SMS -- Too bad it didnt do better stateside...

[Inky]

I had a Sega Master system "back in the day" and what can one say? It is technically superior in almost every way to the more popular NES...

 

 

Recently I downloaded a torrent of roms, and got an emulator...

 

What I DIDNT know is that the SMS had a great collection of arcade titles released overseas... I was floored to find titles like Rampart, and almost arcade perfect Gauntlet, and many more!

 

 

I now want to get an SMS again. ITs really kicked major boo-tay

[Technosis]

I had a Sega Master system "back in the day" and what can one say? It is technically superior in almost every way to the more popular NES...

 

 

Recently I downloaded a torrent of roms, and got an emulator...

 

What I DIDNT know is that the SMS had a great collection of arcade titles released overseas...

 

Yeah once again a nice system gets buried by the popularity of a competitor. There are many examples of overseas markets getting games we can only dream of..............

[8th lutz]

I know how good the Euro sms games are. Nintendo's 3rd party policy prevented the sms being more popular in the states.

 

The cool thing is most Euro sms games can be played on a North America sms like Xenon 2: Megablast.

[PressureCooker2600]

I had a SMS instead of an NES back in the day. No one else had one.....they all had Nintendos. It made it hard to talk about video games cause they never knew what the hell game I was talking about. I still LOVE the SMS. It has some of my favorite games on it.....and memories that will last forever.

 

One of my favorite games ever that never gets old is Black Belt. I used to play that game and beat it once a day. It can be beat in about 15 minutes, if you know all the techniques on fighting the various bosses. Still the best SMS game and wonderful music.

 

Other favorites are My Hero, Ghost House, Ghostbusters, Great Basketball, Double Dragon, Hang On, Safari Hunt, Gangster Town, and Dead Angle.

[BydoEmpire]

Yep, it was a great system. Home of the best arcade ports: Afterburner, Golden Axe, Shinobi... Home of the best light gun games: Rescue Mission, Rambo III... Home of a boatload of quirky original titles: Penguin Land, Alex Kidd, Zillion... and of course, Home of Phantasy Star.

 

I ended up selling my original SMS many years ago (don't remember, probalby when the Genny came out - I did have the PBC for a while), but I got another on ebay for cheap a couple years ago.

[Inky]

Ghostbusters, Double Dragon, Hang On, Safari Hunt,

 

 

I was totally floored at how good Ghostbusters was...

 

 

 

I was always a fan of the Fantasy Zone games.

 

 

And SpaceHarrier on it was surprisingly good as well, given the systems limitations.

[PressureCooker2600]

My fav version of Ghostbusters.....definately.

 

Also....if you ever have a chance, get the 3D glasses and some 3D games like Space Harrier, Outrun, and Maze Hunter.

 

Some cool shit.

 

Best version of Shinobi. Period.

[Inky]

My fav version of Ghostbusters.....definately.

 

Also....if you ever have a chance, get the 3D glasses and some 3D games like Space Harrier, Outrun, and Maze Hunter.

 

Some cool shit.

 

Best version of Shinobi. Period.

 

 

I had the glasses... Wasnt too keen on Zaxxon, but absolutely loved Missle Defense 3-D.

 

 

And I second the opinon on Shinobi!

[superjudge3]

You know why the SMS didn't do as well as the NES? There weren't as many good games for it! Not as many "super hits" like Super Mario Bros 1,2, 3, Zelda, Megaman, Castlevania, Kirby, you get my point.

 

Although the action, fighting, and racing games were better usually.

 

Sure, there were a lot of great games, but no where near the number of great NES titles. Same thing with the Genesis and SNES. I don't know why, but Nintendo always had a higher ratio of excellent titles.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the SMS, but I played my NES way more.

[2600Lives]

Seconded. The SMS was a DAMN good system. I picked up mine back in '95, right after I moved away from home. Got a Master System Converter (later I would get an actual SMS), and 50 some odd games for 30 bucks (some of the games were repeats, but I had to take it all or nothing). LOVE it. Phantasy Star still rules to this day. I will say that some of the games are REALLY lame, but for the most part, it was a great system with some great games. I still have never finished Golden Axe Warrior (and my save is STILL on the battery, after 12 years!), but pull it out every once in a while just to see if I can get any farther.

[Video]

I never understood the hype behind the SMS. Yeah, it's got it's specs on the box, and they do indeed look better. But...it may be how the PSX could push about twice the polys of the 64 (when sony ignores the facts, they're stating bare polys against 64's textured/shaded polys)

 

But when you played the games, there was clearly little, or no difference in them. And in many similar games, the SMS actually ran slower, had more flicker....crashed, all quiet a bit more than the nes. Then again, probably because of it's lack of popularity over all.

 

But damn, the Glasses, that's the coolest periphrial ever. And the idea behind two mediums, so you could have two price ranges of games was always IMO a good Idea *just to bad the card games useually sucked ass)

[NE146]

Let me just say that I was one of the rare birds amongst people I talk to who had both an SMS and an NES in my college dormitory. What can I say, I didn't like to be limited after being burned as a kid during the 5200 vs. Colecovision wars (I had a 5200). It was cool going to the stores and having the full libraries available then coming home with a copy of Golvellius & Megaman

 

Anyway, my true and honest opinion back then was I always felt better about NES games. It's hard to find something on the SMS that compared with the NES's best.. like Megaman 2. Also SMS games all had that sickeningly sweet "synth" music that sounded like it came from a childs keyboard. I also had problems with the SMS pad being hard to control.

 

That being said, there is NOTHING on the NES that can even come close to Phantasy Star. Also the SMS had the only port of R-Type around at the time. It was also the console I played and finished Y's on.

 

I enjoyed both.. really really enjoyed both of them. But I can see how the NES came out on top for sure.

[2600Lives]

Yeah, I will say that overall, I enjoyed the NES a lot more. The SMS was one of those systems that had some DAMN fine games, but overall, it was the mediocre and crappy stuff like Rocky that did it in. Still, Psycho Fox is one of the finest 8-bit platformers ever created. On the other hand, games like Kung-Fu Kid are some of the WORST games ever created.

[thomasholzer]

Yep, for once Europe (and AUS) got a better and bigger cartridge range than US with a gaming console. And it had actually beaten the NES in popularity.

Edited September 22, 2007 by thomasholzer

[Atarifever]

But when you played the games, there was clearly little, or no difference in them. And in many similar games, the SMS actually ran slower, had more flicker....crashed, all quiet a bit more than the nes. Then again, probably because of it's lack of popularity over all.

Yeah they look the same: if you stomp on the Master System game and insert the broken pieces into the system. Master System versions of games look much better, especially in motion.

[Atarifever]

I had an NES first and got a SMS late in the game. The minute I got the Master System I pretty much stopped playing the NES altogether. How anyone could favour the NES is beyond me.

[SINGLE TOOTH]

I remember around '93 I went into a used game shop, and saw all of these wacky game boxes that were white with blue lines all over them. Upon further inspection, I noticed the name Sega. I could not understand what these games were, becuase the only Sega system I ever heard of was the Genesis.

 

 

In, my town, all of the obscure systems were never seen on a shelf. I have only heard of other systems, and heard rumors and seen commercials, but never seen games or systems at a store. Although, that one store was the only store to have Jaguar shit.

 

Even 3do, I never saw one for sale new.

[bretthorror]

My main problem with the Sega Master System was the flicker. It seemed much worse than the NES.

 

But, my story goes like this. For reasons unknown, my older cousin had a SMS rather than an NES. I remember playing Double Dragon on it mostly, along with Safari Hunt. I actually think I asked for a SMS for Christmas when I was 5, but I got an NES. But, it seems as though I knew I was getting a Nintendo, so my mind is playing tricks on me somewhere. Either way, my cousin traded that SMS for an NES and I was always pissed at him for that because it was probably the first console I ever played.

 

And, he got a Genesis later on, which I copied as well.

 

Last year, I bought a SMS on Ebay, but I haven't really used it because I made some dumb mistakes when buying one. I bought a lot with Double Dragon, and it had no Phaser and an RF unit instead of a/v. I can't stand playing with rf (my tv doesn't accept it well ). And, now that I have SMSPlus running on my Dreamcast that can take the flicker out, it's all but eliminated it from my playing schedule. I may track down a Phaser, just to play Safari Hunt. My cousin swore I broke his light gun when I was a kid because I sat too close to the TV when using it. Not sure if that is a way to wreck them or not. My Zapper still works to this day and it was treated the same, so...

[Quadhorn]

Whilst we're on the subject of the first console I ever owned (the A2600 was technically owned by my parents until years later) can someone answer a (possibly dumb) question for us: as the core hardware of the SMS is the same as that of the SG-1000 Mk. III (just repackaged...?) and the SG-1000 Mk.III was backwards compatible with the SG-1000 (the one Sega console I don't own) - would it be possible to build a simple adapter for the SMS to allow it to run SG-1000 games? Would an SMS be able to run SG-1000 games from an SMS Flash cart?

[kevincal]

All I know is, back in Christmas 1989, my sister and I made absolutely sure to mom and dad that we DIDN'T want an "Atari" or a "Sega"...lol. We needed a Nintendo! This was when we were pretty much brand new to videogames and we had played SMB/Duck Hunt at our Aunt's house, and we were floored by how great it was... I've never owned a Master System, but I did choose to buy the Genesis over the SNES in the early 90's, and of course the Genesis rocks so...ya. I have heard a lot of good things about the Master system on the internet too.

[shadow460]

The closest thing I've got to an SMS is my Game Gear that I've had since 1996. I've got a NES for about two years.

That Game Gear has gotten a whole heck of a lot more play time in the last two years than the NES has.

[Video]

But when you played the games, there was clearly little, or no difference in them. And in many similar games, the SMS actually ran slower, had more flicker....crashed, all quiet a bit more than the nes. Then again, probably because of it's lack of popularity over all.

Yeah they look the same: if you stomp on the Master System game and insert the broken pieces into the system. Master System versions of games look much better, especially in motion.

Sure, when you play it on an emulator (whcih does nifty things like remove flicker, and increase speed) then that's absolutely true. Well...other than the "much" part of it. Hell, even the GameGear didn't look 'much' better than the NES, and it was running at least four times the colors (though I can't think of any games that look it.

 

I'm talking real hardware, and no rosey glasses here.

[PressureCooker2600]

I've had the SMS since it came out and I've never had any gmes freeze on me......and never any flicker that I can remember. No slowdown, either.....although some games, I believe the controls were supposed to be slow.

 

And whoever said the card games suck......

 

Just kidding....but of the three I have: My Hero and Ghost House are among the best games on the SMS.

 

I hear a lotta people talk shit about Ghost House sucking ass, but I never understood the criticism. That game was deep and awesome. Cool music and characters. Just awesome.

[Artlover]

I've never had a SMS or even played one. Only have used it in emulation, and I dunno if it's a good example or not. When I play Sonic The Hedgehog, it looks like graphics are missing. There is no chain on the swinging platforms. Backgrounds seem to be more like highlights on mountains that aren't there. But I did some checking, and watched some youtube videos and looked at screenshots, and it seems like that's the way it is really is.

 

{Sigh}

 

I like Sega and all, but I started with the Genesis, and maybe that makes me biased, and maybe I'm a gfx whore, but I can't really get into the SMS now. It's disappointing to me. More so then the NES is today, which makes it even more disappointing because I know the SMS is technicaly superior to the NES in every way. I think I've just played all the wrong games on it or something.

 

{Please don't hit me!}

[yuppicide]

I didn't mind the SMS, but honestly I hate every system Sega put out. I had a NES when it first came out. My friend around the corner got an SMS and tried to pretend it was better, but it wasn't. The games he had weren't that great (I forget what ones) but being that more people had NES we never played his SMS much.

 

The Genesis's controllers were horrible in control and shape. I hate the games for that system.

 

With the exception of the Genesis all of their systems seemed to be a flop. Look how long the Dreamcast came out. Look how easy it was to copy games for when it was supposedly harder to do due to the GD-ROM. My friend and I pre-ordered a Dreamcast. I never went to pick mine up. He had his and when I went back next time (wasn't that long) he had about 75 games copied.