The Sega Master System Games and Appreciation Thread

[Mzo]

The Wii Homebrew Channel has a great Genesis/Sega CD/SMS/GG emulator. You can use that.

[Brianvgplayer]

I'm curious about the homebrew port of GG Power Strike II to SMS. How downgraded is it? Could the SMS handle this much detail with its palette? I can't imagine it looking the same.

I think it has all of the stages and stuff intact, but has some odd graphical glitches due to the extra screen space of SMS. As for the color palettes, the colors SMS can't handle are replaced with other colors. I think it looks kind of like how some Genesis ports of arcade games look.

[warnpro]

I got the SMS in 87 for Xmas (my 1st system) picked it out and two games (Black Belt & Great Baseball). Loved the Astro Warrior/Hang on combo it came with.
Loved Rastan, so much so I bought the import Rastan 2 three years later for the Genesis (would have had more fun burning the $100 I spent on that piece.(Still have the power base converter & mostly use it for a quick play through of Rastan or Black Belt.)
I had never played an adventure game like Kings Quest before, remember climbing those stairs and falling off & dying with one slightly wrong move, or just walking around and falling in the river & dying.
Black Belt was cool for its time, loved the boss battles, finished that 100 times.
I remember completing "Quartet" and not enjoying it very much, just wanted to finish.
Double Dragon was great co-op back then. I had lots of fun with California games too.
No regrets 27 years later choosing this over the NES, and also made it so I got the Genesis (my fav. system) around it's release, then Saturn, then Dreamcast.
So yeah, I definitely appreciate/appreciated the SMS.

[gameoverDude]

Sega could have had another real winner if they ported Chris Butler's C64 version of Power Drift over to SMS. C64 PD captures the gameplay of the arcade surprisingly well, and is smooth enough to be playable (*cough* unlike the Amiga version). While the screen tilt is out (no way in hell the C64 could've handled that), every course still has its hills, dips, and jumps from the arcade.

Thunder Blade should've been done differently. The C64 version by Chris Butler should've been the template for an SMS one. Obviously, Chris knew what he could/could not get away with when porting Sega scaler games to an 8-bit system.

Kenseiden is amazing, looking almost like a TG-16 game. The fire wheel and the huge Benkei Warlock (about twice Hayato's size) boss are awesome. Konami has a similar game for Famicom called Getsufuu Maden, but it's not this graphically impressive. It's too bad Kenseiden did not get a sequel, but Lord of the Sword is also worth checking out for more good side-scrolling slasher action- only with a Cadash type theme instead of samurais.

[Mzo]

That's a weird way to split up Getsu Fuma Den(setsu).

[IrishNinja]

this thread had the worst opening since Rise of the Robots

although i admit the bulk of my collection as a kid (40 or so) arent entirely worth revisiting, im happy most of the gems got named here...bear in mind that Sega held it down across all genres with pretty much Parker Brothers & i think Activision did a game? that was it man, the fact there's a solid baker's dozen titles worth going back to is pretty impressive, and 3 years from now we might be comparing SMS and WU lists for this reason. i'm sayin.

Oh yeah? Awesome ports like this pile of shit After Burner I'm playing right now? Or the garbage version of Space Harrier? The worst Double Dragon of all time? A nasty and stuttery OutRun? Maybe Vigilante, the worst fucking game ever made?

Those 80's arcade ports?

it was said, but good luck with them on the NES...and hold your tongue; My Hero made Vigilante look like fucking Guardian Heroes of its day

I was a SMS kid. You suck.

also this

[GohanX]

Well, the opening post was by Mzo, and he's pretty terrible.

[IrishNinja]

well sure, but the guy's big on classic gaming & usually gives Sega their due. here, he's just shy of Dr. Sparkle's ChronSega, shitting on my childhood and the mighty 4% marketshare Sega held then (to quote Mark Cerny "that figure likely represents just parents that bought the system by accident")

YOU WERENT ON THE PLAYGROUND IN '86 ARGUING GHOST HOUSE VS CASTLEVANIA EMZOES, YOU DON'T KNOW MY PEOPLE'S PLIGHT

[GohanX]

Nobody on my playground knew what the fuck a SMS was. I did, but I didn't have one until I was 1993 or so.

[IrishNinja]

exactly; you just summed up our plight

like literally when i found out this one rich kid in the other class had an SMS BAM new best friend, even if he only had Action Fighter and a few other forgettable titles it was the closest i was getting to a rental spot in the day. the other sucky thing was that games mostly had no release date back then so i'd catch a ride to TRU and if Phantasy Star or whatever wasn't in stock, it just meant try again some other time...at least when game mags reviewed it you knew it was basically out and could complain to the old cuaban lady who clearly had a five o'clock shadow that she should look again cause frankly you'd settle for Rampage if they had it in stock (which was a fantastic co-op port and i wonder if emzoes finally played it)