Sega Game Gear: A Complete Beginners Guide

The RetroGaming 101 seriesis aimed at gamers who are just starting out in the classic gamingscene or are curious about an older console or handheld that they don’tknow much about yet. Those of you that are especially knowledgeableabout the featured machine, I encourage you to add any information thatyou think would be beneficial into the comments section. If you are newto the featured console, and still have questions, you can also use thecomments section and I will do my best to help you out.

Even though I own a Game Gear and a few games, racketboy.comcontributer, Scooter jumped at the opportunity to share his knowledgeabout Sega’s attempt at mobile gaming. Enjoy!

Historical Impact

The Sega Game Gear was Sega’s response to the runaway success ofNintendo’s Game Boy. While technically superior in many ways, the GameGear failed to make a significant impact in the hand held system market.
The Game Gear was basically a compact repackaging of the 8-bit Sega Master System technology.
First available in Japan in 1990, North America and Europe in 1991and elsewhere in 1992, the system did have a decent lifespan not beingdiscontinued by Sega until 1997.
In 2000 the system was reissued by Majesco though still prominentlylabeled as a Sega product. The Majesco units featured slightly improvedscreen but did not support some of the earlier produced peripheralssuch as the TV Tuner.
In typical Sega style, the system had a large array of peripheralssuch as the Super Wide Gear (screen magnifier), a TV tuner, Gear toGear cable (a link cable allowing two player action with two linkedGame Gear units) and Master Gear (an adapter that allowed Master Systemcartridges to be played on the Game Gear).
Many successful Genesis game franchises spawned additional GameGear versions of those game series. Many such games were entirelyunique games instead of being simplified ports of the Genesis versionof the game.
More Sega Game Gear information on Wikipedia

Strengths

The system contains a 3.2 inch wide full color screen with 160 x146 resolution. This was quite technologically impressive in its dayand does provide a good play screen, though the resolution maydisappoint some players who are only familiar with modern, highresolution screens.
The Game Gear is ergonomically well designed fitting into the handswell and is not terribly heavy. Weight is significantly reduced furtherwhen used with an AC or car adapter or wired battery pack and no AAbatteries installed in the unit itself.
A wide variety of games in all contemporary genres were available.With the Master Gear converter, the library of roughly 250 Game Geargames could be expanded by an additional 219 Master System games,though there is a good amount of overlap in the systems’ game librariesas a number of games were ported either from Game Gear to the MasterSystem or vice versa.
The system it relatively inexpensive to collect and new or near new games and systems are still available regularly.
With the use of headphones or mini speakers the system can supportfull stereo sound if stereo support was provided within the design ofthe game being played.
Peripheral Madness! If you enjoy collecting peripherals for yourvintage system, the Game Gear can offer a wide array of fun andinteresting peripherals.
The power, sound and video boards are all modular so even with onlya basic technical ability, often times multiple failed units can bepieced together into at least a single fully working unit.
Game controls are kept quite simple with two action buttons and aD-pad. Most games are a pick up and play opportunity. The Start buttontypically functions as a pause button though on a few innovative gamesit can be used as an additional action button.
Game, system and peripheral packaging is colorful and most often quite artful.
The system is not region specific (the same holds true for MasterSystem games) so games from any region can be played on systems fromany region. The only region specific items are the TV Tuners.
The system uses cartridge based software and as such the software is quite durable and portable.

Weaknesses

The system consumes batteries at an alarming rate. The system holds 6 AA batteries which will last for roughly two hours.
Rechargeable batteries and/or AC or car adapters are almost a must for continued hand held gaming enjoyment.
The sound system was designed with inexpensive capacitors whichover time can fail leaving the system with a very weak or nonexistentability to provide sound.
The sound boards can typically be repaired by replacing thesecapacitors but this process can be costly and may be beyond thetechnical capacity of many collectors. When shopping for a used unit,be sure to inquire about the sound output!
The screen has a somewhat low refresh rate and will provide atemporarily lower contrast picture with fast moving games, such as theSonic games, in which the game screen scrolls rapidly. The laterMajesco units address this somewhat with a brighter, more active screen.
The game screen is not intensely bright and can provide lowcontrast when used in brightly lit environments. Using the system inlower light areas and/or making use of the Sega Super Wide Gear, whichnot only magnifies the screen it also blocks out outside light, isrecommended. Of course restricting use to low light areas can detractfrom the entire concept of a portable, use anywhere system andattaching the Super Wide Gear seriously detracts from the sleek designof the base unit making it bulky and cumbersome and definitely lesseasily portable.
Peripheral Madness! With so many peripherals available for thesystem, obtaining a full collection of systems, games and peripheralscan be quite a daunting task. Many of the peripherals help address, andexemplify, the system’s weaknesses. Most peripherals detract from thesystem’s portability and the sleek compact design of the base unit.
Not all games were designed with the Game Gear’s screen resolutionfirmly in mind and as such can be difficult to see what is going onduring game play.
System, game and peripheral packaging can be difficult to find indisplay quality, this is especially true of game packaging. For somegames which were released in small quantities, it can even be difficultto find game manuals to accompany the games.
The target audience of the Game Gear was typically younger gamersand as such many systems, games and peripherals have led a rough life.The collector concerned with blemish free items complete with all theiroriginal packaging will have to work harder and spend more to find morepristine examples.

Game Library

Racing:As with the Genesis and the arcade, Sega was strong in the area ofracing games and this of course carried over to the Game Gear. Some ofthe better games include: Super Monaco Gran Prix I & II, MicroMachines, Road Rash, Super Off Road, and Sonic Drift 1 & 2
Sports: Another area ofstrength for Sega in the ‘90s was sports games and the Game Gear againbenefited from this. Some of the best sports titles available were:Leaderboard Golf, Joe Montana Football, NFL ‘95, The Majors ProBaseball, PGA Tour Golf, and Fred Couples Golf
RPG: The Game Gear lineuplacks a strong library of RPGs but a few did reach the market. The bestof the bunch was Defenders of Oasis.
Platformers: If any singlegenre exemplifies Game Gear/Genesis era console gaming it is 2Dplatformers and the Game Gear had plenty of them. There are too many tolist here, but some of the best include the Sonic series (includingSonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, the first Sonic GG exclusive), Tom& Jerry The Movie, Bart vs. The Space Mutants, Krusty’s Funhouse,and the Ecco Series. (We’ll try to have a more thorough list of games later)
Beatemups: There is Streets of Rage on the Game Gear. Need I say more?
Shooters: A good number ofquality shooters were available for Sega’s little hand held. The betterones include: Aerial Assault, G-Loc, Desert Strike, Super SpaceInvaders, Super Battletank, Choplifter III, Fantasy Zone, and HalleyWars
Puzzle: Puzzle games wereby far not the largest genre available on the Game Gear, a number ofquality puzzlers were available: Columns, Super Columns, Dr Robotnik’sMean Bean Machine, and Marble Madness.

Imports

As mentioned above, all games can be played on all systems,including Master System games with the use of the Master Gear converter.
The TV Tuners are region specific with each being geared toward thebroadcast signals typical in the area to which they belong. The NorthAmerican and UK tuners look quite similar but function differently.

Emulation

In addition to the standard platforms like the PC, Mac, and Linux,emulators are available for many other platforms such as the SegaDreamcast, Windows Mobile, iPod, Playstation Portable, Game BoyAdvance, Nintendo DS and Palm OS.
Due to the similarities between the Game Gear and the Sega MasterSystem hardware, Game Gear emulators usually play Master System gamesas well and vice versa.

Affordability

A working base system can often be acquired for as little as $10-$15, though more pristine boxed versions will typically run upwards of $50 or more.
A good selection of games can be obtained for a few dollars apiece.Some games can still be found brand new still in the factory shrinkwrap.
Many games received wide releases and as such are readily available through typical sources such as eBay and used game stores.
While a few great games are hard to locate and expensive to obtaintypically due to low issue rates, a wide variety of quality gamesacross all genres are easy to obtain from worldwide sources.
Limited edition colored units can command significantly higherprices. The US received a blue unit marketed as a sports editionpackaged with sports games and a carrying case. Japan received a yellowunit and a Coca-Cola related unit in red. Other rare colors may havebeen available in small quantities.
You can also buy one of these newer handhelds with built-in Game Gear games rather inexpensively.

Peripheral Madness

Along list of useful and interesting peripherals can be found for theGame Gear. Most often it is best to limit collecting focus on Segabrand items.

TV Tuner: allows receptionof broadcast TV signals on the Game Gear unit turning it into a smallTV. A coaxial cable to mini pin adapter can also allow the Game Gear toreceive cable TV signals and can allow the unit be used as a cameramonitor/playback screen. The tuner can be expensive and hard to find incomplete, boxed condition.
Rechargeable batteries: twoversions of rechargeable battery packs were available. One is a sausageshaped heavy unit which has a belt clip allowing it to remain portablewith the unit. The other, called the Power Back, attached to the backof the unit integrating well with the overall design of the unit itselfthough it adds significant weight and a little bulk to the system.Given their age, both units often will contain worn out NiCad batteriesbut these batteries can be replaced relatively easily. Both batterypacks are charged by the same AC or car adapter that is used to powerthe Game Gear itself. (Another alternative is to simply use modern highquality rechargeable AA batteries.)
Gear to Gear link cable:this cable links two Game Gear units for full two player competition.This requires two Game Gears and two copies of the game to be played.Many games offer Gear to Gear compatibility.
Super Wide Gear: this is ascreen magnifier and helps make the screen more visible also byblocking out most external ambient light. Other brands of screenmagnifiers can be readily found, but few work as well or fit as wellonto the unit as the Sega brand item.
Carrying case: The Segabrand case provides secure compact storage for the base unit and themore useful peripherals. Relatively easy to locate and often notexpensive.
Master Gear converter: thisadapter allows Master System games to be played on the Game Gear. Thisadapter only works with Sega Master System cartridges, not the SMS gamecards. Note: only about 6 or 7 SMS games were ever issued on the gamecard.
AC adapter and car adapter:A must have to compensate for the high battery usage rate of thesystem. These same adapters are used to charge the Sega brand batterypacks so only one adapter is needed for charging and directly poweringthe unit. Additionally, the battery packs can be charged while using anadapter to power the unit during use.
Cheat devices: Game Gear versions of cheat devices such as the Game Genie were available.