Success Everywhere but Home
The Sega Master System was Sega’s first go-ahead in the video game console market, and although they had very small market share in their home turf, America, the Master System enjoyed over a decade of success in Europe, Brazil, and many other places.
Successful Elsewhere, Just Not At Home
Released just under a year after the NES, the SMS has a small hold on the market in North America – less then 10%, really. Nintendo had stolen almost 90% of the market, and wasn’t easily letting go.
However, Sega marketed heavily outside of North America, too, and in Europe as well. Sega marketed to places that Nintendo simply didn’t, and that helped them much more then anything else they could have done. The third party support for Europe was tremendous, and was able to outsell the NES completely.
Brazil, however, was the SMS’ most successful market – several games had been translated into Portuguese, and those characters had been changed to appeal to more Brazilian audiences – even completely original titles had been made for that market. A Master System Girl, which sported a pink finish and pastel buttons, was created as a tool to draw in more girls.
Stylish?
The design for the SMS is attractive, in its own way – a design that was slightly boxy, but in a cute way. Streamlined, the original was black with a burgundy label on the front – the label was an extremely unnecessary, however, as it’s a diagram of the system components.
The cartridges plugged straight down, and it featured two controller ports, a reset, and a pause button – having the pause button on the console was regarded as a fatal design flaw, although some actually liked it.
Later, a smaller version of it was designed – it was compact, but reminds one of a radio more then a gaming console. It also didn’t have the card slot that the larger console had, which was extremely unique.
This card plug-in allowed a card about the size of a credit card to be plugged into it, and mostly held games, though the card held less information then the cartridges. The 3D glasses plugged into the card slot, though, allowing unique 3D graphics to be viewed with special cartridges, and the effect was quite realistic.
The most unattractive feature for many was the games. Sega packaged the SMS games in a sturdy, plastic case that was later used with the Genesis, but the cover art was practically not there! The entire thing was white, with very little on it at all, and most feel it repelled customers, instead of attracting them. Most figure that Sega was going for a clean, crisp look, but they didn’t get it.
Play With Me
The library of games for the SMS was meager in comparison to the NES, with very few must-have titles. The graphics where, in comparison, only slightly worse then the NES graphics, though it was much better then the Atari 7800, and the games that were on both the NES and the SMS were usually better on the NES!
However, there were good titles on the SMS – the Wonder Boy series is a favorite for Sega fans, and R-Type, Shinobi, and Rastan are classics on the system. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe were released late in the SMS’s lifetime. The console has no region lock, though, so you can play games from all over the world – of course, many games are better on the Genesis, but if you already own a SMS, it’s a plus!
The sound on the SMS wasn’t very good at all, but it was to be expected for a third generation console. Some voice samples were in a few games, but they’re hard to understand and annoying overall.
The controller holds a close similarity to the NES in its rectangular shape, and cord placement. A D-pad is on the left, but the flaw of the controller is that only two buttons are on the right, and one doubling for a start button, and it’s limiting with many games. Also, the D-pad has an awkward, almost ‘mushy’ feel to it, and is sometimes awkward to use.
All In All…
The console isn’t that great compared to what Nintendo had out at the time, and what Sega went on to do. However, many feel that it’s a system worth having, if you enjoy older consoles. Although it didn’t sell very well in many places, it is a good console, and cheap to pick up, if you find one.
