Hello, I have a SEGA Sonic Arcade Topper that's part of my small collection. I am wondering what Sonic arcade game used this topper. I am aware of two SEGA Sonic arcade games that were released, one being the trackball. There are also Sonic redemption arcade machines, but I have no idea. If anyone has any insight, that would be great. Thank you.
There were way more than two... SegaSonic, Sonic (Mega-Play), Sonic 2, Sonic Championship, Sonic The Fighters.... Then there were the game things like Sonic Spinner, Sonic & Tails Spinner, Sonic Cosmic Fighter Galaxy Patrol, Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car, Sonic Space Tours, Sonic Canball, the fruit machines, UFO catchers.... As Druid said, it's probably promotional material that was located near the machine. It could indeed have been Sonic 2, or maybe Sonic & Tails Spinner (also with added two player gameplay)... although the sign looks more like it's from the 90s. It may not even be a Sonic game - they used him kind of like a logo for a while. Doubles mode sounds more like a tennis game to me. Incidentally, "it's more fun to compete" was first used as a slogan in the arcade by Gottlieb in 1954 for their Super Jumbo pinball and was commonly seen on pinball machines since.
Excellent. Thank you for the feedback. It does make sense that the SEGA sign could be for any number of SEGA games utilizing Sonic within the signage as a known branding theme and not necessarily being for a Sonic game itself. In my opinion it's a topper, as it has the brackets for mounting which are consistent with other toppers. It has no free standing feature and size is consistent with an arcade cabinet. Also the sign's narrative points to a particular game where a new feature is introduced, which is why I gravitated towards a Sonic game as I believe some of the Sonic coin op versions allow for two player interactive play. This of course is a leap of logic considering that many games could have a new 2 player interactive feature, even tennis or redemption, so I could be wrong and the theory of the sign being a promotional piece used within an arcade space could well be correct. Regarding Mega play coin op systems, are you talking about the cartridge system that some SEGA arcade games used such as Die Hard Arcade? A pre Naomi system? If the Mega play system was Sega's answer to Nintendo's play choice with 16 or 8 bit graphics, I have personally never come across such a system. I wonder if they were even released to the states as I have read that some Sega arcade games were only shared between Japan and the U.K. Again, I have no real clue about what a mega play system is about. Regarding the Gottlieb tie in, I presently have a Gottlieb Buccaneer 1976 one player electro mechanical pinball machine that I restored and almost attached the topper to the head, not knowing the company motto, just doubling up my passions. I may reconsider using the topper on the pinball machine. Great information, thank you.
