In my first post, system and hardware. I'll deal with the games in a followup.
The Sega Master System was Sega's second console, after the extremely unsuccessful and Japan/parts of Europe only Sega SG-1000. The SG-1000, as an aside, is about equal in power to the Colecovision. It was released the same day as the Famicom (NES) in 1983, but is well behind it in power. The SMS, however, is more powerful than the NES. It was released in 1985 in Japan, 1986 in the US, and 1987 in Europe. It was a great success in Europe and Brazil, but was unsuccessful in the US and a definite failure in Japan. The SMS lasted from 1985-1989 in Japan, 1986-1991 in the US, 1987-1995 in Europe, and 1987-1997 at least in Brazil; TecToy never really stopped selling the SMS there.
There were several models of the Master System. In Japan there were two main models, the Sega Mark III (the Mark I and Mark II referred to the two revisions of the SG-1000) and the Sega Master System (using the Western shell type). In the US and Europe there were also two models, the first, original style, and the Master System II, which is smaller (though not NES 2 small). You can also play SMS games on a Genesis if you use a Power Base Converter, though without physical modification PBCs only work on a model 1 Genesis; on a model 2 part of its plastic shell blocks the Genesis 2's power port. There was also a model 2 converter that was released in Europe and does work with Genesis 2s. You can also play SMS games on a Game Gear with a Master Gear converter, or its variants. Despite all these ways to play the games, most people in the US didn't have one. I certainly never played one, back when it was around. Don't know if I ever even heard of it then.
Most games come on cartridge, but the system also has a card input port, and some games and accessories come on card. The cards look a lot like Hudson's PC Engine/TurboGrafx cards of a few years later, I assume that Sega's design "inspired" Hudson's. The Master System II, Master Gear converter, and model 2 Power Base Converter (the Europe-only, Genesis 2 compatible one) all do NOT have a card port, however, so on these systems it is impossible to play or use card-based games or accessories. That's too bad, but it's something to consider -- there aren't that many games on card, but the 3-D Glasses require the card port to be able to use them, and they're awesome if also poorly supported.
Some Master Systems have a built in game. In order to see if one does, turn it on without a cartridge in, and see if something boots up. All model 1 US/EU SMS systems do have one little minigame built in, Snail Maze. It's accessible via a code if you turn on the system without a cart in, but it's a quite boring maze game not really worth playing. Still it's cool that there's something.
The Japanese Mark III/Master System uses vertically oriented cartridges, very much like Atari carts. They are the same looking as SG-1000 carts except for the labels, and SG-1000 games will play in the Mark III or JP SMS. SG1 games were available in both cart and card formats, and both work on the SMS. Only one downside -- SG1 games running on a Mark III or SMS have darker color palettes than they should. Sega messed something up in the hardware design of the Mark III and as a result it displays all SG1 games too dark. This is not fixable, to have them look right you need an SG-1000. Western card-based SMS titles will work in a Japanese SMS, because there is no lockout, but Japanese SMS or SG-1000 card games won't work on a Western system without system modification, unfortunately, because there is a lockout.
The US, European, and Brazilian Master Systems all look the same (excepting later TecToy redesigns) and play carts that look the same and work on any of those systems. There are a few games which will not work in other systems because of PAL/NTSC compatibility issues, but most PAL-exclusive SMS titles work fine in NTSC even though they'd stopped releasing any SMS games in NTSC territories long before they did in PAL ones. This is quite fortunate, because it means all American gamers need to do to play the much larger European SMS library is import some; a few won't work, and there are lists of which they are out there, but it's quite a few compared to the long list that will. Awesome.
What I have is an original-style Sega Master System, with no built in game other than Snail Maze. The system isn't small -- it's similar in length and width to an original PS2, except it's a little longer but not as high -- but it's good looking and has nice angled styling on it. The system looks pretty cool, really, all black and red and with lines on it. The carts are extremely, extremely plain, with nothing but the game's name in text on a small label on the front and absolutely no artwork, but when in the system look like they fit well and you can see the game's name easily on the cart when you look at it. The carts, which are nearly identical in size to Genesis carts, have some nice design stylings, but I wish they had larger labels with pictures, they're just too bland looking.
The SMS has two controller ports, RF and A/V out on the back, and a power supply. It uses its own power supply, which I have, but evidently Genesis 1 power supplies will work with it as well; the two use different amounts of power, but they're pretty close. The A/V cable is the same one a Genesis 1 would use, and like with that system is mono only (as is the system, just like the NES). The system also has an expansion port used by the Japan-only FM sound addon. The power button is on the front. On top are Reset and Pause buttons; like the Atari 7800, the pause button is not on the controllers, but quite inconveniently is on the system itself. Awesome design there, Sega and Atari. The controllers themselves... well.
The system I got came with six different controllers, five first party and one third.
-Two standard SMS Control Pads - This is the controller most people used with the system. It's got a control pad and two buttons, labeled 1/Start and 2. Yes, on the SMS Start and Pause are different buttons, when the game says "Press Start" at the main menu it means to press 1, not the pause button on the system. Anyway though, these controllers are terrible. I'd read that they were bad, and all it took was about two seconds of using one to decide that yup, they're awful. The d-pads are extremely mushy, and the rectangular brick design is as uncomfortable as the original NES pad. There's none of the comfort and good control of the Turbografx controller here. Fortunately, you can use Sega Genesis controllers with the Master System. A few games are incompatible and require you to use an SMS controller, but most (apart from games that require a special controller) work with the Genesis pad thankfully.
-the Sega Light Phaser light gun - The gun I have does not work (the auction description said it didn't work, so this wasn't surprising), but it's a cool looking angled black gun. I'll have to take apart and try to fix this or buy another one, I want to play the SMS's lightgun games.
-the Sega Sports Pad trackball - This is a trackball controller that was only supported by three games, all sports titles -- Great Soccer, Great Hockey, and one other. It's a not-that-great trackball with somewhat slow motion. It does have a controller emulation mode, so you can use it with incompatible games (and this is good, I don't have any of the compatible games), but while it's kind of interesting to have, I won't be using this much. It's more frustrating to use than it's worth, it's just not a great trackball... and no games were released for it that actually made any use out of it anyway. Why in the world would you release a trackball and then only have a couple of sports games support it, when such controllers are meant for things like Missile Command and Centipede? So stupid... (In Japan there was a spinner controller released, for one-axis only analog control, supported by Galactic Protector and Woody Pop; the controller and former game were Japan only, while the latter got a Western release only on the Game Gear. Why not release those games here modified for trackball support, it could have worked... oh well.) I wish Global Defense had had a mode which supported this, as a Missile Command-inspired game it'd have been perfect.
-the Sega Control Stick - This is a little arcade-ish joystick with a stick on the right and two buttons on the left. Yes, the controls are backwards from everything else ever. Kind of odd. It works alright, but why is it backwards?
-Finally, I have a third party Quickshot joystick. It looks like a flight stick and has two buttons on it, but it's digital, not analog -- it's got minimal motion, like an Atari joystick. Still, it makes you feel a little more like you're actually flying a plane for After Burner or something like that, and works fine.
Overall though, I'm very thankful that the SMS supports Genesis controllers, so I can just use one of my Sega 6-button Genesis controllers with the system and enjoy playing SMS games with one of the best gamepads ever made. B is button 1, C is button 2; the rest of the buttons do nothing, you still need to pause on the system. Works fine though. I'm not sure which of these actual SMS controllers I'd use if I had to use one, all have real drawbacks.
Finally, the system came with the SegaScope 3-D Glasses. One ear piece had broken off, as is very common, but I taped it back on and the glasses work fine and stay on, they just won't fold up now. Oh well. The glasses are shutter glasses, so the system and game are synced up so that it displays two images, alternating frame by frame. The glasses are synced to the system and block each eye for a fraction of a second when the other eye's picture is on screen. As a result if you look at the picture without the glasses on, you see everything doubled. However, if you look at it with them on, you see in 3-d, because each eye is seeing a different picture and the difference between the two makes it look three dimensional. It's like a not quite as good version of the Virtual Boy's technology, and is quite similar to what modern 3-D televisions and movies use.
There is noticeable flicker, unlike the Virtual Boy -- the picture does flicker a little as you look into the glasses. Also these will not work with all televisions -- many modern LCD and Plasma TVs cannot display refresh rates high enough for the 3-D Glasses' high refresh rates to display properly, evidently (you need to double the refresh rate to display two pictures, of course). My TV is a CRT so it works with them just fine, and I can see the 3d effect. It's pretty awesome, I wish that more than eight SMS games were in 3d. It's really too bad that they didn't catch on... just like with the VB, or the Japan-only Famicom 3d glasses, these things just didn't get popular, no matter how cool they are. Sure, they give some people headaches, but not everyone gets that, and the effect is awesome. 3d movies and such have been around since the 1950s, but really only now is 3d finally starting to achieve real popularity... though I think with the 3DS and the breakthrough of glasses-free 3d will be a major, major step, the fact that you do need to wear these glasses or use a special system like the VB is a definite hurdle. The SegaScope 3d glasses aren't very comfortable, for someone who wears glasses like me anyway; without glasses I think it'd be a little better, but they're big and bulky and aren't very comfortable. It's worth it anyway though for the cool 3d effects, some of the 3d games look really cool.
Ron Paul gets it right here. The US has NO "State Secrets" act, and never has, and thus revealing them can't be considered treason. That's not least because to be treason you have to BE a US Citizen.
Really though, when it gets right down to it, people demanding the execution of some internet guy are just rattling their sabres just to be heard, just to get people excited, then he, of course, WON'T be executed (one guy wouldn't stop it anyway, wikileaks is more than just one person), only promising more sabre rattling in the future whenever they want to seem "tough on crime" (nonexistent though it may be).
Here are the latest screen shots..2 Panel Weather Widget puts a widget on your Android Desktop that shows you current weather conditions reported from any Weather Station in the US, plus Australia.
(Looking up nothing, just answering the questions without any help)
7/10 part 1
5/10 part 2 (I defeated myself on one question, had it right on my first instinct and then I second-guessed myself into choosing the wrong answer...)
10/10 part 3
10/10 part 4
6/10 part 5 - several of these were quite hard. Also the answer list for this part won't work for me, so I'm not sure what the right answers are. :(
38/50 overall, not bad but could be better. Fun quiz though. :)
Dance Central for Kinect was #11, evidently. GAF is having a meltdown about how badly GT5 and the PS3 sold... :D I'm just happy to see DKCR on the list though, it deserves it.
You know, because I only do full threads for games I've finished (or at least played a LOT of).
Custom Robo Arena (DS) - Been playing this one for the past few days. It's pretty good, plays like Custom Robo all right. :) I liked the GC Custom Robo game quite a bit. Obviously the graphics aren't as good here, but the gameplay is similar. Matches are 1 on 1 only, instead of being for up to 4 robots like on the GC, but it is the DS versus the Gamecube. Evidently the first Custom Robo game (for the N64, remember that the first three Custom Robo games, Custom Robo and V2 for the N64 and GX for the GBA, were Japan only) was two player only, as was the GBA game, but the second N64 game had a 4 player mode, though it was tag-team only -- only two robots were on the field at once. The GC game's 4 player simultaneous matches were great, it's too bad the DS game had to go back to just 1 on 1 fights.
Oh, as for the gameplay for anyone who hasn't played one of these games, Custom Robo is a fighting game, sort of. It's something between a 3d fighting game and 1 on 1 versus action game, anyway. You have the robots in an arena, and they fight. You can move around, jump (you have a double jump), dash (in the air or on the ground, and the dash does damage if it hits an enemy so it's sort of a melee attack), and use three kinds of projectile weapons, guns, missiles (bombs and the like, that go up into the air and over walls), and pods (little remote attackers you create that move around the arena on their own). You can customize your robot a lot in all of these titles, and your robot type, boots, gun, missile, and pod are all customizable. The weapons vary greatly in effect and style, so there are a lot of different ways to approach the game and fight. The title is Custom Robo of course, you'd expect customizability and it's got it. :) Play is not exactly deep, but it's fun. If this was a fighting game it'd be on the button-masher end of the spectrum, probably, but it'd also have enough depth that better players will probably beat worse ones, it's a simple game and easy to learn but there is some skill to it, it's not just luck. It's great fun running and jumping around the arena shooting at the enemy robot. :)
The story's alright so far, absolutely nothing special but decent. I haven't gotten far enough for much to happen yet, if anything does. So far it's just the usual "you're a generic highschool boy who is a new but good Custom Robo player and who joined a Custom Robo team and you want to win and be the champion, etc., etc." Given that Custom Robo Battle Revolution (the GC title) started out simply, with your hero guy joining a custom robo agency (hey, at least they did buck the "heroes must be highschoolers" thing Japanese games usually do, though he wasn't much older than that), but did develop an interesting plot later on, hopefully something more will happen in this game too. The characters are alright, stereotypical but it works well enough. Really of course the fights are the best part, and as I said they're pretty fun. As usual in this series there's certainly enough to collect. I'm guessing the game probably won't be that long, like the GC game, but we'll see. That one had an additional "do a lot of battles with no story" mode you unlocked after finishing the story, and I wouldn't be surprised if this has something like that.
This does have one thing the GC game didn't have to keep you playing, though -- online (1v1 only of course) multiplayer. That's awesome. And evidently a few people do still play it, I tried once and got into a match quickly. I was destroyed of course, but still a few people are still playing, seemingly.
Now, how about a Wii Custom Robo game? It's too bad there isn't one.
Or is Tendocity that last, best hope? I used to post around a lot of different forums, but it's been whittled down to two recently: Tendocity and NeoGAF-offshoot Evilbore. I posted at GAF for a while, but just got bored with all the stupidity and console wars.
