Sega Master System

[son_ov_hades]

I'm curious about this system. I've never played one, or even seen one in person. What's it like? How are the games, controllers, etc.? How does it stack up against the NES/Famicom?

EDIT: I realized this is in the wrong forum, if an admin wants to move this to "Other Gaming" it would be much appreciated.

[Paul-FC]

i kinda not sure about the system but whatever you do DONT GET STREET FIGHTER 2 FOR IT!!!
its just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad

[son_ov_hades]

Srsly?

[133MHz]

I've got a Sega Master System II with Alex Kidd built in, and an Astro Warrior cart. I've been craving for one for a long time and finally got it! I'm looking for a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog for it, pretty awesome gameplay & music.

[GringoJB]

It's pretty crazy... I actually just got one off of eBay about a year ago!  After playing mine, I get the impression that the games are REALLY good or REALLY bad    There's some unique stuff on Master System, though: Like, it's not the greatest game in the world, but I got a copy of Zillion with mine, which is patterned off of some anime that I had never really heard of (I *think*... someone will correct me if I'm wrong I'm sure)

But anyway, I wouldn't mind getting ahold of some of the games that worked in the SMS's card slot, just out of curiosity.  Oh yeah, and the missing connector piece for the 3-D glasses that I got with it!  Nice descriptive auction there 

[Paul-FC]

Srsly?

really http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtzBy7qrDQg

[133MHz]

That's actually pretty decent for an 8 bit system!
Those ports of newer games were done by Tec Toy, the Brazilian official Sega distributor, since the Sega Master System enjoyed a great deal of success in Brazil, they ported popular games and even made new ones based on Brazilian TV & comic book characters.

I don't like those games either, but they squeeze the limited capabilities of the hardware very nicely.
In fact the Mortal Kombat series for the Master System is much worse. Jerkier movements and stuff.

[son_ov_hades]

That's the best 8-bit Street Fighter 2 port I've seen. If you want to see bad look at the Commodre 64 port, just terrible. I actually want a Master System to play SF2 now haha.

[manuel]

This looks great for an 8Bit console. 

C64 version looks funny:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xhfTm4-kFw

On the Sinclair, too? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2nEFAI-F10

[Paul-FC]

i LOVE the amiga port!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3GOCJRHJkg&feature=related

[Stan]

I have a huge love for the SMS, not because it was the underdog, but because after I learned about it, especially the huge PAL market with a ton of awesome games, I learned exactly how awesome it was.  Simply put, the NTSC market sucked.  I wrote an article about it once and interviewed one of the guys who used to work for Sega back in the SMS days.  Nintendo just wasn't operating a legal business at the time, and it seriously hampered the SMS' role in the states.  Elsewhere, however, it was awesome.  Brazil had a number of obscure games released almost up to 2000 and they even still release SMS sytems there.  One great thing is that there isn't a lock-out chip to worry about, so all but about 5 games (which all pretty much suck anyway) will work on an NTSC unit.  If you want to learn more, join the big boys: www.smstributes.co.uk  I'm currently working on a programming guide and we're about to add a development section to the forum and site for our first project, Ultima III.

[FamicomFreak]

I would love to learn about the PAL games that weren't released in NTSC. I always wanted one but I haven't gotten lucky at the goodwill stores yet.

[133MHz]

Check out Brazilian games for the SMS.

[Stan]

There are a few Brazilian games of mention like Baku Baku and Ren and Stimpy.  The Battletoads game was decent as well.  PAL games like Asterix and Psychic World are incredible.  Go to our site and check it out, there's a lot of stuff still in the works, but it's pretty damn complete in general.

[djdac]

Sega master system has some real good looking games. But the sound chip is inferior to the nes sound chip. The d-pad on the Master System controller isn't so great, and makes some games harder to control.  The pause and reset buttons are not even on the controller, they're on the system! Overall its a cool lil system.