Picked up a modded Game Gear... stereo and 3D!

[aaron7]

Found this at the local game store today... paid $8 for it so I figured I couldn't lose! haha

First off it has a second speaker on the right for stereo sound... it's a little quieter than normal but sounds like it is true stereo and not just two mono speakers!

The second mod is very cool... not sure how it was done! The screen appears 3D... the text and characters float over the background.

I can't seem to find anything out about these mods online... did the guy do something original?

[PsychoCandy]

I've heard of people moding systems for stereo sound. But what is the 3-D you speak of... got any pictures?

[Vinnysdad]

Pics or it didnt happen.

[MrSparkle]

There Is Porn Of It No Exceptions!

[CreamSoda]

Never heard of this "3D mod", Pics please!

[Vectorman0]

Did you get it at That's Entertainment in Worcester? I think I remember seeing it there recently.

[aaron7]

Haha yes it was at That's!

I have it all apart at the moment... I'll have pix up tomorrow after work.

Looks like he cut out the backlight sides, put some curved piece of white paper in there, spaced the screen out a little... lots of work but it DOES work! Not sure how I can get pix of the 3d effect but I'll try.

[aaron7]

Ok... what he did was put a curved piece of white paper behind the transparent LCD in front of the backlight bulb. Since the LCD is transparent you are looking through it at the lit up paper that just looks like the background of the image and makes everything appear as if it's floating.

Very low tech mod but it really does work well!

So I've never seen it before and it's really cool. Snapped a few pics of it though you can't really see whats going on haha

Not sure what the spacers for the screen are all about nor am I sure why the sides of the backlight reflector are cut out.

Pic of it on shows the curved paper. Not noticeable when playing; only when you look at it from an angle.

I also found out that the speakers are dual mono speakers... not stereo. Still sounds much better though!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v245/aaron7/DSC00651.jpg
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[Niku-Sama]

i think the screen being set back is basicly uor 3d looking text and stuff, sounds pretty simple, if i had a game gear game i might try it but i only got the system

[gruzniak]

There Is Porn Of It No Exceptions!


Lets not get carried away, rules 1 & 2 man ;).

[c0ldb33r]

Could you post a video and stick it on youtube? I'd like to see the 3-D in action. :)

[aaron7]

Hmm I'll try but the camera doesn't pick it up really.

[mailman187666]

I thought Thats Entertainment was in Fitchberg? is there one in Worcester too? the one I go to has a few good Japanese imports there.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I wonder what the graphics would have looked like if he put a piece of opaque holographic / reflective paper instead of just plain white.

[Dreamc@sting]

I may have a new project with my second game gear. I've heard of this mod before but I didn't realize it was so..... stone age lol

[Cornelius]

It seems odd that the sound isn't stereo. I only know this because I just went through replacing the capacitors that go bad and cause no sound. 1 cap is for the speaker and one headphone channel, another cap is for the other headphone channel. Seems it would be an easy thing to tap sound for the second speaker from the headphone channel, but there could be a reason I'm not aware of.

[aaron7]

It seems odd that the sound isn't stereo. I only know this because I just went through replacing the capacitors that go bad and cause no sound. 1 cap is for the speaker and one headphone channel, another cap is for the other headphone channel. Seems it would be an easy thing to tap sound for the second speaker from the headphone channel, but there could be a reason I'm not aware of.

Do tell more as I'd love to have true stereo!


I thought Thats Entertainment was in Fitchberg? is there one in Worcester too? the one I go to has a few good Japanese imports there.

Their main one is in Worcester... take 190 to the Goldstar Blvd. exit and follow that road till you see a tall office building on the left... That's is on the right. You like the Fitchburg one? The Worcester one is HUGE!!

I saw the Japanese Saturn in box at the That's in Fitchburg... he also has like 30 Japanese games too. Saw a complete in box SNES and NES there yesterday!

[Cornelius]

Do tell more as I'd love to have true stereo!

All I know is from this guide (http://www.smspower.org/dev/docs/ggsoundfix/). I only am able to follow directions. I couldn't actually tell you exactly where to tap the sound or anything.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I don't think the Game Gear can do true stereo. I mean, the hardware is based on the Master System and that doesn't have stereo and even though I always played my GG with headphones, I don't recall ever noticing stereo effects.

Of course there would be separate lines internally for the headphones because headphones have two speakers, but that doesn't mean that the signal transmitted along those lines is actually different if the hardware doesn't support it.


...word is bondage...

[jb143]

From Wikipedia...
"The Game Gear was basically a portable Master System with a lower resolution screen, but allowed for a larger color palette. In addition, it could also produce stereo sound (through headphones) as opposed to the Master System's monaural output, though very few games made use of the stereo capabilities."

So it's possible it is wired up for stereo but the games you tested aren't. I always wondered why they didn't do it in the first place. Even with newer systems.

[MrSparkle]

wow this is an interesting thread i had no idea the game gear was based on the master system hardware.

[-^Cro§Bow^-]

Try just about any of the Sonic games for the GG. You can tell with headphones that they are in stereo. Just listen to the rings as you pick them up. The ring pickup sound will alternate between the right and left channels just like the Genesis ones do. However, to call that true stereo isn't really accurate. What you hear is predefined sound on the channels. In other words what you hear wouldn't sound different because of where it is on the screen or game field. It just sounds as it was programmed to. Also most of the time any game featuring background music will have that music in some form of stereo but most of the time the sound effects do not. Defenders of Oasis is this way. All the music is stereo but the sound effects are mono.

I'm more surprised that the Gear didn't already have a second speaker in it for stereo. The space was there and honestly it wouldn't have been that difficult to put the line in for the seperate channels.

However, I know why you can't run the second speaker from the headphones. How would you get the sound to work and NOT kill the main speaker output? Afterall, when you plug in headphones the sound is killed on the main speaker. So simply splicing the second speaker off the headphone jack isn't gonna work I don't believe.

I'm more interested in this 3-D mod. I cannot visualize how this paper does what it does. The pics are too close and don't show enough to tell me how this paper is installed into the screen as it is?

Am I to understand that there is a plain white piece of paper that sits between the LCD and the lamp system? Or does it cover the LCD and only go between the LCD and the Polarizing filters?

[aaron7]

I agree with you about the headphone thing but then why not run both R and L off the headphone connection?

As for how the paper works... you have the LCD screen, then the curved paper UNDER the backlight lamp. Not sure how else I can describe it.