rob7979

A friend of mine had an ST, while I was still on my humble Commodore 64. Remember playing hero quest and Cadaver. But he also had a NES so spent more time with Mario and Kung Fu master.

This was cool! I think I remember it being covered on TV computing show Bad Influence. Never saw one in the wild; given what you were getting the price was somewhat high, especially as at this point the Gameboy hardware price was very reasonable, as were Gameboy carts

All that said, this definitely appeals to me now, so thank you friend r raising the profile through this nicely written article. You've captured the spirit of the times well.

I know it is popular to place the increased difficulty in Western releases on the rental market, but bear in mind large sections of the (at least UK) games magazine would regularly Mark games down for being too easy (remember that longevity score anyone)? That would have also played into the notion that Western gamers 'liked' a more difficult challenge.

The only console I have purchased on grey import. Day 1 I had Sonic and Power Stone. A month later I added sega rally 2 to my collection.

My best memory is playing house of the dead 2, where I was fortunate enough to own 2 lightguns. I was living at home at the time with a full time job so as a result my disposal income was high. In the end I sold it, but have great memories of the system.

Am really looking forward to picking up Capcom Fighting Collection 2 to recess Capcom vs Snk (1 and 2) as well as Powerstone 1&2.

Love this! So interesting that seemingly minor tweaks can so enhance a game.

Reading reviews of the time, alit would complain about games in general being to easy and therefore not representing value for money. I think reviewers sometimes forgot what was easy for them was challenging for the average gamer.

Part of me is curious to try the controls to see how bad they are.

From r now I'll stick with my GB street fighter 2 port....at least that allows me to use a d-pad 😜

I remember my brother being in the US when SF2 turbo was released. He brought me back a copy so was able to play that one early.

Tended to also be a good market in 2nd hand import games - I picked up Axelay and Shadowrun back in the 90s that way.

Pleased to see this. The NSO does have its flaws, but this is a terrific way that make these selected title available to a wider audience of gamers to enjoy.

Yes, physical copies and original hardware are great, but I've run out of physical space to invest in more retro hardware. This is a great way for me to enjoy and explore a back catalogue that I don't yet know that well, and without NSO would be unlikely to get to explore.

@-wc- there was a GameCube version which I brought from r my son last Christmas after we went to a retro arcade and he played the stand up cabinet with the big truck steering wheel.

Keep on trucking!

If this is as good as the Amici documentary he made then weoo worth watching

Nope never been, but I was living in Osaka when in Japan. I did attend a flea market, and can't recall there being a whole lot of retro tech, more general bric a brac and clothes.

There was a headmaster transformer I found after a lot of looking and I snapped that bad boy up

Good on them for fronting this up

What a great career. Personally I didn't read much of NMS, and that was largely due to the style versus Super Play which was my go to (and is still a recommended read now).

That said, NMS / Mean Machines / CVG sold a huge amount of magazines and had a big influence (in the UK at least) so fair play to him - he's definitely done more than me!

Can this play original GBA carts?

Many happy memories of shopping here, but that was decades ago. So I am not surprised to see this speculation around the companies future. Vote with your wallet.

Give me a hack for a Haggard ponytail, then I'll be interested.

This is really impressive feat so fair play to these guys and girls for putting in the dedication

For the casual player the NSO Switch offering is good enough.

Personally I prefer playing on original hardware, I think that is mainly down to having many of the platforms when I was younger (not all at the same time I hasten to add). But from a performance perspective can I tell the difference? Not really.

Slightly off topic but a good system to collect for at the moment is the 3DS are prices are low. Plus I think a readily accessible (for the average person) 3D emulation is difficult to achieve, and likely to stay that way for some time to come.

I love this game, so glad to see it still getting some love.

Merry Christmas to you too! Looking forward to another 12 months year of Retro goodness in 2025! Reading your site every day helps make life fun, so keep up the excellent work - it and all your hard work is much appreciated 👍

RiP. Many fond memories 😀 f reading my friends Total mag when he had a NeS and I had a master system.

I got mine a few months ago. It's a great product and shows that Nintendo love a bit of innovation. The main problem I recall at the time it was originally released was that price wise it was in line with the actual Gameboy (and I couldn't afford both!).

In hindsight given the additional features and lower cost of manufacturing game boy cartridges, this should have been pushed more as a way to deliver SNES games at a budget price (super space invaders is a good example of this where it contained the full SNES ROM on the GB cartridge).

@KitsuneNight you make a valid point. I guess in my mind it was slightly different in that the master system 2 was a relaunch of an existing product, whereas this was marketed as something new.

But yes, there definitely was a market for this given the master system 2 hardware sales. Probably helped by having the excellent Alex Kidd game built in 🥰

I managed to dodge this, but I remember seeing lots of screenshots of Burnin Rubber in magazines at the time.

Releasing an 8 but system in 1990 was odd timing to say the least!

That logo is hideous, but can appreciate the rarity aspect to this. Maybe ugly would be a kinder description.

Good luck to whoever wins this.

I would have loved this if had been available when I was young. Makes a mockery of the SF2 world warrior port.

I'd love a mini master system! And if you were selling it world wide (including Europe and Brazil) then I'm sure it would do well enough.

And I'm with you - I prefer that master system 2 casing 🫢

I'm finding it difficult to get an idea of the scale of this thing from the video.

For me it looks more neo geo mini size rather than arcade 1up.

This looks awesome! I like the updated graphics and new tracks have a good look and feel to them. Unfortunately my flash cart doesn't support games enhanced with chips, so I'll have to look out for this on eBay

Looking forward to playing this come July. Hopefully Jeff will have other opportunities to team on with Nintendo going forward with a bigger role.

Will - if you are reading this you know what to do

A really well written piece and an enjoyable read - thank you.

At the time this didn’t feel like a big loss. With many of the games having been released on carts and the shift in focus to the next generation plus the Sony bandwagon rolling and rolling. What was interesting is that this was the 2nd Nintendo flop in a short space of time (the Virtual Boy being the other). Thankfully things improved (commercially at least) with the Wii and Nintendo as a hardware manufacturer we’re here to stay 😀

These covers were iconic pieces. I’d love to see a book celebrating the super play artwork, or better yet, to be able to purchase this artwork (without the front cover wording overlaid) to display on the wall.

My personal favourite was the issue 45 artwork of Chun Li (street fighter alpha).

Not sure how they got the license holders agreement to the first Christmas issue which featured Spider-Man and some Star Wars characters!

Great article, loved reading this. I spend most of my time still playing on my original snes hardware. It’ll be a sad day when that gives up the ghost. But until then I’ll keep gaming

Love when unknowns make the headlines. Congratulations to her and her parents!

This was one O f the better 3do games that I can recall. It was a strangely compelling game and some of the levels seemed to let you fly around and power up your craft to your hearts content which was relaxing.

I love this soundtrack

Given the higher prices these items can now demand I am guessing they are still desirable for theft if left overtly on display

Your guide series to shopping in for retro games in Japan are obviously a little to successful!!

As you state USD800 is not a lot in the world of watches so I imagine there will be a market for this device where the vent diagram between watch collecting and retro gaming cross.

Out of my price range though.

Great interview, thank you for sharing. I have many happy childhood memories of playing prince of Persia on my Sega master system and then later again on my SNES.

Thank you Jordan!

I remember the glowing review in Super Play - got a mark in the high 90s and they were effusive with praise.

However they also pointed out that the cart did not work well with a converter, so I never purchased it.

I recently bought a repo cart copy which is a PAL version and it is in my ‘need to play’ game queue.

Seems like some interesting stock they have there. Like you, I’ve never seen a virtual boy game in there either!

I do like browsing their stores and picking up the odd cart from there to treat myself.

Really enjoyed this taster and looking forward to my bitmap book arriving.

I think it was more the business model of cartridges that led to developers flocking to the lower risk CD publishing model.

Definitely the Jaguar - a really interesting story behind it makes me curious.

Just a crying shame this was never ported to the snes or megadrive back in the 90s.

Additionally, the AI on the USA and European versions has been seriously cranked up.

Not to take anything away from what a great game this is, plus I loved the HD version.

Just a shame the Saturn had such a short life span in Europe. A great machine designed to cope with 2d and 3d.

I’d love to own KOF 95 on the Sega Saturn, but already have it on my Neo Geo Cdz so there seems little point.

@-wc- good point!

This is a great remix of a classic original.

For me, TSOM was the greatest snes pap released score, and this tribute celebrates that nicely.

Thanks for highlighting this release.

I’m enjoying this!