Game Gear + Master Convertor = Crap?

[fishsandwich]

All this time I thought many Game Gear games were just Master System games made to fit on a smaller cart.

I read the positive review of the Master System game Master of Darkness here on DP and decided to get it... seems it's a respectible Castlevania clone for the Master System (which never got a real Castlevania game.)

I got it off Ebay and plugged it into my Game Gear since my Master System is currently packed away... blecch! This thing is unplayable! Evey character is way too tiny, everythihg flickers, and it's super-easy to get killed by the flickering, too-tiny enemies.

I happened upon Dracula: Master of Darkness for the Game Gear for a mere $1 at a flea market. It's the same game as Master of Drakness for the SMS, just with "Dracula" in the title... or so I thought. I said to myself "$1 is cheap, even for a crap Game Gear game" so I bought it and left it on my table at home.

Then it disppeared. I saw the cats batting it around on the floor a few days later. "Bitches!" I said, then picked it up and cleaned it up. Then I went ahead and plugged it into my Game Gear for a quick laugh at yucko-ville.

Different game!

Well, it's the SAME game, mostly. The graphical look is certainly the same, the enemies are the same, the music is is the same... but the game is actually playable and fun! For one, the characters are MUCH larger and easier to see. The screen size has been optimized for the squarish Game Gear screen, and the levels have been chopped up a bit.

I have no doubt that Master of Darkness for SMS really IS a great game... IF it's played on the Master System



MASTER SYSTEM
http://www.digitpress.com/dpsightz/segamaster/masterofdarkness.png




GAME GEAR
http://www.juegomania.org/emuladores/gamegear/0/290.jpg


I'm curious to see how other games turned out during the conversion process, and if some developers got lazy and just used Master System code without optimizing it for the Game Gear's different format... I think I'll try the GG version of Earthworm Jim and then compare it to the Master System version.

That is all.


:D

[anagrama]

Yeah, some games are just straight SMS ports, but many of them were re-programmed or optimised for the GG.
Also, the different screen ratio means that other games will have been tweaked to fit it.

[vulcanjedi]

Hmm

My converter is broke and not playing any of my games. But that started me thinking about what games I actually liked playing on it and there were very few. The characters are just too small.

So I don't miss it much.

VJ

[Lord Contaminous]

Don't even try to play Astro warrior with MGC. Light blue small sprites and a overlit screen don't mix.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Don't even try to play R-Type with the Gear Master convertor, my eyes hurt bad

As for the conversions GG --> SMS

Sonic games especially got an odd treatment, much like expanding the size of the screen and such. The upside is you can see more of the level as you roam, but the downside is some enemies and bosses are harder to hit due to the distant.


Yet that Master of Darkness game looks badass, I definitely have to try that out someday.

[sharp]

It completly depended on the game, anyway it was a nice solution to play your Master System games when you were on the road. I persoal only played James Pond II: Robocod a lot with the converter and remember that it was all realy small. But hey I think the mainpoint was that you could take your normal games for use on the road and that was a great deal. I hate to buy a game twice, once for the homeconsole and second for my handheld. So yes the Master Gear has some problems, but back then it saved people quite some bucks. Every advantage has it's disadvantage.

[Immutable]

I only tested the MGC with two different games and had some good luck with those. However, I've heard you could only play 1-playered games on the converter.

[Damon Plus]

Some games that work great are Streets of Rage, Outrun and Sonic 2 (for those who don´t like the small size of the GG port)