Great Ice Hockey

n/a

Great Ice Hockey
System(s): Sega Master System
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Peripherals supported: Sports Pad
Genre: Sports (ice hockey)
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code JP 1987 US 1986-12 5062 HK 19xx 5062

Great Ice Hockey (グレートアイスホッケー) is an ice hockey game for the Sega Master System. It requires the Sports Pad in order to function correctly.

In Japan, Great Ice Hockey was only released as a competition prize; 1,000 copies being offered for those who had purchased Phantasy Star. Customers were to mail in their Phantasy Star barcodes to Sega on the back of a postcard, with the chance of winning both Great Ice Hockey and a Sports Pad. The older Sports Pad's incompatibility with the Sega Mark III meant that until the release of Sports Pad Soccer and the redesigned Sports Pad in November 1988, Great Ice Hockey was technically a Master System exclusive.

Gameplay

The game is an ice hockey game using an overhead perspective and a horizontally oriented rink. The game requires the use of the Sports Pad, which gives players fine-grained, analogue control using a trackball; it does not function properly using a standard control pad. The rink has three segments, and the game pauses momentarily to pan over to a different segment when a player with the puck skates over to it. A scoreboard is shown on the side of the screen behind the goal (but it is not shown when in the middle segment of the rink).

There are eight teams, representing different countries (though only the USA is playable in one-player games). Teams consist of six players plus a goalkeeper. Games are three periods long, and players can choose the length of each period (3, 5, or 10 minutes). There are no penalties. In the event of a tie in a one-player game, the computer wins by default; in a two-player game, the players play an overtime period with no time limit where the first team to score wins the game.

From the title screen, a one-player game can be started by pressing on a Sports Pad plugged into the first controller port, with two difficulty levels for the computer team (Junior and Senior). A two-player game can be started by pressing on a Sports Pad plugged into the second controller port. The game requires two Sports Pads to play a two-player game. Players are prompted to choose a difficulty level in two-player games, but it has no effect.

	Face-Off
	At the beginning of each period and after a team scores, the referee drops the puck in the circle in the center of the rink, and a player from each team competes to take it. After a goalkeeper blocks a shot, the referee restarts play with another face-off, dropping the puck in one of the circles near the goal.
	Defense
	When the opposing team has possession of the puck, the team member that is closest to the puck (who is indicated by a solid-colored arrow) can be moved in any direction using the trackball. The other team members follow automatically. When in view, the goalkeeper can be moved concurrently by rolling the trackball. Moving a player onto the puck steals the puck from the opposing player.
	Offense
	When the player's team has possession of the puck, the team member with the puck (who is indicated by a solid-colored arrow) can be moved in any direction using the trackball. The player can shoot the puck with or pass it to a teammate with . When the goal is in view, the shot can be aimed by rolling the trackball. When passing, the puck is passed to the closest teammate that the player was last facing (who is marked by a white arrow).

Teams

Team selection

In one-player games, the player can only play as the United States and can choose any other country as an opponent. Each country increases in difficulty (with Poland being the easiest and the Soviet Union being the hardest).

In two-player games, either player can choose any country (but must choose different countries).

• United States (USA)
• Poland (POL)
• West Germany (FRG)
• Czechoslovakia (TCH)
• Finland (FIN)
• Canada (CAN)
• Sweden (SWE)
• Soviet Union (URS)

Hints

• 

  US hints 1 (color scan)

• 

  US hints 1 (B/W scan)

• 

  US hints 2 (with Great Baseball and Rocky)

Magazine articles

Main article: Great Ice Hockey/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Computer Entertainer (US) 67 Power Play (DE) PAL 37 Sega Power (UK) PAL 75 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 50

	57
Based on 4 reviews

Great Ice Hockey

Master System, JP
Cart Manual

Master System, US (℠ variant)
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, US (® variant)
Cover

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 946b8c4a MD5 26621293a88d55fedaf71bb097c24653 SHA-1 a7b76be9d3ed5d6a94917e444a188767ede1cc79	128kB		Cartridge (JP/US)