A hardware revision of the SG-1000, the SG-1000 II was launched on the 31st of July 1984 after the discontinuation of the SG-1000. This console was the result of a management buyout of the SEGA division at Gulf and Western. Gulf and Western’s company structure began to divert from what it redeemed, “non-core businesses” and this enabled Hayao Nakayama and David Rosen to lead a buyout with additional financial backing from CSK Corporation. Nakayama would then lead the now newly minted Sega Enterprises, Ltd as CEO and the SG-1000 II would be the first console release from this new company. The SG-1000 II features a new design and 2 detachable controllers compared to the original which had 1 hardwired controller and a single connection for another. The SG-1000 II would be discontinued in October 1985. It was fully compatible with the SG-1000’s 68 cartridge releases. There are also 26 cartridge releases that require an additional keyboard peripheral. These titles are also fully compatible with the SC-3000 home computer.

Specifications

CPU
Zilog Z80 @ 3.58 MHz

Graphics
256 × 192 resolution, 16 colors, 32 on-screen sprites

Sound
Texas Instruments SN76489A

RAM
1 KB RAM

Storage
ROM cartridge