SEGA Master System: A Visual Compendium

by Bitmap Books (Writer), Steve Jarratt, Damien McFerran (Writer)

The Master System was originally released as the SEGA Mark III in Japan in 1985, and was a direct competitor to Nintendo's Famicom home console. The library of games on the Master System is modest in volume, but packed full of quality and home to some of video gaming's most iconic franchises, such as Alex Kidd, Fantasy Zone, Shinobi and Phantasy Star. SEGA® Master a visual compendium pays tribute to the amazing pixel art, product design and graphic design associated with this iconic 8-bit system. The book is officially licensed by SEGA and is the first book of this kind to be released for the Master System. As the name suggests, the visuals are the main focus, with 200-word soundbites of text accompanying each single game spread. Overall, the book contains around 200 games. Within SEGA® Master a visual compendium is also a series of larger features and interviews with developers and artists, ensuring a great mix of visuals and words in total, the book contains around 60,000 words. The foreword is written by Mark Cerny (Sony) and there are interviews with Mutsuhiro Fujii, Takashi Shoji, Steve Hanawa, Rieko Kodama, plus others.

Genres: Video Games, Gaming, Art

432 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2019

Reviews

[Lucy Batson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very pretty, well-produced coffee table book about the Sega Master System, and the games produced for it. Somewhat interesting if you're curious about the system or have fond memories of it, with two strikes, one major and one minor:

- Apart from some interviews and essays, the info here is fairly shallow and mostly conveyed with pictures.

- The book comes with 3-D glasses and the pictures for the games released in 3-D are in that format which works...not even a little bit. I can only imagine that it came back from the printers and the publishers were all "yeah, this is not working as we hoped."

[Lewis Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid little read with great presentation and some decent “behind-the-scenes” stories that become the real highlight. A personal fave comes from the director of Tectoy who recounts Ayrton Senna’s enthusiasm for Super Monaco GP 2. Unfortunately, not every game entry is given the developer insight, and some of the guest reviews are a bit dull to read. In some cases they also miss key information, like Zillion which includes no mention of its connection to the light phaser, which appears in the anime as well. These are minor quibbles though, and the overall package is a good one, especially if you have any nostalgia for the system itself.

[John Sauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

The authors did a fantastic job of covering the history of the Sega Master system from all angles from game development to marketing to the tension between Sega of Amerca, Sega of Japan and Tonka. I was fortunate to be included in the book and share some of my history in the launch of the SMS. It is people like these that help keep such important parts of video game history alive for all generations. Well done!