The terminal is part of the action
The gun opens the way, but the terminal decides whether you can leave. Finding symbols and entering commands makes each room a small investigation. As the base grows, remembering the route matters as much as surviving the guards. Rescuing companions brings different movement abilities into the same spaces, making an earlier obstacle worth another look.
Sega released Zillion for Mark III in 1987. Its manual explicitly encourages paper notes and supplies a map to fill in, placing some of the work outside the television screen. The combination of shooting, terminal commands and route planning broadens the account of action games on the system.
Keep the manual’s command reference close and record the route through the base. A short session can still teach useful rooms, but losing that knowledge makes the next attempt unnecessarily repetitive. Treat the final escape as part of the route you are learning.
Why we chose it for Master System
Terminals, notes and a growing mental map give its infiltration a pace quite different from a straight run-and-gun.
Explore this console’s game selection ↗Release record
Original worldwide release: 1987. Release records above identify the console editions covered by this collection.
Sources and further reading2 references
- ソフトウェア一覧 | セガ・マークⅢ ↗SEGA · Accessed 2026-10-27
Japanese Mark III and Master System release catalogue. These dates are not worldwide launches.
- Zillion — US instruction manual ↗SEGA; transcription hosted by SMS Power! · Accessed 2026-10-27
Original manual documents symbol commands, character abilities, the base map, floppy disks and escape. Its vague playtime language is not turned into an estimate.
