What Is the Most Under-Rated Console?

[CatPix]

True. Lots of early games on the SMS looks pretty crude and made with a 8 color palette. It might be due that Sega put some Sega SG-1000 games on the European and American line-up to come with a larger game catalog.

Let's not forget that the NES was 3 years old when it came out outside of Japan. Super Mario Bros itseld wasn't a launch title. EArly Famicom games looks very crude and bland.

On the other hand, late SMS and NES games and amazing; some SMS games almsot looks like waterd down Megadrive games :

 

 

[Bill Loguidice]

 

I never saw these. It is possible that by the time I was spending my own lawn mowing money on games that they were already gone. Or maybe my region of the country just didn't have the marketing push. However, if I did see a Kiosk with Super Mario Bros on one side and Hang On on the other, boy that would have been an awful comparison for the SMS.

 

 

 

I have a distinct memory of Zillion playing in an SMS kiosk. That actually was a good one because of the opening cinematic with the large character shooting the gun directly at the viewer. As for SMS commercials, I remember salivating over Phantasy Star, which looked awesome with those 3D dungeons.

[Professor Gull]

 

I have a distinct memory of Zillion playing in an SMS kiosk. That actually was a good one because of the opening cinematic with the large character shooting the gun directly at the viewer. As for SMS commercials, I remember salivating over Phantasy Star, which looked awesome with those 3D dungeons.

I was going to mention Zillion in a Kiosk and I want to say it was a Babbages or Software Etc store. They had the NES the SMS and eventually the TG 16. Not only did they have Zillion running but they also did Blade Eagle 3d with the glasses as well in the one local to me and I thought that was amazing.

[Omega-TI]

The most under-rated console? IMHO that has to be the TI-99/4A. Why?

 

They sold literally boat-loads of those things, but TI wanted to control ALL the available software titles, and even prevented the good third party games from running on their later units. And what of TI's own titles? Most TI games were totally vomit inducing with sub-par graphics. That thing was so limited and locked down, only a small portion of it's users ever really upgraded with it's over-priced components. Then as a final insult, Texas Instruments kicked their loyal users to the curb by ABANDONING the unit and getting out of the consumer market. So, by this point in time, people never saw much from this unit, before it was no longer worth playing with... for decades it was a laughing stock of a 'computer' that barely made it as a 'poor game machine' .

 

Now, fast forward to a couple of years ago... many of the hard-core users and Uber-programmers kept with it, discovered it's hidden secrets, learned how to exploit it architecture and get it to do things NEVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE. Now the TI is starting to bring back old friends, and even new users that are seeing the utter MAGIC being produced by all the talented hardware and software hackers in the TI community.

[+wongojack]

More about the SMS - I just don't know where my head was to not have seen it. Like AT ALL - never knew it existed! I scoured computer catalogs for C64 stuff and Nintendo Power for game ideas all the time back then. I would save my money and ride my bike to the video store to rent games with my friends AND trade games with friends at school. I also spent a fair amount of time agonizing about game purchases in Toys R Us, but I simply never once remember seeing anything Master System related. I probably would have liked it because while I enjoyed some NES games, I never really responded to the Nintendo madness like everyone else. Perhaps discovering Phantasy Star would have changed my life. I'll never know.

[+save2600]

I think the SMS had "decent" coverage or marketing, but could have been better. My brother had one BITD while in his mid teens (still has it actually) and I had an NES. LOVED seeing the way he displayed his boxes on the built in shelves in his room growing up. Will have to dig around and see if I've got any pics of his setup then. Anyway, he had the deluxe set with the phaser and 3D glasses. Compared to the NES, was always impressed by the color palette of the SMS and yes, the RPG games like Phantasy Star, Govellius, Y's, Golden Axe Warrior, etc. were awesome. Never cared for the square thumb pad on the controller though. In games that required precision, was always getting the wrong direction.

 

The one aspect of SMS ownership that I thought was pretty cool, was how he'd send away for tips and hints from Sega. Might have been a magazine or newsletter too, but I remember him getting these pamphlets related to the gameplay of certain games, folding up and keeping inside whatever game case. The clamshell case back then was brilliant too. Easy way to keep your stuff neat, clean and organized, without having to purchase anything extra like cartridge holders, etc. He later did get a SMS cartridge holder, which I thought was strange and now (as in today) all his games are a dusty mess.

[Shinju]

I thought SMS had a pretty superior color pallet then the NES.

Just look at these 2 examples.

Sure some of the early games for both systems were pretty primitive but I felt SEGA had the edge on graphics vs the NES, just like the NES had the advantage over the SMS PGM sounds and even in most cases with the SEGA FM Audio expansion active, NES with the Sunsoft FX, VRC6 and 7 expansions (Lagrange Point) really showed what the NES could do audio wise.

I like both, I have full NTSC-U sets for Both (minus SE for NES) and I play them both about the same.



SMS Solomon Key




NES Solomon Key



Adventure Island / Wonder Boy

[78001987]

Personally, I was never all that impressed by the Master System. The games may have had more colours but a lot of the first party sega games look like they were made in MS paint.

 

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must have been a version of MS paint that had twice the resolution of the nes then. Edited May 16, 2016 by 78001987

[empsolo]

must have been a version of MS paint that had twice the resolution of the nes then.

And yet a good chunk of Sega master system games look very crude, very flat, and have very little texture to them. It was as if sega thought they could sell the system on the amount of colors alone without putting much in the way off effort.

 

And this wasn't just true for a super hang on or an Alex Kidd. Even the 1991 release of Sonic on the Master System looks terrible in comparison to a late NES game.

 

But when Sega did put some effort? Oh dear god, The slow down and flickering.

 

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Edited May 16, 2016 by empsolo

[BassGuitari]

This has been said about the Master System before and I'll say it again: its games looked great in screenshots, often better than NES equivalents. High resolution, incredible detail, a huge palette, etc. But then you actually play them and are greeted with flicker, slowdown, poor framerate, choppy animation, and visually deep backgrounds that were nevertheless flat and often lacked parallax scrolling.

[empsolo]

The Master System is a lot like the Atari 7800. It looks great conceptually on paper. But when you see it in action, it makes you want to return to playing something else. And I like Sonic and Phantasy Star by the by.

 

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[78001987]

Like the wild packs of Hyenas ravaging the veldt killing all the unsuspecting prey, the ceaseless and primitive NES fanboy (Trolliculous Familiarus Nintendicallous) finds its every opportunity to pillage and utterly destroy the habitat of the meek and unjaded Sega fans (Enjoyicus Gamus Friendlious).

 

Does every classic gaming thread have to turn into a dick measuring contest? Really?

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

ColecoVision?

add an SGM, now you're cookin'!

Edited May 17, 2016 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[HoshiChiri]

Does every classic gaming thread have to turn into a dick measuring contest? Really?

 

I thought everything on the internet turned into a dick measuring contest. Go say 'recast' on a BJD forum and watch!

[+FujiSkunk]

To be fair, I'm not a fan of the Master System's audio (the basic audio, not the enhanced audio of the Mark III). Nintendo was smart to include a channel in the NES that could dip further down the frequency spectrum for something that sounded more like real bass. SMS audio developers tried to make up for it by pushing the highs even higher, and it gets difficult to listen to sometimes. Compare Bubble Bobble on both to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

But flicker? Lack of parallax scrolling? "Flat" graphics? That seems awfully nitpicky when many of the NES's biggest hits are guilty of those same "problems".

[atarifanboi]

 

I thought everything on the internet turned into a dick measuring contest. Go say 'recast' on a BJD forum and watch!

It surely does...

[Andromeda Stardust]

Like the wild packs of Hyenas ravaging the veldt killing all the unsuspecting prey, the ceaseless and primitive NES fanboy (Trolliculous Familiarus Nintendicallous) finds its every opportunity to pillage and utterly destroy the habitat of the meek and unjaded Sega fans (Enjoyicus Gamus Friendlious).

 

I agree. This thread needs more Turbo.

 

 

Does every classic gaming thread have to turn into a dick measuring contest? Really?

Go over to the NeoGeo collecting forums. They have the biggest ePeens in all of video game collecting!

[+Cafeman]

Like the wild packs of Hyenas ravaging the veldt killing all the unsuspecting prey, the ceaseless and primitive NES fanboy (Trolliculous Familiarus Nintendicallous) finds its every opportunity to pillage and utterly destroy the habitat of the meek and unjaded Sega fans (Enjoyicus Gamus Friendlious).

 

+1000 awesome post!

[empsolo]

To be fair, I'm not a fan of the Master System's audio (the basic audio, not the enhanced audio of the Mark III). Nintendo was smart to include a channel in the NES that could dip further down the frequency spectrum for something that sounded more like real bass. SMS audio developers tried to make up for it by pushing the highs even higher, and it gets difficult to listen to sometimes. Compare Bubble Bobble on both to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

But flicker? Lack of parallax scrolling? "Flat" graphics? That seems awfully nitpicky when many of the NES's biggest hits are guilty of those same "problems".

It's just more noticeable on the Master System. I use Sonic 1 as my prime example. Here is a game that relies on speed and precision platforming. At the very beginning of the game Sonic suffers from very noticeable flickering and slowdown right off the bat. Even when there are as little as one or two enemies on the screen, sonic begins to slowdown. This makes that precision platforming even more artificially difficult.

 

Compare this game with SMB3 or a Summer Carnival 92 Recca on the NES. Late NES games where developers knew how to push the NES without massive issues that we see in early 90's master system games.

 

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Edited May 17, 2016 by empsolo

[mbd30]

A later NES game like Ninja Gaiden III has a crap ton of enemies on screen and some parallax scrolling with no slowdown.

[CatPix]

The main difference is that the SMS was always running "on it's own" (pick a 1986 game and a 1996 game : it's just a ROM on a board) where the NES had craptons of onboard RAM, graphics improvements, etc... on carts.

It's not to say that one is better than the other, but... The raw NES can't do what the raw SMS can.

If Sega had developped massive MegaCartridge improvements, we could have seen much better game on the SMS. But I guess that Sega was all about pushing the Megadrive out at the time, enjoying the "free run" they had between 1989 and 1991, and that after 1991, they felt they had no use to push the SMS further.

[78001987]

A later NES game like Ninja Gaiden III has a crap ton of enemies on screen and some parallax scrolling with no slowdown.

Because it had a crapton of mapper chips in the cart to help the console do what it couldn't, natively.

[Bill Loguidice]

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what could or could not be added to a cartridge on the NES, SMS, or 7800. If it was a regular game cartridge that went in the system, then it counts. Obviously the NES was helped dramatically in that area, but since it all worked on the stock console, it's a fair comparison against its competition that had little to no help in that area. The NES was better in that regard, period.

 

Obviously, when used to their full potential, the SMS and 7800 were more than competitive, but the NES definitely had more software that took better advantage of its potential for a wide variety of reasons, including an intelligent design that made it easy to incorporate inexpensive helper chips.

[CatPix]

Of course it doesn't count; but that depends on what you compare.

You can't simply say that the SMS is weaker than the NES and say "Alex Kidd is fugly but Ninja Gaiden III is mindblowingly good-looking".

I think it's important to remind people that the improved games on the NES exists only because the carts improved the system.

Of course, ultimately, all that matter is that the game is better, but it only prove that the latter SMS games are program-wise more impressive and advanced than the equivalent NES games.

Not that later NES games are less good because of that. It's just a biased comparison when you start to go in the technical aera and start to say "late NES games are flicker free and have parallax scrolling"; it's true, but it's not because the SMS is weaker than the NES. It's because the SMS carts doesn't contain anything to help the SMS.

[Flojomojo]

I haven't thought about "expanded memory cartridges" and the like in a very long time, but you're right -- we can't really compare console x vs console y without considering the stuff in the cartridge. Remembering this, I feel slightly better about spending so much money on cartridge-based games when that's all we had.