Sega Master System

The Sega Master System (SMS) is a third generation 8-bit home video game console released by Sega in 1985. It was the successor to the Sega SG-1000 and was initially released in Japan as the Sega Mark III. Sega later released the Master System in other parts of the world, including North America, Europe, and Brazil. The Master System is powered by a Zilog Z80 3.58MHz processor, with 64KB of RAM, and 32KB of RAM for video. It has a custom graphics processing unit (GPU) created by Sega, which can display 32 colors from a palette of 64, and is capable of displaying tiles, sprites and scrolling backgrounds. The console also has a 3-channel mono sound chip. The Master System had a wide library of games, with more than 350 titles released in Japan, Europe and North America. Popular titles included Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Phantasy Star, Out Run and Sonic the Hedgehog. The Master System was later followed by the Sega Mega Drive in 1988, which was released in North America as the Sega Genesis. The Master System was discontinued in 1996.