What are some of your favorite Master System memories?
Popular in the UK and Brazil, I never knew anyone who had one here in Greece. What are some of your favorite games and memories from it? It could be any iteration of the console.
My favorite memory of the Master System is the one where I learned that the Master System exists about 25 seconds ago. I still remember it like it was only 29 seconds ago.
You can play it in a browser, I can recommend Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon's Trap (also its excellent remake on Steam/GOG is worth it): https://archive.org/details/segasms_Wonder_Boy_III_1989_Sega
I had an OG one in US. I never met anyone else that did except my uncle. My first game was Fantasy Zone. Remember finding it very stressful . Played a lot of Psycho Fox, Space Harrier, built-in Hang-On and shooting gallery, Outrun, Rampage. Lots of weird games too. The Space Harrier and Outrun soundtracks were bangers.
I'm still making them for the first time! i never had master system but i got a nice retro game collection going for twitch streaming and included the master system library, so I've finally been able to check it out
Sonic 1 or 2 were fantastic and completely different from their Mega Drive/Genesis counterparts
I still go back to California Games every once in a while.
I loved Asterix, but I dont think I could stand going through that nowadays.
Golden Axe was cut down compared to the MD or the Arcade version, but still impressive for the MSII I had.
It was popular in Australia too.
Going to the video store and looking through the racks full of the checkerboard master system boxes for a game to hire. Ghouls n Ghosts, Altered Beast, Penguin Land, Ghost House, Golvellius, Aztec Adventure, Fantasy Zone 2 come to mind.
Watching mum and dad play My Hero for hours, trying to get just a little bit further.
Getting hit by a car whilst taking a game back to the video store. (Not the most magical memory but I can’t think of master system without that)
Finally having double Dragon at home. Throwing the sega box at the second level boss. Years later finding out that the arcade and mega drive versions are unplayable due to slowdown, and deeming the master system version as the best.
My aunty buying me Transbot from the discount bin in Boxing Day sales.
Waking up from a nightmare and being comforted watching mum and dad getting up to the Mouse Man dungeon in wonder boy 3.
Sundays watching my dad and his mate playing Golfamania sessions, drinking and smoking weed and listening to Van Morrison, when they weren’t up to going to the local golf course. (Later it was pga tour 2 on mega drive)
Finding a copy of Action Fighter and Fantasy Zone The Maze from some random person at the local market.
Coming home from school one day to find mum had hired Teddy Boy from the video store. What a game. I don’t go back to it because it’s so lame in retrospect, just stick with this memory of it being mind blowing awesome.
The first time I could play well enough to get to the end of the first stage in Miracle World and seeing that burger waiting for me. Going inside the Octopus’ pot (?) to take the secret shortcut in Alex Kidd.
So many Alex Kidd things really. The dinosaur level in Lost Stars, so exciting for some reason. Swimming under the tentacles in the water level. The ninja forest stages in Hi Tech World. Shinobi World in general, me, my brother and our cousins being like “it’s Shinobi, but it’s Alex Kidd :O” while eating cordial ice blocks in the middle of summer.
Getting Ghostbusters for $2 because the video store was trying to get rid if all their master system games and no one wanted the old junk. Loving that game so much I drew a picture of the driving stage on the blackboard at school before class.
When I got Castle of Illusion for Christmas right before we moved away after my first year at school, and mum and dad let me stay up playing it until I fell asleep.
The very last game we hired before we got a mega drive, and the first time I ever saw him, Sonic the Hedgehog. The same day dad bought home a kitten that I looked after until I left home. That was a good day.
When I was around 7-8 years old I'd get up early some Saturday mornings and do some simple chores around the house. Things like vacuum the living room and clean my room. Then I'd ask my parents for some money to go rent a Sega Master System and a couple of games. The console was around 5€ and the games 2€ each.
There was a gas station around a kilometer from our house that rented out games. So I'd walk there on my own, ask for a console, pick a couple of games, some candy, give them my personal details and hand over the money. Then carry the stuff back home.
I rented and played a bunch of different games like Psycho Fox, Ghost House, World Games and Alex Kidd. But the games I really fell in love with were games like Wonder Boy III, Miracle Warriors, Lord of the Sword, Spellcaster and Phantasy Star.
My older brother and me would take turns playing. For RPG's I'd go to bed early and get up early while he'd stay up late. So we would essentially play in shifts. The console and games needed to be returned at 18:00 on Sunday, so we'd try to get the most out of it.
My brother fell out of gaming and doesn't remember half of the games we played. But I still treasure those weekends and remember all the Master System games from my childhood.
My friend's dad worked at a local electronics store, so he was the only person I knew that had the "weird" consoles - Sega Master System and TurboGrafx-16. Alex Kidd and Wonder Boy were the favorites, of course... I liked how you got to buy your choice of weapons in Fantasy Zone.
Years later, I found my own SMS at Goodwill! I need to get a multicart because I only have Fantasy Zone, Ghostbusters, and R-Type.
Stealing graph paper from my dad's desk so I could manually map the dungeons in Phantasy Star.
I heard the Alex Kidd in Miracle World theme music as soon as I saw that picture. The Master System was my first console. Alex Kidd was built in, I remember writing the roshambo combos for the bosses down everywhere. But I also had Sonic 1 and 2, Spiderman vs The Kingpin, Tom and Jerry: The Movie and Cool Spot. Fun times.
I notice the product says master system II. Is that backwards compatible with I? Was II a big jump in tech like from PSX to PS2? Also, is Mark III the third iteration of the master system?
I've only touched Sega after the Genesis/Megadrive so their history is kind of a mystery to me.
They got rid of the card slot, the device was smaller, and it had an inbuilt game (Alex the Kidd in Miracle World in my case, although it seems some had Sonic instead)
There even was am even smaller version called the Master System III which I think only was released in Brazil.
The original Mark III was what would be the Master System in the west. The Mark 1 in this case was the Sega SG-1000 which had a very limited release outside of Japan (and came out the same day as the Famicom, so always had an uphill battle). The mark 2 was an iteration om that. As was the Mark 3 and the later Mega Drive actually.
When you say Mark III was the Master System in the West, do you mean the Japanese Master System (which is the Mark III with its peripherals built-in)? Or was the OG Mark III called Master System in the West? This is all so confusing, haha. But I'm looking at the Japanese SEGA website and it's starting to make a lot more sense. Super interesting stuff.
Nah. It was more like a psx and psone kinda thing. In some parts it was a downgrade (they removed the card slot from the MS2, so you couldn't play those "card format games" anymore) Otherwise it was smaller than the first gen.
Zillion... my first experience with a graphical puzzle world that seemed infinitely big.
Me and my little brother futzing with the "3d" glasses.
But mostly:
SURELY REVIVE ZANONI
My favorite Master System memory is playing Double Dragon with my dad.
My first system was a ColecoVision, but Master System is really the first system I have vivid memories of from childhood. I think the Master System overall was my favorite part of being 4-6 years old - playing Shooting Gallery, Fantasy Zone, Ys, Missile Defense 3D (I think that was the name), etc., It also felt mysterious (?) to me because a.) I was the only kid I knew with one and b.) things like the hidden game (I forget the game exactly) that would come on if turned on the system with no cartridge inside.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the built in game.
Interesting, maybe it varies by model? Mine was some worm maze thing
When i finished S.C.I.
It's a fairly difficult game, but one of my favorites as a child, i spend days trying to pass the last stage who have only half of the time.
I still remember the adrenaline burst i get when i was almost doing but it was on the last five seconds.
The final scene with the dectetives posing and calling themselves a heroes and the little girl reunited with her father before the final screen it's still in my memories
playing fantasy zone when i went over my step sisters house :)
Step sister fantasies are quite common according to some documentaries I've seen online.
Crazy golf game
I'm not Brazilian or French, so my main memory is walking past the boxes on the store's video games aisle. The graph paper pattern on the labels was cool.
Triggering easter egg cutscenes in Casino Games.
I hit a triple 7 on the slots & got a scene of my guy sitting in front of the machine cheering.
Also I have no idea how I did it, but I triggered a scene of a little grey dinosaur thing that kinda looked like a baby yoshi with a tail running through a field and sweating like he was late for something.
A friend was sitting there with me and witnessed it, and yelled at me for cussing where my mom could hear when I said "What the hell was that!?"
When I went over to my friend's house for the first time and he apologized for having a Master System instead of an NES (I didn't even know what it was, but he evidently felt very insecure about it)
space.
harrier.