Who doesn't love the Rocky movies? Yeah, they are cheesy and overly eager to pull those heart strings, but they pull said strings nonetheless, so it's hard to not be endeared by Stallone's quintessential underdog story that is Rocky, no matter how sappy and manipulative it is.

But here is the thing about Rocky, while boxing is the climax of the movies, the main appeal is the drama, even if rather cliche, it is the reason why we care. The sport of boxing per si always took a distant backseat to the Cinderella man tale of Rocky.

So, how do you translate Rocky, and the appeal of the movies, in a videogame form? In 1987? In an 8-bit console?

I dunno, but Sega gave a good try, even if the game didn't come out so great.

So Rocky for the Master System is a boxing game (no duh), where you play as Rocky going against his three main rivals from the movies, Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang and Ivan Drago.

Yes, the entire game is just three matches of 15 rounds each, and as far as the boxing mechanics goes, the game is rather uninspired. Rock can hit hooks, straights or uppercuts depending on the directional plus action button, and guard up, low or duck depending on the defense button. It's a pretty simple setup, but doesn't land much for skill, since you can't really combo besides and the block/dodge feels awkward and delayed, Rocky never feels responsive as you feel you want him to be.

However, that ain't all there is to Rocky, because before each fight, as it is in true Rocky fashion, you need to train, and by train I mean hit the button till your fingers ask for mercy. For the first two training mini games, Rocky needs to hit the heavy and speed backs a certain number of times to "qualify", which means being strong enough to take on the opponents, because if you don't not only take more damage, you make almost none.

And there isn't much else to the training besides hitting the 1 button as fast as you can. But even if you qualify, that ain't gonna be enough for a fair fight with Drago, who just obliterates Rocky, so you need to overqualify, meaning hitting the bags much further than asked, which is almost impossible without a turbo controller, and you need to overqualify to clear the game.

That just sucks, pressing the button really fast maybe be a skill, but that isn't what we want to do in a boxing game, we want to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, which we can't in the boxing match because, as I mentioned before, Rocky is very unresponsive, so it is pretty much mandatory to overqualify in order to progress in the game.

The presentation is great though. Being a game made in house, Sega brings out the best out the Master System in a way only they can, with big detailed Stallone sprites during the training, and very well animated ones in the boxing matches, not to mention a impressive amount of detail, like the ropes bouncing whenever one of the boxers gets thrown to it. For 1987, no boxing game looked like Rocky, just look at Ring King ou Punch Out.

But, and this is a huge but, for some reason the game has none of the Bill Conti music. Most likely Sega wasn't able to secure the rights for the soundtrack, but this is a huge blow to the game, Rocky doesn't work without Conti's score, and the tracks Sega made for the game are forgettable if I'm being gracious.

And to me this was the worst part of the game, maybe if the game had some of that Bill Conti music magic that elevated the Rocky movies, maybe I would've stuck around to see if I could defeat Drago. But as it is, I couldn't go the distance with this game, as I was just getting frustrated, bored and with a huge pain in my fingers.

Not a recommend.

Hello,

In Japan I acquired a copy of Phantasy Star for the Sega Mark III and I wanted to wall mount it. Do you guys know where I can find a clear case similar to what I have linked in order to mount this game on the wall?

Link to clear case example: https://cgagrading.com/sega-genesis-boxed-video-game-acrylic-display-case/

One of the things I find most fascinating about the 8 bit generation are arcade ports.

As a child I've always wondered how they could take a game that took a huge cabinet and shove it in a tiny cartridge?

And as an adult, I wonder how they can take a game designed to take coins from kids as fast as they could for arcade profit, and still make it fun and accessible in a home console environment where there is no such need for that economy system?

The answer for both kid and adult me is that they couldn't. As beloved as some of 80's arcade ports might be, let's face it, the vast majority of them were just simple games with severe graphical and performance downgrades and no effort in making the gameplay more accessible for a home console, just slap the same token taker design and call it a day.

But for the myriad of bad ports we had to endure in the late 80's, every now and then we would find a gem, a game that not only managed to capture the original arcade shine, but adjust it for a great console experience, and one of these gems was Rampage!

For those who don't know, Rampage was a hit arcade pre-Mortal Kombat Midway, where you played as giant monsters who had to destroy cities, eat humans, fight the military and have buckets of fun while doing it. Sega took up the rights and duties to port to the Master System and put their golden boys, the Sega R&D 2, to work on it.

The result? The Master System got the best Rampage port of that generation.

Sure, Rampage on the MS kept the simple premise, we can still choose between a giant Ape, lizard or werewolf to tear down cities, just climb on buildings and start punching em down, and eat some folks while at it to recover health that will keep going down, as the military keeps shooting your giant ass.

But the Master System port makes two big adjustments: first the size of the cities, unlike the arcade, the blocks of buildings are much smaller on the Master System, which makes for shorter levels, but also for a more manageable difficulty, as smaller buildings means less soldiers to shoot at you.

And second, the buildings on the MS port are much closer to each other, allowing the player to be more strategic on how and which construction they can destroy first and the hop to the next in no time, to be as fast and efficient as they can while avoiding enemy fire.

Those two changes alongside responsive controls, great detailed sprites for the monster characters and tons of health to allow players to just indulge themselves on the destruction, not to mention a LOT of levels, Rampage on the Master System is a game that can't be put down easily.

It's just a shame that I can't in good faith put this game in the same height as After Burner and Out Run as "best of the best" as far as arcade ports goes, because Rampage does have some issues, like just one sound track for all levels and very noticeable slow downs in the later levels when the quantity of enemies ramp up and the hardware just can't keep up.

Still, Rampage is a personal favorite and a reminder of a simpler time in gaming, when just being a giant gorilla punching buildings was more than enough to keep you glued to the screen for hours and hours.

One thing about Master System had over the competition (let's face, the NES we are talking about here) is the quality of one specific genre of games, that genre being the "shmups", or shoot 'em ups if you wanna be boring and square.

Thanks to a more advanced processing hardware, the Master System was able to feature a large quantity of sprites in an efficient way to not interfere with the performance (well, not too much anyway). And in turn, this advantage worked wonders for the type of games that do require a large amount of data scrolling around the screen, be it enemies, projectiles or the player character, who is holding on for dear life to dodge all those things.

And while the crown jewels of the Shmups in the Master System are the Fantasy Zone games, deservedly so in my opinion, I can't help to think about this weird little game called "Cloud Master".

In a genre dominated by airplanes and spaceships, as a kid I was intrigued by this game where you play a guy riding a cloud, shooting pig faces that float in the air, and that image got stuck with me for all these years.

Of course, being eight I had no context about the influences and the use of chinese mythology to get the setting of the game, that is in Ancient China you play as "Michael Chen" (yeah, right localizers), the Cloud Master, who has to undergo a series of trials to prove his powers to the lords of heaven... or something like that, look, it's a Shmup ok? just shoot stuff.

And shoot stuff you will, from the aforementioned pig faces, to ramen bowls and ducks with people's heads. The imagery clearly references the Monkey King myth, as a young kid riding on a cloud taking on the forces of heaven, and other chinese folklore creatures.

I don't get why the devs of this game never went for the popular image of the Monkey King, instead using Mike Chen here, but funny enough, this game got a remake for the Wii called "The Monkey King: The Legend Begins", and you play as, you know, the Monkey King.

Regardless, how's the game? Pretty great I'm happy to say. It won't blow anyone's socks with innovation or anything, but if you want a solid Shoot'em up action, Cloud Master has your back.

As a typical horizontal scroller, you have all the enemy patterns that you would expect and the power ups are pretty conventional as well, from rapid fire to larger projectiles, the game plays it safe in familiarity.

Except one thing, there is a bit of a magic system in the game. At each stage you encounter a couple of mini bosses, who do soak up more damage, but if defeated, a door for "magic shop" will open, where you can decide which sort of magic you wanna purchase. The selection goes from fire shields, to bouncing balls or even clone projectiles, and it's up to the player to decide which magic suits him, and the stage, the best.

And this system is the best thing gameplay wise, for a rather by the book title, the use of magic gives the player some agency in their own play styles. Just be warned, magic and shooting bullets have their own buttons, and while there is no limit to magic, you need to use your whole thumb to use both magic and bullets at the same time.

And you will be mashing that thumb buddy, because the gloves come out rather early in Cloud Master, by stage 3 you will be grinding teeth to a nub, and like old school Shumps, one hit kill, back to a checkpoint without all your power ups and magic. I made it to the last stage, got hit, and that was it, there was no way I would survive the barrage without the power ups.

Weirdly enough, for how hard this game is, the bosses are kinda easy, with very few different shooting patterns and large gaps for you to attack. Great sprites though, huge, well made and with tons of animations, like cloths blowing in the wind.

That brings me to the best thing in this game, the presentation. As I said, bosses and enemies sprites are great, but the background also deserves praise, from monochrome landscapes that look like sumi-e paintings, to the jade mountains covered by clouds and detailed by a large black outline that looks like a ink stroke, scrolling through this game feels like traversing a old chinese painting, and they managed to do that in a 8-bit system from 1985. Kudos!

However, and I hate to close this great game on a sour note, but it has to be said... the music kinda sucks. Not terrible, but forgettable tracks that may evoke traditional chinese music, but fail to make a impression, and for the Shmup genre, that's a cardinal sin that can't be overlooked

What can I say? I need my jams to get in the groove for this type of game, I've been spoiled by the R-Type, Gradius and Ikarugas of the world.

Ever since that faithful day a quater of a century ago whe I stumbled into the GAW rom in a folder of MS games I've had this at the top target on my MS wishlist. Well today I decided to make it happen and I'm over the moon!

Okay, this one is an important one for the Master System, or even Sega's history really, as sadly forgotten as Zillion seems to be.

In the mid 80's, during the japanese gaming market boom, it was only too obvious that their animation niche would prove a fertile ground for IPs to be adapted for easily recognizable appeal, and Sega was one at the forefront of this tactic, as the company sought after popular manga/anime titles to populate their new console, as saw with the "Fist of the North Star" (or Black Belt for us westerners).

But what if, instead of merely an adaptation, Sega came with a product that would tackle a diverse array of media to create a synergy between animation and gaming, combining them in one single market push.

Enter Zillion, a sci-fi/adventure story created from the partnership between Sega and Tatsunoko, the legendary animation studio responsible for all time classics like Speed Racer and Gatchaman.

As far as the story goes, Zillion is rather unburdened with complexity, in the fictional planet of Maris, we accompany the protagonist J.J and his friends Apple and Champ as they fight in the resistance against the invading forces of the evil aliens, the Nohzas.

Pretty easy and straightforward setup for a kids animation and a videogames. Funny enough, you can check out the anime in its entirety on youtube right now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93gp1U6VIjQ&list=PLBCbkWJOjsOIUt4PTtIB_N1A-Yn9EbVVm

I am a complete casual when it comes to anime, so I don't have much to add to this conversation. I've watched a couple of episodes and it's very 80's cheese indeed, but I couldn't get much into it. I'm sure the show is fine, as it was a rather big hit in Japan, but not for me.

However, it was really fun to see Opa Opa being the comedy relief of the show or note that the titular Zillion guns are just a Light Phase gun product placement, just goes to show that Zillion wasn't just another animated series, but a serious attempt to combine video games and animation into one consuming market. Hell, they even had a laser tag toy using the Zillion guns (which are just Light Phasers), and those were a hit in Japan... and Brazil.

But what about the game, since we are here to talk about the game right? Well..

Ok, the game isn't bad, and it does try to leave the 2d-platform conventions, as Zillion takes place in the Nohza's base as in one big interconnected map, where you take control of J.J, who has to explore, save his companions and escape/blow up the place. Later on, you play with Apple and Champ as well.

To further the players interaction with the game, Zillion has a level up system where you collect power ups to strengths different aspects of your character, like gun power and jumping, and you are constantly in search of keywords to be used in computer terminals in sequences that allows you to open doors, disable laser turrets and other functions. Also, the labyrinth-esque base requires the players to be ready with their pen and paper to sketch up their own map, as backtracking is heavily used throughout the game.

It's shame that these inventive features for the time don't help with the rather lacking gameplay, as you have no variety enemy wise (with the exception of a boss) and the controls don't feel very good, jumping and shooting can be frustrating and the rather difficult rooms you need to go over and over again in order to find you your next destination can be grating on even the most patient.

But, to give Zillion and Sega some credit, this type of game was rather cutting edge at the time, as it was one of its very first of its kind. Nowadays the Metroidvania genre is really popular, but keep in mind that Zillion came out a couple of months before the original Metroid for the NES, and it's more than natural that this game shows a bunch of "growing pains" while treading new waters.

Unfortunately, Zillion the anime/game wasn't able to grasp the public's attention for long and now it's been resigned to its place in history. But what a fascinating history, and the more you learn about Zillion, the more you learn about the fast changing landscape that gaming was in the late 80's, from product marketing to gameplay conventions, there was this energy to push the medium of video games beyond the consoles, and Sega was at the vanguard of this movement, not only satisfied to be a mere publisher of IPs, but a bonafide multimedia house of ideas.

And such movement that would take the shape and form of a certain blue Hedgehog years later. For that, even if in a small part, we have to thank Zillion.

Hiya,

I have three SMS controllers, but they are all critically worn out. The D-pads feel floaty and awful. The rubber pads are clearly done.

I wanted to buy me a replacement, but all I can find is this:

https://www.ebay.pl/itm/171652987515

And since I"m from Europe, the price for a 0,25$ pieces of rubber from aliexpress is actually 25$ if you include shipping.. NOPE.

Can you recommend any replacement from Aliexpress or any other site which ships to Europe for reasonable amount of cash?

I got a console from a flea market. It looks like it's in good condition but here is the problem. When I first tried it with a game cart in, it would do the sega screen then freeze. I tried without the cart in and it had the same problem. A few days later I tried it again and it showed the sega screen then the screen telling me to put a cart or card in to play. I had a cart in already though. I took the cart out and it said the same thing. I put the cart back in and it froze on the sega screen again. Any idea what's going on here or where I should starty with trying to diagnose or fix it? All help is welcomed, thanks.

Looking to eventually do some modding to my Master System II. Mainly the video output so I can get it going on the fancy schmancy new tv's we have these days and was just wondering what are the go to mods for it and where I could order them from?

Haven't played a master system since I was kid, but recently got one from eBay.

Damn some of the games are expensive though, what are some good games that don't cost a fortune?

Hello my experimentation with the Sega Master System Sega scope 3D found some very interesting results. If I loosely plug in either the 3.5 mm cable to the Sega scope TRS or if I plug the RCA cables loosely when converting it to something that will work with a retro tank I noticed I'm able to carry a sound through the audio.

On the headphones it seems like the sound effect is intelligent because it beats at different rates that has different pitches, and it always seems the time with certain actions on the screen on the Space Harrier 3D self play demo.

There were four distinct Tempo/pitch shifts. From the main title to the main gameplay, from the main gameplay to the death scene, from the death scene to the high score scene, and from the high score scene back to the title screen. There may be a slight lack of signal in between the high score scene and the title screen when nothing is on the screen.

I'm wondering if slightly sliding the TRS signal causes the intelligent signal to be heard. If so what would be a TRS converter cable that would allow audible sound to pass through a Retrotink? All I need is if the Sega scope has a two-part signal one for the left eye one for the right eye how to carry that on the left and right audio signals and have the ground be carried on the appropriate ground pin.

I assume if you loosely plug in either an RCA double female or a TRS cable that you get some signal crossing. Just wondering if the appropriate "signal cross adapter cable" will work.

About a couple weeks ago I was able to successfully repeat my test of using a one millisecond monitor to accurately view the Sega scope on a CRT VGA TV.

There are two steps that remain before a universal shutter 3D kit could be made for all TVs for both the Sega Master System as well as adding 3D to existing 2D TVs to make them 3D for everything for Master System to 3D Blu-ray to Nintendo to the 360 and PS3 era 3D games.

The first one deals with the nature of the audio signal. I'm trying to pass the signal of the Left Right sink through the audio of an HDMI signal and receive it out the TV end with headphones you plug the Sega Master System head gear into.

It didn't work before maybe because I was afraid the volume would be too loud but, if I have a cable which converts HDMI to DVI and if I own a DVI audio inserter that converts back to HDMI and then send that to an HDMI TV and plug the Master System goggles into that then in theory the Master System Left Right shutter picture should be in sync with the signal coming through the audio which is currently used only for headphones.

Or I could go directly with the video from the Sega scope and the audio of the sync signal straight into the RetroTink 2x M Pro, and have that signal carried into the TV where it gets extracted with the headphone out.

When I tried this earlier it didn't quite work.

When I listened to the audio coming from the sound cable it sounds like there was a heartbeat in there alternating between the left signal and the right signal.

If my theory is correct then passing that signal into the retro tank should pass the six sink signal into the audio and therefore make the video viewable directly through the TV that the picture is in sync with.

If this theory is correct then we solve the second of three issues.

The third issue will be on a separate post.

I was really looking forward to revisiting this one.

Asterix was the very last game I got for the Master System before I made the jump for the 16 bit waters and one of the games that are still very much entrenched in my memory, as I, to this day, still am a very big fan of the french comics where Asterix comes from.

For some context to what the Asterix game is about, you control Asterix (duh), a shorty Gaul warrior who fights against the Roman empire with the help of his giant of a friend Obelix and a magic potion that grants him superhuman strength. The druid, Getafix, who makes these potions, has been kidnaped and taken to Rome and it's up to our heroes to trek over Europe to rescue him.

A plot directly taken from the comics, the game also follow the original source closely with it's presentation, as its colors and sprites seem a direct lift from the Uderzo (Asterix original artist) pages, a tour de force for the Master System as the games is animated beautfully as well, even if the performance does dip here and there with slowdowns.

But in the videogame realm, gameplay is King right? So how is it?

Pretty good! Asterix is a platformer, as everyone and their grandma would expect. You explore stages jumping and punching romans, exploring to find keys and occasionally fight some bosses, which are not very inventive or challenging unfortunately.

But it's clear that the bosses take a backseat to what the devs really wanted to do, and that is fun levels. Asterix has 8 stages, each with 3 acts, and you beat those with either Asterix or Obelix, but for each character you use, be sure to know that the levels change to adjust to each character's move sets.

Asterix is quick and nimble, but he can't break rocks without the help of bomb potions, while Obelix is big and strong who can break rocks with the swing of his arms, but tends to be slower and a bit harder to control.

At first I alternated between the two, but in the later stages of the game I played with just Asterix, as I had more fun with the titular character.

And what fun I had, Asterix starts of as simple platformer, just jump your way till the end of the stage, but later on the games it takes you for a ride for a plethora of gimmicks and stage mechanics, like Jumping of cannons on a German fort, hanging on seagulls on a viking boat, exploring a pyramid labyrinth with dim lights or ride a chariot in the colosseum, you never what you will find next in this game, which helps greatly with engagement.

Which is a good thing, because this game also has a habit of left-field difficulty spikes. You will die a lot in this game, but the good thing is, unlimited continues and a lot of extra-lives to find. It never got to a "drop this game" frustration, but hard enough to furrow some brows, and the game isn't long enough for exhaustion either, not to mention the two character system helps to keep it fresh for another go.

All in all, great game, really glad to revisit it. A shame it came out in the dimming years of the Master System, 1991, and didn't even get the chance to find its way to the north American shores. Had more of a chance to be seen by a larger public, I think the Asterix game could very well be seen alongside other classics of the console alongside Castle of Illusion, yes, the game is that good.

Samsung made a few models of 3D glasses that synced to their TVs via Bluetooth.

Anyone figure out how to use them with the Master System games?

Hi all,

I've just received my master system 2 today, really happy with it. I hooked it up to my crt via the rf switch. Everything works fine, but the screen seems to be pretty narrow, while the rest is filled with background color. I don't remember if this was always the case with the MS or if it's just an output issue for the one I have. Is there anything I can do to change this? (Except changing the crt geometry). My NES displays full screen on the same tv, so the tv is fine.

I had a game long ago I could not beat.
And I can not remember what it was.

I only remember there being a room with maybe 8 symbols on the floor.
You could not go further in the game without the code.
A friend figured out there was a different path to take in the castle? before that room.
You picked up a tablet with a ton of those symbols on it.
The symbols were in columns and you had to step on them in the order on the tablet.

I only remember that part because my crazy friend managed to figure out 1/2 the code just by brute forcing the combination, play after play.

Anyone know what game this is?

I still have my original game pads that came with my master system in the 80s. I also still have the left-handed control stick, the quickshot joyball controller and quickshot joystick. The one that has held up the best has been the control stick. The others all have problems with the d-pad and/or buttons, and that’s after cleaning. By contrast my genesis controllers which are almost as old and have been used more still work really well. But then there are the handful of games those don’t work with. What controllers do you still use if you’re playing on original hardware?