Master of Darkness - Vampire - Sega Master System
2WARNING - there are some flashing backgrounds in Level2 and also later in the game so if you are sensitive to flashing lights please be aware.
I hope you are all happy, safe & healthy whatever challenges you are facing right now.
Fans of my channel may be aware that I'm a big fan of Konami's Castlevania games. For a long time these were Nintendo exclusive on console (there were MSX and X68000 versions in Japan but they are more home computers).
Sega were obviously big fans too and set out to give owners of their consoles a glimpse into what they had been missing with their own take on gothic platforming. This came in the form of Master of Darkness (also known as Vampire) on Master System and Game Gear. While it very clearly takes inspiration from the Konami classics with its sub-weapons, themes and controls it opens up into a brilliant take on the formula. After a slow start the lay out of platforms and enemies develops into more complex levels.
The music and graphics are outstanding for the system and some of the best on any 8-bit system.
This is my original copy from back in the day played on my Sega CDX/MultiMega through a PowerBase 2 Convertor (one day I'll get the new version that has the FM compatibility) then through a Retrotink 5X for ease of capture. It's the first time I've played it in years but in this run I see how far I can get on a single credit. I've edited out a couple of silly deaths including one where I fall off the stage when jumping down onto the clock hands to fight the 3rd level boss. Edit is purely so you don't have to watch the same stage a couple of times.
I also managed to delete the photo I took of the box before putting it back in my loft and only noticed when I was editing the video. I'll get round to fixing this at some point.
Happy Halloween!
As always if you enjoy this video let me know. As always this is running on original hardware. Also let me know if there are particular games or systems you'd like to see.
As always this is uploaded under the Fair Use Policy - no money is being made from this video.
Stay strong, stay safe and stay healthy - Grey Fox