Sega Master System: The Story And The Games
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- One of the best consoles ever the Sega Master System was so influential that it allowed Sega to be seen and heard in a field dominated by Nintendo. The story and the games are legendary and the impact it had on me and the industry can still be seen and felt today.
#sega #segamastersystem
Thanks for showing the Master System some love, as it's always greatly appreciated, especially since this system never gets the love it truly deserves. My gaming journey started out on the Apple II computer, then moved to electronic handhelds like Game & Watch, then consoles like the ColecoVision and later the NES. As a young gamer, I was always just about the games(who was better, not my bag), and where they came from mattered not, so the SMS was right up my alley.
Sega was really only 2nd to maybe Atari in regards to arcade coin-ops, and I wanted a SMS to get those great games, and I was never disappointed. One of my favorites was R-Type, which I borrowed from a friend, of a friend and to this day, it still blows my mind. Most arcade ports to this day still hold up very well, and are shining examples of how great the system really was.
I'm one of the few people (seemingly) who had a Master System in the US growing up. I absolutely LOVED it!
I did also!!
I CB use that over the Nintendo due to my love of Afterburner in the arcade. It was nowhere near as cool on the Master system, but I still loved it, my neighbor and best friend across the street also got one, so we could share games and double our library. If we wanted to play Nintendo there were plenty of other kids who had those that we could play. Had a Genesis as well, loved em both.
Above should have said “I chose the Mastersystem over Nintendo” damn phone!
Same here. The Sega sound when you power it on changed my gaming life
I'm one of the a few who had one in Sweden.
I played alot of great games in the days 👍.
Fantasy zone was one of my favorite 💪🏼
It's great to hear about the Master System from someone who lived through that era in the US and had one! Here in the UK it was the number one 8 bit console and I rarely saw an Nes. It wasn't until the SNES that Nintendo became big over here.
Great video! (new subscriber!!!)
It wasn’t as big as the NES here but it did have a few people hooked!! The design and the light gun game pack in really sold me on it!! Hang On in the arcade with the big motorcycle you sat on translated well to the console also.
@@WorryWartWorld
We were very lucky as we had a lot of games that weren't released in the US bit also missed a load of NES classics!
We all get access to them today though so it's great!
@@WorryWartWorld I had Alex kidd built in but my friend had hang on in his. I used to love going round his to play it. Top game!
@@wibbiddywoo F16 Fighting Falcon the game card!! I was Top Gun!!
@@WorryWartWorld yeah boyeeeee! 😁
In Japan dragon quest 2 was already out before Phantasy star and had 3 pre-defined characters but Phantasy Star came out as the first jrpg in english.
Yes DQ still going too!! Phantasy Star was groundbreaking in the States though. Was amazing to play something like that!!
Wonderboy in monster land, and Gangster town are 2 I immediately think of
Wow!! Forgot about those….
Snail maze when I bought the system but couldn’t afford a game… Just left it on one day pushing buttons and POOF. Free game.
Snail maze!!
I actually hate Fantasy Zone ad Altered Beast. The Master System that made me a fan was Fantasy Star.
Fantasy zone was the shit.
I had most these games.
The master system was kimg hands down. Sans the extended software support.
I was in europe when i first encountered thus console. I was like 6 or 7. But when i was 12 and i played the nes for the first time i loved it but you could tell that sega had beat out nintendo on a technical level.
Great machine, great games, great memories.
Just now discovering this channel, and loving the content!
Keep up the good work!
Thank you!!
Audio hiccup in the middle! Sorry!! Loved the Master System!!!!
WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge was also on the SMS...... Let's be real, in the 80s/90s, we did not have a lot of options, so these systems filled a near non-competitive void. The was a more cost effective alternative to the arcade.
I had the 3D glasses and light gun set - Way ahead of its time... later, Genesis, Sega CD, and lastly Dreamcast - which I still have.
🌎✌🌱🎶🎸
Phantasy Star was my favorite. People were playing Zelda and I was playing a better RPG!!
Got mine Christmas of 86 and I still have it. I have great memories playing pro Wrestling with my Dad (RIP). I played Hang On for hours. Golvellious, Quartet, Maze Hunter 3D, Missile Defense 3D, Phantasy Star, Zillion..still play mine to this day.
Zillion 2 was the one with the bike that turned into a robot!! Liked that better than the first one.
I still love to play Hang-On and Astro Warrior. They are tough but hope to one day pass them.
Awesome
I remember seeing master system games at kiosks at the mall. I always though it was old genesis games lol.
had HangOn and Snake built in on my SMS , great video (:
we had one around 1990 but that time all my friends had a nes so i whantet one too.
I think the game I had on my Matersystem Ilikd the most was R-type. It was so amazing when it came out.
Sega master system is a very slept on system and was my favorite of all systems. The games were so awesome
Probably the console I know the least of.
I had a Sega Master System and I played for hours
Thank you for your passionate reflections of this wonderful console!
I got the Sega Master System in christmas of 1990.
I will never forget opening up the box for the first time putting away the protective foam and plastic.. And that magic smell of fabric newness!
My console came with a built in game: Alex Kidd in Miracle world!
Wow! I was blown away!
Played it many times until I beat it. Again and again and again.
Later I got games like: Wonder Boy (it was ok but very repetetive and that tune would never leave my head) Wonder Boy in Monster Land (LOVED that one eventhough I didn't beat the game until 30 years later; man did it feel good when I did!) Wonder Boy 3: the Dragon's Trap (definetely one of my absolute favorite games until this day) and Rampage.
When I started collecting games for the console 25 years later (in my 30's) I discovered a lot of cool games I had missed out on like: Golden Axe, Ghouls n' Ghosts, Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, Lucky Dime Caper etc..
I still adore these games and they always put a smile on my face.
Of course I go all the way and play them on a big fat CRT for an authentic experience 🤓🕹📺
What an absolute FANTASTIC video WORRYWART. Your journey is similar to mine, as I too was blown away when I got my Master System at the ripe age of 13 back in the day. The games you focused on are all excellent, especially Black Belt, which I also poured hundreds of hours into. A couple other games you didn't mention that I'd like to give a shout out to are The Ninja and Kung Fu Kid. Oh man, I must have sunk thousands of hours into those two games and they were my most played games on the SMS by far.
Anyway great vid man keep 'em coming. Subbed :)
Thank you!!
My friend bought a used SMS system back then. Im into games not systems, so while I did enjoy NES stuff...we did not know what SMS might have, so I figured I would find a small number of good games that not many others knew about.
I was right, Miracle Warriors, Rastan, R Type, Govelius, Wonder boy 3: The Dragon's trap, Golden Axe Warrior and my favorite, Phantasy Star.
He had the 3-D glasses too. Yeara later I tried to buy it off him, but he lost half of the games and the glasses!
Those 3D glasses were cool!!
I did not get into SMS until I had a Genesis, and picked up a power base converter. I was in high school by then, and after having played Genesis, I was kind of over the 8-bit stuff at the time. It took a few more years by the time I would really realize how great some of those games were. My friend had Master System as a kid, and didn't play video games anymore, so he gave me his stack game cartridges. I gotta say, Double Dragon and Rampage were my favorites in the arcade, and the NES versions were okay, but seriously lacking the arcade polish. But, when I played the Master System versions my friend gave me, holy crap...that silly, "Nintendon't" ad actually had meaning. These days I have since picked up a Master System 2nd hand, and I modded it for FM sound. That makes a world of difference, and to this day me and my kids still enjoy playing my 2 faves, Double Dragon and Rampage. Certainly makes me wonder how things could have been different if Sega was not hamstrung by Nintendo's licencing agreements, or if the FM sound module would have sold in North America.
I hear you. NES was addicting also!! The licensing stuff was very cut throat at the time.
I find it amusing that the commercial for it he's playing Super Hang On and just repeats "hang on hang on." You wouldn't say that with any other game. Nobody says "Mario Mario" while they're playing Mario for example.
What's the isometric game where you're a bird around 0:17?
The game with the bird is Desert Falcon, an Atari 7800 game. ^_^
I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System. I loved my Nes but the Master System was on another level. You might find this interesting...
My Nes came with two controllers, a light gun and two games (Mario and Duck Hunt). My Master System on the other hand was different. It actually came packed with 3 games. Two were on a double cart that included Astro and Hang-On. The third game I wouldn't find out about until much later as it was a secret. That game was Snail Maze and had to be unlocked via a cheat code that could only be entered if there was no game inside the machine. Pretty neat huh?
Yes!! I think Sega began packing in those games to try to compete better in sales.
I wanted the NES so very bad. The Target employee working the electronics dept. somehow convinced my pop that the Master System would be the better Christmas present. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to get it and it was a great system but..NOT ENOUGH GAMES!
I never knew any other kid at the time who also owned the system, so the it's not like I could trade games with other kids in the neighbourhood or at school as was common with the NES.
Yeah it wasn’t the first choice for many and the NES was amazing but the SMS just somehow managed to pull me in!!!!
Anyone else play a lot of Action Fighter? I just watched a video of it and realized I probably drove my poor mom nuts with the music in that game.
🤣
If Nintendo didnt use bully marketing tactics back in the day, the SMS would of been a huge hit!
They did have the market share that allowed them to make those deals. It’s kind of why MS today is doing what it is to a degree with how strong PS is in the market and how they still have huge 3rd party deals for exclusivity. NTD was different though saying if you wanted to make ANY game for them you couldn’t make it for any other system!!
i think most people in the UK had a sega , not a nintendo , I remember lots of people getting a mastersystem for xmas , and people bought the megadrive after it , and the the playstaion, in the UK the cutesy nintendo stuff wasnt a thing as much as it was in the USA , we wanted violence and blood , my little brother had an NES and i thought it was shit compared to my C64 , but i did like RC pro am , everythng else was just weird , mario games were just odd , zelda was crap compared to real RPG games
Well……
Safari hunt was way better than duck hunt, had more level backgrounds and more to shot
They directly compared it to that. Sega wanted to highlight the differences.
Definitely underappreciated console it really out did the NES in many ways. I can't believe you didn't include Shinobi, time soldiers, govelious, quartet, and so many more, but I know that makes a long video
Yeah I went with the things I was fond of mostly. Too many great games to make a video that’s not 20-30 minutes!!
Did you know if u do not put a cart in the system there was 2 games built in
I know of the maze game.
Awesome video, the nostalgia hit me and shook me to my core. Thanks for making me relive those awesome memories!
I had a Sega Master System before I got a Nintendo and I remember I had Rambo and Hang on
Rambo was a great shooter!!
I still remember vividly the day dad brought home the SMS!
Funny how you always remember great memories tied to gaming!!
This console really had a commendable style to it, with respectable offerings in every genre, from action platforming to flight sims and racing games. It had a good Sonic game or two in it, too. The SMS really didn't fail any particular respect aside marketing.
My childhood had it as more of a personal Castle of Illusion arcade cabinet, complete with minigame wonders in the form of all of the other titles I wasn't as good at. 😂 In that, the Master System served me well!
It had nothing to do with marketing. The Master System failed because of the illegal contracts Nintendo made with third party developers, preventing them from releasing their games on the System. Had titles like Contra, Ninja Gaiden (it did come out, years later) and other come out at the same time, the Master System would've easily crushed the NES thanks to the superior hardware.
It succeeded in Europe despite shoddy marketing (especially here in Germany, were Ariolasoft did such a bad job, that Sega terminated the deal relatively quickly) because Nintendo made every mistake they could make, from releasing multiple incompatible versions of the console (Mattel NES, NES A, NES B) and never getting the games over (Castlevania 3 was released when Castlevania 4 was already available, lol)
@@ShadowAngel18606 It's not the fanfare or technology either, as there's plenty of intrigue surrounding it where discussed. But those venues are so few that one may as well admit it that it always had the perennial fork in it. We still get the Game Gear ports for Sonic games with superior SMS ports, after all. Sega never had enough faith in this console to push it, and as a result, it's still mostly ignored these days.
As a Brit we had the Master System as the main selling games console, hardly anyone I knew had a NES. Although, in the 80's I'd say more people had microcomputers over everything else.
Yeah I had the C64 and the Amiga. Even the TRS80
The bummer with Sega Master System is that with different machines having Sonic or Alex the Kidd built in, we couldn't swap them over with friends easily!
@@skycloud4802 funny you say that because my Master System had Hang On & Safari Hunt built in, it was one of the rarer "Plus" packs.
@@WorryWartWorld never had a TRS80 but they looked cool, my first was a BBC Micro.
So you wanted to suffer with the pause button on the system itself instead of the controller and hilariously bad box art (I'm looking at you Alex Kidd)?
Right there with you with those feelings, except i never owned an NES! My friends did, but i always thought they were suckers haha. Always did have a soft spot for mario though
NES had great games and Master System also!! Good times.
@@WorryWartWorld Oh certainly. And, to clarify, I bought an NES of my own much later, in my late teen's, early 20's. Had to play catchup and still own everything!
Great Baseball and Zillions and Shinobi
Great Baseball and for me Pro Wrestling!!!! Could be my favorite game!!
I liked that it had a built-in game you could play.
Snail Maze!!
My first ever console, still have it, in its original box with the accessories and games, all still working!
Favourite games were Fantasy zone 2, double dragon, Enduro racer, and Dragon crystal. Many happy memories and me and my master system will never be parted!
Thank You for making this video! I loved my SMS! Always wondered what woulda been if Sonic came out in 86 as the pack-in game?
Fantastic video.
Let's not forget these absolute not-to-be-missed titles : psycho fox, YS (top rpg), golden axe warrior (even better rpg), kenseiden, wonder boy 3 (maybe the best ever SMS game, with top graphics, music, and an unforgettable adventure), alex kidd in shinobi world.
Ys!!!!!!!!
@@WorryWartWorld The fun fact about YS is that at first, I didn't like it. I went to the shop where I had bought it, and I asked the seller if I could swap it for another game.
Later I regretted it, and came back to the shop and got it back (and I completed it, but the difficulty level was definitely on the high side) :)
@eldontyrellcorp still going strong to the series is!!!!
I love the sonic games and am lucky to have both sonic 1 and 2 in the box and I’m working on getting sonic chaos
My neighbor had one and I remember playing choplifter on it and outrun. Then Shinobi it wasnt until 15 years later I bought one at a flea market and a bunch of scattered games there for around 40 dollars total did I become a proud owner then my gaming friends at the time laughed at me and said I knew nothing about collecting video games. I haven't been friends with them ever since and I own like 90 master system games these days lol
I had one friend whom had a master system. He prided himself on having 2 player coop double dragon. Lol
You find a great blend of being informative and your own memories 👍 Also well edited, cool vid!
Thanks!! Little audio issue with this one but getting better!!
You had a 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, C64, NES and Master System? How rich were you?! ;)
I was born in 81. I was too young to know about any crash. Videos always been booming my whole life.
Enjoying this so far 4:33, just a little annoying how you keep repeating "adult's games" a lot. 5:45 this reminds me of Forgotten Worlds for the Megadrive/Genesis, another great shoot-em up with buyable upgrades.
Oh wow...I had never played Fantasy Star (none of them) but I was aware...but watching this, when I saw that 3-D hallway I actually let out a genuine "Whoa!" as If I was back in the 80's again!
Honestly, that 3D walkthrough looks BETTER than the Windows 95 brick-maze screensaver!
Oh, and Ghostbusters, OHH man, that looks so cool compared to the NES version. I rented it (remember that?!) with a 5-day rental, and it sat for 4! (Yes, I was very sad!)
#NerdingOut
I can't remember it's name but you play as a samurai fighting Japanese demons in a side scrolling hack and slash and get new attacks with your sword at the end each level kinda like mega man was my favorite game.
Hmnn? Doesn’t sound like Black Belt but that’s the game I thought of when you said that..?
@@WorryWartWorld I just looked up samurai games on for master system google and it was called kenseiden.
I think that might be Kenseiden
@@dtester think you’re right
Great to see such a passionate video about the SMS haha, my first console and still a fave. You should try Wonder Boy 3, Zillion, R-Type and Golvellius if you haven't.
Oh I did!! I just listed the games I mostly remembered while thinking for this video. Too many I’d need a hour long video!!
1992...
I was 6.
I was at a relatives house.
I was family with the sega genesis and I was about to get a snes for Xmas.
The cousin had a snes already but also had these games that weren't snes nes or genesis.
The carts captured my imagination but there but there was no console that would play them. That is my sega master system story.
However there was one snes game that I finally found. The only one he had.
That game was The Legend of Zelda... A Link to the Past.
I will never forget the rain falling and the feeling of wonder and adventure as the princess beckoned me from bed.
I to this day have never seen or played a master system but remember the day I saw those strange carts fondly and will never forget it.
If you had to see one game Zelda would be the game!!!!
"I love the master system because it's sega. I spent HOURS!!! with this game. Just unbelievably wonderful."
That's what you sound like.
Finally nee documentaries I been listened to them all.
Hello and happy holidays
Nice video 👌 I love stuff like that I grow up in that era keep it up and I'm looking forward to the next one greetings from Spain 🤘🏻👽
Thank you for watching and commenting!! I do find these videos more enjoyable personally!! I plan to do a Mega Drive/Genesis one and also a PS One commercials video as they were very funny!!
Instead of a cartridge, SEGA should've included both Hang On and Astro Warrior on a ROM built into the console, allowing all future games to save memory by tapping into the assets in those games.
Amazing how much better the colors were on the SMS. Many of the later games for that system look almost as good as 16-bit titles.
Phantasy Star, Hang On, Zillion, Space Harrier, and Outrun were some of the most innovative games of their era. They really should've released the Mega Drive instead of the SMS, though, even if they'd have to make cutbacks and require later memory upgrades to make it happen.
I had the 3d glasses for it
LOL yeah I had those also!! Looked like what old men wear now!!
@@WorryWartWorld and they still haven't gotten 3d right yet 😆
This was a great video. This does a great job conveying what was like to experience this underrated console. If it weren't for some audio hiccups this would be a perfect video.
Yeah I didn’t catch that sorry
You keep calling it the adult alternative. That's funny to me because there's this game, Zillion. It always sounded like a spreadsheet program to me and I've played it.
The sega master system, so adult it has exciting excell action with Zillion!
That game was great also!!!!! Loved it!!!
Ghost house game card was so addictive and black belt was also a fist of the North Star color swap from japan
I use to think the cards had more power!!
Subbed!
Thanks!! Some Magnavox Odyssey stuff on the way!!
Hey, loved the journey but what happened @11:51 you started talking over yourself!
Audio bug I didn’t catch. Sorry.
SMS Choplifter is very close to the arcade version and is the best home console or computer version of the game. Action Fighter is like Spy Hunter mixed with Xevious; really good game that also had an arcade release but I prefer the SMS version. Missile Defense and the 3D alternative are like updated variations of Atari’s Missile Command. World Grand Prix is like Pole Position with more to do. Absolute Entertainment only released one game for the SMS and that was R.C. Grand Prix; a more faithful radio controlled car race game compared against R.C. Pro-Am on the NES. Dan Kitchen told me it was so difficult to program for the SMS, so they only released one game and concentrated on the NES. It’s one of my favorite racing games to this day and was mostly done a few miles from my house when they had an office in Glen Rock, NJ. Rumor was that they would get together in the railroad station parking lot after the commuters cleared out and they’d play with real R.C. cars; even including one of the best in the game: Team Associated’s RC-10 is obvious in the title screen.
A special time it was
The golden age of gaming
I'm happy i was part of it
At the time
It's sad that the game over and inserts coin screen are gone
Lost in time
@@dutchcinephile1362 sad but true.
11:48 i think you might have a little audio editing problem there
Yes I posted about that here.
R-type, shinobi, castle of illusion on th master system were really good. Did you ever play those? Much better than the ones you mentioned.
Yes this video was the ones I personally remember fondly.
@@WorryWartWorld I am just glad someone beside me likes the master system.
Phantasy Star was it's only good game
Oh no!! Many great games but that one was amazing!!
I'm from the US and my cousins had a Sega Master System and then we got the Master System 2. They had about 30 games that we could borrow from. I remember seeing Phantasy Star when I was 4.
NES and SMS for both coming out in 1986 were WAY better than anything prior. But in 1988 the Sega Genesis would become KING of home consoles for sure!!! Till this day the Sega Genesis is my favorite retro console ❤👍😎
It was amazing and the best Sega ever was sales wise. Everyone I knew had one unlike the SMS which was amazing to think they went from that to Genesis!!
@@WorryWartWorld well Sega really didn't go from the SMS to the Genesis as they improved the SMS significantly and shrunk it down into what became the Sega Game Gear which was sold alongside the Genesis as Segas answer to which seemed old and obsolete at the time - The Nintendo Game Boy. But the Game Boy just like the NES won because of better games and third party developments on cartridges then! But once the Genesis and Game Gear got that treatment their games became just as good if not better than Nintendo's before the SNES made its debut in 1991.
@@mattmaverick703 Meant from console SMS to console Genesis. Little known and little sold to huge sold.
Thank you for mentioning ghostbusters, I Also had a soft spot for the alf game. But double dragon probably got the most play time for me.
Note 5:55 from the end there is doubled audio
It’s stops before the end of the video but yes I’m aware of it
I think there's some overlain narration audio at about 12:00.
Yes I messages here when I first uploaded the video. Sorry!!
@@WorryWartWorld You should intentionally do it, but one of the voices starts speaking about how it's not really happening from the video audio, but actually something wrong with the user's device because they've been hacked by the secret government.
@curtainsavatar 😳
I was the same way about the Saturn when everybody else had a PlayStation. Virtua cop, nights all the Japanese imports you could get like deep fear which was light years better than resident evil. I liked having something that nobody else had as well.
Oh man Saturn!! I do wish Sega was more aware of the push to 3D over 2.5D at the time but no doubt some great games there. Burning Rangers was one I loved!!!!
Sorry man as a child, you did NOT have coleco vision, inellivision, an Atari 2600 AS WELL as a NES. No one had that unless your parents were rich. Let me guess, you guys had TWO TV's as well? :P
We didn’t have them all at once but yes we did have them as well as TG16!! No need to be “sorry”
@@WorryWartWorld Did you have two TV's though ;) ?
@@the_kombinator LOL we had one in the living room and one in basement that was small. That smaller one my younger brother had the TG16 hooked up to.
@@WorryWartWorld Technically we had two as well, I had a PXL2000 like 4 inch CRT. Good vid, keep 'em coming, my exposure to Sega was limited to friends and occasional rentals of the Sega CD to play that anime racing game of revenge or whatever - I got pretty far in it.
@the_kombinator oh boy the Sega CD!! What a glorious mess!! I remember the Batman game.
Sms was in my opinion a far better machine than nes, but all its games sucked in comparison. If they would've made good games they might have still been in the console business. RIP Sega 🙏 🪦
They also focused too much on arcade ports, everyone was clearly looking for an experience that didn't just involve aiming for the highest score
Its a mater of taste but I would be curious to know what SMS games you played. I always felt that the SMS had a better good-to-bad game ratio then the NES but that was mainly because the NES library was huge.
Josh Brolin sold it for me. Never owned a sms though. Just the greatest videogame console known to man, the Genesis
Would Sega copyright strike the video if you used the actual sounds and music from the games? Sometimes you mention how good the music is, and it would be awesome get to hear it along with the gameplay.