Gooday Gaming Guests - SEGA SG-1000, Mark III & Master Game Boot Process

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

SG-1000 had "My Cards". Master had "SEGA Cards". PC Engine had "HU Cards".

Alright, so I've had some time today. We're going to do some Sega Master for a little bit. So I went to Gemini, my other buddy Flash. I'm going to probably stick with Gemini now. I'm hearing bad things about my sneaker there. I call him Deep Sync. I call him Sneaker. So I went there once, basically the same. So we're going to do Gemini. I'm going to keep Gemini on chat gpt my buddy zippy i knocked it off the prescription subscription rather because i don't need two of them so we'll try gemini for a while so i'm at 2.0 flash so i was asking about the sega master boot process but i want to initially find out about the actual the first there's cards and then there's also

cartridges for the Sega Master you can also put a Sega Master power base adapter on a Sega Genesis you don't need a power adapter for that one just put on the top and then it'll take both and then I also learned what I learned the other day that plays Sega Master Oh Oh, Sega Game Gear has an adapter that you put on a Sega Game Gear to play Sega Master games, the cartridges, not the cards, on a Sega Game Gear

because it would be the system before, so it would be only the 8-bit games, I think. So, when the Sega Master boots up, it does have a BIOS includes CPU has a video display processor. BIOS checks both cartridge slot and card slot for valid game. To do this it communicates the BIOS copies the

game header which is 16 bytes from from each slot for check validation. There's a TMR Sega on the game header. So all these games have headers on them. The BIOS reads that to find specific information before going any further. Region locks and all kinds of stuff like that. If the valid game is found in either slot, the BIOS loads the game into the RAM.

So these would be loaded into the RAM. If no game is found, the system will display an error or load a built-in game. So I have a Sega Master 2 from Europe, PAL version, which plays Alex the Kid as its load game. I've never gotten any other games for it.

I do have that listed if you want that. It's pretty fun. Cards are treated similarly to cartridges in boot process, so both of them are the same. BIOS checks the card slot or the cartridge. The game system supported both ROM cartridges and cards. Cards are generally smaller and cheaper to produce than cartridges but they also had lower storage capacity. I do know that. Sega mod process is relatively two liters councils the buyer okay so what what size difference alright so here's a breakdown

the dimensions gives me in millimeters both it gave me the size I really wanted the what size difference is single construction essentially a single PCB printed circuit board

with a game ROM chip limited capacity smaller size costs less this is the meg size meg size

that's what I wanted now so size increases robust control make size so oh my god alright so let's

what is the card game card library made? What is the game card library made? Sometimes I don't...

Alright, it says, why cards? The idea was to offer a cheaper alternative to cartridges. Seems you're interested in a library of cards released by the... Yeah, that's what I'm interested in. Alright, it says, ultimately cards, the Sega card format did not gain much

traction. Only a small number of games. Around 15 to 20 title games. That were put on cartridges. Ghost House. I had that one time. Teddy Boy. Trans Bot.

Super Tennis. Spy vs Spy. Alex. Kid in Miracle World. Yes. That's the game that was. That's. Is already on my Mega 2. due to limited low production cards were quite rare and collectible legacy while the seg cards former uh were short-lived then because there's

also the cards the hue cards which are similar pc engine has the hu cards which I get those confused that those are not Sega cards there's two different kinds any rare cards any rare cards you're asking about the quite collectible, Transbot shoot'em up is considered one of the

most rarest card releases. Transbot. Let's see if I can see. Now we'll cross-reference eBay here. So Transbot. So yeah. So you gotta remember the Sega cards and then there's

Hue cards. Transbot. Transbot game. Oh, there's one. Transbot. Transbot game. Oh, there's one. $59. That's not too bad. That's actually pretty cheap. Transbot. 1986 Sega Master. And you can also get it on the

SG-1000, which is another Transbot $109 with the cartridge, with the case. PAL version. Transbot. So my Sega Massachusetts does not have a slot for cards. It's just cartridges. Now I can understand why there wasn't that many made. Okay, Spy vs. Spy

let's try that one that's a cartoon I grew up not a cartoon but a yeah a comic book that I grew up on Spy vs. Spy I think it was in a few different video games as well if I remember

not much of a comic book person at all but spy versus spy say master spy versus spy Sega master $49 so same deal no manual good condition uh 30 79 complete spy versus spy they have the cartridge too so the cartridge held more storage can't get jam out of tell me which is my hero's rare other game uh low production online Let's try My Hero. Nothing really overly expensive. So far my best rare game that I would never have imagined is PS4. And it's called Poop Slinger.

Literally poop. It has a pile of poop on it. It was on 84 copies made and it's about $10,000 sealed poop slinger so I haven't come I haven't seen anything even close to that since I uncovered poop slinger I never thought that was like what so that's pretty interesting I don't know the games about but throwing around poop I about but it's pretty funny alright let's try

My Hero same thing 54 bucks nothing special and you can get them in also alright so let's see what the library for

this is how many game cartridges were made. Let's see how many cartridges were made. Fortunately, it's impossible to give the exact number of cartridges that were made. No central database. However, we can gleam into the resources. It says hundreds of titles. There were definitely hundreds of titles. Millions of cartridges.

So, let's get just a game library. Game library. Game library. Game library. Game library. Are you interested in the title trove? 8-bit titles. So, Sega Master had a library of around 300 to

350 unique titles. Okay, that's what I was looking for. I think it thought I wanted how many cartridges made in general so Alex the Kid Golden Axe R-Type RPGs with Fantasy Star

Masters of Darkness that sounds cool Castlevania inspired let's look at that one that would be right up my alley so these were overseas so I never had any of this stuff. So I have had at least one of all these systems.

And there are videos, many videos of me looking at them. I've since sold pretty much all of it. There's kind of like a bin there done that. I just wanted to check it out. Miracle Warriors. Oh, out. Miracle Warriors. Oh yeah, Miracle Warriors. I remember that one. I had that one. Seal

of Darkness. Let's see what else we got here. Hang On. Sports. Super Tennis. Many more. Legacy. So how about Rare? Rare game. Many more. Legacy. So how about Rare? Rare game.

Rare cartridges. Cartridges. Rare cartridges. I look for Rare cartridges. James Buster Douglas. Knockout Boxing. Tori's hard to find. Especially in good condition.

Considered one of the Holy Grails. James Buster Douglas. Considered one of the holy grails. James Buster. Douglas, huh? A boxing one. Interesting. Let's check that one on eBay. I got all my orders done now. So I can go on to do some

other video stuff later on. Let's see. $330. James. Yep. So that's a little up there. $350 with the case and all. $600.

So. $1,300. $3,000. And one of those really sealed up with the rating and all that silly stuff on it. Almost $4,000 there. $5,000 is another silly one like that. Or if it's opened, $3,000.

$3,000. Sega Genesis or Sega CD. Oh, actually, those are Sega Genesis. I don't know if I have one of those. I don't think I do. James Buster Douglas. I'll have to look.

This one says $17. How is that possible? I wonder why. But I think it has to be Sega Master. That's where it's the money. Not the Genesis. Although this guy's got one for Genesis. $1,300.

Interesting. Let's see. Sonic the Hedgehog with US UPC. Common game not very released. The US barcode on the back is surprisingly rare. Strider.

Golden Axe Warrior. A Zelda type game. Cool. Let's see what that one is. I learn things as I'm doing this as well. So things I would have never known unless I did this as a podcast. So I'm learning as I'm podcasting here. 300 bucks.

No, I'm saying $400. $500. Golden Warrior X. Two400. $500. Golden Warrior X. Two something. $300. So that one's real expensive. Dr. Robotics Mean Bean Machine. Scarce in Europe.

Street Fighter. Michael Jackson. Moonwalker. Eco Ties. Unique adventure game. it's hard to come by in Brazil ties of time eco I have that's like you're a dolphin or something alright so let's look at the Sega SG 1000 cartridge boot process. So I believe that would be before

the Sega Master. The Sega SG XG1000. Sega's first home video console. Had relatively simple boot process. Switch on, does not have a separate BIOS, so now we're going backwards here. And game loading, I believe these had cartridges.

I don't think they had cards. So the ROM, no cartridges inserted. Let's see, there was no separate BIOS. Direct cartridge access. Simpler hardware. Cartridges were relatively simple. Legacy boot process. While it was effective in loading games, it reflected early design.

And what was the game library? Library. Library. My L on my new keyboard. My computer doesn't work too well. It's getting better, though, actually.

So if you're interested in the grace of the... There's a breakdown of the library. There were 51 titles. Sega MyCard. So there was a card. Also included a smaller credit size. So there was another card. So that just got me confused.

So there's Sega Master Cards. And then there's Sega MyCards. There were 29 of those. And then the Sega SG-1000. There were 51 games. These are 8-bit. and then the SG-1000 there were 51 games these are 8 bit notable games

Flicky Congo Bongo Sega Gala Girls Garden Space Invaders Regional Differences Sega SG-1000 was primarily released in Japan, with limited release in other regions like Australia and New Zealand.

The library was significantly small, but it was part of the history. If you're interested in exploring the library, I'll provide more. Then there was the rear games of each. Rear games of each. Which would be the Sega cards. Cartridge games. Space Solemn. This is a game that's not very difficult to find.

Something Sherlock Holmes. Space Solemn. Let's see what that one is. Something Sherlock Holmes. Space Squalom. Let's see what that one is. This is really... Let's see what we got here. Space Squalom. Space Squalom. There it is.

Oh, 500 bucks. Yep. So, super rare. Space Squallow. Looks like some sort of asteroids, pretty much. That's Space Swallow. What else did he say? Oh, there's something with Sherlock Holmes here.

What's this adventure game? Hard to find. Loretta? No. Something, something. Hold on. Let's see what that one is. It's taking a long time to load this one.

I can't seem to get that one to load this one. That gets me to get that one to load. So I'm going to do a different one than that. For some reason that's not wanting to do its thing. Let's try it again one more time. Um, no. I'm not seeing it. I'm sure it's out there. So what else have we got here? Champion Pro Wrestling.

Alright, so for the card games, it was Champion Boxing. In my card version, the Black Ornix is the RPG. It's the latest game. It's quite rare on the My card format. So remember, there's the HU card,

which is PC Engine. There's the My card, which was the SG-1000. And then there was the Sega card, which was the Sega Master. Yeah, so there's three different versions. Yeah.

There was only two, but there was three. And then there's the Sega Mark III, which is like the newer version. Oh, it's giving me black. SG-1000. Oh, here we go. So $238. For the MyCard of Black. $300.

$70. Sega MyCard. Championship. $12. Alright. so let's so those are kind of the games that have a skewed title it's really hard to find on my card

were there cartridges made for Mark 3. Which I believe is like the next level. And also the SG1000.

I had a keyboard. Basic programming. So it was an SG 1100. And it also had a cassette. I had all that stuff. It says, were there cartridges made for Mark 3 only? My Y doesn't work too well.

Mark, Sega Mark 3. Great question. Sega Master System. You're essentially asking if there's cartridges specifically for Japanese Sega Mark 3, the predecessor of Sega Master? The answer is yes. Okay, so Mark III was released in 1985,

while the Sega Master system launched in 1986 in North America. Regional differences, technical difference, while Mark III and Switch were very similar, there might have been easily minor technical between the two. Examples of Sega Mach 3

only games. Unfortunately, it's difficult to provide a list. Some early SG-1000 versions since the Mach 3 was backwards compatible, it was backwards compatible. Games were could, it was backwards compatible. Games were canceled or delayed. So it doesn't really answer the question,

but it's the newer version of the SG-1000. It's called the Sega Mach 3. And I would assume it had games in a rare Mach 3 games. any rare mark three games rare mark three games

you're diving in the mark three so it's important to remember that rarity is a subject in flux so shoot em up it's called alesta fantasy zone two So a shoot-em-up is called Alesta. A-L-E-S-T-E. Fantasy Zone 2 is available on Sega Master.

The sequel is initially released on the Mach 3. It's less common. So let's try this one here. So it's kind of... I don't think you can go up from the Mach 3 to... You can't play, but I think you can go backwards. Let's see what this one is. Elasta.

Mark III. Mark III. There it is. A Sega Mark III or Master. $100. Some sort of... Looks like a... Jet game of some kind.

Fantasy Zone. Space Harrier 3D. That was on the... Which we'll call it 2. Alright, so that's kind of some stuff we've gone through the Sega. So now you can remember that there's three different kinds of cards.

Two are from Sega. And then one is from PC Engine. And then the cartridges as well. Alright, so that's my systems for today and then I'll figure out maybe try to get through something for tomorrow. Alright, you guys have a good afternoon. I'll talk to you later.

Bye.