The Sega Master System/Sega Mark III (SMS)

In 1985, Sega introduced the Mark III in Japan as the 3rd and significantly improved version of the SG-1000. From 1986 on, it was sold as the Master System, both internationally and in Japan. The international version had a different cartridge slot (making carts incompatible with the Japanese version) and lacked the FM sound chip of the Japanese SMS. The SMS did not sell very well in Japan and the US, where the NES/Famicom had a huge market share. It was moderately successful in Europe and did very well in Australia and Brazil. When its successor, the Mega Drive/Genesis, promised more success, the SMS was replaced by the simpler and cheaper SMS II and soon discontinued in Japan and the US. In Brazil, Tec Toy marketed the SMS (including new hardware versions) until the late 1990s.

System Configuration

You need a System ROM for the SMS to work; the Mark III does not need one.
Market: Choose between domestic (i.e. Japanese) and export. The Japanese version differs from the export in in some technical details and is compatible with SG-1000 programs. Moreover, an FM sound chip was available only for Japanese models.
Model: The two domestic versions are the original Mark III and the (Japanese) SMS. The latter has a built-in FM module and a rapid-fire unit. Two different export machines are available, the original SMS and the SMS II (which came without a card slot).
TV System: There are NTSC (Japan, North America) and PAL (Europe, Brazil, Australia) versions.
VDP: After a while, Sega replaced the original (somewhat buggy) Video Display Processor (VDP) by an updated version. Some newer (mostly European) games require the second version, the Japanese version of Ys only works on the old VDP.
3D Glasses: Activating this option automatically enables 3D mode (configure it in the "options" menu).
FM Unit: Provides much better sound in the games that support it; only available for the Japanese models.
Cartridge, Card: ROMs bigger than 64 kB require a memory mapper. This mapper can be chosen separately for the cartridge and the card (where applicable). The options are: standard Sega, Codemasters, and Korean (only used by a few games).

Emulation

The following input devices are available: The standard Control Pad and Control Stick (they are basically the same), the Sports Pad (a trackball; both Mark III and SMS protocol), the Light Phaser, and a paddle (both domestic and export version). The paddle was only released in Japan, but a few export games also support it.
The 3D glasses available both in Japan and abroad are emulated; use standard anaglyph glasses (e.g. red/cyan or red/green) for the 3D effect.

Limitations: The emulation is quite complete. The non-standard SG-1000 memory mappers are not implemented on the Japanese consoles (which means that some SG-1000 games won't work on the Mk III, although they would in real life).

Accuracy: Generally very high compatibility. All ROMs seem to work well (minor glitches only in the Brazilian game Earthworm Jim).

ROM Database

There are about 1,500 entries in the combined Master System/GameGear database. The information should be quite complete and accurate.

Links

The best source of information on the Sega 8-bit systems is:

SMS Power!

Here are some alternative emulators:

	MEKA
	Kega
	Gens Plus
	FreezeSMS
	MESS