Euro Sega Master System games

[slip81]

I just started collecting SMS games and I was wondering if there was any difference between the Euro ones and the US ones, mainly will a Euro cart play in a US machine. Cause I've been searching ebay and most of the auctions I've found for complete SMS games come form the UK, and I don't want to buy them if the won't work in my US SMS.

[Ed Oscuro]

I believe they're the same thing as the NTSC version, and it's just the system that's PAL. Even in the days of the Genesis/SNES PAL games were usually just straight ports, with no adjustments for the foreign video standard. Maybe a couple are reprogrammed for PAL, but I doubt it somehow. The carts are the same size and shape (as far as I can see), so they'll fit into your machine, I'd say.

[Raccoon Lad]

There were a few that were adjusted to run better on PAL machines, but even those should run in a US SMS. There's only 1 I know of that won't run on a US SMS (Back to the future 3), and a few others that require a SMS 2 or a Power Base converter to run, but that's less than half a dozen games.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm. Where does Shadow Dancer, as one of the last great Master System games released, fit into the grand scheme of things? Is it adjusted for PAL (and thus not work correctly on a US system), and can it work on a Power Base or does it require a PB2?

[Raccoon Lad]

it works fine on a US system, but sometimes has an occasional graphics glitch. Barely noticeable.

Really, there's only major compatibility issues with the games that use unique paging chips: The Codemasters games, and the 8 megabit TecToy games like Streetfighter 2 and Virtua Fighter Animation, and 4 PAK all action. All of these will work fine on a US SMS2 or PBC, exept the Codemasters games, which will only work right on a SMS 2.
Also, The Newzealand story will only work right on a PBC.
Everything else works just fine on a US SMS, but a few games might glitch a bit. The worst being AFAIK Bart Vs. the Space Mutants, where barts legs are a weird staticy mess, but otherwise the game works fine.

[Dire 51]

My copy of Shadow Dancer works fine on my PBC.