Opinions on the Sega Master System
I have been on a bit of a console buying spree and mostly have been picking up some under rated systems like the turbografx and such. I was flipping around some local craigslist ads and bottom of one ad I saw side note about how they had a master system and a few fun but nothing special games. I did give the racketboy pages a quick read but I have never ran into one before so is there anything I should watch out for?
It has a ton of shovelware, and the few games worth having have better versions on the Genesis. Put the money you have into Turbo investments. Nintendo had all the good and great developers on their side, it never had a chance to gain any real ground. The best game on it Id say is either Alex Kid In Shinobe World or Street Fighter 2.
Edit: Oh yeah....THOSE WHITE BOXES ARE FREAKIN UGLY AS HELL!
Last edited by IHatedSega; 02-13-2013 at 11:51 PM.
I've never found any games that were really engaging on the SMS. They seem a little more simplistic than NES games. I've got a decent little selection of titles, a good amount of which I haven't ever played since none of the games I've tried over the years have made me feel excited to pull the system out of storage. Put your emphasis on getting Turbo games, it'll be more rewarding in the long run.
I love the system, but if you are planning on staying within the boundaries of North American Releases, you are not going to find much, maybe 10 Gems in total. The majority of the best games were only released in Europe, and the best and rarest titles were only released by Tec Toy in Brazil. Master Systems are region free, the only Euro games that DO NOT work are Back to the Future III and The Jungle Book.
I highly recommend Zool, Smash TV, Submarine Attack, Sonic Blast, Fire & Ice, Battlemaniacs, Bonkers Wax Up, Dynamite Headdy, Ren & Stimpy, Golden Axe Warrior, Mickeys Ultimate Challenge, Master of Darkness, Ys, All the WonderBoys, Spiderman Return of the Sinister Six, Robocop 3, and The Smurfs.
Honestly though, if you dont want to import any games, or spend the cash on them (majority of decent titles range from $30-$300 CIB) then I dont think the Master System is for you.
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For the Master System get an NTSC (US or JP) console, then focus on PAL games (JP console will need an adapter). Brazil releases are too expensive.
Generally a PAL console isn't recommended. Everyone knows how bad 50hz tends to suck.
Model 1 is easiest to achieve peak video quality with, since it has factory RGB.
Be warned if getting a non-JP system, if you care about piracy, methods such as flash carts or similar are mandatory to play Mark III and SG-1000 cart games (a BIOS mod should only allow JP card slot games).
There currently is no successful pin adapter to play Japanese cart games using western hardware!
Turbografx? Stick to the Japanese model. Far larger library, etc.
Last edited by theclaw; 02-14-2013 at 12:10 AM.
Lum fan.
I love the SMS! Sure there are some terrible games on it like the Great sport series and Alex Kidd in High Tech World but there are amazing titles like the first Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Wonderboy III. I usually find that these games are much cheaper then the more collectable ones on NES too so I had no problem finding a huge set of games in a short amount of time.
If you're willing to dig for the good-to-great titles, there's a lot of worthwhile stuff on the SMS. I personally don't think it's worth it to hunt down stuff that was also ported to the Genesis, but there are some decent exclusives:
Golvellius: Valley of Doom is a quirky adventure / shooter hybrid from Compile.
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap is a fantastic side-scrolling adventure game (In general, keep an eye out for all the Wonder Boy in Monster Land games on the Master System and Genesis as it's a fantastic and underrated series.)
Golden Axe Warrior is a very well done Zelda clone worth checking out, but it might cost you a pretty penny.
And the only game I'd implore you import is the Master System version of Ninja Gaiden. It's not an NES or arcade port, but a completely different game made from scratch by Sega. Leaps and bounds better than the Shinobi arcade port on the SMS.
And arcade ports that are worth your time include a surprisingly accurate port of R-Type, an extremely playable port of Rastan and the most accurate port of Double Dragon until the GBA version.
Excellent machine, far better software when compared to NES, but this time around, the better software comes from Europe. One of the few machines actually where the software is worth collecting from Europe. And Europe games work fine on US machines too.
Unlike the NES were you always play the same games over and over (and they all look the same), the SMS has a far greater variety of titles.
Last edited by tom; 02-14-2013 at 05:15 AM.
Actually I enjoy the Master System. The games I'd recommend are Psycho Fox, Phantasy Star, any of the Alex Kidd games and a fun RPG-ish game called Miracle Warriors: Seals of the Dark Lord.
The SMS is the forgotten child in my collection. I only have a half dozen games and of those, there are only three that I play regularly. Problem is my SMS seems to be on the fritz and I'm not big on fixing it. Would prefer to just get a power base adapter down the road but its not a high priority at all. I do love Rampage, probably the best port on the classic consoles.
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This will sound like a contradiction but it is a fun system yet I'm parting it off right now as I can't find time for it anymore. I agree with the list of games up top with the pics, they're sweet. Castle of Illusion with Mickey Mouse is a really nice one too as I'd wonderboy 2, Alex Kidd in shinobi world, wonderboy 3, columns, and sonic which is a game gear port. On sonic there's quite a few more in Europe that are fun, and the Europeans have great titles like master of darkness, streets of rage 1&2, another Illsuion Mickey game...Donald duck stuff too, and either place great arcade games like rastan, rampage, double dragon, and sega stuff like shinobi, outrun, fantasy zone and more. I wish I had time still but I have a 15mo old and I'm just scaling back. Down to 18 games from 39 which was even higher than that before.
The Sega Master System is the only console with an ALF game!
Just don't pay too much money for it, and you will probably be happy. Different versions had different built in games, but that really doesn't make too much of a difference. They seem to be pretty sturdy, I have a couple and haven't seen any problems.
Lately I've seen some pretty cheap ones on Craigslist, $20-30.
And for some reason I really like the game boxes.
Stick to the exclusives like phantasy star and spellcaster and you'll probably enjoy it. Most games released in the us have better ports elsewhere, as segas strategy was to port a lot of arcade games over to it. Mos of the light gun games are worth checking out.
If you can get it for a decent price I would get one. I have been a NES collector for a very long time, but I also enjoy the SMS. It is different, fun to play, and to collect for in my opinion. If you are looking for something different like you mentioned go for it. I look at the better ports argument like this. There are better ports of Donkey Kong than the 2600 version, but that does not mean I wont play it on the 2600: just saying.
I loved the Master System - it has a lot of excellent games, and a lot of unique stuff. It also has, imho, the best collection of light gun games of any console. Rescue Mission alone is worth it.
It's got great action/puzzlers like Penguin Land.
It's got some really amazing arcade ports like Shinobi (one of the best arcade ports of all time, imho).
It's got amazing original titles like Kenseiden.
It's got some true classics like Phantasy Star and Alex Kidd in Miracle World.
It doesn't have a million games in each genre, but it does have a lot of ground covered. Even though the US library was smaller, there are still a lot of games worth owning on the system. IMHO, definitely worth buying if you like quirky, original games and 8-bit arcade ports.
If you can't do it with 8 bits, you don't need to do it!
I figured I would get a mixed bag of answers but I think I am going to pick it up tonight. As a extra plus this will complete my sega consoles. I still need the genesis add ons though. I think my local game store has had the same few master system games for years so I might be able to make a deal with them. It's sad how long some of that sega stuff will sit.
I can see where your username came from now...Originally Posted by IHatedSega
The Master System is a great system, and it's library is pretty extensive if you include european games.
Most of the best games are arcade ports, so they are largely ignored these days, but there are some great exclusives as well.
The Master System is a console that, if you were one of the rare kids in North America to have one rather than an NES, you probably adore it, but if you did have an NES back then, then you understand why the Master System got totally crushed in the marketplace. Far fewer games, and not a lot at the level of quality as stuff like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Mega Man, and all the other NES hits (not to mention the immense amount of hidden gems on NES). That said, I am glad I have a Master System these days, despite that I very rarely play it. I have a small collection, with a handful of nice titles. It's not a system I'd go out of my way to get, though. I only have it because I was coming across Master System games at various thrifts, which I picked up just for the novelty of it and because they were cheap, and then I came across the system at another thrift for 10 bucks. For the little investment of money and effort I put in, it was worth adding it to my collection, and I look forward to hopefully coming across more games in the wild and expanding my collection but I doubt I'll ever get on eBay or whatever to purposely track down titles.
Oh, and you'll get a lot of recommendations for the Wonder Boy games on Master System, and while they're good games, if you want the best versions, don't bother with the Master System renditions. Pick them up for Turbo Duo/PC Engine or Genesis.
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