Samsung

Founded: 1938

Headquarters:

Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea

The Samsung Group, known often simply as Samsung (삼성) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. Samsung specialise in electronics, and are one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers.

During the 1980s and 1990s, it was very difficult for foreigners to market video games consoles in South Korea, especially if they were Japanese (thanks to the long history of tension between Korea and Japan). This meant that Sega could not easily market their own products to a South Korean audience on their own, so they struck a deal with Samsung to distribute consoles in that region. Samsung took it upon themselves to adapt Sega's systems for the South Korean market, though for the most part, South Korean systems are completely compatible with Japanese systems. Sega had previously gone through Oacs to distribute the Sega Mark III.

Samsung produced one game for the Sega Mega Drive (Super Aladdin Boy) - Uzu Keobukseon. This shoot-'em-up is unique to South Korea.

Samsung manufactured the Sega Virtua Processor cartridge DSP chip, used for the Sega Mega Drive version of Virtua Racing.

By February 1997, Samsung completely exited the gaming business due to the failure of the Samsung Saturn and the 1997 Asian financial crisis. From September 1997, Kama Entertainment distributed the model 2 Sega Saturn and model 2 Mega Drive, all under it's orginal names.