The Sega Master System (also known as the Sega Mark III in Japan) was Sega's second console, released a few years after their first, the Japan-only SG-1000, that was first released in 1985 in Japan, 1986 in the US, 1987 in Europe, and 1989(?) in Brazil. The console was created to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System, who Sega saw as a rival at the time, considering the Famicom was the reason that the SG-1000 seemed pathetic by comparison. To properly compete, Sega made their console more powerful in terms of graphics and processing power so games could look closer to the arcade and run better. However, the system performed very poorly against the NES in both Japan and the United States. The lack of success in Japan was caused by the market dominance of the Famicom at the time, and the lack of success in the United States was due to Nintendo's draconian third-party licensing program at the time, which made third-party developers only release games for Nintendo's platform for a certain amount of years, leading to no major third-party support on the system. Along with that, the system was distributed by Tonka, not Sega themselves (Sega of America did exist at this point, however they chose Tonka a year after the system released due to them having better knowledge of handling toys), and they ended up blocking localization of several popular Japanese games. Combined, the Master System sold 3 million units in Japan and America, compared to the 53.35 million sold by the NES. In Europe, Australia, and especially Brazil however, it was a completely different story. In Europe, distribution was initially handled by Mastertronic, who shortly was renamed to Virgin Mastertronic due to a merger with Virgin group, and they marketed it as a stronger alternative for games compared to the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, which attracted many European devs to the platform. The botched distribution of the NES in those countries by Mattel definitely was a factor in the Master System being so successful until Nintendo themselves decided to distribute it themselves in the late 80s and early 90s, which led to the NES narrowly outselling the Master System in most parts of Europe. In Brazil, the console was distributed (and manufactured) by Tec Toy, Sega's distributor for the console in Brazil. The Master System did insanely well in Brazil, mostly due to Brazil's high import taxes making it impractical to buy other game consoles, compared to the Master System which was cheap due to being manufactured in the country and not having to deal with said taxes. The Sega Master System sold well over 14.8 million in those regions alone. The system was discontinued in 1991 in Japan, 1992 in the United States, 1996 in Europe, and 1999 in Brazil. The popularity of the Master System in Brazil is large enough that 100,000 Master Systems are sold in Brazil every year! Its successor was the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

Controllers

• light_phaser
• master_system_controller

Sega consoles

• Sega Master System
• Sega Genesis (Mega Drive)
• Sega CD (Mega-CD)
• Sega 32X
• Sega Saturn
• Sega Dreamcast