One of the most common scenes that can be experienced in any country is going to a gas station, filling up the tank, going inside the establishment and paying the cost of the precious liquid. Along the way, we can stock up adequately to continue the trip, but in any case the final destination leads us to the cash register operated by a clerk.
A habit that may not be of much importance to anyone, but which presents a small peculiarity for the inhabitants of the United States. Sometimes, when their products pass through the scanner that registers them, they can hear the following sound that any video game lover will instantly recognize.
Indeed, the legendary melody that plays every time Sonic collects the precious rings can be heard at the cash registers. In a way, it makes sense, since Each ring for the blue hedgehog has tremendous value and determines the life it has for the rest of the game. However, it is really strange why these types of machines have the sound file inside them.
I mean, how the heck can they tie ties? SEGA and the manufacturer of the devices? The YouTuber Nexus set to work to find out and to find the answer it is necessary to go back to the 70s. It was in November 1975 when the Japanese company Satomi Corporation created the Sammy Industry division, which would focus on content related to arcade machines. The development of video games such as Survival Arts o Viewpoint managed to consolidate the brand throughout the 90s.
In addition, the business was supported mainly by the creation of pachinkos and pachislots in Japan, since the industry in this sector in the nation is very strong. The expansion and natural ambition of Sammy Industry It allowed the establishment of subsidiaries in countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom, and in 2004 a historic event occurred. SEGA was in the worst moment in its history after the calamitous launch of the Dreamcast, having lost the generation without any palliatives.
Sammy sensed the market opportunity and put $1.1 billion on the table to acquire a majority stake in SEGA, thus forming Sega Sammy Holdings. Nothing really changed, beyond the disappearance of SEGA in the legendary fight between console manufacturers, so both companies continued on their way with the video game and arcade platform development.
Of course, this union meant that what was exclusive to some could be shared among all. Therefore, Sammy had full access to SEGA’s intellectual properties and thus grant the corresponding license to other companies to use them. Nexo found that the cash registers that make the ringing sound are created by Gilbarco Veeder-Rootan entity that has been operating since 1865, manufacturing the equipment and technology for service stations, from pumps to everything you can imagine.
He Gilbarco Passport is the name of the cash register model, which can be found in more than 40,000 locations throughout the North American country, and was created in 1999. Inside they have Passport POSthe software that allows all the operations of payment and registration of the products that pass through it to be carried out, but this is where the fog is thickest. The main theory suggests that Sega Sammy Holdings developed or assisted in the creation of the program for the Gilbarco Passport, which would explain a lot.
A second position is that for some reason Gilbarco Veeder-Root is duly paying the company to use the sound, although there is a third way. SEGA reportedly allowed outsourcing of sound effects to Chinese manufacturers in the late 1990s and Gilbarco Veeder-Root reportedly built the machines using third-party scanning software, without realizing that the audio information was inside.
Who knows, maybe one of the programmers thought it would be a funny detail and included it without any permission or oversight. What is certain is that Sega Sammy Holdings has never complained about it, so it seems clear that both parties have real knowledge of what is going on.
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