Master System Woes And More

[Yosikuma]

I'm honestly not sure if this is the place to post this; the Genesis naturally has a dedicated area but not the Master System.

 

So I picked up a used Master System recently. It was pretty dusty but powers on and that's fine.  I just finally got some games and noticed that up and the up diagonals do not respond on the left port, and none of the directions at all seem to respond on the right side. Using any number of controllers does not seem to do anything. So, I was wanting to pop this thing open eventually to install an FM card, but ... I admit, I know very little about the system. Is there something I can do to possibly remedy this problem? Where should I begin looking? Is this repairable?

 

A couple of other questions:

 

I see the system had a paddle for games like Woody Pop. Does a standard DB9 paddle work in its place, or is the Sega one proprietary?

 

One of the controller pins seems bent on the system. Any decent way to possibly bend this back? 

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

[Classic Pac]

I own a Master System and there is one game where the controller doesn't work as it should. I literally had to rewire a 2600 controller to play that game. Before you write of your console you should check another game. Actually any standard Genesis controller should work fine.

 

As for Woody Pop give it a try, you might find out it actually works. Basically anything that works on a 2600 and should work on a Master System. 

 

Bent Pin, I know there is a specialized tool. I just don't know what it's called. 

[Yosikuma]

5 hours ago, Classic Pac said:

I own a Master System and there is one game where the controller doesn't work as it should. I literally had to rewire a 2600 controller to play that game. Before you write of your console you should check another game. Actually any standard Genesis controller should work fine.

 

As for Woody Pop give it a try, you might find out it actually works. Basically anything that works on a 2600 and should work on a Master System. 

 

Bent Pin, I know there is a specialized tool. I just don't know what it's called. 

Sadly it seems the system and not the controllers; the controllers seem to work fine in other systems. In the port without the bent pin, every controller I throw at it responds the same way.

[Koopa64]

There's a shortlist of SMS games that don't work properly with a Genesis pad, it's recommended you get a real SMS pad. https://www.smspower.org/forums/12093-ListOfIncompatibilitiesAmongSMSGamesHardware

 

Or, if you want, inside the official Genesis 3-button pad is a grey colored wire that is the select signal. If you disconnect this wire, the controller will behave exactly like a SMS pad, just a D-pad and 2 action buttons. If you connect the grey wire to a small SPST toggle switch and carve a hole in the plastic shell for the switch to mount in, you can have a Genesis and SMS compatible controller. A good place for such a switch is near the cable.

 

I'm not sure what could be causing unresponsive inputs on the controller ports. It could be the sockets, maybe the soldering is cracked on the PCB, or it's the resistor packs near the controller ports.

 

You said one of the pins inside the controller connector is bent? It's possible to bend it back, but it will be weaker than before. If you have damaged controller sockets, you should buy new ones and replace the broken ones. You could get new DB9 sockets from eBay, console5, probably tototek or other places.

[CatPix]

Issues with controls (and video connection) usually come from broken solder joints on the SMS.

The SMS is easy to work on, especially the first model.

You can easily open it and reflow all the solder joints.

If it keep not working, the traces might have been broken; thanksfully all the traces to the pad ports have really nearby solder points on resistors so adding jumpwires is easy to do (if very annoying and boring).

I greatly recommande the FM board, installation is easy enough and the improvement on some games (including the unnofficial patch for Sonic 1 are really game changers.

 

[Mikebloke]

Oh no another console you picked up giving you issues as Koopa said if you aren't using SMS controllers then try getting one or two of them first, though bent pins aren't sounding great. From a non technical person's perspective, I have risked rebending pins to ensure a proper fit for wires and its worked OK in the past. Some controller female side ports will also struggle to make a connection, even if they seem to work better on another console. While mega drive controllers are probably one of the most versatile controllers without mods or adapters, definitely get some SMS pads. The original have wire going into the side-they are a bit in the way so try and find the more traditional out the top variety.

 

At worst, it may mean replacing the controller port male connections hopefully it's nothing bigger. I don't know if replacing the one with the bent pin will make the second port behave. 

[ApolloBoy]

On 12/30/2020 at 5:20 AM, Classic Pac said:

As for Woody Pop give it a try, you might find out it actually works. Basically anything that works on a 2600 and should work on a Master System.

Atari paddles do *not* work with Woody Pop or any Mark III games that use the Paddle Control. The reason for this is because the SMS doesn't have analog inputs on its controller ports like the 2600 and reads the paddle in a different way. This page explains further: https://www.smspower.org/Development/Paddle

[Yosikuma]

On 12/31/2020 at 8:25 AM, Mikebloke said:

said if you aren't using SMS controllers then try getting one or two of them first, though bent pins aren't sounding great. From a non technical person's perspective, I have risked rebending pins to ensure a proper fit for wires and its worked OK in the past. Some controller female side ports will also struggle to make a connection, even if they seem to work better on another console. While mega drive controllers are probably one of the most versatile controllers without mods or adapters, definitely get some SMS pads. The original have wire going into th

That's kind of what I was afraid of. I don't assume there's an alternative to the original paddle is there?