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Sega Master System Tribute

Curse my biased eyes! Damn them to hell! “What on earth???” I hear you cry. Well my friends, it all started in the Christmas of 1990…

A young me saw an advert for the MS Power Base and instantly fell in love. I’d love to be able to show you said video but the internet, despite containing 12,000,000 shades of adult material, doesn’t have space for it. I’m starting to wonder whether I imagined it all. In any case, for the month of December I relentlessly badgered my father (B.Simpson would have been very impressed) to purchase the Power Base with Hang-On, Safari Hunt and Light Phaser. And credit to the man, ignoring late mortgage payments, final demands and much to the annoyance of my mother, he duly obliged. I was stunned.

I did however find this American advert for the package which at £100 seemed expensive but actually provided pretty good value for money. Plus, there was also a hidden maze game. Someone needs to bring back hidden games. I dug out my Master System a couple of months ago, which still works despite my cousin tipping coke into it (pretty sure if you breathe too heavily on an Xbox it will explode) and boy did it bring back some memories! What also struck me was how bad some of the titles were. These were games I’d played to death! The Ninja and World Soccer were personal favourites but both of them are graphically woeful. That sounds harsh given they were some of the early release titles but let me continue.

Golden Axe is the game that really stuck in my craw. The Ninja (1987) and World Soccer (also 1987) were released a mere two years before Golden Axe (1989) but if you put them side by side you wouldn’t guess they’re from the same console. Other popular 80s titles (e.g. Ghostbusters, California Games) and even early 90s titles (Indiana Jones, Tom & Jerry) pale in comparison to the graphics in Golden Axe. Admittedly the levels are two-tone and the rendering is baffling in places but the sprites look almost the same as in the 16-bit. The sprites are large and well detailed. The main protagonist may only have around 15 frames of animation but the swing of the sword feels smooth and true. All of this with a palette of only 64 colours compared to the Mega Drive’s 512.

Most 16-bit to 8-bit conversions are terrible (the awful E-SWAT immediately springs to mind) and many positive things can be said of Sega’s stance to make completely different games on the 8-bit under the same license (Sonics 1 & 2) but I invite you to take a look at Streets of Rage and Mortal Kombat. Both of these games are one-dimensional and thus creating different 8-bit versions would seem silly. The care taken with both is remarkable. There’s not much that can be done with the Master System’s Texas Instruments (remember them?) SN76489 sound chip but its graphics capabilities are surprising. Of the 64 available colours, the Master System can display 32 at once. This is in comparison to the Mega Drive’s 64 and the NES’ pithy 25. The Zilog processor in the MS runs at 4 MHz compared to the NES’ 1.79 MHz. The Zilog chip was also used in the Mega Drive alongside the Motorola 68000.

The clues were there. Streets of Rage, after a night out with a few too many jars (blurry eyes an all) could be mistaken for the 16-bit version – bar the awful sound. Sacrifices had to be made, the Master System’s reduced memory (albeit still double that of the NES) couldn’t handle two players, but all the levels remain intact including the excellent lift stage. With Mortal Kombat more sacrifices had to be made. There are only two stages but most of the characters are there with the exception of the unpopular Kano. Each sprite is big, well drawn, and the animation works to create a fun beat em up, the likes of which European/Japanese Master System owners never saw again. Why so specific with the region Arcade Attack? Well…

Did you know Street Fighter 2 existed on the Master System? I sure as hell didn’t until earlier this year I found out that the MS is still supported in Brazil (and emulation products in China and Taiwan). SF2 is a capable beat em up and although it looks decidedly more basic (although better than the C64 version) it really makes you wonder what Sega could have done with their first landmark console. Some Master System games are also available through the Wii’s online service – who on earth would have thought this of a Nintendo console back in the early nineties!

There are things that couldn’t be helped. The NES’ stronger game library and character recognition meant it outsold the Master System almost five to one. By the time Sega invented Sonic, the Master System was subjected to poor arcade conversations and puzzle games. The inventive Galaxy Force is the anomaly here, Sega didn’t make use of the advanced capabilities of the MS until it was too late. Sonic 1 was the last MS release in the USA. Most would assume that the release of the Mega Drive is to blame for this and Sega had to do something to halt the dominance of the NES. The fact is that Sega made a superior 8-bit console to the NES but chose to go 16-bit first-off, thus inviting the inevitable Nintendo sucker punch (the SNES).

I will always love the Master System and although I’m unlikely to ever own its current incarnations I can still enjoy my Sonics, Streets of Rages (oh yes, the sequel is on there too) and Mortal Kombat. Just don’t mention E-SWAT.

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A truly phenomenal achievement

My first experience playing Street Fighter 2 wasn’t on the SNES, or in the arcades. No, it was on the Mega Drive (the Champion Edition). For a solid year after its release on the SNES I never played it. Twas a thing of wonder, especially being a Master System owner and avid reader of Sega Power.

The advert was amazing, I still have this image of a recoiling Blanka in my mind which still brings a smile to my face (his mum wouldn’t be impressed…). I watched it being played in the arcades (wasn’t allowed to go in) and on TV shows like Gamesmaster. I couldn’t believe that such a thing could be owned at home that wasn’t inexplicably overpriced (like the Neo Geo). Sega Power initially reported that the Mega Drive couldn’t handle SF2. It took a 24 Megabit cartridge and the invention of a Mega Drive six-button joypad for it to be realised, but my oh my was it worth the wait! A friend of mine from primary school got it and I was immediately round there to check it out. Even lumbered with a normal control pad and having to press select to switch between punch and kick, it was unbelievable. I think I spent the whole day there, my friend’s brother getting us some Fruit Tella for sustenance.

The evolution of SF2 is a strange and wonderful thing. I’ve never known a solitary game (forget the sequels) to have so many incarnations and such a following. Thousands still download it on the Microsoft and Nintendo networks for play on next gen consoles. I reckon I’ve been exposed to around ten versions of it and bar the NES version, they’ve all been great. That’s including the Master System version!

The original incarnation in the arcades was “The World Warrior” and was credited with kickstarting a plethora of titles of the same genre – I can name Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting and Virtua Fighter just off the top of my head. Just as the title was going to the SNES and various home computers, Capcom then released the Champion Edition, allowing you to play as the four bosses. Woof. I’ve waxed lyrical about the SNES version but one which I didn’t expect to be any good was the Amiga version which runs on an A500+ (that’s 1MB of ram) and without the tack-ons that are possible with a cartridge, but it’s great! Given it’s a lot less colourful than the SNES version and you only have one kick and one punch button (possibly more with using the keyboard? I forget…) but it’s just as fluid and playable. Capcom’s versatility across the platforms cannot be understated and although certain third parties have assisted (TecToy and er, Yoko Soft) SF2’s integrity remains intact.

By the time the Champion Edition arrived on the Mega Drive, Capcom had already released the Hyper Edition (Champion plus extra speeds) for the SNES which turned out to be so popular it actually came as a bundled title with the console for a while. Capcom then packaged the “Hyper” section on the same Mega Drive cart, genius! So MD owners were able to enjoy a port of the original Champ edition and the quicker (set your own speed) Hyper Edition, phwooaaaar. The release of Fatal Fury on the MD should have been a much celebrated thing (I think it’s great) but SF2 and the hype surrounding it, ruled.

And then there was Super Street Fighter 2, which I didn’t embrace myself but was a solid extension to the SF2 license in the arcades and on the 16-bit.

What made SF2 so special? There’s a whole load of things but for me, the cheer pickupability (yes I’ve just made that word up) of it made it difficult to put away. Button mashers and more calculated gamers alike were able to pick it up, enjoy it for a while, then put it back down. Then pick it up again. With the Hyper Edition, that’s twelve different approaches and twelve different ways you can win the game – choosing different characters when you saw fit. You might not get on with Guile one day, so why not try smashing it (quite literally) with E Honda the next? This subtle variation in the special moves pandered to different types of gamers also. With Ryu and Ken, players can be more reactive as their moves can be pulled off quickly and effortlessly. Whereas with Guile and Blanka, you’d need to think a few moves ahead (more like a chess player) as their moves (mostly) need charging for a few seconds. For the button mashers, Vega or Chun Li are perfect, many a time I’ve wanted to throttle a friend who beat me simply by bouncing around as fast as they can and doing annoying sliding moves. The more I think about it, the more obvious SF2’s allure becomes. And I haven’t even mentioned the bonus stages yet, don’t think I’ll ever get fed up of smashing that car.

Ryu and Ken are cool, end of story. Memories of a graphic novel, possibly a comic vaguely come to mind, but despite that, these two characters are the epitome of cool. Ken in his garish Ferrari red-esque red Gi and Ryu in his classic understated white – muscles rippling with a death stare. Too. Cool. For. School. I think Capcom ruined it in the later SF4, their tiny heads on ridiculous bodies make them look like the goombas from the Super Mario film. Ryu or Ken? Ken for me, mainly because I like Ferrari red. I’ve never known a game to make two identical character sets (bar the difference in their strong throws, they’re identical) work so well as two different characters. Although Midway have tried it in the Mortal Kombat series with varying degrees of success (camp robot anyone?). There are myths that Ken is quicker and that Ryu hits harder but we’ve run extensive tests here at AA (we love a good test we do) and they’re the same. I can’t account for the Ryu myth but the Ken quickness could be explained by the brighter colours and less detail of the Gi which creates an optical illusion of sorts. Anyway, like every boy at school has a favourite football team, every boy (or girl) also has his/her favourite character. Which brings me nicely to…

Cosplay. Street Fighter 2 is also great as it traverses the sexes. Even though the girls at high school didn’t say it out loud (aloud?), there’s guaranteed to be a few female SF2 fans there. On a recent trip to Tokyo (which you can read about here) I saw a few magazines/posters advertising Cosplay events. Boys, we all wanted to meet Chun Li in the 90s yes? Google “Street Fighter 2 cosplay” and thank me later, as there were clearly girls in the 90s who wanted to be Chun Li. My, did she kick some of the proverbial. Scores of Japanese girls still play SF2 and its derivatives, when you can find them in amongst all the RPG and rhythm games.

Capcom discovered gold and they (justifiably) rinsed it for all it was worth. You can still find the original arcade machines now. I found an interesting version of the Champion edition earlier this year, whereby you could only play as the character’s third (I think) colour. It was a treat to control brown Guile (oo er) with the original left-hand joystick and right-hand buttons combo, although I think I made it to fight three before I ran out of 50p coins. What I wouldn’t give to have one of those machines! Er, replicas are going for £1400 and originals upwards of £5000 if anyone wants to get us an early Christmas present…