Sega's answer to the NES: a sharper 8-bit machine built around the Zilog Z80, with more colours and a video chip descended from the Texas Instruments line. It outsold the NES in Europe and Brazil even as it lost the US, and its silicon carried straight over into the Game Gear handheld.
The Four Natures
each piece emerges by one of four natures
The Idea
the three-beat story
Where Nintendo used a 6502 derivative, Sega reached for the Zilog Z80 — the era's other great 8-bit processor, already proven in arcades and home computers. It clocks near 3.58 MHz and runs the whole show.
The Video Display Processor descends from the TI TMS9918 but adds more colours (32 on screen from 64) and a 256×192 mode. Backgrounds and sprites are tile-based, like the NES, but with a richer palette.
Early games shipped on slim Sega Cards as well as cartridges, and a 3-D glasses accessory drove stereoscopic titles. The same architecture, shrunk, became the Game Gear.
The Teardown — Click a Block
the machine, laid out as a block diagram — the main processor on top, the rest of the silicon beneath, buses showing what talks to what. Click any block to read its spec. An accurate architecture diagram (a teardown illustration, not a schematic).
The Spec Sheet
the headline numbers — the spec edition
8-bit · ~3.58 MHz (NTSC).
256×192 · 32 colours on screen from 64 · tile + sprite.
3 square + 1 noise channel.
plus cartridge ROM.
Card slot for slim titles.
The Reckoning
the teardown, and the honesty about it
The Domain: Open It and Spec It
the teardown
- EXEREÚNESIS takes a real, made machine apart down to the chip and writes the honest spec — not a story-world but a technical anatomy.
- >One of a growing series of console teardowns; siblings link from the marquee.
Two-Layer Honest
datasheet vs lore
- Settled: the Z80 CPU, the TMS9918-lineage VDP, the SN76489 sound, and the memory figures are documented.
- Flagged: regional sales claims ('beat the NES') are true only in certain markets (Europe, Brazil) — stated with that qualifier, not as a global win.
Render, Not Invent
sourced
- Summarized from the public technical record for the SEGA MASTER SYSTEM; the manufacturer and its engineers are cited, not minted.
- No ROMs, BIOS, or copyrighted code are reproduced. Emergents are physical components; the block diagram is an illustration, not a schematic.
The Roster
every chip and part as an ACI .agent — each a birth certificate & a nature (7)
