Zez Retro | The genuine Sega Master System made for the USSR @ZezRetro | Uploaded March 2021 | Updated October 2024, 6 hours ago.
In 1990, the previously closed off market of the Soviet Union was opening up. McDonald's and Pizza Hut had brought a taste of captialism to the communist nation early in the year and became a global symbol of Gorbachev's economic reforms.
Later in the year, Sega would have a try at the Soviet market, producing an official, first party variant of the Master System 1 specifically to work with the USSR's TV standard (SECAM RF). To do this, Sega had to make an entirely new PCB revision which isn't used in any other console.
This isn't a knock off or a Dendy clone, this is Sega themselves trying their hand at bringing video games to a market of nearly 300 million Soviet citizens. Except basically regular people couldn't buy it and even if you were connected enough to be allowed to buy it, the vast majority of people couldn't afford anything near the cost of this.
I stumbled across one of these units several years ago in a second hand store in Riga, Latvia. There is not much information out there about these SECAM RF only Master System 1 units and I wanted to document as much as I could.
Let me know in the comments which online resources for the Master System I can update with information about this little known system.
In 1990, the previously closed off market of the Soviet Union was opening up. McDonald's and Pizza Hut had brought a taste of captialism to the communist nation early in the year and became a global symbol of Gorbachev's economic reforms.
Later in the year, Sega would have a try at the Soviet market, producing an official, first party variant of the Master System 1 specifically to work with the USSR's TV standard (SECAM RF). To do this, Sega had to make an entirely new PCB revision which isn't used in any other console.
This isn't a knock off or a Dendy clone, this is Sega themselves trying their hand at bringing video games to a market of nearly 300 million Soviet citizens. Except basically regular people couldn't buy it and even if you were connected enough to be allowed to buy it, the vast majority of people couldn't afford anything near the cost of this.
I stumbled across one of these units several years ago in a second hand store in Riga, Latvia. There is not much information out there about these SECAM RF only Master System 1 units and I wanted to document as much as I could.
Let me know in the comments which online resources for the Master System I can update with information about this little known system.
