180-767: The Master System is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega . It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III , the third iteration of the SG-1000 series of consoles, which was released in Japan in 1985 with graphical capabilities improved over its predecessors. The Master System launched in North America in 1986, followed by Europe in 1987, and then in Brazil and Korea in 1989. A Japanese version of
360-601: A light gun and 3D glasses that work with specially designed games. The later Master System II redesign removed the card slot, turning it into a strictly cartridge-only system, and is incompatible with the 3D glasses. The Master System was released in competition with the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Its library is smaller and with fewer well-reviewed games than the NES, due in part to Nintendo licensing policies requiring platform exclusivity. Though
540-689: A light gun . It was planned that the NAVS would be available in the spring of 1985. However, this did not happen and the console was shown again at the summer CES in June of that year, as an updated version called the Nintendo Entertainment System . The system was released in October 1985 as an experiment within New York City bounds with Super Mario Bros. game bundled. The experiment was successful and showed that people still wanted to play games despite
720-442: A 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934. Dominating this area is Sutro Tower , a large red and white radio and television transmission tower reaching 1,811 ft (552 m) above sea level. The nearby San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. The San Andreas Fault caused the earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Minor earthquakes occur on
900-734: A 2023 estimated population of over 9 million. Prior to European settlement , the modern city proper was inhabited by the Yelamu , who spoke a language now referred to as Ramaytush Ohlone . On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate , and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi . The California gold rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into
1080-416: A GDP of $ 729 billion in 2022 . The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area is the nation's fifth-most populous, with around nine million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $ 1.32 trillion in 2022 . In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $ 252.2 billion, and a GDP per capita of $ 312,000. San Francisco was ranked fifth in the world and second in
1260-634: A Sega video games national championship, with the winner competing against Japanese and American champions on the British television show Motormouth . Players competed in a variety of games, including Astro Warrior , platform games, and sports games. During the late 1980s, the Master System was outselling the NES in the United Kingdom. The Master System was successful in Europe. By 1990,
1440-426: A TV". This era contributed many influential aspects to the history of the development of video games. The third generation saw the release of many of the first console role-playing video games (RPGs). Editing and censorship of video games was often used in localizing Japanese games to North America. It was during this time that many successful video game franchises began, which went onto to becoming mainstays of
1620-578: A busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time; between 1870 and 1900, approximately one quarter of California's population resided in the city proper. In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county . After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire , it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama–Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II , it
1800-623: A common place to live for people employed in Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Google . The early 2020s featured an exodus of tech companies from Downtown San Francisco in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and struggles with homelessness and public drug use. Although some observers have raised the possibility that office vacancies and declining tax revenues could cause San Francisco to enter an economic doom loop , other sources have refuted this broad-based characterization of
1980-647: A flood of treasure seekers (known as "forty-niners," as in "1849"). With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia , raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships , saloons , and hotels; many were left to rot, and some were sunk to establish title to
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#17327729433182160-458: A fort on Alcatraz Island to secure San Francisco Bay. San Francisco County was one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850. Until 1856, San Francisco's city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, and south to 20th Street. In 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of
2340-429: A game, with Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda introducing the technology to the worldwide market. This innovation allowed for much more expansive gaming worlds and in-depth storytelling, since users could now save their progress rather than having to start each gaming session at the beginning. By the next generation, the capability to save games became ubiquitous—at first saving on the game cartridge itself and, later, when
2520-484: A gourmet marketplace. San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate ( Köppen : Csb , Trewartha : Csll), characteristic of California's coast, with moist winters and dry summers. San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces
2700-590: A higher CPU clock rate . Sega produced several iterations of the Master System. The Master System II, released in 1990, removed a number of components to reduce cost: the Sega Card slot, reset button, power light, expansion port, and startup music and logo. In most regions, the Master System II's A/V port was omitted, leaving only RF output available; this was reversed in France, where the local version of
2880-503: A large African American population after World War II . The Western Addition is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods including Hayes Valley , the Fillmore , and Japantown , which was once the largest Japantown in North America but suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and interned during World War II. The Western Addition survived the 1906 earthquake with its Victorians largely intact, including
3060-599: A magnet for America's counterculture movement . Beat Generation writers fueled the San Francisco Renaissance and centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s. Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the 1967 Summer of Love . In 1974, the Zebra murders left at least 16 people dead. In the 1970s, the city became a center of the gay rights movement , with
3240-472: A market-share of 80% that year, much more than Atari (12%) and Sega (8%) combined. This was due to Nintendo's strong lineup of both first-party titles (such as Super Mario Bros. , Metroid , Duck Hunt , and The Legend of Zelda ) and third-party titles along with Nintendo's strict licensing rules that required NES titles to be exclusive to the console for two years after release, putting a damper on third-party support for other consoles. In Europe, competition
3420-645: A minority interest to the Virgin Group to enter the console business, and sold the remainder to avoid bankruptcy. The newly rebranded Virgin Mastertronic took over all European distribution in 1988. Virgin Mastertronic focused marketing the Master System on ports of Sega's arcade games and positioning it as a superior video game alternative to the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum computers. As
3600-614: A package with the "Power Base" console, a light gun, two controllers, and a pack-in multicart . The console was launched in September 1986 at a price of $ 200 (equivalent to $ 560 in 2023), including the games Hang-On and Safari Hunt . Nintendo was exporting the Famicom to the US as the NES, and both companies planned to spend $ 15 million in late 1986 to market their consoles; Sega hoped to sell 400,000 to 750,000 consoles in 1986. By
3780-560: A population of 808,988 residents as of 2023, San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in the U.S. state of California behind Los Angeles , San Diego , and San Jose . It covers a land area of 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers) at the upper end of the San Francisco Peninsula , making it the second-most densely populated major U.S. city behind New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county , behind four of New York City's boroughs . Among
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#17327729433183960-440: A port and naval base, post-Conquest San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. Situated at the tip of a windswept peninsula without water or firewood, San Francisco lacked most of the basic facilities for a 19th-century settlement. These natural disadvantages forced the town's residents to bring water, fuel and food to the site. Its 1847 population was said to be 459. The California gold rush brought
4140-636: A pricing agreement with Sega, Mastertronic signed a deal in 1987 to take control of UK distribution, and announced the deal at the 1987 Summer CES. The company announced the release of 12 titles by autumn. Mastertronic advertised the Master System as "an arcade in the home" and launched it at £99 (equivalent to £350 in 2023). Advance orders from retailers were high, but Sega proved unable to deliver inventory until Boxing Day on December 26, causing many retailers to cancel their orders; Mastertronic and Master Games entered financial crises and Ariolasoft vowed never to work with Sega again. Mastertronic had already sold
4320-424: A regular basis. The threat of major earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development. The city constructed an auxiliary water supply system and has repeatedly upgraded its building codes, requiring retrofits for older buildings and higher engineering standards for new construction. However, there are still thousands of smaller buildings that remain vulnerable to quake damage. USGS has released
4500-479: A result of this marketing and of Nintendo's less effective early approaches in Europe, the Master System began to attract European developers. The Master System held a significant part of the video game console market in Europe through the release of Sega's succeeding console, the Mega Drive. In 1989, Virgin Mastertronic began offering rentals of the Master System console and 20 games. The United Kingdom also hosted
4680-593: A serious challenge to Nintendo in Japan, and, according to Sato, Sega was only able to attain 10% of the Japanese console market. The Master System was launched in Europe in 1987. It was distributed by Mastertronic in the United Kingdom, Master Games in France, and Ariolasoft in West Germany, though Ariolasoft initially purchased the distribution rights for the United Kingdom. Because Ariolasoft could not agree to
4860-602: A shift in the dominance of home video games from the United States to Japan, to the point that Computer Gaming World described the "Nintendo craze" as a "non-event" for American video game designers as "virtually all the work to date has been done in Japan." The company had an estimated 65% of 1987 hardware sales in the console market; Atari Corporation had 24% (including the Atari 7800 , 2600 Jr. and XEGS ), Sega had 8%, and other companies had 3%. The popularity of
5040-434: A shortage. They also became less willing to invest in video games after taking massive loans in purchasing Kenner Toys in 1987, followed by poor holiday season sales and financial losses. Though the distributor of the console had changed, the Master System continued to perform poorly in the market. The Mark III was rereleased as the Master System in Japan in October 1987 for ¥16,800, but still sold poorly. Neither model posed
5220-603: A significant portion of the Comstock Lode 's gold and silver mines, establishing a virtual monopoly. Using his incredible clout, Ralston was able to generate millions of dollars for San Francisco during its heady boom years. He founded the Bank of California , the first bank in the Western United States, and built the opulent Palace Hotel, a symbol of San Francisco's newfound prosperity and the largest hotel in
5400-465: A spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park . San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast. By 1890, San Francisco's population approached 300,000, making it the eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco
5580-452: A traveling program set up in recreational centers where kids were tested on non-verbal skills such as concentration and the ability to learn new skills. Out Run and Shooting Gallery were two games included in the challenge. In 1987, amid struggling sales in the US, Sega sold the US distribution rights for the Master System to the toy company Tonka , which had no experience with electronic entertainment systems. The thinking at Sega behind
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5760-484: A wave of " Manhattanization " that lasted until the late 1980s, a period of extensive high-rise development downtown. The 1980s also saw a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people in the city, an issue that remains today, despite many attempts to address it. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged structures in
5940-543: Is an arcade-style joystick with the buttons on the opposite side as the standard controller. Unreleased in Europe, the Sega Sports Pad utilizes a trackball and is compatible with three games. Sega also created an expansion for its controller, the Rapid Fire Unit, that allows for auto-fire by holding down one of two buttons. This unit connects between the console and the controller. A light gun peripheral,
6120-494: Is essentially their original form, but most of the city's natural watercourses, such as Islais Creek and Mission Creek , have been partially or completely culverted and built over. Since the 1990s, however, the Public Utilities Commission has been studying proposals to daylight or restore some creeks. An Historical Center of San Francisco monument, where the 1899–1906 City Hall was once located,
6300-408: Is gone." Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed. Amadeo Giannini 's Bank of Italy , later to become Bank of America , provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The influential San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association or SPUR was founded in 1910 to address
6480-583: Is in United Nations Plaza , at 37°46′48″N 122°24′49″W / 37.7800397°N 122.4135943°W / 37.7800397; -122.4135943 The earliest center of San Francisco is Portsmouth Square , in the northeast quadrant of the city anchored by Market Street and the waterfront. Here in the northeast quadrant, the Financial District is centered, with Union Square , the principal shopping and hotel district, and
6660-578: Is provided through an RF switch (though Model 1s with an AV port can also output composite and even RGB video) and displays at a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels and up to 32 colors at one time from a total palette of 64 colors; the Video Display Processor (VDP) graphics chip was designed by Sega for the Mark III. The Master System measures 365 by 170 by 70 millimetres (14.4 in × 6.7 in × 2.8 in), while
6840-436: The 8-bit era , began on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of two systems: Nintendo 's Family Computer (commonly abbreviated to Famicom ) and Sega 's SG-1000 . When the Famicom was released outside of Japan, it was remodeled and marketed as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This generation marked the end of the video game crash of 1983 , and a shift in the dominance of home video game manufacturers from
7020-501: The Atari 2800 (priced ¥24,800 ), a Japanese version of the Atari 2600 marketed in May 1983. The third generation of consoles began when two Japanese companies, Sega and Nintendo , decided to enter the console gaming market. On July 15, 1983, they both released new consoles in Japan, Sega's SG-1000 and Nintendo's Famicom . Both companies previously had success as arcade game companies. Sega, one of Japan's largest arcade companies,
7200-404: The Atari 7800 (17th) and the NES (1st). IGN cited the Master System's small and uneven NTSC library as the major problems: "Months could go by between major releases and that made a dud on the Master System feel even more painful." History of video game consoles (third generation) In the history of video games , the third generation of video game consoles , commonly referred to as
7380-638: The Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma and the beginning of the U.S. Conquest of California , American forces from the USS Portsmouth under the command of John B. Montgomery captured Yerba Buena on July 9, 1846, with little resistance from the local Californio population, raising the American flag over Yerba Buena plaza (later renamed Portsmouth Square in commemoration of this event). Following
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7560-578: The California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California. San Francisco's shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina , Mission Bay , and Hunters Point , as well as large sections of the Embarcadero , sit on areas of landfill . Treasure Island was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from
7740-599: The GameTap online service. Due to the continued release of new variants in Brazil, the Master System is considered by many video gaming publications to be the longest lived gaming console in video games history, a title it took from the Atari 2600 . Sales of the Master System have been estimated between 10 million and 13 million units, not including later Brazil sales. It saw much more continued success in Europe and Brazil than it did in Japan and North America. In 1989,
7920-838: The Golden Gate Bridge , cable cars , and Alcatraz . The city is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco , the University of San Francisco , San Francisco State University , the San Francisco Conservatory of Music , the de Young Museum , the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art , the San Francisco Symphony , the San Francisco Ballet ,
8100-501: The Marina and South of Market districts and precipitated the demolition of the damaged Embarcadero Freeway and much of the damaged Central Freeway , allowing the city to reclaim The Embarcadero as its historic downtown waterfront and revitalizing the Hayes Valley neighborhood. The two recent decades have seen booms driven by the internet industry. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, startup companies invigorated
8280-848: The San Francisco Opera , the SFJAZZ Center , and the California Academy of Sciences . Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors , play their home games within San Francisco proper. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) offers flights to over 125 destinations, while a light rail and bus network , in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with
8460-588: The Sega Genesis were marketed in order to differentiate between the generations. In Japan and North America, this generation was primarily dominated by the Famicom/NES, while the Master System dominated the Brazilian market, with the combined markets of Europe being more balanced in overall sales between the two main systems. The end of the third generation was marked by the emergence of 16-bit systems of
8640-501: The Tenderloin nearby. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill , once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to the waterfront tourist attractions of Fisherman's Wharf , and Pier 39 , where many restaurants feature Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill , a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street ; North Beach ,
8820-740: The YM2413 FM chip, an optional feature on the Mark III. With few exceptions, Master System hardware is identical to the hardware in the Mark III. Games for the console are playable on the Sega Genesis using the Power Base Converter accessory, and on the Game Gear using the Master Gear Converter. Compared to the base NES, the Master System has four times as much system memory, eight times as much video memory, and
9000-486: The anime Zillion gave Sega the confidence to allow Tectoy to distribute the Master System. By the end of 1990, the installed base in Brazil was about 280,000 units. Tectoy introduced a telephone service with game tips, created a Master System club, and presented the program Master Tips during commercial breaks of the television show Sessão Aventura of Rede Globo . Nintendo did not arrive in Brazil until 1993, and were unable to officially compete, given that clones of
9180-543: The "Master". The console's futuristic final design was intended to appeal to Western tastes. The North American packaging was white to differentiate it from the black NES packaging, with a white grid design inspired by Apple computer products. The Master System was first revealed in North America at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Chicago in June 1986. It was initially sold in
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#17327729433189360-490: The "superb" PAL library of "interesting ports and excellent exclusives", which was richer than the North American library and provided a "drip-feed of quality titles". After the Master System was discontinued in other markets, additional games were released in Brazil by Tectoy, including ports of Street Fighter II: Champion Edition and Dynamite Headdy . Tectoy created Portuguese translations of games exclusive to
9540-466: The 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate. In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to twenty-something professionals. Noe Valley to the southwest and Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of
9720-575: The 1983 crisis. After that the system was released in all North America in February 1986 at a price of US$ 159. In 1985, Sega succeeded the SG-1000 with the Master System , which incorporated hardware scrolling, alongside an increased color palette, greater memory, pseudo-3D effects, and stereoscopic 3-D , gaining a clear hardware advantage over the NES. However, the NES continued to dominate
9900-625: The 1990s in Europe, including Mercs , Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (both 1992), and Streets of Rage 2 (1994). The Master System has had continued success in Brazil, where dedicated "plug and play" consoles emulating the original hardware continue to be sold by Tectoy, including portable versions. These systems include the Master System Compact and the Master System III , and Tectoy has also received requests to remake
10080-409: The 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco is ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022. San Francisco anchors the 13th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States , with almost 4.6 million residents in 2023. The larger San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area , the fifth-largest urban region in the U.S., had
10260-543: The American company Atari , which had the majority share of the home video game market in North America, with a proposal for Atari to license the Famicom and distribute it. An agreement was concluded, which was to be signed at the Consumer Electronics Show in July 1983. At the same CES, however, Coleco exhibited its Coleco Adam home computer, which featured a version of Nintendo's Donkey Kong . At that time, Atari had exclusive rights to distribute Nintendo games on home computers, and Coleco had exclusive rights to distribute
10440-427: The Atari 7800 and Master System were discontinued in 1992, while the NES continued to be produced until 1995. In Europe, the Master System was discontinued in the late 1990s. However it has continued to sell in Brazil through to the present day. In Japan, Nintendo continued to repair Famicom systems until October 31, 2007. On July 15, 1983, the SG-1000 was released in Japan, the first console to be created by Sega. It
10620-535: The Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Chinese immigrants made the city a polyglot culture, drawn to "Old Gold Mountain," creating the city's Chinatown quarter. By 1880, Chinese made up 9.3% of the population. The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for
10800-435: The Birdman of Alcatraz. San Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a World's fair , the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939–40, creating Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to house it. During World War II , the city-owned Sharp Park in Pacifica was used as an internment camp to detain Japanese Americans . Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of activity, and Fort Mason became
10980-528: The Brazilian market, as the Master System was more popular than the Game Gear in the region. Master System games came in two formats: ROM cartridges held up to 4 Mbit (512 KB) of code and data, while Sega Cards held up to 256 Kbit (32 KB). Cartridges were marketed by their storage size: One Mega (1 Mbit), Two Mega (2 Mbit), and Four Mega (4 Mbit). Cards, cheaper to manufacture than the cartridges, included Spy vs. Spy and Super Tennis , but were eventually dropped due to their small memory size. The size of
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#173277294331811160-443: The Famicom for ¥14,800 (about $ 150). Nintendo unveiled the Famicom shortly before the Tokyo Toy Show in June 1983, becoming a sensation among toy show exhibitors, prior to Sega unveiling the SG-1000 at the Tokyo Toy Show. The Famicom went on to become very popular in Japan, where it quickly beat the Cassette Vision to become Japan's all-time best-selling console. Sega would become Nintendo's main competitor for console sales during
11340-420: The Famicom into the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The name was chosen by Sega of America employees throwing darts against a whiteboard of suggested names. Plans to release a cheaper console, the Base System, also influenced the decision. Okawa approved of the name after being told it was a reference to the competitive nature of both the video game industry and martial arts, in which only one competitor can be
11520-478: The Game Gear and the Master System hardware, but the games are not directly compatible; Master System games are only playable on Game Gear using the Master Gear Converter accessory. A large part of the Game Gear's game library consists of Master System ports. Because of hardware similarities, including the landscape screen orientation, Master System games are easily portable to the handheld. In particular, many Master System ports of Game Gear games were done by Tectoy for
11700-533: The Hedgehog . Battery-backup save game support was included in eight cartridges, including Penguin Land , Phantasy Star , Ys , and Miracle Warriors . The more extensive PAL region library includes 8-bit entries in Genesis franchises such as Streets of Rage , a number of additional Sonic the Hedgehog games, and dozens of PAL exclusives such as The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck , Asterix , Ninja Gaiden , Master of Darkness , and Power Strike II . Retro Gamer 's Damien McFerran praised
11880-438: The Japanese consoles grew so quickly that in 1988 Epyx stated that, in contrast to a video game-hardware industry in 1984 that the company had described as "dead" , the market for Nintendo cartridges was larger than for all home-computer software. Nintendo sold seven million NES systems in 1988, almost as many as the number of units the Commodore 64 sold in its first five years. In 1988, The Los Angeles Times reported that
12060-483: The Japanese market and was the third iteration of the SG-1000. The name was changed to the Master System and the design altered for release outside of Japan. It was designed to be more powerful than the NES in an attempt to give it an edge over the competition but despite good sales, it did not match the success of the NES, making it the second best selling console of the generation. This was the case in all regions apart from Brazil, where it continued to sell for years after
12240-456: The Light Phaser, was based on the weapon of the same name from the Japanese anime Zillion . It is compatible with 13 games and released exclusively in the West. A pair of 3D glasses, the SegaScope 3-D, were created for games such as Space Harrier 3-D , although Mark III users need an additional converter to use them. The SegaScope 3-D works via an active shutter 3D system , creating a stereoscopic effect. The glasses need to be connected to
12420-423: The Mark III measures 318 by 145 by 52 millimetres (12.5 in × 5.7 in × 2.0 in). Both consoles use two slots for game input: one for Mega Cartridges and one for Sega Cards , along with an expansion slot and two controller ports. Sound is provided by the SN76489 PSG built into the VDP, which can provide three square wave channels and one noise channel. The Japanese version also integrates
12600-402: The Master System II had only A/V video output available and omitted the RF hardware. In Brazil, Tectoy released several licensed variations; the Master System Super Compact functions wirelessly with an RF transmitter, and the Master System Girl, molded in bright pink plastic, was targeted at girls. The Master System 3 Collection, released in 2006, contains 120 built-in games. Handheld versions of
12780-487: The Master System had newer, improved hardware, it failed to overturn Nintendo's significant market share advantage in Japan and North America. However, it attained significantly greater success in other markets, including Europe, Brazil, South Korea and Australia. The Master System is estimated to have sold between 10-13 million units worldwide. In addition, Tectoy has sold 8 million licensed Master System variants in Brazil. Retrospective criticism has recognized its role in
12960-547: The Master System in the United Kingdom. By 1990, the Master System was the biggest-selling console in Europe, though the NES was beginning to have a fast-growing user base in the United Kingdom and this position had reversed by the end of the run of both consoles. The third generation also saw the beginning of the children's educational console market. Due to their reduced capacities, these systems typically were not labeled by their "bits" and were not marketed in competition with traditional video game consoles. In North America,
13140-439: The Master System or NES. Famicom Disk System: Japan only: Optional cartridge chip: 3 KB RAM 4.277 KB (4380 bytes ) RAM Upgrades: 24.031 KB (24,608 bytes) RAM 4 KB RAM Japan only upgrades: Japan only: Optional cartridge chip: The NES/Famicom sold by far the most units of any third generation console, particularly in Japan and North America . In North America in 1989 , between Nintendo and Sega, there
13320-515: The Master System praises its support toward development of the Sega Genesis, but has been critical of its small game library. Writing for AllGame , Dave Beuscher noted that the Master System "was doomed by the lack of third-party software support and all but disappeared from the American market by 1992." Retro Gamer writer Adam Buchanan praised the larger PAL library as a "superb library of interesting ports and excellent exclusives". Damien McFerran, also of Retro Gamer, recognized its importance to
13500-512: The Master System was also launched in 1987, which features a few enhancements over the export models (and by proxy the original Mark III): a built-in FM audio chip , a rapid-fire switch, and a dedicated port for the 3D glasses. The Master System II , a cheaper model, was released in 1990 in North America, Australasia and Europe. The original Master System models use both cartridges and a credit card-sized format known as Sega Cards . Accessories include
13680-727: The Master System was listed in the top 20 products of NPD Group 's Toy Retail Sales Tracking Service. However, the Electronic Gaming Monthly 1992 Buyer's Guide indicated a souring interest in the console. Four reviewers scored it 5, 4, 5, and 5 out of a possible 10 points each, focusing on the better value of the Genesis and lack of quality games for the Master System. In 1993, reviewers scored it 2, 2, 3, and 3 out of 10, noting its abandonment by Sega in North America and lack of new releases. By contrast, over 34 million NES units were sold in North America alone, outselling
13860-486: The Master System was the best-selling console in Europe, though the NES was beginning to have a fast-growing user base in the UK. For the year 1990, Virgin Mastertronic sold 150,000 Master Systems in the United Kingdom, greater than the 60,000 Mega Drives and Nintendo's 80,000 consoles sold in the same period. In the whole of Europe that year, Sega sold a combined 918,000 consoles, greater than Nintendo's 655,000. The Master System
14040-404: The Master System was the first console "where the graphics on the box are actually matched by the graphics of the game", and pushed the "arcade experience" in adverts. Its marketing department was run by only two people, giving Sega a disadvantage in advertising. As one method of promoting the console, at the end of 1987 Sega partnered with astronaut Scott Carpenter to start the "Sega Challenge",
14220-510: The Master System were released under several brands, such as Coleco in 2006. A number of cross-compatible accessories were created for the Mark III and Master System. The controller consists of a rectangle with a D-pad and two buttons. Sega also introduced additional Mark III controllers, such as a paddle controller . A combination steering wheel and flight stick, the Handle Controller, was released in 1989. The Sega Control Stick
14400-487: The Master System's estimated active installed user base in Europe was 6.25 million units, larger than that of the Mega Drive's 5.73 million that year but less than the NES's 7.26 million. Combined with the Mega Drive, Sega represented the majority of the European console market that year. The Master System II was also successful and helped Sega to sustain their significant market share. Releases continued into
14580-550: The Master System's hardware, the Game Gear is a handheld game console . It was first released in Japan on October 6, 1990, in North America and Europe in 1991, and in Australia and New Zealand in 1992. Originally retailing at JP¥19,800 in Japan, $ 149.99 in North America, and GB£99.99 in the United Kingdom, the Game Gear was designed to compete with the Game Boy , which Nintendo had released in 1989. There are similarities between
14760-438: The Master System's life time units globally nearly three times over. According to Bill Pearse of Playthings , the NES gained an advantage through better software and more recognizable characters. Sega closed the gap with Nintendo in the next generation with the release of the Genesis, which sold 30.75 million consoles compared with the 49 million Super Nintendo Entertainment System consoles. Retrospective feedback of
14940-558: The Master System, Phantasy Star is considered a benchmark role-playing game (RPG), and became a successful franchise . Sega's flagship character at the time, Alex Kidd , featured in games including Alex Kidd in Miracle World . Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap was influential for its blend of platform gameplay with RPG elements. Different Master System consoles included built-in games, including Snail Maze , Hang-On / Safari Hunt , Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Sonic
15120-467: The Master System. According to Sato, Sega was focused on porting its arcade games instead of building relationships with third parties. According to Sega designer Mark Cerny , most of Sega's early Master System games were developed within a strict three-month deadline, which affected their quality. Computer Gaming World compared new Sega games to "drops of water in the desert". Games for the Master System took advantage of more advanced hardware compared to
15300-522: The Mission is the Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as Eureka Valley , now popularly called the Castro , was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first gay village , and is now the center of gay life in the city. Located near
15480-630: The NES dominated the Brazilian market. Tectoy claimed 80% of the Brazilian video game market. In South Korea, the Sega Mark III was released by Samsung under the name "Gam*Boy" in April 1989 and then the Master System II was released under the name "Aladdin Boy" in 1992. It sold 720,000 units in South Korea up until 1993, outselling the NES (released by Hyundai Group as the "Comboy") and becoming
15660-444: The NES, compared to 23% for all personal computers, and peer pressure to have a console was so great that even the children of computer-game developers demanded them despite parents' refusal and the presence of state-of-the-art computers and software at home. As Computer Gaming World reported in 1992, "The kids who don't have access to videogames are as culturally isolated as the kids in our own generation whose parents refused to buy
15840-713: The NES; Alex Kidd in Miracle World , for example, showcases "blistering colors and more detailed sprites" than NES games. The Master System version of R-Type was praised for its visuals, comparable to those of the TurboGrafx-16 port. In 2005, Sega reached a deal with the company AtGames to release emulated Master System software in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Several Master System games were released for download on Nintendo's Wii Virtual Console , beginning with Hokuto no Ken in 2008 in Japan and Wonder Boy in North America. Master System games were also released via
16020-617: The North American and Japanese markets, while the Master System had more success in the European and South American markets. The Family Computer (commonly abbreviated the Famicom) became popular in Japan during this era, crowding out the other consoles in this generation. The Famicom's Western counterpart, the Nintendo Entertainment System, dominated the gaming market in North America, thanks in part to its restrictive licensing agreements with developers. This marked
16200-731: The Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions. Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building , while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as
16380-542: The PC Engine ( TurboGrafx-16 in North America) amid great publicity. Sega released its next console, the 16-bit Mega Drive, in Japan on October 29, 1988. The final licensed release for the Master System in Japan was Bomber Raid in 1989. In the same year, Sega was preparing to release the new Mega Drive, rebranded Genesis, in North America. Displeased with Tonka's handling of the Master System, Sega reacquired
16560-531: The Presidio garrison, commanded by Mariano Vallejo , relocated to the Presidio of Sonoma , which was regarded as needing a greater military presence due the proximity of the Russian settlement at Fort Ross . Only a small detachment remained at the Presidio of San Francisco. Mission Dolores sold most of its property in 1836, retaining only the church and related structures. In 1833, Juana Briones de Miranda
16740-653: The SC-3000 require the SK-1100 keyboard peripheral, which is compatible with the Mark III but not the Japanese Master System. Mark III-specific games were initially available in card format (labelled My Card Mark III to distinguish themselves from games designed for the SC-3000/SG-1000), starting with Teddy Boy Blues and Hang-On , both released on October 20, 1985. Of the games released for
16920-709: The San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain . Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco. The California Gold Rush triggered a wave of entrepreneurial activity as individuals sought to capitalize on the newfound wealth. The discovery of silver deposits, notably the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further fueled rapid population growth and economic expansion. San Francisco, as
17100-457: The San Francisco economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application developers moved into the city, followed by marketing, design, and sales professionals, changing the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became increasingly gentrified . Demand for new housing and office space ignited a second wave of high-rise development, this time in the South of Market district. By 2000,
17280-418: The Sega Card slot, and thus do not function with the Master System II due to lack of the card slot. A total of eight games, including Zaxxon 3-D and Out Run 3-D , are compatible with the glasses. The Mark III has an optional RF transmitter accessory, allowing wireless play that broadcasts the game being played on a UHF television signal. Developed under the name "Project Mercury" and designed based on
17460-510: The Spanish ship San Carlos , commanded by Juan Manuel de Ayala , became the first ship to anchor in the bay. Soon after, on March 28, 1776, Anza established the Presidio of San Francisco . On October 9, Mission San Francisco de Asís , also known as Mission Dolores, was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu . In 1794, the Presidio established the Castillo de San Joaquín , a fortification on
17640-679: The United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain. In other regions, the Master System was the most successful console in Brazil, South Korea, and Australia, while the Dendy (a Taiwanese Famiclone of the NES/Famicom) was the most successful in the former Soviet Union . San Francisco San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco , is a commercial, financial , and cultural center within Northern California . With
17820-501: The United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2023 . Despite a continuing exodus of businesses from the downtown area of San Francisco, the city is still home to numerous companies inside and outside of technology, including Salesforce , Uber , Airbnb , X , Levi's , Gap , Dropbox , and Lyft . In 2022, San Francisco had more than 1.7 million international visitors –
18000-674: The United States to Japan. Handheld consoles were not a major part of this generation; the Game & Watch line from Nintendo (which started in 1980) and the Milton Bradley Microvision (which came out in 1979) that were sold at the time are both considered part of the previous generation due to hardware typical of the second generation . Improvements in technology gave consoles of this generation improved graphical and sound capabilities, comparable to golden age arcade games . The number of simultaneous colors on screen and
18180-464: The area. Further development is taking place just to the south in Mission Bay area, a former railroad yard, which now has a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Chase Center , which opened in 2019 as the new home of the Golden State Warriors . West of downtown, across Van Ness Avenue , lies the large Western Addition neighborhood, which became established with
18360-507: The arts and sciences, spurred by leading universities , high-tech , healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors. As of 2020 , the metropolitan area, with 4.5 million residents, ranked 5th by GDP ($ 874 billion) and 2nd by GDP per capita ($ 131,082) across the OECD countries, ahead of global cities like Paris , London , and Singapore . It is the fourth-largest by aggregate income and economic output, with
18540-597: The beginning of the assimilation of the Ramaytush people, and the decline of their language and culture. The Spanish Empire claimed San Francisco as part of Las Californias , a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain . The Spanish first arrived in what is now San Francisco on November 2, 1769, when the Portolá expedition led by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Juan Crespí arrived at San Francisco Bay . Having noted
18720-440: The best-selling console in South Korea up until 1993. The Master System was also popular in Australia, where 250,000 units were sold in 1990 alone, and where it was more successful than the NES. 650,000 Master System consoles had been sold in Australia by November 1994. Although the Master System was a success in Europe, and later in Brazil, it failed to ignite significant interest in the Japanese or North American markets, which, by
18900-426: The capture, U.S. forces appointed both José de Jesús Noé and Washington Allon Bartlett to serve as co- alcaldes (mayors), while the conquest continued on in the rest of California. On January 30, 1847, Mayor Bartlett ordained that the city should officially change its name from "Yerba Buena" to "San Francisco", as the former name was only locally recognized and the latter name was in use on international maps. There
19080-476: The city and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks. More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core. Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people died, though modern estimates put the number in
19260-521: The city as a whole, asserting that the issues of concern are restricted primarily to the urban core of San Francisco. As of March 2024, Union Square was in "sorry shape" and had lost its traditional position as the Bay Area's regional shopping hub to Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose. The Ferry Station Post Office Building , Armour & Co. Building , Atherton House , and YMCA Hotel are historic buildings among dozens of historical landmarks in
19440-548: The city's Little Italy and the former center of the Beat Generation ; and Telegraph Hill , which features Coit Tower . Abutting Russian Hill and North Beach is San Francisco's Chinatown , the oldest Chinatown in North America. The South of Market , which was once San Francisco's industrial core, has seen significant redevelopment following the construction of Oracle Park and an infusion of startup companies . New skyscrapers, live-work lofts, and condominiums dot
19620-479: The city's alcalde , renamed it from Yerba Buena (Spanish for "Good Herb"), which had been the name of the first civilian pueblo in San Francisco, as well as the name of Yerba Buena Cove , which the pueblo was on the shore of. Earlier in San Francisco's history, the uninhabited area on the northeastern side of San Francisco was called El Paraje de Yerba Buena , after the herb that was growing abundantly there. The name Yerba Buena continues to be used in locations in
19800-417: The city's population reached new highs, surpassing the previous record set in 1950. When the bubble burst in 2001 and again in 2023, many of these companies folded and their employees were laid off. Yet high technology and entrepreneurship remain mainstays of the San Francisco economy. By the mid-2000s (decade), the social media boom had begun, with San Francisco becoming a popular location for tech offices and
19980-576: The city's southern border, the Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and urban renewal projects. The construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening
20160-571: The city, according to the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco . San Francisco is located on the West Coast of the United States , at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several picturesque islands — Alcatraz , Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island , and small portions of Alameda Island , Red Rock Island , and Angel Island —are part of
20340-865: The city, such as on Yerba Buena Island and in the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Yerba Buena Gardens . While people residing outside the San Francisco Bay Area use nicknames including "Frisco" and "San Fran", local residents in the Bay Area sometimes refer to San Francisco as "the City" or "SF". The choice of nickname a person uses is a common way for locals to distinguish long-time residents from tourists and recent arrivals. "San Fran" and "Frisco" are sometimes considered controversial as nicknames among San Francisco residents. The earliest archeological evidence of human habitation of
20520-432: The city. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands , 27 miles (43 km) offshore in the Pacific Ocean. The mainland within the city limits roughly forms a "seven-by-seven-mile square," a common local colloquialism referring to the city's shape, though its total area, including water, is nearly 232 square miles (600 km ). There are more than 50 hills within the city limits. Some neighborhoods are named after
20700-537: The company developed Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau after finding out that Woody Woodpecker (named Pica-Pau in Portuguese) was the most popular cartoon on Brazilian television, along with at least twenty additional exclusives. These titles were developed in-house by Tectoy in Brazil. Due in part to Nintendo's licensing practices, which stipulated that third-party NES developers could not release games on other platforms, few third-party developers released games for
20880-613: The confidence to release the Famicom in North America as a video game console, for which there was growing interest due to Nintendo's positive reputation in the arcades. The company introduced a version of the Famicom in January 1985 at the Winter CES as the Nintendo Advanced Video System, short for NAVS. The gamepads were wireless and worked with it using an infrared port, and the bundle would also include
21060-515: The country at the time. His financial empire, however, collapsed in 1875 as a result of the Panic of 1873 , triggering a major economic crisis in San Francisco. Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support ) helped make
21240-533: The deal was to leverage Tonka's knowledge of the American toy market, since Nintendo had marketed the NES as a toy to great success in the region. The announcement was made shortly after the 1987 Summer CES. During this time, much of Sega of America's infrastructure shifted from marketing and distribution to focus on customer service, and Lowry departed the company. Tonka blocked localization of several popular Japanese games, and during 1988 were less willing to purchase EPROMs needed for game cartridge manufacture during
21420-683: The development of West Portal , and nearby affluent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood . Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to Golden Gate Park lies the vast Sunset District , a large middle-class area with a predominantly Asian population. The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the Richmond , a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as The Avenues . These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions:
21600-689: The development of the Sega Genesis , and a number of well-received games, particularly in PAL (including PAL-M) regions, but is critical of its limited library in the NTSC regions, which were dominated by the NES. On July 15, 1983, Sega released its first video game console , the SG-1000 , in Japan. The launch coincided with the same day its competitor Nintendo launched the Famicom . In 1984, parent company Gulf and Western Industries divested its non-core businesses including Sega, and Sega president Hayao Nakayama
21780-509: The emergence of The Castro as an urban gay village , the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors , and his assassination , along with that of Mayor George Moscone , in 1978. Bank of America , now based in Charlotte , North Carolina , was founded in San Francisco; the bank completed 555 California Street in 1969. The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1972, igniting
21960-539: The end of 1986, at least 125,000 Master System consoles had been sold, more than the Atari 7800 's 100,000 but less than Nintendo's 1.1 million. Other sources indicate that more than 250,000 Master System consoles were sold by Christmas 1986. As in Japan, the Master System in North America had a limited game library. Limited by Nintendo's licensing practices, Sega only had two third-party American publishers, Activision and Parker Brothers . Agreements with both of those companies came to an end in 1989. Sega claimed that
22140-457: The end of the generation. The Atari 7800 was released in May 1986 and was the successor to the Atari 5200. It was the first console to be backward compatible without additional hardware. It was originally due for launch on May 21, 1984, but due to the sale of the company the launch did not happen until two years later and, coupled with a small library of games, the console did not sell as well as
22320-633: The era. Sega's SG-1000, which preceded Sega's more commercially successful Master System , initially had little to distinguish itself from earlier consoles such as the ColecoVision and contemporary computers such as the MSX , although it was able to achieve advanced visual effects, including parallax scrolling in Orguss and sprite-scaling in Zoom 909 . To enter the worldwide market, Nintendo approached
22500-774: The excavation of the Yerba Buena Tunnel through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes. The resulting soil liquefaction causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake . A few natural lakes and creeks ( Lake Merced , Mountain Lake , Pine Lake , Lobos Creek , El Polin Spring ) are within parks and remain protected in what
22680-520: The fact that there were no churches to be found, prompted missionaries like William Taylor to come to San Francisco where he began preaching in the streets, using an upright barrel as his pulpit. Taylor was able to garner enough generous donations from successful gold miners with which he used to build a church. One of the most influential figures of this era was William Chapman Ralston . A shrewd banker and investor, Ralston amassed considerable wealth and influence in San Francisco. He gained control over
22860-497: The famous " Painted Ladies ," standing alongside Alamo Square . To the south, near the geographic center of the city is Haight-Ashbury , famously associated with 1960s hippie culture. The Haight is now home to some expensive boutiques and a few controversial chain stores, although it still retains some bohemian character. North of the Western Addition is Pacific Heights , an affluent neighborhood that features
23040-407: The fifth-most visited city from abroad in the United States after New York City, Miami , Orlando , and Los Angeles – and approximately 20 million domestic visitors for a total of 21.9 million visitors. It is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods , its Chinatown and Mission districts, its cooling summers, fog , and landmarks including
23220-610: The first land grant in Yerba Buena: to William Richardson , a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth. Richardson had arrived in San Francisco aboard a whaling ship in 1822. In 1825, he married Maria Antonia Martinez, eldest daughter of the Californio Ygnacio Martínez . Yerba Buena began to attract American and European settlers; an 1842 census listed 21 residents (11%) born in the United States or Europe, as well as one Filipino merchant. Following
23400-551: The fourth generation and with the discontinuation of the Famicom on September 25, 2003. However, in some cases, the third generation still lives on as dedicated console units still use hardware from the Famicom specification, such as the VT02/VT03 and OneBus hardware. The Japanese video game market was still a growing "wide open" market for video game consoles in 1983. Japan had a relatively small console market, where only 300,000 consoles had been sold up until 1983, compared to
23580-421: The game on consoles. However, since Atari understood that Adam was a home computer, they postponed signing the agreement with Nintendo and asked the company to resolve the issue with rights. The problem was resolved, but during this time, the video game crash of 1983 had occurred and Atari began to lose influence in the market. With this, Nintendo had no competitor left and the company eventually decided to enter
23760-518: The gateway to the goldfields, experienced a surge in population and commercial activity. However, the influx of fortune seekers also brought challenges. Lawlessness was rampant, and the Barbary Coast district became synonymous with vice, attracting criminals, prostitutes, and illicit activities, including but not limited to prostitution, bootlegging , and gambling. The rapidly growing population, with its lawlessness, gambling and other vices, and
23940-457: The hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill , Potrero Hill , and Russian Hill . Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills. Twin Peaks , a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms an overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson , is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with
24120-562: The homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the Marina , a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay. In the southeast quadrant of the city is the Mission District —populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In
24300-671: The industry changed to read-only optical disks, on memory cards , hard disk drives , and eventually cloud storage . The best-selling console of this generation was the NES/Famicom from Nintendo, followed by the Master System from Sega (the successor to the SG-1000), and the Atari 7800 . Although the previous generation of consoles had also used 8-bit processors, it was at the end of the third generation that home consoles were first labeled and marketed by their "bits". This also came into fashion as fourth generation 16-bit systems like
24480-538: The larger Port of Oakland . The city began to lose industrial jobs and turned to tourism as the most important segment of its economy. The suburbs experienced rapid growth, and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America. From 1950 to 1980, the city lost over 10 percent of its population. Over this period, San Francisco became
24660-462: The launch of the Mega Drive. The final North American release was Sonic the Hedgehog in October 1991. Games for PAL regions continued to be released until the mid-1990s. The Sega Mark III and the Japanese Master System are backwards-compatible with SC-3000/SG-1000 cartridges, and can play Sega Card games without the Card Catcher peripheral. However, educational and programming cartridges for
24840-500: The market on its own. Nintendo were initially discouraged after the crash, with Nintendo of America 's market research being met with warnings to stay away from home consoles and US retailers refusing to stock game consoles. As a result, Nintendo instead introduced the Famicom to North America in the form of an arcade hardware, the Nintendo VS. System , in 1984. It became a major success in North American arcades, giving Nintendo
25020-486: The market respectively. The last licensed Master System release in North America was Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). In Europe, where the Master System was the best-selling console up until 1990, the NES caught up with and narrowly overtook the Master System in Western Europe during the early 1990s, though the Master System maintained its lead in several markets such as the United Kingdom, Belgium and Spain. In 1993,
25200-458: The marketing and distribution rights to the Master System for the United States. In 1990, Sega released the remodeled Master System II, designed as a lower-cost version without the Sega Card slot. Sega promoted the new model, but it sold poorly. By early 1992, Master System production had ceased in North America, having sold between 1.5 million and 2 million units, behind both Nintendo and Atari , which controlled 80 percent and 12 percent of
25380-438: The mid-to-late 1980s, were both dominated by Nintendo. By 1988, Nintendo held 83 percent of the North American video game market. With Sega continuing to have difficulty penetrating the home market, Sega's console R&D team, led by Ishikawa and supervised by Sato, began work on a successor to the Master System almost immediately after its launch. Another competitor arose in Japan in 1987 when Japanese computer giant NEC released
25560-534: The millions that had been sold in the United States up until then. A number of Japanese manufacturers attempted to compete for the "wide open" Japanese console market with their own consoles. The Epoch Cassette Vision , released in 1981, was the best-selling console in Japan at the time. It was followed by the Bandai Arcadia (priced ¥19,800 ), a Japanese version of the Arcadia 2001 released in 1982, and
25740-419: The missions were made to divest themselves of their extensive landholdings and emancipate the indigenous people under their control. As part of the process of secularization, Governor José Figueroa opened up San Francisco to civilian settlement. Prior to secularization, the only settlements in San Francisco had been the military settlement at the Presidio and the religious settlement at Mission Dolores. In 1835,
25920-422: The most popular console of the generation, selling over 60 million units. It was the first home system to feature a controller with a directional pad (designed by Gunpei Yokoi ), which became an industry standard. While the NES was discontinued in North America on August 14, 1995, it was not until September 25, 2003, that the Famicom was discontinued in Japan. The Sega Mark III was released on October 20, 1985, for
26100-511: The original Master System. A 2012 article on UOL wrote that Tectoy re-releases of the Master System and Mega Drive combined sold around 150,000 units per year in Brazil. By 2016, Tectoy said they had sold 8 million units of Master System branded systems in Brazil. The Master System's main CPU is a Zilog Z80 A, an 8-bit processor rated for 4 MHz, but runs at 3.58 MHz. It has 8 KB of ROM , 8 KB of RAM and 16 KB of video RAM. Video
26280-481: The palette size both increased which, along with larger resolutions, more sprites on screen, and more advanced scrolling and pseudo-3D effects, which allowed developers to create scenes with more detail and animation. Audio technology improved and gave consoles the ability to produce a greater variation and range of sound. A notable innovation of this generation was the inclusion of cartridges with on-board memory and batteries to allow users to save their progress in
26460-484: The period of Mexican rule , although it was not until 1833 that the missions would be secularized. Agricultural land became largely privatized as ranchos , as was occurring in other parts of California. Coastal trade increased, including a half-dozen barques from various Atlantic ports which regularly sailed in California waters. With the enactment of the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833 ,
26640-533: The primary port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater of Operations . The explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the South , to the area. After the end of the war, many military personnel returning from service abroad and civilians who had originally come to work decided to stay. The United Nations Charter creating the United Nations
26820-547: The quality of housing after the earthquake. The earthquake hastened development of western neighborhoods that survived the fire, including Pacific Heights , where many of the city's wealthy rebuilt their homes. In turn, the destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose again in the Beaux Arts style, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915. During this period, San Francisco built some of its most important infrastructure. Civil Engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy
27000-444: The region. Some of these would tie in to popular Brazilian entertainment franchises; for example, Teddy Boy became Geraldinho , certain Wonder Boy titles became Monica's Gang games, and Ghost House became Chapolim vs. Dracula: Um Duelo Assutador , based on the Mexican TV series El Chapulín Colorado . Tectoy also ported games to the Master System, including various games from the Genesis and Game Gear. Aside from porting,
27180-405: The release library varies based on region; North America received just over 100 games, with Japan receiving less. Europe, by contrast, received over 300 licensed games, including 8-bit ports of Genesis games and PAL -exclusive releases. The first Mark III-specific cartridge was Fantasy Zone , released on June 15, 1986, and Bomber Raid was the final release on February 4, 1989, a few months after
27360-460: The rights to port games from other developers, but they did not sell well. Though the SG-1000 had not been released in the United States, Sega hoped that their video game console business would fare better in North America than it had in Japan. To accomplish this, Sega of America was established in 1986 to manage the company's consumer products in North America. Rosen and Nakayama hired Bruce Lowry, Nintendo of America's vice president of sales. Lowry
27540-439: The rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution , the peace movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War , and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States . San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and
27720-483: The rise of video game consoles had a positive impact on computer games , sales of which grew 37% during the first quarter of 1988. In 1989, however, Compute! reported that Nintendo's popularity caused most computer-game companies to have poor sales during Christmas that year, resulting in serious financial problems for some, and after more than a decade making computer games, in 1989 Epyx converted completely to console cartridges. By 1990 30% of American households owned
27900-420: The several thousands. More than half of the city's population of 400,000 was left homeless. Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the East Bay . Jack London is remembered for having famously eulogized the earthquake: "Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco
28080-419: The southern side of the Golden Gate , which later came to be known as Fort Point. In 1804, the province of Alta California was created, which included San Francisco. At its peak in 1810–1820, the average population at the Mission Dolores settlement was about 1,100 people. In 1821, the Californias were ceded to Mexico by Spain. The extensive California mission system gradually lost its influence during
28260-445: The strategic benefits of the area due to its large natural harbor, the Spanish dispatched Pedro Fages in 1770 to find a more direct route to the San Francisco Peninsula from Monterey , which would become part of the El Camino Real route. By 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza had arrived to the area to select the sites for a mission and presidio . The first European maritime presence in San Francisco Bay occurred on August 5, 1775, when
28440-410: The success of the Genesis, stating, "Without this criminally undervalued machine, Sega would not have enjoyed the considerable success it had with the Mega Drive. The Master System allowed Sega to experiment with arcade conversions, original IP and even create a mascot in the form of the lovable monkey-boy Alex Kidd." In 2009, the Master System was named the 20th best console of all time by IGN , behind
28620-437: The territory of San Francisco dates to 3000 BCE. The Yelamu group of the Ramaytush people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay . The Ohlone name for San Francisco was Ahwaste , meaning, "place at the bay." The arrival of Spanish colonists, and the implementation of their Mission system, marked
28800-402: The underwater lot. By 1851, the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870, Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land. Buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and
28980-420: The video game industry. Some examples are Super Mario Bros. , Final Fantasy , The Legend of Zelda , Dragon Quest , Metroid , Mega Man , Metal Gear , Castlevania , Phantasy Star , Megami Tensei , Ninja Gaiden , and Bomberman . In Europe during the late 1980s, the Master System had a stronger start than the Nintendo Entertainment System in some areas, with NES sales lagging behind
29160-421: The wider region. San Francisco, which is Spanish for "Saint Francis," takes its name from Mission San Francisco de Asís , which in turn was named after Saint Francis of Assisi . The mission received its name in 1776, when it was founded by the Spanish under the leadership of Padre Francisco Palóu . The city has officially been known as San Francisco since 1847, when Washington Allon Bartlett , then serving as
29340-455: Was a 94% to 6% split in market share between the NES and the Master System, in Nintendo's favor. The NES sold 1.1 million units in North America during 1986 , much more than the Master System (125,000) and Atari 7800 (100,000) combined. By 1990 , Nintendo had a 93% North American market share, followed by Sega with a 3.8% share, NEC with 1.3% and Atari with 1.1% share. Nintendo maintained its North American lead through 1991 , when it had
29520-415: Was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill , and a thriving arts scene. The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904 . At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across
29700-425: Was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater . In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations and in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers . After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration , liberalizing attitudes,
29880-406: Was a redesigned version of the SG-1000. It was engineered by the same team, including Hideki Sato and Masami Ishikawa, who had worked on the II and later led development of the Sega Genesis . According to Sato, the console was redesigned because of the limitations of the TMS9918 graphics chip in the SG-1000, which did not have the power for the kinds of games Sega wanted to make. The Mark III's chip
30060-434: Was also concern that a new town being planned by General Vallejo on the Carquinez Strait was to be called "Francisca", after the first name of his wife. After the name change to "San Francisco", the name of Vallejo's town was changed to Benicia , after his wife's middle name. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Alta California was ceded from Mexico to the United States . Despite its attractive location as
30240-411: Was also successful in Brazil, where it was distributed by Tectoy and launched in September 1989. Tectoy, a Brazilian toy company startup focused on electronic toys, reached out to Sega about distributing their products. Despite hesitation given the situation with Tonka in the US, Tectoy was eventually given liberty to manage Sega products in Brazil. Their success distributing Sega's laser tag gun based on
30420-469: Was at the height of the Great Depression that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge , completing them in 1936 and 1937, respectively. It was in this period that the island of Alcatraz , a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone , and Robert Franklin Stroud ,
30600-412: Was centered on a plaza that is now Portsmouth Square . A land survey of Yerba Buena was made by the Swiss immigrant Jean Jacques Vioget as prelude to the city plan. Francisco de Haro , a non- Californio Mexican native, became the first alcalde of Yerba Buena. The second alcalde José Joaquín Estudillo was a Californio from a prominent Monterey family. In 1835, while in office, he approved
30780-477: Was designed in-house, based around the unit in Sega's System 2 arcade system board . The Sega Mark III was released in Japan in October 1985 at a price of ¥15,000. Though its hardware was more powerful than the Famicom, the Mark III was not successful on launch. Problems arose from Nintendo's licensing practices with third-party developers, whereby Nintendo required that games for the Famicom not be published on other consoles. Sega developed its own games and obtained
30960-536: Was drafted and signed in San Francisco in 1945 and, in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers . Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s involved widespread destruction and redevelopment of west-side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways , of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by citizen-led opposition . The onset of containerization made San Francisco's small piers obsolete, and cargo activity moved to
31140-437: Was granted a small rancho at El Polín Spring , near the Presidio, founding the first non-indigenous civilian household in San Francisco. In 1834, the pueblo of Yerba Buena was founded. Yerba Buena Cove (named after a native herb ) was already a favored anchorage spot and the new settlement and trading post was founded by its shores. Yerba Buena was located in what is now the city's Chinatown and Financial District and
31320-465: Was hired by San Francisco Mayor James Rolph as chief engineer for the city in September 1912 to supervise the construction of the Twin Peaks Reservoir, the Stockton Street Tunnel , the Twin Peaks Tunnel , the San Francisco Municipal Railway , the Auxiliary Water Supply System , and new sewers. San Francisco's streetcar system, of which the J , K , L , M , and N lines survive today, was pushed to completion by O'Shaughnessy between 1915 and 1927. It
31500-433: Was installed as CEO. Sega released another console, the SG-1000 II, featuring several hardware alterations, including detachable controllers. Nakayama and Sega co-founder David Rosen arranged a management buyout with financial backing from CSK Corporation and installed CSK CEO Isao Okawa as chairman. Hoping to better compete with Nintendo, Sega released another console, the Sega Mark III, in Japan in 1985. The Mark III
31680-424: Was intending to compete in both the console and personal computer markets, with a home computer version called the SC-3000 released at the same time. Meanwhile, Nintendo focused on making the Famicom more powerful than competing home systems so that it would be comparable to their Donkey Kong (1981) arcade video game hardware, while at the same time selling it for cheaper than the Cassette Vision, selling
31860-454: Was much tougher for the NES, which was trailing behind the Master System up until 1990, despite the former's hegemony of the North American and Japanese markets. NES sales began picking up from about 1990, after which sales were more evenly split between the NES and Master System through 1994; the NES eventually overtook the Master System in Western Europe by a narrow margin, though the Master System maintained its lead in several markets such as
32040-428: Was persuaded to change companies because Sega would allow him to start his new office in San Francisco . He chose the name "Sega of America" for his division because he had worked for Nintendo of America and liked the combination of words. Initially, Sega of America was tasked with repackaging the Mark III for a Western release. Sega of America rebranded the Mark III as the Master System, similar to Nintendo's reworking of
32220-473: Was released alongside the Famicom, making them the first two consoles of the third generation. While it did not sell as well as other consoles of the generation, it was considered important to the development of Sega as a console manufacturer. The Famicom, released on July 15, 1983, in Japan and in the North American region in October 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), is an 8-bit cartridge-based console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It became
32400-410: Was the O'Shaughnessy Dam , Hetch Hetchy Reservoir , and Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct that would have the largest effect on San Francisco. An abundant water supply enabled San Francisco to develop into the city it has become today. In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash , not a single San Francisco-based bank failed. Indeed, it
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