Sega AM3, counted numeruos titles developed in AM1, claiming so many were developed that he could not list them all.[4] This page compiles the games mentioned, as well as common credits among titles.[5] And then titles from the WOW Entertainment production history website..

The most popular titles and well known titles from AM1 during the eighties were action or beat' em' up titles, with creators Makoto Uchida on the forefront with Altered Beast andd Golden Axe and Alien Storm. Also noteworthy are the very first Shinobi title by Yutaka Sugano or Shadow Dancer by Yoshiki Ooka.

1991, Sega AM1 had a major shake up, especially with the formation of Sega AM3 which had former Sega AM1 members. Previously involved with Phantasy Star III, Kazunari Tsukamoto went on to work on OutRunners, Harley Davidson & L.A. Riders and The Ocean Hunter with AM1.

Overall the most known titles during the nineties were The House of the Dead and Die Hard Arcade. AM1 also made strides with the big eleborate cabinets of Airline Pilots or Sega Bass Fishing, bringing back the "taikan" (body sensation) concept of arcades, previously introduced by Yu Suzuki and Sega AM2. Another speciality of Sega AM1 were games for the Sega Titan Video arcade board which had an identical architecture to the Sega Saturn, making ports easy, such as with the AM1 developed Virtua Fighter Remix.

Members

Former members

Softography (arcade)

Sega Zaxxon hardware

Sega System 1

Sega System E

Sega System 2

Sega Space Harrier

Y Board

X Board

System 16

System 18

System C

System C-2

System 24

Sega H1 Board

System 32

Sega Titan Video

Sega Model 1

Sega Model 2A CRX

Sega Model 2B CRX

Sega Model 2C CRX

Sega Model 3 Step 1.0

Sega Model 3 Step 2.0

Sega Model 3 Step 2.1

NAOMI

Hikaru

Unique/Unknown

Softography (consumer)

Saturn

Dreamcast

External links

References


Timeline of Sega of Japan research and development divisions








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