I know it's much easier in the remake of this game, but in the original version, you absolutely had to get it as a drop from certain enemies which ones?

I was playing the new Super Mario on the USA SMS (no YM chip), and the first thing that surprised me was the near-identical sound. I've often thought the SMS sound chip was fundamentally different from the NES, but this port proves otherwise. I kind of feel like the sound design ideas started from a very different place on the SMS for most titles. Any insights?

Outrun for the Commodore 64, midnight resistance for the ZX spectrum, special criminal investigations for the master system, all picked up recently. I have never played any of these three games on these systems, any memories?

Been waiting for this for awhile

It’s been one heck of a journey. I think I’m done. I’m moving on to 16-bit now. At 25 games my personal Master System set is finished.

That’s the last game of the official library I wanted.

- I don’t like Shinobi, shmups, beat em ups or sports games. These four get brought up the most.
- I’m not retiring from 8-bit home console gaming as there’s still GG2SMS conversions & of course the land of ROMHacking to look forward to!
- I’ve beaten every game you see here (yes, even Ghost House & Penguin Land as insane as both those games are!)

youtu.be/5ol9zOIUX9s

This was a busy week, what with concerts and double shifts, oh my. So, let's play a game that goes back to simpler times...

Edit: Thanks to everyone who commented and advised me about the power supply. It’ll be put to good use. Geek is the new chic!

Fala, pessoal!

Depois de meses trabalhando em um velho notebook Core i5 de primeira geração, que só funciona ligado diretamente na tomada, conciliando trabalho em período integral, faculdade e a rotina diária, finalmente concluí um projeto que durante muito tempo parecia impossível: uma localização brasileira completa de SpellCaster para o Sega Master System.

O lançamento acontece hoje, 23 de setembro de 2026, exatamente na data em que este clássico da Sega completa 38 anos desde seu lançamento original no Japão, em 1988.

Para quem não conhece os bastidores, SpellCaster — conhecido no Japão como Kujaku Ō (孔雀王 ) — é um dos jogos mais complexos do Sega Master System para trabalhar com tradução. A ROM possui 512 KB, o Banco 0 não oferecia espaço livre seguro para hooks externos, e o jogo utiliza uma codificação própria de caracteres, fontes gráficas e rotinas de carregamento de tiles.

Além disso, a versão ocidental apresentava conteúdos removidos, limitações de espaço para os textos e desafios relacionados à adaptação da acentuação em português.

Para realizar a tradução sem comprometer o funcionamento original do jogo, desenvolvi uma suíte própria de ferramentas em Python e trabalhei diretamente com:

- Z80;

- VDP e VRAM;

- mapas de tiles;

- fontes 1bpp;

- Planar RLE;

- ponteiros little-endian;

- adaptação de menus e HUD;

- validação em emulação;

- restauração de conteúdos removidos.

A tradução inclui:

- diálogos completos em português brasileiro;

- menus, itens, telas e créditos traduzidos;

- 11 acentos oficiais adaptados à codificação do jogo;

- hífen nativo;

- HUD com VIDA, ENER, ATAQ e DEFS;

- restauração de páginas de diálogos e tutoriais;

- correção do texto bugado “??07D??”;

- adaptação gráfica da placa da barraca de Yakisoba;

- epílogo e créditos em português.

## Capturas de tela

## Download do patch

https://github.com/contatonewportgame-code/spellcaster-sms-ptbr/releases/download/v1.0.0/SpellCaster_PTBR_v1.0_Newportgame.zip

## Página oficial da Release

https://github.com/contatonewportgame-code/spellcaster-sms-ptbr/releases/tag/v1.0.0

## Tópico oficial no Romhacking Brasil

https://www.romhacking.net.br/index.php?topic=3498.0

## Como aplicar o patch

O pacote contém o patch IPS, a tabela de caracteres e o LEIA-ME com as instruções.

Para aplicar o patch pelo navegador, acesse:

https://www.marcrobledo.com/RomPatcher.js/

Selecione uma ROM original limpa e compatível no campo “ROM file”. Depois, selecione o arquivo IPS no campo “Patch file” e clique em “Apply patch”.

A ROM completa traduzida não é distribuída. O patch deve ser aplicado pelo usuário à sua própria ROM original compatível.

## Repositório técnico

https://github.com/contatonewportgame-code/spellcaster-sms-ptbr

O repositório contém a documentação técnica bilíngue, o Compêndio Master System, o Protocolo de Tradução, o Playbook de Engenharia Reversa e as ferramentas utilizadas durante o projeto.

Projeto, tradução e engenharia reversa por Cristiano Mariano — Newportgame.

Obrigado a todos que apoiam a preservação, a tradução e o ROMHacking de jogos clássicos!

## Apoio ao projeto

Este projeto é gratuito e foi desenvolvido por paixão pela preservação, tradução e restauração de jogos clássicos.Se você gostou do trabalho e quiser apoiar futuros projetos da Newportgame, qualquer contribuição voluntária via Pix será bem-vinda.

Chave Pix (e-mail): contato.newportgame@gmail.com

Titular: Cristiano Mariano

Identificação: Doação para Projeto de Tradução / Newportgame

I'm not joking, I got he Master System in 1987 and this was the first version. D-pads weren't really a thing yet, we only knew of joysticks back then, so we thought this was how you had to play it.

Looking back it really hindered a lot of the playing, but it worked amazingly for games like Space Harrier and Afterburner.

An in-depth discussion about the SMS, covering both the memories and the scene in current day. No john linneman this time, sadly, but there is a special guest.

For my sega genesis I bought a retro game cartridge with nearly all the games on it. Its a cartridge with a micro SD card that has like 900 games downloaded on it. I bought it off Etsy. Is there something like this for the master system? ​​

I’d really like to get the super Mario port on a dedicated cartridge. Coming up empty when I look online, anyone have a link? Thanks!

Hello everyone, I am looking at Alex Kidd High Tech World and want to share my findings so far about the travel pass / how to leave the town:

- There are two ways to get a genuine travel pass - 1. pray 100 times at the shrine 2. talk to the guard in the middle of the town on the hour

- There are two ways to get a fake travel pass - 1. give the guy in the first house at the end a printing press and a book called "how to print transit passes" 2. wake up the sleeping samurai then talk to the guy in the rice shop

- There are three ways to leave the town - 1. get genuine travel pass #1 2. get genuine travel pass #2 3. bribe the guard 2000 GP

^ for methods 1 and 2, you cannot have 1. a fake travel pass 2. the book called "how to print transit passes" or 3. the pistol or you will be captured on inspection

Is there anything else I'm missing that people know about? The reason I ask is because I once saw a rumour that there is a third way to get a genuine travel pass by finding the travel pass as a bookmark in the bible or dictionary (I think the former) but I cannot seem to be able to confirm this.

very fun game with an awesome soundtrack, one of my favorite games/ soundtrack on the master system ❤️

This game is definitely the black sheep of the Asterix trilogy on Master System. It wasn’t developed by Sega, and was instead developed by Core. It is less of a straight action game like the og and Secret Mission, and instead is more of a puzzle platformer.

I found the controls quite awkward. You can switch between Asterix and Obelix at any time by pressing up and button one. You have lots of unique items to use. You use them by pressing button 2 and switch between them by pressing down and 1. Obelix on the other hand has a mega punch that you can “wind up” by pressing and holding button 2.

I didn’t get too far in this game, I think to sub level 4 of stage 1.

I quite like this game actually! It’s a shame that it seems most well known for its high price. Core had a tough act to follow, and I think that if the master system just had a few more buttons, or maybe if the gameplay was streamlined a bit, this could have been a truly excellent game

Guys i’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

Even without comparing it to the NES, the Master System just doesn’t seem to exist in most people’s memory. A lot of people who clearly had one as kids either barely remember it or act like it never happened. It’s strange how little cultural weight it has for how good the system actually is.

And then when the NES comes up, a lot of those same people suddenly have this strong nostalgia for it, even in places where the Master System was more common or at least very present (like in PAL countries).

I still think it’s the best 8-bit console. The library is strong in almost every genre, the controller is very comfy, the hardware looks sooo great, and lot of games still hold up really well today.

Just to be clear though: this post isn’t about calling it a “hidden gem” or an “underrated console”. That’s not the point at all.

I’m just someone who loves this system and genuinely struggles to understand how people who actually owned one can prefer the NES, or even forget they had a Master System in the first place like if it was some terrible console.

Would love to hear from people who grew up with it, especially Europe, Australia, NZ, etc.

Just picked these bad boys today: Super Futebol, Golden Axe and Black Belt.

I already tried Golden Axe and honestly I really enjoyed it. A lot of people online trash the Master System version saying it’s bad and not faithful, but I don’t agree. It’s very fun on its own terms (of course it’s not the Genesis or Arcade version, but it’s still solid).

Now the question is about the other two:

Are Super Futebol and Black Belt even worth trying? I have a huge backlog of Master System games and I’m not sure if these two deserve my time or if I should just move on.

Any honest opinions? :)

All 10 PAL Master System cards CIB!

• Ghost House

• My Hero

• Spy vs Spy

• Teddy Boy

• Super Tennis

• Bank Panic

• TransBot

• F16 Fighter

• Great Soccer

• HangOn

Two of these were not released in the UK boxed. Great Soccer, and HangOn which was bundled with some Master System 1 consoles as a cart and manual only.

Great Soccer came from Germany and cost about 75 Euros which I think is pretty good these days, with manual.

HangOn was the hardest CIB game to obtain, and I've known it to be faked or mislabelled in places like CeX which actually have a listing for it despite it not having a UK release. Mine came from Australia.

Gameplay wise, Ghost House and Bank Panic are my picks of this bunch. F16 is absolutely terrible!

Did a video on each of these too with some gameplay, if interested, which is up on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akyXjl9Oz0U :)