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Sega Master System u/lightgunlou ·

Why did Sega Master System games sound so much better in Japan than in the US?

I was comparing a Japanese Master System game to the US release of what I thought was the same game and the Japanese version has way richer, almost orchestral sounding music while the American one is thin and beepy. Isn't it the same hardware?
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3 comments

  • u/pixelrot ·
    It's not quite the same hardware. The Japanese Master System had a Yamaha YM2413 FM sound chip built into the console, on top of the regular PSG chip (a variant of the Texas Instruments SN76489) that both versions share. Games that were written to detect and use that FM chip get much fuller, richer music on Japanese hardware. Sega left the FM chip out of the Western Master System to save on cost, so the same game on a US or European console falls back to PSG-only sound, which is why it sounds so much thinner.
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  • u/dpad_dan ·
    It goes back even further than the Master System itself. The earlier Japan-only Sega Mark III originally shipped without any FM chip, and Sega sold a separate FM Sound Unit add-on for it that plugged in below the console. When the Japanese Master System came out shortly after, Sega just built that same FM chip straight into the console instead of selling it separately, while the Western Master System dropped it entirely.
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  • u/crtfilterhater ·
    Worth knowing if you're comparing games yourself: not every Master System game actually supports the FM chip, so plenty of Japanese carts sound identical to their US counterparts. It's mostly the later, more music-heavy titles where you'll notice the difference.
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