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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."
I wonder if they might be overselling it?
Phantasy Star was my introduction to the world of platform RPGs (since it came out before Final Fantasy in the west), and is still considered one of the finest of the genre. I'd even consider buying one of these things if it had been included. I guess I'll just have to settle for the emulated Saturn version in the Phantasy Star collection on my modded Saturn ^_^
My roomie and I have discussed at length the massive amounts of money companies could make if they did more things like this. Nintendo could easily release all the NES games ever made on one Gamecube disc and charge a bundle for it. I wouldn't mind paying $100 maybe more, Animal Crossing has taught me two things... first, that the old NES games still rule and second, that playing on a TV is way better than emulation.
I wonder how this company got the rights to do this legally...
sig.
Ahh, but does it run Linux? :-)
Well two things are interesting to note here. The first is that it seems to support Game Gear games as well. You can tell this because there was never a Sonic the Hedgehog (as per the screenshot)for the Master System... however there was one for the Game Gear, a nearly identical platform.
Also, I'd be worried about the legality of such an item. The brazilian piracy market is huge, and I'd be largely worried about any sort of retro console with a different design, and a lot of pack-in games. It seems largely like a pirated console with a large set of roms.
It also doesn't seem legal because of the presence of a 20-in-1 rom. Those are a favorite of pirate console and cartridge distributors. Some of them are neat as collectors' items, but by and large they are illegal.
Don't get me wrong, I'm intrigued by the possibility of older consoles making a decent comback, but this one certainly doesn't add up.
--jaybonci
Is this legal?
Sure, Sega isn't making hardware anymore, but how is the company allowed to make use of the product -- even modified?
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
"It helps Sonic to fight against the flock of metallic maniacs with its Attack of Supersonic Turn and to defeat the Dr. Ivo Robotnik. It saves the innocent animals before they are transformed into maleficent robots. Sonic and you only can prevent that this occurs. Either atomic! Either Sonic!" :)
rJames.org - illustration
Hmm, I might even buy one of those sometime.
I still regret ever selling my atari 2600. Even though the graphics sucked in comparison with modern consoles, it was still good for hours and hours of fun.
I think the fun vs graphics ratio was much higher back then. Todays games look awesome, but gameplay usually bores after a few hours. I still much rather play 4d sports driving than any recent f1 simulator, and I was way more fascinated by and addicted to the original Mario than to todays 3d versions..
Great Volleyball
This is a game repleto of intelligent booties, simply mortal estonteantes and cut attacks.
Uuuh right...
That is one great game. Gotta love translators.
Sex - Find It
All in one game systems are really common in Asian countries, particularly China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. If you go to stores in any of those places, you can find systems (generally, clones of the NES/Famicom) with literally hundreds of games in ROM. The coolest system I saw had the entire system+games built into the form factor of a controller, which had RCA video output to plug in directly to your TV.
Of course, it's unauthorized, but still, many classic games have their endearing value, and it's easier than carrying around all those carts, or messing around with a emulator on your PC.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
No. But most certainly it will run netbsd...
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.
actually, i don't know which came out first, but the sms had better hardware under the hood. nintendo just happened to snap up more and better companies to develop for the NES, and of course had that clause that said if you developed for nintendo, you couldn't deliver the same game to any other competing platform for something like two years.
that eventually changed, but by that time, the sms was pretty much toast.
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
i can say its pretty sad. While some of you think about the "nostalgic cool factor", its just an economic solution for us. Brazils minimum wage is around $54 USD (R$200 - yey), so this console is one of the very few afordable eletronic gadgets avaiable for this xmass. Everyone wants a ps2 or a xbox.. but they cost around r$1800 ($493 usd) and the games around r$180 ($49 usd). The only solution then its to revive old gadgets with the technology avaiable, as importing anything right now is practically impossible. A few days ago i started to get the catalogs and it was really scary. The latest pentium 4 3ghz box? Not less than r$10k. A tablet pc? not less than $15k. Something to give you an idea: a new car, built here, starts at r$13k.
- Dad. I want a xbox!
- No can do, son. Heres your 8 bit master system.
- Dad. I want a new box. I cant play any new games on this pentium 133.
- Ok son, heres your pentium 233.
- Dad. I want a tablet pc.
- No can do son. Dont you prefer a brand new car? Its cheaper!
aargh!
Yes. It is sad.
I still have a Sega Master System.
Sure, I had an Atari, but it wasn't much of a gaming machine. Back then, you'd still have to go to the arcade with quarters to play something decent.
When I got a Master System, that was when I really got into games. I was hooked on Wonder Boy in Monster Land, and play it to this day... It isn't really that difficult to beat, but it's fun just the same.
Wonder Boy, Out Run, Shinobi... Those games are one of a rare breed that never get boring, and yet you can't find them on newer systems. What's it take? 20 years before a great game is considered worthy of being ported to the newest platform as a "classic"?
But it seems as if everyone but me has forgotten the past. Why is it that, up until about the 32-bit days, almost every game was enjoyed by everyone? Now, you are forced to rent/try a game first, because it's more rare to find a game you'll like than one you wont. It seems that, as graphics got better, and storage was increased, the game developers started doing their jobs far worse than before.
Why oh why have games gone down this path? What was so special about the <32-bit days that no one can emulate today? Well, whatever it is, I'm not worried about it. Unlike CDs, my old carts have been around for many years, and will be here for years to come. And generations from now, no matter how much games improve, I bet just about anyone would still enjoy playing any of these old games as much as I do. Maybe they'll even ask themselves why modern games aren't as much fun as the ancient ones.
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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.
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.'"