[ Retro Scan ] My Sega Master System Adventure
February 8th, 2017 by Benj Edwards
Hudson’s Adventure Afro (Side 1)
As a kid that grew up with Atari and Nintendo consoles in the household, I was always curious about Sega.
I remember seeing the Master System in a glass case at Toys ‘R’ Us, and it seemed exotic and wonderful with its 3D glasses and futuristic angular design. It felt like the cooler, anti-Nintendo.
But I didn’t get a Master System until around 1995, when my dad bought one for me used at a local used game store called Buy-Rite Video Games. At that time, Buy-Rite was located inside an indoor flea market mall off Capital Blvd. in Raleigh. It was a seedy, run-down place, but my dad enjoyed hunting for good deals at flea markets, and we regularly did that together on the weekends.
A short time after I got my first used Master System at Buy-Rite, we bought another one. As I browsed Buy-Rite with my dad on another occasion, I just happened to be there when I overheard someone trying to sell a Sega Master System to the store. I looked over and saw a young black kid, maybe 8 or 9 years old, by himself with a green backpack. The owner, a mid-40s white guy, was being rude and giving the kid a hard time about it, and he refused to buy it.
After that, my dad approached the kid in the store and said we’d buy it from him. As the kid was excitedly showing me what was in his backpack, the owner of Buy-Rite stepped out from behind the counter and began openly yelling at all of us — about “trying to steal his business” out of his own store, or some such nonsense. My dad exchanged a few mildly harsh words with him, and the owner demanded that we leave. We did.
On the curb outside of the Flea Market Mall, we cut a deal with the kid. I remember we gave him $40 cash, and I got a great set of Sega Master System, controllers, a light gun, and a handful of games in much better condition than the one we bought from Buy-Rite — and for much cheaper, too. The kid was very happy, and I never shopped at Buy-Rite again.
It turns out the owner of Buy-Rite was a serial asshole — he kept gipping people for years, and finally shut down the store in 2005. Good riddance. (Watch him show up in the comments.)
“Now, there are no limits.” (Side 2)
I’ve played a lot of Master System games since then, but my favorite is still Enduro Racer played with a Sega Control Stick, which I got from that kid back in 1995. (I wrote a big post about Enduro Racer back in 2006.)
What you’re looking at here is a promotional Sega poster that came with a Sega Master System game — maybe one of those I received that day at the Flea Market Mall. I think the poster was originally folded up and placed inside a plastic SMS game case next to an instruction manual, although it is possible it originally came in the Sega Master System console box itself.
Discussion Topic: What’s your favorite Sega Master System game?
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See Also:
Lessons from the Master: The Zen of Enduro Racer (2006)
Nintendo vs. Sega: Christmas 1987 Shootout (Retro Scan, 2010)
Benj’s 1989 Christmas List (Retro Scan, 2013)
February 8th, 2017 at 5:24 pm
R-Type and for some reason I always loved Great Baseball. I could never figure out why some games were cartridges and some came on those cards. It was a great system and later I got the Master System adapter for my Game Gear and kept playing those games.
February 9th, 2017 at 8:07 am
I always wondered why so many sellers of used videos and games seemed to hate their clientele, especially kids. Compare them to comic book stores and the contrast is stark.
February 9th, 2017 at 8:40 am
Double Dragon, Shinobi and Wonder Boy were my favorites.
February 9th, 2017 at 12:03 pm
As a kid I was crazy about Sega’s arcade games, and that was my primary motivator in choosing a Master System rather than an NES. I had a couple of other friends who had Master Systems, so between the three of us we somewhat strategically got different games and then borrowed from each other to be able to play more titles.
Some of my favorites: Wonder Boy in Monster Land is a great action adventure game with light RPG elements. Kenseiden is a creepy platformer where you battle demons and you can choose your path through the various provinces of feudal Japan. Power Strike is a really intense vertically-scrolling shooter that’s a spiritual sequel to Zanac on the NES.
In recent years I discovered that the Master System had much more success in Europe and Brazil than it did in the U.S., and the releases in those regions more than double the North American library, so I’ve been enjoying exploring those games. The Master System actually continues to sell in Brazil in the present day in various SKUs through Sega’s Brazilian licensee, TecToy.
February 9th, 2017 at 9:46 pm
I have a fondness for the Ghostbusters game (it was SOOO much better than the NES version), but I think Black Belt was my favorite. Nothing like kicking enemies and watching them explode into pixels.
February 10th, 2017 at 11:18 am
Kind of an obscure game, but Time Soldiers was my favorite.
March 1st, 2017 at 2:31 pm
Quartet and Miracle Warriors. I still have my small collection of games. Only got to the end of Space Harrier last year using the Retron 5’s save feature.
September 14th, 2021 at 10:33 am
Not sure when you put this website up, but it’s 9/14/21 today. I am just now looking at the site and it feels like a rush of rad nostalgia. Thank you very much for putting the posters online, I love that.