Game Gear

The Game Gear hand held.

The Game Gear is a handheld video game console developed by Sega and first released in Japan on 1990-10-06. It uses hardware so similar to the Master System it can play its games with an adapter. It uses the same 8-bit Z80A CPU, same graphics chip, and same SN76489 sound chip.

When the Game Gear was first released it had to compete with the Game Boy and Lynx. It was able to supplant the Lynx and took the second place position, but it never even came close to competing with the Game Boy.

Personal

Around 1992, my friend Rob won a Game Gear in a raffle. I remember seeing it and thinking it was too large for a portable gaming device. I don't know if I played it, but, if I did, I probably only played Columns, the pack-in game. My friend agreed that the system wasn't very good and he was able to return it to the store where he won it and exchange it for a Genesis instead. I have never played a Game Gear since, any other games I've played on the system have been through emulation.

Status

I've never owned a Game Gear and only very briefly played one in real life.

Games

See all Game Gear Games.

These are the Game Gear games that are important to me:

• 

  Aladdin

Hardware

• Game Genie
• TV Turner

Review

Good

• The color graphics are very attractive on the device, especially compared to the green and black Game Boy.
• With a backlight, the device can easily be played in total darkness.
• Selling an optional TV tuner was a nice addition for those who could afford it.
• Making it backward compatible with the Master System (via an adapter) gave the Game Gear a huge boost in available titles, although, the Game Gear's resolution couldn't handle the Master System games properly.

Bad

• Like with many of Sega's consoles, they just couldn't attract that many high-quality third party developers, so the catalog of games is lacking. Nintendo's anti-competition policies no doubt contributed to major developers like Capcom and Konami from even bothering to release a title for the system.
• A lot of the games that were released on the Game Gear were just watered down versions of what was being released on the Genesis.
• Although it had about three times as many games as the Lynx, it only had about a third of the number of games of the Game Boy.

Ugly

• The devices backlit color display required a lot of power. The Game Gear needed six AAs batteries to run (a lot for the time), and you would realistically only get about 4 hours of solid game play before they were drained. This made it very expensive to use a Game Gear. A power cable could be used, but that decreased portability, and rechargeable battery packs were made, but that was just another cost.

Media

Boxes

• 

  Japanese box.

• 

  North American box.

• 

  European box.

Documentation

• 

  North American manual.

• 

  European manual.

• 

  Brazilian manual

• 

  US Hardware Reference Manual.

• 

  US Service Manual (VA1).

• 

  EU Maintenance Manual.

• 

  Japanese ad, front.

• 

  Japanese ad, back.

Videos

Game Gear Works - 1990, 1/3.

Game Gear Works - 1990, 2/3.

Links