SMS is the UK

[Fuzzy_Cthulhu]

I seem to recall Nintendo advertising the hell out of the Gameboy- in every media outlet possible. The Game Gear? Not so much, but that might be just me mis-remembering it.

Still, if Nintendo did enough to leave a lasting impression on me, then that should tell you something about the level of promotion at the time.

[ZeroAX]

The Game Boy was a different matter - it was pretty popular. I would say it was fairly common in the early 90s, but would be willing to bet a lot of those European Game Boys sales can be attributed to Pokémon's arrival in the latter half of the decade.

Maybe, but I still think the gameboy was very popular before pokemon. I only knew 2-3 people who owned an NES (and none who owned an SNES, everyone had Mega Drives). But I knew like 15 kids who had gameboys, and since I lived in small communities most of the time, that was pretty big.

[Krejlooc]

Certainly an interesting contrast with the US. I've noticed this only by the number of games that were EU only for the system. It's tough because the cases look the same as the US (not talking the Brazil ones with the blue). Fortunately there are some good databases online with images and what not to help decipher.

That's not really true. You can spot the difference between european-exclusive and brazillian-exclusive games from games released worldwide at a glance. Sega switched up the branding of the Master System right around the time it died in the US, and the ultra conservative box scheme sort of died. The spines got little mini graphics and the titles were graphics rather than seriff text. The "Sega" logo became the "Sega:Master System" logo, and the boxart dramatically improved. Compare:



(let's see if anybody spots anything wrong in that picture)

The bottom are US releases, the top are (mostly) European releases. Drastically different. The brazillian boxes are normally solid blue, although some early releases kept the original world branding.

The master system is awesome. Sega never released a "super game gear" to rival the super gameboy, but the SMS is the next best thing. I got my SMS in 1986 (I live in the US) and I've been a diehard fan ever since. I've been importing master system games since the mid 90's, and the best Game Gear titles are usually even better on the SMS because of the improved screen size.

[AppleQueso]

(let's see if anybody spots anything wrong in that picture)

Sonic Triple Trouble on SMS!?

Is that your personal collection? I'm jealous

[Krejlooc]

(let's see if anybody spots anything wrong in that picture)

Sonic Triple Trouble on SMS!?

Is that your personal collection? I'm jealous

You missed Sonic Drift 2 sitting right next to it

Yeah that's my stuff, I have more SMS stuff thrown about. I actually have a full tower devoted entire to sega games and games for sega consoles:



Some of those black genesis boxes are actually SMS games without labels.

[AppleQueso]

You should totally aim to become the Sega version of NintendoTwizer!

[bryan_65]

You should totally aim to become the Sega version of NintendoTwizer!

That was my life goal. On aside not that is a sweet collection man, I really need to find a Master System and some more shelving.

[Hobie-wan]

*wall of import SMS games*

*sees Longhorn stuff on the wall, so must be in Texas*

Hey, what's that over there? *points*

*runs off with Ninja Gaiden*

[Krejlooc]

There's a shop in houston that has a copy if you're dying for one. At least they had a copy a few weeks ago. They're over in pearland, actually. Player 1 video games.

[sevin0seven]

*wall of import SMS games*

*sees Longhorn stuff on the wall, so must be in Texas*

Hey, what's that over there? *points*

*runs off with Ninja Gaiden*

*Trips Hobie and loose Ninja Gaiden to the air..*

*Quickly intercepted it like the Longhorns.

*runs away from the crime scene while laughing evilly...*