Master System converter for Game Gear??

[aaron7]

http://cgi.ebay.com/SEGA-GAME-GEAR-CONVERTER-PLAY-SMS-GAMES-ON-GAME-GEAR_W0QQitemZ370011141009QQihZ024QQcategoryZ1488Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bad ass!

[Jimmy Yakapucci]

I have a unit like that called the Master Gear Converter. I bought it from someone here on the forum, but I don't remember who.

JY

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I have a unit like that called the Master Gear Converter. I bought it from someone here on the forum, but I don't remember who.

JY

Yeah, that's the official Sega one...the one in the auction is a third-party model.

Either way I don't understand the OP's excitement.

?

[Dreamc@sting]

Nice find - I found an official sega converter at a local garage sale but it didnt work and I was angry..::shakes fists:: someday I will own a working one

[FantasiaWHT]

Either way I don't understand the OP's excitement.


I had never heard of such a thing, so I, for one, am glad the OP brought this up

[Blitzwing256]

they are pretty neat, some games are almost unplayable (phantasy star) but a good chunk of games work rather well with it. I remeber whenever i'd find a sms game i'd always test it on my gamegear just to see if it worked.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I have one of those. I have no idea if it works. :p

[evg2000]

I have two different versions:

by NUBY

http://evg2000.com/graphics/gamegear/hardware/smsconverter.jpg

and by beeshu

http://evg2000.com/graphics/gamegear/hardware/smsconverterbeeshu.jpg

later,
Charles
www.evg2000.com

[Gapporin]

Can someone provide a picture (or a link) of the offical Sega one? I'm pretty sure I have the 3rd-party one pictured in the OP's auction, but I don't think I've ever seen an offical one.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I had never heard of such a thing, so I, for one, am glad the OP brought this up

You never heard of a Master Gear Converter? How old are you?

[FrakAttack]

Only time I've ever seen the original in the wild was in a box of old toys at the US 127 Yard Sale a few years back, but there was something loose rattling around inside so I passed.

[retroman]

i have a very old one called Gear Master. Got it back in 92 or 93. Still works great to.

[Cornelius]

You never heard of a Master Gear Converter? How old are you?
I didn't know about them either, and I'm plenty old. jeeze man, why so abrasive?

[Icarus Moonsight]

I got the official one at home, at work now. I'll throw a pic up when I get home. Only thing I didn't like is the cart slot is warped (intentionally) to grip the cart and prevent it from falling out, being on a handheld and all. Tends to bend the plastic on the cart a bit not to mention is a bitch to swap carts both in and out.

[tom]

i got the Master Gear converter, they seem to be pretty common in UK, you can pick them up for $6.00 usually.

[Blitzwing256]

I didn't know about them either, and I'm plenty old. jeeze man, why so abrasive?


don't feed the trolls sir :-)


when i get home from work i'll post a picture of the boxed one i got awile ago.

[blue lander]

I used to see the things at thrift stores all the time. I, too, find it odd that the existence of the thing is a revelation to anybody (especially here), but I'm not going to be a jerk about it.

It's a pretty neat device, but anything with a lot of fast scrolling or small text is too blurry. I have a 3rd party unit, and it's pretty easy to bump the SMS cart and reset the unit. Maybe the Sega made one is more reliable.

[rbudrick]

If only I could find one that read the SMS cards...sigh.

-Rob

[j_factor]

I've never seen the one in the OP in the wild before. That is an interesting find.

But I find it odd that anyone didn't know that Master Gear Converters existed. They were advertised with the system.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

If only I could find one that read the SMS cards...sigh.
Are there even any games that are exclusively available as cards? I thought they had all been released as cartridges as well, at least in Europe.

But would the Game Gear would work with the 3D Glasses...? It'd be like the original Virtual Boy.


...word is bondage...

[Icarus Moonsight]

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z230/Acidic_Pain/PICT0027.jpg
Unit as attached to GG. The blue knob is a screw-head that secures the pass-thru to the unit since you pull the carts out in the same direction that GG carts go in.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z230/Acidic_Pain/PICT0028.jpg
Back side of unit.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z230/Acidic_Pain/PICT0029.jpg

On the Bottom side, underneath the cart socket is the offending bulge that grips your cart like mad. Sega must have been a big believer in Kegal. :o

I never tried Phantasy Star because I have the GBA PS Collection. I have had one hell of a time playing Bomber Raid though. The blurriness makes the enemy bullets nearly invisible and being shrunk down in size probably doesn't help matters. Fantasy Zone goes along ok. So it's not going to ruin every shmup for ya. Anything with text is going to cause some problems. The smaller on the TV set the worse off it'll be through the GG. Most games I've played through it with text (Y's sticks out) were doable with the proper focus and squinting.

I'm thinking, maybe the one I have isn't the official one. I have reason to doubt after seeing the one in the auction. They look too similar. Though, I thought the official unit was called a MasterGear Converter... hmm. I don't see any mention of Sega anywhere on it. I never noticed before, actually never inspected it this close. :p

Anyone have a definitive answer on this?

[Icarus Moonsight]

Reposting the last image with the bulge highlighted. It wasn't as pronounced as it was in the full image from the camera.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z230/Acidic_Pain/PICT0030.jpg

[Dreamc@sting]

Has anyone ever compared the 3rd party conversion units to the official Sega unit? Eventually I will get around to picking a working one up but from what I'm hearing is that the 3rd party units dont function to well and reset easily. I'd gladly pay more for an official one if it works better. Any info would rock

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I didn't know about them either, and I'm plenty old. jeeze man, why so abrasive?

don't feed the trolls sir :-)

I'm not being abrasive at all...it's an honest question. I'm asking how old he is because I honestly can't believe that anyone old enough to have owned a Game Gear (or a Master System) back when it was around doesn't know what a Master Gear Converter is...simple as that.

We're not talking about a PGP-1 here...it's uncommon as it was discontinued fairly early in the Game Gear's life cycle, but this is not a rare accessory. The Game Gear was never hugely popular like the Game Boy was, but the Master Gear was advertised in Sega catalogs and sales sheets right form the time the system was released. You do know that the Game Gear had a TV Tuner as well, don't you?

I'm a troll because I'm surprised that people (on a classic video gaming forum, no less) don't know about a fairly common Game Gear accessory? Sorry, I don't follow. Jeez indeed. :roll:


Has anyone ever compared the 3rd party conversion units to the official Sega unit? Eventually I will get around to picking a working one up but from what I'm hearing is that the 3rd party units dont function to well and reset easily.
IIRC, there are some different software incompatibilites with the different models, but I can't remember which games offhand. Check the SMS FAQ and it may list some of them.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I remember Sega-Parts.com was selling these new in the box for like $20 for quite a while, though they don't seem to have them anymore. That's where I got mine--which I now no longer have--along with a boxed Power Base COnverter for the same price--which I do still have.

What's that plastic thing pictured above the converter in the auction pic? It looks like a clear plastic case similar to the ones Game Gear games come in, but designed to fit the Master Gear Converter. Can it be? The one I got from Sega-Parts didn't come with anything like that.


...word is bondage...

[PingvinBlueJeans]

What's that plastic thing pictured above the converter in the auction pic? It looks like a clear plastic case similar to the ones Game Gear games come in, but designed to fit the Master Gear Converter. Can it be? The one I got from Sega-Parts didn't come with anything like that.

?

All I see is the styro shell from inside the box.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

?

All I see is the styro shell from inside the box.
Oh, you're right. It was just an illusion of this crappy LCD monitor that made it look transparent. Mine did indeed come with some styrofoam. And cardboard, too, as I recall. Perhaps even a piece of paper.


...word is bondage...

[Cornelius]

I'm not being abrasive at all...it's an honest question. I'm asking how old he is because I honestly can't believe that anyone old enough to have owned a Game Gear (or a Master System) back when it was around doesn't know what a Master Gear Converter is...simple as that.

I apologize. I've just never seen anyone ask "how old are you" on any forum without being condescending and trying to start something (i.e. abrasive). So, this is a first for me.

Anyway, I remember seeing a Game Gear before I really knew anything more than that Sega had a portable; the color screen blew me away. We were lucky to get a NES a couple years after launch, and magazines were simply out of the question in my family. Everyone knows that only rich kids had GGs. Oh, and I did just recently learn about the TV tuner as well. Now don't get the idea that I'm shocked or astounded by any of these add-ons. I just didn't know about them.

[PingvinBlueJeans]

I remember Sega-Parts.com was selling these new in the box for like $20 for quite a while, though they don't seem to have them anymore. That's where I got mine--which I now no longer have--along with a boxed Power Base COnverter for the same price--which I do still have.


Oh, you're right. It was just an illusion of this crappy LCD monitor that made it look transparent. Mine did indeed come with some styrofoam. And cardboard, too, as I recall. Perhaps even a piece of paper.


Lots of the stuff that they sold was extra junk that was sitting around. The TV Tuners that they sold just came in a plastic bag, IIRC...no box.

Back around 1998 when Sega was preparing the Dreamcast, they pretty much cleaned house and abandoned all the earlier systems. They turned marketing and manufacture of certain items over to Majesco. The customer support for the old systems and old stock of parts and items was all turned over to a company called Service Concepts International, who set up sega-parts.com.

I remember when that site first went online, and it was amazing. They had EVERYTHING...all stuff that was sitting in Sega's warehouse collecting dust for years. Every Master System, Genesis, and Game Gear game by Sega, factory sealed...$19.99. Tons of Saturn stuff...games, systems, etc...all brand new. All that stuff is long gone now.

[FantasiaWHT]

I'm not being abrasive at all...it's an honest question. I'm asking how old he is because I honestly can't believe that anyone old enough to have owned a Game Gear (or a Master System) back when it was around doesn't know what a Master Gear Converter is...simple as that.

...

I'm a troll because I'm surprised that people (on a classic video gaming forum, no less) don't know about a fairly common Game Gear accessory? Sorry, I don't follow. Jeez indeed. :roll:


No, people (me included) took the comment as trollish because as well as expressing surprise, you made what looked like an ad hominem attack. "Were you playing video games when it came out" would've looked more civil than "How old are you?" That's the limits of the printed word I suppose.

To the point, not only was I alive back then, I actually owned an SMS, later a Genesis + PBC, and had a couple friends with Game Gears, yet this slipped past me.

[Flashback2012]

The official unit is nice and I don't know why people say Phantasy Star will not work on it. I've played my PS cart on my converter without problem.

I only wish Sega had released their own Super GameGear cartridge peripheral for the Genesis/Mega Drive.

[ApolloBoy]

The official unit is nice and I don't know why people say Phantasy Star will not work on it. I've played my PS cart on my converter without problem.

Nobody said it didn't, it's just that it's hard to play on the GG screen because of the small text.