The Sega Master System | Hacker News Reader

The Sega Master System

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130 pointsibobev38 comments

This is a bit of history that has always fascinated me ever since I found out in the nineties while employed at Accolade, where we were reverse engineering the Sega Genesis, that the VDP in the Genesis was a variant / descendent of the humble 70's TI TMS9918 (mentioned at the heart of the SG-1000 / Colecovision / MSX and more) - we made a lot of hay in our clean room reverse engineering effort using Texas Instruments data sheets for the 9918!

It is also casually mentioned that the TMS9918 inspired the VDP in the Famicom/NES but I haven't seen any direct proof because it also seems possible that the 2A03 was derived from Nintendo/Ikegami Tsushinki 'Namco Galaxian' inspired arcade board design notably used in Donkey Kong. It's an interesting thread and perhaps studying Galaxian arcade hardware and Donkey Kong hardware and contrasting it with the TMS9918 and 2A03 can establish some geneology for home and arcade VDP design in the early 80's

But it is clear that there was a pretty 'open source' attitude towards hardware IP at SEGA and Nintendo and elswhere in the early 80s.

Nikkei Electronics did an article about the design process of the Famicom in the mid 90s. It mentions that Nintendo began work on designing the Famicom after Coleco representatives demonstrated a prototype Colecovision to them as part of an aborted Japanese distribution deal. Here's a translated version if you're interested: https://web.archive.org/web/20120731044313/http://www.glitte... The 2A03 definitely copies basic functionality ideas from the TMS9918, but it's implemented completely differently, it's not an expanded clone like the Master System VDP.

BTW after the deal with Nintendo fell through, Coleco next tried to get Sega to distribute the Colecovision. This deal also didn't happen, and the next year Sega released the nearly identical SG-1000. Kinda sad that they got screwed over twice.

Well noted, the article is a treasure! They do mention dragging a Donkey Kong with them to Ricoh and that they wanted to surpass everything before and make something that was as capable as their arcade hardware. The scrolling of the 2A03 design was a major advantage. It's very enlightening to see how they were inspired by the Colecovision but wanted to surpass it which they did in many ways.

As much as we like to consider consoles as these closed exclusive tech kind of things, a lot of it was externally designed. With Genesis/Mega Drive, if a TMS9918 gets you most of the way there and it is better than what else is out at that time, then that is good enough.

When the goal is just to put pixels on screen at the pace of the scan line, a TI part will have solved most of the nagging base issues issues and it is easy to build on. No need for a clean room design.

Yes and that would be why Sega used it in the SG-1000. TI was no longer updating the VDP so later it was evolved in the Master System which was then evolved to the Genesis/Mega Drive. So to be clear the Genesis/Mega Drive did not have a TMS9918 inside just something that was similar enough to get a foothold into reverse engineering the actual VDP.

Absolutely, I didn't think it was the TMS9918 but it had a clear lineage from it. Like getting a modern Ryzen processor and realising that old 486 instructions are in there.

If you like this kind of stuff and have some free time (ahem) you owe it to yourself to check out Jeremy Parish’s Video Works series. He also has a few books.

He’s been doing it for over 10 years. The complete history of every game for every console. Including things you’ve likely never heard of. While things aren’t 100% in order he’s currently up to the Genesis around ‘89, before the SNES launched.

You can see the evolution of systems, how different games influenced the ones that followed, it’s just an incredible body of work.

NES? Gameboy? Atari? Microvision? Cassette Vision? Yes. And more.

Absolutely one of my favorite YouTube channels and I’m proud to be a patron.

(It has been 0 days since this comment mentioned Xevious or Heiankyo Alien)

https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyParish

I have recently been working on adding SMS support to my GG emulator, and there a few (very minor) incorrect details, because often reality is a bit more complex, and adding them to an article might obscure the point.

On mappers: this forget about 3rd party (non-sega) mappers like Codemasters' https://www.smspower.org/Development/Mappers

On resolution: the SMS can have a higher than 192 pixels vertical resolution: https://www.smspower.org/Development/Modes ; and some (Codemasters, again) games did use that: https://www.smspower.org/Tags/Extra-Height

On ROMs checksum verification: no need to guess, this is documented depending on the BIOS: https://www.smspower.org/Development/BIOSes

Nevertheless, I loved the comparison with Famicom's hardware design.

Last but not least, don't forget about sverx's devkitSMS for writing SG-1000, SMS or GG software: https://github.com/sverx/devkitSMS

Maybe it is nostalgia speaking, but the SMS had a great sound chip, and some amazing composers.

My absolute favourite song is from Ninja Gaiden "Escape in a forest" (starts at 03:36) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFoA0OICiB4&t=207s

Someone played that song with real instruments, and it's also amazing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arun9KuXImk

Probably a little nostalgia. The SMS sound chip is one of the cheapest and most primitive jellybean sound chip of the era (only 3 square waves, noise and no envelope generator either). That isn’t to say appreciating the art of doing more with less isn’t valid. It’s sort of like a MS Paint type of thing though.

I agree. I had an SMS growing up and always noticed the music sounded "cheaper" than the NES, almost childish. I think it really was just the square waves making everything sound the same. The NES had more interesting output with its triangle and sawtooth wave output and it gave it more edge and character.

It may not have had a sawtooth but it did have the DMC (sample channel) which although very quirky could create a lot of variety - and used melodically to give you, for instance, a sampled bass - or drums - or an orchestral hit!

Ooh yeah, the DMC must've been used in the Super Mario 3 soundtrack. I remember the steel drums (?) in that sounded so good for an 8-bit game.

Yes, that steel pan sound would have been done with the DMC!

The NES' own sound chip didn't have a sawtooth channel, but some games had an onboard sound chip that added one, like Konami's VRC6: https://www.nesdev.org/wiki/VRC6_audio

The Japanese Mark III had an available Yamaha FM expansion kit that could sound pretty great. US-based gamers couldn't listen to the soundtracks at the time, but emulators and whatnot make it possible to experience today.

It was cheap AF but that ends up giving it a specific aesthetic...

My all time favorite is the opening to Alex Kidd in Shinobi World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dx9AAKm6dI

> great sound chip, and some amazing composers.

I understand it as more of the latter than the former.

Hardware might not have been great, but they were dedicated to push it to the extreme limits of what it could do, and all of it was punching way above its weight in all respects.

Japanese companies saw an opening, and extremely brilliant people went in head first, sleeping under their desk to leave their mark in the field.

SMS still manufactered and sold in Brazil. I had the original SMS and think that the Brazilian versions that came afterwards are sooooo good. Really recommend you folks checking it out.

This video show some of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVR6YZAv58Q

Sadly, not anymore - TecToy lost the Sega license a few years ago. In the later years, they were simply rebranding AtGames plug-and-plays with the Atari and Sega licenses; and more recently, they did a half-assed attempt at launching a rebranded Ayn Loki in response to the handheld PC boom[0]. They don't do much in the gaming business anymore, instead focusing in the smart appliances and credit card readers for businesses.

[0] https://www.loja.tectoy.com.br/produto/zeenix-pro-16gb-de-ra...

I was unaware of that. Pity. I remember them very fondly. Thanks for sharing.

Was just a few days ago in a shop in Den Den town in Osaka, where they still sell original Master System, NES and PS1 games, so many memories!

It was my second console after the Atari. It was a huge upgrade and we loved playing on it. The Mega Drive a few years later was my next one. In low income countries like Brazil they apparently still sell them new but licensed by a local manufacturer with another name I believe. It was so popular it still sells 30 years later.

Tectoy. They also kept releasing games way after the ms was dead else where. Oh and they did their own ms port of street fighter 2! https://segaretro.org/Street_Fighter_II%27

There’s quite a few Tectoy ports of Sega games that were Genesis only everywhere else. Including games like Sonic Spinball.

The ironic thing is while Tectoy kept making MS games because it was cheap, those games now go for a small fortune (relatively speaking) in Europe because the were never exported out of Brazil.

Was the Sonic Spinball port much different than the Game Gear version? My understanding is the Game Gear port was by Sega and the two systems are very similar.

You're right: many of TecToy's Brazil-exclusive Master System games were tweaked versions of Game Gear releases. That includes games like Ecco 2, Mortal Kombat 3 and Sonic Blast, but not the aforementioned Street Fighter II which they developed independently.

I think the Master System version of Sonic Spinball came from Sega themselves though. It was sold in Europe as well as Brazil.

I got this console when I was a kid just for Phantasy Star. It's unquestionably the best 8 bit RPG, and the weak sequels disappointed me constantly growing up.

Phantasy Star was the first RPG I played, when I was about 7 years old.

The translation was awful, a lot of the things in the game were cryptic, and I got ultimately got stuck at the Blue Dragon in Casba Cave. Only finished the game when I returned to it years later.

But hell if that game didn't have a lasting impact on me. The absolute sense of wonder o exploring an open world. One of the first things I did when I played was an attempt to walk around a mountain range and being obliterated by a group of spiders. I was utterly amazed when I could travel board a starship and trabel to Motavia. Exploring an entirely new world was mind blowing.

To this day when I have to pick between male and female on an RPG, I typically pick female because Alis Landale became in my mind the prototypical main character. At a time where the heroes I was used to were Rambo and Conan the Barbarian, there was something charming about going against an intergalactic dictator as a girl wieldin a sword and wearing a pink skirt. And I am a guy. Maybe that'd partly why I always get puzzled when people want to see themselves represented in videogames. I don't, I want Alis.

Yeah, I don't care to see myself, I want to see Neika (from Neophyte The Spirit Master) who is my video game spirit animal.

The translation was part of the charm.

I am currently playing Phantasy Star, on a Japanese Master System. Note Phantasy Star supports FM sound. Unlike the Mark III and the export Master System, this console has FM sound and 3d glasses support built in.

I am not playing the original, but a recent re-translation effort[0]. It is amazing for that "generation" of consoles.

0. https://github.com/maxim-zhao/psrp

At least they tried something different/interesting with 3. It might not have felt like a PS game but it was unique I guess. I still think they made up for it with 4 though.

The extebded life on the market is also what made the Master System peculiar. The SMS in mark2 form was still sold in Europe many years after the Megadrive was released and the Famicom/NES had disappeared completely although there were some chinese NES clones I believe available in a more underground market and I believe the SMS market life in Brazil was even longer.

My opinion is more nuanced now and I understand their were some outstanding titles but I remember not understanding at the time as a 8 year old kids how people could buy the NES/Famicom and tolerate its sprites flickering. I was still also playing some older DOS games in monochrome or CGA 4colors alongside the SMD yet they looked better to my eyes than those issues on the NES.

One thing to remember was that (in the USA, at least) the NES came out in 1985, Super Mario 3 came out in 1988, while Commander Keen (generally regarded as one of the first console-quality side scrollers on the PC) didn't come out until 1990-1991, meanwhile the SNES was released in 1991.

The NES was a huge improvement over the previous console, which was basically the Atari 2600, and then you had all the other gaming options like a Colecovision, C64, etc.

After reading this, I just have the Alex Kidd In Miracle World theme going over and over in my head.

Another deep dive is in https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/master-system/

I've got a mostly-written emulator (in Rust). It's very easy to emulate, possibly the best gameplay bang for the emulator coding effort buck aside from NES. My main intent in writing this emulator is getting it running on an RP2350 board, like Adafruit Fruit Jam or Olimex RP2350pc.

It should also be possible to get the next generation (SNES, Genesis) on such hardware, but it's a much tighter fit and more effort.

Interesting article.. would have been easier to read the comparison in tabular format (SG-1000 v Master System v NES or so on).

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