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Sega Game Gear

Manufacturer	Sega
Type	Handheld game console
Generation	Fourth generation
Retail availability	JP October 6, 1990 NA April 26, 1991[1] EU April 26, 1991 AR April 26, 1991 AUS 1992
Introductory price	US$150
Discontinued	April 30, 1999
Units sold	11 million[1]
Media	ROM cartridge
CPU	Zilog Z80 clocked at 3.58MHz
Memory	8KB RAM, 16KB VRAM
Display	160x144 pixel resolution, 32 on-screen colours out of a palette of 4096
Dimensions	209 x 111 x 37 mm
Weight	~400g
Successor	Sega Nomad

The Sega Game Gear (ゲームギア, Gēmu Gia^?) was an 8-bit handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, Europe and Argentina,^[1] and Australia in 1992.

As part of the fourth generation of gaming, the Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, the Atari Lynx and NEC's TurboExpress. With 11 million units sold,^[1] the Game Gear was on a solid second place, but very much behind the Game Boy.

The Game Gear was succeeded by the Sega Nomad in 1995, and was discontinued on April 30, 1997.

History [edit]

Work began on the console in 1989 under the codename "Project Mercury", following Sega's policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress. The launch price was $150 USD and £145 GBP.^[1]

Features [edit]

Design [edit]

The Game Gear was invented by Makoto Ohara of Sega Enterprises Ltd. as a portable version of the Master System (SMS). It featured a lower resolution screen than the SMS, but allowed for a larger color palette. In addition, it could also produce stereo sound (through headphones) as opposed to the SMS's monaural output, though very few games made use of the stereo capabilities. Unlike the original Game Boy, in which the screen was positioned above the buttons, the system was held in a landscape position, with the controls at the sides, making it less cramped to hold.

Because of the similarities between the SMS and the Game Gear, it was fairly easy for SMS games to be ported to Game Gear cartridges; the Master Gear Converter, released during the system's lifetime, even allowed original SMS cartridges to be played on the Game Gear directly.

Variations [edit]

The blue Game Gear edition, identical to the standard Game Gear, except in body color, was released in 1994, with the game World Series Baseball.^[2]

Other limited edition models were released only in Japan:

• Red Coca-Cola themed unit, in 1994, which came with a game entitled Coca-Cola Kid.^[3]
• White, with only 10,000 units sold.^[4]
• Red Magic Knight Rayearth and light blue Ninku Blue version, featuring the game and a small miniature of one of the game's characters.
• Kids Gear, a packaging of the Game Gear system in a different color case.

Software advertised for Kids Gear focused more on children's game titles. Kids Gear was also only released in Japan. Majesco released their own version as a Limited Edition Re-release for 2001 in a jet black shell. This re-issue features a screen with an improved refresh rate, resulting in noticeably less motion blur. A Yellow version of the system was also sold in certain markets.

Games [edit]

A screen shot of the title screen from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) for Game Gear

Approximately 390 official titles were released for the Game Gear,^[5] although at the time of the console's launch, there were only six software titles available (seven with the pack-in game, Columns). Sega made sure that a wide variety of video game genres were represented on the system, in order to give it a broad appeal. Prices for game cartridges initially ranged from $24.99 to $29.99 each.
Unexpected use of template {{2}} - see Template:2 for details. They were molded black plastic with a rounded front for convenient removal. The original Game Gear pack-in title was Columns, which was similar to the Tetris cartridge that Nintendo had included when it launched the Game Boy.

Popular titles included Sega's own series, notably Sonic the Hedgehog; Disney movie extensions, such as The Lion King; and 3rd-party developer games like Shaq Fu.

Matching Nintendo's Game Boy, Sega chose not to use regional lockout on Game Gear cartridges, meaning that any system could play any games regardless of the country they were released in. This practice helped to make the console popular among import gamers.

Battery life issues [edit]

One of the system's biggest issues was battery life; while better than earlier color backlit systems, its 4 hour battery life (5 hours on later models) using 6 alkaline batteries was still not as good as the Game Boy's 10–32 hours of four-AA battery lifespan (due to that system's monochrome screen and lack of a backlight). Battery life was a much bigger issue before handheld systems had built-in rechargeable batteries; gamers needed either a constant supply of six AA batteries, or a rechargeable Ni-Cd battery pack that was sold separately and clipped on a user's belt or onto the back of the Game Gear using the clips and screw holes.

In an August 2011 video documentary on the relative battery life of the 3DS and Game Gear, GigaBoots.com documents that their Game Gear, Model 2110g (2nd Revision), lasted 7 hours and 26 minutes on 6 regular Duracell AA batteries; this unexpectedly long battery life led them to speculate that battery technology must have improved since the Game Gear was launched.^[6]

Sales and competition [edit]

The Game Gear was not very popular in Japan, where it was released to a generally apathetic audience, with build quality issues plaguing earlier revisions of the unit in its service life. The Game Gear was more expensive than the Game Boy ($149.99,^[7] versus $89.99 for the Game Boy). The significantly larger price tag contributed to driving away potential Game Gear buyers.

When first launched in America, a TV advertising campaign was used to promote the system as superior to the Game Boy. One advertisement was done in the style of a dystopian film, showing a world where brainwashed players mill about a dark warehouse, playing Game Boy's like zombies. A figure surrounded by blinding light appears with a Game Gear, cuing the narrator's comment of "The full-color video game system that separates the men from the boys." The players return all the Game Boys in angry masses to the cult leader, themselves now liberated.^[8] Another showed a gamer, played by actor Ethan Suplee, hitting himself in the head with a rigid, dead squirrel in order to hallucinate color on his Game Boy.^[9]

Despite its backlit colored screen and ergonomic design, the Game Gear managed just a moderate share of the market. Sega's biggest problem was that it failed to enlist as many key software developers as Nintendo. Although it was the Game Boy's strongest competitor for the handheld market, it managed only a fraction of its sales. The Game Gear suffered from some of the same key problems that plagued the similar Atari Lynx: low battery life and high price in comparison to the Game Boy.

A successor to the system, intended to feature a touchscreen interface, was planned during the early 1990s, years before the Game.com. However, such technology was very expensive at the time, and the handheld itself was estimated to have cost $289 if it were to be released. Sega eventually chose to shelve the idea and instead release the Sega Nomad, a handheld version of the Mega Drive (Genesis), as the successor.^[10]

Technical specifications [edit]

• Main processor: Zilog Z80 (8-bit)^[7]

• Processor speed: 3.58 MHz^[7] (same as NTSC colour subcarrier)
• Resolution: 160 x 144 pixels (same as Nintendo's Game Boy)
• Colors available: 4,096^[7]
• Colors on screen: 32^[7]
• Maximum sprites: 64
• Sprite size: 8x8 or 8x16
• Screen size: 3.2 inches (81 mm)
• Audio: 3 square wave generators, 1 noise generator, the system has a mono speaker, but stereo sound can be had via headphone output
• RAM: 8 KB
• Video RAM: 16 KB
• Power:
  • internal: 6 AA batteries^[7] ~4–5 hours
  • external: 9V DC, 300mA, 3W^{[11][unreliable source?]}

• Physical:
  • Width: 209 mm
  • Height: 111 mm
  • Depth: 37 mm
  • weight: ~400g

Accessories [edit]

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

A Game Gear with TV Tuner plugged in

• 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 are incompatible with the unit, as it lacks the video pass through. These units can only 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 Adaptor plugged into car cigarette lighters to power the system while traveling. It could also serve as a surrogate wall wart on wall plugs that converted 110 volt AC NEMA connectr to 12 volt DC cigar lighter receptacle.
• An adapter called the Master Gear Converter allowed for Sega Master System cartridges to be plugged in and played on the Game Gear, with a somewhat reduced image resolution. No converters allowing GameGear games to be played on the Master System or Mega Drive (a la the Super Game Boy) were made available. The smaller's console's expanded 4096-color palette made such a conversion technically difficult, and practically/commercially impossible even for hobbyist hardware-hackers.^[12]
• 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.
• The PowerBack enables the Game Gear to have a longer battery life, and is rechargeable with Sega's Genesis 2 power adapter.
• The Battery Pack also enables the Game Gear to have a longer battery life, both may be used to greatly extend the battery life.

Remakes and emulation [edit]

Support ended in 1997, but Majesco released a core version of the Game Gear in 2001 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, the power switch was colored black rather than the usual orange and it did not support the television tuner accessory. Its screen had shorter response time than the original model. It also had a somewhat better speaker that did not get distorted as much when played loudly. It was part of Majesco's strategy of making 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 was not prominent, and these were marketed under the Sega name.

Though its sales success as a non-Nintendo handheld has been surpassed by the PlayStation Portable (PSP),^[13] the Game Gear still stands as the longest supported handheld console not made by Nintendo.^{[citation needed]} Furthermore, it was also the most successful competitor to the Game Boy, selling 11 million units.^[14]

In Japan, Game Gear games are available through the Wii's Virtual Console.^[14] Several Sega Master System games have been added to the Wii's Virtual Console, many of which are games that had also been released on the Game Gear.^[15]

On March 2, 2011, Nintendo announced that their 3DS Virtual Console service on the Nintendo eShop will feature games from Game Gear,^[16] which launched a year later on March 15, 2012.

The Sega Game Gear was prominently featured in the 1993 movie Surf Ninjas (which subsequently received its own Game Gear video game as well). It can also be spotted in the 1994 movie, Airheads, as well as the 1995 movies Man of the House and Rumble in the Bronx, and as part of the main character's arsenal in the 1997 movie Home Alone 3 though startup sounds from the Game Boy of which is a competitor could be heard in Home Alone 4.

References [edit]

This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (June 2012)

Sega Game Gear US Patent application form: http://www.google.com/patents/USRE35786?dq=Sega+enterprises+Patents+television&ei=gUsMT9efDIHmggeY-_i-Bw

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Game Gear

Sega portal

• "Official Sega support information". Archived from the original on 2006-03-21. 
• Game Gear at the Open Directory Project