Japanese Master System board shots

I though these may be of some interest to someone out there since the Japanese Master System is not only un-common but also features a 3D glasses port, Rapid button and built in FM audio processor.

The actual unit. notice the Rapid button. Didn't the western machine have a reset button here?


Control Pads. These are also different from the western ones with little joysticks that screw in to the pad.


Board shots





3D Glasses port


Yakumo

 

where are the differences? i had the same in europe also with the mini sticks to put on!

 

really nice shots, thanks for sharing Yakumo!!

concerning what tatsujin said, i can only add that Germany had different pads, just as you said, without the stick...dunno about other european countries

 

Maybe some European countries got the Japanese style Master System pads. The Vritish system had no mini joystick hole in them. Just a normal pad.

Yakumo

 

Gotta love the Master System. I had a Brazilian Sega/TecToy Master System (first) model. The only differences to the japanese you got are:

- No rapid button on the console. Instead we had to buy the rapid fire unit to plug on the system tem connect it to the controller.
- No 3d glasses connector. There was an adaptor to the card port that came with the glasses.

Thanks for the pics Yakumo.

 

Just for comparison, I took some shots of my US SMS gear.



Notice on the system how the rapid fire button is replaced by a reset button. Also notice the lack of a 3d-glasses port.



Here we can see the lack of a joystick screw in hole on the controllers. Also, I threw in my Rapid Fire unit which is what we had to use instead of having a button on the console. I also put my 3d-glasses adaptor in the picture here, this thing plugs into the card slot and then the glasses plug into it.

Were there any 3d card slot games released in Japan? Also, how many 3d games were released for the Japanese SMS? I think there were only about 7 or 8 3d games released here in the US.

 

I can tell you right now that my US controllers have a screw hole for a mini stick.

 

Thats really weird... I've never seen the screw-hole controllers here in the US. My controllers were the ones that came packed in when I got my SMS for my birthday in January 1987. I wonder if the screw-hole controllers were something you could buy seperately or something.

While we are on the subject of Master Systems, were there any add-on's in Japan that made use of the expansion connector in the rear of the system?

 

Ive never seen a Pal machine with screw holes in the pad that's for sure, and ive seen a lot.

Plausable they're out there I guess.

Nice pics btw, I use a Mark III pad on mine, love the white

 

I did get my master system used...but I kinda doubt I have Japanese controllers. I have 1 controller with the little plastic thing still covering the screw hole...and another with the screw hole uncovered. I don't have the little joysticks for em though.

 

My US SMS (segascope version) came with controllers without the screw holes but I have seen the screwhole controllers in a few second-hand shops by themselves so I'd assume they could be bought seperately but I'm not sure. I was confused when I first saw them, glad I'm not the only one.

 

Oooh... I wish I had been lucky enough as a kid to get the full Segascope package. I had the regular version and bought the 3D glasses a couple years ago off of eBay. I also wish that there were second hand shops around here that still carried anything Sega. I can't even find Dreamcast games anymore, let alone SMS or Genesis games...

 

Wow, that's kinda sad. The shops here aren't totally awesome, but a few sms and dreamcast games can still be found and genesis games are everywhere. Systems themselves however are kinda hard to come by, at least ones in decent quality.

 

Yeah, it really sucks here. The only thing we have are major chain stores (Gamestops, EB, Babbages). No privately owned stores at all. I end up doing all my purchases online anymore.

 

sad thing is there really arent alot mom and pop video game stores around the us as well as used shops that carry them, its sadly due to the way the market is, suprisingly game crazy also sells saturn as well, which is quite suprising.

 

What's the going rate for a US Master System these days? It seems to have a good bit of overlooked gems and I'm thinking I might like to get my hands on one at some point.

 

sadly i could of gotten my cousins next door for free, but he left it in the garage, so all the air and such caused all the pins and such to rust extremely, too bad, he had all his games boxed complete.

 

Pal mastersystems are dirt cheap a boxed one in good shape usually goes for 30-40 euro's be it a model 1 or 2

Surprisingly i've seen 3 versions of the control pad around here one with the wire comming from the top middle of the pad and no screwhole, one with the wire comming out of the top with screwhole and one where the wire comes out of the side of the pad and no screwhole.

Any idea why there are so many versions of the pad ?

 

Thanks for the pictures of the US system kingofthelobster. It looks pretty much like the PAL system bar the POWER BASE logo on it. I hated the reset button because I'd sometimes reset the game when I really wanted to pause it. I wonder why they changed the rapid fire button for a reset?

Yakumo

 

Thats a real shame... You think there was any chance you could have saved the games with an emery board? I've gotten games at yard sales before that had some rust on the contacts and I've managed to salvage a few by sanding the contacts with one.

Not a problem, I figured since we have members from all over the world, it wouldn't be a bad idea to post pictures of a US system (which is pretty similar to a PAL system) for comparision.

The reset button on the American system is the one thing I truely hate about it. So many times have I been close to beating a game, reached to hit the pause button, but hit the reset button instead. I don't know why Sega never built a pause button into the controller, I guess Nintendo was unique at the time with that feature.

I actually liked the external rapid fire module though. You could switch each button's rapid fire on and off individually which was perfect for shooters and a lot of other games where you didn't always want rapid fire on both buttons.