Sega Genesis

Sega Master System

Two days after the NES was released in America the Sega Master System was released. Though in Japan the NES had been out for over 2 years already. The Master System is technically superior to the NES but due to some weird design choices and the mistake of allowing Tonka to market the console it eventually fell into obscurity. Mine is a little beat up as you can see the lettering is coming off. However I only paid $5 for it after the man running the estate sale pulled it out of a pile of junk in his basement; a testament to the durability of this system. I wish he still had the controllers though as they run about double the cost of an NES controller. Thankfully Genesis controllers will work just fine in it.

The system itself is a high tech looking (at least for the 80’s) block of angular plastic. It seems that in order to be “cool” in the 80’s your product had to be red and black. Also note the diagram on top that is reminiscent of a wiring schematic. I’ve seen something similar on JVC and a few other brands of home audio receivers of the same era. On those a light would glow behind whatever input you were using (tape, cd, etc…) however on the master system the only light is behind the “Power On” triangle. Basically the diagram makes no sense and is useless, but it looks cool!

Above and below the diagram are two design choices that made the Master System unusual. First off, the pause button is on the console instead of the controller. Great placement for that don’t you think? By the time you stand up to reach the console you’re dead.

Below the diagram is the Card Input. The Master System can accept both cartridge and Sega Card games. The card games were cheaper to make but offered less storage space and thus were intended for “budget” games that would cost less. Ironically though the cartridges can now be had for less than the cards. The cartridges were known as “Mega Cartridges” to differ them from the cards. The name is a reference to their storage space of 1 megabit.

Another unique feature is that the Master System itself had a game built into it. Mine has the motorcycle racing game Hang On but depending on your model of Master System the game would be different. There was even an 8-bit Sonic the Hedgehog released on carts and programmed into some of the later Master Systems.

Master System controllers are quite nice from what I remember. Unfortunately I used to have two but in my ignorance I traded them in for Genesis controllers not knowing that they were worth quite a bit more. The image above is courtesy of Evan-Amos. The buttons had a nice positive feel to them with more travel than the NES buttons. Some would argue that this makes for a slower “response time” however I prefer to know if I’ve pressed the button or not. Besides, it’s not like you’re trying to get top spot on Xbox Live or something. The d-pad is OK; seen worse, seen better. It’s one piece so you can rock your thumb around on it easy enough. Some controllers had a screw in thumb stick which seems completely pointless to me as it is too short to be of use.

The carts are not the best designed either. It seems they were more worried about matching the aesthetics of the console when a cart was plugged in than what the game was about. The box was the only thing with artwork on it and the carts simply had the name. Now, I know that when they were new you could just look at the box but surely even back then there were used carts for sale that were missing the box? So pretend you know nothing about games, you walk into a store and see the cart for Out Run. Is it a track and field game? A racing game? Or something even weirder that only has a little bit to do with the title?

All of these factors could have been overcome if the console was marketed properly. Unfortunately it was not. Sega contracted Tonka (yes, the toy dump truck people) to market the Master System here in America. Unfortunately being a toy company Tonka had no idea how to properly sell the system. Combine that with Nintendo preventing 3^rd party game developers from creating games for systems other than Nintendo (a practice that was later ruled illegal) and we have the final nail in the Master System’s coffin.

Which is a shame too as there is nothing fatally wrong with the Master System. Most of the games were of high quality, the graphics were better than the NES, and it was a standard top loading console without the reliability problems inherent with the NES.