It was popular in Australia too.

Going to the video store and looking through the racks full of the checkerboard master system boxes for a game to hire. Ghouls n Ghosts, Altered Beast, Penguin Land, Ghost House, Golvellius, Aztec Adventure, Fantasy Zone 2 come to mind.

Watching mum and dad play My Hero for hours, trying to get just a little bit further.

Getting hit by a car whilst taking a game back to the video store. (Not the most magical memory but I can’t think of master system without that)

Finally having double Dragon at home. Throwing the sega box at the second level boss. Years later finding out that the arcade and mega drive versions are unplayable due to slowdown, and deeming the master system version as the best.

My aunty buying me Transbot from the discount bin in Boxing Day sales.

Waking up from a nightmare and being comforted watching mum and dad getting up to the Mouse Man dungeon in wonder boy 3.

Sundays watching my dad and his mate playing Golfamania sessions, drinking and smoking weed and listening to Van Morrison, when they weren’t up to going to the local golf course. (Later it was pga tour 2 on mega drive)

Finding a copy of Action Fighter and Fantasy Zone The Maze from some random person at the local market.

Coming home from school one day to find mum had hired Teddy Boy from the video store. What a game. I don’t go back to it because it’s so lame in retrospect, just stick with this memory of it being mind blowing awesome.

The first time I could play well enough to get to the end of the first stage in Miracle World and seeing that burger waiting for me. Going inside the Octopus’ pot (?) to take the secret shortcut in Alex Kidd.

So many Alex Kidd things really. The dinosaur level in Lost Stars, so exciting for some reason. Swimming under the tentacles in the water level. The ninja forest stages in Hi Tech World. Shinobi World in general, me, my brother and our cousins being like “it’s Shinobi, but it’s Alex Kidd :O” while eating cordial ice blocks in the middle of summer.

Getting Ghostbusters for $2 because the video store was trying to get rid if all their master system games and no one wanted the old junk. Loving that game so much I drew a picture of the driving stage on the blackboard at school before class.

When I got Castle of Illusion for Christmas right before we moved away after my first year at school, and mum and dad let me stay up playing it until I fell asleep.

The very last game we hired before we got a mega drive, and the first time I ever saw him, Sonic the Hedgehog. The same day dad bought home a kitten that I looked after until I left home. That was a good day.