Does anyone know the name(s) of the person(s) that made the original arcade version of Zaxxon? I have found names of other Sega/Gremlin people like Tim Skelly, Larry Clague and Mike Hendricks but they don't seem to have any connection to Zaxxon.
I was under the impression that Zaxxon and Congo Bongo were among the first Sega games developed by their japanese branch, but now that I think about, it wasn't until 1983 that Sega shifted it's center of power to japan, so maybe that's not the case. I know for a fact Future Spy was made in japan, and I guess I always assumed they were made by the same team, but maybe I'm wrong on that.
Sega's Japanese releases pre-date their American ones going back 1973's Pong Tron. They co-existed throughout Gremlin's existence which makes things nice and confusing. Sega's flyer for Bullet Mark(1975) mentions it being the "First Sega product manufactured in the United States".
Zaxxon was one of the last games released under the Sega/Gremlin name so it likely was developed in California by Gremlin. It is possible that the Sega/Gremlin name was used for some localized Japanese games as it was for Frogger(which was certainly developed by Konami Japan) but that seems like an odd thing to do.
I figured Future Spy was Japanese since it seems Sega had closed down their American development by then. Super Zaxxon I have no clue.
I don't think it's fair to assume Gremlin was the developer. They put that on all their games at the time.
Last edited by Frogacuda; 14 Oct 2004 at 01:17 PM.
The reason I asked the initial question was for the purpose of determining whether Zaxxon was developed in the US or Japan. I have found American names/interviews for some of Sega/Gremlin's vector games. I'm not saying for sure Gremlin developed the game but it's a possibility.
Sega didn't use the Sega/Gremlin name for everything back then. Buck Rogers, Ali Baba, Pengo, and SubRoc-3D for example are pre-1983 games that just have the Sega name.
Super Zaxxon, Congo Bongo, Furutre Spy and other games on the hardware that I would imagine had some of the same staff do not have the Gremlin name on the cabs, so take that as you will.
Yeah, things like that make the game seem likely to be Japanese but then other things make me think it's American. It bugs me that I haven't found conclusive proof for either side. It also doesn't help that the game doesn't look distinctly Eastern or Western either.
I'm guessing Buck Rogers may be a Japanese game. The MSX got a version called Zoom 909 (System16.com guesses this was the original name for Buck Rogers in the arcade until Sega secured the license). BR does seem to be a predecessor to Space Harrier in some ways.
http://www.campusprogram.com/referen...s/se/sega.html
Here's an interesting article on the history of Sega- including Gulf & Western's ownership starting around 1969. Sega got split into Sega Enterprises Ltd. and Sega of Japan. Later on G&W sold Sega Enterprises Ltd. in 1983 to Bally Mfg. Company. Unfortunately, this article doesn't shed light on the original Q about Zaxxon.
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It would seem that it was made in the US. Here is the owners manual for the arcade unit. It says that the unit uses a Wells-Gardner monitor.Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
www.arcadedocs.com/vidmanuals/Z/Zaxxon.pdf
Interesting. That document shows that Zaxxon was manufactured at the San Diego Sega/Gremlin facility but it still isn't proof that the game originated in the US. Frogger's manual says the same thing but that game definitely originated in Japan even though it seems Gremlin manufactured the American model.
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