About : tv stands for flat screens uk
Title : tv stands for flat screens uk
tv stands for flat screens uk
on this episode of classic gaming quarterly,with the help of uk author and podcaster paul driscoll and brazilian youtube host eric fragawe take a look at sega’s first entry into the worldwide home console market, with the1986 launch of the sega master system.
model, taking advantage of increased militaryactivity due to the outbreak of the korean war. in 1951, the passage of the johnson act outlawedcoin-operated gambling devices on military bases inside the united states, and servicegames moved its headquarters from hawaii to tokyo and focussed on providing machines tolocal us military bases, as well as private japanese buyers. david rosen was a korean war veteran who fellin love with japan after spending significant time there during the war. rosen moved to japan in 1954 and transformedhis existing company, rosen enterprises, into
an exporting and manufacturing business. in post-war japan, every citizen was requiredto carry a photo id card, and rosen saw an opportunity to import instant photo boothsto allow people to quickly create needed pictures. rosen had an instant hit on his hands, andwas soon looking for ways to expand his business. with the japanese people beginning to havemore disposable income with the revival of the country's economy, rosen began importingolder coin-operated amusement machines from the united states, and games like seeburg'sshoot the bear were popular with japanese consumers, as guns had been outlawed at theconclusion of the war. in the late 1950's, service games began manufacturingtheir own coin-operated machines under the
brand name "sega". at the same time, david rosen saw his marketsharebeginning to slip due to increased competition, and proposed a merger with his friendly competitor. in 1965 the two companies merged, formingsega enterprises, ltd. with rosen installed as the ceo. the following year, sega produced their firstinternationally-successful arcade game, periscope, which cost a then-whopping 25 cents per play. in 1969, sega was purchased by internationalconglomerate gulf & western for the modern equivalent of $62 million, with rosen remainingas ceo.
sega prospered during the arcade boom thatbegan in the late 1970’s, producing absolute classics like zaxxon and monaco gp. in 1979, sega bought a tokyo-based arcadegame distribution company called esco trading, owned by hayao nakayama, who much like davidrosen would be an instrumental figure within sega for years to come. in the early 1980's, in an attempt to diversifydue to slumping arcade sales, sega decided to enter the home video game market, and in1983 released its first home video game console, the sg-1000. the hardware was designed around a zilog z80processor and has a palette of just 16 colors.
the sg-1000 accepts both cartridges and, thesega my card, which has reduced storage space and as a result sold for less than cartridge-basedtitles. the launch of the sg-1000 was unfortunately-timedboth in that more broadly, it coincided with the american home video game crash eliminatingthe us as a potential market, and more specifically in that it launched at the same time as nintendo'sfirst home console, the famicom. while the sg-1000 was a commercial under-performer,selling about 2 million consoles worldwide, it is noteworthy as providing the platformfor legendary game developer and father of sonic the hedgehog yuji naka's very firstgame at sega. due to declining revenue, gulf & western splitthe company up, selling the american assets
to bally in late 1983, while the japaneseside of the company was purchased by a group of investors led by rosen and nakayama. in 1984, the sg-1000 was cosmetically redesignedand dubbed the mk. ii, the most notable change probably being the integration of a card slot,eliminating the need for a card catcher. the design of both the console itself andthe controllers laid the groundwork for sega's next home console, which was released thefollowing year. in 1985, sega released the mark iii. like the 1000, the mark iii's hardware isbased around the zilog z80, but the amount of both system ram and video ram were greatlyincreased.
the console uses a custom video processorbased on the texas instruments tms9918, which can display up to 32 colors on screen at oncefrom a total palette of 64, and has a display resolution of 256x192. the only area in which the mark iii’s hardware lags behind the famicom is sound. sega’s system uses an off-the-shelf texasinstruments 4-channel programmable sound generator, while the famicom has a more advanced 5-channelchip. but sega released an external fm sound unitfor the mark iii containing a yamaha ym2413 fm chip that made compatible games sound headand shoulders above the competition.
while this was never officially made availablefor the north american master system, it is possible to modify the console to add fm functionality. the mark iii was never released outside ofasia, but did sell almost 1 million units, which while no where near the number of consolessold by nintendo, was also nothing to sneeze at. due to the resurgent american home video gamemarket, sega decided to try exporting the mark iii to the united states, creating segaof america in march of 1986 with david rosen as its first ceo. sega completely redesigned the mark iii andgave it a new name, the sega system.
this design still featured both a cartridgeand card slot, 2 controller ports, and both an rf out and a multi-av jack that outputsmonaural sound along with both composite and analog rgb video. the sega system made its press debut at the1986 summer consumer electronics show in chicago. the system was on store shelves in time forthe christmas shopping season, and two bundles were available at launch; the $100 sega basesystem included the console with a combo cartridge featuring hang-on and astro warrior, whileconsumers could also purchase the console with a light gun, and a combo cartridge featuringhang-on and safari hunt for about $30 more in a deluxe bundle called the sega mastersystem.
“sega challenges you with the ultimate videogame. the sega master system. with twice as much memory as any other videogame. advanced video technology like scrolling backgrounds,graphics in 64 colors, digital sound, and light phasers. and you can add to the excitement with sportspads, control sticks and the first video games ever in 3d. “sega’s the one.†sega master system: the challenge will alwaysbe there.â€
the console was of course still competingwith nintendo's famicom, which had been released in north america the previous year as thenintendo entertainment system. the sega system would go on sell 125,000 unitsin 1986, but this paled in comparison to the 1.1 million systems sold by nintendo. although technically superior to the nes,the master system was hampered by a lack of third-party developers due to nintendo's restrictivelicensing agreements, and sega only moved about 2 million units in north america, comparedto 34 million systems sold by nintendo. to make matters worse for sega, in their homecountry they re-released the mark iii under the new master system design, and it felljust as flat as its predecessors.
while the nintendo entertainment system almostsingle-handedly revived the home video game market in north america and was a culturalicon in the late 80's and early 90's, here the sega master system has, perhaps unfairly,been relegated to an esoteric or cult status. but in other parts of the world, the systemdidn't just compete, it absolutely dominated. in the early and mid 1980’s, home videogames in the united kingdom were, for the most part, played on home computers ratherthan video game consoles. this was due to a combination of companieslike atari being slow to move into that market, and the government in the uk pushing computerliteracy in schools. “i bet there’s hardly a pub in the countrythat doesn’t have a couple of computers
in the lounge bar…†this resulted in the uk following a very differentpath to the us in terms of video games; with its emphasis on tape-based home computerssuch as the spectrum, commodore 64, amstrad, and bbc micro. as a result of this emphasis on computer education,companies began releasing low-cost, mass-market home computer systems like 1980’s sinclairzx80 and 1981’s acorn bbc micro. while for a few years video games all butdisappeared from the american cultural landscape, in the uk they were flourishing thanks tothe market penetration of these “educational†home computers.
in 1986, the sega master system was releasedin north america. by this time, the graphics in the popularhome computer platforms such as the spectrum were beginning to look aged, and people therewere hungry for better graphics and sound. so in early 1987, the hugely-popular britishbudget software publisher mastertronic approached sega about distributing the console in theuk, seeing an opportunity to seize the british home console market with a relatively low-costsystem capable of much higher-quality ports. “do me a favour, plug me in to a sega!†the master system made its debut in 1987,at the personal computer world show in august and was on stores shelves soon after.
the machine, costing only â£99, came bundledwith the popular sega arcade classic hang on, which came built in to the console. by the end of the year over 20 games wereavailable for the system. such highlights were the side-scrolling beat-em-upblack belt and the excellent spy hunter clone action fighter. due to diminishing budget software sales onthe 8-bit micros, mastertronic’s revenue had begun to decline in 1987, and the mastersystem was perhaps the brightest star in the company’s portfolio. seeing an opportunity to expand into the growinghome console market in the uk, virgin’s
richard branson, who already owned a minorityshare of the company, purchased mastertronic outright, merging it with virgin games. with little competition from nintendo, a pricepoint equal to the zx spectrum, and an aggressive marketing campaign the master system was ableto slowly eat away at the dominance of the 8-bit home computer systems in britain, andlater the wider european video game market.
the sega master system would go on to sell6.8 million units in the european market, accounting for over half of worldwide sales. so successful was virgin mastertronic at marketingthe master system, that they were bought out by sega in 1991. and so they became sega of europe. to talk about the master system in brazil,we need to first go back to atari and the arcades. we brazilians played a lot of arcade games. we loved games like namco’s pole positionand rally-x, which was renamed here to stock
car by “taito do brasilâ€, probably thebiggest pinball and arcade games distributor here in the 1980’s. also, many sega games were in the arcadeshere, and i was a lucky enough to play altered beast, after burner, golden axe and shinobi. the actual experience of playing those gamesin the arcade back then feels to me like being in heaven, next to my atari 2600 games athome. the atari 2600 came to brazil in 1983, theyear of north america’s video game crash. for us, that year was just the beginning ofhome consoles. the atari 2600 brought missile command andpole position into our homes along with original
games like pitfall and enduro. i loved my atari, but that “segaâ€, thatjapanese touch was not there. before the master system itself appeared here,there was a very small home computer market, basically dominated by clones of the zx spectrum. the, as we call it here, the “te ca noventachisâ€, the “tk90x†was the one i played at a friend’s. but the msx computer was launched here beforethe master system and that computer was big, probably the most popular home computer inbrazil before the ibms took over. i had many friends who had it so i playeda lot of konami games like knightmare, goonies
and somehow got used to and started to love,without realizing it of course, the z80 processor and the psg sound and music. then at the very end of the 80’s, tectoyreleased the master system, along with tv ads, magazine ads, and all that. i got mine for christmas in 1989 with alexkidd in miracle world, besides hang-on and safari hunt that was built-in and of coursethe snail maze game that we called here in brazil “jogo do labirinto secretoâ€, meaningjust “secret labyrinth gameâ€. tectoy released the master system making itsound like a premium device for us in brazil, because at the same time the nes and famicomclones started selling here.
there was a lot of models and makers, justtoo many to list here, but also there was just one problem: not one of them was an officialnintendo product. on the other hand, they were a little bitcheaper than the master system, which kind of helped its image as a premium console. the build quality and presentation also helpedbecause tectoy was mostly importing parts from japa nand assembling them here with somechanges; the most notable change i think was not having the multi av out and instead thedirect composite outputs, which was ok for us because all of our tv sets were compositeor rf-only, at the time anyway. it’s also not ntsc, it’s pal-m, whichactually is more like ntsc than european pal,
apart from the acronym. the master system gave us brazilian playerswho came from the atari 2600, arcades and a bit of msx, games like world grand prix,a very simple racing game that was very smooth, had a nice and clean presentation and thosenamco’s pole position arcade colors. that was awesome for a gamer like me who hopedto have this kind of smooth gameplay at home. and keep in mind that we brazilians reallyloved simple racing games. enduro from atari 2600 was one of the mostsuccessful games here in the 80’s. maybe it’s ayrton senna’s fault? we will never know…
but the master system was so much more thanthat for us; it was the sega arcade conversions. for gamers who actually played altered beastand golden axe in the arcades, we knew that we could not have the same experience at home. but even with the low framerate, the gamesactually looked like the arcade original, had the same music and almost the same gameplay. the master system did not have the huge librarythat the nes had, but tectoy managed to release most games and sega did its part without konami,capcom and all those great japanese companies, because as we all know they were only allowedto develop for the nes. of course, i missed games like castlevaniaand zelda on my master system, but master
of darkness and golvellius were filling thisvoid. later came phantasy star, for which tectoyeven released a fully translated version. and it did not stop there: ultima iv, a segaconversion of a landmark rpg. i was lucky enough to get that game and rememberbeing so puzzled by it! it was not translated like phantasy star,but by that time i was learning english just to play master system rpgs and adventure games. all those type of games were available officiallyfor us, thanks to sega really working hard on porting and developing games across allgenres and tectoy releasing most of them here in brazil.
and guys, that’s the story of the mastersystem in brazil. to us, it’s just one of the best home consolesof all time. the sega master system was on store shelveshere in north america in september of 1986. in addition to the combo cartridges includedwith the two system bundles, five stand-alone games were immediately available at launch. choplifter, world grand prix and fantasy zonewere released on sega's mega cartridge media, with transbot and ghost house released onsega cards. lastly, there was a hidden game on the console’ssystem rom called snail maze, accessible by pressing “up†and both buttons on thecontroller when starting up the system without
a cartridge inserted. “sega: hot hits today; hot hits on the way. plug in to today’s hottest arcade hits,like after burner, and alien syndrome. with even more red-hot arcade hits on theway like shinobi, thunder blade, and 2-player double dragon. the fun keeps comin’ at’cha, only fromsega. hot hits today, hot hits on the way.†the pack-in game common to both the base andmaster system, hang on is a port of a 1985 arcade hit by sega am-2 and celebrated gamedesigner yu suzuki.
while the arcade machines featured analogcontrols and either handlebars or a motorcycle chassis to sit on, which was revolutionaryin 1985, this home version obviously depends on digital controls using the master systemcontroller. the game scrolls smoothly and features a vibrantcolor palette, which is used to give a unique look to each of the five areas in every course. the game has 8 such courses which have differinglayouts but the exact same environments. if you at any time touch either one of theopposing riders or items on the side of the road, like bushes, cactuses, or light poles,you perish in a fiery inferno, losing precious seconds in the process.
there is no in-game music, and although thesound effects are good, part of your bike’s engine noise cuts out whenever you’re passingor being passed by another rider, probably due to the limited number of sound channelsin the stock psg chip. this home version of hang on is both a fungame and a respectable port of the arcade hit, all things considered. were it the stand-alone pack-in game for thesystem, as it was in the uk, it might be a bit of a let-down due to the lack of any realreplay value, but thankfully, here in north america you got a 2-game combo cartridge,regardless of which system you bought. available only as part of the base bundle,astro warrior is a vertically-scrolling space
shooter that was specifically developed forthe home market. when the game begins, your ship, the astororaider, is cumbersomely slow and has a little pea-shooter for a weapon. grabbing power-ups that float down the screenboth increases your speed, and adds firepower. you can also pick up little helper ships,just like the options in the gradius series. astro warrior has good sound effects and catchymusic, and once again takes advantage of the master system’s expanded color palette. there’s an interesting variety of enemies,but the end-level bosses are much too easy to defeat, and the entire game is only threelevels long, cycling back to the beginning
ad infinitum. the hang on/astro warrior combo cart was nevermade available in europe, as the game was instead paired with action puzzler pit pot. uninspired as it may be, it’s still a decentpack-in game, especially as part of a 2-pack. the gameplay is certainly primitive comparedto later shooters of the 8-bit generation, but for a 1986 launch title and pack-in freebie,much like hang-on, it’s good for some short-term fun. paired on the cartridge with hang-on in themaster system bundle was safari hunt, a light gun game that was ostensibly sega’s answerto nintendo’s duck hunt.
speaking of light guns, the sega light phaser,which was both packaged with the master system bundle and subsequently available as a separatepurchase, worked on the same principle as the nes zapper. although i have both heard and read it statedthat the design of the light phaser was based on the sega co-produced anime series red photonzillion, the reverse is actually true, with the cartoon being designed so as to tie backin to sega’s hardware. a total of 13 games were made for the lightphaser, including gangster town, and a port of taito's arcade hit operation wolf thatwas never released in the united states. much like duck hunt, in safari hunt you haveto shoot a requisite number of animals in
each stage in order to move on to the next. the three levels in the game take place inlake, forest, and jungle settings, and each have their own variety of prey to shoot. the trio of levels just loops, so you're playingfor high score rather than to complete the game. as early 8-bit light gun games go, this onecertainly compares favorably, but as i’ve just never been able to get into the genre,safari hunt is still pretty forgettable for me, and i suspect that the 10 year old versionof myself would have been much happier with the base bundle's included games.
choplifter was originally programmed by dangorlin and released by broderbund on the apple ii in 1982. due to its popularity, the game was subsequentlyported to just about every other home computer platform, including the commodore 64, whichis where i first played it. in 1985, sega created a coin-op version ofthe game for their system 1 arcade hardware, sometimes referred to as the sega system 8. it was this version of the game was in turnported to the mark iii and master system. in choplifter, you take the role of a combathelicopter pilot. however, rather than the objective of thegame being to shoot as many enemies as possible,
your goal is actually to save prisoners ofwar. you take off from a landing pad that seemsuncomfortably close to enemy lines and land near enemy strongholds to allow prisonersto board the helicopter. in doing so you become a sitting duck, meaningthat you’ll often need to take off and attack approaching enemies in order to protect bothyourself and the defenseless prisoners. being that it’s based on the updated arcadeversion of the game, the master system’s choplifter looks quite a bit better than theearlier home computer and console versions, aided by both the variety between levels,and the master system’s expanded color palette. this version of the game also expands uponthe original, with levels taking place over
land and sea, and even in caves. choplifter provides great arcade action witha unique twist, and the only real criticism that i can level at the game is that it’sfrustratingly difficult. but in my opinion, that’s where arcade gamesgot their replay value back in the day, and choplifter is absolutely worth the challenge. the first of two games released at launchon sega card, transbot is a horizontally-scrolling shooter that was specifically developed forthe mark iii, where it was released as "astro flash". ostensibly, the game was inspired by the then-populartv show and toy line "transformers", and in
fact the game was ported to sega's systeme arcade hardware, on which it was released in the west as "transformer". maybe transformers weren’t popular in brazil,as this game was released there as “nuclear creatureâ€. transbot uses a randomized power-up systemthat frustratingly, gives you limited-use advanced weapons, or just turns you into aflying robot, enlarging your hit-box accordingly. the game isn't horrible, but it's certainlyunremarkable, and was easily the weakest of the three shooters available at launch. world grand prix was the other racing gameinitially available for the master system,
this time loosely based on formula 1 grandprix racing. if not a proper sequel, the game is at thevery least a spiritual successor to the 1985 sg-1000 and msx game "gp world", which itselfwas a home conversion of a 1984 arcade game. rudimentary as they may be, the game at leasttries to mimic real-world grand prix circuits, and while the game never actually tells youin which country each race is being held, it’s often easy enough to figure out basedon the colorful background graphics specific to each circuit. the game has the same sound limitation ashang on, but once again it’s a minor annoyance, at best.
on the surface, world grand prix might seemsimilar-enough to hang on to make one wonder why anyone would buy it, but this game hasa wider variety of levels, the ability to upgrade your car, and perhaps most importantly,a built-in track editor, which was actually a carry over from the aforementioned gp world. unfortunately it isn’t possible to saveyour tracks due to the lack of any kind of battery back-up, but this was back in thedays when i was using a pen and paper to map out dungeons in role-playing games, and onecould easily do the same here. whether or not the game is worth visitingtoday is up for you to decide, but i can easily see my childhood self spending a saturdaynight sleep-over with a friend designing and
challenging each other with increasingly ridiculouscustom-designed circuits. the other game initially released on cardwas ghost house, which was also the sole platform game available at launch. the game certainly has its own charm, butultimately is fairly shallow and repetitive compared to later platform games of the 8-bitera. i feel like a broken record saying that ghosthouse has colorful graphics, so i guess i just really like the master system’s colorpalette. the gameplay however can be rather frustrating, which isn’t helped by the fact that the“jump†and “attack†buttons are backwards
compared to most platformers. this game was released in brazil by tectoyas “chapolin vs. draculaâ€, chapolin referring to “el chapolin coloradoâ€, or “the crimsongrasshopperâ€, who was the main character in an eponymous mexican comedy tv series fromthe 1970’s, and who was also the inspiration for the “simpsons†character bumblebeeman. this version is basically a graphical hackof the original, replacing the main character “mick†with chapolin, and changing someof the background elements, but also swapping the “jump†and “attack†buttons, makingthis the more playable of the two versions. ghost house is the kind of game that, hadi owned it in 1986, i would have played just
because i had it, but it was certainly nothingmore than weekend rental material. three of the 8 sega master system launch titleswere arcade ports, and all three were originally released on different arcade platforms. hang-on was developed on purpose-built hardware,and choplifter was a sega system 1 release, while fantasy zone was released on sega’ssystem 16, the newest of the three platforms and the basis for the hardware design of thesega genesis. fantasy zone was designed by yoji ishii, whoalso developed the 1984 arcade hit flicky, directed both hang on and outrun alongsidedesigner yu suzuki, and later produced notable saturn titles including panzer dragoon andburning rangers.
fantasy zone is one of the original gamesin a sub-genre that has come to be known as “cute-em-upsâ€. other examples include 1985’s twinbee bykonami, and the famously-expensive magical chase by palsoft on the pc engine and turbografx-16. ishii was tasked with designing a game tocompete with konami's arcade hit gradius, but not wanting to create a straight knock-off,he chose to use a pastel color scheme and a hand-drawn graphical style. drawing from his experience creating flicky,he also chose to use a free-scrolling, rather than fixed-scrolling design, reminiscent ofarcade classic defender.
in fantasy zone you take control of “opa-opaâ€,a sentient space ship trying to save its world, the “fantasy zoneâ€, from alien invaders. in each level, you need to destroy the 8 alienbases, triggering a boss battle. vanquished enemies drop coins, which can beused to buy limited-use weapons and ship upgrades and even extra lives, from a shop that periodicallyappears in each level. i know i just got done saying how much i likethe master system’s color palette, but admittedly i’m not a fan of the color scheme in thefirst level of this game. while it looks great in the arcade, the mastersystem's comparatively-limited color palette make it a look that was difficult to replicateat home.
thankfully, the rest of the levels in fantasyzone look gorgeous. the game’s catchy and upbeat soundtrackwas composed by hiroshi kawaguchi, who also composed the music for hang-on, space harrier,after burner, and the musically-iconic outrun. the game’s cuteness belies it’s difficulty,and unlike astro warrior, this is probably not a game that you’re going to immediatelyfinish and grow tired of. what it is however is a much more rewardinggameplay experience, and it was by far my favorite game to play for this episode. were i buying a master system at launch, ithink i would have opted for the base bundle, having no real interest in light gun games,and would have grabbed fantasy zone and world
grand prix to sink my teeth into once i wasdone playing hang-on and astro warrior. that’s going to do it for this episode ofclassic gaming quarterly, but before we go i want to give a huge thanks to my 2 guests,who helped make this episode a success. paul driscoll is a published author and co-hostof the rgds podcast, and his first book “press start - the birth of video games before 1977â€is available on amazon. eric fraga hosts the brazilian youtube channel“cosmic effectâ€. now, it’s all in portuguese, but a videohe made chronicling the the design and construction of his “super console†is worth checkingout whether you understand the language or not.
eric is also a talented electronic musician,and you can check him out on soundcloud.com/cosmiceffect. as for us, you can always keep track of usbetween episodes on twitter, facebook and instagram, or our website cgquarterly.com. as always, thanks for watching and i’llsee you next time. oh, and chris, by the way, nice ayrton sennahat on the sega saturn episode!