Master System

The North American Master System.

The Master System, originally released in Japan as the Sega Mark III, is a video game console developed by Sega and first released in the USA in September of 1986. Although the system didn't sell very well in the USA, it sold very well in Europe and Brazil.

The Master System uses an 8-bit Zilog Z80A CPU clocked at 4 MHz. It has 8 kB of ROM, 8 kB of RAM, and 16 kB of video RAM. Video is controlled by a custom chip called the Video Display Processor which has a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels and supports up to 32 colors at one time (though few games took advantage of this) from a total palette of 64 colors. Video is output through an RF switch. Audio is processed on a Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG chip. The US and European models couldn't could use the Japanese-exclusive optional Yamaha YM2413 FM synthesis chip. Games were stored on cartridges or Sega Cards. The platform's hardware also served as a template for what would eventually become the handheld Game Gear.

Personal

I never owned a Master System growing up, and I only played one once in the late 1980s, after going over to a friend's house after school. He had a Master System. The only game I remember playing was Wonder Boy. I remember thinking it was stupid for the designers to have put the pause button on the console. Later, a different friend who owned a Genesis had a collection of Master System games, but he didn't have the Power Base Converter to play them, so I only got to look at the box and cartridge art. I didn't play a game on the console again until about 15 years later when Master System emulation became popular. When I was 44, I bought a boxed Master System, though it's missing the Light Phaser and one Control Pad. I also have two Control Sticks, one with the box, and one Rapid Fire Unit.

Games

See all Master System Games.

Initial Games

The initial Master System included pack-in dual cart of Hang-On and Safari Hunt. Later versions came with Missile Defense 3D, and the Master System II included Alex the Kid in Miracle World. All versions of the Master System included a hidden BIOS game called Snail Maze.

The following games were available at the Master System's launch: Choplifter, Fantasy Zone, Ghost House, Hang-On, My Hero, Safari Hunt, and Teddy Boy.

Personal

These are the Master System games that are important to me:

Hardware

Review

Good

This was the first platform to release games for the Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd series, and the first US release of a game from the Ys series.
The console was backward-compatible with the Sega SG-1000. Although, this wasn't much, as the console had few games, and even fewer good games, it's still comforting knowing you won't have to forfeit your existing game library.
Sega used plastic boxes for its games which greatly improved their shelf life.

Bad

Sega couldn't attract very many skilled third party developers, so the platform never really developed a large catalog of games. This was primarily due to Nintendo's anti-competition policy at the time.
Despite being released two years after the NES, games released around the same time looked better on the NES. The Master System was superior to the stock NES, but the NES saw development of various chips added into game cartridges which improved their quality.
Pause is not on the controller, but on the console itself, which is really annoying, especially if you're playing a game that requires fast reflexes.
For some strange reason, Sega USA used a very austere box design in order to make sure their grid pattern accounted for most of the box for North American and Europe. This meant that game covers looked really unimpressive, which probably hurt their sales.