SG-1000 Appreciation Thread

[Jeckidy]

I have never owned an SG-1000 and because of certain nuances with the hardware, may never seek to purchase one, but we have access to it through emulation and now Steam (including the keyboard based games)! My favorite is probably The Castle (which had an inferior sequel on NES called Castle Excellent/Castlequest) with Hustle Chumy being another. I like alot of the simple, arcade-oriented 8-bitters that are very accessible and yet take a bit more time to master than your average iPhone app. Depending on your taste, some may say SEGA's offering for the SG1K was better than 32X, but as for me, I'm undecided. Still, is there anyone else here who has enjoyed the games too?

[NeoZeedeater]

It has a great version of HERO. I wouldn't say it's better than the 2600 classic but it has a distinct look and sound among the ports. Girl's Garden stands as cool, unique game even without the Yuji Naka significance. Flicky, Penguin Land, Gulkave, and Lode Runner are quality, too.

It's a weak console by Sega standards but it had its moments.

[zetastrike]

Is there any difference between the SG-1000 and the Colecovision? Are they mutually compatible?

[KitsuneNight]

i never even knew it was a rebrnaded colecovision
hell pretty much all i know about the thing is what you just told me

so tell me more

[A Black Falcon]

Is there any difference between the SG-1000 and the Colecovision? Are they mutually compatible?

The hardware inside both is nearly the same, but no, they're not mutually compatible -- cartridges are different shapes I believe, and there are a few minor hardware or programming differences too, I think. I know some people have redone Colecovision games to work on SG-1000, so they can't be exactly the same, but on the other hand the Dina 2-in 1 and Telegames Personal Arcade will play both consoles' games (with two cartridge slots), so they are clearly very similar.

[NeoZeedeater]

Colecovision, SG-1000, Creativision, and MSX all have similar looking graphics because that type of Texas Instruments video chip was common back then.

[Greg2600]

It's rumored that Nintendo based the Famicom's graphical style on the Colecovision, after having seen that system in action. I suppose the same for SEGA, although I don't know if either is proven. SG had double the ram as CV, but otherwise nearly identical.

SG-1000 had a lot of nice classic arcade ports and original games.

[goldenband]

The two systems (SG-1000 and CV) are very similar, with basically identical graphics/sound hardware and the same amount of RAM (EDIT: Just saw Greg2600's note about RAM -- I'm pretty sure the SG-1000 was recently shown to only have 1K, despite Wikipedia claims to the contrary.)

Ports from other systems, e.g. the MSX, usually involve some degree of compromise and retooling, but the SG-1000 and CV are so close that a port should be essentially unchanged between systems.

The SG-1000 has a nice little library, though the SMS color palette issue is an annoyance -- the only way to play SG-1000 and get the colors right is with emulation, a Dina 2-in-1, or a Game Gear with a flash cart and special palette pre-loading.

OTOH tons of SG-1000 games have been ported to CV in recent years, which gives US folks a chance to play the games on real hardware with correct colors. I've also translated a couple, i.e. Chack'n Pop (much better than the Famicom version) and Ninja Princess. Those are two of the best titles IMHO, and I'd also recommend The Castle, Penguin Land, and a few others. I played through the English translation of Black Onyx when that game was ported to the CV, but it was kind of a slog.

Many SG-1000 games are simplistic -- some excessively so -- but the library still has an appealingly optimistic spirit, for want of a better word for it.

[Segaedge]

OTOH tons of SG-1000 games have been ported to CV in recent years, which gives US folks a chance to play the games on real hardware with correct colors. I've also translated a couple, i.e. Chack'n Pop (much better than the Famicom version) and Ninja Princess. Those are two of the best titles IMHO, and I'd also recommend The Castle, Penguin Land, and a few others. I played through the English translation of Black Onyx when that game was ported to the CV, but it was kind of a slog.
.

I have a Dina 2-in-one and a CV multicart, where can I find these ported games that you are speaking of sir?.

[Zz Badnusty]

Champion Billiards is a favorite of mine. Choplifter, too.

Calling the SG-1000 a re-branded Colecovision isn't accurate at all, is it?

[goldenband]

I have a Dina 2-in-one and a CV multicart, where can I find these ported games that you are speaking of sir?.

Many of them aren't available as ROMs (only as carts), but a bunch have been posted here (http://atariage.com/forums/topic/220081-team-pixelboy-news-bulletin-december-25th-2013/). Enjoy!

[Kamahl]

Colecovision, Creativision, MSX1, SG-1000, TI-99 and maybe more all used that damn TI VDP. I think the only bigger whore was the AY-3-8910 sound chip, that was used in the Intellivision, Vectrex, MSX, 128k ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Oric 1, Mockingbird add-on for the Apple II, Atari ST and a bunch of obscure stuff.

It's not really surprising considering they were a good VDP and a good sound chip respectively, but it's kind of annoying having similar graphics/sound on so many machines. Part of the coolness of older machines were their individual quirks and unique look/sound.

[Zz Badnusty]

@5233, could you please edit your original post. SG-1000 was not a re-branded Colecovision. We don't need to add confusion and misinformation to the relatively little known history of Sega's first console.

[Jeckidy]

Done ZZ.

BTW, Pop Flamer is another good game for this system.

[KitsuneNight]

I have never owned an SG-1000 and because of certain nuances with the hardware, may never seek to purchase one, but we have access to it through emulation and now Steam (including the keyboard based games)! My favorite is probably The Castle (which had an inferior sequel on NES called Castle Excellent/Castlequest) with Hustle Chumy being another. I like alot of the simple, arcade-oriented 8-bitters that are very accessible and yet take a bit more time to master than your average iPhone app. Depending on your taste, some may say SEGA's offering for the SG1K was better than 32X, but as for me, I'm undecided. Still, is there anyone else here who has enjoyed the games too?


say what ?
since when is this machine on steam ?

[Jeckidy]

I heard some of the games like The Castle were or will be in Steam. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[KitsuneNight]

first i heard off it
so i cant correct you

[HalfBit]

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/10/sega-sg-1000/

This article looks at the games and hardware.

[NeoZeedeater]

Meh, it's a Kohler article. It comes across more as a Nintendo praise piece than anything else.

[Zz Badnusty]

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/10/sega-sg-1000/
This article looks at the games and hardware.
It's terrible how he looks at everything as being in terms of Nintendo.


it had the bad luck to be released in the same month as Nintendo’s world-changing Famicom
I also don't like how the competitive marketing of the SG-1000 against the Famicom is referenced as a matter of "luck." We all know how deliberate console releases are. It's not like the SG-1000 just happened to be released the same month as the Famicom. Luck had nothing to do with it.
It's (falsely?) reported that the SG-1000 was test marketed in 1981, if that is accurate then Sega was sitting on the SG-1000 and pushed it to market to enter with Nintendo. Who knows what the business histories are behind these decisions? But there's a whole lot more to it than just "bad luck." That's lazy journalism, if not simply irresponsible. The actual histories and significance of some of these consoles and games are in danger of being forever distorted by the commercial obsession of Sega vs Nintendo.

[goldenband]

It's reported that the SG-1000 was test marketed in 1981, if that is accurate the Sega was sitting on the SG-1000 and pushed it to market to enter with Nintendo.

Some hardcore SMS folks have looked into it, and so far no one's come up with any solid evidence of a 1981 test market. I think it may be bogus.

[ROM Cartridge]

I was thinking about re-casting the SG-1000 cartridge shells, re-creating original style labels for games that were in Taiwan like Rally-X and such, and maybe (if even remotely possible) re-create the circuit boards, and use EPROMS for game data.

[ROM Cartridge]

13876

[homerhomer]

Never played the real deal but the ract that Hang-On has music where as the Master System doesn't surprised me. Super Cool!

[sqwirral]

I'm not allowed to post a new thread but I have a LIFE OR DEATH (of a console) question:

Can I use a UK Mega Drive 1 power adapter (10V) with an SG-1000?

All the specs match except it's 10V instead of the 9V original. I use it all the time with my Japanese MD, which is also supposed to take 9V, so I think it'll be fine but the SG is rather older and not so cheap to replace so I'd love some warm reassurance before plugging it in.

[update: It worked fine]

[Vector]

Anybody find a work around to get sg1000 falcon game working on genesis, like adding an sd card of chip bios into card (think of mini sd card in big sd card adapter) into the game card to emulate it running so 100% of sg and master games play on genesis.

[goldenband]

The problem isn't the BIOS, but the fact that the Genesis doesn't support the legacy video mode used by the SG-1000. The games will run, they just don't show anything onscreen for that reason.

The only workaround would be to completely rewrite the code from the ground up to run in a different video mode, or (along similar lines) to write a bytecode interpreter of some kind that would intercept every single instruction related to the display and turn it into something the Genesis can handle.

I think that's feasible in principle, but from what little I understand of programming, it'd be a massive undertaking. Who knows if it'd run at full speed, either.