VG Mad

MasterSystem (Sega)

Updated: 7th January 2015

The Sega Master System was released in 1985 (Japan), and is still available now in some regions, specifically Brazil.

The European launch of the Master System occurred in 1987. It was distributed by Mastertronic in the United Kingdom

The Master System had superior hardware when compared to its main competitor, Nintendo's NES. It contains double the memory of the NES. The CPU of the Master System runs at a faster speed than the processor in the NES. The NES is capable of displaying 25 colors at a time from a palette of 54, compared to the 32 colors at a time from a 64 color palette on the Master System.

Built-in titles are common in Master System builds, which include Hang-On, Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Due to Nintendo's licensing practices, few third-party developers produced games for the Master System.

Sega has sold in excess of 13 million units to date.

For full details on the MasterSystem, visit the MasterSystem Wikipedea page.