Sega co-founder David Rosen dies aged 95

"It is difficult to think of a more influential figure in the arcade game industry than David Rosen, who has died aged 95. The co-founder of Sega, who remained a director of the company until 1996, was instrumental in the birth and rise of the video game business in Japan, and in the 1980s and 90s oversaw the establishment of Sega of America and the huge success of the Mega Drive console."

"As a US Air Force pilot during the Korean war, Rosen found himself stationed in Japan, and once the conflict was over, he stayed on, intrigued by the country and seeing possibilities in its recovering economy. In 1954 he set up Rosen Enterprises and noticing that Japanese civilians now required an increasing number of new ID cards he started importing photo booths from the US to answer the demand."

"In 1965, he merged the company with another importer, Nihon Goraku Bussan, whose coin-op business Service Games was shortened to Sega for the new venture. For the next 15 years, Sega innovated in the arcade sector, switching from importing games to designing its own, and moving on from jukeboxes and pinball tables to electromechanical arcade games such as the submarine shooting sim Periscope and, in 1972, Killer Shark, a shark hunting game which would briefly feature in Jaws."

David Rosen remained in Japan after serving as a US Air Force pilot during the Korean war and founded Rosen Enterprises in 1954. He began by importing photo booths to meet ID-card demand and expanded into pinball and other coin-operated machines. In 1965 he merged with Nihon Goraku Bussan to form Sega, which shifted from importing to designing arcade and electromechanical games like Periscope and Killer Shark. Sega opened proprietary arcades for operational control. Rosen helped build Sega into a global company, served as a director until 1996, and oversaw Sega of America and the Mega Drive's success.

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