I'm astonished no one talked about MSX (which architecture is virtually the same as the Master System).
MSX was a 8-bit computer launched in 1985 that had a great user base (selling 300k units on launch). Its open architecture which originated in Microsoft Japan and ASCII Corp. It had great success also in Europe, Japan, South Korea and others, just like Master System.
This gave companies like Konami, SEGA, Namco, Activision, Taito, ASCII and others a great incentive to develop its famous games for this platform which became predominantly gaming oriented, most units coming already with bundled cartridges and game controllers, particularly MSX Gradiente 1.0.
To port MSX games to Master System was very trivial, given the similarities between both platforms, as follows: Zilog Z80 processor, at 4Mhz, 64kb RAM, 8kb ROM, the only big difference being the video chip.
There are plenty of resources on the Internet and dozens of emulators available and being maintaned. One of the most interesting projects is the recent Alan Cox's Fuzix OS which goal is to "provide a complete System V experience, without the bloat" (https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX).
I know, but Brazil back then had import barriers on computers, cars and most of technological products in favor of national industry.
The first MSX was manufacured and commercialized only after 1985, although we had an Apple II clone (TK 2000, my first computer), ZX and TRS national clones. The first IBM PC/XT clone was lauched in 1985 as well, by Itautec.
MSX was a 8-bit computer launched in 1985 that had a great user base (selling 300k units on launch). Its open architecture which originated in Microsoft Japan and ASCII Corp. It had great success also in Europe, Japan, South Korea and others, just like Master System.
This gave companies like Konami, SEGA, Namco, Activision, Taito, ASCII and others a great incentive to develop its famous games for this platform which became predominantly gaming oriented, most units coming already with bundled cartridges and game controllers, particularly MSX Gradiente 1.0.
To port MSX games to Master System was very trivial, given the similarities between both platforms, as follows: Zilog Z80 processor, at 4Mhz, 64kb RAM, 8kb ROM, the only big difference being the video chip.
There are plenty of resources on the Internet and dozens of emulators available and being maintaned. One of the most interesting projects is the recent Alan Cox's Fuzix OS which goal is to "provide a complete System V experience, without the bloat" (https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX).