#Sega Mark III

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'Penguin Land' was released on the SEGA Mark III 37 years ago today in Japan. Support us on Patreon

[lamazmorradelandroide]

'Rambo III' Sega Master System (1988)

[smbhax]

Game Gear, Mega Drive, and Sega Mark III Space Harrier games - from Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 20: Space Harrier II - Space Harrier Complete Collection (PS2)

Session: https://youtu.be/6AMxW9_itoo

[segamastersystem]

Takara TOMY Yujin capsule toys from the SEGA History Collection (2004).

Each item is missing a few bits and bobs here and there (and the dust cover is also damaged / loose on the Mark III), but I'm still glad to have found these neat little capsule toys for what I paid for them. Complete and in collectable condition, these toys are often listed for exorbitant prices on ebay and elsewhere.

I'm sure you can imagine, it was a real challenge to photograph such tiny objects! Nevertheless, I hope I've still been able to capture some of the impressive details present on each model.

To give an impression of scale (and for fun), you can see how the model SMS controller compares in size to the real thing. It barely spans the SEGA logo!

Images of the complete collection with all accessories present can be found here.

[nervouswreck-96]

Hot take: I hate Master System/Game Gear PSG music. It all sounds the same and lifeless. I don't blame the composers because they didn't have much to work with. Just three square wave channels and one noise channel -- effectively hand-me-down tech from the inferior SG-1000.

[pitagain]

#365DaysOfVGM Day 204:

MAIN THEME (Space Harrier; including the “Sega Superstars Tennis” version, the “Sega Mark III” version, and the SPACE HARRIER ARRANGE VERSION ~ MAIN THEME version [Galaxy Force ~G.S.M. SEGA 1~], among others [1985/2008/1986/1988])

An almost 40-year old classic, one that yelled the optimistic “outer space future” feel of 80s music in the east, even into the 90s!

It’s quite difficult to find a better way to express such an era in video game form, with so many different versions that I had a hard time narrowing it down to just 4 selections for today’s listing. “GET READY!”, cuz all of these are fairly long for its time!

(Length before loop [Original]: Nearly 3 minutes, [Sega Superstars Tennis]: 2.5+ minutes, [Sega Mark III]: Nearly 3.5 minutes, [ARRANGE]: Nearly 5 minutes)

[gamemories]

[soldmoondoggie]

Sega Mark III (1985)

[randomisedgaming]

New promotional artwork drawn for the 2023 release by ININ Games, Bliss Brain & Ratalaika Games:

Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection

Gameplay and impressions video here: https://youtu.be/hFNO014fx-s

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[holmesoldfellow]

"Loretta no Shouzou: Sherlock Holmes" by SEGA for the SG-1000/Mark III (1987)

[mac-lilly]

Still sad we never got a glimpse of Luke's bedroom.

We never got to see his bedroom walls, which are plastered with posters that all sport similar grim faces and wild hairstyles that are 90s punk bands.

We never got to see the Disney-themed wallpaper that's hidden underneath those posters. (Look closely, and you can catch a glimpse of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy waving cheerfully - right next to Billy Joe Armstrong, who looks extra grumpy.)

We never got to see his desk and shelves that are cramped with knickknacks - guitar picks, chewed-up pencil stumps, music magazines, tapes, crumpled-up sheets of paper with discarded lines. There's also a Care Bear sitting on his nightstand. Mysteriously, there's no evidence of school books, though. There's a tiny TV with a built-in VHS recorder, a Sega Mark III, and several stacks of VHS tapes that include a surprising number of Disney animated movies. (I am convinced that 11yo Luke loved Oliver and Company when it came out in 1988. 'Why should I worry' is such a Luke song. Sue me! )

There's a papier-mache solar system he made for his elementary school's science fair (it actually earned him a ribbon), an empty hamster cage (Reggie was so jealous ... and extremely heartbroken when Kurt died), and in one corner sits Luke's very first guitar. He got it when he was 8yo because that summer, he couldn't attend summer camp because he had chickenpox.

We also never got to see that Luke's bedroom hadn't changed in the past 26 years because his parents never had the strength to clear it out. They don't want to say farewell to their son.

PS: Something changed in 2020, though. As if by magic, the Care Bear just disappeared. Weirdly, its disappearance coincided with a Molina family movie night during which they watched the first 3 Toy Story movies.)

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'Shinobi' was released on the SEGA Mark III 36 years ago today in Japan.

[mat2modblog]

I think she means "worse than Sega Mark III (Master System) music played on a Game Gear."

[bro3256]

Predictions for Nintendo Switch Online

I think it goes without saying that the Nintendo Switch Online (or NSO) service has been controversial to say the least. The fact that we now have to pay for what used to be free online and the lack of benefits you get to subscribing has led to this service being received very poorly at least at launch. It's been about 5 years since NSO launched and a lot of that controversy has seemingly dried up either by new additions to the game library or simply the fact that we're just used to it at this point.

Now don't get me wrong there are still detractors to NSO, but it seems as if this service has been accepted for what it is despite its flaws, although I do have to agree with some of the things said by folks regarding how the service launched and how it currently is.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I want to lay down some predictions regarding the future of this service as I've seen some wild things being proposed by fans that sound completely unrealistic and nothing Nintendo would ever regularly do. Starting with the obvious, what future platforms will Nintendo add to the game library?

First things first, GameCube is not going to happen at least for a long time. I suspect Nintendo may add it once the Switch's successor is out but at this very moment it is laughable to consider GameCube right now. The biggest main issue is the fact that Nintendo themselves has been rereleasing GameCube games as full price Switch games. Metroid Prime Remastered and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door come to mind. I know for the most part the whole "things releasing outside of NSO means it will never come to NSO" myth has more or less died at this point but GameCube tends to be a special case here since these games still feel modern enough to resell as new games.

Another thing is to completely throw out any consideration of any mainline Pokémon games appearing on the Game Boy apps. The spinoffs sure, but actual mainline games is a bit silly. If they were somehow to be added they would need to do a lot of backend stuff to get these games properly working and so players don't cheat with the regular tools NSO offers such as rewind and restore points. It's not impossible but I see this as too much work to be worth it if simply putting these out as digital eShop releases sounds much easier. Besides if every version was put out on NSO then you'd lose the magic of Pokémon just like that, and that wouldn't be fun would it?

Okay so what do I actually think NSO is gonna add to its game library? Well unless Nintendo puts out a Virtual Boy or a Game & Watch app then I suspect we will probably see more third party apps. One consideration I don't see a ton of people talking about is the PC-Engine and TurboGrafx-16.

Games from these consoles have appeared on Virtual Console in the past on Wii and Wii U and a very limited number of PC-Engine games did release on 3DS only in Japan. I wouldn't doubt that Nintendo would add this as apart of their Expansion Pack, heck maybe even regular NSO if we're lucky. I would just love to see more NEC love (or well Konami love now).

But why stop there when the Mark III and Master System could be added too? Sega is already on board with NSO with their Mega Drive and Genesis apps so this would be a great addition especially since these games have not been given enough love even by Sega. SG-1000 would also be cool but that might be a bit too niche for a service like NSO but who knows.

As for games, while there is quite a bit already on the service there are certainly omissions that are quite baffling so let's get some of the more obvious ones out of the way and in no particular order.

Gomoku Narabe Renju, Mahjong, Golf, Urban Champion, SimCity, Mario Paint, Super Smash Bros., Ridge Racer 64, Banjo-Tooie, Super Mario Land, Qix, X, Balloon Kid, Mole Mania, Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, Pokémon Pinball, Densetsu no Stafy 1-3, Mother 3, and Rhythm Tengoku just to name a few.

So lets start with one that might not be interesting at a glance but would be a great addition to the service.

Tetris for the NES (no, not the Tengen version) is one of the more iconic versions of this beloved puzzle game, but why go back to this version specifically? I mean we already have Tetris on the Game Boy app and plenty of other Tetris games on Switch so what's the deal here?

Well for one, this version has never seen any kind of rerelease... kind of. This version in terms of how it played was ported over to Tetris Effect: Connected as a side mode but unless you knew about it I'd imagine not a whole lot of folks have dabbled with it and it's still technically not the original game.

But secondly, the main reason why this mode even exists and also why I personally would like to see it on NSO is purely to make the game accessible to a wider audience considering the competitive scene of this specific classic version of Tetris.

Being able to play this on NSO would mean a ton more people get to experience how this version plays and more importantly gives players another option of playing this without resorting to unofficial PC emulation. Obviously pro players are going to stick to original hardware but if you just wanted to practice or wanted a taste of this version then it's no wonder that having it on Switch would be a dream. Hopefully with the Game Boy version already being on the service this will increase the chances of this one happening.

So this next one is already planned to release for NSO in Japan but there's no word on it releasing internationally but regardless...

...Kaeru no tame ni Kane wa Naru or as its unofficially known as The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls. It's an action RPG that's often compared to Link's Awakening to the point where in said Zelda game there's a cameo appearance featuring Prince Richard from Bell Tolls. This is one of the more well known Nintendo developed games that never left Japan and as of writing has never seen an official English localization of any kind and unfortunately there seems to be a trend with international NSO releases having Japanese games that have not been translated. So the likelihood of this not only releasing outside of Japan but getting a new localization for NSO is very unlikely but it's more than possible given Nintendo puts in the work to translating this in English. I'd imagine a remake of this game being far more likely to getting an international release if that were to happen and hey if it's in the style of the Link's Awakening remake that would be pretty cool.

So let's move away to one that might actually happen.

This one's pretty straight forward and don't be scared by this being Japan exclusive as outside of some story cutscenes this one's perfectly playable as its mainly a puzzle game. It has seen rereleases in the past on Virtual Console and if it were to release on NSO it's very likely that it would release internationally since the benefit of Nintendo not putting in effort to localize these games means they can just drop this on the SNES app no problem. Also good time to mention that this also includes the original Wrecking Crew so it would be funny to see Wrecking Crew on the service twice.

So let's end this game prediction saga with one that probably will never happen but if it were to happen I'd be curious how it would be implemented.

So let's get this out of the way, this is an M rated game. For a while it was believed that Nintendo would shy away from more mature games from appearing on the service but GoldenEye 007 on N64 at least in Japan indicates that Nintendo's solution is purely to bump up the rating of the overall app. So I'd imagine if this were to drop on NSO we'd not only see a rating bump for the N64 app but hopefully some kind of parental control option to stop players under 17 from playing this one. While it would be cool to see this on NSO in terms of being able to play it on a Nintendo platform again, I purely would like to see this get added just to see what they'd do to the app in response to this M rated addition to the service.

And there are my NSO predictions as of November 2023. I do wonder when the next Nintendo platform releases if we'll see an uptick in support for the service but its likely that this slow trickle of games will continue as usual. I'd normally would wish for more platforms to be represented on NSO but the problem is that some of the ones already on the service are very lacking especially Game Boy and Game Boy Advance. Hopefully those libraries get beefed up soon.

[fruitymarcy]

So many people seem to not know much about Sega consoles outside of the Genesis and Dreamcast, which makes sense given that the Genesis was insanely popular and the Dreamcast was their most recent console. So, I decided to compile all major Sega consoles and add ons as well as all of the major mini consoles that have been released as of 2022 and give some fun facts about them!

First of all, there was the SG-1000, Sega’s first video game console. After having been in the arcade business for years Sega stepped into the home console industry with this quite obscure console which never saw release in the US.

Then there was the Sega Master System, another 8-bit console from Sega. It is essentially a souped-up Sega Mark III, which was a third revision of the SG-1000. The Master System was released globally and is much more well known as the “first” Sega console because of that, despite having been the second. Fun fact, the Master System is still being sold to this day in Brazil!

Here it is, the console that briefly beat Nintendo and put Sega on top of the video game industry, the Sega Genesis. The Genesis was far more popular than any Sega console ever released globally, and was especially popular in the US. The Genesis was also home to Sonic the Hedgehog, who would become Sega’s mascot and propel the company from being a relatively successful video game company to being a household name across the globe. Technically an 8-bit version of Sonic was also on the Master System, but obviously the main event is the 16-bit game designed for the Genesis.

This is the Sega CD, a pretty well known add on for the Sega Genesis. With this add on and the Genesis itself, you could play Sonic CD, which is the game it’s easily most well known for. The Sega CD was Sega’s first disc based system, and because of that it was capable of playing much higher quality video and audio than the Genesis on its own.

This is the Genesis 32X, the other major Sega Genesis add on. The 32X is lesser known than the Sega CD, and with good reason as the system had few titles and was essentially rendered obsolete by the Sega Saturn shortly after release. Perhaps the most well known 32X game is Knuckles’ Chaotix, a spin-off of the Sonic the Hedgehog games.

Here’s the aforementioned Sega Saturn. The Sega Saturn was Sega’s most popular console in Japan despite selling quite poorly globally, especially when considering the astronomical success of its predecessor. A big part of the success in Japan was a strong launch with Virtua Fighter, a game that sold almost as many copies as the Saturn did consoles at launch. The Saturn was Sega’s 32-bit console, however of course the 32X having been a 32-bit system lessens the Saturn’s impact in that regard. The Saturn is considered by most to be the console that killed Sega’s hardware business despite not being their final home console due to the fact that the Dreamcast was a console much better positioned to succeed that most likely would have if Sega had not lost consumer trust and interest to Sony with their PlayStation. Any assessment of the Saturn’s popularity is unfair without mentioning the PlayStation. Sony created a console that had far greater third-party support than the Saturn, with games like Final Fantasy 7 being PlayStation exclusive. The Saturn also lacked a mainline Sonic title, having only spin-offs like Sonic R and the collection of the Genesis titles, Sonic Jam. This greatly lessened interest in the console for American players, as Sonic has always been most popular in the West.

This is it. The Sega Dreamcast. Sega’s last true video game console. The 128-bit monster. The Dreamcast was marketed as the ultimate gaming system, and it certainly was when it released. The Dreamcast was by far the most powerful gaming console ever released at the time, and it was a very impressive console. The Dreamcast was affordable and yet incredibly powerful, and it launched in the US on 9.9.99 which was a massive part of its marketing campaign. Major issues with the Dreamcast had nothing to do with it, rather the company that manufactured it, as well as its predecessor. Sega had lost consumer trust with many when they saw how quickly Sega abandoned the 32X for the Saturn, and many had purchased the PlayStation over the Saturn when the time came to upgrade to the next generation consoles. The PlayStation was incredibly successful and its massive install base was very excited for the PlayStation 2. Even with the power of the Dreamcast, and a quality launch lineup of games (in the US at least, as Japan’s launch lineup wasn’t as strong) including Sonic Adventure, the first true 3D Sonic game ever made and an absolute classic, the Dreamcast failed to capture as much interest as the PlayStation 2 did. The console lived in the shadow of a console that had yet to be released. The Dreamcast did do well for its short life before the release of the ps2. The Dreamcast didn’t sell as well as the Saturn in Japan, but absolutely sold far better than the Saturn in the United States. However, once the PlayStation 2 released, Dreamcast sales plummeted. Sega’s Dreamcast had the power and quality games to have been a runaway success, but the stain that the 32X and Saturn left on the company as well as the meteoric popularity of the PlayStation had killed any chance the Dreamcast had to succeed in the way it perhaps should have. Sonic Adventure 2 was in a sense a swan song for the Dreamcast and Sega’s time as a console giant, rather than a monument to the system’s success.

Sega returned to the console business in 2019, but not fully. This is the Sega Genesis Mini, a miniature game console manufactured by Sega with Genesis game ports by M2. The Genesis Mini followed the success of the NES Classic by Nintendo, and Sega followed suit with their Genesis Mini to great success. The mini console was quite popular and sold well, just like the console it was built to resemble. The Genesis Mini has high resolution visuals, outputting through HDMI cables, making it perfect for use on modern televisions. The console’s sound also replicates the Genesis quite well. The Genesis Mini was released with a number of toy accessories such as a Sega CD replica.

Lastly, this is the Sega Genesis Mini 2. The Genesis Mini 2 is modeled after the Genesis Model 2, a revision of the Genesis. The Genesis Mini 2 is capable of playing Sega CD games in addition to a brand new lineup of Genesis games. It released earlier this year, and so I can’t tell you how well it’s done. It’s definitely a more niche console than the first mini, and it was only sold as an Amazon exclusive here in the US, so it’s safe to say it won’t sell as well as the first Genesis Mini. However, the console is just as nice as the first mini. The Genesis Mini 2 features a six button controller as well. The system, like its predecessor, released with a number of toy accessories.

Well, that’s that! Those were all of Sega’s major consoles, add ons, and mini consoles. I don’t know about you, but I certainly hope to see more mini consoles in the future! I’m particularly excited about the prospect of a Sega Dreamcast Mini releasing for the Dreamcast’s upcoming 25th anniversary. I also dream of seeing Sega one day truly return to the console market, but I know it’s a long shot. Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I hope I was able to educate you a bit on Sega’s history as a console developer!

[gamemories]