Sega Game Gear

From Sega Retro

Sega Game Gear handheld console.

The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console developed by Sega in 1989 and first released in Japan on October 6, 1990, with a North American launch in 1990 and European/Australian launch in 1991. Codenamed Mercury, it was developed in response to Nintendo's Game Boy handheld, released around the same time.

The Game Gear is basically a pocket Sega Master System with a VDP capable of displaying palettes consisting of a wider variety of colors than its predecessor and stereo sound. The system is held lengthwise at the sides, preventing the cramping of hands that plagued the Game Boy.

Sega of America advertised the Game Gear throughout its lifetime through a television advertising campaign involving amusing and bizarre spots, some directly attacking the Game Boy. One commercial shows a dog looking back and forth at both portables while the narrator says, "If you were colorblind and had an IQ of less than twelve, then you wouldn't care which portable you had. Of course, you wouldn't care if you drank from the toilet, either." Another has a gamer hitting himself in the head with a rigid, dead squirrel in order to see color on his Game Boy.

While its hardware was superior to the Game Boy and was its most successful and longest lasting competitor, a combination of poor design choices and poor third-party support led to the Game Gear's eventual decline and discontinuation in 1996/1997. For example, the Game Gear was bulky and required six AA batteries which the backlight on the LCD screen ate through in three hours (a battery pack which provided longer playtime was made; see below).

Due to the hardware similarities, many early Game Gear games were modifications of Master System games made to take advantage of the larger palette capabilities and smaller screen size. Several hardware adapters were made to allow you to play Master System games on the Game Gear, such as the official Master Gear.

Specifications

  • Main Processor: Zilog Z80 (8-bit)
  • Processor Speed: 3.579545 MHz (same as NTSC colorburst)
  • Resolution: 160 x 144 pixels
  • Colors Available: 4,096
  • Colors on screen: 32
  • Maximum Sprites: 64
  • Sprite Size: 8x8
  • Screen Size: 3.2 Inches
  • Audio: 4-channel tone generator composed of three square waves and one white noise channel.
  • RAM: 24 KB

Gallery

Accessories

Super Wide Gear

Super Wide Gear attached to a Game Gear.

The Super Wide Gear is a screen magnifier for the Game Gear. It clips on to the bottom of the system.

Rechargeable Battery Pack

Rechargeable Battery Pack connected to a Sega MK-2103 AC adapter.

The official Game Gear rechargeable battery pack provided an alternative to spending a fortune on AA batteries, especially considering the fact that it ate through them in 3-4 hours. The battery pack contains several Nickel-Cadmium rechargeable battery cells and plugs into the Game Gear's AC adapter port. The battery pack can be recharged by plugging a Sega MK-2103 (or equivalent) AC adapter into the battery pack. (This is the same AC adapter used by the Game Gear, Genesis 2, and 32X.)

Mega Gear / Mega Game Gear

This was a product supposedly in development early into the Game Gear's life that would allow Genesis users to play their Game Gear titles on their home console, similar to how the SNES could run Game Boy games using the Super Game Boy cartridge. There was very little, if any, official word from Sega about this, aside from very vague references in gaming magazines at the time. With the advent of console emulation, there have been attempts to prove that this method of playing Game Gear games is possible, and have been fruitful: there are utilities available that supposedly convert Game Gear ROMs to Genesis-format ROMs, however their ability is unproven, as they will generally not function in any current emulators.

Alternate Models

Game Gear development hardware

This, along with a TV-Out modified Game Gear, consists of two cards to plug into a PC, an In- Circuit Emulator, a 5.25" floppy (presumably containing an assembler) and a LARGE circuit board - with composite video out.

Coca-Cola Game Gear

Model #3210CR

This was a limited-edition Japan-only release of the Game Gear as part of a promotion between Sega and Coca-Cola. It is exactly the same as a standard Game Gear console, save from a deep red colour instead of the standard black. It was released with a similarly limited-edition game named 'Coca-Cola Kid'. An example of this unit is on display at the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta.

In 2005, Coca-Cola released another limited edition handheld, the Coca-Cola Edition of the PlayStation Portable.

MKR Game Gear/Kids Gear

Model #HGG-3210 RAY

Another Japanese Game Gear variant is Magic Knight Rayearth GG, which sported a red color, and featured the Rayearth logo. Another variant is the so-called 'Kids Gear', released in 1996. This variant is again a standard Game Gear, only renamed and featuring a large Virtua Fighter 2 image fascia, which reflected the pack-in title (Virtua Fighter 2).

Handy Gam*Boy

Handy Gam*Boy

A South Korean varient, distributed by Samsung in 1991.

List of Games

External links

  • Console Database - Sega Game Gear info and FAQs
  • SMS Power - Technical information and more on the Game Gear and its bigger brother, the Master System
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Sega Game Gear
Topics Sega Game Gear | History | Magazine articles | Promotional material | Merchandise
Hardware Japan | North America | Western Europe | Eastern Europe | Asia | South America | Australasia | Africa
Wide Gear | Fun Play 20-in-1
Add-ons Pro Action Replay | Game Genie | X-Terminator | Master Gear Converter (Gear Master | Nuby Converter) | Stereo FM Tuner | TV Tuner
Cases Carry-All | Deluxe Carry-All Case | Gear Bag | Holster Case | Standard Carrying Case | Soft Case | Third Party (Play & Carry Case)
Accessories A/V Cable | Battery Pack | Car Adaptor | Car Antenna | Cleaning Gear | Gear-to-Gear Cable | PowerBack (Third Party) | Screen Magnifier (Wide Gear | Super Wide Gear | Third-Party)

Handy Gear | Master Link Cable

Development Tools Sega Game Gear Development Board
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