The Sega Master System was released in Japan in 1984.  It was released in the US on June 1986 for $200.  Sega designed this system to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  Nintendo had a 90% market share after 4 months competing with Sega's Master System.  When the Master was released, it had a low impact on the video game market, selling only 125,000 consoles in the first four months.  During those same four months, Nintendo sold 2 million NES systems.  Later in 1990, after the Genesis was released, Sega released the Sega Master System 2, which is a smaller version of the original.  Both Sega Master Systems failed miserably in the US.  In Europe, many third party producers supported the Sega Master System, which helped the Master System dominate Nintendo there.  The Sega Master System was successful in some parts of the world, but for the most part, it went unnoticed.

Quick Specs

• CPU:  8-bit Zilog Z-80 Processor running at 3.58 Mhz
• Graphic Chipset:  Texas Instruments TMS9929A VDP
• VRAM:  64K
• RAM:  64 Kbits
• ROM:  1MB
• Palette:  256 Colors
• Resolution:  240 x 226

Sega Master Original System

Sega Master System 2

Copyright © Eric Arnol-Martin 2009.
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