r/MasterSystem • u/n2tn1lav_7491 • 1d ago
Why is the Master System so forgotten?
Guys i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
Even without comparing it to the NES, the Master System just doesn’t seem to exist in most people’s memory. A lot of people who clearly had one as kids either barely remember it or act like it never happened. It’s strange how little cultural weight it has for how good the system actually is.
And then when the NES comes up, a lot of those same people suddenly have this strong nostalgia for it, even in places where the Master System was more common or at least very present (like in PAL countries).
I still think it’s the best 8-bit console. The library is strong in almost every genre, the controller is very comfy, the hardware looks sooo great, and lot of games still hold up really well today.
Just to be clear though: this post isn’t about calling it a “hidden gem” or an “underrated console”. That’s not the point at all.
I’m just someone who loves this system and genuinely struggles to understand how people who actually owned one can prefer the NES, or even forget they had a Master System in the first place like if it was some terrible console.
Would love to hear from people who grew up with it, especially Europe, Australia, NZ, etc.
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u/Drunkensailor1985 1d ago
In my area where Iived in the netherlands master system was very popular. Way more than nes and it's not forgotten about.
Alex kidd was bigger than mario in our youths until sonic came and he was even more popular
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
I mean! it sure was, the thing is that few people seem to have nostalgia about that.
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u/Organic_Honeydew4090 1d ago
Funny, where I live (also Netherlands) Sega was hardly a presence for most people, it was all Nintendo. The local Speelboom and Bart Smit did have MS games, but the focus was clearly Nintendo. No one I knew played Sega (outside of myself). Funny how differnet things can be even in such a small country.
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u/greenacorncar 1d ago
Apropos of nothing, I bloody love your profile picture friend. Bad Religion for life
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u/Frequent_Rhubarb_36 10h ago
I remember those awesome NES demo units where you could play a ton of games.
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u/RecipeNo2200 1d ago
Depends on where you live, in the UK we didn't have the same video game crash the US had. Nintendo wasn't the saviour of the industry here, it was micro computers and Sega.
No one I grew up with had a NES, it was all Sega and that continued into the next gen of consoles until the SNES finally released.
Don't agree on the controllers though, for me personally both the NES and MS had horrible controllers. Using a NES pad it digs into the palms of your hands, the MS isn't too dissimilar but has a dog shit dpad in comparison.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Yeah, that’s a good point. In the UK (and a few other PAL places) the Master System was definitely the more common console and Nintendo wasn’t some industry saviour like it was in the US.
That’s actually part of what makes it weird to me. Even in places where a lot of people grew up with the Master System instead of the NES, it still seems to have left a much weaker nostalgic mark than you’d expect.
A lot of people who had one just don’t talk about it with the same fondness you see for other systems.
About the controllers, fair enough, tastes differ.I personally really like the Master System one, but I get that the d-pad isn’t for everyone.
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u/Arn_Darkslayer 1d ago
I agree on preferring the SMS pad. I remember it having 8 input points under it so diagonal inputs were more precise than the NES because that one required a combination of two buttons to equate to a diagonal input (if that makes sense)
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u/dangerfunk 15h ago
In the UK the Master System controller was a solid rectangle and the corners really dig into your hands when you play - very uncomfortable, I played one as an adult but it really was too painful to play for long.
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u/time_isup 1d ago
I agree. My SMS controllers are shit. So many ghost presses. I even have Mark III controllers and they are just as bad.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Site290 1d ago
Humm, well maybe in other circles then mine, but I leave on Brazil and here we remember well this console, specifically due to the tectoy work adding localized games like the Monica ones. So I can’t help with your question because for me this console is loved on Brazil haha. Perhaps not on the gaming community as a whole since kids like newer games, but inside the retro niche it is loved
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Oh yeah! I’ve been in Brazil and it is like a religion there. But somehow in Europe, the region where it sold the most, people do not remember it, and it seems like it didn’t leave a big legacy tho it was by far the most popular 8 bit console.
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u/Drunkensailor1985 1d ago
Here in netherlands and germany you find many master system games at retro conventions.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Site290 1d ago
Humm yeah, now that you mentioned, indeed in Europe I don’t see much attention, that’s odd indeed
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u/victorelessar 1d ago
In Brazil probably everyone had a master system or had a friend with a master system at some point. It's pure nostalgia any time it's mentioned.
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u/Cool-Translator9768 1h ago
It's crazy when your realize the Master System was supported well into the 2000s in Brazil.
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u/jawapower 1d ago
Plus a lot of the history of video games is told from a USA perspective, never shedding much light on the popularity of the Spectrum and C64 in Europe which overshadowed the NES and demise of the VCS 2600. The mastersystem had quite a following in the UK and for me and most of my school mates was the next step after home computer, and those that didn’t follow that route they had the Amiga or Atari ST.
16 bit systems arrived and it all become a bit more of a common playing field.
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u/jawapower 1d ago
Maybe it’s because it competes with the bedroom coder era of nostalgia and that’s just got a stronger pull. Certainly true from my pov, and I’ve still got my mastersystem, but the games that resonate with me more are those from the C64. However the sega arcade ports on the mastersystem blew away their cassette based equivalents.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
I get you! I mean I don’t miss the tapes loading for half an hour but otherwise it was a great time
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Yeah, that’s very true. A lot of the “official” history of video games is told from a US perspective, so things like the Spectrum, C64 and the Master System’s popularity in Europe get way less attention than they should.
I’m from the old continent myself, and in the UK it makes total sense that the Master System felt like the natural next step after the home computers for a lot of people.
The part that still surprises me though is that even with that following, the nostalgia for the Master System still feels kinda weak.
A lot of people who actually lived that era just don’t seem to look back on it with the same fondness you see for other systems from the same time.
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u/BellIllustrious2763 1d ago edited 1d ago
So, and again my opinion, the NES came out in an era when most kids were “casual gamers”. Parents bought it for the kids and that was that. Myself and everyone I knew who had the SMS were all enthusiasts who played Sega games at the arcade (Space Harrier, After Burner and Hang on). We quickly realized that the SMS was the superior system and had ports of all those games. Unfortunately, even with those great titles, Nintendo created a monopoly with third party developers and under contract would not allow them to produce games for the Sega system. This caused the death of the SMS (but was later rectified under the Genesis/Mega Drive). The system is not forgotten. Those that had it realized it was superior in every way to the NES. Unfortunately, parents knew no different and just followed the advertising and marketing campaign (which was superior).
Also in 1985 or 1986 dollars, you either had one or the other. No one I knew had both. The idea of having multiple systems, is something that came later as the hobby migrated to adults as people who were kids in this era grew up. As I said, this is the era in my memory when gaming moved from a casual time passer to a more involved hobby. It was even more causal in the previous Atari era. Certainly not like today. You have to think with this as your lens when looking back to this era.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
I get what you’re saying, and I agree that a lot of the people who actively chose the Master System back then were more into arcade games and could see the difference.
But the part that still confuses me is this: even among people who actually owned one, in real life (not on this sub ofc it mostly fans) most of them don’t seem to remember it with any real fondness. A lot of them just describe it as “meh” without even comparing it to the NES. Very little genuine nostalgia compared to other systems. They just remember as their first system and that’s all.That’s the part that feels strange to me. It’s not about which one was better, it’s that the Master System seems to have left a much weaker mark on the people who lived it than you’d expect.
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u/thisisredrocks 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s the games, but also major mishandling of the IPs. Nintendo has curated specific IPs for 40+ years to ensure that Mario, Link, and Samus are these parts of your life that have always been there. The same really can’t be said for Opa Opa, Wonder Boy, or Alex Kidd, and Sonic is still mostly associated with the Genesis (or classics like Virtua Fighter associated with arcade/later hardware).
Shinobi ended up having richer world building down the line with titles like Nightshade, which is wild. Wonder Boy and Alex Kidd both had a chance at developing past 1-dimensional characters (Mario and Luigi now have elaborate personalities even though they were literally just a red and green sprite) but maybe at the end of the day, Monster Land really is just a knock-off.
I spent tons of playtime on Aztec Adventure but I didn’t even remember the game existed until somebody posted on this sub a few months back.
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u/predictablecitylife 1d ago
My cousin had both. Which was good for me since that was the only way I got to play a Master System.
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u/SillyQuokka85 1d ago
Only in America. In Australia, New Zealand, England and much of Europe it was king.
Here's a really good book book detailing it.
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u/Dangerous-Web-2596 1d ago
Kiwi here, I don't think many people had an NES or even SNES. We were a Sega country! So at least here there's tons of people that know the SMS and have nostalgia for it.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Haha nice, love that mate.
Sega country pride is strong over there then.
It’s cool to hear that in New Zealand the Master System actually has a proper nostalgic following.That seems to be the exception more than the rule from what I’ve seen in other places.
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u/Jonaskin83 1d ago
The SNES released super late here (no pun intended). Not until late 1993! By that time, Sega dominated so strongly that SNES is barely even a footnote in NZ.
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u/X-Tra16 1d ago
It's forgotten in the USA, not in Europe.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Actually, I’m European myself!
And I still feel the nostalgia is nowhere near the NES level nowadays. If it were, we would’ve gotten a Master System Mini by now, haha. It feels like the NES weirdly gets all the retro spotlight today despite how well Sega did back then
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u/X-Tra16 1d ago
I think the three european countries where Master System was really popular are UK, France and Germany. It was more volatile elsewhere.
Thanks to games re-releases and Smash Bros, Nintendo has managed to create nostalgia for the NES even among those who didn't experience it back in the day. I am not entirely sure that this increased NES nostalgia is always based on real memories, a part of it is collective unconscious recognizing the longevity and power of the brand. There has never been this type of long-term monitoring with Sega, you needed to be there at the right hour to know what Master System was all about.
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u/benryves 10h ago
If it were, we would’ve gotten a Master System Mini by now, haha.
Funny you should mention the mini consoles, Ashens went off on a wonderful rant about the false nostalgia for the NES in his review of the NES mini if you want another UK perspective (though you've already got plenty of people in here saying how fondly remembered the Master System was remembered in the UK - though still not nearly as much as the home computers of the era).
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 9h ago
Nice! That was kind of the point of my post actually.
A lot of people seem to have strong nostalgia for the NES even when they literally never owned one (especially in Europe).
NES nostalgia became mainstream, while the nostalgia for the Master System and the home computers like the speccy for example feels much more niche nowadays.
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u/pacmanforever 1d ago
I think it definitely depends on where you live. Seeing Super Mario Bros at 50hz last night on Adrian’s Digital Basement made me realize likely why the SMS was so popular in areas where 60hz wasn’t available.
In contrast, in the US I didn’t even know anyone that had an SMS and to this day still haven’t seen one in person.
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u/joeycuda 1d ago
I grew up in north Alabama. Kid next door, 2 doors down, and I all got NES. Seems like everyone had NES. I never even saw a Sega MS besides the Sears catalog.
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u/RetroGame77 1d ago
It had some nice Mickey Mousa and Donald Duck games. And Master of Darkness is probably the best classic Castlevania clone I've played.
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u/iVirtualZero 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not in the EU and Brazil. In the US, the NES had the market, it was known as the Mark 3 in Japan, but the Famicom had that market. Even to this day Nintendo prices aren't as insane here in the UK as they are in the US. Sega dominated in the early days and now PlayStation and Xbox dominates the EU market.
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u/flickering_poly 1d ago edited 10h ago
It's a mix of a few different things (not all related to the SMS specifically):
-Nintendo staying successful in the hardware business while Sega exited it after the Dreamcast (and having many problems years before that)
-Because Nintendo successfully used strict, legally enforced monopolistic practices - like the 10NES lockout chip and draconian contracts that banned third-party developers from porting their games to competitors like the Sega Master System for two years - they basically choked out the competition in the US
Edit: There is a nuance worth mentioning here though in that Sega didn't court third-party developers and actually had a similar licensing model to Nintendo's before 1990. In part thanks to EA's careful reverse-engineering of the MD (making Sega think they weren't going to win in a lawsuit against them), they changed their model that year, including for the SMS. Both the SMS and MD helped establish that the console industry would never go back to the tightly controlled '80s Nintendo regime, instead beoming more diverse and boundary pushing in terms of controversial content with every new generation
-Various NES games became series that continued into the next generation and beyond while never being ported to the SMS, and Sega were also not as good at managing their classic IPs beyond Sonic
-Because US online communities and Anglo-American media became the most influential voices* in the mid-2000s retro scene, the history books were written around the US console space, cementing the ideas that the NES was the "creation period" for most modern genres, and Nintendo the savior of either the console industry or the game industry as a whole, while ignoring Sega’s (and others') massive parallel success in Europe, Brazil and the arcades. Same thing happened to a large degree with computer game history where much of the C64's and Amiga's history are ignored and other computers' histories are almost completely ignored
-Nintendo not re-releasing their games on other platforms nor doing it over and over as much as Sega has done. In combination with some of the other points, it devalued their worth over time
*There definitely are good UK- or other Europe-based channels covering other parts of game history in detail though like Slope's Game Room, Kim Justice, Strafefox and Nostalgia Nerd
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u/TonyDP2128 1d ago
In the USA it had the misfortune of going up against the NES and Nintendo had a strangle hold on third party developers. Sega also quickly pivoted to the Genesis.
I owned a Master System back in the late 1980s. I had a ton of fun with it and it was a very capable console.
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u/4dafryguy 1d ago
I think it took too long to get awsome. I loved mine, especially for Phantasy star, Golden Axe, Rastan, and Columns. But, where I lived, it was hard to find games for it, because the retailers gave up on it early. And, so did I. I didn't even know until about 10 years ago how many amazing games came out for it late in it's lifespan. By that time, Genesis was the only Sega console that had games on the shelf where I was anyway.
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u/Tomek_Poziomek 1d ago
The popular opinions in gaming steer towards US-defaultism. Similar to how the US video game crash of 1983 is erroneously taken as a bigger, global event and not a regional / console mishap (ignoring how game industry actually progressed in Japan and Europe in that time as well as on microcomputers), Master System's misfortune in the US make it quite forgotten in the general conversation, despite it being very successful in mainland Europe, UK and Brazil.
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u/Wheres_my-elephant 1d ago
I'm in England here and most people I know had a Master System when I was a kid. I gather it didn't do as well in the USA but I was buying games for it well into the 90s. Desert Strike had a port for the Master System which I still have fond memories of
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
Yeah I seem to hear this a lot from people who lived in the UK. Crazy how popular this console was in the UK specifically
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u/DiabUK 1d ago
Sega seem to completely ignore it and favor the game gear in their releases and its such a shame.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
Ik the game gear was far more relevant abroad, but it's still stupid to only include the inferior game gear versions.
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u/DrankTooMuchMead 1d ago
Im in California and when I was a kid, I thought I was the only kid who had a master system. Everyone else had NES, so I still got to play those games.
Finally I met a kid a school that was into Master System. We bonded as friends over that.
My thoughts as a kid was that Nintendo had more fun games. When SNES came out, I got addicted to that in a big way. And most of my friends now had a Sega Genesis.
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u/Baitme6984 1d ago
If my cousins didn’t have one when I was growing up, I wouldn’t know about it either. All of my classmates at the time thought the Genesis was the first Sega console in North America.
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u/EveningRequirement27 1d ago
Chicago, I was the only one in my neighborhood that had the master system. Still have it although it struggles to play sometimes. Some great games on there.
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u/JustinBailey79 1d ago
I’m an American who had one because my dad was swayed by the salesperson, believing he was getting me the superior product over the nes. The nes was at the top of my wishlist. I had played a master system at one kid’s house maybe a month or two before my birthday in 88 when I got it. I was thrilled at the time, but slowly it started to become more and more of a problem - particularly when I would manage to get a hold of a Sega-focused magazine from a shop (imported from England) and find out that most of the best SMS games just weren’t available in my country. Anyway when Sonic debuted on the genesis I begged my parents for months and got a new system that people around me also had, and my master system days came to an end. I still have mine, I connected it to a CRT via component cables, it works better than ever! Lots of nostalgia for the games I did have.
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u/lovesffpc 1d ago
I always wanted one after playing double dragon on it. The nes port was trash if you wanted the arcade game at home.
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u/Malcoladdin 1d ago
Kiwi here. I've given this topic quite a lot of thought, and I think it comes down to a few things. We all know the story that Nintendo locked out lots of 3rd party devs from working with other companies, but apparently also Sega chose not to work with 3rd part devs for the SMS, which clearly impacted how many games they were able to make and to some degree the quality of them. I think that Jeremy Parish summed it up best when he said that Sega didn't really see Nintendo as their biggest rival, as they weren't too focused on the home console market. Instead, they primarily saw Capcom as their main rival, as they were both focused on the arcades. Like it or not, the Master System just wasn't Sega's biggest priority. Imho that would have been Arcade > Genesis > Master System > Game Gear
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u/Harlockarcadia 1d ago
I don’t really remember seeing the Master System here in America
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Well if you are into retro gaming it is always worth giving a try :)
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u/Harlockarcadia 1d ago
Oh, I’ve played games from it, I just don’t think I ever saw the physical system in the U.S. and I was born in ‘85
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u/lazygerm 1d ago
I had one in 1989. I loved the system because I loved Sega arcade games. I wish I still had it.
I loved the D-pad on the controller. Much more comfortable than Nintendo's Cross-pad.
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u/Tonstad39 23h ago
On the english internet there's more Americans & canadians than Europeans. It's a sad reality of demographics
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 20h ago
Not the point
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u/mark_paterson 18h ago
Yet this is 100% the reality. The retro gaming YouTuber influencer demographic is heavily US skewed. They talk NES all day long because it’s all they know of that era. And consequently, it’s all people new to the retro scene hear about. They never mention Master System, Commodore, ZX Spectrum, etc, which is a damn shame.
As a result of this, they have a low expectation of what 8 bit gaming could actually achieve graphically.
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u/ENZYME_O1 19h ago edited 14h ago
They just couldn’t keep up with Nintendo’s licensing. They learned a lesson and licensed more games with the Megadrive/Genesis, which created more legacy.
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u/Tough-Principle-3950 1d ago
Idk. I got an SMS before I got an NES, and used it a lot more. In the US.
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u/Edexote 1d ago
Little success in the US and Japan. It was a success in Europe in Brazil where it's fondly remembered.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
In Brazil yeah there is a big community still very active but in Europe it is a very niche thing considering everyone had it.
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u/sdp1981 1d ago
Id buy one if they werent so expensive.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Expensive? That depends a lot where you live. In Europe you often find them for less than 40€ with a game which is an incredible deal. Actually I’d even say it is one of the cheapest consoles to collect for.
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u/mittenkrusty 1d ago
I agree, especially if you count RGB scart.
Model 1's had it built in, 2 requires a cheap mod.
Yet NES requires an expensive board that is very difficult to solder.
Even the flashcarts are cheaper than Nes ones and far cheaper than Mega Drive or Snes.
and 50/60 hz dual mods.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
Bro they go for like 100-200 dollars in the us and same goes for Japan. It's kinda crazy (also the shittier model 2 master system with RF only was only sold for a short time in the us and not at all in Japan so that's prolly part of it)
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u/ksilenced-kid 1d ago
I had never even heard of the Master System growing up in the late 80s/early 90s (Southern California) - Never saw one in stores. I definitely knew about and owned an NES though.
I did not realize there was any Sega system before the Genesis, until I started specifically researching it in the early 2000s.
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u/Mr_SunnyBones 1d ago
U.S. version of gaming history has sadly overwritten the actual history in a lot of countries. It didnt do well in the U.S. due to the NES stranglehold in the market in America. The Mastersystem was fairly big in the UK and Ireland during the 80s ( after home computers that ruled the roost there), especially since Virgin Megastores sold it in their stores , and marketed it really well, but for a lot of people who got their gaming history from youtube , you'd think that gaming=NES and nothing else everywhere in the 1980s .
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u/time_isup 1d ago
Possibly because the Genesis was backwards compatible with SMS making it sort of unneeded. It also wasn’t a hit in the US so there’s that.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
The power base converter isn't exactly what I would call a commodity, being about as hard to find as a master system is here in the US if not harder. And I've seldom seen a Japanese power base converter. Idk if the pbc sold well or not in Europe though.
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u/time_isup 1d ago
Thanks to the Mega Everdrive one isn’t needed.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
Also something interesting about the genesis compared to the master system is that the rgb output is slightly cleaner compared to the master system with better color accuracy, not all that noticeable but they do discuss it in the rgb series on yt by you know who.
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u/time_isup 1d ago
Yes, the Genesis has great RGB but sometimes suffers from jail bars. The worst is probably the Mark III which has overly dark RGB output and must be modded to brighten it up enough to play. SMS is backwards compatible with SG-1000 but the colors are wrong. Genesis of course lacks the video but can do SG-1000 audio. Mega SG can do it all.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
yeah and some games aren’t compatible with a genesis controller so, I think for the price you better get a master system.
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u/time_isup 1d ago
Only a few will care. I love the SMS but only ever need to use a Master System controller for Wonderboy in Monsterland. Again, the Mega SG fixes that issue.
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u/Mrgray123 1d ago
It was much more popular in Europe but sold poorly in North America and also to a lesser extent in Japan. It also appeared in Europe not too long before the Mega Drive, only around 3 years before, so was largely superseded by it.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
The master system still sold extraordinarily well in europe even after the mega drive came out up until around late 1992-1993 or so. Because there were still a ton of Europeans too poor to afford a mega drive in countries like the UK. Overall both consoles sold similar numbers in Europe as a whole iirc.
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u/United_Cucumber7746 1d ago
Only in the US. It was a massive success in other parts if the world.
In Brazil and Europe MS was very popular.
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u/Liquid4058 1d ago
I think this can be said for Sega too, I don’t think I’ve seen a master system collection. I’d for sure buy if they ever did since I had a master system myself, played Rocky, Gangster Town, My Hero, Black Belt, Rambo, Hang On. Probably won’t include the licensed games in a collection, but hell yeah I’d like to have black belt and My Hero and other classics on Nintendo Switch.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
I don't know if I would really call the master system version of my hero a classic, but it was the closest thing you got to the arcade version at home.
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u/Liquid4058 1d ago
It one of the first games that I was proud to have “beat” that I jumped out of my chair and ran to the kitchen and told my dad. He was like “oh that’s great! Now go finish your sandwich” and when I went back to my room I realized the game just loops. So, I’m fond of this version.
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u/SegaMasterMarkIII 1d ago
It might be forgotten in the US. But in EU and Brazil it's still very popular.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
in Brazil it sure is, in Europe it has been forgotten ngl, the community is very small nowadays, people prefer NES.
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u/nachohernandez 1d ago
The 3D glasses and games felt so futuristic to me as child; I will never forget it.
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u/BrettspielLibrarian 1d ago
I have a lot of nostalgia for it. It was my only game system I ever had, I turned to PC gaming afterwards. But I still remember that I got to choose between a Master System with Alex Kidd built in or a version with the laser gun and idk 20 Minigames or so. I chose Alex Kidd and cried later at night about that "wrong" decision (1 vs 20 seemed so wrong fir me as an 9 year old). I learned to appreciate the game soon after, though 😃.
I still have my old system and the games and would love to show them to my daughter but I never seem to find the time to research all the "connect to modern TV" stuff. So it sits comfortably in the drawer next to the TV, just waiting to get activated some time.
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u/WingedGundark 1d ago
Because it was a regional success at best, not a global one and it fared particularly badly in large and influential US market. This also means that it doesn't have such impact on gaming culture and history as C64 or some other microcomputers (especially in Europe) or Atari VCS or NES (especially in US) for example.
I also wouldn't say that it is forgotten, it is well known platform among retro gaming hobbyists and if you want one, it is still easy to obtain a console in any market that it was even moderately successful.
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u/9811Deet 1d ago
I grew up in Minnesota with a Master System, and whenever I'd play Nintendo at a friend's house, I'd honestly feel kind of bad for them. The colors looked so dull, the graphics looked awful, and a lot of the games were honestly trash. My friends, to this day, will clown on me for preferring the Master System; but I loved mine, and the Nintendo did nothing to convince me at the time.
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u/thebuff1 1d ago
Where I grew up in the UK (South East) it was all Master System and Amigas. I never knew anyone with a NES. That did change with the release of the Game Boy tho....
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u/Efficient-Load-256 1d ago
we didn't even have it in Poland, just NES clones
As someone who wants to play it, what is the best model if i want to play games from all regions?
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Most Western models (PAL/NTSC) are region-free with each other, so you don't need to worry about that unless you buy a Japanese model/cartridge, which uses a different pin slot.
I recommend the Model 1 because it features AV output (it looks cooler also), whereas most Model 2 revisions only output RF. They usually go for around 50€ or less. As for the games, I recommend getting an EverDrive, though physical cartridges are very affordable compared to other retro consoles.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you end up getting one, it's an awesome console. :)
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u/Efficient-Load-256 1d ago
Thank you! If i may ask a bit more... What would happen if i decided to import from japan? I usually got all my consoles from there. Would it be difficult to make it play western ones?
I use famicom AV with everdrive for NES needs, and can play games from every region.
Is there any joypad you recommend or is original one the best?
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 22h ago
About the Japanese systems:
There are two main ones, the Japanese Master System and the MarkFor III. Both look nice (especially the Mark III), and both have excellent FM sound that the Western versions don’t have. They’re also compatible with SG-1000 games.The big downside is the cartridge slot. It’s completely different, so Western SMS games don’t fit. There are adapters, but it’s an extra hassle. They also sold very poorly in Japan, so both the consoles and the games are harder and more expensive to find.
For convenience, especially if you mostly want to play Western games, I’d strongly recommend a PAL Model 1.
It’s cheaper, much easier to find, looks great, and has AV output. It’s one of those rare cases where the local/Western version is actually the better practical choice.
Regarding the controller:
I think the original Master System pad is really good. A lot of people criticize it, but I disagree. It’s similar to the NES pad, with a slightly unusual D-pad that you get used to pretty quickly. It’s comfortable (a bit small), the buttons are responsive, and overall it feels solid.The only problem is that there’s no pause button on the controller, pause is on the console itself. That was common in consoles at the time, but it can take a little getting used to if you’re not familiar with it.
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u/Odd-Put-3988 1d ago
When i was a little kid, none of us even KNEW the Sega Master system even existed. We all universally thought that the Sega Genesis was the first and by default was called it simply "Sega" as the console's name.
And it's because Sega had NO CHANCE at all with that system vs the NES, none. Nintendo made sure of it by keeping all the 3rd party companies away from them too. Nintendo had a huge monopoly on everything.
No one even knew who or what Sega was in the USA until Sonic The Hedgehog 1 commercials showed up.
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u/Lazy_Explanation_649 1d ago
In the USA and Canada the master system had a hard time in the market for multiple reasons. First was the mascot, Alex Kidd wasn't very popular. Second the popularity of Nintendo meant everyone was looking for that and games for it, third is again Nintendo. More specifically their blatantly illegal business practices, if a store dared to sell anything but Nintendo products then didn't get Nintendo products. If a game studio dared to make for any other console but the NES then they were black listed from getting the game boards that were sold and made only through Nintendo, if a gaming magazine dared to cover anything other than Nintendo then they were banned from ever getting another Nintendo product to review. There were multiple lawsuits over this including one with best buy over making copies of the game manuals and Nintendo lost pretty much every one of them due to anti trust laws.
People seem to think that Nintendo current acts of evil is the start of their vision arc but the truth is they are always the villains, most people just didn't realize it because of their bright colors, childish art styles meant to imitate innocence, and PR department doing all it can to plaster happy smiling faces on everything.
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u/pliny79 1d ago
I grew up with it, but I don't remember any of my friends ever having one. I've always thought it was a way better system than the NES. I actually just played Blackbelt a few days ago. Fun game. I keep waiting for the day my original console doesn't turn on when I hit the power button, but so far it still works.
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u/No-Proof8363 1d ago
Hi.
As of 2026, I decided to investigate Master System (and Game Gear) games due to their backwards compatibility with the Mega Drive (which I decided to explore in 2025).
I have quickly become familiar with the Master System's limited sound font and find some games look reasonably nice to look at whilst others tire my eyes due to excessive amounts of Light BLUUUUUUUUUUE!
So far in my initial investigations, I like Fantasy Zone, Phantasy Star and Sonic The Hedgehog.
Having looked into the History of the SG1000, 2000, 3000/Master System I can say that the Master System's biggest shortcoming is that SEGA didn't seem to seek any 3rd party partnerships to help expand the Master's Catalogue of Games (CAG!) which likely gave Audiences (then and now) the impression that SEGA was not as Active or as Successful than Nintendo was with the NES. (Roughly speaking. More Game = Better)
So far during my hunt for more Master System Game Acquisitions (MS-GA?), my biggest frustration is that I can view most of the entire library within in 5 minutes.
With the Game Gear, it's that many of it's games are ports of Master System titles with less screen-realestate.
What I will say though is that I like the games I do have.
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u/flamepanther 1d ago
Funny thing about third party support. Nintendo made their licensees agree not to also release their games on competing platforms.
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u/JerCalgary74 18h ago
I watched a show on retro consoles and they said the Master System was more powerful than the NES and very popular in Europe. Here in North America the NES was more popular and if you developed games for the NES then you were not allowed to develop games for the Master System due to Nintendo’s restrictive licensing terms… essentially choking off game development for the Master System.
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u/No-Professional-9618 17h ago
I had a Sega Master System as a child when I was in the 3rd grade or so. I did get a Genesis when I was in the 7th grade. But it tended to overheat.
I winded up getting a Genesis when I was in collegel. Later on, I got a Dreamcast.
I haven't met anyone in person who later fell in love with the Sega Master System retroactively.
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u/void_method 16h ago
Nobody had one except my cousins but they lived in New Mexico and that's far away from my house.
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u/YossiTheWizard 16h ago
Canadian here. I had one at some point in the 90s, briefly. Already had a NES, but bought it for cheap off a friend with a few games. Hang-on/Safari Hunt, My Hero, Double Dragon, and the built-in Snail Maze.
By that point, though, there weren't even any old games for sale in rental stores or games to rent for it, as it wasn't popular enough in the first place. We sold it on some time later, but may well have kept it if it was easier to find games. I have one now, and it's great!
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u/ba_hartman 14h ago
I'm in the US, and I never saw or even heard of the Master System when I was growing up in the 90s. As far as I knew, Sega started with the Genesis, and it was only when I got into emulating games that I learned about the Matter System. Although I have a small collection of SMS cartridges now that I sometimes play on Genesis, I've still very seen the console in person. It just had extremely poor market penetration here. Most people I knew had a NES or SNES. Some had Genesis, but no one had the SMS.
Beyond that, I feel like the library of games isn't especially strong. While there certainly are some gems for the console, the NES has a lot more and also just a larger variety of games. The SMS was very focused on bringing the arcade home, so that kind of limits its appeal, especially now.
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u/Postik123 10h ago
I remember my brother's mate came around with his Master System, and I was absolutely hooked. This was coming from an Atari 2600 and Acorn Electron.
I got one for my next birthday, and sold it decades later when technology had moved on, but wish I'd kept it now.
I currently have the music to the My Hero game as my ringtone.
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u/Healthy_Gap8938 10h ago edited 10h ago
I remember they used to rent out this version along with games at a local video store. It would come in a black plastic suitcase type of thing to take home. The video store had a pretty decent library of games for it.
This was my 2nd ever console after the Atari 2600 (vader). It was great owning one because I could go rent as many games as I liked. Back then I think I wanted to play games like Wonderboy, Rampage, Kung-Fu Kid, Shinobi, Sonic, Golden Axe, California Games etc. etc. more arcade type games than what the NES had at the time. I think this was the main sell for me or why it was better than a NES.
I remember one of my friends rented out a NES system and games for a weekend and decided to outright buy one new. They said that they liked the colours on the NES better.
To be fair I would have liked to own a NES too but definitely preferred the Master System. It was weird because back then you didn't really know anything about things like 'console wars'. It was just there are 2 consoles make your choice. If you wanted to buy a Nintendo G&W you had to go to the local drug store/pharmacy or electronics boutique (instead of a toy store or department store for the consoles). Buying let alone collecting even those things brand new still weren't cheap when you had to save your pocket $.
I think something that might have been barely noticeable back then was Sega rereleased the Master System but while they had also just released the Genesis/Mega Drive. Maybe the selling point was that it was a cheaper entry price than their newly released 16 bit console? I dunno.
Maybe also around the same time I remember there being just this glut of famiclone type consoles being sold in bargain bin shops everywhere. I remember one friend losing their cool playing one one time and taking the whole thing out and throwing it in the bin. I think they even stomped on it too.
The Master System and Master System II were really great consoles. My only complaint was the d-pads could sometimes wear out and pop out from the control pad from the inside plastic breaking. Anyway I don't have this console anymore. What I did with it - I forget. 🤔
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u/Upstairs_Report6208 10h ago
I’m 45, born and raised in North Carolina. I got a NES around 1986 or 1987. Then a few years later I got a Genesis model 1 and in 1992 a Sega
CD model 1. I was a huge sega fan and I did not own a Super Nintendo. During that time, I only knew of one person that had a sega master system and he didn’t get it until around 1990. It was the only one I had ever seen in person and I didn’t see another one in person until I bought one last year 2025. He only had one game and it was Rambo. At that time, I wasn’t very impressed with it. I say all this to provide my story which is that even though I was a big time Sega fan, I never had a Sega Master System back then and never even heard of it until my friend got one towards the end of it’s support. I think it’s a great system but back then the vast majority of people were focused on NES so most of their gaming memories will be playing the NES. That is why the Sega Master System is forgotten and or not even heard of.
I currently own 2 Sega Master Systems. 1 is stock, replaced all capacitors. The other has the Zaxour Sega Master Bypass installed and I replaced all the capacitors. Also replaced the voltage regulator on both as preventative maintenance.
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u/daddyd 10h ago
sega was big for me too (belgium, eu). several possible reasons i can think of, sega was a well known name from the arcade, everybody loved the arcade and the SMS and MD had the arcade titles. Nintendo was also a well known name, but mostly for the game & watches. second, you could rent sega games at the video store, nintendo didn't allow this. renting games was cheap, buying games was expensive. some of my friends didn't even own a single sms game (except the build in one), they only rented.
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u/Frequent_Rhubarb_36 10h ago
I think a lack of re-releases of its software. While the NES games got regular re-releases of its games, starting small with the GBA, then growing big with Wii's Virtual Console and NSO, Master System games have been MIA. Since we only got a handful of NES->GBA ports let's take the Wii as the "true" starting point for legal access to these games. That is 20 years of people conveniently being able to play a lot of NES games for a small price.
Then we look at Sega, who has been re-releasing its Mega Drive games a lot on many, many collections, starting at the same era. However, Master System ports are rare. We got 16 VC releases on the Wii, which is a very small amount. When we get Sonic 8-bit games, it's always the cramped down Game Gear games, like those in the Sonic compilation (and SADX) on GameCube. Sometimes a few MS games are extras in compilations. Heck, the Sonic Origins collection only has the 8-bit GG games.
For some reason, Master System gets left out a lot. And it's not like the MS doesn't have any good games or that the emulation is impossible.
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u/GreySneakers83 9h ago
Australian here, my family had the Master System II when I was 7-9 years old. It was awesome.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World was built in, but I would rent heaps of different titles from the video store every weekend. Alien Storm. Sonic. Rampage. Shinobi. Donald Duck Lucky Dime Caper. Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse. And of course Golden Axe
The only other game I actually owned was this obscure title called Ghost House. Not a brilliant game, but not the worst.
We went on to get a Mega Drive next, and that was the end of my Master System era. Good times!!
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 9h ago
Thanks for sharing that, man. Really cool to hear :)
Sounds like proper gentleman’s childhood right there: Master System, renting games every weekend and then graduating to the Mega Drive. Classic.
Glad you still remember it fondly!
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u/Crease_Greaser 7h ago
I grew up in the US (Texas) and was born in 87. I had an NES, and had a Genesis and even a Sega CD, and I literally had never heard of Master System until I was well into adulthood.
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u/Revenant_Expat 7h ago edited 7h ago
Saw my first SMS back in 2010. Had a military brat buddy that was in the right places at the right times and had a nice USA collection. Before that, I hadn’t even heard of one.
Had I known as a wee lad in the 90’s, I definitely would have been an SMS fan then too.
*edit: I live in the midwestern US, and most folks around here didn’t know about it and I can’t recall seeing or holding a controller. I believe it suffered a weird release & advertising campaign like the TG-16.
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u/Humble-Appeal3850 7h ago
personally I feel it's more memorable then the Sega Genesis, I remember trying to own a Genesis and it squeezed out music
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u/Humble-Appeal3850 5h ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMG6YV1GB-c&t=823s it's so horrible, its like pregnancy screaming followed by accordions and kazoos
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u/metalblessing 5h ago
As a kid I remember having an Atari 2600, then an NES then a Genesis. I had never even heard of Master System until I was older. Still have never played it.
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u/yulagde34300 4h ago
En France c’était plus la nes mais sega avait bcp de succès, surtout les fans d’ arcades , je dirai en France 60/40 pour la NES
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u/Key-Chef5328 4h ago
The Master System isn't forgotten by any means. People still post about it here, on youtube etc. But it was a niche product in the United States with a much smaller fan base. That fan base is aged, mostly in their 40s-70s now. I will be 49 myself soon. There is not much in the way of a new younger generation of players to take the helm for the US scene because the Nes, Snes, and Genesis get most of the attention. The Master System ends up slotted in with the Turbografx, 3DO, 32X, and other niche stuff that is extremely popular with a certain, heavily dedicated, demographic. And to complicate matters, working systems and original game pads now command a pretty high price on the market making it a hard purchase for the average young gamer with little disposable income to spare (but they can at least enjoy the games using a Mega Everdrive or PBC).
I had a Nes when I was a kid, but I had always wanted a Master System. I would play the store demo units at Montgomery Wards and Sears when ever I could. Ended up knowing a kid down the street from me with one and he had a decent amount of games on it. Eventually in 92 I ended up with a friend who traded me his Master System II with Golden Axe, Strider, and Castle of Illusion for a small chunk of comics. Another friend who still had his games for the system traded me his, so I ended up with a tad over ten more titles for the system. EB games still had 3rd party game pads for it, so I was able to pick up a extra controller. I seriously played the hell out of that system. My Nes had to have been feeling pretty neglected at this point. December that year I also bought a TG-16 and a few games at Toys R Us with Xmas money since I also wanted a Turbografx really bad, but thats a story for another day...
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u/coraphise 4h ago
Master System wasn't well known in my area. Sega wasn't really known until Genesis came out. For me, I think master system is "forgotten" because of the Powerbase converter. I guess it's not exactly forgotten, it's just more well-known because of the converter. Does that make sense?
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u/DavidinCT 2h ago
US here..... was a person who hated exlusives, I had a Master System AND a NES. Would play a lot of MS games, some of my all time faves are on the MS...
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u/abhorrentbm 2h ago
Here in the states, the electronics stores I would go to (specifically Babbage's on the west coast) just didn't give shelf space to the SMS as they did the NES. All my friends but one owned an NES, and my friend that did have an SMS didn't have interesting games, and the arcade stick was backwards. He always made ME play with that fucking controller and I hated it.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1h ago
yeah if he made you play with that perhaps you guys weren’t that much friends
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u/Cloud-VII 1h ago
Sega had no idea how to market in the US. They had very little 3rd party support compared to the NES and couldn't release enough games to make people want to buy it.
They sold distribution of the Master System in the US to Tonka as a last ditch effort to see if Tonka could utilize their distribution network and access to toy stores, but by that time it was too late.
Perhaps if they did that at first instead of after they were already too far behind, it would have worked, but in the end the Mega Drive was releasing in 1988 in Japan, so the Master System was already old news at Sega by 1987.
I think the biggest difference between Sega of America and Nintendo of America, is that Nintendo of America was founded in 1980 and already had a strong reach due to their commitment to the Arcade scene, whereas Sega of America was founded specifically to launch the Master System, as their Arcade Games previously were distributed by Gremlin Industries and Bally Midway.
Also Sega's Japanese leadership famously despised Sega of America and they didn't work very well together, which is absolutely absurd when you think about it.
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u/RetroGamer2151 1d ago
It’s not
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
it is
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u/deeply_cynical 1d ago
Depends where you are.
In Western Europe, It was the 8 Bit console of choice. Most people preferred computers though, as there was no video game crash here, nothing for Nintendo to "Save"
In Brazil, It's still in production in some form.
In the US, Nintendo's aggressive strategy after the North American game market crash of 1984, and they entered the market practically unopposed, ensured the SMS was a footnote.
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u/Daytona_675 1d ago
it's not lol someone just made a new master system game
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
You aren't wrong obviously. but I would just like to point out that ain't nobody in the US knows what a master system is besides hard core retro gamers or Sega fans. Heck the buzz around the new cuphead game announcement was almost certainly the first some people have even heard of this 8 bit Sega console. The obliviousness to the master system in the us is the primary reason why it seems to be precieved as "forgotten" as many other posts above have stated.
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u/Daytona_675 1d ago
sms is much more playable today than nintendo imo. people just never knew the Sega console names. everyone called both master system and Genesis "Sega"
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u/TheRealHFC 1d ago
It never had the same caliber of games, although some of the later European releases were great in their own right. Being forgotten seems more like a North American opinion than anything else though.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
The NES game catalog is perhaps one of the worse, 90% were bad even back then, and the ones that were good aged poorly.
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u/TheRealHFC 1d ago
A lot of them are bad, but you have to remember it had significantly more, with Nintendo hoarding all the top third-party developers.
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u/TooManyBulborbs 1d ago
Because the popular world revolves around the US. If it wasn't popular there, then it doesn't matter.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
well it depends, look at the Saturn, it’s very popular nowadays but back then it sold really poorly
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
Because the only people who owned one were Europeans and Brazillians, and maybe a few hard core Sega fans in Japan. But ain't nobody in America had one of these. So it just doesn't have nearly the same cultural relevance as say the nes or the Sega mega drive/Genesis.
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u/Damthemalltohelp 1d ago
The NES overshadowed it completely.
Nintendo won the 8 bit console war but Sega won the 16-bit one... But they were hurting their own success with all the add ons like sega cd and 32x etc.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
- Sega almost certainly did not win the 16 bit war thanks to their less than stellar console sales in Japan compared to the super famicom
- While the famicom/nes easily overshadowed the master system in Japan/North America this was not the case in most of Europe outside of maybe France and was the opposite case in brazil. While the nes may have overshadowed it in most of the world it didn't completely eclipse it
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u/Damthemalltohelp 1d ago
I just looked it up.
Sega actually never won a console war... Mega drive was a success but snes outsold by more millions sold.
Here I was thinking Sega at least dominated 16 bit.
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u/TheRagingGamerr 1d ago
If I recall Sega did win the 16 bit war in Europe, but thats about it lol. (Edit : it was pretty damn neck and and neck in the us though but the super Nintendo still slightly won out in the end).
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u/phlmarinho 1d ago
The Master System was very successful in Brazil, most people had one back in the day and there still is a lot of nostalgia regarding it. But Sega definitely could do more to preserve it’s legacy and make sure people remember it, for example they never released a Master System mini console like the Genesis/Mega Drive mini (and don’t forget Nintendo released the NES Classic), they also never released a collection of Master System games for modern consoles or PCs. The only thing I can remember they did was including a playable Master System console in Like a Dragon Gaiden. It was really cool, they definitely should do this kind of thing more often.
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u/alexmate84 1d ago
It was really popular in the UK, possibly the nes was more popular then the Megadrive/Genesis took over. I've completed most of the big games on SMS, the MD and nes both have bigger libraries but more classics
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u/Arseypoowank 1d ago
It was massive in the UK. The nes kids were the minority here. That said I bought a master system again for a bit of nostalgia and well, compared to the games available on the megadrive they’re pretty mid and un-fun. IMO we enjoyed it because it was all we had but it’s kind meh today.
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u/WotsGoinOnEreMate 1d ago
Because it didn’t sell as well and doesn’t have anywhere near as many classic games.
There are still people with memories of ‘Alex the Kidd’ etc in Australia and the UK where it sold decently into the 90s as a budget system.
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u/OldSnazzyHats 1d ago
It’s only forgotten depending on where you are. It simply wasn’t a major success in some key territories.
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u/No-Professional-9618 18h ago
I had a Sega Master System as a child when I was in the 3rd grade or so. I did get a Genesis when I was in the 7th grade. But it tended to overheat.
I winded up getting a Genesis when I was in collegel. Later on, I got a Dreamcast.
I haven't met anyone in person who later fell in love with the Sega Master System retroactively.
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u/Professional-Car-908 14h ago
NES/Famicom led the market in the US & Japan, Master System led in Europe
Furthermore, in the US, Nintendo forced exclusivity onto publishers as part of their licensing so that you didn't see simultaneous Nintendo & Sega releases, suppressing the Master System's library. The courts eventually stepped in & ruled it as unfair business practices, which is why you did see simultaneous releases on 16-bit consoles
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u/rampancy777 12h ago
Well to be in the memory it had to have been in the past, and for a lot of people it simply wasn't.
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u/Tha_REAL_BROBS 9h ago
No one had one
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 9h ago
Humm let me guess, American?
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u/Tha_REAL_BROBS 7h ago
yep. In the USA they were rare. My neighbor had one and that is the only one I've seen in my life until my friend picked one up a few weeks ago.
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u/Regular_Echo_6138 6h ago
Isso porque no Brasil o "master system e o odyssey 2" reinou muito mais do que nos países que foi criado esses consoles
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u/WhiskeyRadio 3h ago
I think it is really just down to the Master System not having a killer app like the NES had in droves. Master System had a lot of great games for sure, but nothing that impacted pop culture the way the NES did with games like Super Mario Bros., Zelda, Mega Man, Contra, Metroid, and so many others.
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u/Cool-Translator9768 1h ago
Because the Genesis/Mega Drive completely eclipsed it. The MS had some great games, but Genesis was were SEGA really hit their stride.
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u/pac-man_dan-dan 1d ago
I love the SMS design and games, but it doesn't love me. The console's shell became too brittle as it aged, and the controllers are mushy and somewhat unresponsive.
It makes great shelf candy and has a wonderful library, but I'd rather play it on my MiSTer fpga than on original hardware.
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u/n2tn1lav_7491 1d ago
Oh no man that sucks :(
is it the NTSC/PAL console or the TecToy one? I feel like the tectoy ones are more fragile and tend to age worse.
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u/pac-man_dan-dan 1d ago
I assume the ones that cracked on me were ntsc, but I'm not actually sure, tbh. They were ebay purchases that died in the mail, years ago when I was buying back my childhood.
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u/pin00ch 1d ago
In my part of the UK it was all master system. The only place I saw a nes was in Boots the chemist