History of Sega in Hungary

History of Sega in Hungary
Official Sega distributor(s): Nissho Iwai (1991-1996), Al-Step (1993-1996), EBM (1996-1998), NewWave Computers (2000-2003), Ecobit (2004-2007), PlayOn (2007-2014), Cenega (2014-present)

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The first consoles that were sold in Hungary, just like in other communist countries, were created at the initiative of domestic companies. One of the first consoles was Elektronikus TV játék, produced by Videoton since 1976. Hungary began its transition away from Soviet-style communism in 1990, and like many of its Warsaw pact neighbours became a more attractive place for foreign Western investers.

Nissho Iwai

The first Sega products in this region appeared in early 1991 by Nissho Iwai. The Sega Master System model I was the first to come here and it cost around 12,900 HUF in Videoton stores. Its price gradually decreased and in the middle of the following year it cost 9999 HUF in Sinus stores , but sales were unsuccessful. During this time, Sega had competition in form of Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System (distributed from 1991 by Stadlbauer kft), Atari Lynx/2600/7800 (distributed from 1990/1991 by Novotrade 2C and Hungarian Atari Trading Center (HAT Cent kft)), CDTV (distributed from 1991) and Rambo TV Game (Atari 2600 clones distributed from <1990).

In October 1992, the first Mega Drive and Game Gear models, were released. During this period, the Hungarian company Novotrade released a game about the dolphin Ecco which became a cult game for 16-bit Sega consoles. From spring 1993, Master System II was available in Hungary.

In October 1993, Nissho Iwai choose Al-Step kft as official distributor. In the same month, Nissho Iwai sponsored 576 Kbyte's TV show about Sega callled Szegasztok. Before Christmas, the second Mega Drive model hit stores and the Sega Mega CD II was released in March following year. The biggest distributors at the time were Al-Step, Primex, Novotrade 2C and Videoton.

From that time on, Sega products became more successful in the country. The Mega Drive and Master System were the most popular at that time. Hungary was 1% of Sega's European business, with forecasting sales of 30,000 - 50,000 units for 1994. Many companies have organized various Sega console related events such as Sega Verseny 1994 (by Novotrade 2C), Eternal Champion (by Videoton), I. Sega játékbajnokság (by Elektroház) and others. In 1994, the Pop Shop founded Sega es Nintendo Klub.

There were also fake consoles on the market. While in some places people could come across consoles compatible with 16-bit Sega, there were also consoles imitating Mega Drive, such as the famiclone reminiscent of the Mega Drive in a green box from Asian distribution. The most famous famiclone in Hungary - Terminator 2 which box design resemble Sega Mega Drive 2.

In March 1995, the Sega Saturn console, imported from Japan, appeared in 576 Kbyte Shop. The console with one pad and the game Virtua Fighter cost 129999 HUFwhich was a huge price and hardly anyone in the country could buy this console. At the same time, Hungary saw the official release of the Mega Drive 32X.Besides Famicom and Mega Drive clones, Sega had competition in form of Super Nintendo (distributed from October 1992 by Stadlbauer kft), Neo Geo (distributed from 1992 by Intercom, which distribution was taken over by Videoton in 1993), Amiga CD32 (distributed from February 1994), Atari Jaguar (distributed from October 1994 by Novotrade 2C), Neo Geo CD (distributed from 1995 by Videoton) and 3DO. Saturn officially appeared in this country at a similar time as in the rest of Europe (around September 1995)..

Al-Step/EBM

In late 1995/early 1996, Sega Europe took responsibility for Hungarian market with Al-Step and EBM (Euro Business Magyarorszag) as distributors. Saturn was too expensive for Hungarian conditions and Al-Step emphasized, that old Sega consoles such as Master System II and Mega Drive II are still quite popular. The Sega brand was slowly starting to lose its popularity, although there were other events related to it, such as Sega Verseny 1996 (via Neptun Elektronik) and in January 1996, TCI's technology group got the rights to distribute Sega Channel in Hungary, but it isn't known that the service was launched there. Sega brand has lost much of its popularity in this country and practically disappeared in 1998 in favor of PlayStation (distributed from October 1996 by Sony Hungary) and Nintendo 64 (distributed from March 1997 by Stadlbauer kft).

From the second half of the 90s until early 2000s there were 3 distributors of Sega arcades and 2 of them was Flipper-Rex Kereskedelmi Kft and Novogame. Arcade machines in the 90s were popular in Hungary, but at the beginning of the 2000s they became less popular, as Novogame said, which in 2002 only received 5 orders for Sega machines.

Dreamcast

Sega Dreamcast first appeared at the end of 1999 in 576 Kbyte stores at a price of 79999 HUF. However, the sale was quite small, so in April 2000 the console was only available on special order.Dreamcast officially appeared at the end of 2000 and its distributor was NewWave Computers. The console was sold until 2003,despite competition from PlayStation 2 (distributed from late 2000 by Sony Hungary).

In 2002 Somogyi Hírlap magazine created an article about video game console market in Hungary which defined that 50%-Nintendo, 23%-Sony, 15%-Sega (a lot of them were from older generations), 12%-Others.

Ecobit, CD Projekt and Cenega

After the Dreamcast console, Ecobit in 2004 became the distributor. Sega games from Empire and Xplosive were distributed by EVM.

In 2007 PlayOn took over the distribution. Since 2014, Cenega has been responsible for the distribution of Sega PC products in the country, alongside Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

External links

• segadc.uw.hu
• dreampage.freeweb.hu
• Other version of above site