The Master System which was renamed with a redesigned casing from original Sega Mark III, which had been released in the Japanese market in 1985—is a video game console released by Sega in the North American market in September 1986 to compete with the Nintendo Entertainment System, which had been released in the same market in February 1986 (an earlier test market for NES in New York occurred in October 1985). Originally priced at US$200, North American distribution rights for the console were acquired by Tonka before Sega re-acquired the rights themselves and released a further streamlined redesign of the console during the launch of the Sega Genesis. The Master System was later released in Europe in August 1987, in South Korea in April 1989 and in Brazil in September 1989 where distribution rights were given to Tectoy. A re-release of the console in the Japanese market under the new Master System brand and redesign also occurred in 1987.
There are 315[a] game titles for the Master System. 18 were released exclusively in Japan, 4 were released exclusively in North America, 158 were released exclusively in PAL regions and 22 were released exclusively in Brazil.
The Lion King this week arrives as a video game release, amidst a flurry of advertising and just a month after the film went on general release. Sega versions surface first, tomorrow, with the SNES cart out a week later on November 11.
On November 23 Sega will be releasing their trio of Sonic titles. Sonic Three on One Day, as it will now be known sees the worldwide release of Sonic CD (Mega CD), Sonic Spinball (Mega Drive) and Sonic Chaos on Master System and Game Gear.