The Master System Appreciation Thread

[heelsinc]

Just visited the site for the first time in a while looking for some information on the master system. Printed out a list of all the games this weekend and did a cross reference to find which ones were exclusives or had superior versions from the other consoles. Now I'm going through the list and playing them all for the first time (emulating on Xbox).

Games I've beaten so far
Alf
Alladin
Basketball Nightmare
Bonkers: Wax Up

Alladin was really fun the rest were pretty garbage but I don't have much time to play games so was knocking out some pretty short games. Tonight I think I'm going to play Black Belt and Sonic.

Comparing this system to the NES I really think the Master System looks better in terms of graphics on most games.

[heelsinc]

Played through Alex the Kidd The lost stars and Danan Jungle Fighter the past few days. Enjoyed both Danan was however way to easy and short.

Last night I started Master of Darkness only got through the first level before going to bed but was really enjoying the game. Looking to finish it up tonight

[nightrnr]

I actually liked the Lost Stars well enough. It was pretty much a one-time playthrough for me (twice actually as it makes you replay the game, iirc, ). But I did it on original hardware and cart, which I can always be proud of.

That said,
I play a lot of SMS games on Game Boy Advance these days (via GBA movie player). Compatibility is not spectacular, but I get a lot of classic twitch-play in that I would not bother with on any other system.
A while back I played through Golden Axe Warrior (via PS2 emulator). It was quite satisfying to finally play Sega's take on Zelda.

Master of Darkness I play mostly on Game Gear, so I don't really mess with it elsewhere. Still need to beat it sometime...

On another note (concerning only playing system exclusives), I wouldn't ignore all the well-done ports. Fantasy Zone and R-type are quite impressive on the Master System IMO.

[heelsinc]

yea like I said if the game is different enough or one of the better versions I'll probably give it a go. Finished master of darkness last night again I really enjoyed it. Thought the action and gameplay were really good. Another game I however felt was to easy.

Also played through Great Basketball last night. It was not great. My wife also didn't realize it was basketball during the few short glimpses she had of me playing. After about 30 minutes she said "oh this is basketball I thought you were playing soccer this whole time". So yea "Great Basketball"

[dunpeal2064]

Well R-Type has an additional level added to it. That, plus how great the game runs considering the system its on, makes it worth playing imo.

[Blu]

Been looking for an old shmup I used to play as a kid. I don't know if it ever had a US release, but somehow my dad had it. It's called Scramble Spirits. I can only ever find it on AUS ebay listings. Has anyone seen it in the wild across the pond and might be willing to snag a copy of it and ship it?

[alienjesus]

Been looking for an old shmup I used to play as a kid. I don't know if it ever had a US release, but somehow my dad had it. It's called Scramble Spirits. I can only ever find it on AUS ebay listings. Has anyone seen it in the wild across the pond and might be willing to snag a copy of it and ship it?

It's on ebay UK for £13 BIN. There's also one auction and it looks like the typical selling price is all over the place tbh.

If you wanted to bid on one, I could give you my address for if you win and could ship it onwards if you paypal me the money.

[Hobie-wan]

Been looking for an old shmup I used to play as a kid. I don't know if it ever had a US release, but somehow my dad had it. It's called Scramble Spirits. I can only ever find it on AUS ebay listings. Has anyone seen it in the wild across the pond and might be willing to snag a copy of it and ship it?

It took me quite a while to snag myself a copy too. It's a US one, but it only popped up a few times in the year or so I was looking before I snagged one. The first two times it went higher than I wanted to pay. Funny thing is DigitPress only rates it a 3 out of 10 rarity. If Alien or someone don't get you sorted, PM me what your budget and completeness requirements are and I can at least look next time I'm at one of the game stores here that has a number of SMS games. They never had it when I was in, but you never know.

Good luck.

[Blu]

Thanks Hobie! I'll PM you.

It's a fun and upbeat shmup, and the tunes get stuck in my head. It's fairly simple but it's so replayable since I'm so familiar with it already. I'm still puzzled as to how my dad acquired a copy of it, he deployed to the Philippines, Thailand, and Okinawa once in the 80's, but I still don't understand why we had a English copy of the game if that was the case. The mystery will probably remain unsolved.

[Barry the Nomad]

I've finally joined the ranks of proud Master System owners!

Picked up a system w/controller and After Burner for $50 at TooManyGames last week, and since then I've hit the various stores in my area and got another dozen titles.

I'm amazed by how inexpensive games are for the system! The most I've spent on one title was $15 (R-Type, complete).

Sweetest deal was finding blue label versions of Rambo and OutRun for $13 each. From what I gather, they're quite rare with past ebay auctions selling Rambo for $100 and the Racketboy article lists OutRun as being $50-100: