goldenpp72
Member
From what I can see, only one sonic game was released in america for the thing, seems like the system had a pretty shit life in the US, so i'm curious if importing titles is practical for it?
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Is sega master system a region free console?
- Thread starter goldenpp72
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goldenpp72
Member
vilmer_ said:Region free, you can play any games on it
I've read that original master systems don't work with all releases but model 2s do, but I don't even know what that is in the US :/
test_account
XP-39C²
I havnt really thought about if the Sega Master System was a region free console or not before. It can be cool to know this
It is not that hard to make a NES console region free though, it is just to cut of a leg on one of the chips on the NES motherboards, and then it can play any NES games no matter which region they are There might be some graphical glitches etc. if you play a NTSC game on a PAL NES consoles (or vice versa) though, and maybe some games wont really be that playable, but the console still becomes region free if you cut of that leg on one of the chips on the NES motherboard
EDIT: I added some text. I didnt mean to get too off-topic talking about the NES here, i am sorry, but i just wanted to mention that the NES had different regions on the consoles and on the games.
Do you mean on consoles in general back then? If yes, Nintendo 8bit NES was release in about the same time period as the Sega Master System if i am not mistaken, and the NES has 3 regions, NTSC, PAL-A and PAL-B. Or maybe there were more regions as well, how was it with Asian NES consoles and games? I dont quite know why there excist 2 PAL regions, but if i should guess, i would guess that it was to stop people to import and export games. The United Kingdom, Italy and Australia uses PAL-A, while the rest of Europe uses PAL-B, at least from what i knowCant0na said:
It is not that hard to make a NES console region free though, it is just to cut of a leg on one of the chips on the NES motherboards, and then it can play any NES games no matter which region they are
There might be some graphical glitches etc. if you play a NTSC game on a PAL NES consoles (or vice versa) though, and maybe some games wont really be that playable, but the console still becomes region free if you cut of that leg on one of the chips on the NES motherboard EDIT: I added some text. I didnt mean to get too off-topic talking about the NES here, i am sorry, but i just wanted to mention that the NES had different regions on the consoles and on the games.
Diablohead
Member
What, US only had ONE sms game? surely you recieved Sonic 1 and 2 at least?
A Black Falcon
Member
Region free between the US, Europe, and Brazil, but NOT region-free with Japan (where it was called the Mark 3), the Japanese cartridges are a completely different shape.
The system actually is fully backwards compatible with Sega's first console, the SG-1000 (only released in Japan and parts of Europe), but only the Japanese model has the correct cart port shape; the Japanese carts the same cart shape as the SG-1000, while the Western design is completely different. I imagine with some kind of cart adapter Western systems could play SG-1000 and Mark 3 games, but I don't know of any aside from homebrew ones (to play Japanese games on Western systems).
But of course, given that the system did terribly there, getting discontinued in 1989, two years before the US and seven before Europe, and best in Europe and Brazil, that doesn't matter much. The good point is that yes, almost all European games will work fine in the US; only a few don't work on NTSC. And there are a LOT more European games than American. It's interesting that most of those games work fine on NTSC even though they were only released in PAL...
Sonic 1 in mid 1991 was the last SMS game released in the US, and it's EXTREMELY rare and is worth maybe $200, even though it is literally just the European version with a different sticker on the box. That's one expensive sticker...
As I said though, in Japan the system did even worse, and was discontinued in early 1989, shortly after the release of the Genesis there.
The system actually is fully backwards compatible with Sega's first console, the SG-1000 (only released in Japan and parts of Europe), but only the Japanese model has the correct cart port shape; the Japanese carts the same cart shape as the SG-1000, while the Western design is completely different. I imagine with some kind of cart adapter Western systems could play SG-1000 and Mark 3 games, but I don't know of any aside from homebrew ones (to play Japanese games on Western systems).
But of course, given that the system did terribly there, getting discontinued in 1989, two years before the US and seven before Europe, and best in Europe and Brazil, that doesn't matter much. The good point is that yes, almost all European games will work fine in the US; only a few don't work on NTSC. And there are a LOT more European games than American. It's interesting that most of those games work fine on NTSC even though they were only released in PAL...
Diablohead said:
Sonic 1 in mid 1991 was the last SMS game released in the US, and it's EXTREMELY rare and is worth maybe $200, even though it is literally just the European version with a different sticker on the box. That's one expensive sticker...
As I said though, in Japan the system did even worse, and was discontinued in early 1989, shortly after the release of the Genesis there.
infinityBCRT
Member
Dunno about SMS but with Genesis/Mega Drive the slot was different, my friend had a Mega Drive version of Sonic with the sides cut off of the cart to fit it into the Genesis system.
Diablohead
Member
No wonder the US is such a nes and snes area, never realised the sms failed as much as it did there. Some awesome games on the machine that I use to own as a kidA Black Falcon said:Sonic 1 in mid 1991 was the last SMS game released in the US, and it's EXTREMELY rare and is worth maybe $200, even though it is literally just the European version with a different sticker on the box. That's one expensive sticker...
As I said though, in Japan the system did even worse, and was discontinued in early 1989, shortly after the release of the Genesis there.
Megadragon15
Member
I wish that the US (and EU) Master System got the FM chip (YM 2413).
stuminus3
Banned
Good old SMS. I got a Sega Master System, 3D glasses, light gun and about 20 games for 10 quid back in the day (Dad's friend's brother was an alcoholic, I was too young at the time to care much about the implications). Had a joyful couple of years with it, and sold it all for an Atari ST. What a dumbass.
SHOOT IN YOUR NAME!
SHOOT IN YOUR NAME!
goldenpp72
Member
Would it be wiser to import a UK sms? Like would it work on a US tv? I never owned one, so i'd be buying it for the purpose of seeing what it was all about in its hey day, rather than nostalgia this time.
Megadragon15
Member
Why not get a US Master System and perform a language switch: http://home.freeuk.net/markk/Consoles/SMS_50-60Hz_Switch.txt ?
goldenpp72
Member
Curious, do UK sms games run in 60hz? Like if I bought Uk titles for a US system they would run fine?
I guess I should ask about brazil too since the thing is alive there.
I guess I should ask about brazil too since the thing is alive there.
Diablohead
Member
I think some games can get timing problems running at one speed on another region's machine, not sure but some MD games can mess up.
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
I'm not sure how things perform on the actual hardware, but I'm positive that I've seen Youtube videos of PAL Sonic SMS being played with NTSC settings, and the music is playing back faster than it should be. It'd be nice if someone with experience could answer this for certain.goldenpp72 said:
FYI: Region-locking on the Genesis is done on a per-game basis. Some games will play in any region as long as you expand the cartridge slot so that the cartridges fit (or just buy a pass-through cart like the Game Genie). Most early Gen/MD games have no region lock, but many later games do. You can circumvent it with a simple soldering job (no special chip required, just some switches and wires).infinityBCRT said:
What's interesting is that some region-locked games are still dual-language. I have the JP version of Gunstar Heroes, but it contains both the Eng/Jap version of the game and will run in both JP/60hz and EN/50hz settings (but not EN/60hz), so if I want to play it in English, I just have to boot the system in EN/50hz, then switch it over to 60hz after the game loads.
goldenpp72
Member
damn old systems, so confusing
Psychedelicide
Neo Member
In those days the process of Region Locking consoles was in releasing consoles with different size/shaped cartrige slots for each of the different regions.
I remember getting a converter for my Genesis/Megadrive so I could play Street Fighter II imported from Japan.
I remember getting a converter for my Genesis/Megadrive so I could play Street Fighter II imported from Japan.
Diablohead
Member
50hz gaming is only much more odd if you played or seen the game in 60 before, you should not find too much of a difference if the game is new to you. If you are willing to play a good bunch of sms games then I say go for it, should not cost too much to find a good condition MDII from the UK and that usually comes with built in snail maze (early models), alex kidd or Sonic 1 (late models)
Sonic 2 sms is balls to the wall hard if you love challenges, sms spinball is rather shit with iffy physics, the other sonic games are all worth trying out.
You can also buy a megadrive converter to play sms carts on your megadrive, I know there are lots on ebay here in the UK but no idea if the sms converter was popular in the US, or if it even sold there.
Sonic 2 sms is balls to the wall hard if you love challenges, sms spinball is rather shit with iffy physics, the other sonic games are all worth trying out.
You can also buy a megadrive converter to play sms carts on your megadrive, I know there are lots on ebay here in the UK but no idea if the sms converter was popular in the US, or if it even sold there.
Quite cool knowing the sound chip is as powerful as the sms :lolsega-16 said:
goldenpp72
Member
so if i buy a US master system and play uk games on it, like sonic 1,2,chaos, etc, they will run slow?
Diablohead
Member
I would think they will run at 50 yes, but you may find the music is something like 17.5% faster no idea on that.goldenpp72 said:
there are hardware differences between the japanese SMS, the mark III, and the US SMS (and SMS 2).
i'm not sure if all games actually check for those differences and how they'd react. the thing that comes to mind is the FM sound synthesizer which i think was an addon on the Mark III, standard in the JP master system, and completely absent from the US version which just used a simple PSG.
i'm not sure if all games actually check for those differences and how they'd react. the thing that comes to mind is the FM sound synthesizer which i think was an addon on the Mark III, standard in the JP master system, and completely absent from the US version which just used a simple PSG.
goldenpp72
Member
bump if anyone has on hands experience, i've seen so many MS fans here and im starting to think none of them resided in the US
TheSonicRetard
Banned
Diablohead said:
It's not really a sound chip. It's a sound processor, and it's literally the same as the main CPU for the SMS - the Z80. The sound chip for the Genesis is the Yamaha YM2612, and thats what actually produces the sound. The Z80 sound processor is mainly used to run sound driver code.
EDIT: And some games don't even use the Z80 for sound drivers. Some don't use the Z80 at all. Some run extra code on the Z80. The Genesis was pretty flexible with what you could do with it.
EDIT AGAIN: And some games ran ENTIRELY on the Z80. Namely the genesis "port" of Phantasy Star. When the Genesis was switched into mode 0, the Z80 is the main CPU instead of the m68k. Phantasy Star on the Genesis is little more than the SMS game on a genesis cart which switches the genesis into mode 0.
goldenpp72 said:
I have several US models of Sega Master System - US model 1 revision 1.00, US model 1 revision 1.01, US model 1 revision 2.00, US model 2 revision 1.00, US model 2 revision 2.00, along with a UK model 2 revision 2.00 and a brazillian model 3.
All US model 1s will play any UK game. I dunno where the guy above who said that model 1s will not play certain games got that from. The only games a model 1 will not play are the odd tectoy games like MK3, Street Fighter 2', or Sonic 3D Blast.
They play them in 60 hz mode, which means they're sped up a little. It's not noticeable really. It makes Sonic 2 and Sonic Chaos feel smoother, IMO.
EDIT ONCE AGAIN: Excuse me, I was mistaken. When running an SMS game on a Megadrive, you set the VDP to mode 4 not mode 0.
goldenpp72
Member
but aren't the games designed to be played in 60hz and when in 50 it just slows it down? that's what i read..
Sixfortyfive
He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
It depends on whether or not the PAL game received a proper conversion. If the publisher was lazy and decided to leave the game as-is, then it will run slow on a PAL system and run properly on an NTSC system. If the publisher bothered to not treat our PAL friends as second-class users, then the game will run properly on a PAL system and faster than normal on an NTSC system.goldenpp72 said:
So I would imagine that this would vary depending on the individual game.
FishSquared
Member
DigiMish said:
I actually remember this game, it was great.
And to answer the OP, I think the Japanese systems had different carts. I think this has been addressed already too...
:lol
D.Lo
Member
I've never come across a properly PAL converted SMS game. I added a 50/60Hz switch to my Master System (and Mega Drive, using the SMS adapter), and have played a lot of games on it, definitely over 50, and every single one is slow in PAL. Now I'm in australia, so read AU/UK for this info, Brazillian games were possible converted better.Sixfortyfive said:
This is also true of 99% of Mega Drive games, only a few first party exceptions, and even then all they did was speed up the music, leaving the game slow (eg Sonic 2). Sega were terrible at PAL conversions, which is super bizarre since they were far more sucessful in PAL markets. At least Nintendo had the excuse of US/Japan being 90% of their market (and they did a better job of PAL conversions anyway, although third parties on Nintendo consoles rarely did).
goldenpp72
Member
Is there a website out there that list games not compatible? and does a 50/60 hz switch allow me to use it on an ntsc tv?
Fuuuuck
Fuuuuck
TheSonicRetard
Banned
goldenpp72 said:
...how is it that you managed to ask the same question 3 times after it's been answered several times.
YOU WILL NEVER BUY A GAME THAT IS NOT COMPATIBLE.
YOU CAN ALREADY USE IT ON AN NTSC TV.
IrishNinja
Member
Az987 said:
this. but have lots of paper handy for random passwords.
wait, Atari ST > SMS? you guys gotta point to some games to back this up.
goldenpp72
Member
TheSonicRetard said:
I'm being told that some games were designed to run on pal proper and do not run properly on ntsc tvs, thus i'm trying to make sure I get the best of each world OR, to make sure titles I buy will work just fine. I don't want any games with weird slowness to them, it IS noticable.
Try as I might, I have the hardest time getting into the Master System.
When I got the system about four years ago, I was excited to play Double Dragon, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast, but was sorely disappointed in them. Visually, they look fine, but gameplay-wise, they're lacking. (In contrast, I love playing Golden Axe and Altered Beast on the Genesis.) I do manage to have some fun with Rastan, though.
I dunno, maybe I just missed the boat on this one.
When I got the system about four years ago, I was excited to play Double Dragon, Golden Axe, and Altered Beast, but was sorely disappointed in them. Visually, they look fine, but gameplay-wise, they're lacking. (In contrast, I love playing Golden Axe and Altered Beast on the Genesis.) I do manage to have some fun with Rastan, though.
I dunno, maybe I just missed the boat on this one.