History of Sega in Bosnia and Herzegovina

History of Sega in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Official Sega distributor(s): Nissho Iwai (1990-1992; 1994-1996), Magma (1996-1998), Videotop (2004-2010), Computerland (2010-2015), Videotop (2016-2018), Iris Mega (2018-present)

---

This short article is in need of work. You can help Sega Retro by adding to it.

---

Socialist Yugoslavia

Socialist Yugoslavia did not belong to the Warsaw Pact making it more open to Western technologies than the countries of the Eastern Bloc. In the 70s Yugoslavia was one of the countries where Sega imported its game machines. As in other communist countries, local companies created their own consoles, such as the Geti-3220 produced by the Slovenian company Gorenje from 1977. Foreign consoles also reached the country but in small numbers.

Sega Master System was introduced to Yugoslavia in 1990. Video games for the systems were reviewed in Svet Kompjutera magazine from September 1990 to January 1991 and Svet Igara reviewed accessories for the system. In March 25, 1991, the first Sega club was found called Video Games Club were people could rent Master System console. Creation of further distribution network was cut shortly after breakup of the state in June 1991.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia declared independence from Yugoslavia in March 1992, but it caused a war. Sega and Nintendo consoles appeared during the war as a donation from other countries. During the war clones became popular, including Rambo TV Game, a Atari 2600 clone that was quickly replaced by famiclones like Terminator 2 (which box design resemble Sega Mega Drive 2) and the Pegasus console.

Official Sega products were sold in Bosnia since 1994 and deliver to local shop mostly from and by Croatian companies like for example Europatrade. The sale and the number of places where it was possible to buy the consoles was of course limited due to the hostilities. Thanks to this, Mega Drive II, Master System II and Game Gear were sold here. In 1995, the Mega CD II and Mega Drive 32X were released. Beside famiclones, Sega had competition in form of Super Nintendo, Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System distributed from 1994 by Croatian company Pinel Export-Import.

The war ended in 1995 with the Dayton Agreement. The country was 80% destroyed and the population could not afford to new console. This resulted in an increase in the number of bootlegs, including Sega consoles and games. Rumors say that Power Pegasus appeared in 1996.

New consoles such as Sega Saturn (distributed by Magma from early 1996) and Nintendo 64 (still distributed by Pinel Export-Import from March 1997) were released in Bosnia and despite the fact that they were more available than their predecessors - Sega Mega Drive and Super Nintendo - they were still too expensive. In the late 90s, the PlayStation was released, which thanks to the possibility of easy piracy became quite popular here.

From 2004 Sega started cooperation with Videotop, but from 2010, Computerland began representing Sega in this region. Videotop return in 2016 as a distributor in the former Yugoslavia.In 2017, Videotop became the property of Computerland Group and in 2018, Videotop was acquired by Colby which also belongs to the Computerland Group. The distribution was taken over by Iris Mega.