Game Gear

The <!-- See WP:JFN --> is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sega. It was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, in North America and Europe in April 1991, and in Australia in 1992. The Game Gear was Sega's first handheld console and competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, Atari's Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress in the fourth generation of video game consoles.

Sega rushed the 8-bit Game Gear to market to compete with the Game Boy. It shares much of its hardware with the Master System, and can play Master System games with an adapter. Its hardware is superior to the Game Boy's, with a full-color backlit screen and a Z80 CPU. However, it resulted in a much shorter battery life, running for three to five hours on six AA batteries. Sega based the landscape design on the Sega Genesis controller and sought to repeat the Genesis's success by positioning the Game Gear as a more mature and attractive alternative to the Game Boy.

The Game Gear received praise for its hardware, but criticism for its short battery life, large size, and weak support from Sega. Its game library—which includes many ports of Master System games—and price point gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx and TurboExpress, but it was unable to effectively compete with the Game Boy. Sega canceled plans for a 16-bit successor and reduced Game Gear support to prioritize its home consoles. It sold around 14 million units in its lifetime. Majesco Entertainment rereleased the Game Gear as a budget system between 2000 and 2002, under license from Sega.

History

Developed as codename "Project Mercury", the Game Gear was launched in Japan on October 6, 1990,

To improve upon the design of its competition, Sega modeled the Game Gear with a similar shape to a Genesis controller, intending the curved surfaces and greater length to be more comfortable to hold than the Game Boy. The original Game Gear pack-in game was Columns, which is similar to Tetris which was bundled with the Game Boy at launch. having lagged behind Nintendo in sales without a handheld on the market.

Decline

Sega reduced support for the Game Gear in favor of home consoles. The successful Genesis yielded two major peripherals, the Sega CD and the 32X. The 32-bit Saturn console was launched in 1994. the Game Gear was never able to match the success of its main rival, the Game Boy, with ten times the sales. Moreover, the Nomad was intended to supplement the Game Gear rather than replace it; in press coverage leading up to the Nomad's release, Sega representatives said the company was not discontinuing the Game Gear in favor of the Nomad, and that "we believe the two can co-exist". Though the Nomad had been released in 1995, Sega did not officially end support for the Game Gear until 1996 in Japan, and 1997 worldwide.

Though the system was originally discontinued in 1997, third-party publisher Majesco Entertainment released a version of the Game Gear at , with games in 2000 under license from Sega. New games were released, such as a port of Super Battletank. This machine is compatible with all previous Game Gear games, Over ten years later, on March 2, 2011, Nintendo announced that its 3DS Virtual Console service on the Nintendo eShop would feature Game Gear games.

Technical specifications

thumb|Game Gear motherboard

Much of the Game Gear's internal hardware is derived from the Master System, as the handheld was designed to be compatible with that system's library of games. It shares the same Zilog Z80 CPU, an 8-bit processor clocked at 3.5MHz, and the Texas Instruments SN76489 sound chip, a programmable sound generator. The chip generated stereo sound, audible using headphones as the device only included a single monaural speaker. The system also contains 8KB of RAM and 16KB of video RAM.

The Game Gear measures wide, high, deep, At the center of the device is a color liquid-crystal display that measures diagonally and is able to display up to 32 simultaneous colors from a total palette of 4,096, with a frame rate of about 60Hz with 160×144 non-square pixels. The screen is backlit for low light using a small cold cathode fluorescent lamp tube.

The Game Gear is powered by six AA batteries which provide an approximate battery life of 3 to 5 hours. This was a source of significant criticism from reviewers.

thumb|A Game Gear with TV Tuner

Available accessories included a TV Tuner with a whip antenna for the cartridge slot, to become a handheld television. Released at (equivalent to ), the add-on was expensive but unique for collectors and contributed to the system's popularity.

Game Gear model variations include several colors, including a blue "sports" variation in North America bundled with World Series Baseball '95 or The Lion King. The emulator for the Virtual Console releases was handled by M2.

Game Gear Micro

On June 3, 2020, as part of the company's 60th anniversary, Sega revealed the dedicated console. The Micro was released in Japan on October 6, 2020, through Japanese storefronts in four different versions, varying in color and the game selection, with each containing four separate Game Gear games. Each unit otherwise is the same size, measuring with a display, and is powered by 2 AAA batteries or through a separate USB charger. Each unit also includes a headphone jack. A magnifying accessory modeled after the original system's Big Window accessory was included with preorders. A special version of the device (published by M2 and licensed by Sega) was being shipped with a limited edition of Aleste Collection in December 2020. This version includes a newly developed Game Gear title G.G. Aleste 3 as well as four other Aleste titles.

Reception

Game Gear surpassed the Atari Lynx and NEC TurboExpress, but lagged far behind the Game Boy in the handheld marketplace. Retrospective reception to the Game Gear is mixed. In 2008, GamePro listed the Game Gear as 10th on its list of the "10 Worst-Selling Handhelds of All Time" and criticized aspects of the implementation of its technology, but also stated that the Game Gear could be considered a commercial success at nearly 11 million units sold. According to GamePro reviewer Blake Snow, "Unlike the Game Boy, the Game Gear rocked the landscape holding position, making it less cramped for human beings with two hands to hold. And even though the Game Gear could be considered a success, its bulky frame, relative high price, constant consumption of AA batteries, and a lack of appealing games ultimately kept Sega from releasing a true successor." In speaking with Famitsu DC for its November 1998 issue, Sato stated that the Game Gear achieved "a respectable chunk of market share" since overall "about 14 million systems" were sold, but that "Nintendo's Game Boy was such a runaway success, and had gobbled up so much of the market, that our success was still seen as a failure, which I think is a shame." By contrast, IGN reviewer Levi Buchanan opined that the Game Gear's biggest fault was its game library when compared to the Game Boy, stating: "the software was completely lacking compared to its chief rival, which was bathed in quality games. It didn't matter that the Game Gear was more powerful. The color screen did not reverse any fortunes. Content and innovation beat out technology, a formula that Nintendo is using right now with the continued ascendance of the DS and Wii." Buchanan praised some of the library: "Some of those Master System tweaks were very good games, and fun is resilient against time."