I loved that machine! Alex Kidd built in: awesome!

SMS needs to be on the VC. The original phantasy star is one of the greatest (and most influential) RPGs of all time.

Never had a Master System, but the vid was great! Very well put together.

i still have my master system in my entertainment system

Personally I hated the master system. Never had it when it first came out, but when I did pick it up, i didn't find a single game good on it. Game Gear pulled of better versions of most of the games the system had, and the NES/SNES and Genesis had much better titles.

Brings back som memories :) SMS was my first console. I loved Alex Kidd (builtin), Jungle Book and the first Mickey Mouse game in the video. Even my parents played Alex Kidd!

An embarassingly underpowerd and underdeveloped machine, but retrolove is still retrolove no matter what.
Oh an in before "I had the master system and I love it good times" and "ms is better than nes lolol" ;)

I remember playing my first JRPG Phantasy Star on it! The awesome Shinobi, the great Monsterland series, and the sleeper hit Zillion.
Sigh I was so innocent back then ;)

@Vidunder:

It was more powerful than the system Nintendo had on the market... but then again Sega always went the more powerful route.

Never had a MS, never even had the pleasure of playing it, but I didn't realize the graphics were that good. It's probably my unnatural love of my NES, but I always envisioned the MS as the ugly step-sister of the 8-bit era.

And now that I'm older, I realize that ugly chicks need lovin' too.

I never had a NES when I was a kid. My parents went the Master System route. I loved that thing. Must have spent hundreds of hours playing Wonderboy, Black Belt, Ghost House (on one of those cards), Action Fighter and Hang-On. Mine didn't have Alex Kidd built in. It had some crappy "snail in a maze" game instead.

Oh and Digimish, you were right, the Master System was more powerful than the NES, but that was the last time Sega had the more powerful console.

My older brother had an Atari but the Sega Master System was the first system that I got. I loved it to pieces. Because it was such the underdog it made me a Sega fanboy for years. I played so much Ninja, Space Harrier, Rastan and Rocky. My head asploded when I found out about the secret snail game!

@Polluted:

But you can't compare the Genesis to the SNES. The Genesis came out more than two years before the NES (if memory serves) and was designed more to compete with the NES in a way that the SMS couldn't.

It was an ok system.

I too grew up with the mastersystem. i remember being angry that i didnt have a nintendo but it turned out well! I cant count the number for snail maze games i had memorized.
My favorite thing was watching them come out with near copies of NES games. I have no idea who copied who but i remember seeing them first on NES. Like the really good zelda rip "golden axe warrior" and the excite bike rip "enduro racer"

I also grew up with a mac so i was neck deep in video game underdogs. I remember with the mac that the only game i could buy was pathways into darkness.

@Heavyfuel:

True. I was thinking more about the Saturn and Dreamcast. The Genesis/SNES wars were different than modern console wars because most titles that came out on both systems were completely different for each one. The Genesis was underpowered, but we still had the better versions of lots of games. Jurrassic Park and Aladdin come to mind.
I loved Sega, but every time they announced that they were going to be releasing a new system early to get a leg up on the competition I cringed. They always just ended up with the least powerful system on the market. It was kind of fun being the only Sega fanboy on the block for all those years, but there was no denying that my friends' PS1's, N64's and eventually PS2's looked better than my Saturn or my Dreamcast. It should be the gameplay that counts, but if graphics didn't matter we'd still have Sega hardware. Ahh well...maybe someday.

Scary how fast the years go by...
One things for sure, being grown up isnt half as fun as growing up.

Cool -the MS was my first console and (sadly?) replaced within a year or so by the NES. Looking back though, those games (or rather, most of them) still look as good as I remember! That's a huge surprise considering I have memories of some choice NES games that I've given another look at via the Wii VC and they look way worse than I remember.

(course, I should have added that I'm still playing with nintendo systems and games... so... TAKE THAT, MASTER SYSTEM!

Man, that video was great. My parents, too, never went the NES route, instead giving a SMS. I agree with the Phantasy Star comment - definately one of the best and most influential games ever. Now if only Sega could return it to that level...

I always thought the Saturn was better hardware than the original PS, but much more difficult to program for with its two CPU's. Sorta mirrors this gen of consoles, with a hard to program for, underachieving system out there.

I loved my SMS. At the time I was a total Sega fanboy and laughed at NES gamers with their 'crappy' games like Super Mario and Link.

My time on the SMS was spent with amazing games like Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Phantasy Star, Golvellius, Double Dragon, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Hang On, Outrun, After Burner, Alien Syndrome, and R-Type. I had the Sega control stick and even had the 3D glasses and loved them for Space Harrier and Zaxxon.

The SMS wasn't my first system-- I had been gaming on computers for years before I ever picked up a control pad, but I think those were the best gaming years of my life. To date no console or computer has given me that kind of pure joy, although the Genesis and the Amiga came close...

that shit was all i had, man - everyone on the block had NES, SMS was my shit. i found one other guy at school that had one, traded games like every weekend - i played about half of the titles on that video, never got to play Kenseiden, Wonder Boy in Monster Land and a few others i coudlnt identify.

That was an awesome trip down memory lane! idve added Penuin Land, Gangster Town, the other Alex Kidd games, mebbe Aztec Adventure and a couple others, but they really covered most of the highlights, those were like the bargain bin titles i got when Lionel Playworld when down.
still, much love to the maker of that video.

@Jonathan:

I had that control stick too, but it wasn't good for anything other than Hang-On and maybe Choplifter.
I always thought the light phazer for the SMS was cooler than the NES gun. It was all black and cool looking. I remember playing some sort of Duck Hunt clone all the time. Never had the 3d shades.

@Big_Jock: Alex kidd built in? I guess you got a later model... I got one with a snail maze game built in.

I remember my father taking me to sears to buy a video game system. I had seen commercials for the 2600 and nintendo. but when we got there the salesman showed us what they just got in stock.... the Master System. I had never heard of it before. it was great!!!

This brings back fond memories. Psycho Fox how i miss thee.

Only "bad" thing about the system was that I was the only kid around who had one. All the other kids had the Nes.

Some of those games looked awessome, and I think I saw something randomly poke(digi)volve and that makes me very excited. What the heck was that one Zelda rip off game though? It was such an obvious rip off.

Sega Master System would be awesome for Virtual Console.

@Heavyfuel: agreed, though the one game I would want, Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap is already on there via the TG16 version, Dragon's Curse.

And Ghostbusters was missing, wtf? (Then again it wasn't just on the SMS, hence the omission.)

Hmm, mz cousin had a MS, and it had Alex Kidd build in. I loved it, but most other games just werent able to catch my interest.

I played Phantasy Star 1 on my GBA later and it was still awesome. I wish SEGA would finally start localizing those neet remakes.

aaah the sweet memory of those SD-looking game cards

Someone please tell me what the game was where it was a guy on a rail on one of those pumpy cart things?

I played that when I was a kid, before I got my megadrive on my neighbours master system. I'd love to have a go at it again on an emu.

The SMS was the shiznit. I thought it was the coolest thing that not only did it take regular cartidges, but it took these little card things too. Graphics were better than the NES, hands-down. And Phantasy Star, for my money, is one of the top 3 pure role-playing games of all time. Excellent characters, stories, and graphics for its time. They need to remake Phantasy Star 1 for one of the current gen systems. I'm not an XBOX 360 fan but if they remade Phantasy Star for it I would have to buy one.

Love this video!

I won my Master System at a Hang-On contest at the PNE in BC.

It definitely was a more powerful system than the NES (as I had that too) but I guess because of marketing etc. It never took off as it should have.

Mine had the maze game built-in.

Watching that video made me miss the great games...Alex Kidd, Zillion, Rambo, Phantasy Star....ARGH! I remember it took forever for my friends and I to reach the top of the temple to give Mayu his damn nuts!

Funny that they use everything BUT sms music

Love Love Love SMS. And as I have done many times in my childhood 20 years ago, I will beat the pulp out of anyone who says a bad word about it! Mere words can not express the joys and wonderful memories this lil black machine gave me. SMS FOREVER!!!

I saved up for a system and was swayed to get the SMS instead of the NES after playing the SMS at a few friends houses. Zillion remains one of my all time favorite games. I think it easily rivaled Metroid on the NES. And what, no Quartet in the video? That was the only game I ever did a speed run on.

I recently bought an old SMS off Ebay but am still hunting for a working copy of Zillion. Emulation just isn't the same.

what's that game that looks just like zelda??

i never owned an sms, but played on one a buddy had. only sega systems i ever owned were the game gear and the dreamcast. i miss my dreamcast.

Amazing how every time I thought "What about 'X' game!" it seemed to be the one that came up next. :)

Alex Kidd, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonderboy 3, Mickey Mouse: Land of Illusion, Asterix, Sonic 1.. (but no Sonic 2? >:(

It's odd how it worked out, because the Master System did very well in PAL territories. I for one had several friends with Master Systems and Mega Drives and never even met a person with a NES or SNES.

It never struck me at the time, but I guess for Amercians, it'd be like some kind of weird alternate reality. :P

My fondest memories of gaming are on the SMS. Psycho Fox, Alex the Kidd, All of the Wonderboy games and Phantasy Star are all great games that Nintendo needs to put on the VC ASAP.

ok, now i feel like shit for missing out on Psycho Fox, too. did anyone else have a bitch of a time getting SMS carts even in there heyday? Double Dragon was gone forever after i missed it this once, and Phantasy Star took me so many years to track down, part 2 was already out.

@deafblindmute: @cheeseboybeans: Golden Axe Warrior, and yes, it was a huge, huge rip that was a lot less fun.

@Nutype: true! man i felt like a champ when i found that snail game by accident.

@TheIrishNinja: what was that sidescroller they showed where the dude was punchin ppl into the water? call me dumb, but it looks double dragon, and i honestly didnt like dbl dragon, but the punchin cats into water and off motorcycles looked dope.

@Polluted: actually, there are still plenty of games on the cast that i think looked better than ps2 games. i never cared for ps2s graphics, i always liked cube and xbox better.. and the fact that ps1 and 2 did better than all the competition proves that graphics doesnt mean anything. in fact the saturn was more powerful than the playstation, just a beast to program for. dont believe me? go check out video of saturn shenmue. sega just screwed up by releasing stuff before the last consoles life was up, and not supporting the previous console any longer, plus... 32x and sega cd, nuff said.

O memories...that darn SEGA -- they had great stuff, but when it came to the business/market they always shot themselves in the foot countless times...

O well. These systems will stay in my heart forever ^_^

SK

Seems insulting to put NES music over the first part of this montage! That's the one technical thing the Master System didn't have the NES beat with: it's sound chip.
I was brought up with the NES, myself. I didn't even know this thing existed until a few years ago, and I just got one of my own this year...and it is indeed like some kind of strange alternate universe, heh. Every time I play, I'm left thinking, "This could have been my childhood..."

@shouryuuken: im guessing that was yet another i could never find called "My Hero" but i could be wrong. yeah, it did look cool.

The original Sonic was so bad, same with ecco. But I loved Space Harrier and Hang on those games where awesome!!!

@cheeseboybeans: golvellius: valley of doom.

some of the games showcased never mad it to the us market

Oh the memories.. Such a great system. :)

@shouryuuken: Renegade[en.wikipedia.org])