Entry posted by Cybergoth
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Hi there!
Two firsts at once this time! Space Harrier is the first game I'm "Playing..." on the Sega Master System! And in case you're wondering why there's no screenshot, that's because I own this cartridge and am really playing it on my SMS 
Well, it's probably better to not have a screenshot anyway. I couldn't think of a more extreme example of excellent looking "still" screenshots compared to the stuttering impression you get when seeing this in motion. The problem is not so much that it is slow, but that it is so coarse. In fact, when I had a first look in emulation some time ago, I thought the dragon at the end of the first level was glitched in the emulator. But it looks just as "stamped" on the real thing 
Anyway, the game is still reasonably playable and the music is one of the best I've heard on the Master System ever.
In a weak moment I even read the manual. I think my motivation was finding out wether the controls were really as simple as up/down/left/right + fire or if there were any special moves available. But no, that's it. What did puzzle me though, was that the manual contained cheat-codes to activate continues and a music selection menu 
I only managed to play a little over an hour today and so far, without using continues, made it to the double headed dragon boss of stage 3. After playing a while I figured that this is probably one of those rare "zone" games, which I personally consider a cool thing. I like those moments where all thinking stops and I just play. Probably the closest I'll ever get to a ZEN experience 
Tomorrow I'll see if I find my autofire SMS pad, since my fingers hurt already.
Finally a sidenote for the regular readers of these articles: Space Harrier obviously isn't a movie licensed game as announced. I was really trying to play "Aliens" on the C64, the one from Electric Dreams, but it is such an awfully designed game... Think of it as a 4 lap racing game, that gives you only enough fuel for 1/2 lap. There's a thread on Lemon64 detailing how it can be played with exploiting bugs and some keyboard shortcuts not mentioned in the manual, but it still didn't sound as if there was any fun to be had with this game.
Greetings,
Manuel
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