
The driving force behind Sega’s iconic console hardware passed away just ahead of the weekend. Hideki Sato, widely known as the ‘Father of Sega Hardware’ according to Japan’s Beep21 gaming magazine, which broke this sad news, was a key player behind the creation of the full gamut of classic Sega consoles. From the SG-1000, through the Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast – Sato and his R&D team architected and helped define multiple home console generations.
Sato began his Sega career as an engineer in 1971. This was just a couple of years ahead of the iconic gaming firm’s first electronic coin-op, the discrete logic driven Pong-Tron arcade machine (1973).