Ever since I had heard of the Sega Power Base converter I was always somewhat intrigued by the Master System. But I thought "why bother? Ive never cared about it". But, something took root and I had gotten the fever, Master System fever. I quickly snapped up a few cheap games and I was on my way.



The heat was on, I learned everything I could about this obnoxious black box. It had a spell on me, I wanted the base converter but I noticed that they were just slightly out of my price range. Then I noticed something that caught my eye, the MS/MarkIII converter by Tototek.
-Who is Tototek? Why, they are only one of the finest manufacturers of retro gaming gadgets, most of it probably illegal in some way but whatever I could care less.
-What is a MarkIII? The MarkIII is what the Master System is called in Japan. Just like with the whole Genesis/Megadrive thing. Only the MarkIII is different from the MS, the cartridge slot. It has more pins which means that the Japanese games will not work on an American MS.

UNTIL NOW!

The fact that I could also play MkIII games was the icing on the cake. It couldn't play those skinny card games like My Hero or Robo-somethingorother but those games suck anyways. And I can't use the 3D glasses but that is no big loss either.

While it didn't have the same streamlined appearance as the base converter or other converters like the MasterMega converter or the base converter II, neither of those are capable of playing MkIII games. Function over form in this case.


Serious function over form.

I will get this out there, this thing is extremely ugly. I am not sure but I think the PCB is made out of plastic. It is thick but still, plugging this into my Genesis and then putting a MS game on top of that requires a bit of pressure, I'm worried that without any kind of support on that exposed PCB could result in something getting broken in the future. The MkIII slot is there, but it's in the back. Such an odd place to put a slot.


Awkwardness, thy name is Tototek.

It does the job, even if it looks pretty fugly in the process. Overall I would say that if you are looking into getting some Master System games and can't get just about every other converter on the planet then this is your best bet. The MarkIII compatibility is what gives this one the edge in my opinion.


Constructing the mighty SEGA-TOWER rendered the Master System converter useless, UNACCEPTABLE!