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History
The story of the SG-1000 II does not begin in Japan, or even in video games.. In 1940, three American businessmen, Martin Bromley, Irving Bromberg and James Humpert, formed a company called Standard Games in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their business was simple: place coin-operated amusement machines, mostly slot machines and jukeboxes, on the military bases that were filling up with American servicemen. After the war, the partners wound down Standard Games and set up a new company named Service Games, a name that nodded to its military clientele.
The company soon moved its operations to Japan, and in May 1952 “Service Games of Japan” was registered. It is from this name that Sega takes its own: SErvice GAmes. The early years were not smooth. Service Games ran into trouble with authorities over alleged bribery and tax evasion, and between 1959 and 1960 it was banned from US air bases in Japan and the Philippines, which were its main customers. On May 31, 1960, Service Games of Japan was formally dissolved. A few days later, on June 3, 1960, a successor company called Nihon Goraku Bussan (“Japan Entertainment Products”) was founded, and it took over the assets of its predecessor.
Meanwhile, a second American in Tokyo was building a very different business. In 1954, David Rosen moved to Japan and founded Rosen Enterprises, originally to export Japanese art. When Rosen imported coin-operated instant photo booths, they became a surprise hit with the Japanese public, and the company expanded into importing coin-operated electro-mechanical games. In 1965, Nihon Goraku Bussan acquired Rosen Enterprises, and the merged company became Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Rosen took the lead of the new company. A year later, Sega released Periscope, a submarine-simulation game that became a worldwide arcade hit.
In 1969, Sega was sold to the American conglomerate Gulf+Western, although Rosen stayed on as head of the Sega division. In 1974, Gulf+Western made Sega a subsidiary of a newly created American company, Sega Enterprises, Inc. In 1979, Sega acquired Esco Boueki (Esco Trading), an arcade distribution company founded and owned by a Japanese businessman named Hayao Nakayama. That acquisition would prove to be one of the most important of the company’s history, because Nakayama would soon become its leader.
By the early 1980s, Sega was one of the five largest arcade game manufacturers in the United States, with revenues of $214 million. Then the arcade market began to decline in 1982. Nakayama, by then president of the Japanese company, Sega Enterprises, Ltd., argued that Sega should use its hardware experience to enter the Japanese home console market, which was still very young.
The result was the SG-1000, released on July 15, 1983, together with the SC-3000 computer. By a famous coincidence, Nintendo launched its Family Computer (Famicom) on the very same day. The SG-1000’s three launch games were conversions of Sega arcade titles and could not compete with the fame of the Famicom’s Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Popeye. Even so, the SG-1000 sold 160,000 units in its first year, more than three times what Sega expected.
Meanwhile, Sega’s American owner was changing direction. After the death of its founder, Charles Bluhdorn, in 1983, Gulf+Western decided to sell the businesses that were not part of its main activities. In September 1983, it sold Sega’s North American arcade manufacturing business and the rights to its arcade games to Bally Manufacturing. In 1984, Hayao Nakayama and former Sega CEO David Rosen bought the Japanese subsidiary, with financial support from CSK Corporation, a major Japanese software company. Nakayama became CEO of the new Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Soon after the buyout, Sega decided to release an improved version of its console: the SG-1000 II.
Release
Sega released the SG-1000 II on July 31, 1984, at the same price as the first model, ¥15,000. The changes were mostly about design and comfort rather than power, since the hardware inside was the same.
The most visible change was the controllers. The SG-1000 had a joystick wired directly to the console, which kept costs down but made it hard to replace when it broke. The SG-1000 II came with two detachable SJ-150 controllers that plugged in, like those of the Famicom . They could be used as a joypad, or as a small joystick by screwing a stick onto the direction pad. When not in use, they could be stored in slots on the sides of the console, another idea inspired by the Famicom . Early SJ-150 pads were criticised for unresponsive directional buttons. Near the end of the console’s life, Sega released an improved SJ-151 pad with plastic buttons, which was bundled with some consoles.
The console itself was thinner and was restyled to match the SK-1100 keyboard. Sega advertised it with the slogan “connect it and it becomes a home computer.” The SG-1000 II also fixed several problems of the first model: a weak cartridge slot, some Sega My Card titles that did not run properly, and a power problem on the controller port. Sega also hired the popular comedy duo Tunnels (Tunnels/とんねるず) to promote the console on television.
The SG-1000 II arrived at the same time as the Sega My Card, a credit-card-sized game format that was cheaper than cartridges. It was played through the C-1000 Card Catcher adapter.
Over its life, Sega revised the internal design several times. The last versions combined the video and sound chips into a single Sega custom chip (the 315 series).
Demise
Even with a good game library, the SG-1000 II could not compete with the more powerful Famicom . Sega understood that a cosmetic update was not enough to become a real rival to Nintendo, and that it needed much better hardware. With this in mind, Sega began developing its next console, the Mark III, released in Japan on October 20, 1985. It later became the Master System around the world. The SG-1000 II was discontinued the same month. The Mark III was fully compatible with SG-1000 games, so owners did not lose their library.
Games
All the games released for the SG-1000 are also compatible with the SG-1000 II. See the SG-1000 games section for more information.
Technical Specifications
- CPU: Zilog Z80A at 3.58 MHz
- RAM: 1 KB
- Video RAM: 16 KB
- Video processor: Texas Instruments TMS9918A (later units: Sega 315-series custom chip combining video and sound)
- Resolution: 256 × 192 pixels
- Colours: 15 (plus transparent)
- Sprites: 32 (single colour)
- Sound: Texas Instruments SN76489 (3 tone channels + 1 noise channel)
- Media: ROM cartridges; Sega My Card with the C-1000 Card Catcher
- Controllers: 2 detachable SJ-150 joypads (later SJ-151)
- Ports: 2 controller ports, 1 cartridge slot, 1 expansion slot (for the SK-1100 keyboard)
- Other: Pause button on the console; RF output