Sega Game Gear Totally Explained

Everything about The Sega Game Gear totally explained

The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console which was Sega's response to Nintendo's Game Boy. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the Turbo Express.
Work began on the console in under the codename "Project Mercury", following Sega's policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets. The system was released in Japan on October 6 1990, North America, Europe and Brazil in, Sega also introduced Kids Gear, a packaging of the Game Gear system in a different color case. Another limited edition Game Gear was the red Magic Knight Rayearth version, featuring the game and a small miniature of one of the game's characters. Software advertised for Kids Gear focused more on children's game titles. Kids Gear was also only released in Japan.

Games

300 titles were released for the Game Gear, An advertisement was shown in black and white, with players milling about aimlessly in a dark void, playing Game Boys. A lone rebel appears with a Game Gear, cuing the narrator's comment of "The Sega Game Gear: Separates the men from the boys." Another showed a gamer, played by future actor Ethan Suplee, hitting himself in the head with a rigid, dead squirrel in order to see color on his Game Boy. When the Game Boy began to appear in different colors, Sega's ad ridiculed it by showing the Game Boy disguised in loaves of bread. Another ad from that era featured a professor explaining that though the Game Boy now was available in bright colors, the graphics were still monochrome, and therefore Game Gear was still superior. Still another memorable ad compared the Game Boy's "creamed spinach color" to Game Gear's "BIG BEAUTIFUL COLOR". Although Sega was rather proud of these original marketing campaigns, it may have backfired since many gamers—loyal to their existing Nintendo handhelds—saw the ads as offensive, condescending or even patronizing. Negative advertising may have also been detrimental since it implied that the Game Gear was in second place (as indeed it was).
Although its color backlit screen and ergonomic design made it arguably superior to the Game Boy, the Game Gear managed just a small share of the market. This can be blamed partly on the perception that it was too bulky, and on its somewhat low battery performance: the device required six AA batteries, and the backlit screen consumed these in approximately five hours (six on the later versions), compared to 10-14 hours of four-AA battery lifespan for the Game Boy(though still better than the Lynx and Turbo Express). External and rechargeable battery packs were sold to extend the devices' battery life. However, Sega's biggest problem was that it failed to enlist as many key software developers as Nintendo, so the Game Gear was perceived as lacking as many games. Although it was a decent success, the Game Gear didn't manage to achieve the commercial success that Game Boy did, in that when it went off the market it wasn't replaced by an immediate successor. The Game Gear, however, did better than other portable systems that tried to compete with the Game Boy, such as the preceding Atari Lynx. The Game Gear did suffer from some of the same key problems that plagued the similar Lynx, though Sega did somewhat better than Atari due to more titles and a stronger marketing campaign, as well as fixing many of the durability and build quaility issues. In the end, the Game Gear gained most of its sales by pushing the Lynx out of the market rather than eating into the Game Boy's dominant share.

Technical specifications

Main processor: Zilog Z80 (8-bit)
Processor speed: 3.58 MHz

Physical:

dimensions: 20cm x 11,3cm x ?
weight: ~400g

Accessories

Several accessories for the Game Gear were also produced by Sega:

The Game Gear TV Tuner plugged into the system's cartridge slot, and allowed one to watch TV on the Game Gear's screen. However, later versions of the Game Gear and the cost-reduced Majesco Core Game Gear hardware (see below) is incompatible with the unit, as it lacks the video passthrough. These units can output sound from the Tuner.

The Super Wide Gear was an accessory that magnified the Game Gear screen to compensate for its relatively small size.

The Car Gear adapter plugged into car cigarette lighters to power the system while travelling.

An adapter called the MasterGear Converter allowed for Sega Master System cartridges to be plugged in and played on the Game Gear. The reverse though, of playing a Game Gear game on a Master System console, wasn't possible due to the Game Gear's larger color palette.

The Gear-to-Gear Cable was an accessory that established a data connection between two Game Gears using the same multi-player game and let users play against each other.

Remakes and emulation

Support ended in 1997, but Majesco released a core version of the Game Gear in 2000 for a reduced price. The Majesco Core Game Gear differed slightly from the original Game Gear in that it was black and had a purple start button rather than dark grey and a blue start button, the logo on the front of the unit was no longer in color, and it didn't support the television tuner accessory. Its screen had a better refresh rate than the original model. It also had a somewhat better speaker that didn't distort as much when played loudly. It was part of Majesco's strategy of eking profits from products with margins too slim for the original manufacturer to pursue, and was accompanied by Majesco's licensed reissue of several classic Game Gear cartridges. Majesco-reissued cartridges are distinguished by having no plastic case, and a Majesco Sales logo on the label, as well as the current games ratings system, which differs slightly from the one formerly used by Sega. The Majesco logo wasn't prominent, and these were marketed under the Sega name.
   The Game Gear was reincarnated in a smaller handheld form factor in late 2006. This small handheld device was powered by 3 AAA batteries, had a brighter active matrix screen, and contained 20 Game Gear and Sega Master System games. It was released under several brands including Coleco and PlayPal.
   As of 2006, software emulators for Game Gear have been made for a number of devices such as the GP2X, GP32, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Symbian, Windows Mobile, iPod, PC, Palm OS, and the PlayStation Portable, many of which use less power, fewer batteries and come in smaller form factors than the Game Gear. Some PC Emulators such as the Kega Fusion can also play Game Gear ROM's.
   Though its sales success as a non-Nintendo handheld has been surpassed by the PlayStation Portable (PSP), the Game Gear still stands as the longest supported handheld console not made by Nintendo.
It has been confirmed that Game Gear games will be added to the Wii's Virtual Console under the label of the Sega Master System starting in February 2008.

Further Information

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