The Sega Master System at 40

The Sega Master System at 40

(Photos Courtesy: SMS - By Evan-Amos - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14249084 ; Light Gun - By Evan-Amos - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17202947 ; 3D Glasses - By Evan-Amos - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16998389)

Generation X, we're getting up in years.  Yea, no doubt about it!  As I was glancing over anniversaries of 1980s topics, the Sega Master System stuck out.  Why?  This was our founder's gaming system he talked about on episode 20 of Memory Jogger which you can watch below.

This gaming system competed with numerous systems to include: The NES, Atari, Commodore 64, and other like computing and entertainment consoles.  The Sega Master System (SMS) released as the Sega Mark III in Japan, was founded on the Z80 CPU found in the Amstrad, Spectrum, and TRS-80 home computer systems coupled with a Sega engineered video display processor which boasted a 64-color array, 32 sprites generation ability at a time, and 8kb of RAM.  While this may seem ancient tech compared to today's gaming consoles, the SMS was in its own class in 1985 and 1986.

With the SMS came 3D glasses and a light gun, this entertainment venue was unmatched with the competition.  Aiding to the sales and distribution were Virgin Mastertronic for the European markets including the United Kingdom coupled with Sega themselves serving the USA market.

Sega had their foot on the arcade traffic as there were far more Sega arcade cabinets than Nintendo, thus another edge on the nearest competitor.  Games like After Burner, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Fantasy Zone, Golden Axe, Golvellius: Valley of Doom, OutRun, Psycho Fox, Shinobi, Space Harrier, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, and others were already favorites to the quarter and token customers.

Jason recalled that he either was frustrated at a game or accidentally broke his 3D glasses which made one of his games virtually useless after the unfortunate wreck.

While Nintendo was more dominant within the USA, the foreign markets such as Brazil, Europe, and elsewhere were where the Sega Master System was the king of consoles.

Did you have a Sega Master System?  What games did you have; any favorites?