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Sega Master System is Reborn
Nick of NSTime writes "Various sources are reporting that a Brazilian company is releasing a new version of the venerable Sega Master System, dubbed the Sega Master System III. The case is a radical departure from the old SMS and SMS II. The thing to get excited about: it will include 74 games built-in. The translated page can be found here."
Do you know why this is happening?
:P A psx is now more expensive then when I buyied mine (that time our currency was more close than dollar value).
Well I do know and I can tell you, this because of a de-valorization of brazilian currency (real) that is making every imported product very expensive.
The big difference between videogames and computer was the price, but with low offer and a Dollar being 3.6 Reais, a ps2 (imported, sony dosen't build playstations here, they say because if piracy, but it's their fault there is piracy, it's kind sof loophelp) is R$ 1300 (there are varations).
Gamecube, that is build here by gradiente is arround same price.
Well, the thing is that
1. we get our sallaries in reais, not dollars, so rellatively, a videogame for us is almost 10 times the price in esa
2. the difference between "in development" contries from europe/usa/japan is bassically that we gain less money for the same job, so besides being more expensive, we have less money to expend too. The minimal sallary in brasil is R$ 200, the medium is R$ 500. How can you buy a product that is R$ 1300 if you have to pay for food/rent/live?
3. releasing older videogames is a way to make cheap videogames. Most poor people dosen't care if they videogame can play Final Fantasy X or DVDs, they don't have money for the games, cds or dvds anyway...
4. master system 3 price is arround R$ 300
5. I already forgot about buying a ps2
6. the only sollution for all this problem is for semi-condutors where made in the own market contry.
But this won't happen, because USA is supporting heavilly those companies to stay there (see the case of microsoft judgement, they said they could move to canada and Bush's administration made a "cool" deal with them).
So basically tectoy is attacking a market that always existed here, but was dominated by illegal importation from paraguay: poor people.
I do like the idea. I do want poor people have fun with videogames too, even that are old ones and I hope tectoy do have suscess.
This kind of thing is not new here in Brazil. There is another company that makes NES clones. It has even more games... and a PISTOL! Here's the the page(in portuguese). http://www.dynacom.com.br/abertura2/dyn_fr_abertur a.htm
And since you looove google translated pages.
This isn't really anything amazing. Tec Toy originally released this system back in 1989. Granted that release only has 21 games built into it at the time. I belive they released a second one in the mid 90's that had a larger number of titles. This is the same hardware, just more games built in. For more info on the SMSIII, check SegaBase... scroll down the page about 1/2 way.
After a little additional research, I found a link from tsr's NES archive (a completely awesome site) that has a brief blurb about the state of piracy in brazil. It seems like Sega actually granted them some leway to do game hacks:
http://www.atarihq.com/tsr/nes/brazil/brazil.html
You americans are so clueless ;P
The master system was somewhat sucessful down here, and im pretty familiar with the platform.
This is just a short summary of all of the good sonic games released. Im not putting in crap like Sonic Spinball or Sonic Blast (not sonic 3d either, although sonic 3d wasnt really crap)
*Sonic 1 came first on the genesis/megadrive.
*A Master System version was made. Very different from the Genesis/Megadrive, but just as good, still heaps of fun.
*Game Gear port released. Same as master system but due to the game gears smaller screen (and less resolution) it was, well, smaller.
*Sonic 2 for the game gear got released first this time.
*Sonic 2 for the genesis/megadrive released
*Sonic 2 GG ported to the master system.
*Sonic Chaos released for the Game Gear. Best of the SMS/GG sonic series for some, although I prefer sonic 1. You coult use Tails as a playable character this time.
*Sonic Chaos ported to Master System. Average port, some slowdown.
*Sonic 3 released for the Genesis
*Sonic & Tails released for the GG in japan.
*Sonic & Tails released elsewhere as Sonic Triple Trouble. Never got ported officially to SMS, as it was pretty much dead by now in everywhere but brazil. If you looked around enough, you could probably find a crappy port, i dunno, but any brazillian GG -> SMS port is really REALLY bad, so avoid.
Yes, it's legal. TecToy has all the Sega rights here in Brazil, from Master System to Dreamcast, including Mega Drive (Genesis in US) and Game Gear.
There are also "official game hacks" made by them, such as "Sapo Xulé", "Chapolim Colorado" and "Monica no Castelo do Dragão". They hacked some games (Psycho Fox, Alex Kidd etc) to sell based on some known characters.
Some games were also produced by them, such as the "Duke Nukem 3D" version of Mega Drive, a platform game of "Pica-Pau" (Woody Woodpecker) and "Show do Milhão" (Brazilian "hack" of the TV show "Who wanna be a millionaire?").
So it's not like those "Polystations" (damn horrible Famicom -- or NES -- clones inside a Playstation case) or those "controllers with a huge amount of games inside", it's just another version, such as those being released by Majesco.
Unfortunately it's a stripped-down Master System, so you don't have a slot to plug-in your 3D Googles or Sega Cards...
I believe there is a BIG confusion on your part... I am from Brazil, and I think I should tell you all that the true reason for the SMS being constantly reborn in Brazil is not the fact Tectoy venerates the SMS, but instead the fact the SMS can make a very unexpensive game plataform... and the only one 90% of the brazilian families can afford, considering what they make in an year wouldn't be able to afford a PlayStation II or a GameCube for example. And since they can't afford buying new games, hence the 74 built in games:(
I wish I had something better to say, and could see this as a great console rebirth ( I personally love SMS's R-Type ), but it's not... it's simply a consequence of poverty.
Kisses,
jessie
The Brazilian videogame market is a legacy gamer's dream come true.
Consoles rarely cease to be manufactured and sold. Any mainstream store has, at this very moment, Master Systems, Mega Drives, Saturns, Dreamcasts, NES, SNES, Nintendo 64s, Game Cubes, Playstations and Playstation 2s. Just walk into the store now and buy your shiny, new, Master System or NES system. All legal.
Why do they do that? Price. There's something for everybody there. Furthermore, many stores allow their customers to play all the consoles and you'd be surprised, sitting near the testing stations, to learn that most young kids actually prefer 16-bit era games. They are just simpler and cuter, and mom and dad can actually buy one for each child in the home and maybe also one as a gift for a good neighbour.
> I wonder how this company got the rights to do this legally...
Tectoy is the Sega licensee for years in Brazil. They introduced the SMS as the first second generation console in Brazil (at about the same time, but a little earlier than any NES clone), making Brazil one of the places where the SMS was most successfull. They later introduced the Mega Drive (Genesis), which was another hit, and all later Sega consoles. They have an old and good relationship with Sega. In Brazil, Tectoy is Sega and Sega is Tectoy.
Actually, the history of Tectoy is really nice, even tough I don't remember correctly. It was founded at the end of the 80s, by two guys who decided to create a company to sell tecnological and intelligent toys. And the toys were really neat. Having lived the end of my childhood around this time, I remember always wanting (and usually not having) the cool tectoy toys. After they entered the console market, I think they stopped working with the other products, what was a pitty.
"...second, that playing on a TV is way better than emulation"
You wot? Since when were emulation and playing on a TV mutually exclusive?.. I relive the joys of NES, Snes, Mastersystem, Megadrive (Genesis to all you American folks), and countless other systems - MAME, too, of course, on my telly, via emulators, and my graphics card's TV-out.
The hardest thing, IMO, is getting hold of a decent joypad for the PC. Maybe I'm just picky, but there doesn't seem to be a really good one out there. However, there are many ways to convert original console joypads to work with the PC.. and of course, if you've got the cash for it, there's the X-Arcade, too.
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
The Phantasy Star pages - all you need to know about the series. There are more PS games than you know about.
As a historical note, Sega also made a portable genesis known as a Nomad. It had six buttons on it (like the fighting controllers for genesis) and was compatible with all expansions except segacd. It is not directly compatible with 32X but people have gotten it to work anyway, though only with an external display. The nomad is essentially a second generation genesis with a small (but pretty good) LCD and an atrocious battery life. It uses the same power supply as the game gear, which means you can use the car power adapter from the game gear with it. It takes full-size genesis games. Forgotten Worlds doesn't work with it, so I'm selling mine. :P
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I'm Portuguese and the orginal wording it's overselling it on the same way as the translation... "Ele tem o poderoso processador de 8 bits, capaz de gerar imagens com altíssima definição" and my translation "She has a powerfull 8 bits processor, capable of generating very high resolution images" Baaahhh...