Sega's First Console The SG-1000

[Music] whenever you bring up sega most conversations quickly turn to machines like the master system genesis saturn dreamcast and their libraries rarely do we hear anything about their very first console dsg-1000 originally launched in july of 1983 in japan it was meant to compete directly with nintendo's famicom and begin sega's dominance of the home market along with the sg-1000 sega also released a home computer variant called the sc3000 which ran the same games as well as scholastic programs for things like mathematics physics chemistry and english the names of these devices weren't random as sg-1000 stood for sega game 1000 and 3000 stood for sega computer 3000 sega initially had great success with its foray into the home market forecasting a modest 50 000 units sold by the end of its first year they had actually moved 160 000 units convincing management that they were very much on the right path a year later sega released a modified version of the technology called the sg-1002 despite the new look and improvements nintendo's famicom quickly began outpacing it but sega was invested and confident that they could compete and so began their run as a prominent hardware maker in this episode we will take a look at the sg-1000 talk a bit about its history its games and the part it played and sega's rise as one of the most important game companies of the 1990s i hope you guys enjoy the sg-1000 sega's first console the hardware of the sg-1000 was powered by an 8-bit z80 running at 3.58 megahertz and backed up by video and sound chips made by texas instruments it could display 16 colors and 32 sprites simultaneously like the master system it had a pause button on the machine itself though its controller was a two button joystick that was hardwired into the unit a second controller could be purchased separately and plugged into its own jack on the opposite side despite the hardware looking more powerful on paper than the famicom the sg-1000 could only display two colors per sprite and did not scroll backgrounds very well this gave the impression that it was not nearly as capable the sg-1000 also suffered from sega's belief that it could support its own hardware for maximum profit sega did not want their arcade competitors making games for its new console and taking away sales from their own software this stood in direct contrast to nintendo's massive third-party strategy on making money via licensing only 74 games were released for the sg-1000 the vast majority done by or published by sega themselves when the sg-1002 was released sega sought to bring the platform improvements like detachable controllers that were shaped more like the ones you saw from nintendo though sega only released the sg-1000 line in japan themselves it did get picked up in various other regions like taiwan and new zealand by other companies sega began releasing loads of sg-1000 games quickly and while it couldn't keep that pace up long an impressive number still made their way out in a short amount of time considering most were from sega themselves they came on cartridge format and ranged in size from as small as eight kilobytes to as large as one megabit starjacker was a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up where you are in charge of a fleet of ships you continue to fight as your ships are destroyed and the game ends when you have none left the scrolling here is nasty and makes it very difficult to play it doesn't help that the screen is constantly flooded with enemies that are much faster than you either there's not a lot of variety here and it becomes fatiguing very quickly this was one of the very first games i'd play for the st-1000 and it was not a very good introduction to the platform at all borderline was even worse than starjacker the choppy movement makes the enemies and environment difficult to navigate not that it matters much because i seem to die without explanation a lot anyway i'm the kind of guy that tries not to crap on old games because they are archaic in design but this is simply not fun i can forgive the basic visuals but the overall design fails to be anything noteworthy even for its era i was pretty excited to see congo bongo on the sg-1000 because i played it a bit in the arcade back in the day that proved to be a disappointment because this underwent radical design changes for the weaker hardware it now looks more like an atari 2600 title than the arcade on which it's based it no longer has the isometric view and is a straight up single screen platformer it plays okay i guess but it's simplified to the point of not holding your interest very long the gameplay has a strange momentum to it that feels wrong too not terrible but a far far cry from the arcade i was never a fan of the arcade version of monaco gp the sg1000 version played so similar it never really stood a chance with me the goal is to navigate your car through the race while other vehicles come at you like missiles one hit in your crashed i always got tired of this really fast it's almost like your car has an electromagnet attached to it that draws your competitor straight to you to the hardware's credit this is one of the smoother scrolling games for it and it doesn't look half bad if you like the arcade this one should give you lots to look forward to sega flipper is a pinball game that isn't so bad the ball physics feel unnaturally fast but it plays decent once you adjust most digital pinball games back then were simple as hell and this one is no different it is a great two-player game thanks to the score being kept on the screen for head-to-head play the visuals don't suffer from the dark colors many sg1000 titles do and everything is easy to see and keep up with it lacks depth and variety but considering its age this is a decent game overall sega galaga is a port of the mega popular arcade shoot-em-up i really appreciate the smooth gameplay and closeness to the source material the fluid enemy attacks are fast and challenging there are lots of stages to play and it has a two-player alternating mode to challenge one another score it's old school fun that lacks the same visual pizzazz but still plays just as great load runner is usually a winner on whatever platform gets it and this one is no different collect treasure and get the hell out of the level before the enemies hunt you down there are ladders to climb ropes to traverse and traps to dig to help you out the visuals here are simple but the gameplay is as solid as ever your sprite is fast and moves smoothly as do the enemies all the colors are bright and easy to see as well sega licensed the ip and made this version themselves something that would become a staple of the company for years to come all of you know flicky it's been released on a ton of different hardware including a few of sega's own you star is flicky a small bird trying to save chirps from cats and lizards you round up the little guys and must get them to the exit before you get caught this one plays pretty good overall the screen scrolls better than most games on the platform and it feels very similar to the mega drive release despite a cutback and color and detail its biggest issue is the sprite flicker it suffers when lots of chirps are in the same area it causes everything near you to blink constantly which can be a distraction that doesn't ruin it though and this can be every bit as fun as any other version out there girls garden is the first game yuji naka worked on for sega your job here is to pick 10 flowers in full bloom in order to keep your boyfriend from getting it on with another chick the playfield scrolls both left and right giving you a choice of how to proceed unfortunately there be bears in those fields and one touch means the end of your game you must also be careful of rivers and lakes that you can fall into slowing your progress you have a limited amount of honey to pacify the bears as your only real weapon this could be a fun title if it weren't for the horrendous scrolling it's so incredibly choppy that i grow weary of it pretty quickly some consider it one of the better games for the platform i say it's a cute concept ruined by awful performance most home ports of zaxxon were butchered in the early 1980s but you know i kind of liked it on the old sg-1000 here the scrolling isn't the best but sega slowed down the game to compensate a bit for this making it much more accessible than the arcade in regards to challenge you've got plenty of time to deal with the enemies and obstacles though the scrolling is still rough and hard to tolerate this title was indicative of much of the software for the sg-1000 even when it looked decent and was fun the presentation often held it back from being something truly worth your attention funnily enough this is the only time zakson would appear in its original form for a sega console space invaders is a single screen shoot-em-up where you must repel an alien invasion it's about as simple as video games get and the sg-1000 does an admirable job with it the arcade was nothing impressive to look at so it translates here perfectly like many games for the unit it also keeps the score up for both players making it a great game to challenge your dad or grandpa it's an oldie but goodie sega also released the card catcher device for the sg-1000 later in its life allowing the unit to play much smaller games called my cards this was done in an effort to reduce manufacturing costs once sega had the card catcher on the market they stopped making cartridges almost entirely limited to just 32 kilobytes just under 30 games were released for this format let's go ahead and take a look at some of them now hustle chummy is a nice single screen action game where you navigate your mouse through the sewers to collect food as you get more food chummy slows down making you easier prey as you'd expect there are things down there to kill you or slow you down cats gators and even ninja are hell-bent on your destruction you do have the ability to jump and attack to aid you in your quest shortcuts also help you a bit this was developed by compile and is definitely one of the better games for the sg-1000 much better than their previous effort borderline anyway compile also did the horizontal shoot-em-up goal cave this one showed some real promise with the hardware multiple background layers smooth sprites and lots of stuff on the screen this one is tough too enemies chase you stuff blows up in shrapnel and you are much slower than the weapons being fired at you still compared to many games on the platform this definitely stands out once you get good enough to get powered up a bit this can be quite the solid playthrough bomb jack is another single screen action game that sega license and develop themselves the aim here is to collect the bombs while avoiding the enemies you get a bonus if you collect the bombs in the order that their fuses are lit the arcade version of this was super simple as well and this actually plays really close to that version not the best looking or best concept on the sg-1000 but recommended all the same i was really looking forward to shoplifter on the device i mean this has always been a good game no matter the platform right you still rescue stranded people and try to get them back to your base while tanks and jets attempt to shoot you down the gameplay is really nice here and plays very similar to other versions despite not looking quite as nice if you can get used to the aggressively fast enemies you may be able to get quite a bit of enjoyment out of this one doki doki penguin land is easily one of the better games for the sg-1000 it's essentially a puzzle title where you must guide your egg to your home base drop it too far and it breaks if an enemy gets it it breaks don't be fooled into thinking this simple concept is for kids this game gets really hard really fast it's decent looking too with nice vertical scrolling and enemies you can see easily while there are better looking versions of this one available the gameplay stands up quite well if you want to challenge and enjoy the puzzle genre this is a must-own you guys remember kung fu master well dragon weighing here is very much a game in that same vein you are the hero d-wing out to spread your justice all over the faces of your enemies if they won't take it willingly you'll just punch and kick their ass until they submit to your will yeah you could have all kinds of fun with this one just based on its name alone it doesn't play so bad but suffers from that choppy scrolling that mars so many sg-1000 titles still beat-em-ups are a rare breed back then so i can appreciate what sega was trying to do the arcade hit elevator action showed up on the st-1000 in fine form it's a bit slow and choppy but retains most of what made the original so fun i really wish the door animations were faster and the ai was a bit less aggressive in the beginning but otherwise this is well worth playing hang on 2 was an interesting one because console sprite scaling was pretty rare back then even more so on the sg-1000 while i wouldn't call it impressive sega did what they could given the limited technology the sprites are smooth and the gameplay is responsive it doesn't hold a candle next to the master system version but it did have a dedicated controller called the bike handle 400. i missed the classic music from the series the most i really enjoyed hiro when i first played it originally developed by activision sega brought it to the sg-1000 the first few stages are actually fun but man does it get hard quick at stage five you get to the point where just touching walls is an insta-death and those deaths just keep on coming so often it becomes quite tedious it's a great concept in theory you have to blast walls of dynamite shoot creatures to get them out of your way and deal with areas that are dark and hard to navigate but each new stage introduces almost mandatory deaths because you simply have no clue what's around the corner and you aren't fast enough to avoid it solid design that could have been so much better with a slightly more forgiving progression ninja princess should be well known to the sega faithful it was the basis of the master system version of the ninja a vertically scrolling run and gun this one jumps screen to screen instead of scrolling but is just as fun not one to be kidnapped and rescued the ninja princess is out to kick ass with the best of them this is one of the better titles in this video and one you should play if you ever happen to explore the library i never liked pitfall and i liked pitfall too even less that's a real shame because it looks like the sg-1000 did a solid job with this the animation and sprite movement are smooth and the visuals are colorful i just never cared for the pace and layout of these games however still if you enjoyed pitfall this one should give you more of the same oh man wonder boy was on my short list of things to play for this but man did it let me down choppy scrolling poor gameplay sprites that appear right in front of you the list just goes on and on as to why this is such a poor port of a much better game i mean i understand that this is a conversion from vastly superior hardware but by the time this was released the famicom had games like super mario and in that context no excuse can forgive this piss-poor showing i was really hoping sega would work some programming magic for zoom 909 and i was not disappointed smooth forward scrolling and pseudo-3d shoot-em-up action pairs well with the sg-1000 this was known as buck rogers planet of zoom in american arcades and i'm glad to see sega put some love into this port the single colored sprites are the only real blemish on an otherwise solid presentation playing it today i would have loved to have seen sega bring this to their master system 3d glasses the viewpoint and gameplay would have been perfect for it [Music] while part of me wanted to bring you this video as a positive introduction to sega's history i cannot deny that i am rather unimpressed with the sg-1000 the hardware was weak and reminds me of playing games on my cousin's coleco vision when i was eight years old i wasn't impressed then and even less so today the good news is is that while the famicom would go on to destroy this platform in japan it did well enough in its initial year to give sega enough confidence to stay in the console business in 1985 sega upgraded the technology and called it the sega mark iii or what became known to those of us in the west as the master system since the master system was officially launched in many more regions this is where most of us began our journey with sega and frankly i think we're better off for it while the sg-1000 does have some very playable games the stuff on the master system looks sounds and plays worlds better contrary to popular belief the st-1000 was released in the united states though not by sega in fact not once but twice the first device was in 1986 and known as the dina two-in-one a system that could play both sg-1000 and colecovision games since the two had largely the same technology a second release came from sears in 1988 and was called the telegames personal arcade both of these units sported two nes style controllers as well as a built-in keypad no sg-1000 games were officially released for either one despite the compatibility i suppose the legacy of this device would be far more important to me had i played it as a kid but i honestly had no clue what the hell an sg-1000 was until well after its death visiting these games today i can't help but to compare them to the early stuff on nintendo's famicom and really it falls well short in that showdown i think sega's development and release of the mark 3 shows that even they knew it was a losing comparison i sure am glad it existed though because without it we may never have gotten the greatness that followed i'm sigo lord x thank you guys for watching and i will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 62,654

Keywords: sg-1000, sega, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega genesis, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, 32x, mega cd, genesis, saturn, master system, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, sega sg-1000, sg-1000 ii, sega sg-1000 games

Id: 0lT2CZf6USo

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 02 2021