Sega Game Gear: Encyclopedia II - Sega Game Gear - Design and technical features

Sega Game Gear - Design and technical features

The Game Gear was basically a pocket Master System, but allowed a larger color palette, and therefore potentially better-looking graphics. Unlike the Game Boy, the system is held in a "landscape" position, with the controls at the sides, making it less cramped to hold. One of the more famous and unusual peripherals for the Game Gear was the "TV Tuner Adapter", a device that plugged into the system's cartridge slot, and allowed you to watch TV on the Game Gear's screen. Other addons included a magnifying glass to compensate the relatively small size of the GG's screen. Support for the TV Tuner was removed in later Game Gear units due to a lawsuit. (If the system's serial number begins with a letter -- not a numeral -- the TV Tuner will function with that particular unit.)

Sega had taken a similar approach when developing the Mega Drive/Genesis, basing it on Sega's 16-bit arcade hardware. This enabled direct conversion of popular games. Likewise, because of the similarities between the Master System and the Game Gear, it was possible for Master System games to be written directly onto ROMs in Game Gear cartridges. Similarly, an adapter called the "Master Gear" allowed Master System cartridges to be plugged in and played on the Game Gear. The reverse (playing a Game Gear game on a Master System console) was impossible due to the Game Gear's aforementioned larger color palette.

The Game Gear was not very popular in Japan, where it was released to a generally apathetic audience. It immediately earned a reputation as a bit of a junker, with build quality issues plaguing it through its entire lifespan. The liquid crystal screen would discolor when flexed, and pushing the directional-pad or buttons on the Game Gear would often cause enough flex to create ripples of discoloration at the screen edges. Another serious problem was dust, which would get inside the screen where it couldn't be cleaned out, perhaps because the rubber seal around the screen wasn't thick enough or because of excessive flex creating gaps dust could squeeze through. The screen was of poor quality, typical of LCDs at the time, with poor saturation and terrible off-axis viewing.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Design and technical features", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki