Company:Gremlin Industries

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Short description: American arcade game manufacturer
Sega Electronics, Inc.
FormerlyGremlin Industries, Inc. (1971-1982)
IndustryVideo games
FateManufacturing division sold to Bally Manufacturing and merged into Bally/Midway, library absorbed into Sega
Founded1971; 53 years ago (1971)
Founder
  • Frank Fogleman
  • Carl Grindle
Defunct1983; 41 years ago (1983)
HeadquartersSan Diego, California
ProductsArcade game
ParentSega (1978-1983)

Gremlin Industries was an American arcade game manufacturer active from 1970 to 1983, based in San Diego, California. Following its acquisition by Sega in 1978, the company was known as Gremlin/Sega or Sega/Gremlin. Among Sega/Gremlin's most notable games are Blockade and Head On, as well as being the North American distributors for Frogger and Zaxxon. The company's name was subsequently changed to Sega Electronics in 1982, before its operations were closed in 1983.

Sega later released emulated and playable version of some of Sega/Gremlin games as vault material for the Sega Ages and Sega Genesis Collection series.

History

An arcade game of Star Trek made by Sega Electronics.

Gremlin was founded in 1970 as a contract engineering firm by Harry Frank Fogleman and Carl E. Grindle.[1] The company was intended to be named "Grindleman Industries" as a portmanteau of their last names, but an employee of the Delaware Secretary of State's office misheard the name over the phone, so the company was incorporated as Gremlin instead.[2] In 1973, Gremlin became a manufacturer of coin-operated wall games with their first release Play Ball (1973).[3] Gremlin joined the video game industry in 1976 by releasing its first video arcade game entitled Blockade (1976).[4]

1n 1977, Gremlin released a home computer under a subsidiary, Noval, Inc. Called the Noval 760, the computer was built into a wooden office desk, with the computer portion of the desk's top able to pivot in and out of view. It sold poorly and was discontinued in 1979.[5]

In 1978, Gremlin was acquired by Sega Enterprises Inc. and their games acquired the label of Gremlin/Sega or Sega/Gremlin.[6] Following the Sega purchase, Gremlin released games from both Sega and other Japan ese companies. Among these video games were Namco's Gee Bee (1978), Nichibutsu's Moon Cresta (1980) and Super Moon Cresta (1980), Nintendo's Space Firebird (1980), and Konami's Frogger (1981).

In 1981, Gremlin leased the first building in Rancho Bernardo's Technology Park, which they moved into in 1982 as their main manufacturing facility. The estimated cost of the building was US$10 million and was the plant where games like Zaxxon (1982), Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator (1983), and Congo Bongo (1983) were manufactured.[7][8][9]

In 1982, the name of the company was changed to Sega Electronics to better strengthen the Sega brand name in the United States.[10] However, the company entered a rapid decline beginning in mid-1982, due overproduction issues which ended the golden age of arcade video games.[11]

In August 1983, the arcade manufacturing assets of the company were sold to Bally Manufacturing. Through the purchase, Bally/Midway acquired Sega's technology for laserdisc video games, principally Astron Belt as well as later games Galaxy Ranger (1983) and Albegas (1983). Bally gained the right of first refusal to publish arcade games by the Japanese Sega Enterprises, Ltd. in the United States for two years, and released games such as Up 'N Down, Future Spy, and Flicky.[12]

The sale did not included other assets owned by Sega Enterprises Inc. including their American research and development arms populated by former Sega Electronics staff.[13] These development offered arcade games to Bally for publishing, though they were never released.[14] Sega Enterprises Inc's home division continued releasing games including ports of arcade games licensed from Bally like Tapper (1983) and Spy Hunter (1983).

In 1984, Sega Enterprises, Ltd. was bought out in a management buyout by Sega executives David Rosen and Hayao Nakayama with backing from CSK Corporation. This included the rights to the Sega/Gremlin video game back catalog which was later released in several game compilations. The wall game catalog was later marketed by a new firm in Las Vegas called Gremlin Industries with participation of several former Gremlin staff.[15][16]

After the sale of arcade manufacturing assets, Sega Electronics became a shell company (holding only Gremlin brand trademarks in several countries).[17][18][19] It was renamed to Ages Electronics in 1985 and later used as production company related to The Maury Povich Show. The corporate entity is currently part of CBS Media Ventures.[1]

Video games

Produced

Title Released
Blockade 1976
Safari 1977
Comotion 1977
Depthcharge 1977
Hustle 1977
Blasto 1978
Frogs 1978
Deep Scan 1979
Fortress 1979
Head On 1979
Head On 2 1979
Invinco! 1979
Carnival 1980
Digger 1980
Astro Blaster 1981
Space Odyssey 1981
Eliminator 1981
Pulsar 1981
Space Fury 1981
Star Trek 1982
Tac/Scan 1982
Zaxxon 1982
Zektor 1982
Battle Star Canceled
Ixion Canceled
Pig Newton Canceled
Razzmatazz Canceled

Distributed

Title Licensed from Released
Gee Bee Namco 1978
Moon Cresta Nichibutsu 1980
Space Firebird Nintendo 1980
Super Moon Cresta Nichibutsu 1980
Frogger Konami 1981

Ports

Sega released emulated and playable versions of some of the Sega/Gremlin arcade games as vault material in the Sega Ages compilation series for the Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 and Sega Genesis Collection for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.

Deep Scan was included as a bonus game in the Sega Saturn version of Die Hard Arcade.[20]

Explanatory notes

  1. ↑ Registered trademark in Japan owned by Sega Corporation as of February 2023

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "AGES ELECTRONICS, INC. filling on California Secretary of State as of January 2023" (in en). https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/api/report/GetImageByNum/164187038189108098227202146022138208027028116118. 
  2. ↑ Smith, Alexander (2019). They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Volume I. CRC Press. pp. 306. ISBN 9781138389908. 
  3. ↑ Smith, Keith (2015-09-20). "The Golden Age Arcade Historian: The Ultimate (So-Far) History of Gremlin Industries Part 1". http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-ultimate-so-far-history-of-gremlin.html. 
  4. ↑ Smith, Keith (2015-09-25). "The Golden Age Arcade Historian: The Ultimate (So-Far) History of Gremlin Industries Part 2". http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-ultimate-so-far-history-of-gremlin_25.html. 
  5. ↑ Horowitz, Ken (2018). The Sega Arcade Revolution : A History in 62 Games. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-4766-3196-7. OCLC 1041854216. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041854216. 
  6. ↑ Smith, Keith (2015-10-10). "The Golden Age Arcade Historian: The Ultimate (So-Far) History of Gremlin Industries Part 3". http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-ultimate-so-far-history-of-gremlin.html. 
  7. ↑ "First building sold". Times-Advocate: p. E-3. 16 August 1981. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/118595191/first-building-sold-rancho-bernarco-tech/. 
  8. ↑ "Technology Park Building Leased to Gremlin Industries". Los Angeles Times: p. 38. August 20, 1981. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18492417/the-los-angeles-times/. 
  9. ↑ Manjikian, Tamara (1982-05-18). "Gremlin's plant expects to make 500 games daily". Times-Advocate. 
  10. ↑ Horowitz, Ken (2018). The Sega Arcade Revolution : A History in 62 Games. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-4766-3196-7. OCLC 1041854216. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041854216. 
  11. ↑ Manjikian, Tamara (1982-07-30). "Large inventory slows RB video game factory". Times-Advocate: pp. D9. 
  12. ↑ Adlum, Eddie (November 1985). "The Replay Years: Reflections from Eddie Adlum". RePlay 11 (2): 134-175 (168-70). https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-11-issue-no.-2-november-1985-600DPI/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2011%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201985/page/168. 
  13. ↑ Horowitz, Ken (2018). The Sega Arcade Revolution : A History in 62 Games. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-4766-3196-7. OCLC 1041854216. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1041854216. 
  14. ↑ Sloper, Tom (August 2008). "Interview:Tom Sloper" (Interview). Interviewed by CRV. GDRI.
  15. ↑ "Gremlin Industries Returns With Hi-Tech Wall Games". RePlay: 20. September 1987. 
  16. ↑ "Gremlin is Back". RePlay: 221-222. March 1988. 
  17. ↑ "GREMLIN 73123232 - Trademark Status & Document Retrieval". https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73123232&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch. 
  18. ↑ "GREMLIN 73087925 -Trademark Status & Document Retrieval". https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=73087925&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch. 
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ "Preview: Die Hard Arcade". Sega Saturn Magazine (Emap International Limited) (16): 24. February 1997. 



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