The Sega Master System

[BUTT 0]

Recently, I've been playing a lot of SMS games. It's very interesting to see Sega's initial entry into the home console market (well, except in Japan) during a time when they really seemed to not quite know what they were doing. (To be fair, they never really seemed to know what they were doing except when Tom Kalinske was in charge, but looking back at this time it seems more like naivete due to inexperience than the total cluelessness which they would become known for during the Saturn era.)

 

The lack of experience really shows itself in the software, which by and large was simply not that good. One of the main problems is that Sega's main strength at the time was its arcade software, much of which was popular due to its tremendous 16-bit graphics. On an 8-bit system, the scaled-down versions of games like Hang-On and Space Harrier weren't very impressive. Almost all of the Master System games had a very "rushed" feel to them, with almost none of them showing the kind of care that Nintendo's first-party releases were exhibiting. The system's sound chip is worth mentioning too - I can't describe it, but there is something strange about the sound of all the system's games. They all sound very similar, although that may be due to the fact that most of the system's games were created by Sega, unlike with the NES where a lot of game companies (Konami, Capcom, and Rare to name a few) all had a very distinctive sound where you could tell that the music was created by a certain company just by listening to it.

 

I had never played much of Alex Kidd in Miracle World before, but after playing through it recently I've found that it was a pretty good game. If I had been running Sega at the time I would have put it in as the pack-in (which it eventually would be - more on that later) but those in charge at the time obviously felt otherwise. Tom Kalinske, when he was put in charge in '91, understood that to compete with Nintendo and Super Mario World, Sega would need their own mascot-based game packed in, which is why Sonic was put in the box with Genesis. But those in charge of such decisions at Sega in '86 thought that Hang-On would be a better choice for a pack-in. I understand their rationale - after all, it was a popular game in arcades - but the home version captured very little of why people like the arcade version, which was largely popular because of its sit-down motorcycle-shaped cabinet, and that couldn't be accurately replicated on the SMS.

 

I'm sure the card slot on the system was born out of good intentions, but since only a handful of games used it I'm sure the Sega people eventually wished they had left it out. (And eventually they did leave it out, in the system's 1990 rerelease). The card slot was used for the Master System's 3D glasses, which I'm sure were cool, but didn't exactly make any difference in sales).

 

 

The physical design of the system really left something to be desired. Compared to the NES it just looks tremendously cheesy. And what's with that diagram on the right side? Ugh.

 

The controllers weren't that great either. You'll notice two things looking at this: 1) The D-pad is circular-shaped which I've always hated in game controllers, and 2) Button "1" doubles as "start". The pause button is on the console itself. That's convenient.

 

I've already discussed the choice of Hang-On as a pack-in, and why it didn't quite work. The other pack-in, Safari Hunt, wasn't a great game but they obviously felt they needed a showcase for their Zapper ripoff, the "Light Phaser", and this game served that purpose well enough. I will admit that in playing the system for the first time (when I was 9, and I honestly had no idea at the time that Sega had released a system before the Genesis), the fact that those two games were built in was pretty cool from a novelty standpoint. Later they would release a totally ugly second version of the system

 

with Alex Kidd built in, but by this time it was too late.

 

Obviously Sega's largely sub-par software and Nintendo's lock on third parties were the main reason for the failure of the SMS, but the horrible packaging and marketing of the games didn't help at all.

Take a look at some of this box art:

 

 

and these ads:

 

 

Not exactly something to set the world on fire. Hey look, I commented on that last ad! I like how they advertise "The incredible Phantasy Star" and then don't tell you anything about it or even show any game footage. But Thunder Blade, man, that's a system seller.

 

Of course, the SMS wasn't unsuccessful everywhere. It caught on pretty big in Europe. I have no idea why, and Europeans would be better served to explain this than me, so I will leave it alone.

 

Overall, the Master System wasn't a bad system, but I can certainly see why it was unable to compete with Nintendo in America and Japan. Luckily for Sega, they would learn from their mistakes and succeed with their next system (and then promptly forget what they learned and fail with all subsequent systems).

 

I'm sure many of you who are more well-versed in the Master System can expand on this. At the very least, I better see AndrewTS in here. Come on now!

[The Man in Blak 0]

I remember Phantasy Star and Double Dragon...and that's really about it. The third-party support was almost negligible, most of the notable in-house games were bad ports from the arcade division, and the hardware stands as one of the worst console designs out there, in my opinion. A real crap system.

 

The system's sound chip is worth mentioning too - I can't describe it, but there is something strange about the sound of all the system's games.

 

That strange sound is probably a result of the terrible sound hardware built into the console: a PSG chip with 4 channels of mono output, three square wave generators, and one white noise generator. (In non-synth speak, that means that there's really not a lot to choose from when it comes to creating sound.) It's the same chip that they'd use in the Game Gear a few years later, just to give you a point of reference.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Having owned a SMS, I was more than happy with it. I had Shinobi. I had Double Dragon. I had Space Harrier. I was happy. I also liked the controller -- the D-button made moving easier for me, especially in games like Hang-on and Space Harrier. The zapper and 3-D glasses? Barely used them. The only 3-D games I had were Zaxxon and Maze Hunter. You're right about the game art leaving something to be desired.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I also had a SMS, with a ton of games. Although it broke soon after, and then we got the adapter thingy that played SMS games on the Genesis. Most of them were indeed horrible, especially the sports ones. I remember getting a few of the joystick controllers. They were a lot better than the crappy d-pad ones.

 

That last commercial was bad, lol... Phantasy Star was the best game I had for SMS by far. Should have been promoting that.

 

The Alex Kidd games were funny. The wackiest was Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars. Whoever thought up the shit in that game was on some good drugs.

 

The zapper games were fun. Safari Hunt was a lame ripoff... but, Gangster Town was pretty good.

 

I liked the card games better because they always worked. And Super Tennis was a card game.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Sega does what Nintendon't.

 

Growing up, I think I knew ONE person at school that had a SMS, and he was kind of the outsider for not having a NES. I haven't met anyone that's owned one since.

[BUTT 0]

Most of them were indeed horrible, especially the sports ones.

Whaddayamean? The sports games were GREAT!

 

It wouldn't be part of the game's name if it wasn't true!

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I haven't touched one in probably 15 years, but at the time I loved my neighbor's SMS. Alex Kidd was awesome.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

I played the crap out of Safari Hunt when I was a kid. I actually think that was a pretty good pack-in...had a little more variety than duck hunt, with different animals to shoot. And no horrible dog that you can't shoot. Stupid dog.

 

The one game I really remember loving was called "Psycho Fox"...did anyone else play that? It was a platformer, and you could play as a bunch of different animals. For some reason me and my sisters loved that game.

 

I'm pretty sure there was a version of Altered Beast for the SMS, and I played through that a lot. Looking back, that game was kind of disturbing...you go from a normal looking fellow to some steroid monster and then a furry. Plus it had that infamous "Wise Fwum Your Gwave" audio.

 

The other game I remember was called Alien Syndrome...you could get a bunch of different weapons, like a flame thing and a laser, and basically wandered around some ship shooting things. Good waste of time.

[BUTT 0]

Psycho Fox and Alien Syndrome were both pretty cool.

 

The SMS port of Altered Beast was real bad. It wasn't a good game in the arcades or Genesis but at least it had good graphics. The SMS version didn't even have that, although it was still better than the NES version.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

The non-centered cable on the top of the controller made it a bit akward to use. The Afterburner games weren't too bad, and I remember Zillion to be quit fun.

[BUTT 0]

I read somewhere that you can get through something like the first 2/3 of Afterburner just by holding the "left" button. It's time to put this to the test.

 

P.S. I do remember one time when I was nine getting quite far in Afterburner and being impressed with my skills. Perhaps it was all due to this apparent gameplay quirk.

[Youth N Asia 0]

My current collection, just over 50 games, most boxed with the books

 

 

And a BOXED system, complete :-) I have a second system as well as 3d glasses and a bunch of the other gimmicks

 

[Youth N Asia 0]

Favorite games were Wonder Boy in Monster Land and R-Type. I have Phantasy Star but never felt like starting it up.

 

I hid Wonderboy as a kid when I rented it from Games N More just so my dad would have to buy it for me. I ALSO got a free Double Dragon for joining the Sega Club through the USA Network...good times

[Black Lushus 0]

I read somewhere that you can get through something like the first 2/3 of Afterburner just by holding the "left" button. It's time to put this to the test.

 

that's true.

 

was Double Dragon on this system an arcade port or was it patterned after the NES version?

[Youth N Asia 0]

Neither. The Genesis version was most like the arcade version. The SMS version was better than the NES, but it was easier since you could unlimitedly continue your game till the last stage

[Black Lushus 0]

I had DD on the Genesis, damn near perfect port...never played the SMS version.

[BUTT 0]

The SMS DD was mostly based on the arcade version. You could play 2-player simultaneously and the levels were the same. Of course the graphics weren't as good as the arcade or Genesis but it was quite faithful to the coin-op version. Although my favorite part of the DD game for NES was the music and that was better on NES than on SMS.

 

P.S. After doing some research online I'm wondering if initially the name of the console was just supposed to be "The Sega System". They sold two configurations: The "Sega Master System" which included the light gun and the Hang-On/Safari Hunt pack-in (pictured above) and the "Sega Base System" which had no light gun and included a pack-in of Hang-On and Astro Warrior.

This would be the box for it. As you can see the documentation just says "The Sega System". But although it is very hard to see, from the best I can tell the console itself says "Master System".

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I bought a SMS about 7 or 8 years ago super-cheap on ebay, with a few games. I should dig it out some time.

[BUTT 0]

I just played through Double Dragon for SMS. I was quite impressed with the sound - while not as good as the NES version of DD, the sound was very, shall I say, NES-like. Certainly not typical of the SMS sound hardware.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Not to derail this, but I recently played a round of DD II on the NES. Gotta love the cyclone spin kick.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Rocky is the worst SMS game ever

[BUTT 0]

It's better than ALF.

[Youth N Asia 0]

in fairness to Alf I've never played it, but I've heard it was bad.

[BUTT 0]

Rocky isn't horrible, but that "when you have the upper hand you move forward" shit is real dumb. Plus the game is far too hard and also too short. They could have at least thrown in some scrubs to beat before each of the "big three" opponents.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Nothing comes close to ALF.

 

The controls in that game make you want to stab things.

 

And they added something you can buy in a shop that forces you to start the game over. Which is torture considering how hard it is.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I read somewhere that you can get through something like the first 2/3 of Afterburner just by holding the "left" button. It's time to put this to the test.

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. I pulled that off when I was, like, 6, and amazed myself.

 

I also bought the big awkward add-on for the Game Gear that let you play SMS games on that. Good concept, since they seemed a bit less terrible on the handheld system, but hilarious for how much bigger it made the actual unit.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

It's better than ALF.

 

I had this for some reason. I always played it but had no clue what I was doing.

[AndrewTS 0]

Zapper?! ZAPPER?! There is no Sega "Zapper"!!!! PHASER!

 

Psycho Fox is awesome. I never heard or played the game until I played my brother in law's master system...in 1998 or so. Even so I played the crap out of it. Good game.

 

Double Dragon in SMS is better than the NES for one simple reason: 2 player simultaneous.

 

I've never played the Genesis Double Dragon--Double Dragon dojo says the controls suck on it, though.

 

I've actually picked up some master system games, a Master Gear converter, and have a Game Gear on the way through Ebay.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Nintendo had a game like Psycho Fox called Kid Kool...pretty much identical. Minus a fox, add a kid

[NoCalMike 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvWuy7p5mZE