SMS "Secret Game" Question

[VicViper]

I have had a couple of master systems over the years, and I have NEVER been able to get the secret snail maze game to work on any of them. Everything I've read says hold A & B while pressing up on the D pad, then reset the system. Do some of these master systems (USA) not have this game built in? the current version I have boots up with just Hang-on built in.

[Austin]

I don't remember the command, but I don't believe you reset system. The screen should shift over and the snail maze game will appear. If you have a system with another game built in though, I don't think the snail game is available.

Edited August 25, 2011 by Austin

[jmetal88]

Yeah, Snail Maze is only available on the systems that boot up to the 'insert cartridge and reset' instructions/welcome screen.

 

I think mine has that screen, but I haven't used it in a while (and I didn't know about the hidden game 'til last week), so I'm not entirely sure.

[Spoon]

I can get that to work on mine just fine. But I don't hit reset. I hold up, A, and B, and then hit the power switch. Works every time.

[BassGuitari]

If you have a system with another game built in though, I don't think the snail game is available.

 

My Master System has both. Entering the command gets you into Snail Maze; if you power it up with no cartridge and leave it alone, you get Hang-On.

 

[zylon]

Hold up and both buttons on controller for snail maze on regular SMS decks. On ones with built-in games(except Missile Defense ed version), hold up and both buttons while powering on and continue to hold until system loads.

[VicViper]

Man, everything you guys are saying is what I've been doing, will hang-on pop up, then go to snail maze if I continue to hold the buttons?

[Chuck D. Head]

Does anyone know if it is possible to flash another game in there in place of the preloaded one? I would assume that, at the least, someone has tried this.

[BassGuitari]

On ones with built-in games(except Missile Defense ed version), hold up and both buttons while powering on and continue to hold until system loads.

 

On mine, I don't need to hold the buttons down while I'm powering it on. But the command does need to be entered no later than a second or two after powering on, or else it goes to Hang-On.

 

 

Man, everything you guys are saying is what I've been doing, will hang-on pop up, then go to snail maze if I continue to hold the buttons?

 

No. Snail Maze can only be initialized before another game starts...unless someone out there knows something I don't.

 

It's possible that your Master System may not have Snail Maze at all, although it would be the first time I've heard of that happening. (However, I'm not a Master System expert; there could be many things I've never heard of before in regards to the MS.)

 

[zylon]

There are some systems without snail maze, but so far I've only found 3D systems like that.

BTW: If your system only has Hang-on as a built-in game, it's rather rare. Most had Hang-on & Safari Hunt. I have one of the Hang-on only consoles, but have never tried getting the maze game on it.

Edited August 27, 2011 by zylon

[BrianC]

There are some systems without snail maze, but so far I've only found 3D systems like that.

BTW: If your system only has Hang-on as a built-in game, it's rather rare. Most had Hang-on & Safari Hunt. I have one of the Hang-on only consoles, but have never tried getting the maze game on it.

 

I heard that the Alex Kidd systems lack snail maze.

[DickNixonArisen]

I have had a snail maze only, a 3-d missile defense only, and a hang-on/safari hunt/snail maze. I actually still have the snail maze only one; it's broken. Won't play carts, so I could say it's a "rare snail maze ONLY only we mean it" SMS. Man, it ain't much of a game though.

[zylon]

There are some systems without snail maze, but so far I've only found 3D systems like that.

BTW: If your system only has Hang-on as a built-in game, it's rather rare. Most had Hang-on & Safari Hunt. I have one of the Hang-on only consoles, but have never tried getting the maze game on it.

 

I heard that the Alex Kidd systems lack snail maze.

Never had an NTSC SMS 1 like that to try. NTSC SMS 2's had Alex Kidd and a very, very few had Sonic The Hedgehog.

The snail-maze only consoles are the first and most common ones. They are good to have since they have a slightly higher import compatibility than the others.

[BrianC]

Never had an NTSC SMS 1 like that to try. NTSC SMS 2's had Alex Kidd and a very, very few had Sonic The Hedgehog.

The snail-maze only consoles are the first and most common ones. They are good to have since they have a slightly higher import compatibility than the others.

 

I read the opposite about compatibility at www.smspower.org and www.sega8bit.com. I read the early SMSs without a game (which is the regular one I have) don't play the 8 meg Brazillian games like SF2 or the codemasters games (which even for PAL systems, only work on SMS2 and later SMS1 bios). I also heard the PBC plays some EU games like New Zealand Story that don't work on a US SMS (however, these are PAL optimized games and not really ideal for NTSC anyway).

 

I'm aware of the NTSC SMS2s. I saw the box with Alex Kidd on it at a house that had a SMS1 (don't know what they did with the SMS2). I had a relative in Texas who had a SMS1 with a Hang On and Safari Hunt.

Edited August 29, 2011 by BrianC

[DickNixonArisen]

It's kind of weird how many firmware builds of this one system there are. I can understand having one to show off the 3-D, and one with a normal built in game, but why so many variations?

[VicViper]

UPDATE: I did actually finally get this game to work, it was an issue of timing. Don't hold down the buttons until right AFTER you turn the system on. and after all that, the game is quite terrible . Thanks everyone!

[SlowCoder]

UPDATE: I did actually finally get this game to work, it was an issue of timing. Don't hold down the buttons until right AFTER you turn the system on. and after all that, the game is quite terrible . Thanks everyone!

 

[SlowCoder]

Does anyone know if it is possible to flash another game in there in place of the preloaded one? I would assume that, at the least, someone has tried this.

 

THAT would be very cool. A game like R-Type or Ghouls n' Ghosts ... or Decap Attack would be quite cool as a built-in. I'd suspect that the memory space is probably too small for such games.

[+FujiSkunk]

You can't "flash" older video game console in the sense that you can flash newer devices like modern cell phones or game systems like the 3DS. The system ROMs back then were just that: read-only memory. The best you can do is swap out the chips.

 

It is plausible that you could create your own chip that has a different built-in game. The closest to that I've heard is swapping the BIOS chip in an NTSC Atari 7800, so that it can have built-in Asteroids like the European 7800's do.

Edited August 30, 2011 by FujiSkunk

[SlowCoder]

You can't "flash" older video game console in the sense that you can flash newer devices like modern cell phones or game systems like the 3DS. The system ROMs back then were just that: read-only memory. The best you can do is swap out the chips.

 

It is plausible that you could create your own chip that has a different built-in game. The closest to that I've heard is swapping the BIOS chip in an NTSC Atari 7800, so that it can have built-in Asteroids like the European 7800's do.

 

Yes, I'm aware of that. But new tech makes things like this possible. It just takes someone with the tech know-how to make it happen. Besides, I can dream, can't I?

[+FujiSkunk]

I suppose you could make the system flashable by popping the original chips and replacing them with something flash-based. That still requires a bit of hardware hacking though, more than just creating a new ROM image.