NES vs Master System

[danholo]

To me the Master System is something foreign, traversing into the unknown. Frankly I've only seen an MS once. Before that, I didn't know it existed. While the Sega Mega Drive did enjoy a good amount of attention in Finland I don't think the Master System ever gained ground. Not only that, when I traveled to the US a lot in my earlier years everybody had a NES. Even to this day the Master System is unfamiliar to me. I don't even know what it looks like, really... Don't see many people touting any amazing games for it either.

[dataDave]

It was all the NES when I was a kid, and then everyone became a Sega fanboy instead when the Megadrive came out, then they all turned into Sony fanboys after that.

[CMcK]

I didn't know anyone with a NES. I had a MS mk2 as did a few of my mates. The home computer scene was all the rage around my area.

While the ST and Amiga had better visuals than the 8-bit consoles it wasn't hard to appreciate the quality of the games on the consoles.

The MS had a far better catalogue of games in the UK than the NES so it was a bit of a no brainer. If Nintendo really wanted a big presence in the UK back then they could have all but given the NES away. They were awash with money and could have easily crushed Virgin Mastertronic / Sega's efforts.

[Ajay1986]

It was all about the NES in our house, my brother got one for his birthday back in 89 i think. We just loved Mario i mean even our dad used to sit down and play Mario with us. Then of course we got Double Dragon and that was it for me i just loved that game, was great in everyway back then even tho i couldnt get past that god damned wall with the popping out blocks lol.

[Team Andromeda]

I didn't know anyone with a NES. I had a MS mk2 as did a few of my mates. The home computer scene was all the rage around my area.

Pretty much the same in my aera , you either had a ST or Master System , if you were a Amiga or NES owner you were the outcast in my school, much like C64 owners were seen against us ZX Spectrum fans .
Master system was huge in my village , almost every one of my mates around the same age had a MS, and back then California Games, Rocky , golfmania and Wonderboy were all the rage and talk in school . I remember you could even walk past a house inthe street and people would be able to tell what Master system game was being played , just by the sound coming out if the window , and this wasn't just for geeks like me, but all my mates could tell, just by the noise (oh thats Rastan , Or that Rocky) . The impact was huge and only the Mega Drive came close to almost everyone having a system and playing games for long peroids of time (not just csual)

It was great time to be a MS owner , becaue for many it was thier 1st ever console and so it was the talk of school You could borrow and lend out Master System games to more or less everyone you knew . We just started to go out camping for the 1st time in those days , and before we would leave my mates house (lived not for from the field we would camp in) we would all play the MS classic like golfmania , Shinobi and California Games before we left the house and they were about 10 of us (yet my mates mum wouldn't say a word and makes us drinks and food)
I know more people than ever play games now, but I never seen so many mates play a console as back inthe Master System days , I mean fight's would almost break out as to who's go of Enduro Racer and Shinobi it was next and I'm not kidding

Happy Days !

[Leon Retro]

While the ST and Amiga had better visuals than the 8-bit consoles it wasn't hard to appreciate the quality of the games on the consoles.

.

As soon as I got into consoles around 1990 onwards, I realised how much better designed most of the games are.

Look at Zool on the Amiga, and then the Mario Series on the NES, or the Sonic games on the MasterSystem. 8bit platformers destroyed all the 16bit computer ones. It was down to good design and artistic skill by the console developers.

The Amiga had some good games: Speedball2, SensibleSoccer, Pinball Fantasies, North&South etc.... but when I embraced console gaming, I never went back to computers.

Even since I've had PC's, I've never liked the games as much as console stuff. Most developers have always seemed to put more effort and thought into console titles. I guess that's why Top100 lists are always packed full of console titles, and why on forums like this, most people seem to love console gaming far more than computer gaming.

[MattyD]

All the Master System love in the UK playgrounds was and still is a mystery to me. When I got my first NES you were nobody if you didn't have a Nintendo. Having official WWF games helped because wrestling was really big at the time, in my school anyway. But within a couple of years something really odd happened and Sega came from being unknown to being the must-have brand. This only happened in the UK and, oddly, Brazil as well. I often wonder if price had something to do with it (IIRC Master System II was only about ?40 whereas the NES was much more) or perhaps it was because Nintendo stuff was only being brought in by third-party distributors like Bandai and wasn't getting the marketing / sales push that perhaps Sega were giving their machine.

The only advantage I personally saw in the Master System was the brighter colour palette, but aside from that it was bunk. You can't deny that, a few titles aside, the Master System range of games consisted mostly, it seemed to me anyway, of piss-poor clones and wannabes. How they even sold with their terrible box art is beyond me!

[AllYourBase]

All the Master System love in the UK playgrounds was and still is a mystery to me. When I got my first NES you were nobody if you didn't have a Nintendo. Having official WWF games helped because wrestling was really big at the time, in my school anyway. But within a couple of years something really odd happened and Sega came from being unknown to being the must-have brand. This only happened in the UK and, oddly, Brazil as well. I often wonder if price had something to do with it (IIRC Master System II was only about ?40 whereas the NES was much more) or perhaps it was because Nintendo stuff was only being brought in by third-party distributors like Bandai and wasn't getting the marketing / sales push that perhaps Sega were giving their machine.

The only advantage I personally saw in the Master System was the brighter colour palette, but aside from that it was bunk. You can't deny that, a few titles aside, the Master System range of games consisted mostly, it seemed to me anyway, of piss-poor clones and wannabes. How they even sold with their terrible box art is beyond me!

I am sure there were other parts of Europe where the master system out performed the NES at times too. There were some cracking original games like the Wonderboy series and pyscho fox which make the SMS a great console.

To be fair I think in the later year when the Master System II had come out everyone was moving on to the Megadrive.

[Leon Retro]

The only advantage I personally saw in the Master System was the brighter colour palette, but aside from that it was bunk. You can't deny that, a few titles aside, the Master System range of games consisted mostly, it seemed to me anyway, of piss-poor clones and wannabes. How they even sold with their terrible box art is beyond me!

I honestly think a lot of people bigging-up the MS, are being over-the-top.

I had the machine, and whilst it provided some fun, I then discovered the NES, and wouldn't have wanted to go back.

The best MS games are great, but on the whole, the machine doesn't have a great catalogue of titles.

I've never really seen people celebrating the machine on retro-forums. The NES/Famicom gets much more respect and discussion.

The NES simply had many more fun games created for it. A lot of the games were so good, I don't think many people even cared about the amount of colours, or number of audio channels etc... Quality gameplay shone through.

On a technical level, everyone knows the MS wins, but that doesn't mean it's the overall winner. I'd still choose a NES over the MS; easy choice.

[Ady]

Nice thread.

From what I remember of the olden days, the most popular 8-bit console in my school was the MS by a country mile. I don't recall anybody owning a NES at all, and the only access I had to that console and its games was a demo pod in Boots.

That being said, I do remember being completely blown away the first time I saw Super Mario Bros, but there was little else on that machine that appealed, largely due to the fact that the NES arrived on our shores a lot later than everywhere else, by which time many of its games had dated.

TBH, though, whilst the MS was more popular, it certianly wan't better, imo. The graphics may have been bold and colourful, but they were very flickery. The sound was also diabolical.

All in all though, both machines had fairly decent games, but I was more than happy with my Commodore 64, and didn't really care for either of them that much. It wasn't until the MD that I started showing any interest at all in consoles.

[Strider]

I bought my Master system with my very first paypacket and absolutely adored it. I had Hang On and that Safari Hunt game and the SNail game was the hidden one.

Looking back now though, I think the NES has a far better catalogue of games, although nothing comes close to the majesty of Wonderboy III

[Leon Retro]

Nice thread.
TBH, though, whilst the MS was more popular, it certianly wan't better, imo. The graphics may have been bold and colourful, but they were very flickery. The sound was also diabolical.

Both machines had their fair share of good games. I don't think the MS was majorly impressive when it came to visuals. The NES may have had less colours etc... but a lot of the good games look very nice and charming.

I bought my Master system with my very first paypacket and absolutely adored it. I had Hang On and that Safari Hunt game and the SNail game was the hidden one.

Looking back now though, I think the NES has a far better catalogue of games, although nothing comes close to the majesty of Wonderboy III

Did you have Astro Warrior? ... I think it's a nice game, though very simple.

Yeah.... WonderboyIII rocks big time. A stunning game in so many ways; if only there had been more games as solid for the system.