Sega Master System Popularity?

[Cootster]

Is this about the possible marketing of a plug-and-play SMS unit (maybe an NTSC version of the Brazilian ones that already exist)? That would rock. I'd definitely buy one that still had 100+ games on it.

 

I've never been into collecting the SMS, though, because I already have a Game Gear and it has many of the same games in the same form or better.

[JB]

Well, I remember reading somewhere that the Sega Master System had most of the same internal hardware as the Colecovision, so if the graphics really were better than the NES, it is because the people designing the game graphics were better at it than the guys designing NES graphics.

 

Was it possible to build an adapter to play Colecovision games on te SMS?

989089[/snapback]

The SMS was SIMILAR, but not IDENTICAL.

 

Most notably, Sega had a LOT more RAM and ROM. That let them have far larger and more detailed games.

The CV was barely scratching the surface of what it's graphics chip could do.

[SteveW]

Actually, I always thought the Colecovision was really pushing the graphics chip. It used the same video processor as the TI-99/4A, which had some limitations, especially with sprites. I always thought the SMS used the next generation of the TI chip like the MSX2 computers did.

 

How about a tiny, itsy bitsy Game Gear, about a fourth the size of the original, with as many GG and SMS games as could be loaded onto it. That'd be something I would like to get.

[JB]

Actually, I always thought the Colecovision was really pushing the graphics chip. It used the same video processor as the TI-99/4A, which had some limitations, especially with sprites. I always thought the SMS used the next generation of the TI chip like the MSX2 computers did.

Stuff I'm seeing says the SMS uses the same class of chip.

The SMS uses the 9928A, but the only diffrence between that and the 9918A is really that the 2 outputs RGB and the 1 outputs composite video.

 

Again, the big diffrence is the support.

The 99/4A, sadly, has some major deficiencies in the hardware design. There's only 256 bytes of system RAM in an unexpanded computer. Almost all of the RAM in the system is actually video RAM, which means you have to ask the 9918A to do anything with it, which means it's SLOW.

 

CV has the same amount of VRAM, but a full KByte of system RAM. It's capable of doing more with the GPU just because it's capable of doing more, period.

Sad really, as I'm quite fond of my 4A.

A 4a game that required expansion RAM could pr'ly give the GPU a better workout.

 

 

...

 

 

 

Actually, it just registered on me that the SMS' 64 colors is 4x what a 9918A can do, unless I'm remembering wrong.

 

*checks data sheet*

 

Nope. The 9918A has 15 hardwired colors, plus transparent(all are shown in the 99/4a's title screen). There's no way to generate anything mroe than those 15 colors.

The SMS uses either a descendant, or a custom variant.

 

 

 

So never mind that crap I spewed earlier about the SMS feeding the chip better than the CV does. I was mistaken.

It's got a better chip than the CV, and I should've caught that little goof sooner.

 

 

You win.

Edited December 26, 2005 by JB

[sku_u]

Is this about the possible marketing of a plug-and-play SMS unit (maybe an NTSC version of the Brazilian ones that already exist)?  That would rock.  I'd definitely buy one that still had 100+ games on it.

 

I've never been into collecting the SMS, though, because I already have a Game Gear and it has many of the same games in the same form or better.

989168[/snapback]

 

More likely than not, it would be one of those plug and plays that ends up selling for $5 a piece six months after hitting the shelves due to a lack of interest. The SMS has a much smaller following than the C64 plug and play and even the C64 plug and play, with it's own support community and a plethora of hacks ultimately tanked. I ended up buying a few of them at $5 each on clearance at Kaybee.

[pumbaaj]

I have bought an SMS 2 on eBay, but the plug prongs are way too wide to fit in the electric socket. Is this one of those European plugs? Is there a way to play the SMS 2 here in the US? (Did I just get swindled?)

[Dusk2600]

i like sms, many games that i want for that console. but no money so i wont get any of them.

[bretthorror]

I remember my cousin having one of these when I was about 5 and I wanted one for Christmas, but got a Nintendo instead for some reason. Not a bad switch, though.

 

About 6 months ago I picked one up on Ebay (I was dumb and never got a light gun in the lot... if I only knew I would have bought a different one) to play Zillion and Double Dragon, games I remember my cousin having. Man this system flickers a lot! All in all I got Hang-On (included), Aztec Adventure, Thunder Blade, Global Defense, Great Golf, Wonder Boy, Double Dragon, Pro Wrestling, Time Soldiers, Zillion, Zillion II, Rocky, Pro Wrestling, Zaxxon 3-D, and F16 Fighter Falcon with the console and one controller (the other is kinda screwed, but I never stirred up any trouble because Genesis ones work anyways) for $60 Canadian.

 

The lot I got had Double Dragon, and that's why I got it, even if it was uber common. Stupid of me, the other lot had a light gun and a/v hookups.

[Video]

The Sega Master System sucks IMO. Yes, it had cool periprials, nothing can beat the 3D glasses (I still to this day wonder why nobody trys these, it seems all these modern 3D consoles woule greatly benefit from this type of thing)

And it had great games...if you go forign, I enjoyed Sonic and Populous games, but that's about it. And the fact is, sonic, while almost the exact same game, is actually better as a gamegear game due to the smaller screen reducinge the horendus slowdown and flicker.

 

And yes, the SMS had slowdown and flicker FAR worse than the NES, weather this is due to the systems lacking hardware capabilitys, or due to the lack of programming skill, I couldn't say, but it is there.

 

I actually like the systems design, though I have never found a single working system, leading me to believe that there is at least one part that is poor quality inside of it. If it's replaceable, then it would be better than the NES, due to the Zif in the NES being the part that sucked on it.

 

Haveing two forms for games is cool, and haveing them built in is great, but the games pretty much all blew on the cards (I hear a lot of people liked Spy vs SPY, but I never could stand it)

 

But one thing I do love bout the system, is the cases, all clamshell heavy plastic, meaning, the games, books, and boxes are useually altoghether. Unfortunately, from a collecting standpoint, that means it's next to worthless to colect for, because the box and dox will only ever be slightly rarer than the cart, unlike every other system.

 

Do I collect for the SMS? No, I would be interested in a working console sometime, and the 3D glasses with a game, and occasionally, I get a game for it, cuas it's not available on the GameGear, but over all, I don't enjoy the collectability of it, and the games that are on both systems, tend to be better on the gamegear.

[AussieAtari]

I like the old Sega Master Systems I some time play them from time to time, Here's a pic with my own collection of SMS box sets.

 

Very nice collection indeed.

 

I have two orginal SMS consoles and one SMS Mark 2. They are not my favourite consoles, but the games are so plentiful and cheap over here that it is my "budget" system for whenever I just need a quick, cheap gaming fix.

 

I found the SMS had games closer to what was around in the arcades at the time compared to the NES and that was the appeal to me. Sure it had a heap of pretty lame sports titles (a lot of which really were relevant to North America and not Oz) but there was/is enough to warrant it being fired up from time to time.

 

I actually own and like the SMS arcade stick and am always on the hunt for the lightgun as I love gun games and don't have one for that system yet.

 

Curiosity is bugging me though, I would love to know the reason behind Curt's question.

[Bruce Tomlin]

Actually, I always thought the Colecovision was really pushing the graphics chip. It used the same video processor as the TI-99/4A, which had some limitations, especially with sprites. I always thought the SMS used the next generation of the TI chip like the MSX2 computers did.

 

How about a tiny, itsy bitsy Game Gear, about a fourth the size of the original, with as many GG and SMS games as could be loaded onto it. That'd be something I would like to get.

The SMS uses a different "next generation" chip than the MSX. Since TI was not responsible for either of them, both the MSX and SMS/GG/Genesis went in different directions. The MSX went in the direction of bitmap graphics that were easier to use with BASIC, and the SMS/GG/Genesis went with improved tile graphics. The SMS mode is esentially equivalent to the TMS9918A mode 2, except that everything uses 4-bit color, with 6-bit palette registers, eight (8-pixel) sprites per line are supported, and they added scrolling support. In order to improve the graphics RAM bandwidth, they used 16-bit wide SRAM instead of 8-bit wide DRAM. The Genesis adds more colors and a lot more sprites.

 

The GG mode is pretty close to the SMS, except they upgraded the palette registers to 9 bits, and made the screen resolution smaller because of the LCD's lower resolution.

 

And for what it's worth, it is really not possible to make an SMS run Colecovision games without porting them. The I/O ports and memory addressing of the SG-1000 are different, not to mention the lack of the BIOS ROM. The Dina was able to do it because it was designed to go both ways from the start. And you can't do it at all on the Genesis SMS mode without a lot of work, because the TMS9918A graphic modes are not supported. And since SMS consoles are about as hard to find in the US as Colecovision consoles, it's really not worth the effort to convert a Colecovision game to the SMS. The Game Gear is easier to find, but the cartridges would be more difficult to manufacture.

 

This is why I want to write Genesis code when I'm done with the Colecovision, simply because it's the easiest to program pre-3D era console, and they are dirt common, especially right now.

[Flojomojo]

How about a tiny, itsy bitsy Game Gear, about a fourth the size of the original, with as many GG and SMS games as could be loaded onto it. That'd be something I would like to get.

This is out now -- it's branded by Coleco but has 20 Sega Master System and Game Gear games on it. I saw it at at Target the other day. I think it might have been put out early or something. Price was $49.99, and I'm still thinking of running out to get it, even though I surely don't "need" such a thing. Benq and other manufacturers have been talking about a similar handheld with a gig of space on it for MP3 files at ~$150, check out the Engadget forums for more. The Coleco music-less version seems like the better deal. I prefer Genesis by a mile, but I guess I just love the idea of a tiny handheld with both the Coleco and Sega names on it. The solid-looking design would be more pocketable than the more capable GP2X (which emulates Genesis, Game Gear, and Master System games almost perfectly).

 

Curiosity is bugging me though, I would love to know the reason behind Curt's question.

Yeah, me too. Curt, you still subscribed to this thread? Can you talk about it now?

[jaybird3rd]

Curiosity is bugging me though, I would love to know the reason behind Curt's question.

Yeah, me too. Curt, you still subscribed to this thread? Can you talk about it now?

I think I have a pretty good idea ...

[madhatter667]

I too like the SMS... not as much as the NES, but Nintendo did catch a lot of 3rd party groups in exclusive contracts. There are games that flat out blow for the SMS, but there are also games that are absolute gems for the time. Wonder Boy was an almost perfect arcade port in my opinion, not too mention the other Wonder Boy titles. Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands were great games as well. Y's, and Phantasy Star as long running RPG lines. If the SMS could have had the 3rd party support that the NES had, it would have been a truly amazing system for its time.