Why Does The Sega Game Gear Get No Respect !?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2023
- In today's video, we talk about the Sega Game Gear and why this handheld doesn't seem to get any respect.
#retrogaming #consolegaming #sega
Support the channel on PATREON : / ladydecade
Join My Discord - / discord
Follow Me On Instagram - / lady_decade
Produced & Voiced by Lady Decade
Co-written by the Lady Decade & Chad Bonin -
/ @tsundoku
www.smspower.org/forums/15056...
• Game Gear Longplay [03...
Game Gear Longplay [037] Sonic The Hedgehog 2
World of Longplays
• Game Gear Longplay [11...
Game Gear Longplay [113] Baku Baku Animal
World of Longplays
• Game Gear Longplay [04...
Game Gear Longplay [043] Columns
World of Longplays
• Magical Puzzle Popils ...
Magical Puzzle Popils (Game Gear) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
NintendoComplete
• Game Gear Longplay The...
Game Gear Longplay The Lost World Jurassic Park
Old Gamer - Jogatina Clássica
• See how the Gulf War b...
See how the Gulf War began: 'The skies over Baghdad have been illuminated'
CNN - เกม
I had a gamegear in the 90s and fucking loved it. There were so many sonic titles that were doing things that other sonic games didn't. Sonic Labyrinth was about sonic losing his speed, and needing to use his fucking brain to find chaos emeralds to get his speed back. Tails' adventure was about Tails saving the forest using machinery. It's how I learned that tails was a genius engineer who made bombs and robots. Sonic Drift 1 and 2 were the first cart racers for sonic. It was hilarious seeing knuckle's giant fist appear out of his kart to down other opponents.
Great Vid Lady D
Growing up in the 80's you were either Sega or Nintendo
I was Sega so the Master System, Megadrive and Game Gear was for me
Growing up we were far from affluent, quite the opposite, 6 children and 2 parents living in a 3 bedroom house
It breaks my heart to think how hard my parents worked to support us, my Mum working 3 part time jobs and my Dad working a full time job with very long hours
Makes me appreciate even more now, especially as it's over 3 years since my Dad died 😢
Parents got me one for Christmas on clearance after it was discontinued. And a bunch of cheap games to go with it. Loved that thing. They soon realized their oversight and also bought the wall and car plug ins.
Kept working until about ‘06/‘07 before the capacitors crapped out. Didn’t know it was repairable then and chucked it. Figured 10-11 years was a good run.
Still remember the GBC coming out and my neighbor was super excited for it and I’m like “Why? Sega did color years ago.”
Anyway, still play GG games via emulation at least weekly. Totally underrated
Gameboy was better than Game Gear is the reason why lol.
@jaywest3734 it is in some ways. It was consistently rated higher... but it really shouldn't have been in many cases, such as Mortal Kombat being great on Game Gear and other such feats of similar impressiveness, generally missing from game boy green years.
@@jaywest3734 no tf it wasn't
That’s how I felt when the Wii and Switch came out I’m like Sega did this years ago
I always wanted a Game Gear as a kid. I had a Gameboy and a Mega Drive and I loved them but I wanted to play Sonic on the go. Such a cool console.
It gets no love because it drained the batteries in minutes. It did not come with a rechargeable pack. People had to plug it into the wall. It was just better to use an actual Sega Genesis at that point.
As a kid who had the Game Gear... and eventually got the Gameboy color years later... you didn't miss much. The Game Gear had a huge problem in that it required 6 batteries... and drained quickly,. You couldn't play any game for very long.
Game boy was way simpler and I ended up spending many happy hours playing Kirby, Zelda, Mario, Pokemon
@@RAMIRO0 Not just the battery life, but the expensive price tag for both the hardware itself as well as the software too. Software side of things, GG games were $10(or $15 in some cases) more expensive than GB game software as well!
@@G.L.999 I liked the Game Boy Pocket with Pac Man.
It was reversed for me, i wanted the Gameboy but got the Game Gear 😂But i love it still today ❤❤
Sega made an official exernal rechargeable battery pack and there were also knock off ones. I had some bricks that clipped in the original battery compartments on the sides. Those plus the clip on screen magnifier made it so ridiculously awesome. Never got the tv adapter but wanted it. Also Beavis and Butthead was a nice title that def got some hours put in.
I had a Game Gear as a kid. Before that NES. Dad got me one so I could have something to do in long car rides. It was super fun!
I was always told id get car sick looking down 😖
The only thing that kept me from getting a Game Gear is that I had a Genesis. When I saw GG games in magazines, it just felt like they were inferior 8-Bit versions of games I already had. So instead I had a Game Boy which appeared to have more original games, of games I didn't have.
Yh your right tho
I also feel the GG had an excellent and distinctive sound chip which, just like it's color palette, was slightly better than the MS. True, it drained batteries dry like the Y2K bug was about to hit a decade early, but it was still a great system.
I loved and cherished my GG. Some of the best gaming moments of my life happened with that thing in my hands. I had an AC adapter, car adapter and a sack of rechargeable batteries so I never felt the squeeze of the SIX AAs every three hours.
I have three of these. Two were found in the trash (bulk trash, for one week, the city will haul away almost anything you pile on the curb), and one was given to me by a friend. All three have defective screens. I've never looked into fixing them.
The Game Gear was, and still is, my favorite console of all time. My brother and I even had the cable to connect our Game Gears together, and regularly used it to compete in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. As for the battery life, we simply just used a LOT of AAs. I'm sure my brother and I are soley responsible for a significant portion of the AA's in the NY/NJ landfills. Oh, and 3 hours was optimistic. It was more like 2.5 hours of gameplay, as they would die just 20 minutes before arriving to our grandparents house. When our Game Gears died, we knew were were close. And as soon as we got there, grandma would give us jumbo packs of AA batteries (and ice cream). We did eventually get car chargers.
I had a Game Gear back in the day. I loved it, but it was barely portable. I had to play with it plugged in if I wanted to play for more than 2.5 hours. Still, it was awesome!
Yet another gem of a video, Mi’Lady. ❤❤❤❤❤
I saw a video where someone operated on one of these and replaced the screen with a modern lit lcd, new capaciters, and added lithium batteries and a charging system for it. If I remember correctly he got about a day of runtime with this setup.
Great question. 🤔
What remains a mystery to me is why they never released am improved version with lower battery consumption. But I suppose they wasted there engineering resources on console addons instead.
The problem was that technology wasn't really there yet; much like using max brightness on phones kills the battery, so to did a color display.
The colour palette is 4096, it could display 32 out of them. The master system could display as many but out of a palette of 64.
It should be noted that a lot of original Game Gears are slowly decaying. There are places you can download circuit boards to print off (with a circuit printer) and kits to fix screens/speakers
Nice we have emulation. Hopefully it never goes away.
What an underrated gem of a channel.I remember my Game Gear so fondly until it was lost in an airport terminal, honestly one of the if not the best portable gaming system of the 90s. Being able to play Sonic on the go was fantastic.
I have it its mine forever bwahaha
Fun fact: The latest licensed Game Gear game is GG Aleste 3 on 2020. Primarily for the Game Gear Micro.
At least the game also can be played on the Switch and PS4 as an emulated Game Gear game.
I still have my childhood Game Gear. Despite it being beyond dead and not working whether I use batteries or an AC adapter, I just can't get rid of it. I may have been born in 94, but I grew up on the old stuff.
Probably needs the capacitors replaced
I agree, whilst I never owned one back in the day (I owned several down the line)- my mate had one and I used to play it daily. Great little system!
I had a Gameboy but I always envied my friend's Game Gear. The only downside I could see at the time was the poor battery life.
That was the main reason why I never botherd. The Gameboy already ran through batteries too fast for my taste.
The GG library was terrible....
@@willcail All of the master system games. The selection was massive.
My parents bought Game Gear's for me and my brother when we were younger for summer vacation car trips. Dad got us the AC adapter for the hotel and was smart enough to go to Radio Shack and buy universal car adapters and a car AC splitter so the both of us could be playing at the same time. They even got the link cable and copies of Power Rangers for us to play against each other. We never did. Found a copy of Shining Force 2 at a local game trader and enjoyed replaying it many times.
The Game Gear was the only 8 bit Sega system I ever owned, but I had both peripherals, meaning that the only North American Sega 8-bit titles I couldn't play were the SMS games which came on cards instead of cartridges. And through a VCR, you could even connect its display to more powerful consoles, such as the Saturn and PlayStation. But yeah, you did need the adapter and wall outlet (or the car's dashboard cigarette lighter adapter) to play it.
I'd say two major problems handicapped the Game Gear. In the short term, it was the battery life. But in the long term, the bad capacitors lead a lot of them getting junked instead of refurbished. One of my friends had one and I enjoyed the heck out of it... even if remembering Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine gave me PTSD!
Love these videos! Nice to see someone finally giving the Game Gear its due. I had the Game Gear when I was a kid too, loved it to bits. I had trouble with it after a while though as I struggled with the batteries and at one point I managed to accidentally spill some water on it which caused the screen to develop a fault with a huge black bar right down the middle. I recently modded a GG with a new screen, new sound, rechargeable battery mod and a gorgeous new blue shell and a flash cart and it is utterly fantastic now
I remember being in primary school and everybody wanted a gamegear. I had a friend who had one with a TV tuner he could insent into the cartridge slot. I was so jealous. 😅
i got a free NES from a cousin when my uncle bought him a game gear... a few months later he wanted his nes back in exchange for the game gear haha but i was hooked on the nes... the he got an atari jaguar... and still wanted the nes back...
Hi, Lady Decade! I had one of these and LOVED IT. I spent countless hours playing Mortal Kombat II on it.
Still have my original GG and got it recapped to play and build my collection. One small tidbit I learned about collecting is that the console is region free so any version works on my system.
I never had a game gear, but my cousin did. I played the GG version of Sonic 2 on it numerous times, and while game gear was ahead of its time it was too expensive and ate batteries like a beast.
Great console. Had a lot of fun as a kid in the 90s with Mortal Kombat 2, Streets of Rage, and Shinobi.
As a child I had a GG for a period. It ate too many batteries. Constantly buying batteries and later constantly re-charging rechargable batteries for hours for
I wanted the GameGear SO BAD when I was a kid! I ended up being a GameBoy kid, and while I LOVED it, a little sliver of the ol' lizard brain kept daydreaming about colored, backlit Sanic 💙
I now have two gamegears, both in great disrepair, but ONE DAY I'll max one of them out with all possible repairs and upgrades! I'll definitely be making a video about it!
Side note, HUGE kudos to you for the quality, and FREQUENCY of your content! It takes me AGES to make a video. You're an inspiration, and I hope to match your skills someday!
Great video! I got one for Christmas as a kid, loved it but always played it plugged in.
Got one when I was 15, my dad “finished “ a small room (12x12) addition I moved into and I had a little tv and small alarm radio for entertainment and that was about it because my older brother kept the PlayStation in his room.
I got it at a garage sale with Sonic and Columns for about $25 with a DC adapter, So glad for the DC adapter because I played it so much, until I got the mini psone.
I had the Gamegear as a Kid Germany (former east germany), i never saw Gamegear games on sale. So i was stuck with a 4 in 1 and Global Gladiators. This lead to another problem, at that time i had to buy the games on my own and wouldn't get them as birthday or christmas present. But even if i got money, it wasn't enough to buy new games, even if i would've found one. New SMS/Gamegear games where as expensive as AAA titles today. So i solely resorted to buying used games. Since these games wheren't sold locally, i never got them in my area.
This was another thing with the Sega Master System, this was more popular and i could get used games.
But it's fun to mention, that the Gamegear was technically so advanced, that it was even graphically better then the Gameboy Color, that was released 7 years later.
So in a way i would say, the Gamegear was just too far ahead of it's time.
Fascinating, I had no idea about that early history of Sega consoles. Your videos are always informative!
Great machine, I had one, but ultimately it was the non-portable portable handheld, due to chronic battery life and bulky size. I didn't realise it held on so long and was still available when the PS2 launched, shame they didn't upside the screen, down size the console and get better battery life out of it with a revised version. I reckon they would have a market for a revised collectors version now (not a tiny thing!).
My favourite games were Sonic, Alien 3, Streets of Range. If I recall it had OutRun and it was awful, and it had a turn based strategy game called Crystal Warriors (?) I could never get to grips with it.
Battery life 100% killed the console.
Otherwise it had so much going for it. A lot of people who held onto it... they almost exclusively kept the device at home on its charger which essentially meant people by virtue of the horrible battery life had to treat this portable console like a home console (Genesis, etc.)
The battery issue has two wonderfully excellent official solutions in the battery pack, which is a recharged battery pack meant to be clipped to a belt, pants, etc. The second being the superior power back which attached to the back of the handheld and gave it a whopping 8 hours of play time. For the more adventurous they're was the solar gear which in addition to a battery with an AC port for charging it had a solar panel which being a 90s solar device means it wasn't worth it unless you went camping with it.
I am old enough to remember when the SEGA Game Gear was released. My Dad had surprised me with one Christmas morning of 1991. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the pack-in game, so I definitely burned through countless AA batteries for those few hours of Sonic and Tails.
At 7:10, you mention the need for an AC adapter, or car plug to keep our gaming on the go. Well, Ms. Decade, do you recall the officially licensed, SEGA Game Gear Battery pack (Model #2105)? It was (is) a rechargeable pack that provided an alternative to spending a fortune on AA batteries by having something which can be charged and reused. It was designed to clip onto a user's belt.
As an interesting tidbit of information, the Game Gear is a 9V console just like the Genesis, and the Game Gear's battery pack uses the same type of DC plug as the Genesis. You were able to connect the battery pack to the Genesis and make it "portable" as well. I used a Sony "Watchman" from Radio Shack as a screen. How nerdy was that?
Game gear and Lynx to me felt extremely similar in dimension, ability, and unfortunately... Battery life. That's what really killed it imo
Had a friend with a game gear, he never used it because the battery cost was absurd
My fondest memory of the Game Gear was "playing" Pokemon Yellow on it.
Hear me out - using the official Game Gear TV Tuner, it was possible to connect a console of you had the right cables.
By using it as a screen for an N64, Pokemon Yellow could be played via Pokemon Stadium's GB Tower.
The poor thing died of leaky capacitors many years later.
I wish I still had mine, was my first console 😢 loved Sonic 2 with the paragliding section!
The Game Gear had some cool stuff. Got to play some of its titles on 3DS.
I got a game gear when it came out. I think it was for Christmas. It came with Columns and was the only game I ended up owning. I might have rented games for it, but I can't remember. Sadly I lost the console to a house fire in a couple years or so later. I remember wanting the TV tuner add on. Aside from the game gear I owned an original game boy and psp. Once I got my first pocket pc my gaming habits changed and I never bought another handheld. I still think about the game gear from to time and it's awesome to see this video!
I never had one, but I remember being in church one day as a little kid, this teenager in front of me opened up this briefcase and there was a gameboy, gamegear, walkman, and some other stuff. He played Sonic on the Gamegear the entire time and I had a blast watching it. Really my only memory of the thing lol.
I knew a guy who had the TV TUNER. Back on one of the army bases during a 24 hour duty we managed to hook it up to the cable line and watch cable tv through it. I was surprised. I only owned Sonic 2, Master of Darkness, and Shining Force: Sword of Hajya. I bought a carrying case, the screen magnifier, and the AC adapter so I was basically plugged in as the battery use was terrible. I think I would have loved getting the minis. My old Game Gear barely has a display (unusable), and the sound is very muted. It would need a restoration by someone who knows how.
I loved my Game Gear, but a bag of rechargeable batteries was absolutely required. I could never afford the TV tuner, but I really really wanted one. LTT recently did a video where they replaced the screen with modern parts, and it looked incredible. I wish I had held on to my old Game Gear, as I'd love to do this upgrade. The original backlight was a flourescent tube, so those modern LED's probably significantly expand the battery life.
I wish I had kept my original gameboy sigh!
My gut feel is that the main issue with the Game Gear is purely that not many had it. I think anecdotally battery life was poor but I don't know how much truth there was in this.
But I remember my friend had one and I was totally blown away and spent his entire birthday party tucked in the corner of a room playing Sonic on it.
Glad to see you cover this wee classic. Definitely deserves more respect than it gets.
u could over ride the poor battery life with a batterry pack i would get 9 hours on a single charge.
"I think anecdotally battery life was poor but I don't know how much truth there was in this." as a GG owner in my youth, it was 100% true. The batteries would get a few hours max. That, and the poor screen quality (visibility) and resolution is what made me prefer my trusty old Game Boy despite it being monochrome and non-backlit.
Battery life was terrible.
not if you had a battery pack I could enjoy 9 hours and night time play which was a luxary then. @@skaldlouiscyphre2453
I had it as a kid here in Greece, before i bought Game Boy pocket and Color. Game Gear was much better but was too ahead of its time and the battery thing was a major issue.
I had a Game Gear when I was a kid in the early 90s and I loved it. Yeah, it was huge and the battery life sucked. But I was always turned off by the Gameboy's monochrome, unlit screen. Thus I, like probably most GG owners, either used the rechargeable battery pack or played with it plugged into the wall.
it's incredible that the last game gear game is GG Aleste 3, published in 2020 inside the fifth variant of GG Micro, the white one (or inside the GG Aleste collection for switch/ps4).
Great console the GG, i loved it so much back in the days. It's a shame that many great games didnt left the japan market (sylvan tales, the two shining force, moldorian, coca cola kid, buster fight, the mc donald platform...)
It chugged through 6 AA batteries after 2-3 hours of gameplay. I ended up getting the AC adapter meaning that I had to sit next to a wall outlet to play Sonic on the game gear. Trying to play Sonic on the game gear compared to the Master System or the Genesis was another impossibly difficult task too. If Sonic wasn't able to pick up a ring after being hit those games wouldn't be playable.
Sonic Chaos is thr only one that I beat without a level select code. The first boss of Sonic 2 on the Game Gear is a nightmare in itself. There was no save system either. Regardless, I put tons of hours into it.
As a Sega kid in the 90s I love the choices of background music in this video, although, it would remiss if I didn't point out that the Game Gear port of Sonic, as seen in the Mega Collection Plus on PS2, Xbox and PC, there are some differences, for example, on Jungle Zone Act 2, as you ascend the waterfall, on the Master System, the screen locks behind you, meaning that any attempt to descend would be instant death! This was not so on the Game Gear version and why it is as such in aforementioned collections! And if you didn't already know that, then, well, there you go, you learn something new every day! The Master System Sonic was the first game I ever played and I distinctly remember that being a pain for 7 year old me and then being shocked when I saw gameplay of the Game Gear version at school on one of those "bring your toys in days" near the end of term! You know the ones!
I had one in the 90s. My father got it from Dubai. The gameboy was only available in monochrome when this came out. Unfortunately the gamegear that I had developed a malfunction of the screen within a year of purchase and there were no authorised service center nor warranty validity in India back then on these.
I am in the process of complete refurbished of Gamegears I got from a ebay lot. I have already completely replaced the motherboards and moved the asic chips and card slots over to the new boards, just have to install new cleanscreen board and TFT screens and drop into new shells. Also thinking about putting a modern power board so we can use a rechargeable lithium ion battery. I have an entire shoebox full of games I am looking forward to playing.
As a kid in the early 90s, my mom & I would check the Goodwill every weekday and we found a Game Gear for cheap. My parents had already bought me a Genesis from a garage sale with the mickey mouse game from this video & two others. Which was a steal because the Genesis had just came out in NA at the time. So then also finding a cheap Game Gear, was really cool as a little kid getting into video games because we wouldn't have had the money, otherwise.
Anyone who had one knew about the battery life, so you would play in short incraments. I seem to remember a light that would warn you when the batteries were low, as well. Something that I didn't see covered in this video, but maybe its just because of differences in video game media in NA, from elsewhere, was the Game Gear _really_ got hammered with negative reviews related to its "bulky" size. The Gameboy was viewed as something you could realistically bring with you out into the world, whereas the Game Gear's bulk, along with the poor battery life, was argued to be a death sentence for the innovative handheld.
Sega Game Gear (I adore it) a rechargeable (massive) battery pack was made for it, which I used provided a cost effective way to play (for about 2 hrs) but for me this was perfect as my attention span wouldn't allow for me to play much longer than an hour anyways. Just a couple cents. great video, m'lady
I owned a game gear for most of the 90’s and even had the nearly all of the accessories as well. Back then I didn’t know it could play master system and the same was for the genesis. I had the usual power adapters for home and car. More importantly I had the rechargeable battery pack. This meant I could play for more than three hours at a time. I also remember that if you had the ac adapter plugged into the wall before connecting to the battery pack you could recharge it while it was connected to the game gear. I also had the screen magnifier which for certain games was helpful. Though I did eventually end up with a sega nomad i wish i hadn’t let my mother pawn to pay bills. Unfortunately it was incomplete as I lacked the battery compartment. At least I had my reachable battery back then to power it. I was probably the only kid in my town that walked around playing street fighter two for the genesis back then.
Yesterday my uncle gave me a clear Game Gear out of nowhere for a late Christmas gift! I never considered ever picking one up, but now I’m kind of excited! I think I’ll pick up Streets of Rage 2 and Ristar for it soon
I had one of them, use to lay under the covers at night and watch tv on it with the television adapter lol😂 loved it
For me, the Game Gear's problem is this - it was impressive in the 90s, but today its library is mostly inferior versions of Master System titles, 8-bit downgrades of 16-bit titles, and a whole lot of games I just don't care about.
Dynamite Headdy on the Game Gear was something special in the 90s. Today? I can play the infinitely superior Genesis version on half the devices I own, and I can even play a translation of the Japanese version which has a fairer difficulty and all the dialog that didn't get ported to the English version.
I never had the TV Tuner. I didn't know what a Master System was growing up. I owned all the Sonic games released in the US and that was about it.
To compare - sure, the Gameboy had a LOT of NES ports and downgraded 16-bit titles. Games like Donkey Kong Land have their charms, but I'm not going to pick them over the SNES titles unless I've played them recently and there's nothing else that catches my interest at the time.
But the Gameboy does have Donkey Kong 94, which is one of THE best games in the entire Donkey Kong franchise. Wario Land 2 and 3 are weird and quirky platformers that haven't been one-upped or replicated by anything I'm aware of outside of maybe Pizza Tower. The Zelda games were structurally on par with Link to the Past, if not even better in some regards - it's just the lack of buttons that holds them back once you get a full inventory of items. I still think Pokemon Gold and Silver are better than nearly every game that came after them, and while that's partly my own nostalgia talking, there's nothing like that on the Game Gear.
There's a lot of really quirky and special titles on the Gameboy and GBC; I know the Game Gear has some titles that are worth playing that can't be found elsewhere, but as an adult, I never played them and I don't care. Every time I try playing a Game Gear game it reminds me I'd rather be playing something on the Genesis.
It's hard for me to think of a console more defined by its time than the Game Gear. It's historically interesting and deserves its place, but I wouldn't want to play one.
I got one for christmas back in... I don't know, probably 1994. I remember I thought it was so cool that I could play something like a Master System while in the toilet. That was amazing to me back then.
my friend had a Game Gear in 1991 and it had a copy of sonic 2 plus a TV adapter and a power cable , it was cool to have a little TV it was great
Without having watched this video yet, and as a former Game Gear owner I can tell you my problems with it. The Sega Game Gear had a messed up backlighting system that give you a headache if you played it for long, that is really my only complaint about it, but that was a major complaint, it was very difficult to enjoy being unable to play it for long without getting a headache.
I grew up with the game gear. Never had a crazy assortment of games for it, but we has Sonic 2, either Sonic Chaos or Triple Trouble, I don't remember which, Aladdin, and I want to say we had the Castle of Illusion port, but I could just be remembering the genesis version.
It may drain batteries like an ice cube in the desert, but the quality is undeniable.
This totally earned my sub! 😅
While I'd argue the Sony PSP vs the Nintendo DS was a bigger handheld battle than the Sega Game Gear versus Nintendo Game Boy, you could also argue that the performance gap was larger between the GG and GB vs the PSP and DS to the point that the following respective generation the Game Gear could outperform the Game Boy Color whereas the PSP was about on par with the 3DS. Sure the GG ate batteries like I eat french fries, (I remember my cousin having the rechargeable battery pack and even then opting to keep it plugged in unless he went outside), but in the few cases where you had games on both handhelds, the GG version would often be superior.
3:30 "...we went from the masters system ability to *display* 64 colors to the game gears 4096 colors!"
Both of these numbers are wrong. The Sega MS had a *palette* of 64 colors and could *display* 31 colors while the Game Gear had a *palette* of 4096 colors but could only *display* 32 colors. So the onscreen comparison is Sega MS: 31 colors and Sega GG: 32 colors. Don't get it twisted.
It was my dream gadget back in 1992. For the first time I had seen a Game Gear up close, I thought it blows Game boy away with LCD color screen! However, being a broke elementary kid, my years of saving up my school allowance is not enough to afford it.
Well I grew up in the 90s in the UK and I never met or knew anyone that owned a Game Gear. Not a single person. I did not even know the system existed until about 5 years ago...seriously!! Everyone had a Game Boy on the other hand.
I’ve had my game gear for what must be close to 30 years now and I love it. Had it recapped and soon I’m treating it to a new LCD screen. Easily one of the best gaming consoles ever made
I remember as a kid that on the way to school all the other boys were cramming themselves around a kid in the last row. Turns out that kid had a Game Gear! Here's the part that really blew our minds..... he was watching TV on it! 🤯. Welcome back to the 90's.
Had one growing up, it absolutely ate up batteries. I usually played it with a power supply, which kind of defeats the point of it being portable. Had some quality puzzlers on it. Klax and Woody Pop being firm favourites of mine
I actually had the Magic Knight Rayearth Game Gear. Nothing really special about it. Just a red Game Gear with the Magic Knight Rayeart logo on it and it came with the MKR RPG packed in.
It unfortunately got water damaged in a house fire, so it isn't working, but I kick around the idea of getting a working Gear and trading out the guts to get it up and running again.
I had one of the blue ones when I was a kid, I think it came with Lion King. The only other game I remember playing on GG was NBA Jam, which I did love. The one thing I remember not liking about Game Gear was its size, as a kid the Game Boy just felt better in my hands. I also could never have put in the kind of hours like I did on Pokemon Blue version with the Game Gear's battery life
I loved mine - fave games were Dragon Bruce Lee, and it ran Master System games so i had golden axe, desert strike, paperboy and i had the TV tuner for it.
it was my first foray into the dedicated gaming world. even with a huge batterypack that also allowed for better grip, the battery still didnt last.
Growing up I didn’t even know there was any SEGA handhelds at all; I thought the only thing you could get was Gameboys. Not until my late twenties when I got back into old games did I even discover this things existence.
I always felt like the Game Gear was genuinely a much cooler system then the Game Boy. Granted, I never grew up when they were initially at war, however I did have a Game Gear my dad had purchased from a store many years prior & I got to grow up with that until it broke & subsequently was sold around 2018. I never truly got into Pokémon which probably helps in my disinterest in the Game Boy, although I love the Super Mario Land games & love all things Kirby, I don't feel the rest of the library of the Game Boy's holds up well today. Even the Game Boy Color has this issue in my opinion, with failing to deliver solid titles that withstood the test of time, or they DID deliver solid titles however today their worth hundreds of dollars because of their rarity (Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil Gaiden, Shantae, etc.) Today I now have both a GBC &, as of yesterday, a Game Gear, both in great condition & working order, & I gotta say the Game Gear is more comfortable & easier to use then the GBC.
It could be bias just because I had one growing up, but I really think the library on the Game Gear holds up better then the Game Boy's, & it's features allow it to still feel great to use all these years later. Also, I don't think the battery life itself is what people hate about it, it's the fact your constantly buying batteries that makes people annoyed. The Nintendo Switch holds a similar 3-6 hour life span before it dies, however obviously the Switch uses rechargeable batteries. As long as you find rechargeable batteries online for the Game Gear, you should be good!
I tried to give the Game Gear respect, but the batteries died before I could get the words out.
Well said
I love the Master System but I've never even attempted collecting for the Game Gear. As you said, there are better options today, rather than using the original hardware, which has its issues (especially with capacitors). I agree it has an awesome library, and as a Shinobi fan I really want to play the two GG Shinobi.
The games are so cheap, cheaper than Master System games even.
Not many people have working GGs anymore so the games are being mass off loaded.
And these Analog Pockets / Retrons are niche after market consoles which require an adapter to make the GG games play. Very few people will or have bought into that.
Net result... if you have a working GG or aftermarket console+GG adapter for it now is a great time to buy these games up cheap at like $1-$2 a go for many titles on the system.
if only people knew that recapping a game gear cost only a few dollars hehe
I had a game gear back in the 90’s. I loved it. Had the TV Jawn too. I bought it over the Gameboy. But eventually had to get a Gamboy for obvious reasons .
I loved mine. Even had the TV adapter! It was AWESOME!
Love my game gear,and always spoke of what it could do in 1990 which nobody else could do until decades later
I brought my Master System power adapter with me everywhere I went.
As I was able to find power outlets in most places I went.
The TV tuner was nice back in the day. I remember watching the Simpsons in my tree house and thinking life couldn't get much better. Now I'm watching youtube on a boat chilling on the river.
I got a Game Gear for Christmas in 92, about a year before I had a Genesis. Armed with Sonic 1&2, Mortal Kombat, Shinobi, Streets of Rage and a few more carts, along with power adapters because F using batteries in there 😂, that thing was a road trip warrior for me. I would have collected more carts for it when I was still collecting, but by that time it was hard to find original, unmodified, hardware at a decent price and no one was making a good 3rd party option until Retron put out there Retron5 adapter. Alas, I put on my special hat, eye patch and shoulder parrot and grabbed the best games from the digital ocean of things. I definitely would recommend checking out some of the GG games out there if you get a chance. Show that poor system some love!
Gameboy was especially disappointing because they didn’t re-release game gear with a backlit, colored display till the Gameboy SP given the Game Gear’s superior presentation.
My mother enjoyed playing Columns.
My uncles worked in transit Night Shifts and they both had Game Gear with the TV Tuner.
Game Gear was ahead of its time.
Very versatile and appealing to all ages.
Battery life matters, and this thing chewed through them at an amazing rate. Most of the time you had to have it plugged in with its DC adapter.
Rodney Dangerfield's favourite handheld *loosens tie*
No respect at all, I tell ya!
We should remember as well that even though Analogue has a system that can play Game Gear games the Hyperkin Retron 5 plays GG games as well with an attachment. Last time I checked The Retron 5 is cheaper with a whole lot of extras to play Nintendo NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Sega Genesis, Nintendo Gameboy/Color/Advance games, and with the add on you can play Sega Master System games and of course Sega Game Gear games.
Sonic on the game gear is my ALL TIME favorite Sonic title!!! It's the only game I still play on my game gear when I take it out and dust it off lol
My younger brother had a Game Gear, it became mine when he lost interest in it. I still occasionally plug it into the wall to play some Sonic Drift 2.
I had both; GG and GB. I bought GameBoy in 1992 and got hands on Game Gear in 1994. As soon as I got Sega, Nintendo felt obsolete. Lots of my friends bought Game Gear later on and I think it was even more hyped over here (Slovenia) than Game Boy. It felt exclusive.
This is my favorite handheld and wish it got more love, but the batteries were the biggest reason it failed I believe. I spent hours playing under my parents computer desk playing Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog and Home Alone with the power adapter plugged in 😂 we would only use batteries when going on car rides and once we got to our family members house out came the batteries and in the ac adapter.
Great vid and I totally agree
Love the game gear, had one back in the day and used outdoor for short periods of course because of battery duration. There is a non official fm radio tuner.
Portable consoles in general seem to get a lot less attention and love in retrospect, despite often having impressive hardware/software sales at the time!
Not being a Nintendo system probably doesn't help, either. :(
As i recall it, the sega game gear even had an add on that made it into a portable miniTV