The Master System Appreciation Thread

[samsonlonghair]

I've got the whole rom set downloaded for the SMS. And I am ready to put it in my everdrive once I get the sd card. Reading though this thread, and I got some 8 bit games in ready to try.

Just a personal recommendation: Don't dump the entire romset; pick and choose ten or twelve favorites. When I look at a long list of ROMs, I can't pick the one I want to play, and I grow bored playing none of them.

[nightrnr]

I've got the whole rom set downloaded for the SMS. And I am ready to put it in my everdrive once I get the sd card. Reading though this thread, and I got some 8 bit games in ready to try.

Just a personal recommendation: Don't dump the entire romset; pick and choose ten or twelve favorites. When I look at a long list of ROMs, I can't pick the one I want to play, and I grow bored playing none of them.

I like to group them into folders based on genre. That way, when I feel like a beat-em-up, for example, I don't have to search all over for them.
It takes a bit of sorting time, of course.

Also, The SMS romset is not that big.
However, it's nice to weed out the games you either have no interest in or are unplayable in some way (like if you don't own 3D glasses, or a light gun, or the paddle controller for games that require those peripherals). Eventually, the extraneous games do really get annoying.

I'm going to put quite large selection on my Everdrive GG for a one time trip to the cart, at the advice of other everdrive-ians claiming that the microSD slot is pretty fragile.

[retrosportsgamer]

Do PAL SMS roms play on the Mega Everdrive?

There are some euro only releases like Leaderboard Gold that I really wanted to try.

I recently sold my SMS and library. Just didn't have the room nor desire, although I did give their sports library a fair shake. As an original game gear owner, I can relate to those with a SMS growing up. I played the hell out of mine.

[nightrnr]

Do PAL SMS roms play on the Mega Everdrive?

Pretty sure that SMS games were region free and not locked to a video format (like other systems were).

However, they would run at 60Hz instead of 50Hz, so there might be a speed difference (somebody correct me if I'm wrong).
Might also be why I find Power Strike so hard, as I don't know what version I've been playing (or if it really is faster for the US version).

[Ziggy]

The console is going to determine if it's NTSC/PAL and 50/60Hz, not the game cart. IIRC, there's no region lock. I remember reading multiple times that the NTSC version of Sonic 1 is really expensive because SMS didn't do well over hear, so it's suggested to pick up the PAL version instead.

[dunpeal2064]

Yep, I had imported Sonic since its so pricey here, and it ran fine on my US system.

I do think some games were programmed to run "full speed" in 50hz, so that if your system detected it and tried to run it at 60, it would indeed be sped up. I only recall hearing about this on the Genesis though, for one of the Sonic games, so I'm not sure how common it was, or if it even happened to SMS games.

Edit: actually, it may have just been the music that was fixed for 60, so you might just get normal 60 gameplay with sped-up music. Not really sure on this one tbh.

[theclaw]

More or less same as Genesis and Saturn. Console sets 50hz or 60hz.

Games that detect the mode to configure themselves, show glitches if it changes while running. Sonic 3 particularly known for that.

Game Gear however was 60hz only. Optimized PAL SMS games could not play right by official means.

[Hobie-wan]

Might also be why I find Power Strike so hard, as I don't know what version I've been playing (or if it really is faster for the US version).

I have a US and PAL copy of Power Strike. The carts are exactly the same. I have no idea if the program adjusts for the speed of the console, but the carts are identical down to the chips and board inside.

[KalessinDB]

I've got the whole rom set downloaded for the SMS. And I am ready to put it in my everdrive once I get the sd card. Reading though this thread, and I got some 8 bit games in ready to try.

Just a personal recommendation: Don't dump the entire romset; pick and choose ten or twelve favorites. When I look at a long list of ROMs, I can't pick the one I want to play, and I grow bored playing none of them.

Also, roms are so tiny. You can usually afford to put multiple copies on your card. What I do is typically put 1 full set alphabetical (though to be fair, I strip it to English playable releases -- typically US and EU plus translations if I have them) in 1 set of folders, then favorites in a second folder, sometimes by genre in a third or hacks/homebrew in a fourth. IE:

/Root
__/Alpha
____/A
____/B
____/(etc)
__/Favorites
__/Genre
____/Beat-em-ups
____/RPGs
____/(etc)
__/Hacks

As has been mentioned... it takes a long time to set up initially. But after that it's pretty awesome.

[IrishNinja]

^i so need to do this! was debating alphabetical but genre makes more sense for me.

replaced Rampage, Alex Kidd in Miracle World (as well as Lost Stars) & picked up a PAL copy of Alex Kidd in Shinobi World on the cheap too! just traded an extra loose Bloodlines for Wonder Boy as well, i think i'm down to just Fantasy Zone, Gangster Town & a few others that i used to to have.