Sega Master System

Sega saw Nintendo starting to get successful in America so they brought this baby over. Supposedly it was a more powerful system, could play cartridges and cards, but Nintendo blew it out of the water 62 million to only 13 million sold of the Master System. It had a gun also, called the Light Phaser. But where I think it beat Nintendo was with 3D gaming.


These 3D glasses look like old people sunglasses. The only NES game I remember having 3D was Rad Racer, but the Master System had 8 3D compatible games. How did this system fail in comparison to the NES? It was more powerful! Just like today, it all comes down to the software. The experience was unrivaled on the NES. With only 13 million sold, I'm calling this system a failure.

Yeah, a commercial failure. I'd like to note that it was actually made BEFORE the NES just not released in the US until 7 months after the NES.

And as Streex said, the software was just dismal in comparison. What Master System games were even any good? Well, we DID have a Phantasy star (the first one!), a Sonic 8-bit version (very rare title), and the two Zillion titles mixed a more shooter feel into the exploration vibe of Metroid. Check it out if you can!

As for technologically speaking, this system marked the beginning (quite literally) of Sega's staunch support of tech over imagination. Though that wasn't always the case, to be sure!

Streex wrote:

Sega saw Nintendo starting to get successful in America so they brought this baby over.

ZeldAnTales wrote:

I'd like to note that it was actually made BEFORE the NES just not released in the US until 7 months after the NES.

Thanks for further explaining. I didn't go into enough detail in my post.

But yeah. Even back then, building a system with the best specs didn't guarantee a spot on top of the industry. How history repeats itself.