171-5926A Board Info

This is the sole board revision for the NTSC Sega Master System II and the original revision of the French Master System II. It is the first version of the Master System hardware in NTSC regions to use the 315-5246 VDP, which has a different chip package than the previous 315-5124 and also has an extra-height video mode (ultimately seldom-used). Although much of the core hardware remains from the model 1, a number of features were removed in order to reduce production costs, such as the Sega Card slot (also meaning no 3-D glasses compatibility), expansion port, power LED and Reset button. On NTSC consoles, only the RF output was retained, meaning that the console must be modified in order to output composite video or RGB. French consoles continued to only feature RGB output, which comes directly from the VDP and requires the use of the Adapteur R.V.B. SCART cable as with the French model 1. All other video circuitry, including the video encoder, was omitted in French consoles.

The NTSC variant was only manufactured for a brief period in late 1990, as the Master System already had a very low market share in North America and sales continued to dwindle by that point. Sega used this board revision in France from 1991 until mid-1993, replacing it with a mild (and extremely short-lived) revision that added a 2 megabit (256 kilobyte) BIOS ROM featuring Sonic the Hedgehog.

All boards have the silkscreened text SEGA IC BD M4Jr. VA1 at the lower left corner and 837-7275 at the lower right.

Parts List

All resistors are 1/6 W.