History of Sega in Slovenia

History of Sega in Slovenia
Official Sega distributor(s): Nissho Iwai (1990-1991; 1993-1996), ActiveMagic (1996-1998), Videotop (2004-2010), Computerland (2010-2014), Videotop (2014-2018), Colby (2018-present)

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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.

Slovenia

After declaring independence in 1991, Sega return again in 1993 and created chain of sub-distributors and the biggest one were Mladinska Knjiga (bookstore which also decided to open a multimedia center) and Elektronexport which released Sega Mega Drive, Sega Master System II and Sega Game Gear. Sega had competition in form of Super Nintendo, Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System (distributed from Christmas 1992 by Laser Plus), CD-i (distributed from 1993 by Mladinska Knjiga), Amiga CD32 (distributed from 1993 by Alfa Tech) and Atari Jaguar (distributed from 1995 by Mladinska Knjiga). MK with Elektronexport and Megazin organized Sega Open 93 which was a response to the Nintendo Championship 93. Sega released Sega Mega-CD II in October 1993and Mega Drive 32X in March 1995.

Nintendo got many clones here like SP-60, Micro Genius and Family Game, so Laser Plus sued some of the retailers that sold them. Sega also got clones like New 16 Bit, distributed from 1993 by Atlas. Laser Plus translated Club Nintendo magazine into Slovenian language starting from 1993, MK distributed Sega Pro from 1994, but in English version.

Sega Saturn was released in between 1995/1996 by ActiveMagic, a London based company that provided in late 80s and early 90s original Sega software for home computers. Unfortunately Saturn was little known in the country and Nintendo maintained the popularity of Nintendo 64 (distributed from March 1997 by Laser Plus) at the same level as Super Nintendo.Other major competitor was PlayStation (distributed from April 1997 by Videotop).

Ita Plus was the first company to present Sega Dreamcast in Slovenia, but this was imported version from USA. The PAL version of Dreamcast was released later and was sold through few local distributors.

In 2004, Sega started cooperation with Videotop. However, in 2010 Computerland took over a sell of Sega games. In 2014, Videotop co-operated again with Sega, and in 2016 became a representative of them in all former Yugoslavia.In 2017, Videotop became the property of Computerland Group. In 2018, Videotop was acquired by Colby which also belongs to the Computerland Group which means that the distributor of Sega is now Colby.

Sega products advert in Megazin (SI) #0101: "Letnik 1, Številka 1, September 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Megazin (SI) #0102: "Letnik 1, Številka 2, Oktober 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Atlas advert in Megazin (SI) #0104: "Letnik 1, Številka 4, December 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Mural with characters from Sega games in Megazin (SI) #0302: "Letnik 3, Številka 2, Februar 1995" (1995-xx-xx)

Mladinska Knjiga Multimedia Center with Sega games in Megazin (SI) #0303: "Letnik 3, Številka 3, Marec 1995" (1995-xx-xx)