List of promotional kiosks
From Sega Retro
During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Sega produced a number of video game console kiosks for in-store display. The idea being that potential customers could play a demo of a game and get a feel for the system before a purchase. Kiosks of this nature have been around since the days of the Atari 2600 and continue to be used today.
For most of the 90s Sega were supporting at least two home consoles in parallel, be it the Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Game Gear or Sega Saturn, and often produced kiosks to accomodate multiple systems. With the dawn of the Sega Dreamcast standards were created in the form of the Dreamcast Kiosk, in which every kiosk looked and behaved largely the same regardless of where one was spotted in a specific region.
Earlier kiosks are almost bespoke units and can vary dramatically from store to store. Kiosks were only sold to retail outlets, so many units have been disposed of during the last twenty years, in turn making them collectors' items. This page lists all Sega kiosks known to have existed before the Dreamcast.
Contents
Japan
Saturn "This is Cool" Model
Saturn kiosk from 1998-ish.
Sega CS Cabinet
An uncommon Mega Drive kiosk featuring standard composite RCA jacks and power sockets inside for use with a retail console, as well as plastic trays under the monitor for controllers to sit on, speakers, and lights behind the top area and the two panels beneath each speaker. Game cases can be displayed in the top section, which is hollow and shielded by a flip-up plastic cover.
North America
DS-16 Model
Common during the early 90s, this grey kiosk designed for the Sega Mega Drive uses a Demo System DS-16 unit to allow uses to switch between six cartridges on the fly.
DS-16 Model (larger)
A larger variant of the above, designed to accommodate the Game Gear too.
Grey Model
Presumably released around the same time ast the above (or slightly later), this is a non-switch variant which demonstrates two-player games.
Saturn Model
A kiosk built specifically for the Sega Saturn. Likely from around 1995.
Orange/Blue Model
The orange/blue kiosk is surprisingly one of the most common Sega kiosks in North America, despite being released during or after 1996 when the company was in decline. This is a very basic kiosk designed to accomodate either the Sega Saturn or Sega Mega Drive (or Genesis in this case). At the time of release multi-carts and demo discs were widely available, so a cartridge switching device was not seen as a requirement. By default, artwork from Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island was included on the bottom half of the cabinet.
Sabriya's Castle of Fun
- Main article: Sabriya's Castle of Fun.
Sabriya's Castle of Fun is a Sega Mega Drive kiosk unit produced by the Sabriya's Castle of Fun Foundation and developed in coordination with Sega of America.[1] Conceptualized as part of the Sega Foundation's more direct charitable contributions, the wheeled kiosk consists of a 20" television, NTSC Sega Genesis, AM/FM radio, VCR, dual cassette player/recorder, and a CD player[1], all housed in a child-friendly plastic casing resembling a castle and provided free to various California hospitals in the late 1990s.
Pico
Europe
Master System/Mega Drive Model
A grey post-1991 cabinet meant to house both a Mega Drive and Master System.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.sega.com/central/foundation/gift.html (Wayback Machine: 1998-02-23 08:46)