Olympia Star
From Sega Retro
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| Olympia Star | |||||||||
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| System(s): Slot machine | |||||||||
| Publisher: Olympia | |||||||||
| Developer: Sega Enterprises | |||||||||
| Supporting companies: Taito[1] (concept and design) | |||||||||
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Olympia Star (オリンピア･スター) is a slot machine released in Japan around 1964 which reuses the shell of the Star series. Produced by Olympia, a joint venture between Sega Enterprises and Taito[3], it introduced a form of legalized gambling to Japan which would establish the foundations of the future medal game industry.[3]
Contents
History
- Main article: Olympia (company).
Around 1960, Taito conceptualized a way to circumvent Japan's anti-gambling laws by creating a slot machine which would use specialized tokens; these tokens would later be traded for real money.[4] By equipping their existing Royal Crown machine (a Sega Bell clone) with this system, adding a stop button for the reels to add a weak element of skill, and categorizing the machine in the sex industry, Taito was surprisingly able to get government approval.[3]
Taito's new Royal Crown launched in 1964.[3] However, it was soon noticed that Sega Enterprises was almost ready to launch their own identical machine[4], and an angry Taito met with Sega. hile the exact details of this meeting are unknown, it is speculated that Sega used the fact that the Royal Crown was a clone of their existing Sega Bell to leverage a position in their favor.[4]
Ultimately, the two companies settled on a compromise, and quickly formed a new joint venture, Olympia Co., Ltd., that same year.[5] The name was chosen by Taito to capitalize on Tokyo's 1964 Summer Olympics (without any license to do so). In this agreement, Sega would handle the manufacturing of the new slot machines, and Taito would manage their sales and marketing.[5] This resulted in the Olympia Star, released in 1964 almost immediately after the joint venture was established, and was the start of a long series of future Olympia machines.
Legacy
The Olympia Star proved to be immensely popular, and soon coined a new term among the Japanese public, "Olympia Machines".[3]
Specifications
Dimensions
Promotional material
JP flyer
Photo gallery
Token (front)
References
- ↑ Olympia (company)
- ↑ http://thetastates.com/eremeka/1969prior.html (Wayback Machine: 2023-08-21 09:33)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 https://blog.goo.ne.jp/nazox2016/e/d2691f40123ae387fedcc2b567659706
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 https://blog.goo.ne.jp/nazox2016/e/71646fc259602a59deb9707332200cd4?fm=entry_awc
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://blog.goo.ne.jp/nazox2016/e/f43ea93334695ed0ff036c2916b2a5be?fm=entry_awc
- ↑ File:Olympiaseries SM JP flyer.jpeg
