System Overview: Sega Master System

Well it looks like it's time for me to branch out and start talking about games for other systems. Before I jump right into the games though, I thought it would be fun to talk about the other systems that I have completed games for. It looks like first up is Sega Master System. Isn't that exciting?

So did you people know that Sega existed before the Genesis? Sega is actually a company that dates back to the early 40s that released different kinds of games over the years. They got into the video game racket early on and had several famous arcade games back in the day. They even released a few games on the Atari 2600. However, Sega is by far best known for the 16-bit Genesis which came out in the US in 1989. It's so closely associated with the company that most people just generically refer to it as a Sega.

To most people this is where the Sega story begins, and for many it's also where it ends. There are many people out there who have some recollections of the Saturn or the Dreamcast, but it will always be the Genesis that stands out in peoples minds. Most people have no idea that Sega actually had a console before the Genesis. They had a cool 8-bit machine that competed head to head with the Nintendo and was only mostly a failure. It was a success in Europe and Brazil, but over here it quickly faded into obscurity. So what's a system like that like anyway?

Actually, the Master System is a pretty good little machine. The graphics are probably superior to the NES especially in the early days. The games are colorful and vibrant. They seem much more Japanese than their NES counterparts. What I love about the SMS is that most of its games are hard to find anywhere else. This was before the more open 3rd party policies caused games to be on several systems at the same time. There are a few that got snatched up by Tengen and a couple of arcade classics, but other than that it's mostly exclusives.

Probably the thing that the system is most famous for is the difficulty level of the games. Sega was trying to pull in the hardcore gamers. They wanted the types of people that had spent hours at the arcades during the boom of the early 80s. Because of this there are many games brought over from the arcade without much being changed. A game like Contra would be too easy on the SMS. A large percentage of them don't have continues and only have a couple of lives to begin with. They are a lot of fun, and I enjoy playing them, but don't expect too many of them on the blog right away. They require a lot of practice.

If you look at the system itself it's a little bit strange. It has slots for two different types of media. A traditional cartridge slot and a card slot in the front. The cards allowed publishers to make smaller, cheaper games that mostly sucked. You'll also notice that the pause button is on the system itself. This is probably the Master System's biggest flaw. There is no pause button on the controller, so if you need to go to the bathroom or something you have to time it out so you can bend over and pause it without getting killed. Or you need to have the system close by and push it with your foot. That's usually what I do. It especially drives me crazy when the game has menu screens that can only be accessed by the pause button. The controller only has two buttons and a control pad so the options are somewhat limited.

I got my Master System almost ten years ago. I had only rarely seen it mentioned before the internet days. I always wondered why I could never find the original Phantasy Star on the Genesis and later found out that was because it was actually a Master System game. I finally discovered it on the internet and was impressed by its rich history and library of games. It had 114 or so in the US, but a couple hundred more overseas that mostly work on American systems. I actually bought one on ebay a couple of days after I first saw pictures of it on the internet. It was with the SMS that I first started to feel like a real collector. I had lots of video games before that, but the Master System was the first piece of hardware I got that most people hadn't heard of. You can get all the common stuff, but you just don't feel like a collector unless you start to get things that either suck or are not cared about.

So if you're thinking about getting one I say go for it. They're still pretty cheap with the exception of a few of the games. There are also excellent versions of games like Shinobi and R-Type which are just as good or even better than their NES counterparts. You'll also get a piece of gaming history that most people have forgotten about. A whole new world will open up for you. It might even make you start calling it a Genesis instead of a Sega.