Any other Master System fans?

I always wanted a Master System ever since they were new. But then the NES came out, and after I played some excitebike, super mario bros/duck hunt and kung fu I decided I would stray my wants over to the Nintendo side. Never until just a couple weeks ago did I ever have a Master System. I've owned a lot of consoles in the past, but this one eluded me. More recently I picked up a few other Sega consoles that I was missing in my collection, like the Game Gear (which I happened to own before), and Saturn.

The Master System I found recently at a local indoor swap meet. It was the console still with the plastic protective strip on the front, a nintendo NES RF unit, Genny 1 power supply, and 2 control pads.

I got R-Type, Phantasy Star, and Zaxxon 3D, working 3D glasses, the glasses input, and two controllers (one with plastic on it still).

Also got 4 SNES games.

Managed to talk him down to $65, not a bad deal I don't think. 15 of it was for the SNES games, so it was pretty much $50.

My thoughts on the system. I eventually replaced the RF with a Genesis 1 composite audio/video. That improved the picture a lot. I was pretty surprised how well the graphics, color and detail looked - for an 8-bit console. I think if it would have had more developers, they could have really tweaked the hardware and make it do more (which Tec Toy kinda did).

Don't really like the D Pad. Feels mushy. That was replaced with a Genesis 6 button official controller. MUCH better.
The music I have grown to like, it's got it's own sound to it, different than the NES, but no where near as complex sounding or rich. It also seemed like it lacked a lot of bass - but then again I've only played 3 games on it. The NES really seems to put out the beats compared to the Master System.

The 3D Glasses are awesome. On Zaxxon 3D I was actually surprised at how well it all looked. Imagine almost Virtual Boy quality but with color - and not as much eye strain.

All in all I am digging it. Looking forward to trying more games out on it. The guy I got it from had several more games. They are all Mint.

Anyone else like the Master System?

I love the Master System. I didn't know of it's existence as a kid, because they never sold them in my local area, but I finally got one in 2008, and I love it. I own 22 games for it, and a couple of months ago, I purchased a pair of Competition Pro pads for it, which are much better than the stock SMS pads.

I never bothered to go for the 3D glasses, because I'm legally blind in one eye, and can't see 3D.

I was impressed with the Master System from the first time I saw it in stores in my area, but was firmly wrapped into NES at that time. Got my first Master System a few years ago and am greatly impressed. The graphics and sound are both superior to NES hands down.

The deal you got, especially with working glasses, was great.

Master System was all over the place in the UK in my age group as a kid, at the time I thought it was ok, but not a patch on the NES, after buying a system of my own 6 or 7 years ago, and keeping a look out for games my Master System collection grew very quickly (the games were all over the place in Britain dirt cheap until the the rise of Ebay), I have like 110 games now and I'm much more impressed with the machine than I was as a kid, it doesn't have as much as the NES but it does have a wide variety of great games, and they all have much nicer graphics, so whilst I'd still take NES over I now feel it has its fair share of pros which made it good competition.

I bought one with my own money in 1988 and loved it. I did end up buying an NES the next year, but always owned more games on the Master System than NES. It's a great little system with a ton of great Action games on it, great Arcade adaptations, and great non-cookie cutter sequels and unique franchises. I've got two pairs of 3D glasses, because the first pair didn't have ear pieces, they are great and even work on HDTVs. I also picked up one of viletim's YM2413 expansion mods a couple of years ago, so I can play with FM or PSG at will. For some other odd reason my '86 model Master System outputs RGB just fine, well, well enough for my Component converter but not for my HDMI upscaler.

Either way, anybody who can play and enjoy 80s Arcade games should love the Master System.

I consider the SMS the most underrated console in history (for North America anyway). There are other quality systems that are more obscure but not really one with the same combination of being completely overshadowed by its competition and having plenty of awesome games across most genres.

I really like the Master System as well. A friend of mine had one back when I had my Mega Drive.
Games we played were Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Lemmings, New Zealand Story and Taz-Mania. Probably
more, but those are all I can remember right now. He eventually lost interest in it, that's when I
took it off his hands. It was a boxed Master System II with above mentioned (and some other)
games.

Sonic 1 for the Master System since became my all-time favorite Sonic game, I especialy like
the Jungle and Bridge levels.

Over the time I bought more games, though I only buy the ones I really like and have about
30 I think. Also found a Master System I and just last week, bought a boxed one in great
condition.

My absolute #1 favorite game for Master System has to be Land Of Illusion. In my opinion it's
a huge upgrade and improvement upon Castle Of Illusion and I think I even like it better than
Castle and World Of Illusion on Mega Drive. The RPG elements do wonders for this game.

I think I'll play some Lemmings today :) The Master System version is, incidently, my favorite.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater

I consider the SMS the most underrated console in history (for North America anyway). There are other quality systems that are more obscure but not really one with the same combination of being completely overshadowed by its competition and having plenty of awesome games across most genres.

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Turbografx. :) That's my choice for sure for most under-rated console outside of Japan.

But yeah, the SMS is a good console. I never heard of it as a kid either as far as I can remember, I only knew about the NES, then the SNES and Genesis (and Turbografx, though I only remember actually seeing one once), but I do have one now, and it is a good system. It's no NES, but it's got some good games anyway... certainly under-rated.

underrated system

I love the Master System

I got it in 1995

Has anyone else experienced the awesomeness that is called the Sega Master System 3D Glasses other than myself? Or is it truly a mystery to people how well they pull it off? It was a mystery my whole life until a couple weeks ago. Now I wish I would have experienced it when it was still young and fresh. It just works. MUCH better than other 3D attempts at the time (Remember Rad Racer in 3D)? At first things seem odd, but once you start to not think too hard about it, your eyes focus in and you can really notice it. It's pretty much in layers, much like the 3D movies of today. The Zaxxon title screen amazes me. The word Zaxxon is the furthest up front, then there is a layer of text.. then a couple layers of stars and planets behind that. It is truly a unique thing to see.

I have the 3d glasses, and four of the 3d games (Missile Command 3D, Zaxxon 3D, Maze Hunter 3D, Blade Eagle 3D). The glasses are really cool, and the 3d effect is definitely quite impressive, in games that make good use of it. It's too bad they didn't catch on and that only eight games support them, and two of those would have to be imported from Europe, if they even work at 60hz at all (does anyone know?). It'd be great if they do, I'd love to play Outrun 3D.

Of the four I have though:

Maze Hunter 3D has good 3d, but somewhat boring gameplay. It's a topdown action game, pretty much, with multiple levels at different depths. Somewhat bland gameplay, for too long... not a bad game though.

Missile Command 3D is a lightgun game, so you need the glasses and the gun. The 3d is amazing, about as good as it gets (that 3d globe looks particularly incredible). Gameplay is simple, but tough, as expected on the SMS -- don't miss those missiles! Good game.

Blade Eagle 3D is a dual-layer shmup in 3d. That is, there's an upper plane and a lower plane. Hudson would do this too, many years later, with Vertical Force on the Virtual Boy, but while that game is amazing, this one's not very good at all. I don't know, it's just not good... it's too hard, and too hard to see things sometimes, first. Bullets are sometimes hard to discern. Switching between layers takes FAR too long, too, so you can't just switch at will. Also, the 3d effect isn't too good, so you can't tell which layer you are on as easily as you should. Pretty disappointing, I had hopes for this one.

Zaxxon 3D - Zaxxon 3D is a rail shooter, and it has a 2d mode as well as the 3d mode, but don't use it -- you'll have trouble hitting anything. In 3d though it's a fantastic game, and one of my favorite SMS games too. This and The Ninja are probably the two best SMS games I own... (Power Strike's probably 3rd). The base parts look really cool in 3d, but both the base and space portions play great. Yeah, this game is good.

Overall, it doesn't quite match Virtual Boy 3D i think, but it's impressively close to it. The glasses dim everything other than the screen from your vision, so while you don't have the "only seeing the screen and blackness" effect of the Virtual Boy, the glasses do focus your vision on the screen, unlike, say, the Nintendo 3DS. The 3d's pretty nice looking too, when done well, with solid depth.

I think the master system is awesome. it may not have the biggest selection of games but it has some great games for it and I really like the design of the system. I didn't get a actual master system until 2005 when I found a boxed one complete for $50 local with the two controllers and light phaser gun. I had a power base converter and a few master system games during the 90's so I got to experience the master system when I was a little kid.

currently I only have about 24 games for it, most I bought from 2005-2007. but eventually i'd like to get a set of the 3d glasses and a few of the 3d games to try. i'd also like to get my system modified to have fm sound since a japanese master system is way out of my price range. I think so far my favorite games for it would be:

zillion
zillion 2
sonic chaos
sonic the hedgehog
phantasy star
double dragon
california games
golvellius
assault city

A cousin of mine owned one way back in the day. A friend of mine one day decided I needed one, so he got me one cheap off DP (came with light phaser and 2 controllers, woot woot) along with a few games. I then cleaned out the SMS stock that was any game shop that sold in my area (sadly I have yet to see more SMS games other than the massive amount I saw while in Texas). He even later on got me a complete Bubble Bobble for it, I then laid down my NES copy and haven't touched it since. Recently acquired a loose R-Type and complete Wonderboy for it, so the slow and steady climb to a respectable library will be just that, slow and steady (already up to 24 games for it, not too bad).

As a kid I was an NES kid, now as a much older adult, I own both systems and love the hell out of both, just took owning an SMS awhile to fall in love with it.

I was pretty popular here in portugal, I assume in the UK too. Brazil is another country that loves it.
Really a shame the US didn't recognize it. And they really should have packed with the damn YM2413 instead of the shitty SN chip.