wraggster
May 15th, 2012, 00:21
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2012/05/sg-1000.png (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/stiq-figures-april-30-may-6-sg-1000-edition/)
For most of us who've grown up outside of Asia, Sega's history as a gaming hardware manufacturer begins with the Sega Master System, released on North American shores in June of 1986 to the tune of $200. In truth, the Sega Master System was actually the Sega Mark III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sega_Mark_III.jpg), which itself was the third iteration of Sega's real first foray into hardware design, the SG-1000.
The SG-1000 (an acronym of "Sega Game" 1000) was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥15,000, which at the time amounted to $62.48 USD, assuming anaverage exchange rate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_yen#Historical_exchange_rate) of ¥240.06 to the dollar. (Coincidentally, this was the also the day that Nintendo launched the Famicom.) Armed with a blistering 3.5 MHz CPU and two whole entire kilobytes of RAM, the SG-1000 was only mildly successful in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but curiously saw much greater success in the piracy-infected Taiwanese market.
North America, however, never saw an official SG-1000 release, although theTelegames Personal Arcade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegames_Personal_Arcade) was released stateside and was capable of playing SG-1000 carts, had they somehow managed to make the trip across the Pacific. The SG-1000 Mark II was released a year later in 1984, sporting a redesigned case and identical components (sound familiar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_of_the_Sega_Mega_Drive#Sega_Mega_Drive_ 2)?). Nowadays, Mark I versions of the SG-1000 can go on eBay for as much as $1,500 – a good bit more than the 63 bucks it would have run you back in 1983.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/stiq-figures-april-30-may-6-sg-1000-edition/
For most of us who've grown up outside of Asia, Sega's history as a gaming hardware manufacturer begins with the Sega Master System, released on North American shores in June of 1986 to the tune of $200. In truth, the Sega Master System was actually the Sega Mark III (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sega_Mark_III.jpg), which itself was the third iteration of Sega's real first foray into hardware design, the SG-1000.
The SG-1000 (an acronym of "Sega Game" 1000) was released in Japan on July 15, 1983 for ¥15,000, which at the time amounted to $62.48 USD, assuming anaverage exchange rate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_yen#Historical_exchange_rate) of ¥240.06 to the dollar. (Coincidentally, this was the also the day that Nintendo launched the Famicom.) Armed with a blistering 3.5 MHz CPU and two whole entire kilobytes of RAM, the SG-1000 was only mildly successful in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but curiously saw much greater success in the piracy-infected Taiwanese market.
North America, however, never saw an official SG-1000 release, although theTelegames Personal Arcade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegames_Personal_Arcade) was released stateside and was capable of playing SG-1000 carts, had they somehow managed to make the trip across the Pacific. The SG-1000 Mark II was released a year later in 1984, sporting a redesigned case and identical components (sound familiar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_of_the_Sega_Mega_Drive#Sega_Mega_Drive_ 2)?). Nowadays, Mark I versions of the SG-1000 can go on eBay for as much as $1,500 – a good bit more than the 63 bucks it would have run you back in 1983.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/05/13/stiq-figures-april-30-may-6-sg-1000-edition/