SG-1000



The SG-1000, an acronym for Sega Game 1000, also known as Sega 1000 in New Zealand, is a home video game console developed released by Sega in Japan in July 15, 1983, the same day the Nintendo Famicom came out. It is Sega's first-ever console they released, which also served as a base console for the Sega Mark III, later called Master System.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It has a decent library of 80 games, considering it's the first console of a brand. And since there aren't many licensed SG-1000 games ever published, there aren't practically any bad games on this console.
 * 2) *Many games have visually appealing graphics with awesome-looking colors and fonts, due to almost every licensed game being made by only a few developers.
 * 3) Some games are stored in Sega Cards (or MyCards in Japan) to reduce production costs (With the downside of having less storage than cartridges). However, to play Sega Card games on a SG-1000, you need to buy an add-on called the Card Catcher, which luckily only costed ¥1,000 (equivalent to about US$9,70).
 * 4) Sega also ported their arcade games like Monaco GP to that console, allowing players to play them at home. The gameplay and graphics are still impressive despite being dithered down due to the console's hardware.
 * 5) There are many exclusive games for it too, rightly defeating the claims that the SG-1000 was a pointless console due all because of the rise of the NES.
 * 6) Its launch price was ¥15,000, which is about US$140, making it cheaper than the NES which costed US$180.
 * 7) The console would also get released in other regions before the NES, however not in many of them.
 * 8) Sega also shoved it into a computer called the SC-3000 (Sega Computer 3000), and it outsold the original SG-1000 model.
 * 9) *The number of games exclusive to SC-3000 library can also be expanded with his floppy disk add-on, the Super Control Station SF-7000.
 * 10) You could literally upgrade an SG-1000 to an SC-3000 by plugging a Sega Keyboard (SK-1100) to it. While it's a cheaper option than buying the SC-3000, it's incompatible with some softwares.
 * 11) The famous "SEEEEGAAAAAAA!!!" choir in the commercials, which would later appear in the classic Sonic trilogy.
 * 12) Some of his controllers is also compatible with the both Master System and Genesis and vice-versa.
 * 13) The SG-1000 had an digital drawing tablet accessory, which comes plugged in its own cartridge software dubbed Terebi Oekaki (en: TV Draw) released in October 1985. It comes with its own digital pen as well. While the Famicom had an equivalent accessory called Oeka Kids from Bandai, such tablet was released five years later and was only compatible with two Anpanman games.
 * 14) Official clones of the system was released by other companies such the Othello Multivision from Tsukuda Original and the SD-G5 module by Pioneer for use in their SEED televisions. The Othello Multivision included the SG-1000 version of Othello as their built-in game and took advantage of an built-in Othello keyboard to play.
 * 15) While not an official market from Sega, SG-1000 games enjoyed an great popularity in Taiwan, thanks to the distributor Aaronix releasing the SG-1000 II and Sega Mark III in the country and unofficial clones such as Chuang Zao Zhe 50 & Fullwis Video Game FR-II. It was proved popular enough to have unofficial conversions of MSX1 games that could run with an 8KB RAM adapter.
 * 16) *Fan-made conversions of MSX1 games and even ColecoVision games to SG-1000/SC-3000 exists as well.
 * 17) All games can be played on a Sega Mark III or Asian Master Systems that can run Japanese cartridges through backwards compatibility.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The console flopped due to the rise of the NES which had even better hardware and sounds, causing the SG-1000 to get overshadowed by it. This also furthered the reduction of third-party support for the console. Because of that, Sega ditched the console for the Sega Mark III, which has a much better hardware that surpasses the NES graphical capabilities.
 * 2) The pause button is located on the console, which is inconvenient as you need to move into the console to press it instead of just doing it on the controller.
 * 3) Much like the Famicom, the controller for the first player is attached directly to the first SG-1000 model itself. To remove it, there is no way other than opening the system and removing the connector from the PCB itself.
 * 4) *Sega tried to fix this measure by selling an Extension Cable Kit, which allowed SG-1000 games to be playable with other controllers (including the Master System and Genesis ones) once the cable is attached into the system.
 * 5) Also on controllers, the controller ports of SG-1000 II are located at the back of the system.
 * 6) No perfect way to plug it in a TV other than RF input, which is inferior quality nowadays and can suffered from interference, causing noises. While the SC-3000 had an RGB connector for Japanese CRT monitors as well, this does not applies to the SG-1000 and SG-1000 II models. And much like other consoles such as the Famicom, RF channels in Japan works in a different frequency than the rest of the world, forcing the user to turn their TV in CATV mode and play on channels 90 through 99 depending of the region or modding the console to use RGB/Composite instead if possible.
 * 7) Some of the accessories are too costly even for the standards back in 1983. Just for example, Sega themselves put an MSRP of 79,800円 (roughly US$695) on SF-7000.

Trivia

 * Early models of the SG-1000 were dubbed "Black stripe" or "German model" (shown above), as they are recognizable with a black stripe under red and yellow stripes.
 * Hideki Sato preferred My Cards over cartridges, as when inserted they looked like "little black tombstones".

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