With the announcement of the Game Gear Micro, we thought you might like to revisit our Hardware Classics feature – originally published in 2016 – on the real deal. Enjoy!
It's easy to see the thinking behind the Game Gear, the machine Sega positioned as a Game Boy-beater in the early '90s. The firm's Mega Drive / Genesis platform was doing a fine job of stealing away market share from the aging NES, and Sega no doubt assumed it could do the same in the portable arena with hardware that was more powerful that what Nintendo had to offer.
Dubbed "Project Mercury" in its early development life and based heavily on the 8-bit Master System console – Sega's domestic NES challenger – the Game Gear arrived in Japan in 1990 amid a groundswell of hype and expectation, a lot of which had to do with Sega's elevated standing in the industry at that time.
For those who were slightly disappointed with the Game Boy's unlit monochrome screen, the Game Gear – like the Atari Lynx and NEC PC Engine GT – seemed like the real deal, at least on paper. Packing a full-colour backlit display and a palette of 4096 colours (even more than the 64 colours supported by its domestic ancestor, the Master System), Sega's portable definitely had the technical edge over the Game Boy.
Also of interest was the fact that it would benefit from quick-and-easy ports from the Master System thanks to the internal architecture being almost identical (screen resolution was the biggest difference between the two). While many fans were disappointed that the "Micro Drive" rumours turned out to be false (some magazines at the time speculated that the Game Gear would be based on the Mega Drive rather than the Master System), interest in the handheld was massive – thanks in no small part to the incredible commercial success of the Game Boy, which had essentially created the handheld console market single-handedly.
Unlike its rival, the Game Gear opted for a landscape format which Sega felt would be more comfortable for prolonged play. As was the case with the Master System, the Game Gear has two action buttons, while the rolling D-Pad makes hitting diagonals very easy indeed. Unlike the Master System, the Game Gear supports stereo sound – but only when using a pair of headphones, as the console only has a single speaker for audio. A brightness dial allows you to adjust the screen backlight for the optimum viewing experience, while an "EXT" port is used to connect two consoles for multiplayer gaming, just like the Game Boy.
Initially, the Game Gear's library was made up of Master System ports which Sega was able to bring to the market quickly and with the minimum of effort. Fan-favourites like Wonder Boy, Columns and Super Monaco GP were early hits and were based on their 8-bit home console equivalents. While exclusive releases did appear, the Game Gear relied heavily on Master System ports, with big-name first-party games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Master of Darkness, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap and Streets of Rage II all being transferred to the handheld.
While these games were excellent, seasoned Sega fans had already experienced them on the Master System and there was little reason to double-dip – outside of the ability to play on the road, of course. However, a neat consequence of the internal similarity between the two systems was the ability to play Master System carts on the Game Gear via a special adapter; while the portability of the machine was impacted negatively when using this add-on, it became a must-have accessory for all owners.
That's not to say that there aren't any decent Game Gear exclusives at all, however. The two Shinobi games are utterly fantastic and do an excellent job of capturing the brilliance of the Mega Drive Shinobi outings on a much smaller screen. Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya is another must-have game, as those who picked up the recent 3DS re-release will attest. The problem is that there simply weren't enough games of this quality to convince players that the Game Gear was a worthy alternative to Nintendo's hardware, while other exclusives – such as the disappointing Sonic Labyrinth – failed to ignite consumer interest, despite the allure of the character.
Of course, software was only part of the issue – battery life was almost certainly a more pressing concern for potential customers. While the Game Boy's meagre demands meant that it could extract as much as 30 hours of gameplay from just four AA batteries, Sega's console needed 6 AAs to offer between 3 and 5 hours. This wasn't an issue unique to Sega's machine; the Lynx and PC Engine GT both suffered from terrible stamina and this limited their potential as portable devices. Anyone who owned a Game Gear during the early '90s will recall being tethered to the wall socket in order to save money on batteries, rather defeating the object of having a portable system.
Despite this glaring problem, Sega's marketing at the time focused strongly on highlighting the technical gulf between the Game Gear and the Game Boy, the latter of which was derided as being backward and simple. Print advertisements in the US showed a dog holding a Game Boy, with the slogan "If you were colour blind and had an IQ of less than 12, then you wouldn't mind which portable you had." Commercials on North American TV – one of which starred Ethan Suplee, who would later find fame in Hollywood movies such as American History X, Without a Paddle and The Wolf of Wall Street – poked fun at the Game Boy's monochrome display, citing the screen on Sega's system as a major selling point while conveniently ignoring the fact that it dramatically impacted battery life.
In the UK, Sega's advertising campaign was less confrontational and was built around the concept of the brand being cooler than everything else on the market – an approach which would reach its zenith with the iconic "Sega Pirate TV" campaign for the Mega Drive. In the resultant commercials, the impossibly suave "Jimmy" (played by Peter Wingfield, most famous for his portrayal of the Immortal Methos in the Highlander TV series) shows off another of the Game Gear's key selling points – the optional analogue TV tuner which could transform the handheld into a television – something Nintendo's hardware could never hope to replicate, given its grayscale display. Sadly, the TV tuner is of little use today as analogue television signals are no longer used in most countries.
While the Game Gear struggled to match the phenomenal sales of the Game Boy, it did outlast its colour-screen rivals. Sega was still producing software for the console as late as 1997, and in the same year would officially discontinue the platform – not a bad lifespan for a machine which only managed to sell around 10 million units worldwide. In contrast, Atari and NEC's consoles had become little more than a distant memory by that point.
Sega would return to the handheld market with the ill-fated Nomad, which used the Mega Drive hardware as its base but was just as ravenous when it came to consuming batteries. By the time the decade was drawing to a close, the company had started its withdrawal from the portable sector by supporting rival handhelds such as the SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color and Tiger Game.com.
The Game Gear's status as a Sega system and its relatively large library of 363 games has ensured that it remains in demand with collectors today. Thankfully, it's not an expensive machine to collect for; hardware is relatively cheap, even when fully boxed and in good condition. There are a handful of titles which attract high prices – Compile's sublime Power Strike II being one notable example – but on the whole, it's possible to amass a decent selection of games for very little cash.
Of course, if you'd rather take the easy option then you'll be pleased to learn that the Game Gear is one of the many retro systems to benefit from its own Everdrive cartridge, which can be sourced from resellers like Retro Towers. These cartridges allow you to store ROMs on a MicroSD card and essentially carry around the entire Game Gear library without having to worry about swapping out cartridges.
This is actually more of a benefit than you might expect, as one of the biggest flaws with the system is that the cartridge slot is incredibly temperamental – it's often necessary to remove and insert a game several times before it loads properly.
Another hardware issue with Game Gear consoles is low audio volume and dim screens, a consequence of the ageing capacitors inside the system failing. Thankfully it's possible to have these replaced, essentially returning the console to as-new levels of performance. For the truly dedicated, screen modifications are available which replace the console's crude LCD screen with a more recent offering, drastically improving visual quality. While the Game Gear's default display was impressive for the time, by modern standards it's a bit of a mess, with blurry movement and poor viewing angles being two serious issues.
While it might have failed to prevent Nintendo from dominating the handheld arena, the Game Gear is still a classic machine that is worthy of re-investigation, as the all-too-brief flurry of 3DS Virtual Console releases proved a short time ago. If you're willing to spend a bit of additional cash, then you can potentially improve the console with a better screen and flash cart support, making it an even more appealing proposition – just make sure you have a PSU handy, or stock up on those AA batteries.
Or you could simply snap up all four of the recently-announced Game Gear Micro variants. Your call.
Comments 76
The other thing that should be mentioned is the fact the Game Gear used an early LCD screen. This would make many games nearly unplayable due to rampant motion blur.
Replacing the original LCD system for something much better is quite easy nowadays and something I strongly recommend.
I love the Game Gear. I even have the TV Turner. My favourite games include Sonic, Wonder Boy, Mortal Kombat and many more. Too bad the Game Gear 3DS VC was short lived.
Of the two original Game Gear units I have the one has no sound while the second one has a faulty screen. Sort of bad luck. I may check the mod screen.
First game on gg: Wonderboy. That game is much better than Adventure Island on NES. Best game on gg: Shining force and Baku Baku.
Very good hardware feature and a pleasure to read as usual. As I was reading, I thought I was going to have to point out the capacitor issues these things have now, but there it was toward the end. I grew up primarily with Sega stuff including the Master System, which was not so common here in the US. I really enjoyed the Game Gear back in the day. I received the adapter to play Master System games as a gift, unaware it even existed. That was a great way to extend its library. My biggest gripe, then and now, is the sound chip. After all these years, I don't know how I missed getting the Shinobi games on it. Ninjas are awesome.
Apart from the battery life, and niggles like the dim screen, low sound, and the pretty hefty size of the thing, this really was/is a frikin sweet bit of hardware.
But as your video link shows, with a few tweaks here and there the Game Gear is still a bit awesome to be honest. And the blue system looks genuinely gorgeous.
I loved the Game Gear myself, even with all the issues with it. Del the funky homosapien as loves the game gear.
Watch this music video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG5La6k6eTI
I've always wanted to play on a Game Gear, but never got around to doing so. My cousin had one, but she always refused to let me try it out.
Nowadays, I'm unsure if I'd want to try and purchase a Game Gear. As I live in the UK, the majority of it's games also came out on the Master System, even later Game Gear releases had versions on the PAL Master System from what I've seen. As someone who prefers console gaming to handheld gaming, that certainly seems the nicer option.
Then again, I did find a copy of Sonic The Hedgheog 2 for the Game Gear in my Nan and Granddad's shed, so I've already got a game for a system I don't own. Darn... there are too many awesome, past systems and games that I'd love to play.
I never owned a Game Gear, but it still provided me with some of my fondest gaming memories. I spent months playing Shinobi and Sonic on my friend's GG in the early Nineties. Not to diss my beloved Gameboy, which provided a lot of good times as well, but it was mindblowing how much more immersive the GG was at the time.
@empsolo That was mentioned.
I got this one year for Christmas. I quickly regretted not picking up a GB instead. The ability to kill batteries was it's downfall for me. For a kid with no money, I went long periods of time of not playing it because I had no batteries. I did finally buy the adapter but like the article said, you were tethered to a wall. I had fun playing it when I could though. I believe the sonic game had him use the hang glider, which was awesome for kid!
I never had one but had a friend who did. All I remember from using it was blurry colored visuals and always having it plugged in at his house growing up. I preferred my game boy even if I had to get the light and magnifying glass attachment to play at night.
Game Gear was my first handheld gaming console. My father bought it for me, and the only two games I ever got for it were Sonic 2 and X-Men. The graphics were amazing for its time, but a few things really bothered me about the system:
A noble effort from Sega, but ultimately a failed experiment...
I thought Game Gear was a pretty neat console, but since I had a Game Boy, I've never owned one.
I'm guessing it was also a little affected by the Nintendo monopoly (in that by the time it was removed, GB had already built up a big userbase). It doesn't look like it had a whole lot of third-parties supporting it, especially in Japan. (like Namco supported it, but only with some games like Pac-Man that were on everything. No huge exclusives, I don't think.). Better than Master System in that regard but still not great.
My first console, and possibly still the one I had the most games for. Also my younger brother's first and I had friends who had one. Curiously enough, I don't think I knew anyone who had a Game Boy.
Lots of happy memories.
I still have it laying around here somewhere, probably 20 year old batteries with all the juice sucked out of them.
I had the limited edition White Game Gear from Japan, it was a great system, in particular I remember enjoying Sonic 1, Castle of Illusion and Ninja Gaiden. The port of OutRun was interesting as well, as it had quite a different selection of tracks (the game wasn't that great though).
I recently discovered the Shinobi game on the 3DS Virtual Console and it is really awesome, I wish I'd had that one back in the '90s!
Reading some people's experiences with the terrible battery life reminded me that I never put batteries in my Game Gear. Not once. Same applies to my Nomad. I've always liked handhelds, even if they were not as portable as they could be.
I remember playing Columns and Streets Of Rage on my friends Game Gear when I used to stay at his house! Good times
@sdelfin Ditto on the Nomad! I bought that console purely to get my through some boring shifts at my family's video store in 2000. I just plugged it into the mains, the battery pack never had any batteries inside it, ever. Good times!
I would like to mention Tails Adventure, that actually came before Sonic Adventure and is a very interesting game, even if small by today standards.
Unfortunately the screen of my Game Gear died before I could even acknowledge its existence, so I played it later on Sonic Adventure DX for the PC.
@dkxcalibur that game was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Really good graphics and sound, and favored exploration to find the emeralds on the second act of each zone. Also, really fascinating zones, especially the last three (Gimmick Mountain Zone, Scrambled Egg Zone and Crystal Egg Zone).
But it was hard. Incredibly hard. My brother and I managed to beat the first boss only when we learnt that a specific pattern worked well for the first bombs.
Sadly outside of Sonic Chaos and Triple Trouble, I never really got too into the Game Gear. However, I'll admit the graphics and sound processing were miles ahead of the Game Boy.
The GG Shinobi games are superb, even today (especially the second one), but I suppose I am one of the five people in the entire world who loved Sonic Labyrinth (and not simply because it was a Sonic game).
@Shiryu or play it on emulators
I've got a Gamegear in excellent condition with about 50 games, PSU, TV Tuner and a neat carry-all bag. They were terribly expensive here so pretty thin on the ground and it's almost impossible to find one now without the all too common sound & display issues.
Aw the Game Gear, a cool little handheld that was created with no purpose other than to mock Nintendo's Game Boy. I would had bought one then had it not for the expensive price tag, low battery life, and a weak library of decent titles.
@Seacliff I would had been more wow by it had it come out before the Game Boy, since it came out after it's expected to be better.
My friend had one. The battery life was soooooo terrible, it made the G-Pad look like it was running for years!
I got the sega game gear everdrive. Lets you play the entire library on one cartridge.
Get the everdrive. It makes playingvthe game gear soo much better. Its worth every penny.
@MikeW Those were the times when being hardcore meant something, save states and the like were for pampered kids. It´s one of the things that I liked about vintage Sega, it was either be hardcore or get the hell out.
@FRANKLIN_BADGE
True, but still it would have been nice to have save features for those games... for the less skilled gamers such as myself haha
If anyone´s interested in an obscure gg game that is simply amazing and genius in platforming, try Donald Duck's Deep Trouble, that is vintage Sega at its finest.
While the Gameboy was so much more a part of my childhood than Gamegear, I still thought it was awesome. I remember borrowing one from my friend and being SO surprised when the new set of batteries died in like 2 hours. Lol
my brother got one.its broke.it came with a bag,i dont know how its called,the stuff tourists(or batman) have on their belt,l use the bag as a wallet sometimes because im fashionabluuuuh like that.
Does anybody know somebody who mods them for tv output? I'm afraid of my own soldering skills.
I had a GG back in the day and thought it was great. Unfortunately, the screen is just terrible today. I had some nostalgia and bought one on ebay that had caps replaced and florescent installed thinking it would give a good picture and it does not. Motion blur and lack of constrast make playing it pretty rough. Those games do look great on 3ds vc though.
Surely the biggest problem with it was the price. It was at least twice that of the gameboy, so parents we're more likely to buy the latter. That generally ment everyone had a gameboy, and that made it more popular as well due to sharing games and multiplayer.
I was spoiled as a kid as I had both a Game Boy and a Game Gear, though not a lot of games for my GG. I mostly remember playing Sonic and Baseball. I got rid of both at some point in the past and picked up a boxed Game Gear again, GBA SP does everything the GB did only better.
I just in the past couple of weeks picked up a Game Gear Everdrive and now I would like to find someone to do a capacitor and screen replacement and I'm all set. I'm looking forward to seeing what this beast can do.
My first hand held console. Was miles ahead of the Game Boy, and playinf SOnic 2 was a blast. I stayed awake hours just trying to beat the second world or stage!!
I had one which I took with me to Japan, but the son of uncle's friend fried it, so I bought another one in Japan. I mostly played tethered to a wall, but thta never bothered me as houses in Japan are very small and a outlet was always nearby.
Game Gear was a cool system, but nobody I knew had one. It was all Game Boy where I lived. I loved reading about the Game Gear's terrible battery life, because as a kid whenever I had to change my Game Boy's batteries (maybe once a week to ten days if I was allowed to play it as much as I wanted) I invariably heard, "Do those guys have a deal with the battery company?" If only my dad had known about the Game Gear!
I used to play my friend's Game Gear. We would sit in his house or mine and I would let him play my Game Boy while I had a "shot" on his GG. Mortal Kombat and Sonic were great fun. I'd certainly like to get one with a power-supply and a modded screen!
I bought a second hand Game Gear a year after it was released. I played it once or twice and sold it back. The games just weren't as good as the Game Boys. I was sold on the color bright display but was let down on the games.
I was never impressed with the Game Gear. Mind you, I wasn't a fan of the Master System, so any kind of handheld version of that was never going to impress me.
This sucks, come on Nintendo and do the gameboy classic. I'd buy 3
@empsolo Super easy to replace with a modern panel.
Sega should have rereleased the nomad and given away an adapter for gamegear games with it.
The games are still out there, still work, and current tech would make these incredibly cheap to produce.
This site feels like Segalife sometimes!
I loved my Game Gear back in the day. I don't want it in 2020, just like I don't want a Game Boy classic. Just bring the games to the Switch in an affordable package
To me, being a portable Master a System was a huge plus as I never had one of those systems. To my mind the GG had a great library - both Shinobi games, Sonic 1 and 2, Ninja Gaiden, Castle of Illusion, Lucky Dime Caper, Super Kick Off, GG Aleste, Land of Illusion, Super Monaco GP, Super Off Road, Devilish, Desert Strike, Columns are all games I had great fun with
My younger brother had a Game Gear which he used around the house, fortunately he had a charger. My mum used to borrow it to play Columns for hours on end. Great little machines. Sonic was great on it as was Castle of Illusion, another great game was that Castlevania clone Master of Darkness.
I received a Game Gear for Christmas one year because my dad thought the color screen was better than the GameBoys green monochrome screen (thankfully I got the GameBoy prior to this). Thankfully for both, they bought an external battery pack. I had never grown up with Sega so the Game Gear only saw a little use (because even with the battery pack, it was brutal on charges). Sonic, Columns, Ninja Gaiden, Spider-Man and Dragon Crystal were the games I owned; and I borrowed Shinobi enough from a friend that it might have been my copy.
Had I not started with Zelda and Super Mario, I probably would have gone down the Sega path due the system. But at least to me the games seemed not as well done.
Never had a Game Gear for a few reasons after trying my friends. First the screen was awful it may have been colour and pretty much identical to the Master System in most ways except for the better colour palette but it was so hard to make anything out clearly, one of the draw backs of both that and the Atari Lynx. Second for a portable system it was expensive to run as you needed to have a huge amount of batteries to play for more than a few hours or have it plugged in at all times which defeated to whole point of it being portable. Third and final reason I already had a Master System and most of the games were identical on both and if anything at least here in Europe the Master System had the better selection. The actual design and the idea of the hardware over the game boy was better but in terms of practicality and exclusive software there was only one choice.
@Shiryu It’s probably easier to buy a cheap PSP and hack it for emulators. You get a much better screen too.
I remember getting one for my 5th birthday one year but didn’t even get to open it because someone broke into the house and stole it. Never got to own another one but I got a game boy colour instead a Few weeks later
GameCube Sonic DX was the first time I played GameGear. The game doesn't reference the console beyond name so I had no idea what it actually looked like.
It was only until a few years later that I finally got access to the internet and eventually came across a picture.
Surprisingly I had seen the console, probably before DX, because it appears in Rumble in the Bronx, just had no idea what I saw.
Jackie gifts it to the kid, fully working (with no game inserted.)
Oh the Game Gear! My first SEGA system. Some excellent games, Master System compatibly and most importantly a colour, back lit screen. Honestly, the mini sound and blurry screen were never an issue. The battery life though.... I was so jealous of my friend’s Game Boy. 4 AA’s gave 30 hours on the GB whereas you were lucky to get 90 mins on the Game Gear (3-5 hours, similar to an original 3DS is nonsense, it never lasted that long)
I remember going to the US on holiday. 9/10 hour flight. One set of batteries. Total boredom for 8 hours plus. My little sister on the other hand, got a Game Boy at the airport and could play for as long as she wanted...
Would have rather had a "mini" version of this with 50 of the best Master System and Game Gear games pre-loaded rather than what we got.
Yeah, I think the Game Gear's biggest issue by far was just the amount of batteries required and the terrible battery life. If that machine had taken say 4 batteries and ran for 20 hours then I think it probably could have sold more units than the Game Boy. It's better than the Game Boy in every single way other than batteries required and battery life.
My Game Gear was my first Sonic experience. I play that VERY good Sonic game many many times - and I've still yet to finish ANY other Sonic game.
Now my Mum (in here late 70s) own's and still loves that same console!
Back in 1991, i chose the Game Gear over the Atari Lynx 1, although I thought the Lynx had the better games, the Style and feel of the Game Gear I thought was so much better. 2 issues I had were battery life and the Screen Backlight in that you could switch off, it was difficult to play in certain conditions.
Years later, I found out the reason for the poor battery life is actually the back light, it is an old school fluesscent tube inside the game gear. In drains the power like there’s no tomorrow
I got my old Game Gear that I recently bought in 2003 mod with new capacitors and a new backlit screen and the game looks gorgeous plus now the battery life lasted 8 hours instead of the usual 3. Couldn't be more happier. I plan to get a Game Gear EverDrive soon so I could back-up all my Sega Master System and Game Gear games all in one.
I had a Game Gear - it was my first console of any kind. Small factual inaccuracy in the hardware review above saying Game Gear owners had already played Streets of Rage II on the Master System. In fact, Streets of Rage II never released on the MS - and even Streets of Rage released on GG first before being later ported to MS.
@Electrolite77 listed most of the classics. The GG Shinobi duology is fantastic, as are the two Mickey Mouse games (and Lucky Dime Caper). Also had a lot of fun with the Streets of Rage games, Wimbledon and Mortal Kombat 1&2. Got the most mileage, however, out of the MS convertor with Phantasy Star and Populous. So many hours spent sitting by a mains power outlet, playing Phantasy Star...
LCD screen was great. The only game that suffered motion blur was Sonic - and even that was a darn sight less blurry than any Game Boy action game. But Tetris knocks Columns out of the park - and Link’s Awakening is better than any adventure game on GG.
I bought a Game Gear with Case, 6 games, 6 game cases, 6 manuals, an AC Adaptor for $24.99 from Half-Price Books. I played it for one day, stored it for 2 weeks, then it refused to turn on. What a bummer.
I still have mine and never had any trouble with it. over 300 games for it, that's a lot. although the Gameboy was better value with more games.
@Gerald I had the Lynx, actually, I still have it. It was so amazing for the time! Too bad Atari didn't have the marketing muscle to make it a hit, but it did have some really good games. For me, the battery issue wasn't a big deal. I didn't want to play my Lynx anywhere in the world, I just wanted to be able to play in my bedroom (which had wall outlets). My family had one TV, which was pretty common back then, so getting access to it for video games was often not an option.
I love the Game Gear to be perfectly honest, even with all its flaws. The micro though, not so much.
I knew people with Mega Drive/Gensis but I don't think I even saw a Game Gear in person until I was in high school, and at that point the DS had been announced. I do not remember ever seeing the Game Gear in stores as a kid. I don't remember classmates talking about them, nor do I remember any commercials for them.
I remember getting the Game Gear over the Game Boy because I thought it looked better.
I mean... I didn't admit to regretting it, but I regretted it. Took me nearly a year to save up my own money and buy a Game Boy.
Oh good, I need a key chain!!!
@Lilith93 lol I can’t quite tell if you’re serious or trying to be funny but your comment is so nuts that I love it lol 😝
I wonder if the Game Gear would've been more popular if they had split the difference between graphics and battery life by using a non-backlit color screen like the GameBoy Color and the original GameBoy Advance model did.
It probably still wouldn't have beaten the GameBoy without a better library of exclusive games, but it may have been able to make a big enough dent in the market to convince Sega to make a handheld successor (not counting the Nomad, which is just a portable Genesis) before they had to exit the hardware business.
I finally got one in December 2018 in a retro event, with fixed capacitors, and before that I had gathered 7 boxed and complete games, but this is not, at least in Europe, a cheap system to collect. The good exclusive titles range between 10-20 € in loose cartridge condition, maybe with plastic case. Boxed and complete it starts at 30 €.
But it really hasn't that many really exclusive games, most of them are good ports of Master System titles, which isn't bad itself, but owning a MS and with GG not being really portable with the battery draining so fast... it doesn't make much sense to buy GG versions of MS titles anymore.
Having said that, I love the system, but like with all consoles with games released in cardboard boxes, getting complete games keeps getting harder and more expensive. Luckily Sega used the more endurable -and more likely to be kept by people- plastic in all its other systems, unlike Nintendo, which started as late as with GameCube. Those are getting harder to get too, but cardboard boxed games were already expensive 15 years ago.
As someone who grew up as a 90's kid I totally remember the Game Gear, but I also remember how nobody had one. We all had Game Boy handhelds. I think the problem was how the Game Gear was just too ambitious for it's time considering the technical limitations of the era. It was essentially a portable Master System with a backlit screen and that was mind-blowing stuff for the 90's but it was also so advanced that it needed a ton of batteries and had poor battery life. I just think most parents didn't want to be buying 6 batteries all the time. That and it was extremely bulky, taking away from the portability. It was honestly just nowhere near as good of a portable despite the backlit screen, the practicality just wasn't there. That and the game library wasn't anywhere near as large making it far less compelling. In the end I think it is pretty obvious why it failed for the most part. It also seemed to be nowhere near as reliable as it is pretty easy to get working Game Boy's these days while getting a working Game Gear seems to be a difficult task.
@RadioHedgeFund These days if you want to play Game Gear you are pretty much stuck getting an emulation machine and playing emulated games on that. If you really want to buy them you can get the games they got on the 3DS, but it's only a small selection of the first party highlights, but that is probably the best reason to play the games these days. Based upon my experience trying to buy one the original hardware is just far too difficult to get working unless you get lucky and find a good working one or put in the money and effort to modify it.
My fondest memories with my game gear was long road trips where i wouldnt pack enough batteries to last a 10 hour ride and having to stop over and over becuase this thing demolished 6 batteries like no ones business! those were the days!
The Game gear was launched before technology allowed for better battery life and screen resolution. One of the first things I did was purchase the backpack and the battery life was never an issue. The screen was a bit blurred on some games due to the porting but when they tweaked the code it was decent. Shinobi, NBA Jam and Sonic were a must have as was Mortal Kombat. I have the case, backpack and a lot of games. I need to fix the caps though because my audio went out about a year ago. I never had a slot issue and have never heard of that either. I used to swap games a lot and played for hours on the road.
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