Sega Master System: The Story And The Games 

It's great to hear about the Master System from someone who lived through that era in the US and had one! Here in the UK it was the number one 8 bit console and I rarely saw an Nes. It wasn't until the SNES that Nintendo became big over here. Great video! (new subscriber!!!)

Got mine Christmas of 86 and I still have it. I have great memories playing pro Wrestling with my Dad (RIP). I played Hang On for hours. Golvellious, Quartet, Maze Hunter 3D, Missile Defense 3D, Phantasy Star, Zillion..still play mine to this day.

Thanks for showing the Master System some love, as it's always greatly appreciated, especially since this system never gets the love it truly deserves. My gaming journey started out on the Apple II computer, then moved to electronic handhelds like Game & Watch, then consoles like the ColecoVision and later the NES. As a young gamer, I was always just about the games(who was better, not my bag), and where they came from mattered not, so the SMS was right up my alley. Sega was really only 2nd to maybe Atari in regards to arcade coin-ops, and I wanted a SMS to get those great games, and I was never disappointed. One of my favorites was R-Type, which I borrowed from a friend, of a friend and to this day, it still blows my mind. Most arcade ports to this day still hold up very well, and are shining examples of how great the system really was.

Sega master system is a very slept on system and was my favorite of all systems. The games were so awesome

I had the 3D glasses and light gun set - Way ahead of its time... later, Genesis, Sega CD, and lastly Dreamcast - which I still have. 🌎✌🌱🎶🎸

Thank you for your passionate reflections of this wonderful console! I got the Sega Master System in christmas of 1990. I will never forget opening up the box for the first time putting away the protective foam and plastic.. And that magic smell of fabric newness! My console came with a built in game: Alex Kidd in Miracle world! Wow! I was blown away! Played it many times until I beat it. Again and again and again. Later I got games like: Wonder Boy (it was ok but very repetetive and that tune would never leave my head) Wonder Boy in Monster Land (LOVED that one eventhough I didn't beat the game until 30 years later; man did it feel good when I did!) Wonder Boy 3: the Dragon's Trap (definetely one of my absolute favorite games until this day) and Rampage. When I started collecting games for the console 25 years later (in my 30's) I discovered a lot of cool games I had missed out on like: Golden Axe, Ghouls n' Ghosts, Castle of Illusion, Land of Illusion, Lucky Dime Caper etc.. I still adore these games and they always put a smile on my face. Of course I go all the way and play them on a big fat CRT for an authentic experience 🤓🕹📺

In Japan dragon quest 2 was already out before Phantasy star and had 3 pre-defined characters but Phantasy Star came out as the first jrpg in english.

Awesome video, the nostalgia hit me and shook me to my core. Thanks for making me relive those awesome memories!

I was born in 81. I was too young to know about any crash. Videos always been booming my whole life.

Wonderboy in monster land, and Gangster town are 2 I immediately think of

I still remember vividly the day dad brought home the SMS!

Awesome

I remember seeing master system games at kiosks at the mall. I always though it was old genesis games lol.

Audio hiccup in the middle! Sorry!! Loved the Master System!!!!

What an absolute FANTASTIC video WORRYWART. Your journey is similar to mine, as I too was blown away when I got my Master System at the ripe age of 13 back in the day. The games you focused on are all excellent, especially Black Belt, which I also poured hundreds of hours into. A couple other games you didn't mention that I'd like to give a shout out to are The Ninja and Kung Fu Kid. Oh man, I must have sunk thousands of hours into those two games and they were my most played games on the SMS by far. Anyway great vid man keep 'em coming. Subbed :)

As a Brit we had the Master System as the main selling games console, hardly anyone I knew had a NES. Although, in the 80's I'd say more people had microcomputers over everything else.

This was a great video. This does a great job conveying what was like to experience this underrated console. If it weren't for some audio hiccups this would be a perfect video.

1992... I was 6. I was at a relatives house. I was family with the sega genesis and I was about to get a snes for Xmas. The cousin had a snes already but also had these games that weren't snes nes or genesis. The carts captured my imagination but there but there was no console that would play them. That is my sega master system story. However there was one snes game that I finally found. The only one he had. That game was The Legend of Zelda... A Link to the Past. I will never forget the rain falling and the feeling of wonder and adventure as the princess beckoned me from bed. I to this day have never seen or played a master system but remember the day I saw those strange carts fondly and will never forget it.

My friend bought a used SMS system back then. Im into games not systems, so while I did enjoy NES stuff...we did not know what SMS might have, so I figured I would find a small number of good games that not many others knew about. I was right, Miracle Warriors, Rastan, R Type, Govelius, Wonder boy 3: The Dragon's trap, Golden Axe Warrior and my favorite, Phantasy Star. He had the 3-D glasses too. Yeara later I tried to buy it off him, but he lost half of the games and the glasses!

Hello and happy holidays Nice video 👌 I love stuff like that I grow up in that era keep it up and I'm looking forward to the next one greetings from Spain 🤘🏻👽

I liked that it had a built-in game you could play.

Fantasy zone was the shit. I had most these games. The master system was kimg hands down. Sans the extended software support. I was in europe when i first encountered thus console. I was like 6 or 7. But when i was 12 and i played the nes for the first time i loved it but you could tell that sega had beat out nintendo on a technical level. Great machine, great games, great memories.

Definitely underappreciated console it really out did the NES in many ways. I can't believe you didn't include Shinobi, time soldiers, govelious, quartet, and so many more, but I know that makes a long video

I'm from the US and my cousins had a Sega Master System and then we got the Master System 2. They had about 30 games that we could borrow from. I remember seeing Phantasy Star when I was 4.

Thank You for making this video! I loved my SMS! Always wondered what woulda been if Sonic came out in 86 as the pack-in game?

I had a Sega Master System before I got a Nintendo and I remember I had Rambo and Hang on

Subbed!

Ghost house game card was so addictive and black belt was also a fist of the North Star color swap from japan

I actually hate Fantasy Zone ad Altered Beast. The Master System that made me a fan was Fantasy Star.

If Nintendo didnt use bully marketing tactics back in the day, the SMS would of been a huge hit!

I had one friend whom had a master system. He prided himself on having 2 player coop double dragon. Lol

NES and SMS for both coming out in 1986 were WAY better than anything prior. But in 1988 the Sega Genesis would become KING of home consoles for sure!!! Till this day the Sega Genesis is my favorite retro console ❤👍😎

Thank you for mentioning ghostbusters, I Also had a soft spot for the alf game. But double dragon probably got the most play time for me.

Oh wow...I had never played Fantasy Star (none of them) but I was aware...but watching this, when I saw that 3-D hallway I actually let out a genuine "Whoa!" as If I was back in the 80's again! Honestly, that 3D walkthrough looks BETTER than the Windows 95 brick-maze screensaver! Oh, and Ghostbusters, OHH man, that looks so cool compared to the NES version. I rented it (remember that?!) with a 5-day rental, and it sat for 4! (Yes, I was very sad!) #NerdingOut

Great Baseball and Zillions and Shinobi

Note 5:55 from the end there is doubled audio

SMS Choplifter is very close to the arcade version and is the best home console or computer version of the game. Action Fighter is like Spy Hunter mixed with Xevious; really good game that also had an arcade release but I prefer the SMS version. Missile Defense and the 3D alternative are like updated variations of Atari’s Missile Command. World Grand Prix is like Pole Position with more to do. Absolute Entertainment only released one game for the SMS and that was R.C. Grand Prix; a more faithful radio controlled car race game compared against R.C. Pro-Am on the NES. Dan Kitchen told me it was so difficult to program for the SMS, so they only released one game and concentrated on the NES. It’s one of my favorite racing games to this day and was mostly done a few miles from my house when they had an office in Glen Rock, NJ. Rumor was that they would get together in the railroad station parking lot after the commuters cleared out and they’d play with real R.C. cars; even including one of the best in the game: Team Associated’s RC-10 is obvious in the title screen.

I can't remember it's name but you play as a samurai fighting Japanese demons in a side scrolling hack and slash and get new attacks with your sword at the end each level kinda like mega man was my favorite game.

You had a 2600, Intellivision, ColecoVision, C64, NES and Master System? How rich were you?! ;)

11:48 i think you might have a little audio editing problem there

Hey, loved the journey but what happened @11:51 you started talking over yourself!

Phantasy Star was my favorite. People were playing Zelda and I was playing a better RPG!!

i think most people in the UK had a sega , not a nintendo , I remember lots of people getting a mastersystem for xmas , and people bought the megadrive after it , and the the playstaion, in the UK the cutesy nintendo stuff wasnt a thing as much as it was in the USA , we wanted violence and blood , my little brother had an NES and i thought it was shit compared to my C64 , but i did like RC pro am , everythng else was just weird , mario games were just odd , zelda was crap compared to real RPG games

Phantasy Star was it's only good game

Josh Brolin sold it for me. Never owned a sms though. Just the greatest videogame console known to man, the Genesis

Would Sega copyright strike the video if you used the actual sounds and music from the games? Sometimes you mention how good the music is, and it would be awesome get to hear it along with the gameplay.

Sms was in my opinion a far better machine than nes, but all its games sucked in comparison. If they would've made good games they might have still been in the console business. RIP Sega 🙏 🪦

I'm one of the few people (seemingly) who had a Master System in the US growing up. I absolutely LOVED it!

Snail maze when I bought the system but couldn’t afford a game… Just left it on one day pushing buttons and POOF. Free game.

Just now discovering this channel, and loving the content! Keep up the good work!

WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge was also on the SMS...... Let's be real, in the 80s/90s, we did not have a lot of options, so these systems filled a near non-competitive void. The was a more cost effective alternative to the arcade.

I think the game I had on my Matersystem Ilikd the most was R-type. It was so amazing when it came out.

I still love to play Hang-On and Astro Warrior. They are tough but hope to one day pass them.

we had one around 1990 but that time all my friends had a nes so i whantet one too.

had HangOn and Snake built in on my SMS , great video (:

This console really had a commendable style to it, with respectable offerings in every genre, from action platforming to flight sims and racing games. It had a good Sonic game or two in it, too. The SMS really didn't fail any particular respect aside marketing. My childhood had it as more of a personal Castle of Illusion arcade cabinet, complete with minigame wonders in the form of all of the other titles I wasn't as good at. 😂 In that, the Master System served me well!

I had a Sega Master System and I played for hours

Probably the console I know the least of.

I did not get into SMS until I had a Genesis, and picked up a power base converter. I was in high school by then, and after having played Genesis, I was kind of over the 8-bit stuff at the time. It took a few more years by the time I would really realize how great some of those games were. My friend had Master System as a kid, and didn't play video games anymore, so he gave me his stack game cartridges. I gotta say, Double Dragon and Rampage were my favorites in the arcade, and the NES versions were okay, but seriously lacking the arcade polish. But, when I played the Master System versions my friend gave me, holy crap...that silly, "Nintendon't" ad actually had meaning. These days I have since picked up a Master System 2nd hand, and I modded it for FM sound. That makes a world of difference, and to this day me and my kids still enjoy playing my 2 faves, Double Dragon and Rampage. Certainly makes me wonder how things could have been different if Sega was not hamstrung by Nintendo's licencing agreements, or if the FM sound module would have sold in North America.

I started gaming in 1986 with the Nes and Master System. I loved my Nes but the Master System was on another level. You might find this interesting... My Nes came with two controllers, a light gun and two games (Mario and Duck Hunt). My Master System on the other hand was different. It actually came packed with 3 games. Two were on a double cart that included Astro and Hang-On. The third game I wouldn't find out about until much later as it was a secret. That game was Snail Maze and had to be unlocked via a cheat code that could only be entered if there was no game inside the machine. Pretty neat huh?

I wanted the NES so very bad. The Target employee working the electronics dept. somehow convinced my pop that the Master System would be the better Christmas present. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to get it and it was a great system but..NOT ENOUGH GAMES! I never knew any other kid at the time who also owned the system, so the it's not like I could trade games with other kids in the neighbourhood or at school as was common with the NES.

I find it amusing that the commercial for it he's playing Super Hang On and just repeats "hang on hang on." You wouldn't say that with any other game. Nobody says "Mario Mario" while they're playing Mario for example. What's the isometric game where you're a bird around 0:17?

Anyone else play a lot of Action Fighter? I just watched a video of it and realized I probably drove my poor mom nuts with the music in that game.

Safari hunt was way better than duck hunt, had more level backgrounds and more to shot

Did you know if u do not put a cart in the system there was 2 games built in

Fantastic video. Let's not forget these absolute not-to-be-missed titles : psycho fox, YS (top rpg), golden axe warrior (even better rpg), kenseiden, wonder boy 3 (maybe the best ever SMS game, with top graphics, music, and an unforgettable adventure), alex kidd in shinobi world.

Right there with you with those feelings, except i never owned an NES! My friends did, but i always thought they were suckers haha. Always did have a soft spot for mario though

Enjoying this so far 4:33, just a little annoying how you keep repeating "adult's games" a lot. 5:45 this reminds me of Forgotten Worlds for the Megadrive/Genesis, another great shoot-em up with buyable upgrades.

My first ever console, still have it, in its original box with the accessories and games, all still working! Favourite games were Fantasy zone 2, double dragon, Enduro racer, and Dragon crystal. Many happy memories and me and my master system will never be parted!

You find a great blend of being informative and your own memories 👍 Also well edited, cool vid!

Great to see such a passionate video about the SMS haha, my first console and still a fave. You should try Wonder Boy 3, Zillion, R-Type and Golvellius if you haven't.

My neighbor had one and I remember playing choplifter on it and outrun. Then Shinobi it wasnt until 15 years later I bought one at a flea market and a bunch of scattered games there for around 40 dollars total did I become a proud owner then my gaming friends at the time laughed at me and said I knew nothing about collecting video games. I haven't been friends with them ever since and I own like 90 master system games these days lol

I love the sonic games and am lucky to have both sonic 1 and 2 in the box and I’m working on getting sonic chaos

I had the 3d glasses for it

"I love the master system because it's sega. I spent HOURS!!! with this game. Just unbelievably wonderful." That's what you sound like.

Finally nee documentaries I been listened to them all.

Instead of a cartridge, SEGA should've included both Hang On and Astro Warrior on a ROM built into the console, allowing all future games to save memory by tapping into the assets in those games. Amazing how much better the colors were on the SMS. Many of the later games for that system look almost as good as 16-bit titles.

You keep calling it the adult alternative. That's funny to me because there's this game, Zillion. It always sounded like a spreadsheet program to me and I've played it. The sega master system, so adult it has exciting excell action with Zillion!

R-type, shinobi, castle of illusion on th master system were really good. Did you ever play those? Much better than the ones you mentioned.

Sorry man as a child, you did NOT have coleco vision, inellivision, an Atari 2600 AS WELL as a NES. No one had that unless your parents were rich. Let me guess, you guys had TWO TV's as well? :P

I think there's some overlain narration audio at about 12:00.

I was the same way about the Saturn when everybody else had a PlayStation. Virtua cop, nights all the Japanese imports you could get like deep fear which was light years better than resident evil. I liked having something that nobody else had as well.