A Black Falcon
Member
The NES was designed in 1982-1983 and released in 1983, with the aim of being better than the Colecovision. It succeeded at this, and was by far the most powerful system yet at the time of its release.
The same week that Nintendo released the NES in Japan, Sega released its first console, the SG-1000. It's basically a Colecovision with very few changes; converting games between the Colecovision and SG-1000 is quite easy for programmers. Naturally, graphically the NES crushed it, and Nintendo's games were better too. The SG-1000 sold terribly and only released in Japan, Italy, Australia, and maybe a few other countries, but not anywhere in the Americas.
So, Sega went and made a new model. developed in in 1984-1985, the Mark III, which was fully SG-1000 backwards compatible, but had better hardware and a new graphics mode that could outdo the NES. It released in 1985 (1986 in the West) as the Mark III/Master System. It succeeds at its aim of being better than the NES graphically, but it's two years newer hardware, and was designed with the express purpose of beating NES graphics, so it better have! Comparing the NES to the SMS without mentioning that the SMS was Sega's second try at a NES competitor, and released more than two years after the NES because their first NES competitor failed, is only telling half of the story. Of course, in Japan the SMS/Mark III was a failure too, just like the SG-1000 had been, but at least the second time they managed to do better overseas (in Europe and Brazil, that is, of course).
It is too bad that they overlooked the audio, though; SMS music isn't up to the NESes level. it's not even close. Sega tried to address this with the FM sound addon, but they only released it in Japan... and even with that, NES v SMS FM is debateable.
(The Game Gear doesn't have the FM, so Game Gear audio is quite a lot worse than Game Boy audio, while GG graphics are far better than Game Boy graphics.)
So, if you want to see how much better the NES is than the Sega hardware available when the NES actually first released. The NES and SG-1000 versions released in 1986, and the Master System version in 1987.
Here is Wonder Boy/Adventure Island for the NES. It's okay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJQgrOCtUSs
Here it is for the SG-1000. Just managing to get a game to scroll at all on the Colecovision (and thus also the SG-1000) takes effort... this is one of the later SG-1000 games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpIS3bL-VDw
And here is the Master System version. It's by far the best of the three. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3cyTBTkSg
Also, the game looks great, but it does have a lot of flicker. A LOT of flicker. And slowdown too, but slowdown is not uncommon on the GG. They pushed the hardware with that game, I think. It does do a good job of showing what the GG could do, though. Instead of abandoning the handheld market, Sega probably should just have released an upgraded GG.. Nintendo-style, with a faster CPU and such.
The same week that Nintendo released the NES in Japan, Sega released its first console, the SG-1000. It's basically a Colecovision with very few changes; converting games between the Colecovision and SG-1000 is quite easy for programmers. Naturally, graphically the NES crushed it, and Nintendo's games were better too. The SG-1000 sold terribly and only released in Japan, Italy, Australia, and maybe a few other countries, but not anywhere in the Americas.
So, Sega went and made a new model. developed in in 1984-1985, the Mark III, which was fully SG-1000 backwards compatible, but had better hardware and a new graphics mode that could outdo the NES. It released in 1985 (1986 in the West) as the Mark III/Master System. It succeeds at its aim of being better than the NES graphically, but it's two years newer hardware, and was designed with the express purpose of beating NES graphics, so it better have! Comparing the NES to the SMS without mentioning that the SMS was Sega's second try at a NES competitor, and released more than two years after the NES because their first NES competitor failed, is only telling half of the story. Of course, in Japan the SMS/Mark III was a failure too, just like the SG-1000 had been, but at least the second time they managed to do better overseas (in Europe and Brazil, that is, of course).
It is too bad that they overlooked the audio, though; SMS music isn't up to the NESes level. it's not even close. Sega tried to address this with the FM sound addon, but they only released it in Japan... and even with that, NES v SMS FM is debateable.
(The Game Gear doesn't have the FM, so Game Gear audio is quite a lot worse than Game Boy audio, while GG graphics are far better than Game Boy graphics.)
So, if you want to see how much better the NES is than the Sega hardware available when the NES actually first released. The NES and SG-1000 versions released in 1986, and the Master System version in 1987.
Here is Wonder Boy/Adventure Island for the NES. It's okay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJQgrOCtUSs
Here it is for the SG-1000. Just managing to get a game to scroll at all on the Colecovision (and thus also the SG-1000) takes effort... this is one of the later SG-1000 games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpIS3bL-VDw
And here is the Master System version. It's by far the best of the three. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3cyTBTkSg
GG Gunstar Heroes is indeed pretty solid, and impressive for the hardware, but it should be "Five Force", not "Seven Force"... on GG it only has five forms.
Also, the game looks great, but it does have a lot of flicker. A LOT of flicker. And slowdown too, but slowdown is not uncommon on the GG. They pushed the hardware with that game, I think. It does do a good job of showing what the GG could do, though. Instead of abandoning the handheld market, Sega probably should just have released an upgraded GG.. Nintendo-style, with a faster CPU and such.
