I'm always surprised by the SMS, for an 8-Bit system it was pretty impressive! I keep wondering how Castlevania, Mega Man, and other 8-bit NES third party mega franchises would have been if they were on this system as opposed to the NES.

I have three words that automatically makes the Genesis/Mega Drive win: Power Base Converter

Man, that Master System bias, lol... Here's the Genesis version , good all around... Perfect even... here's the master system version, it looks awful, two player is stripped out, it has ten less levels, the colors are cut in half as are the sprites... BUT I THINK IT KICKS THE 16BIT VERSIONS ASS! ahhh...

The MK3 didn't have a built in FM chip, it came in a separate box as an optional extra. It was the Japanese Master System that had the FM chip built in.

You should mention Castle of Illusion, World Cup 94 , Double Dragon and Desert Strike , which had great versions for SMS

Bro, your channel is just what I’ve been missing in my life. Thank you x

I loved the Master System...I despise selling it when I was younger.....if I had only known how much I was gonna miss owning one, i never would have sold it.....oh well, i'll just buy another one off eBay I guess

The master system games (at least in terms of graphics) were way ahead of the NES. It's a shame that they just couldn't get more of a market share at the time.

This brought back a whole lot of good gaming memories.

Nice comparison video. Thanks for the show!

We where in Nes land over here & the Sega Master System was hardly known. But in recent years I have grown extremely fond of the MS, i can honestly state that it is far superior and it just looks so damn cool!

Just loved it! Great video man! I also had a Master System for Christmas, my first console. 👍

music at 13:24 sounds like an edd kalehoff jingle from "the price is right" back in the day lol i love it (what IS that btw?!)...great vid! :D

really great vid :)

Nice vid. Takes me back to my childhood

My aunt bought me a master system 2 at the end of 1993. The console came with the pack of Alex Kidd (with Sonic) and The Terminator. Those three games gave me a lot of hours of fun that I remember very fondly. I was very happy with the Master system ... until a friend invited me to his birthday and put the Mega drive with Streets of rage. That changed everything (i literally shit in my pants when i heard the music). I saved all the money I could until finally I ended up buying the Mega drive with Sonic and Mega games I and 2. I was able to test the vast majority of games because a lot of friends had it and we exchanged them. I was even able to try several of the best games of the 32x. I played that machine for several years. I wish I had a Saturn, but it was too expensive for me. Remembering all this has made my day happy. Thanks for the video, man!

A very well put together video...... Of course I am completely biased when it comes to the MD but I still have fond memories of playing on the Master System in my youth!! I remember in the early 90's I swapped my Nes for a Master System for a few weeks and I desperately wanted it to be a permanent arrangement but alas it wasn't to be! Strangely at some point later I ended up swapped my NES for a Megadrive and I have never looked back!! :)

One of the best video about the Master System I have seen for months! I juste want more! :) Why not NES VS Master System? :)

Nicely done Sir!

You are the best documentarian on the whole of youtube

In the early 90s I got the Master System as a gift from the relatives on the Japanese side of my family... Here in the US, it was rare enough that it was a baffling novelty to my friends. I got plenty of enjoyment from it, but I really really valued every moment I got the play the Genesis display at the stores. I remember all of the marketing of that era well, especially the Atari Jaguar. I ended up not getting a console until the PlayStation... my family had immense brand loyalty to Sony and that helped big-time to convince them it was a good Christmas gift!

It happened the same to me! I remember going to the game store with my grandma since she was going to buy me a video game console; I was seven years old and I freaked out when I saw that blue hedgehog smiling and drawing one's attetion ... Well, I was very shy, so I whispered "I want that one", trying to point out the Mega Drive, however, the clerk picked the Master System and asked me: "This one?" I couldn't say no because of my shyness, so this is how I was bought my Master System! I really enjoyed the time I spent playing on this console, but I would've liked to have a Mega Drive from the very beginning. Nonetheless, I also had a lot of fun playing Master System games. Later on, once the Playstation was released, I was bought a ... Yes! A Mega Drive! hahahaha.

MASTER SYSTEM SONIC is my favorite SONIC game!

Will you publish your paper "me and computers"? Looks interesting :-) by the way, I got a master system in the states around 1986 and loved it. It was the exclusives, like Zillion, that really did it for me. Also great arcade ports like R-Type, Capt. Silver.

I never had a Master System as a kid. Looking to find a good deal on one now. Looks really fun!

MD vs SMS - that's like Sophie's Choice. They're both brilliant, with fantastic video game libraries. The SMS has a really rich game library. I am glad that people like yourself and Kim Justice are giving it some time in the spotlight fairly regularly. :)

As a person from the states who actually had an SMS before the NES, I much preferred the SMS. There were a number of games that I fondly remembered, like Rastan, Golvellius, Aztec Adventure and of course Alex Kidd in Miracle World. The only reason I moved forward with the NES was because places in my area stopped stocking SMS games, very few buyers I guess.

All I need to say is Alex The Kid In Miracle World! The 16 bit Alex Kid games couldn't hold a candle to it

"The MS1 looks a bit like a boxy rectangle" hey I love the the MS1 design. It looks gloriously 80s, like some low-polygon alien spaceship from the early days of CGI. It could be some evil enemy structure in Tron. Look at those slick angles and straight lines. Look at the black matte finish with that red touch with pointless but gloriously visualised information about how cartridge and controls go into TV system. Loving it. Mega Drive 1 is a top contender for best console design ever, but there's only one other contender I'd throw in the ring without second thought, and that's the MS1.

very good comparison video

Your videos are fantastic. I remember the same, trying to persuade people that the Master System was better than everything. Your points of view and game history are spookily close to mine, so it's great watching someone just as mad as me :p Keep it up! ~ Mike

Cool video, I started off with a Master System a few years into it's lifespan, then upgraded to a Megadrive the year it came out (don't worry though I wasn't one of 'those' guys - I had to save up my pocket money to put towards half the price of it and additionally sell my Master System - which I'd similarly had to save up for half the price of - to also contribute). I loved my SMS, but the Megadrive was just so much better. The first time I fired up Revenge of Shinobi I was just absolutely blown away by how good the graphics and music were, it felt poles apart from what I'd been used to on the 8-bit Sega. The SMS was a great machine for its day though, I had a lot of fun with stuff like R-Type, Wonderboy 3: The Dragon's Trap, Psycho Fox and Space Harrier. I even thought the built in version of Hang-On was pretty badass.

Nice idea for a comparison vid. Alien 3, Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 1, Lemmings, Populous, Outrun, Castle of Illusion, Chuck Rock, ESWAT, Ecco, Forgotten Worlds, Gouls N' Ghosts, Rainbow Islands. Oh boy, so many killer titles to compare. I loved Lemmings on the SMS, cracking little conversion.

Nearly all the kids had either a mega drive, or a master system growing in the early-mid 90s (prob a 60/40 split), with the the odd 1 or 2 having a snes. They were both great - the 90s was a great time to be a kid

I need to find footage of Peter Pac Rat on the Speccy! The MasterSystem Road Rash can hold it's own with the 16-bit Amiga version! 7:21 wait a what?.... googling that RIGHT NOW! Great clash docu video, loved it, thanks for the time invested in this. I've learnt a lot here including that white japanese thing I'm about to google, and a the end about a few MS only games. My first Sega was a MegaCD bundle so I missed out on the playing and knowledge of MS and MD. Great stuff!

Very interesting idea!!

genesis will be remembered as the best sega console

I had the master system 2 a year after getting an Atari2600 for Christmas the year before. I just remember the graphics blew my socks off, I loved it.

A few standout memories for me. Virtua Fighter 1 (arcade machine) at Toys R Us, Armored Core at EB Games (first time I saw PS in person, and remember thinking the mechs, water and lighting were jaw dropping and looked like a movie), Mario 64 at KMart (my brain could almost not understand what I was looking at, it was so amazing), Rush 2049 at Walmart (where I had never seen such crisp graphics, and the jet on the back of the car looked like the light of a sun lol), and playing a Dreamcast in Japan in a hotel room with other exchange students, and coming to the realization I was a closet Sega fanboy all along. Jaw dropping experiences that changed my perception of what "realism" was.

Can't believe you didn't mention Moonwalker...I actually prefer the master system version

My first gamesystem was a SNES when everyone else was getting Playstations and N64s, and I still spent hours after school mapping out every detail of Legend of Zelda studiously. I still have that console and all the games I could keep hold of for it. (and a somewhat less reliable spare in case I need parts).

I owned and loved a MD but not an MS. Recently I discovered Fantasy Zone (MS version) via online emulator, wow, what a cool game! And that led me to try the arcade one as well. Great stuff!

I had no idea that the Master system held out so long and they ported mega drive games to it

OMG! I never saw this coming! PS I haven't watched it yet and I already approve! I love Let's Compares. *Watched* And yes, hail the underdog.

I insist on replying to classic works. I am on the record! Great job and I loved it

This video is excellent. I can see myself on this. I had my master system for a long time (still have it) and all my friends had mega drive or even sega saturn. I had to defend my museum piece every day.

Great video! In retrospective, I wonder why Sega never released the FM Sound expansion for the Mark 3 outside of Japan. Master System games still have FM enabled, and if used with, say, a Power Base Converter FM, sound fantastic

Great video, as a fellow Brit I remember the MS vs NES arguments / debates in secondary school. I like Sonic1 more on the MS than on the Megadrive. Games like Sonic1, Wonderboy3 The Dragons Trap, Mortal Kombat and Phantasy Star really pushes the Mastersystem power.

Great video.

'Phantasy Star' was a great console RPG. No one to one comparison on the Genesis but I have to mention this gem. Probably one of them more influential console RPG's of all-time.

subscribed dude, kai off Facebook (Sega page)

I have no nostalgia for the SMS, since I didn't grow up with it. I did most of my gaming on the C64, Amiga and later the Mega Drive and SNES. But I will say the SMS is a great system, with a ton of fun, really good games. Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World, Shinobi, Outrun, Psycho Fox - there's a lot of real gems in the system's library, and many of the Sega arcade conversions are surprisingly good for an 8-bit system. It's not quite as deep as the NES library, but still definitely worth checking out.

I feel like Rose tinted glasses were being put on and taken off a lot

Some may think I'm crazy but I think Sega felt they had to release the Genesis to compete with the NES, when in reality the SMS was already superior. But the marketing and the headlock Nintendo had on developers prohibited game development, at least until much later on.

Oh, and you also forgot to mention Phantasy Star, one of the finest 8 Bit RPG's ever produced, if not the finest. It was LIGHTYEARS ahead of it's time and is just fantastic even to this day! Not to mention having some of the best graphics of any Master System game ever released.

The SG1000 mk3 did not have FM sound. It is identical to our Mastersystem (except NTSC-J versus PAL). In Japan, the re-release of the mk3 /as/ the Sega Mastersystem, was the console with the extra sound hardware.

Lovely vid. Hooray for SEGA and the Master System!

When it came to Pit Fighter kid him was on crack thinking it looked the same

I totally remember defending my SMS2 to my Mega Drive-owning friends at school. But I do remember being really ticked that Sonic 2 for SMS wasn't even 2 player (which seemed to be a pattern with Sega, making the SMS ports of MD games single player). But I loved my SMS2 to death, probably in part because my 10yo self saved up the $99 needed to buy it and also saved and bought most of the games/accessories for it (still remember wasting my money on the "wireless" infrared controller set that chewed through batteries like no one's business and couldn't even work with many games as it couldn't detect pushing both buttons at the same time which was required to perform certain actions in some games). I eventually sold it and all the games to a friend and bought a MD but it was late 1993 at that stage and I got my first PC the following year after which the MD sat unused. But the SMS2 was a huge chunk of my childhood I'll always remember fondly. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, NostalgiaNerd :)

I enjoyed Alex Kidd and Castle of Illusion on Master System but not as much on Mega Drive. They were just spot on.

That is actually incorrect about the Mark III having an FM chip built in. It wasn't til the later Re-Release of the Master System in Japan that they got the built in FM, aka the one that looks exactly like ours. The Mark III needed an accessory that had to be purchased separately to add FM sound.

Great Video! Ok, I am seeing it here in 2019, and it remembers me that at this time (around 1994), I had... An Atari 2600 console! Ok, with 128 games on memory and capable to read cartridges., but only this! I some times imagine portability of games from Master System for that console (that I today, as an Engineering Electronical, know How limited Atari was compared to Master System and probably portability (if done by someone) wold decrease the play experience too much. But I Still imagine that...

I remember joining in an argument helping a friend defend the Mega-CD against the Playstation, Good Times!

Master System II Owner. I loved it and still do. Had a little game library only containing of Alex Kidd in Miracle World (build in), Sonic 1 + 2, Asterix, Cool Spot and Streets of Rage 2, but I rented many games back in the day like Alien 3, Golvelius, Gain Ground, Sonic Chaos, Psycho Fox, New Zealand Story, Terminator and others which was great. I only missed the two player modes of the Mega Drive counterparts like Sonic 2 and others for couch coop. Thats why I often played them at a friends home, and beeing a little jealous. All in all, both are great and I never missed any Nintendo stuff in the 90s. Greetings from a German SEGA fanboy!

i got my NES later too. So late (1992) that the SNES was in stores. :)

Great video mate I love the Master System too

How could you forget Ghostbusters?!?! An awesome almost strategy game on the SMS. A twaddle side scroller on the MD...

appreciate this video was really wonder the difference

I absolutely loved Italia 90 i was 5or6 when i first played it so i just saw the entertainment in it, playing football on a console n picking your players. It will always have nostalgia to me like many mega drive n master system games

It's funny I had the Genesis during the ps1/Nintendo 64 era and I didn't know their was anything else out there. At the time I just didn't really pay any attention it was a simple time where if I saw a game with an interesting cover I bought it and played it and loved it because it's all I had. Now their is so many video games that are easily accessible and I'll play a game for an hour then move to the next.

Subed, great video

The Lucky Dime Caper and Asterix had some good music, but too many of the SMS games sounded the same. To think what could have been if SEGA included a good sound chip in it.

Why did so many famous 2 player games lack the multi player mode on the Master System? I remember when I finally got Golden Axe on the SMS and I thought I had missed something 5 minutes into the game. So I grabbed the manual and read through every page only to find out there was indeed only 1 character to choose from and no 2 player mode. I was utterly disappointed.

What were the "Genesis does" ads like where the Genesis was called the Mega Drive?

Had I known you then I would have said, why not both and get a power base converter?

I love this channel

I'm an American gamer who played the Game Gear as my first console in 1991, and I never had Genesis, but my friend had a weird adapter that let the Genesis play home console versions of Game Gear games, how about that? So in a really weird sense I'm more nostalgic for Master System than Genesis even though I never played an actual Master System in my life. I can identify a Game Gear/Master System game just by the unique sound of the music on that system, so nostalgic even on games I never saw or played as a kid.

ABACABB - i remember entering this every time i played mortal kombat

Totally agree with this video, the same thing happened to me. I have strong memories of Christmas 1991 having to return golden axe 2 for the mega drive to John Menzies because i couldn't play it on the master system and my brother wouldn't share it... Incidentally, i recently completed Alex Kidd in Miracle Wold because of emulator save states... those Janken matches were a bitch...

I had a Master System before having the Megadrive too

I knew someone at school who knew I was getting a Master System for Christmas (the Megadrive was £149 at the time), and he said "Do me a favour, don't plug me in to a Sega". That was 30 years ago, and it still hurts.

The first time that I played an 8-bit Sonic game I thought there was something wrong with the system

Nice video

also the game gear was a portable master system. i didn't know that until my 20s :) there is no way a NES could have pulled off sonic or robocop vs terminator.

I thought Wonder Boy 3 made it to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Other than that perfect video as always. Furthermore, we all looked through rose colored glasses with huge imaginations at 10. In fact I don't think I ever want to meet a 10 year old kid that isn't a dreamer. Lastly, the Sega Master System was an amazing piece of kit. My first console was the Master System. My parents couldn't find an NES in time for Christmas in 1986. They ended up getting me one in mid 1987 and to be quite honest with you after playing the amazing Master System, I couldn't see what all of the fuss was about. The Master System looked heads and shoulders above 80% of the NES games that released and that's only because Sega discontinued the Master System much earlier in the States than everywhere else (it would be more like 90% if they kept going). I ended up getting the Sega Genesis in 1989 just before Christmas and yes the games did look and play better but I never got rid of my Master System. I have been through...I think, 4 Nes's at this point. Three of them broke because the build quality was terrible (I have never needed to blow in a Master System cartridge to get the damn thing to work). The last one I have is for collecting only and I seldom go back and play it minus Ninja Gaiden of course. I have seen Ninja Gaiden on the Master System but I am not sure where it was released (that's why I don't own it as well). On another note, my God Road Rash on the Master System looks absolutely stunning. I knew Sega's first real foray into the American market had chops, I mean my mouth literally hit the floor. I am going to buy Road Rash for my Master System the next time I'm purchasing games for our arcade.

Did anyone one who owed a Megadrive/Genesis 1 - find their cat liked sitting/ curling up on it? (on the circular bit)

I absolutely LOVE the Master System square design.

You're right. The Mega Drive/Mega CD combo is pure sex!

Lol you could at least clean your systems before recording... they look like they have about 10 years worth of dust on them. As for Pit Fighter, the sprites may be small but the animation does appear to be quite fluid, so there's that. I couldn't disagree more about Sonic 2 SMS/GG, I think it's simply fantastic! I think most ppl dislike it due to it's difficulty, but if you have the skill it's a fantastic game, one of the bests for the system.

I didn't realize just how little RAM either of those systems had. I assumed the SMS was at least on par with the c64.

Btw, you should have mentioned Streets of Rage 1 instead of 2, because SMS version holds up better against the Genesis one.

Rotflmfao! 😂😂😂 I couldn't make it past 3 minutes stop it STOP IT! 🤣😂 This was too fucking funny!

Age 5 to 11 I had both systems donated to me from my uncle, I also had a Nintendo 64. Despite the superiority between systems, I always enjoyed playing the master system with my dad because that's what he preferred. It has been 15 years since I got those system and my brother has both of our original segas set up in his man cave

Started out with a master system 2 and never looked back, via mega drive, two Amigas, PlayStation, n64, dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, 360, ps3, Wii, wii U, Xbox one and now PS4

I grew up with the Genesis/Mega drive ._. Then in the early 2000's we got a Playstation one years before the PS2 became a big thing in Canada.

I wonder why we never got the fm chip on the master system

I purchased a Master System after I purchased my Mega Drive, because there are awesome games for MS that weren't released for MD. Also, some games (like Sonic games) are completely different games, and that is double the fun.

And now adults do the same as you did with 10... but with cars

Basically main difference between various game ports is a remarkably lower FPS on the Master System. It's so slow that sometimes you can see sprites losing parts of their blocks in order to make framerate bearable. That's sad, cause arcade style games are meant to be of fast pace and smoothness, and the games that were specifically designed for the Sega MS hold up to this taks a lot better. But if you were to take screenshots and show it to NES owners of the time, they would most likely say that it was a 16 bit game, graphically this console is pretty darn impressive for an 8 bit system.

Mega Drive had a Master System sound chip in it as well. Many people fail to see this. You listen to a lot of tecnosoft games and they use that waveform sound to good effect. Thunderforce IV is a great example- listen to that underlying chord in the background of most of the tracks. Awesome. Robocop VS the Terminator? Completed that one straight off on my first go and sold it straight back onto ebay. ''Robocop....The Terminator...'' Over and over. Eurgh! Tommy Tallarico did some great soundtracks but that one grates.