The Master System and Game Gear versions were very similar. I had the latter (sadly my hardware doesn't work anymore. Cheap condensators ...). Could get a few of the Chaos Emeralds but not all. The one on the Zeppelin level was just seemingly impossible to reach, not until the advent of Youtube that I got the knack of the hidden path to it.
I found some ways to glitch the original Sonic 3 and reach the Knuckles areas. Back then in the 90s, I didn't understand what the purpose of those areas was, I just thought it was leftover beta stuff.