The master system itself is really the best way to experience it, as there are a handful of games that don’t work with the power base converter.
$99 CAD seems pretty reasonable, if not a tad high. I see them pretty regularly on kijiji for $100 including a couple games. That said, $99 for just a system is fine if it’s in really nice shape.
What city are you in?
I don’t know this store, but with most stores like this in the UK you can make them an offer - for expensive items I usually get 20% off. Is that a thing over with you?
Most of the incompatibility with some games is with the Genesis controller itself, not the Power Base Converter. F-16 Fighting Falcon won’t work because it’s technically an SG-1000 game (it sucks anyway). But interestingly enough, Operation Wolf, which crashes on NTSC Master Systems, does work through a Power Base Converter with minor glitches.
There’s also a homebrew option, the Power Base Mini FM, which lets you run SMS games through a Genesis and activates FM sound. It’s quite good.
Buying a real SMS will get you Snail Maze, though. One thing to look out for with real SMS hardware is many now have faulty controller ports caused by years of pressing down on the plastic and cracking something inside.
Oh good to know, I thought for sure there were ten or so, not just the one.
I read Alien 3 is another one that doesn’t work on the PBC but I don’t know if they meant fully incompatible or with some glitches. I have played it on an SMS (and maybe on Power Base Mini FM) and it had the occasional garbled graphics but was still playable.
There are some games that have issues on any NTSC configuration like the distracting graphic glitches in New Zealand Story and Chase HQ.
None of the alternatives sound as good as the real deal FM unfortunately
Filtering added, yuck.
The Everdrive X7 is especially disappointing as it just falls apart with some games, Wonderboy 3 plays random weird sounds for example. Even for the games that do play okay, my modded Master System just sounds a lot better.
New Zealand Story was fully optimised and designed for PAL resolution and speed. You can notice circles becoming ovals if you try to run it in NTSC/60hz. The high Score screen messes up badly, music plays way too fast and it is possible to crash the game. So having a 50hz switch is rather useful for some SMS titles.
I’m in Vancouver. The store was Willow Video in Langley, which is one of the few good mom n’ pop stores remaining.
Willow used to be much, much better a few decades ago when you could expect them to quickly cut the price of new current gen games by $10-20 bucks before everyone else, but I guess their distributor rapped their knuckles at some point, because there’s little to no deals amongst their current gen stuff at this point.
Have you been to Press Start in New Westminster? Loose Master Systems were around $60 there a few years ago. There’s also Gamedeals in NW but they tend to be a bit more expensive for hardware.
Are there any good places online to get master system games? Seems to be few listings in general on eBay and such for games I’m looking for. 
My favourite console (my first one too). This is the only console I am interested on having a complete game collection (not going to happen). I buy all games I see a listing and dont even think twice unless the price is ridiculous.
It’s too bad it didnt have as many rpgs as the NES, por less games all around, but oh boy the quality of most of them are top notch. It helps that sega developed a lot of them, and some of the shittier ones are ports from computer games like amiga games and such, made by U.S Gold.
The colors, the music, the crummy box artworks, they all bring a smile to me and keep me on the retro path, even of prices keep getting way more stupid than they should. If I ever sell my games, Im keeping the sms ones. <3 sega for life, SMS for life <3
EDIT: SMS and GG mini when Sega??? :’(
EDIT 2 Electric bugaloo: one of the few FM music haters. I prever the original since it’s the one I grew up with, so rose tinted glasses I guess.
Very nice! Got any photos of your collection? How many titles are you up to now?
I just added two more to mine, so I’m up to 66 and counting!
I don’t take picture from my collection, since I have everything stuffed away in boxes. Housing market is ass here in portugal and I always move so I don’t even have furniture.
I have the list here:
I guess I have 55 acording to this list. Since I haven’t touched these games in awhile, I forgot. Thought I had like 30 somethingsXD
One thing it makes me salty is that I bought for games once, cant remember which ones, but the post office lost them… That and most of the games I really want to play are super expensive.
The Darius collection news made me break out the Mark III tonight to give 8-bit Sagaia another go.
It’s… a pretty standard 30fps 8-bit shooter. nice-ish graphics. Choppy, but playable. Played a few levels and quit when I died.
Oh well, busted out some faves instead. Played Double Dragon until stage 4. It’s a janky hit detection mess but the FM soundtrack is so good. And I almost always have time for a bit of Makai Retsuden/Kung Fu Kid, still my favourite game on the system.
Kung Fu Kid’s pretty underrated. It made me wish for more platformers with wall jumping. It’s short but super replayable like Alex Kidd in Shinobi World. Sagaia’s an obvious step down from 16-bit versions but it’s still cool to have an SMS port. The bosses look great for the hardware.
Just ordered Kung Fu Kids…
Haha don’t expect genius. It’s just a great simple colourful 1985 style arcade game.
The Japanese version is quite expensive but it’s cheap on western Master System.
The Master System has a library I feel I know pretty well, so your praise just got me really curious why I have never played it. Looking forward to it!
You guys aren’t going to believe this. I cracked open my Power Base Converter for a recap and I found old wasp tubes inside!
I bought this thing years ago from a local store and it was always a little spotty. I guess now I know why! Got it all cleaned up, recapped and working! Going to put the shell in the dishwasher tomorrow to give it a thorough cleaning.
