History of Sega in Israel
From Sega Retro
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| History of Sega in Israel |
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| Official Sega distributor(s): Bug Multisystem (1990-1993) , Suny Electronics (1993-1998), Hed Arzi (200x-present) |
The first distributor of Sega on the Israeli market was Bug Multisystem which in 1990 started distributing the Sega Master System console. In 1992, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System II and Sega Mega Drive I were released. All consoles appeared in the European PAL system. The cooperation was completed in 1993 when Bug Multisystem decided to focus on Nintendo consoles and release Super Nintendo in Israel in 1994.
At that time Sega became interested in businessman Ilan Ben-Dov who imported Sega consoles from around 1987. He founded in 1991 the company Suny Electronics which sold Sega products (mainly American versions) and Nintendo products (most of them were famiclones). In 1993, he founded Sunny Communication which became known as Sega Israel. From now on, the consoles started appearing in Israel at a very similar time to the European premiere. Every system released by Suny was the same seen in Europe. The company has released Sega Mega Drive II, Sega Mega CD I and II, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn. The company has also begun fighting against clones of Mega Drive and US imported versions of the consoles through ads showing differences between official consoles. In 1996, Sega Enterprises Israel was created which after breaking the contract with Sega became Astela Asets & Investments Ltd[1].In 1998, Suny broke the deal and began distributing Samsung cell phones. Sega Dreamcast was also released in Israel but it went without much interest.
Nowadays, the representative of the company is Hed Arzi.[2]Red Vault from Red Entertainment Distribution is also available in this country.[3]
In 1996, TCI's technology group got the rights to distribute Sega Channel in Israel , but it is not known that the service was launched there.