Sega SG-1000 Round-Up #1

Considering I'm supposed to be a Sega fan, it took me an alarmingly long time to try out their first console - almost thirty years in fact! In my defence, it was not a very successful system and was never released outside Japan but even so, it was still a situation that needed remedying, and now that I've finally gained access to its games, it will be. The first step was the recent 'Exploring...' feature which gave a decent overview of the system, and now this post which represents the first part of a series which will look at all of the SG's rather meagre back catalogue of games. Here's the first random selection:

Bomb Jack (1985)

I'm a big fan of Bomb Jack so I was eager to see if this version continued the fine tradition of quality conversions. Sadly it does not. The stage layouts are the same but unfortunately it has awful graphics which ruin it. The backgrounds are actually quite good but the monochrome sprites are all drawn using some of the same colours so it can be really hard to spot them, or indeed Mr. Jack himself, at times. Can you spot him in the screenshot? I'm not sure why the bombs are in black boxes either. If it was just the confusing graphics that were proving troublesome I might let it off but one of my very favourite things about Bomb Jack is its pixel-perfect precision controls and they are also compromised here. Perhaps we've been spoiled by some of the fantastic conversions of this classic but this isn't among the best... 6/10

Monaco GP (1983)

Perhaps a slightly odd choice of game to release on the SG, this one. It remains the only conversion of Sega's 1979 up-the-screen racer which used discrete logic circuits rather than processors, but even with the benefit of this fangled new technology, Sega's home port can't match the visuals of the four year old coin-op. It remains a very basic (and not very accurate) depiction of the famous race of the title which tasks you with avoiding the endless slower cars ahead of you. There is the odd slippery stretch of road and annoying tunnel sections which sees your car's headlights activate (must've been a feature of 70's F1 cars) but apart from that it's the same thing ad infinitim. Reasonable fun for a couple of minutes but nothing more... 4/10

H.E.R.O. (1985)

While probably most famous as one of the most celebrated games for the VCS, this Activision classic was actually later ported to quite a few other platforms including the SG and naturally it looks quite a bit nicer for it! It's a side-viewed flick-screen adventure which sees you heroically take on the mission of rescuing miners trapped in a volcano, armed with just a laser, a few sticks of dynamite, and a backpack-mounted helicopter unit. There's plenty of scary creatures lurking in the tunnels but the biggest problem comes from the easily-extinguishable laterns which can leave the screen in darkness! The controls in this version can be a bit iffy, and there's quite a bit of trial-and-error involved, as with all versions, but H.E.R.O remains a very addictive and entertaining game which has seldom looked better! ... 7/10

Sega Galaga (1983)

Galaga has always been my favourite one of these single-screen, 'shooting gallery' type shmups so I was hoping that this would be a good version. Actually, the name change made me initially think that it was a rip-off, as so many games were in the early days, but it is an official version. I'm also pleased to say it's a good one too. The bugs are now monochrome, the sound effects aren't as pleasing, and the 'challenging stages' are missing altogether, but that's all that I can find to complain about in this otherwise splendid conversion! Galaga '88 on the PC Engine is probably still the best Galaga ever but this remains a highly enjoyable high-score game and the difficulty is spot-on too. Bring on the bugs! ... 8/10

Pop Flamer (1983)

This is the only game here I haven't previously even heard of but it's apparently a conversion of a Jaleco coin-op from the previous year of which I've also had a quick try for comparison. The results of my endeavours are that this is an average-at-best conversion of an average-at-best game! It's a mazey collect 'em up which stars you a fire-breathing mouse of all things. His job is to collect (or burst) what look like balloons from each slightly-larger-than-one-screen stage whilst avoiding or frying the various evil beasties that also roam them. While basic and repetitive, these games can be good fun. This conversion is understandably less colourful than the arcade game (it looks rather like a Speccy game actually) but it's also extremely hard due to its poor and unresponsive controls. Bah! ... 4/10


Red Parsley will be back with some more SG-1000 mini-reviews soon! :)