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Games Entertainment

Sega Master System is Reborn 207

Posted by michael from the buy-one-get-one-free dept.
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."
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Sega Master System is Reborn More

Sega Master System is Reborn

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  • That's great. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But I'll wait for PS2 Master version set to be out in a few years.

    All today's games on a small nanochip.

  • Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

    by cbcbcb ( 567490 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:21AM (#4786973)
    It has the powerful processor of 8 bits, capable to generate images with highest definition and resolution of 64 different colors.

    I wonder if they might be overselling it?

    • Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @09:17AM (#4787226) Journal
      Somehow, I don't think they intentionally worded it in such a way that the google translator would exaggerate it. Check out the games list:

      Hang On


      It pilots a motion poisoned in a emotive dispute. Its motion is FEARLESS 4, it was projected you to take off everything of it: maximum power, principle speed and a spectacular capacity of maneuver! It breathes deep and it holds firm the handlebar of its motion!


      There's nothing quite like piloting a motion poisoned in a emotive dispute! I guess that console would have to have such a powerful processor of 8 bits to do that.

      • Re:Hmmm (Score:3, Informative)

        by colaco ( 616922 )
        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...
      • what you say?!
      • Game description for Sonic The Hedgehog"

        "It helps Sonic to fight against the flock of metallic maniacs with its Attack of Supersonic Turn and to defeat the Dr. Ivo Robotnik" ... or else it gets the hose again!

  • No Phantasy Star? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DoctorPhish ( 626559 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:22AM (#4786975) Homepage
    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 ^_^

    • No Phantasy Star?

      That "74 games" link to the list of games available only lists 54 games.. I have to believe if these guys knew anything about Sega's legacy, they'd put Phantasy Star on there.

      Personally, I liked Phantasy Star II for the Sega Genesis the best. Genesis games are considered classics too. The Sega Genesis was able to run old Sega games with an extra attachment. Surely this company could have supported both without much extra cost. Other nifty Genesis games that people would love to see included are Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Thunderforce III, Strider, Revenge of Shinobi, Shadowdancer.. need I go on?

      Anyone have a clue as to what the price for this is?

      • Purely a guess here. But the first game listed is "20 in 1"

        Think they might be counting that as 20 games?

        Couldn't find pricing anywhere, but they are selling their Mega Drives with 30 games for less than the cost of a new xbox game
    • Just get the GameBoy Advance game if you really want to play it. It has the first 3 games on one cart.
    • I guess I'll just have to settle for the emulated Saturn version in the Phantasy Star collection on my modded Saturn

      The Gameboy Advance keeps bringing back the classic hits... including all 3 Phantasy Star games on one cart. [ebgames.com]

    • Re:No Phantasy Star? (Score:4, Informative)

      by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @01:30PM (#4787986) Homepage
      The Phantasy Star pages [phantasy-star.net] - all you need to know about the series. There are more PS games than you know about.
    • At C$44, it's priced to own ;) 1, 2, and 3 all in one teeny, tiny cartridge.

  • More companies should follow suit... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by httpamphibio.us ( 579491 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:27AM (#4786982)
    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...

    • Re:More companies should follow suit... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by -douggy ( 316782 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:03AM (#4787039)
      I rekon that Nintendo could easily do this with all the Nintendo and Rare made games. Imagine every mario/donkey kong/zelda/pinbot/snakeratle n role/ et al from the NES and SNES I know there were good games from lots of other companies but at the time nin had a big share in rare so maybe they would be easiest to get the licences for (maybe not after the MS buyout...)

      I'd gladly pay for such a disc. From what i've read around with a dreamcast and a nes emulator this could be done but I am not sure how good those emulators are. Nintendos would be spot on. Hell they could bundle a nes type comtroller.

      Plus everybody know SMB3 and SMW are the best two mario games ever.

      • I believe people didn't get the point on this....: (Score:5, Informative)

        by jessieDyke ( 513702 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @08:36AM (#4787163)
        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
      • Nintendo does do this... it's called the gameboy advance :)
      • "I'd gladly pay for such a disc. From what i've read around with a dreamcast and a nes emulator this could be done but I am not sure how good those emulators are. "

        Search no more,you want a very good Nes emulator, search for dreamcast factory( Google is your friend), this freeware tool lets you make your own bootable emu cd, any of them, but imho the best around is NesterDC ver 7.00, this emu rocks.

        very easy to use just follow instructions put your roms in the apropiate folder, and voila your dreamcast is reborn as an emu machine, the second best emu is GNU boy a great port made by takayama fumihiko, also nester dc creator.

        Now that my dreamcast is dead, what the heck, lets go retro!!

        sorry for the off topic.

        BTW as far as i know tec toy has the authorization from sega to make the machines, in fact there never was an import genesis, as tec toy asembled them over there, and if you think that piracy is a problem in Brazil, just take a walk in the streets of my country, venezuela, even I get to sell some burned cd some times, low salaries+high import taxes+greedy retailers= piracy running amok.

        Sorry for my english, it`s not a language i get to use very often, nos vemos luego...
        ________________________________________ ________
        Truly, if there is evil in this world, it`s residence is the human heart...
        Dr. Edward D. Morrison, tales of phantasya

    • Re:More companies should follow suit... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JayBonci ( 92015 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:36AM (#4787089)
      The problem with those sorts of compilations (on a Gamecube disk or whatever) is that they feel like emulation. For instance the Intellivision classics disk for the Playstation felt like it was emulated. Besides the unique vantage point of not having a real INTV controller for it, the sound didn't have that 8-bit-crunch to it.

      I worry about direct ports or emulation on consoles, because there are the issues or compatibility and accuracy. More often than not, something gets lost in the translation.

      Now with some of the pirate tools, you get the best of both worlds, but you tarnish under the light of legality. Having a Bung copier or similar device to jack NES Rom images into an NES-compatible flash cart makes for 100% accurate games, with a huge availability, but by and large, it is illegal.

      Companies are at a wierd impass in regards to their classic games. Should one distribute Nintendos with a huge bank of games built in, or release compiliation CDs with subquality compatibility.

      Sadly, as I have purchased several of those "classics" emulations/ports for playstation I'd prefer the original hardware.

      Oh and yes, NES still rules.

      --jaybonci
      • Seriously, if all you've tried are the various compilations for the Playstation, you don't know what you're missing.

        Take the NES games in Animal Crossing: BANG-ON EMULATION. I mean completely. This is what happens when the original company actually does the emulation.

        Hell, most of the better emulators for the Dreamcast are pretty damn good too. But Nintendo's efforts for the Gamecube are nothing short of astounding. Personally, I can't wait to try the Sonic set.
    • Well what is amazing is in Italy there is a company the has probably illegaly. You see it on the infomercials at night, some little system with all the build in games like Mario bros and such in a small package for around $50-$80. To bad the computers over here are still expensive though.

    • Tec Toy had legal rights for Master System console and games distribution in Brazil. All those games were legally distributed here, with licenses acquired from Sega (which sublicensed some other games, like Power Strike).

    • Re:More companies should follow suit... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Karpe ( 1147 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @11:04AM (#4787413) Homepage
      > 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.
      • The best one I've found for SNES games and some Playstation 1 games is the Microsoft Sidewinder Plug 'n Pray USB Gamepad. Since I don't have windows anywhere I had to find a pad that works under linux, and this one does the trick. A modprobe sidewinder and modprobe joydev and it's ready to go. Plus you can find them cheap ($20 or less).

        I still have yet to find the *perfect* snes or psx controller. Even the original snes controller sucked, but the playstation controller is perfect for nearly anything.

        If you're interested in mame joysticks, check this out: http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/game/mamejoy/
        I'll take one of each. :)
    • My personal belief is that if they release all the old games on the new system, the youngin's will realize a surprising majority of new games are rehashes of old ones. :-) We wouldn't want to undermine sales now, would we?

      Also, another point is that the nostalgia market isn't nearly as big as the grand theft auto crowd, which probably at least half of them don't even remeber the original nintendo or SMS system...

      On a similar note, Namco did do this in an arcade-version, with a re-release of several of its most popular games (Pacman, Galaga ,etc) on a 25" monitor machine. Last time I checked, they weren't performing spectacularly on the charts.

  • But (Score:5, Funny)

    by D4M4DH477X0R ( 548464 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:27AM (#4786984)
    Ahh, but does it run Linux? :-)

    • Linux? (Score:5, Funny)

      by quigleymd ( 247217 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .dmyelgiuq.> on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:04AM (#4787041)
      No. But most certainly it will run netbsd...
      • Imagine a beowulf cluster of those!

        Would be excellent for some LAN parties.

  • Game gear as well! But is it legal? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by JayBonci ( 92015 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:30AM (#4786987)
    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

    • Re:Game gear as well! But is it legal? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Of course there was a Sonic for the Master System, and I think that's it. (The GG version had bigger sprites)
      • It seems you're right. There are listed around the web a few Sonic games for the Master System. I thought it was a genesis-original title.

        Seems like you learn new stuff everyday. Even about archaic video games. ;)
        --jaybonci

      • Re:Game gear as well! But is it legal? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Swiss_Cheeseman ( 535724 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:34AM (#4787086)
        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.
    • I have an legit cart of Sonic the Hedgehog for the Master System, I'm pretty sure it was made after the Megadrive/Genesis version, since there was still a market for the SMS at the time.

    • Re:Game gear as well! But is it legal? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's completely legit. Tec-Toy is the official Brazilian manufacturer/distributor of Sega machines and games.
    • Tec Toy is a big name in Brazil, and has already sold millions of Master System units, going way back to the 8-bit fever days. In fact, Brazil was probably the best market in the world for the SMS, as it sold reasonably more than the NES. They even got brave enough to program a few games themselves for the Brazilian market, including the 8-meg port of Street Fighter II. Properly licensed by Capcom, I might add.

      It seems highly unlikely that they would openly pirate SMS games in a bundle like that. Piracy really is big in Brazil, but I'd be surprised to see it coming from such a large company.
      • If that's the case, then great. It doesn't really display the credentials of what us legality-twitchy Americans have come to expect from those sorts of clone machines. It no doubt is an interesting piece.

        What really gets me is why publish a 20-in-1 cart with the console then? I know that wouldn't fly then, but I never saw the real gamer appeal (outside of the collector or hopeful collector like myself)... Typically the games in those multicarts are the same game, hacked several different ways, or a large multirom of pirated or poorly hacked together games.

        Maybe it's a cultural difference between China/ Hong Kong/Brazil and the rest of the world in regards to the appeal of pirate multi-carts (100-n-1, 520-n-1, 10000-n-1). Quantity vs. Quality? The NES had a fair production of them, due to it's popularity, but honestly, this is the first mention of one I've heard of for the master system.

        An interesting unit indeed.

        In regards to the Capcom port, I have played several pirate originals of Street Fighter for the NES. The colors were a little yellow, the controls not the greatest, but it was far better than the other originals I have played and played. Do you know if the 8-bit port of SFII was for NES or for SMS?

        Thanks
        --jaybonci
        • You're right -- it's a cultural thing. Multicart consoles were especially big during the Atari 2600 days, when you could pack 200+ games into a console. None of them was any larger than 4k, and most were mediocre clones of mediocre games, but having a 2600 with 200 games meant you were more hardcore than the kid next door with an original, licensed console.

          The SFII port was for the SMS. As far as I know, it's the only 8-meg title ever made for the console, but unfortunately that's its biggest selling point. Nowhere near as brilliant as the Japanese port for the PC-Engine, but certainly better than the bootleg SFII that I played on the NES!
          • I also played the port of SF2 for the sms. It is the best fighter on the system, period. Wanna play the worst? Play MK3 for the SMS! Not only is it the worst fighter on the master system, its the worst fighter in EXISTANCE!! I like the MK series and all, but damn, this is even worse than that monstrosity MK Advance.
      • After a little additional research, I found a link from tsr's NES archive [atarihq.com] (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 [atarihq.com]

    • Yes it is (Score:2, Informative)

      by Retype ( 152669 )
      You really should get informed before posting, but that would be asking to much.

      Tectoy is a great toy company here in Brasil and they are making master system and a lot of other sega consoles and games since I was very young(now i 'm 18). I'm sure they where granted by sega to make this console and all the games that come with it.

      Also brasil is not comparable to china. Here we have patent law just like in the us. I don't know what you are afraid of, piracy is not legal here.

    • THERE WAS sonic for SMS (Score:2, Informative)

      by Duds ( 100634 )
      Maybe not in the USA but there were no less than 4 Master System Sonic the Hedgehogs in the UK

      - Sonic 1
      - Sonic 2
      - Sonic Chaos
      - Sonic Spinball
    • Hi Jay. Instead of noding I'll respond to your comment :) The game gear was capable of playing SMS games through an adapter as it uses the same CPU and all hardware is backwards-compatible. Two others have pointed out that the hardware is similar (but not identical) but they left out this small factor. Assuming you have control over what games are played on the system (as they do) it would be easiest to make a small non-portable game gear and only include SMS games which work with the system. As far as I know nearly every SMS game is playable on game gear.

      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

  • Legal? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by taernim ( 557097 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:33AM (#4786992) Homepage
    Is this legal?
    Sure, Sega isn't making hardware anymore, but how is the company allowed to make use of the product -- even modified?

    • Yes, it's legal. (Score:5, Informative)

      by foobrain ( 411652 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:52AM (#4787113)
      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...

      • Re:Yes, it's legal. (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        3D Googles? I've seen no indication of this at labs.google.com! :)

  • Sonic as you've never heard him before (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lonesmurf ( 88531 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:33AM (#4786994) Homepage
    "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!" :)
  • Come on; anyone who grew up with the SMS and NES knew that the NES was the superior platform. Better games, more of them, better graphics and better sound.

    Why aren't they releasing the NES instead of the SMS. I might pay for the NES, but there is no way I'd pay for the SMS now.

    Besides, why would I bother with any of this anyways when I can play every single ROM for all those old school platforms on my Dreamcast [dcemulation.com] from a single CD!!

    • Re:NES Anyone? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      That's the funny thing. The NES came out later than the Master System, and thus had better inherent technology.

      The Genesis slaughtered the nes. Why? It came out later. Better tech. The SNES slaughtered the Genesis. Why? See the above.

      Arguably, the 32x didn't slaughter anything, but it did make a bunch of people laugh. However, one could argue that the SegaCD easily slaughtered the SNES. If not that, then the Saturn, which was slaughtered by the N64. Which was slaughtered by the Dreamcast.

      Which itself was slaughtered by Sega because they have idiots in charge of marketing.

      All this aside, there's only one reason that the NES was so popular. It had the killer app. It had Contra.

      If you couldn't hum the tunes from the various levels, you were a nobody back then.

      • Re:NES Anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by \\ ( 118555 )
        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.
      • You forgot the PlayStation, which pretty much slaughtered everything. The Nintendo 64 didn't need to be slaughtered by anyone; just as you said Sega slaughtered the Dreamcast, so Nintendo did with the N64. Granted, the N64 had some great games (Goldeneye, Zelda, Perfect Dark, et al.), but for the most part it was riding on the wave of Nintendo's name.

        :Lav

      • "That's the funny thing. The NES came out later than the Master System, and thus had better inherent technology."

        Troll.

        Um... no, it didn't. The hardware platform we call the SMS was developed years after the Famicom. Just because the NES was released years after the Famicom doesn't mean the NES wasn't a Famicom.

        I mean, come on! When was the last time you heard the NES play a MIDI?

        "The SNES slaughtered the Genesis. Why? See the above."

        No, it didn't. The Genesis always had a larger library and a larger installed base. At best Nintendo managed to tie the Genesis at the end.

        "However, one could argue that the SegaCD easily slaughtered the SNES."

        Now you're no longer a troll but a troll on crack. If the SNES "slaughtered" the Genesis, how did a peripheral for the Genesis slaughther the SNES? Obviously the peripheral can't sell more than the platform it attatches to..

        "which was slaughtered by the N64"

        Then explain the whole N64/PSX thing.

        "Which was slaughtered by the Dreamcast."

        And yet the Dreamcast died before the N64.
    • Come on; anyone who grew up with the SMS and NES knew that the NES was the superior platform. Better games, more of them, better graphics and better sound.

      Wrong! The reason why I bought the SMS [emucamp.com] when it came out was because it was technologically better than the NES [emucamp.com] -- more colors, more memory, more/bigger sprites, etc. The NES was better only because it had so many games for it, and so many good games. But the SMS definitely had better graphics and better sound.
    • "Come on; anyone who grew up with the SMS and NES knew that the NES was the superior platform. Better games, more of them, better graphics and better sound."

      The only SMS I own is the Powe Base Converter that plugs into the Sega Genesis. But even if I didn't have that, there are still plenty of SMS emulators out there.

      With that being said, anybody that's looked at both the NES and SMS knows that the SMS is the superior hardware platform hands down. The graphics are sharper and have more colors. I've never seen a SMS game experience slow-down because of too many sprites. And let's face it: The SMS's FM sound is well above and beyond the NES's two analog sound channels and two noise makers.

      Now, the games you can play? Let's just say that I've never seen Zelda on the SMS. But that's an entirely different matter.

      Play Gradius on the NES. Then play R-Type on the SMS. Then try to tell me the NES has superior hardware.

      "Why aren't they releasing the NES instead of the SMS. I might pay for the NES, but there is no way I'd pay for the SMS now."

      You don't live in Brazil. The NES dominated North America because of a fluke: It came out first and had a massive user base before the SMS tried it's thing. Pretty much the same story in Japan. But the SMS ruled in Europe and South America (where the two came out at the same time). With the same starting point, the NES simply couldn't compete with a hardware platform developed years after the Famicom.

      "Besides, why would I bother with any of this anyways when I can play every single ROM for all those old school platforms on my Dreamcast [dcemulation.com] from a single CD!!"

      Because the games are good enough to pay money for. I can download and play Phantasy Star on an SMS emulator, but I'm still glad I went through the effort to get the actual cartridge.
  • Awww... it's just not the same without the wooden panelling from the first one...

    Phil, just me

  • Pirate consoles have always been made. SMS, NES, I think I even saw a SNES clone once. Heck you can still find plenty of Atari 2600 clones with 100 built-in games and, of course, a playstation-like case to fool the illiterate.
    You can even get bootleg cartridges for them, with really weird games. Like, I once saw (and played) a Famicom clone with a cartridge that claimed to be "Street Fighter IV". And this was around the time that SF2 was still pretty popular. The graphics were crap, even by NES (or Famicom) standards, and the game was very buggy and amateurish.
    Stay away from consoles who claim to have a bazillion games built-in: They're usually just different entry points into the same crappy game.

  • Classic console games still rule (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Ivo ( 26920 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:45AM (#4787009) Homepage
    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..
    • Absolutely; platform games, and horizontal or vertical shoot-em-ups are just so fun and addictive. Sonic the Hedgehog is still my favourite game of all time, closely followed by the likes of Ghosts and Goblins, Wonderboy and Jet Set Willy.

      I'd like to see all this funky, new Open GL accellerated hardware put to good use in developing eye-candy saturated 2d platform games. Imagine how sweet they could look! The majority of 3D games these days look..well...ugly. Dull, poorly-modelled 3D characters with bruised looking skins. Give me a cartoonish pixellated 2D character any day.

  • The game descriptions are hilariously translated (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anik315 ( 585913 ) <anik@alphaco r . n et> on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:49AM (#4787019)
    Great Volleyball

    This is a game repleto of intelligent booties, simply mortal estonteantes and cut attacks.

    Uuuh right...

  • BABY! I will live with deeply emotive challenges! (Score:3, Funny)

    by dagg ( 153577 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @06:53AM (#4787025) Journal
    "... where you it will have the chance to live deeply emotive challenges."

    That is one great game. Gotta love translators.

    --

    Deeply emotive sex quiz [tilegarden.com]

  • All-in-one game systems are common in Asia too. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ryu2 ( 89645 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:01AM (#4787034) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • yeah, that's a bad thing :( (Score:5, Informative)

    by protomala ( 551662 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:05AM (#4787044) Homepage
    Do you know why this is happening?
    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 :P A psx is now more expensive then when I buyied mine (that time our currency was more close than dollar value).

    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.

    • Just forgot to say why this is a bad thing: Poor people without money do buy a videogames shouldn't exists. Things in development countries should be less expensive, our sallaries should be bigger :)

      • Re:yeah, that's a bad thing :( (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Sorry people, who want to read, please use the google translator. ;)

        Faltou falar das taxas de importação de 70% que ajudam a tornar um importado 3 vezes mais caro do que lá. Um notebook por exemplo, legalmente importado custa R$10.000.

        • Faltou falar das taxas de importação de 70% que ajudam a tornar um importado 3 vezes mais caro do que lá. Um notebook por exemplo, legalmente importado custa R$10.000.

          translation:
          You neglected to mention the import tarrif of 70% which help make an imported item three times more expensive than there (I assume they mean the USA). A notebook, for example, imported legally, costs R$10,000 (what is that now, US$3,500?).

  • Not so new... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Ratow ( 630493 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:08AM (#4787048) Homepage
    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 [dynacom.com.br](in portuguese). http://www.dynacom.com.br/abertura2/dyn_fr_abertur a.htm And since you looove google translated pages [216.239.35.120].

  • ...old news is new again [sarcasm on] (Score:5, Informative)

    by gmezero ( 4448 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @07:24AM (#4787077) Homepage

    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 [atani-software.net]... scroll down the page about 1/2 way.

  • ... will there be a Sonic Adventure port? :)

    On a more serious note, does anyone know of games currently being developed for the SMS? According to SMS Power the last game to be developed was in 1997.
    • I have seen a few games with a date of 1999. Can't remeber the name, but I am sure they were from Brazil. (Plus a bunch of Pokemon games from 1999-2000).

      Won't be long before people realize that yes -- gameplay does matter, cutscenes don't matter. Long live the retro scene!!

  • "São jogos de aventura, ação, esportes, raciocínio e muito mais para você não querer largar mais o Master System."

    should be translated as:

    "There are games of adventure, action, sports, reasoning and much more so that you won't want to relinquish [stop playing] the Master System."

    The machine translation is excellent, I think. It's amazing. In a time when companies often are doing self-destructive things, Google gets it right.
  • I was scrolling through the list of games and saw Shinobi...does that mean that *ahem* Shinobi's back?
  • I can't see what the big stink is about. Sure these old games were fun, and maybe even now have a certain retro appeal to them, but this is not going to rock the gaming world. Namco's been pimping their old stuff for years now... whoopity-freakin-do.


    I don't mean to be insultive, but I just don't understand what the big deals about (other than possible legal issues).

  • This is all good and well, but I distinctly remember spending hours with a kitchen knife trying to get the damn pause button back out while playing Alex the Kid on the Master System! Surely I wasn't the only one.
  • The thing to get excited about: it will include 74 games built-in.

    I can get a dreamcast with 500 or so SMS built into it if I burn a mame cd and tape the cd player shut..

    Huh huh, that'd be cool.

  • I used to love the days of playing sonic and wonder boy all weekend on a master system - also had a game gear. Other than playing these games for 'remember the good old days' purposes this is a poor man's console. The console probably costs next to nicks to manufacture and the games are already there, probably an idea that won't cost much and will sell in time for christmas.

  • as a brazilian... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wneto ( 624292 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @08:41AM (#4787172) Homepage
    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.
    • Reading comments like this makes me realize we need a +1 non-U.S. comment filter, or at least a +1 country-of-story's-origin filter.

      I find these comments so much more insightful than '[X]sucks! Why do you [X]?' comments. To those people, I say: try reading before posting.

  • I still have Mine (Score:4, Insightful)

    by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Sunday December 01, 2002 @09:04AM (#4787206) Journal
    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.

  • Comments on the Brazilian videogame market (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 01, 2002 @09:34AM (#4787245)
    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.
  • Master System has never stoped being sold here in Brazil. Tec Toy is just making a a promotion, that is, selling a console with many games. That's all. And it's not just the high currency of Dolar that explains why Master System is still being sold. There's also the problem of import tax, which is around 60%; the high taxes that the stores pays the government, so that they must raise the price. This also explains why there's so much piracy in Brazil. Since the salaries weren't raised since dolar was at R$1,00 ( now it is at R$3,50), imagine how dificult is to buy PS2 or XBOX DVDs by R$250,00 ( roughly the price in Dolar of these consoles in US) ? People prefer to buy them at street shops ( illegal) by R$10,00 or R$15,00.
  • Certain day, when leaving the Perpetual Mount to go to its native land, Alex found a dying who made it a revelation: the pacific city of Radactian ran a great danger.

    Translated next line: All your base belong to us

    -Sean
  • The most common is NES emulators. You can find them at flea markets (typically) though the one in .roseville.ca.us didn't have ANY even though they had about ten vendors of crappy imported toys. However most of those are run by asians and I'm used to seeing the games in mexican-run stands at the flea in .santa-cruz.ca.us.

    The most common designs seem to be a SNES controller lookalike with ~20 games built in, and an N64 controller lookalike with ~100 games built in. Both run on batteries or a wall wart (not included) and have an RF out. I don't think either had a port for a second controller. I've seen one with a gun as well.

    If anyone knows where to get these things off the 'net that would be interesting.

  • Forgot to include this in my post above.

    Unlike the rest of the world, the Master System caught on heavily in Brazil, kinda like VCD in China. 3rd-party games were made and marked in Brazil well after the Master System died in other countries.

    This company in Brazil bought rights to manufacture the hardware after Sega stopped selling it. Hence the reason the page is in Portuguese. I somehow doubt that the system would be offered in English, let alone sold to other countries. I think they only have the rights to sell those in Brazil.

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