The Sega Master System Discussion Thread

[Rogue Trooper]

Glad you liked mention of Special Reserve.Used them as not only were they a discount retailer (you paid for you membership and got better than high street prices), but they stocked pretty much all the current console hardware back then, so there prices seemed very good means to highlight vast differences in pricing between formats.they along with Silica shop were 2 of the most widely used firms i know of from that era.

Nintendo could have handled the UK Nes themselves 1st time around, but as you say, decided to give it to Mattel and given the examples you've used, it proves once and for all that Mattel were not inexperinced in dealing with consumer electronics like games consoles. bottom line is when talking of Nes and UK, people just did'nt want to be paying those game prices for then very dated 8 Bit hardware, when you had the likes of the MD and Lynx alone offering 16 Bit (yes, know Lynx was a hybrid, but it out powered the Nes by a long shot!) gaming.

As i said in other post, Mastertronic were'nt seg'a 1st choice to handle MS in UK, deal fell through, paving way for Mastertonic, but the blame for Nes failure in UK lies squarely with Nintendo.

[DreamcastRIP]

As i said in other post, Mastertronic were'nt seg'a 1st choice to handle MS in UK, deal fell through, paving way for Mastertonic, but the blame for Nes failure in UK lies squarely with Nintendo.

Indeed. As you stated, Sega's first choice for UK distributor of the Master System was Ariolasoft. That was evidently a smart choice because Ariolasoft were chosen by Sega to distribute the console in Germany, iirc, and made a success of it too. Sega's next choice, Mastertronic, worked out wonderfully well as we all know.

My personal opinion is that too much is made out of who did or did not distribute the SMS and NES and how competent or otherwise they were at doing so. Bottom line is that Sega ultimately offered a product in the SMS that was far more in tune with European sensibilities than what Nintendo were offering.

OutRun, After Burner, Space Harrier, Zillion, R-Type, Shinobi, Alex Kidd franchise, Wonderboy franchise, Sonic The Hedgehog franchise, etc were far more in tune with what the typical Brit wanted than Mario, flickering sprites and ROB the robot were! 

[Rogue Trooper]

That was the impression the Games Machine article gave:If potential buyer looked at the MS offering conversions of Outrun, Afterburner, Space Harrier etc, compared to what the Nes was offering, the MS looked lot more attractive based on inital impressions (Know Nes games had the depth, but that's something buyer discovered over time).

If your trying to flog an 8 Bit machine in a country at a time it's looking towards the 16 Bit era, you need to impress and be seen as offering good VFM, looks like Nes did'nt do either to so many, where as MS did.It's not Mattels fault product was wrong thing, wrong time over here.

[onthinice]

The Master System sure had some decent games.

Okay, maybe the card games were stretching things, but they looked cool!

[DreamcastRIP]

Were there ever any high quality third-party gamepad controllers available for the Master System?

Only asking because I wasn't keen on the mushy-feeling d-pad of the stock controller and didn't much rate the Sega pad that had something resembling a car gearstick for a joystick.

EDIT: The latter being this 'thing' -

[onthinice]

Always wanted one. It does look uncomfortable.

[DreamcastRIP]

Always wanted one. It does look uncomfortable.

I only used the Control Stick once but I remember it feeling rather unwieldy. The stick, with its bulbous top part that one held (ooer, missus!), made it too top-heavy that the base kept moving about on the surface it was resting on and it was too cumbersome to hold the base in one's other hand. All in all, an egonomic disaster, for my hands at least.

[onthinice]

Thanks for the info, DreamcastRIP! Still curious, but I'm probably better off to have never owned one.

[DreamcastRIP]

Thanks for the info, DreamcastRIP! Still curious, but I'm probably better off to have never owned one.

I was keen to stress that was only my experience of the controller's egonomics. Maybe others who've used the controller would be of the same view, maybe some others would have found it comfortable to use. Just like some people hate using controllers such as the stock Jaguar, Dreamcast, N64, NES and original Xbox controllers whereas others find them to be fine.

[onthinice]

It is funny how control pads were always on the left and buttons on the right. Sega totally changed that control stick. Used to play the arcade version of Donkey Kong with my hands crossed. Right hand on the stick and left arm my under my right arm to press the buttons with my left hand. People used to laugh  . Mostly laugh. Maybe the Sega Control Stick would not be so bad.

I understand about controllers. I am a sucker for different game controllers, always looking for the best one for each system.

[Rogue Trooper]

Cheetah did a few MS Joysticks i know of, you had 'The Bug' a wierd looking affair, a handheld palm top, it's 'eyes' were the A+B buttons, it had a microswitched stick, autofire etc.Then there was the '125 Sega'  usual Quickshot style affair:trigger, thumb and base buttons, 4 suckers on base etc.

Or there was the beeshu Zoomer, looked like an aircraft yoke....  but was very spongy and not responsive  or the Konix speed king.

If you were after the pad style controller: Competition Pro Professional which had a better D-Pad than the offical Sega controller, plus individual turbo fire for 2 buttons, best though seemed to be the SG Commander by hori.


Some say MD controllers also worked on some, but not all MS games.

[TL]

Quickshot did a whole range of controllers for the Master System:

[DreamcastRIP]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Of the gamepads mentioned that Competition Pro model sounds promising. If it's as good as the one I bought as an alternative to using the godawful stock controller for my Amiga CD32...



... then it'll be a more than adequate alternative to using the stock SMS pad.

[TL]

Competition Pro released these controllers for the SMS:

[DreamcastRIP]

Competition Pro released these controllers for the SMS:

The Competion Pro Star, of which an SMS variant seems to be pictured, was my favourite ever joystick back in the day. Very cool that an SMS version was released... albeit I'd prefer to use a joypad to play most SMS games.

Looks cheap and nasty... albeit probably still superior to the godawful stock SMS, NES, Amiga CD32 and Amstrad GX4000 pads.

Now we're talking.