Wide Gear (console)

Wide Gear
Manufacturer: Sega

Not to be confused with the Wide Gear and Super Wide Gear, the Wide Gear was a nickname for a version of the Sega Game Gear that was only made available to certain gaming magazine officials.

Hardware

The system consists of a standard Game Gear modified with RCA output jacks to allow the machine to connect to a television set or monitor. This would allow clear screenshots for game reviews, previews, and so on, since taking useful screenshots from a standard Game Gear would be very difficult. This TV-Out function is contained on one additional circuit board, which fits inside a convenient battery compartment. (The unit was then being powered by an AC adapter. Although the gameplay is unaltered through the use of this function, the displayed image is ringed with a background color, similar to how a PAL console generally displays a small border made up of the currently-loaded background color. Further points of note:

• It is possible for any technically-minded individual to modify their own Game Gear to have TV-Out, but the ease of this modification depends on the model Game Gear being modified, due to the lack of specific information on the hardware for each of the numerous revisions to the Game Gear through its lifespan.
• An example of this modified Game Gear was shown off in an issue of EGM in North America.