History of Sega in Turkey
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| History of Sega in Turkey |
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| Official Sega distributor(s): Metin Tekstil (1991-1994), ARAL (1995-present), |
One of the first video games to be introduced on the Turkish market were Atari 2600 games produced and distributed domestically by Meta Elektronik. These games have become so popular in Turkey that the word Atari has become synonymous with the console.
In the early 90's, Sega's arcades were distributed by Erka Dış Ticaret ve Mümessillik A.Ş.
Metin Tekstil made the first attempt to introduce Sega consoles to Turkey in the early 1990s. From March 1991, the first advertisements for the Sega Master System console appeared in newspapers. At the end of the same year, the second Master System model was launched. From 1992, Metin Tesktil began publishing his own magazine called Sega Magazin Mix. They also started importing Sega Mega Drive and Sega Game Gear. Unfortunately, between 1993/1994 the company ended distribution of Sega products.
From the beginning of the 90s, the Nintendo Famicom clones began to gain popularity in Turkey. The most popular were the Micro Genius distributed by ARAL. In 1995, Sega began working with them and released again Game Gear (NTSC-USA) and Mega Drive II (Asian PAL). The games, consoles and accessories had a sticker on the box: SEGA Product officially licensed for sale in Republic of Turkey and / or the consoles had a sticker underneath with Aral's address.
Of course, official Nintendo consoles such as Game Boy and Super Nintendo were sold in Turkey, but the most popular 16-bit console here was Mega Drive. With the increase of Mega Drive popularity, clones of this console and pirated games have been released in this region. In 1996, TCI's technology group got the rights to distribute Sega Channel in this region, however, so far little is known about the launch of this service here.
Since 1996, ARAL began distributing the Kid's Gear (NTSC-J) and Sega Saturn (EU PAL). Saturn had opponents in the form of PlayStation released in November 1996 and Nintendo 64 released in July 1997.
In 2000, Sega Dreamcast also reached the country. ARAL still sells Sega products in Turkey to this day.[1]Red Vault from Red Entertainment Distribution (Sega distributor in the MENA region) was also available in this country.
Sega's arcade machines have been sold by Meridyen Games and Trio Games Group.[2]