This week marks the eighteenth anniversary of the Game Gear, SEGA's 8-bit portable. First released in Japan on October 6 in 1990, the Game Gear was essentially a to-go version of the Master System, a console that struggled against the NES. Designed to out-perform the Game Boy on every front, the Game Gear was indeed a more powerful machine than Nintendo's handheld. The Game Gear, for example, featured a full-color screen versus a monochromatic display, a difference that was exploited in most of SEGA's advertisements including one featuring a young Ethan Suplee, better known now as Randy Hickey from My Name Is Earl.
The Game Gear was also horizontally oriented. The handheld was much side than the Game Boy, with the d-pad on the left side of the screen and two input buttons off to the right. The screen itself is landscape, unlike the square-ish portrait style screen on the Game Boy. Thanks to the landscape orientation of the screen and the Master System-esque guts of the Game Gear, it was remarkably easy for developers to port Master System games to the Game Gear or at least work with existing code to cheaply produce software.
Space Harrier Samples of Master System games modified for the Game Gear include Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Space Harrier. Master System games that never come out in America were also brought to the American Game Gear, too, such as Sonic Chaos, Deep Duck Trouble, and Cool Spot. SEGA even released an adapter so gamers could use Master System cartridges in the Game Gear.
The Game Gear did host some original software, though -- but never as much as the Game Boy. Notable Game Gear originals released in America include... Virtua Fighter Animation? And therein lies on the Game Gear's biggest problems. 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.
And so without a berth of quality games, the system faltered in Japan and then never found its stride when it was released in America in 1991. Lacking Tetris as a pack-in didn't help -- and the Columns pack-in for the Game Gear wasn't even close. Inhaling batteries by the bucket wasn't a useful bullet point either. And the $150 debut price wasn't too hot since the Game Boy's was falling (it had launched at $189 in 1989) and its game library by 1991 run circles around the Game Gear's anemic six game launch salvo.
Yet, the machine did find an audience of approximately 11 million around the world. (But lest that look too impressive, remember than the Game Boy line sold over ten times that.) In fact, the Game Gear even enjoyed a second lease on life after SEGA's decision to pull the plug on the Game Gear in 1997. In 2000, Majesco released a budget refresh of the Game Gear that looked almost exactly like the original machine but with cheaper materials and a slightly better screen. Majesco also released a number of inexpensive Game Gear games, such as the Jungle Book and Sonic Spinball, to support the refresh, although the handheld would still support classic Game Gear games. The short-lived experiment was concentrated at Toys R Us, with the new Game Gear selling for only $30 and each game just shy of $15.
However, since then, the Game Gear has largely fallen into obscurity since SEGA is no longer a hardware company and the budget handheld arena has been overtaken by those self-contained joysticks that plug directly into televisions. Evidence of the Game Gear primarily lingers at garage sales and on the Japanese Virtual Console.
If you still have a Game Gear, though, you know that's not a worthless machine. Some of those Master System tweaks were very good games, and fun is resilient against time. (Apathy? Not so much.) And if you're in the market for some bargain entertainment, scoring an old Game Gear isn't a bad deal -- as long as you get an AC adapter with it. Otherwise, the battery budget will break you. (That thing uses six AA batteries at a time.) Here are some of the Game Gear's few stars that were released here in America. Sadly, that means we're leaving out Phantasy Star Gaide, a 1992 Japan-only entry in the original Phantasy Star series. Here are five Game Gear titles for your library: