The Sega SG-1000
Many of you reading this will look at the name of this console and scratch your head. The Sega SG-1000 was their first home console and didn’t come to the US or Europe. It is the precursor to the Master System, but isn’t the same hardware.
The machine was released the exact same day as Nintendo released the original Famicom in Japan, which adds to the Nintendo-Sega console wars as they literally had been rivals since day one. Unlike the Famicom, the machine didn’t find great success, but was enough of a success that Sega would update the machine with the SG-1000 Mark II. This revision would improve the controllers and with detachable game pads compared to the hard wired joystick that came with the original machine.
Later they would release the SG-1000 Mark III, but this was an updated machine, and would be the basis for the Sega Master System that would release in the west. As such this means that the SG-1000 Mark III can be considered a separate console to the first two which are similar in the same way that the later Master System and Master System II were.
Considering that Sega released both the Mark I and Mark II in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and then the upgraded Mark III in 1985, it’s fair to say that the SG-1000 didn’t have a long lifespan, or many games during this time.
For collectors you can get games such as Space Invaders, Wonder Boy, and Hang on II on the classic console.
