Growing up I knew literally nobody who had a Master System. It just sort of worked out that way. This was in the post-1984 market crash. Everybody my age or older either had Atari or Colecovision or had given up on gaming. Everybody younger than me had or wanted an NES. I recall seeing Master Systems for sale in places like KayBee but never saw one in action. I recall thinking, based on the stark and redundant box art, that the system probably wasn't any good. Must be just a regional thing because seriously nobody I knew had one. Forgetting the system entirely, I honestly believed later on that the Genesis was Sega's first entry into the U.S. market

So it was that I only got into SMS by accident. A few years ago I traded an SNES Gameboy adapter for a Genesis Power Base Converter, and the only reason I did this was because I had recently got my first Genny and was trying to round up some hardware peripherals for it. A few loose common games later I quickly became impressed with the system and spent more time playing SMS games than Genesis ones.

Eventually I got a hold of a real Master System and controllers, and currently have about 30 games for it. SMS is now one of only a few systems (2600 and INTV are the others) for which I will indiscriminately buy games regardless of title or condition.The apparent lack of interest for this system in my part of the country makes this a worthwhile challenge.

I guess the thing that impressed me most about the SMS is when I found out that the Game Gear is actually nothing more than an SMS with its own screen. It says something about Sega's confidence in the platfrom (as well as their apparent frugality) that they were able to squeeze a few more years of production out of it by going the handheld route. I spend just as much time playing SMS games on my Game Gear as I do on the Master System itself. It's nice to have that flexibility.

SMS is good stuff.