Forums

Oops I think we missed something:
"The Mark III was released in Japan on October 20, 1985"

HAPPY BIRTHHHDAY

Waaah? The NES (US) anniversary stuff on 18th October was way overblown and nobody, not even Bock, remembered the poor old Mark III! So, what was the SMS release date (US, Japan, Europe)? We'll start planning...

US release was somewhere between June and October '86. I've never been able to find any semi-precise date unfortunately.

Raccoon Lad wrote

US release was somewhere between June and October '86. I've never been able to find any semi-precise date unfortunately.

Just celebrate throughout 2006...

I can find any number of websites telling me the US release was in June 2006, but not one that dares suggest an actual date. I'm suspicious how many of them copied the date from each other, though, and there's a huge amount of spam sites copying the Wikipedia article to get better Google rankings. The first Saturday in June 1986 was 7th, which seems like as good an arbitrary date as any to choose, and happens to be a Wednesday next year.

In the UK, Mastertronic (before becoming Virgin Mastertronic and later becoming Sega Europe) "in early 1987 spotted that Sega had no UK distributor for the Master System range [and] obtained the franchise for one year". The article implies that they started in France and Germany later (although it seems that "Ariolasoft" might have been in Germany first, or may have been Mastertronic's partner there). An article I previously linked from Your Sinclair dated September 1987 (so probably written in July) described the SMS as "been due to come out in this country for as long as anyone can remember", suggesting it came out in the second half of 1987 in the UK.

Google Groups doesn't help much, there is literally one post about the SMS before 1989's Genesis release and that's a For Sale. Let's just assume that 1987's Unix geek MUD players either couldn't handle the SMS, of if they could then they were too busy playing to post on the newsgroups.

what about magazines??
I know here in the US Gamepro was huge around that time frame. Maybe we could try send an email to one of those guys. they may some information that could help us out. I would like to think a magazine company would have some sort of archival method for their stuff.

Heres a quote from the news page of UK Computer + Video Games August 1987 magazine:

"Five major retail chains are now selling the Mastertronic distributed Sega games console. They are Kids Store, Fine Fare, Carrefour and Gateway. Woolworths is also selling the machine in selected stores. The basic Sega kit sells for £99.95. Games are available on card and cartridge at £14.95, £19.95 and £24.95."

According to http://home.swipnet.se/~w-33411/1988.txt, the Master System hade been for sale in Sweden since 1987, costing 1 395 crowns, one hundred less than the NES which had been on sale since 1986.

There are magazine collectors who will have, say, every issue of magazine X from 1985 to 1988 who could do some sleuthing. However, magazines are notoriously unreliable, mainly because the cover "month" is anything from 2 to 8 weeks ahead of the publishing date, the content would have been written up to five weeks prior to that, and as a result a lot of magazines would include information about things that hadn't happened yet when they were written. Also, journalistic integrity was/is not great in games magazines.

I'm inclined to think that maybe they just didn't bother "launching" so much as just sending stuff to the shops as it became available, hence the desciption of the consoles only being in a few chains (none of the names of which, except Woolworths, seem familiar).

I did some digging in old Magazines, and found an old SMS ad on the back of Svenska Hemdatornytt, issue 4/88. It's made by Dennis Bergström Elektronik AB, who apparently handled Sega's consoles before the big toy company Brio (or rather their subsidiary Playmix) got hold of the rights, which they kept all the way until the Dreamcast's demise.

SHN4-88_Sega.jpg (228.99 KB)

The earliest ROM date that I have is 8639 which is the week of 15/9/86 - 21/9/86
This is hardly conclusive though.

I checked though my Sega Cards and the earliest ROM date there is My Hero with 8637 which is 2 weeks eariler, ie 1/9/86 - 7/9/86. Can anyone find an earlier date?

My F-16 Fighter card has a copyright of 1985, though.

The C&VG scans in the other thread seemed to suggest that the UK launch was August '87, though it had been available before in Germany, possibly as early as December '86.

Author	Message
Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8652 Location: Paris, France	Sega Mark III 20th Anniversary (1985/10/20) Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:15 am
	Oops I think we missed something: "The Mark III was released in Japan on October 20, 1985" HAPPY BIRTHHHDAY

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:59 am
	Waaah? The NES (US) anniversary stuff on 18th October was way overblown and nobody, not even Bock, remembered the poor old Mark III! So, what was the SMS release date (US, Japan, Europe)? We'll start planning...

Raccoon Lad Joined: 16 Dec 2004 Posts: 495 Location: El Cerrito, CA	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:55 pm
	US release was somewhere between June and October '86. I've never been able to find any semi-precise date unfortunately.

CRV Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 668	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:08 pm
CRV Joined: 02 Jan 2005 Posts: 668	Raccoon Lad wrote US release was somewhere between June and October '86. I've never been able to find any semi-precise date unfortunately. Just celebrate throughout 2006...

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:58 pm
	I can find any number of websites telling me the US release was in June 2006, but not one that dares suggest an actual date. I'm suspicious how many of them copied the date from each other, though, and there's a huge amount of spam sites copying the Wikipedia article to get better Google rankings. The first Saturday in June 1986 was 7th, which seems like as good an arbitrary date as any to choose, and happens to be a Wednesday next year. In the UK, Mastertronic (before becoming Virgin Mastertronic and later becoming Sega Europe) "in early 1987 spotted that Sega had no UK distributor for the Master System range [and] obtained the franchise for one year". The article implies that they started in France and Germany later (although it seems that "Ariolasoft" might have been in Germany first, or may have been Mastertronic's partner there). An article I previously linked from Your Sinclair dated September 1987 (so probably written in July) described the SMS as "been due to come out in this country for as long as anyone can remember", suggesting it came out in the second half of 1987 in the UK. Google Groups doesn't help much, there is literally one post about the SMS before 1989's Genesis release and that's a For Sale. Let's just assume that 1987's Unix geek MUD players either couldn't handle the SMS, of if they could then they were too busy playing to post on the newsgroups.

Youltar Site Admin Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 306 Location: Wisconsin, U.S.A.	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:03 pm
	what about magazines?? I know here in the US Gamepro was huge around that time frame. Maybe we could try send an email to one of those guys. they may some information that could help us out. I would like to think a magazine company would have some sort of archival method for their stuff.

playgeneration Guest	Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 10:53 pm
playgeneration Guest	Heres a quote from the news page of UK Computer + Video Games August 1987 magazine: "Five major retail chains are now selling the Mastertronic distributed Sega games console. They are Kids Store, Fine Fare, Carrefour and Gateway. Woolworths is also selling the machine in selected stores. The basic Sega kit sells for £99.95. Games are available on card and cartridge at £14.95, £19.95 and £24.95."

idrougge Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 360 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:12 pm
	According to http://home.swipnet.se/~w-33411/1988.txt, the Master System hade been for sale in Sweden since 1987, costing 1 395 crowns, one hundred less than the NES which had been on sale since 1986.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14745 Location: London	Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:58 pm
	There are magazine collectors who will have, say, every issue of magazine X from 1985 to 1988 who could do some sleuthing. However, magazines are notoriously unreliable, mainly because the cover "month" is anything from 2 to 8 weeks ahead of the publishing date, the content would have been written up to five weeks prior to that, and as a result a lot of magazines would include information about things that hadn't happened yet when they were written. Also, journalistic integrity was/is not great in games magazines. I'm inclined to think that maybe they just didn't bother "launching" so much as just sending stuff to the shops as it became available, hence the desciption of the consoles only being in a few chains (none of the names of which, except Woolworths, seem familiar).

idrougge Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Posts: 360 Location: Stockholm, Sweden	Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 11:39 pm
	I did some digging in old Magazines, and found an old SMS ad on the back of Svenska Hemdatornytt, issue 4/88. It's made by Dennis Bergström Elektronik AB, who apparently handled Sega's consoles before the big toy company Brio (or rather their subsidiary Playmix) got hold of the rights, which they kept all the way until the Dreamcast's demise. SHN4-88_Sega.jpg (228.99 KB)

MadMikeAU Joined: 21 Nov 2005 Posts: 150 Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia	Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 4:01 am
	The earliest ROM date that I have is 8639 which is the week of 15/9/86 - 21/9/86 This is hardly conclusive though. I checked though my Sega Cards and the earliest ROM date there is My Hero with 8637 which is 2 weeks eariler, ie 1/9/86 - 7/9/86. Can anyone find an earlier date? My F-16 Fighter card has a copyright of 1985, though.

anagrama Joined: 11 Dec 2004 Posts: 354 Location: Newcastle, UK	Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 11:10 pm
	The C&VG scans in the other thread seemed to suggest that the UK launch was August '87, though it had been available before in Germany, possibly as early as December '86.

Forums

View topic - Sega Mark III 20th Anniversary (1985/10/20)