Sega R&D 8

From Sega Retro

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Sega R&D 8
Division of Sega Enterprises
Founded: 1988
Headquarters:
Japan
1988?
1990/1991?

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Sega R&D #8 (第八研究開発部) was made the eighth research and development lab within Sega following a restructuring around 1988. It is a continuation of Studio 128, though rather than be in a secretive building away from the main Sega offices, it was likely incorporated into the same building as the other development teams from this era.

Very little is known about this period, however Hisashi Suzuki was in charge of all Sega's video game development at the time, with Yu Suzuki acting as the team leader. While not an uneventful period of Sega history, R&D #8 was left partically unchanged during the next round of restructuring, which saw the group become Sega AM2 (whose success in the 90s turned the team into its own brand within Sega). As a result, R&D #8 is often incorporated into AM2's history by Sega and others, however the first real AM2 game is thought to be 1992's Virtua Racing[1].

R&D #8 continued Studio 128's work of producing successful taikan games, notably Power Drift (1988) and G-LOC: Air Battle (1990), the latter designed for the groundbreaking R360 cabinet. It was one of two development departments to be working on arcade games at the time, the other being R&D #1.

As with most internal studios at the time, R&D #8 was not publicly credited for its efforts. The only game to reference "Sega 8" (and the game's creators) is 1990's GP Rider.

Softography

System 16

  • (1988)

OutRun hardware

  • (1989)

X Board

  • (1990)

Y Board

  • (1990)
  • (1991)

System 32

  • (1991)

Mega Drive

  • (1989)
  • (1991)
  • (1993)

List of staff

References


Timeline of Sega of Japan research and development divisions








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