Who started with SEGA in the Master System era?

[CrazyT]

And what was the first game you played?

Well I did, and I think it was a beautiful era to start with. While the mega drive/genesis era is considered as the golden era. To me the master system era is very dear to me, more special than any other era in a way. Maybe it is because of nostalgia or whatever, but without a doubt the games were really "good". Full of quality and fun as hell.

The games I still remember are Alex kid, shinobi, cyborg hunter, mickey mouse: castle of illusion, wonder boy, aladdin(this one I loved),gain ground and black belt(fist of the north star in japan, great game). First game that I played being of course Alex kid. Alex kid deserves a lot more publicity in the media if you ask me. It was a game full of original visuals and gameplay. Well executed and level design that felt new from stage to stage.

I didn't own sonic on the master system but my cousins had it built in to their master system instead of alex kid though sonic 1 genesis's little brother on the SMS was masterpiece as well even though the limits of the hardware. With it's own awesome bonus stages and of course, Sky bas zone ftw!!

Phantasy star 1 was the first JRPG i had played and what a masterpiece it was. I was so young and didn't really know what to do most of the times. Still I could pour hours and hours into the game and progress. (Fuck the term casual)

I am sure I have forgotten a few games but maybe some of you might help me remember.

If you ask me, the master system era is what defines SEGA to me. It's hard to explain but it just has that magic feel to it we know and fell in love with. The music, the colorful visuals but also the artstyle.

SEGA has come a long way since than but I always feel that they have lost some of that magic feel. It was nice to see alex kid and OPA OPA back in all star racing but i'd love to see them dig back up the games and make good sequals of them one day.

But yeah, share your experiences :p. If you didn't start in the era i'd still love to hear your thoughts about the console.

[Sega Stylista]

My first experience of Sega, that I can recall, was playing Zaxxon in the arcades in the early 80's.

You could say that Sega was on the edge of innovation back then as it was the first isometric 3D arcade game.  As a kid I just was not any good at this game, but I thought it was cool. Hmm, that deep blue of the playing field, would see that color again..

I agree with your sentiments about Master System. I don't think it's nostalgia. Game design was more innocent and purer than today.  Games were made by their creators' passion pioneering a new hobby with little input from the marketing department and directed at a core audience of dedicated enthusiasts all bonded under a niche brotherhood of gaming.

Opa Opa, lol, so hard. (Second, FUCK THE TERM CASUAL)

Hmm.. NES just didn't seem as cool.

Like Mike Hayes said, Sega games have an edge to them. That's all I can say.

Edit:

Yes, Sega games were more artistic. The reason why it had the best art is because its gave its game developers the most freedom. Sega Enterprises was that, a company with its divisions set up like independent enterprises rather than under a rigid, creativity stifling, corporate structure.

What blessed it cursed it as the bad management and disorganization did the company in later at the peak of its artistic greatness as the modern, corporate era of gaming plundered it into antiquity.

[Centrale]

I started with the Master System in '87.  It came with Hang On/Safari Hunt, and the first other games I had were The Ninja and Ghostbusters.  I still really enjoy playing The Ninja from time to time as it's quite a cool game which stands up today, in addition to being like an intense blast of nostalgia for me.

I remember sitting there with Christmas catalogs, making the decision between the Master System, the NES, or the Atari 7800.  Even though our family's first console was the 2600 and I had a soft spot for Atari, I could easily tell it didn't match up to what Sega and Nintendo were bringing out.  Ultimately I went with Sega because of their arcade pedigree.  I had known them from my own early days in the arcade with Pengo and Zaxxon, and the badass Subroc 3D... but of course, more recently with Hang On, Out Run and After Burner.  I don't think I knew too much about business then, but I was savvy enough to deduce that those games would only be coming home from Sega.  I think the next year is when they came out, and I got them all, as well as Space Harrier.  That was my first experience of Space Harrier, for the SMS... it wasn't until a year or two later that I finally found one in an arcade.  

Other Master System games that I eventually got were the cool and creepy Kenseiden; Miracle Warriors, my first console RPG; Aztec Adventure; Rambo, a great riff on the Ikari Warriors formula; Rocky, with its amazing huge character sprites; Shinobi; Alien Syndrome; Ghost House; Double Dragon (my NES friends practically shat their pants when they saw that we got a 2-player version while they were stuck with their nonsensical single player Double Dragon!); Quartet, one of the first games I beat; and R-Type, a very difficult shooter that compelled me to keep getting further just because the artwork was so amazing..  I was also fortunate to have a couple of friends who also had Master Systems, and could borrow awesome games like Golvellius, Rastan, Time Soldiers, Thunder Blade, Alex Kidd: the Lost Stars,  Maze Hunter 3D with the 3D glasses, and of course Phantasy Star.  I don't care what anyone says, it had a solid library of excellent games.  I would occasionally trade systems with a friend with an NES, and never regretted having chosen the Master System.

I think each generation of consoles has its own 'magic' if you will, but yeah, the Master System days were amazing.  Having been through that time made the success of the Genesis all the more sweet, too.

[Team Andromeda]

The Master System is one of the best and most underrated/overlooked consoles I ever owned. It wasn't the machine that got me into to gaming that was the ZX Spectrum, but OutRun in the Arcades had me transfixed, along with Wonderboy

Mum bought mine in Christmas 87 along with WonderBoy, OutRun, After Burner  Hang-On (card). Still remember my and my brother playing Wonderboy until 3am Christmas nite/boxing day and parents coming down giving us both a massive bollocking, told to get to bed; Funny part is when Mum went to unplug the MS in order to make us go to bed , she jumped with the power pack being warm , when trying to unplug it (we had been playing Wonderboy  so long, after the parents when to bed).

Have to say I liked my MS more than the MD or DC tbh. It was great times, made so many friends in school also because of the MS, everyone in my school had a MS that year, its was pretty amazing. Its games like up is mighty, there's a AAA game in also any genre and loads of classics

[Barry the Nomad]

I will not accept anybody's word unless I see scanned receipts of their Master System purchase!

I got into SEGA during the Genesis years, as I was only 2 when the Master System hit the USA. I didn't have any older cousins or siblings to introduce the system to me, though I do recall playing the NES in the early 80's at a friends house. It was the release of Sonic the Hedgehog in '91, as well as the weekday cartoon series and comic book in 1993, that really got me into SEGA as well as the Genesis. Christmas 1991, baby!

Since the internet then was not what it is today, I didn't really know about the SMS aside from remembering seeing game carts and boxes in a used game bin in the early 90's. I had no clue what they were, but assumed they were pre-Genesis stuff.

I think it's a cool little system. I really like how the Genesis can play carts via the Power Base Converter as well as the Game Gear being able to play games via an adapter. I just got my GP2X Caanoo and loaded it up with the full SMS library, so I'll definitely become more knowledgeable about the games.

Oh yeah, and the Master System had an AWESOME design.

[SOUP]

I was completely unaware of the Master System when it was out. I was also really young, so I wasn't exactly going out of my way to see what else there was to offer outside of my Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo.

I did have a cousin with a Genesis though. I was pretty impressed with how much better it looked than my NES, even though he just had sports games. My first real experience though was getting the Model 2 Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for my birthday.I was pretty much hooked right away.
The lack of the internet, friends with Genesis', and a decent place to rent video games, my game collection didn't really branch out past Sonic games aside from X-Men 2 (fantastic game), and Dynamite Heady. Still loved the thing though.

My mom told me later on that she actually bought me a Super Nintendo, but brought it back before I opened the gift, as I couldn't stop raving about Sonic.

[CrazyT]

I will not accept anybody's word unless I see scanned receipts of their Master System purchase!

Lol, I wish. Haven't touched a master system pad in years. Whenever I feel the urge to play some SMS games again sadly I have to purchase them again for Virtual console. This is  the SMS I owned btw.


Speaking of the pad. SMS pad was awesome lol.



Just look at that awesome design. The d-pad was sick yo 8-) Felt really nice on the thumbs


Anyway every one of ya'll above. You guys really worded nicely what was so special about it, I especially agree with SEGA stylista's description. Beautifully worded man.

[Centrale]

That picture of the control pad is the second version of it.  The original version had a removable rubber button in the center.  Inside there was a threaded metal ring.  The SMS came with tiny little joysticks that you could screw into the center of the d-pad if you didn't want to use it as a flat thumb pad.  I tried them out, but it was more comfortable just to use it flat with your thumb.  That was one thing the NES got better, though.. having the pause button on the controller.  They got us on that one.  :lol:

Barry, I don't have the receipt... never did, since Santa brought it!  But I do still have the console (which I gutted and turned into a hinged display case which contains my Sega History gachapon console collection), light phaser, and control pad.  And I have almost all of the original Sega Challenge "newsletter" magazines, which later became Sega Visions.  The first issue of Sega Challenge came with an iron-on patch that says something to the effect of "Sega Challenge Team Inaugural Member," and an interview with Steve Hanawa, programmer of Turbo (but in this context, talking about programming Monopoly for the SMS).  It was also thanks to that magazine that I learned about the hidden Snail Maze game in the Master System hardware.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one other important SMS game experience... Zillion.  A very cool and difficult game, reminiscent of Epyx's Impossible Mission for the C64.  I remember coming close to beating Zillion, but never quite doing it.  You have to infiltrate a huge subterranean base, and then initiate some kind of self-destruct sequence, and make it back out in time to escape.  I think it started getting pretty intense as you were trying to escape, with the screen beginning to turn more reddish and perhaps even shaking... I'll have to go back and watch some videos, to see what I'm remembering correctly and what my memory has embellished.  EDIT:  so yeah, I went and watched the ending of Zillion, and although you have to travel through some red rooms, the screen is not shaking.  I must have been the one shaking, trying to remember how the hell to get out of that base in less than 300 seconds!

[CrazyT]

"That picture of the control pad is the second version of it"

Wait, I didn't know that. I went googling immadiatly but they all just looked the same. And what did you mean with this exactly ?

That was one thing the NES got better, though.. having the pause button on the controller. They got us on that one

I don't understand what you're saying here. I know that my pause button was on the console itself. Sorry for misunderstanding.

[Star Platinum]

Great topic! The SMS was my own first system bought by my parents as a kid in 87'. I had a choice between that & the NES & choice the SMS. I haven't looked back since. LOVED it!!! I played Hang-On & Safari Hunt all night. I then got Great Baseball, Wonder Boy, Alex Kidd, Rocky, Black Belt & Rescue Mission (a phaser gun game). I think back in 88' I was the first kid in my neighborhood to discover the built-in maze game in the console. IMO the SMS had not only superior games to the NES back then, but the color pallette was better in most games. Transbot (card game) was a fun game along with Enduro Racer, Action Fighter, & Kung-Fu Kid. I have great memories of this system with so many great titles. It's a shame this system didn't take off as it should have.

[Star Platinum]

"That picture of the control pad is the second version of it"

Wait, I didn't know that. I went googling immadiatly but they all just looked the same. And what did you mean with this exactly ?

That was one thing the NES got better, though.. having the pause button on the controller. They got us on that one

I don't understand what you're saying here. I know that my pause button was on the console itself. Sorry for misunderstanding.

I think he was referring to this:

[segaismysavior]

I got one for Christmas (either 86 or 87) with Hang On/Safari Hunt. It was my second video game system ever, following Atari 2600. It wasn't a huge time sink for me at the time, but I did enjoy the few games that I had... the main ones I remember owning were Black Belt, Ghostbusters, and After Burner. Games were expensive back then and I didn't know of many places to buy them, so I didn't have many.

I mainly remember playing Black Belt and reading Sega Visions when I think of Master System. My Mom specified that I was "defeating" the enemies on screen rather than "killing" them. Oh to be young. I also mysteriously acquired a long-term subscription to Sega Visions and would read up on all the lovely Sega propaganda from that, which I credit for influencing me to buy a Sega Saturn.

After Master System, my brother and I split the cost of used NES, and I later got a SNES shortly after that came out. I never owned a Genesis, but my friend did, so I played the crap out of that whenever we hung out at his place. He also got the Master System adapter for that, so I did play a few more games for it near the end of its life span. I did get a Game Gear instead of a Game Boy, and I had the Master System adapter for that.

I think back in 88' I was the first kid in my neighborhood to discover the built-in maze game in the console.

OMG, I completely forgot about that.  :shock:

[CrazyT]

I think he was referring to this:

Oh wow. Now I see. Looks pretty anoying xD. SEGA really entered the console wars with style. It's hard to recognize the SEGA of than in the 20th century. Even the saturn era with games like clockwork, tempo and astal still had that SEGA charm in them. I don't know man, when I think about it, I kind of agree with TA about the saturn.

[Sega Uranus]

I too, was completely unaware of the Master System when it was first out. Being a normal child in America with barely any access to knowledge of videogames for a solid decade of my life will do that to you.

Once I got into it, the big draw for me was still pretty much the Sonic titles. I did stumble upon a basic collection of games though, so once my eyes were opened to others I was really impressed with some of the really great games. That list does not include any Alex Kidd games and never will.

While I did not start off with the Master System, it is very close to me in a lot of ways. I recently saw it in a recently made cartoon a few weeks ago and kept talking about it for days on end, even though no one cared.

[Dr. SEGA Monkey]

That list does not include any Alex Kidd games and never will.

Not even Miracle World or Shinobi World? Really??

Also, I started with Genesis.