Sega Master System

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The **Sega Master System** is a console made by Sega and released in September 1986 in the U.S. as a competitor to the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was initially released in 1985 as the **Sega Mark III** in Japan, itself an enhanced version of the earlier SG-1000. In 1990, the **Sega Master System II** was released for PAL regions.

## Why It Rocks

1. Though the NES was more successful in terms of market share, the Master System had superior hardware than that of the NES, allowing for a brighter color palette and more detailed sprites.
2. Some games were stored in cards which consumed less space, similar to the TurboGrafx-16.
3. While it didn't have such a big library of games, it included several successful titles such as *Phantasy Star*, *Psycho Fox*, *Wonder Boy in Monster Land* and *Alex Kidd in Miracle World*, the last of which, *Alex Kidd* was the mascot of the Sega company before the introduction of *Sonic the Hedgehog* in 1991.
4. Though it was discontinued quickly in the U.S., it was very popular in Brazil and Europe. Regarding Brazil, Master System consoles and games were produced, published and distributed by Brazilian company *Tectoy*. It was also popular in Korea where it was sold by Samsung.
5. The boxes that housed the games were actually cases that snapped shut and held the game in place, similar to a VHS case. This style of container is now used today, though they are smaller. It also makes finding Master System games in the original packaging much easier and cheaper than finding a boxed NES game.
6. The Master System also included accessories such as a light gun and 3D glasses.
7. Because of its popularity in Brazil, the Master System is the **longest-lived game console**, lasting for more than 30 years, it's even still being made today in Brazil.
	* The Master System even sells around 150 thousand units per year in Brazil, a level that can be comparable to the modern systems such as PlayStation 4.
8. The controller is the easiest to use.
9. Many of the consoles actually come with a built-in game, usually *Alex Kidd in Miracle World* on earlier models, and the first *Sonic The Hedgehog* on later models.
10. The console is very reliable, much more so than the Western-model NES was.
11. Japanese and Korean models based in the first model can play SG-1000 cartridges and cards through backwards compatibility. It is also possible to use their BASIC-related cartridge and keyboard as well.
12. The Master System has three 8MBit (1 Megabyte) games in his entire library (*Sonic Blast, Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo and Virtua Fighter Animation*, all being released only in Brazil), while the Famicom had only one 8MBit game (*Metal Slader Glory*).
	* This only counts official games licensed by both Sega and Nintendo, as unofficial multicarts can easily bypass this limit.
13. The system has an active community dedicated to port MSX1, ColecoVision and Game Gear games to be playable on real hardware or Genesis.
14. The kiosk version of the system made for American markets can accept up to 16 cartridges to display, as opposed to M82 (NES kiosk unit) supporting up to 12 cartridges.
15. While Tengen and Codemasters (also Camerica) were unable to publish official games on NES with an license from Nintendo, both published games licensed by Sega on Master System (also Game Gear and Genesis).
16. Much like the "Genesis Does" campaign, Sega did release *Walter Payton Football* and *Reggie Jackson Baseball* for North American market in order to keep the Master System sales last a bit longer.
	* These two titles had the likeness of both celebrities removed in their European versions.
17. Some games received official translations aside of Japanese, English and traditional European languages. *Phantasy Star* for example, was released in Brazil and South Korea with an full localization for both languages made by their respective distributors.
18. Unlike the NES, Master System games can store dual language features, depending of the region the game is played. This feature was carried over for Genesis, Game Gear and even Neo Geo Pocket Color games.
	* When played in a Japanese system, either the Sega Mark III or the Sega logo can appear before the game starts.
19. The *Hokuto no Ken* game (released worldwide as *Black Belt*) stands as one of the best games in the series, as well being one of the fewest games based on anime in general getting re-releases through the years, such as PlayStation 2, Wii Virtual Console and PlayStation 4 through *Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise*.
	* While other great quality anime games also was released on Master System such as *Zillion*, *Kujaku Ou* (SpellCaster), *Borgman* (Cyborg Hunter) and *Tensai Bakabon*, none of them was ever re-released.
20. The Japanese model can play an arrangement of the *Space Harrier* Main Theme while the system is powered on with no cartridge inserted. The music uses both the PSG and FM soundchips.

## Bad Qualities

1. The Pause button is located on the actual console, which can be inconvenient to use.
2. Similar to the Famicom, the original Master System controller has the cord awkwardly placed on the right side. Later revisions eventually fixed this by moving it to the top just like the NES controller.
3. Weak sound chip (SN76489 only has square waves and a noise channel, no triangle wave and DPCM, compared to NES' 2a03), which gave the system audio capabilities nearer those of the Intellivison or Colecovision rather than the NES. Latter models in Japan had an improved sound chip (YM2413) that was almost as good as that of the Sega Genesis, but it was never released in the west. Fortunately, there are some unofficial hacks that used the YM2413 sound chip, most notably the Sonic the Hedgehog one.
4. Some Master System games was simply repackaged as Game Gear cartridges. This includes *Castle of Illusion*, *Rastan* and *Fantastic Dizzy*, all being played way more smaller than it is supposed to be and taking zero enhancements from Game Gear features.
	* Many games of the system was also repackaged to the handheld by unlicensed brands in Southeast Asia as well.
5. SG-1000 games played on Mark III or Japanese Master System through backwards compatibility are presented with an darker color palette compared to SG-1000, SC-3000 or SG-1000 II. This holds the reverse for MSX1 games on MSX2 or higher, which are presented with an brighter color palette.
6. Dropping unlicensed stuff, the system is full of action, shoot 'em ups and sports games, taking about 50% of the library at all.
7. Western models cannot run SG-1000 games thanks to their BIOS included on them. Playing them with adapters or re-writable cartridges just make these systems to give an **SOFTWARE ERROR** message.
	* The most popular ways to bypass them are through BIOS EEPROM replacement or flashcarts, both requiring an notable amount of money to spend.
8. Some games can only run in 50Hz consoles. *Back to the Future Part III* is one of them.
9. The expansion port, used on Mark III and Japanese models to connect the SK-1100 or FM Sound Unit, is unused outside Japan.
	* It can be used to run games through fan-made adapters.
10. Master System II lacks an Reset button. Yes, to reset the game, you need to switch the Power Off and On again.
11. Samsung had little to literal zero quality control on third-party licenses. This lead to many companies such as Zemina and Clover to bring their low-quality MSX1 titles to the Master System.
12. Weak third-party support in Japan and North America. In Japan, only one company, Salio, released two games based on Tecmo games, while in North America, only Parker Brothers and Seismic Software supported the system.
	* While Activision published some titles as well, all of their titles was just Sega games that was not picked by Sega of America or Tonka themselves.
13. Some games such as F-16 Fighting Falcon and Global Defense / S.D.I. must be played with two controllers to make the gameplay more easier.
	* The Japanese version of F-16 Fighting Falcon can also be played with the SK-1100 keyboard.

## Trivia

In 2008 *Tectoy* produced a model of the console, called Sega Master System III, exclusively for the Brazilian market. It relies on built-in games and therefore has no cartridge slot.

## Comments

1. ↑ https://segaretro.org/Master\_System\_Kiosk
2. ↑ https://niwanetwork.org/wiki/Nintendo\_Entertainment\_System\_(M82)
3. ↑ https://segaretro.org/American\_Pro\_Football
4. ↑ https://segaretro.org/American\_Baseball
5. ↑ https://segaretro.org/Sega\_Master\_System/Boot\_ROM
6. ↑ https://www.smspower.org/Development/Palette#MasterSystemMarkIII
7. ↑ https://www.smspower.org/Development/BIOSReplacement
8. ↑ https://www.smspower.org/Development/GenderAdapter
9. ↑ https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:F-16SMSJPManual.pdf&page=6