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50 free Sega trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sega began as a slot-machine supplier to American military bases and ended up as the only company that ever made Nintendo sweat. In between came Periscope and Out Run in the arcades, the Master System, the Mega Drive that became the Genesis, a blue hedgehog whose shoes were inspired by Michael Jackson, a surprise Saturn launch that enraged retailers, and a Dreamcast that sold 225,000 units in a day and still could not save the hardware business. These 50 questions cover the whole arc. The easy tier covers Sonic, the Genesis, the Dreamcast and the parent company. The middle asks about the Honolulu founders, the Tonka deal, Tom Kalinske's four-point plan, Virtua Fighter, Purikura, the Videogame Rating Council and the man who forgave a $500 million loan. The hard end digs into the Diamond Star slot machine, Head On, the Bandai merger that never happened, the NAOMI board, Sega World Sydney, Shenmue's budget and the studio heads who walked out when asked to abandon consoles. Every answer is cited to a page we checked and comes with a short explanation. Play it solo or print it for a retro gaming night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Sega's name is an abbreviation of which earlier company name?
Service Games
It was first used in 1954 on a slot machine called the Diamond Star, built for US military bases.
Q 02In which city was Sega's forerunner, Standard Games, founded in 1940?
Honolulu
Three American businessmen set it up to supply coin-operated machines, including slots, to military bases.
Q 03What was Sega's first self-made arcade machine, a submarine simulator released in 1966?
Periscope
Its success in US malls helped standardise the 25-cent-per-play price for arcade games.
Q 04Which American conglomerate bought Sega in 1969?
Gulf and Western
David Rosen stayed on as CEO; Gulf and Western later became Paramount's parent.
Q 05Which 1982 Sega game was the first with isometric graphics?
Zaxxon
Three years earlier, Head On had introduced the eat-the-dots gameplay Namco later used in Pac-Man.
Q 06Which 1979 Sega game introduced the maze-and-dots gameplay Namco later used in Pac-Man?
Head On
It came out of the arcade boom that pushed Sega's revenues past $100 million that year.
Q 07What was Sega's first home video game console, released in 1983?
SG-1000
It launched alongside the SC-3000 computer and sold 160,000 units, three times Sega's forecast, but lost to the Famicom.
Q 08Which Japanese software company backed the 1984 management buyout of Sega?
CSK Corporation
CSK's Isao Okawa became chairman and later forgave the company a $500 million loan.
Q 09Which toy company did Sega partner with to sell the Master System in North America?
Tonka
Tonka's ineffective marketing handicapped sales; the console did much better in Europe and Brazil.
Q 10In which country has the Master System had lasting success through Sega's partner Tectoy?
Brazil
By 2016 it had sold 8 million units there, and new versions are still released.
Q 11Which 1986 arcade game was Sega's best-selling cabinet of the 1980s?
Out Run
Hang-On a year earlier had been so popular Sega could not keep up with demand.
Q 12What claw machine, introduced in 1985, became Japan's most commonly installed by 2005?
UFO Catcher
It arrived the same year as Hang-On during Sega's arcade resurgence.
Q 13What was the Genesis called outside North America?
Mega Drive
It launched in Japan on October 29, 1988, a week after Super Mario Bros. 3 overshadowed it.
Q 14Which company declined to market the Genesis in North America before Sega did it itself?
Q 21What ratings body did Sega create in 1993 after controversy over Night Trap and Mortal Kombat?
Videogame Rating Council
Its ratings ran from GA to MA-17; Sega then helped form the ESRB after Nintendo objected to adopting it industry-wide.
Q 22Which Genesis add-on did Sega rush out in late 1994 because Nakayama feared the Atari Jaguar?
32X
It played Genesis games but was not compatible with the Saturn, and interest collapsed after the holidays.
Q 23What was the announced US launch date for the Saturn, branded Saturn-day?
September 2, 1995
Atari
The console launched in New York and Los Angeles on August 14, 1989.
Q 15What slogan did Sega of America use in its early 16-bit campaign against Nintendo?
Genesis does what Nintendon't
The campaign was the work of Sega of America president Michael Katz, a former Atari executive.
Q 16Which game did Tom Kalinske replace as the Genesis pack-in with Sonic the Hedgehog?
Altered Beast
The Japanese board disapproved, but Nakayama told Kalinske to go ahead and make the decisions for the West.
Q 17Whose boots inspired Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes?
Michael Jackson's
His colour matched Sega's cobalt blue logo and his can-do attitude was modelled on Bill Clinton.
Q 18Which programmer's tech demo of a character rolling through a tube became Sonic the Hedgehog?
Yuji Naka
Ohshima designed the character and Yasuhara the levels.
Q 19Sega's colour handheld rival to Nintendo's monochrome portable was called what?
Game Gear
It was essentially a portable Master System and sold around 11 million units.
Q 20Which 1993 arcade game was the first 3D fighting game?
Virtua Fighter
Its Saturn port sold almost one-to-one with the console at the Japanese launch.
Sega instead launched it by surprise at the first E3 in May, enraging retailers such as KB Toys.
Q 24Which retailer stopped stocking Sega products after being left out of the surprise Saturn launch?
KB Toys
Sega shipped 30,000 consoles to four chains for immediate sale at E3 on May 11, 1995.
Q 25How many Saturn units did Sega sell worldwide over the console's lifetime?
9.26 million
The PlayStation outsold it three-to-one in the US in 1997; it did better in Japan than the Nintendo 64.
Q 26Which Japanese toy maker did Sega plan to merge with in 1997, in a deal called off that May?
Bandai
Opposition from Bandai's mid-level executives killed the $1 billion stock swap; Nakayama resigned months later.
Q 27Which ex-Sony executive at Sega of America declared the Saturn was not our future at E3 1997?
Bernie Stolar
He generally blocked 2D arcade games and RPGs from US Saturn release and was fired in August 1999.
Q 28Which photo sticker machine did Sega and Atlus launch in 1995?
Print Club
Purikura earned Sega around ¥25 billion in 1997 and helped lay the foundations of selfie culture.
Q 29Sega World Sydney and Sega World London were the only overseas examples of what concept?
Indoor theme parks
At least 100 were planned worldwide by 2000; the Japanese versions were called Joypolis.
Q 30Which arcade system board shared technology with the Dreamcast, allowing near-identical ports?
NAOMI
The name stood for New Arcade Operation Machine Idea; it was a cheaper alternative to the Model 3.