Any love for the Sega Game Gear?

[ZP3]

I picked up a Game Gear and two games today off of Craigslist, and thus far have really been enjoying the games. I have four in total (Jurassic Park, T2, Sonic 2, and G-Loc), but I was wondering if anyone had any "hidden gem" recommendations for the Game Gear? It seems like a pretty cool system that I'd like to give a serious look at collecting for.

[recorderdude]

I fucking love game gear. It's an amazing system for its time.

My reccomendations:

GG Exclusives:
Shinobi I and II: Original exclusive entries in the series; Power Rangers meets Shinobi Meets Megaman. Have you came yet?
Tails Adventure: Really Cool ARPG that does its own thing.
Ax Battler: Neat little Zelda 2 Clone.
Shining Force The Sword of Hayja: Classic Strat-RPG action on the go.
Popils: Unique little puzzler that's definitely worth a go.
Devilish: Neat little mix of breakout and pinball quest.
Sonic Triple Trouble: Definitely the biggest GG sonic. Comes the closest to feeling like a genesis game.
Vampire - Master of Darkness: despite having some of the worst box art ever, this is a neat little castlevania clone.
Ristar - Actually a different game than the genesis one! More ristar is always worth trying out.

GG games also on SMS:
Psychic World - In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated video games on the console. awesome music for GG, unique gameplay, fairly cheap, you MUST own this one.
Sonic 1 - Best sonic on Game Gear IMO. Short but sweet and has a different physics engine than all the others
Robocop Vs The Terminator - One of the few really good licensed titles on GG. Survived the jump from Genesis to GG/SMS pretty well
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Puyo Puyo on the go. Has a unique puzzle mode that the Genesis version doesn't!
Dynamite Headdy - Not half as good as the genesis version, but definitely one of the best-looking games on the system and still pretty decent for a Gen-to-GG port, even if it is way too short.

ANY disney game - they're all winners.

English-Friendly Imports:
Factory Panic - Strange arcade-styled game. The guy you play as looks like porky so if you liked earthbound/mother 3 there you go.
Ronald/Donald In The Magical World and Gunstar Heroes - TREASURE. Good Stuff. Need I say more?
Sylvan Tale: Arpg like Zelda. Worth a go. Might need a little translation, tho not half as much as the big dogs like phantasy star and the rest of the shining forces.

[ZP3]

I fucking love game gear. It's an amazing system for its time.

My reccomendations:

GG Exclusives:
Shinobi I and II: Original exclusive entries in the series; Power Rangers meets Shinobi Meets Megaman. Have you came yet?
Tails Adventure: Really Cool ARPG that does its own thing.
Ax Battler: Neat little Zelda 2 Clone.
Shining Force The Sword of Hayja: Classic Strat-RPG action on the go.
Popils: Unique little puzzler that's definitely worth a go.
Devilish: Neat little mix of breakout and pinball quest.
Sonic Triple Trouble: Definitely the biggest GG sonic. Comes the closest to feeling like a genesis game.
Vampire - Master of Darkness: despite having some of the worst box art ever, this is a neat little castlevania clone.
Ristar - Actually a different game than the genesis one! More ristar is always worth trying out.

GG games also on SMS:
Psychic World - In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated video games on the console. awesome music for GG, unique gameplay, fairly cheap, you MUST own this one.
Sonic 1 - Best sonic on Game Gear IMO. Short but sweet and has a different physics engine than all the others
Robocop Vs The Terminator - One of the few really good licensed titles. Survived the jump from Genesis to GG/SMS pretty well
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Puyo Puyo on the go. Has a unique puzzle mode that the Genesis version doesn't!
Dynamite Headdy - Not half as good as the genesis version, but definitely one of the best-looking games on the system and still pretty decent for a Gen-to-GG port, even if it is way too short.

English-Friendly Imports:
Factory Panic - Strange arcade-styled game. The guy you play as looks like porky so if you liked earthbound/mother 3 there you go.
Ronald/Donald In The Magical World and Gunstar Heroes - TREASURE. Good Stuff. Need I say more?
Sylvan Tale: Arpg like Zelda. Worth a go. Might need a little translation, tho not half as much as the big dogs like phantasy star and the rest of the shining forces.

Awesome! Thanks a bunch. I had already ordered Ax Battler so it is reassuring to hear it is awesome. I'm looking to pick up all the sonic games for it as well. These games are dirt cheap, too! What a great little system.

[recorderdude]

if you're on a budget for collecting GG, I reccomend getting these games first (that you haven't already):

Psychic World
Sonic 1
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple Trouble
Deep Duck Trouble (Disney Game)

All of these can be found for $5 or less with ease and each one is excellent. If you're buying to play, good commons are surely priority.

EDIT: Oh yeah! Forgot the import, "Coca Cola Kid". I like to think of it as the 13th game gear sonic game, since it uses the GG sonic engine and everything. It's not so cheap, though. At least, not through the eyes of an import seller.

[Rickstilwell1]

if you're on a budget for collecting GG, I reccomend getting these games first (that you haven't already):

Psychic World
Sonic 1
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple Trouble
Deep Duck Trouble (Disney Game)

All of these can be found for $5 or less with ease and each one is excellent. If you're buying to play, good commons are surely priority.

EDIT: Oh yeah! Forgot the import, "Coca Cola Kid". I like to think of it as the 13th game gear sonic game, since it uses the GG sonic engine and everything. It's not so cheap, though. At least, not through the eyes of an import seller.

I hadn't heard of Coca Cola Kid although I probably have the rom just not knowing what it is. I'll have to try it out.

[theclaw]

Ronald in The Magical World is notable for being a Japan only game, that requires English hardware to change language.

Puyo Puyo did the same thing. An entire GG exclusive localization as "Puzlow Kids".

[Az]

If you like fighters, both the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers games are awesome. Don't let the license fool you, it's a quality title that's enjoyable even if you don't know anything about the source material. Both are dirt cheap too.

Those two, along with Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown, are definitely the best fighters available on either the GG & GB/GBC , or the SMS and NES for that matter.

[ZP3]

If you like fighters, both the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers games are awesome. Don't let the license fool you, it's a quality title that's enjoyable even if you don't know anything about the source material. Both are dirt cheap too.

Those two, along with Fatal Fury Special and Samurai Shodown, are definitely the best fighters available on either the GG & GB/GBC , or the SMS and NES for that matter.

I'll have to look into getting the Power Rangers games. From what Youtube reveals is that they look pretty good!

[FoxNtd]

I used to play GG years ago. I really liked it. It's the only 8-bit Sega I liked. Though I've only played one game one time on SMS/Mark III looking at its library I don't really see appeal of it personally and don't own it. However I'd like to have a GG again and snag some JP games I never saw here, like Magic Knight Rayearth. I'm curious how that game is on the GG! (Has anyone played it? I only have the SS version and to my knowledge all the "versions" are entirely different games.)

Also, the thing that hurts the most is Sega never made an adapter to play GG games on the TV. :(

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Anyone who likes the GameGear owes it to themselves to get a Master System and see where Sega got almost all of the worthwhile GameGear games from. Sure, there are a bunch of GG exclusives, but by and large the majority of the best GameGear games are also on Master System and almost always better on Master System.

[recorderdude]

Anyone who likes the GameGear owes it to themselves to get a Master System and see where Sega got almost all of the worthwhile GameGear games from. Sure, there are a bunch of GG exclusives, but by and large the majority of the best GameGear games are also on Master System and almost always better on Master System.

I've got to give the point to both sonic 1 and 2 being better on SMS; the first one's less of a pushover by screen resolution limitations (I'm looking at you, first eggman boss), and the second one's no longer unfair by screen resolution limitations (I'm looking at you, antlion boss) Also, sonic has a nose in sonic 1 in the MS version.

Still, the fact that GG's library is essentially SMS Plus and WAY cheaper than most SMS stuff makes it more appealing to me.

[kupomogli]

My favorite game on the Game Gear was Defenders of Oasis.

[Aussie2B]

It's not a system I pull out often, but I've had some good fun with it. My favorite that I've played so far is Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya. It's not quite up there with the Genesis Shining Force games, but it's almost just as good. And it's a fair sight cheaper than Shining Force CD for Sega CD, which is a compilation of the first two Game Gear Shining Force games. Granted, if you want to play the second Game Gear Shining Force in English, Shining Force CD is your only option.

[recorderdude]

It's not a system I pull out often, but I've had some good fun with it. My favorite that I've played so far is Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya. It's not quite up there with the Genesis Shining Force games, but it's almost just as good. And it's a fair sight cheaper than Shining Force CD for Sega CD, which is a compilation of the first two Game Gear Shining Force games. Granted, if you want to play the second Game Gear Shining Force in English, Shining Force CD is your only option.

Actually, Sword of Hayja IS the second one. The first and third are the JP exclusives.

[Greg2600]

As many have told, Game Gear's screens are almost unplayable these days. I've had screen capacitors replaced, I've tried Majesco GG's, they all suck. Still worse than often older Lynx hand-helds and pretty much all Gameboys.

[Aussie2B]

Actually, Sword of Hayja IS the second one. The first and third are the JP exclusives.

Ah, okay. I knew the first two were on Shining Force CD, but I was too lazy to double-check which was which. :P It's a shame that the third didn't come out in English in any form (officially, at least).

[Polygon]

I love my Game Gear. I didn't even want one but my parents bought me one for Christmas in 1995. I love everything about it except for the screen. Hopefully Wiggy can come up with a screen replacement for those like they have for the Nomad. Anyhow, I got some games with my Game Gear that I've always loved. Bram Stoker's Dracula is a great game. There were so many version of this released for a ton of consoles. The Game Gear version is a direct port of the Master System version and it's by far the best. T2: Judgement Day is also a direct port of the Master System version. I also think it's the best version of the game. X-Men was a fun game as well. I actually Sonic Spinball for it as well. Sonic Chaos is a great one to pick up.


I fucking love game gear. It's an amazing system for its time.

My reccomendations:

GG Exclusives:
Shinobi I and II: Original exclusive entries in the series; Power Rangers meets Shinobi Meets Megaman. Have you came yet?
Tails Adventure: Really Cool ARPG that does its own thing.
Ax Battler: Neat little Zelda 2 Clone.
Shining Force The Sword of Hayja: Classic Strat-RPG action on the go.
Popils: Unique little puzzler that's definitely worth a go.
Devilish: Neat little mix of breakout and pinball quest.
Sonic Triple Trouble: Definitely the biggest GG sonic. Comes the closest to feeling like a genesis game.
Vampire - Master of Darkness: despite having some of the worst box art ever, this is a neat little castlevania clone.
Ristar - Actually a different game than the genesis one! More ristar is always worth trying out.

GG games also on SMS:
Psychic World - In my opinion, this is one of the most underrated video games on the console. awesome music for GG, unique gameplay, fairly cheap, you MUST own this one.
Sonic 1 - Best sonic on Game Gear IMO. Short but sweet and has a different physics engine than all the others
Robocop Vs The Terminator - One of the few really good licensed titles on GG. Survived the jump from Genesis to GG/SMS pretty well
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine: Puyo Puyo on the go. Has a unique puzzle mode that the Genesis version doesn't!
Dynamite Headdy - Not half as good as the genesis version, but definitely one of the best-looking games on the system and still pretty decent for a Gen-to-GG port, even if it is way too short.

ANY disney game - they're all winners.

English-Friendly Imports:
Factory Panic - Strange arcade-styled game. The guy you play as looks like porky so if you liked earthbound/mother 3 there you go.
Ronald/Donald In The Magical World and Gunstar Heroes - TREASURE. Good Stuff. Need I say more?
Sylvan Tale: Arpg like Zelda. Worth a go. Might need a little translation, tho not half as much as the big dogs like phantasy star and the rest of the shining forces.

I knew about some of these games, but thanks for some great suggestions. I just checked a lot of them out on You Tube and added them to my wanted list!

[ZP3]

My favorite game on the Game Gear was Defenders of Oasis.

I picked this one up today, it was $5 well spent.

[ZP3]

As many have told, Game Gear's screens are almost unplayable these days. I've had screen capacitors replaced, I've tried Majesco GG's, they all suck. Still worse than often older Lynx hand-helds and pretty much all Gameboys.

Mine is working well thus far!

[recorderdude]

My GG has shitons of flaws, paint's worn off around the middle of the "1", 2 button's hard to press, screen's got crap underneath it and maybe even a few dead pixels, but my screen's yet to die, and the sound works just fine too.

Amusingly enough, I've got two other, by the looks of them, flawless systems, but both have dim screens and one has no speaker sound.

EDIT: Also, ren and stimpy on game gear is a pretty fun title, albeit repeptitive. However, it has the best pause screen EVER. Make sure to try it at least once.

(one thing a lot of people don't know is that pressing jump and up does something different for both ren and stimpy. with ren you do a super high jump, stimpy does an almost-always useless untouchable bounce)

[otaku]

I have fond memories of the game gear used to play a friend's back in jr high he had the ac adapter for it of course lol. I was more impressed by it than gb because of the color etc.

I don't recall owning one as of yet have nearly bought one a few times. In some ways I'd rather get a nomad first having never tried one of those

[ZP3]

I found Ninja Gaiden for $4 today on the game gear. Was this a good buy? Seems like a good game so far, but it does seem to get a lot of hate...

[recorderdude]

I found Ninja Gaiden for $4 today on the game gear. Was this a good buy? Seems like a good game so far, but it does seem to get a lot of hate...

That's a good deal for GG Ninja Gaiden. The main reason people don't like it so much is that it's completely different from both the NES and SMS versions, and not really as memorable, albeit not bad per se.

Shinobi is THE game gear ninja game, though.

[ZP3]

That's a good deal for GG Ninja Gaiden. The main reason people don't like it so much is that it's completely different from both the NES and SMS versions, and not really as memorable, albeit not bad per se.

Shinobi is THE game gear ninja game, though.

I've heard that the Shinobis are great games, what sets them apart from Ninja Gaiden?

[Polygon]

Wasn't the Game Gear version a port of the arcade like the Lynx version?

[Az]

Nope, the GG Ninja Gaiden is a totally original thing. It's kind of similar to the NES games (running, slashing, ninja magic) but different enough to make it a unique version. I personally liked it, but I can see why people expecting the NES game dismissed it.

As for Shinobi in comparison to Ninja Gaiden, they really have nothing in common other than dealing with ninjas.

[Polygon]

Nope, the GG Ninja Gaiden is a totally original thing. It's kind of similar to the NES games (running, slashing, ninja magic) but different enough to make it a unique version. I personally liked it, but I can see why people expecting the NES game dismissed it.

As for Shinobi in comparison to Ninja Gaiden, they really have nothing in common other than dealing with ninjas.

Hmm... I'll have to check it out then.

[Sabz5150]

Anyone who likes the GameGear owes it to themselves to get a Master System and see where Sega got almost all of the worthwhile GameGear games from. Sure, there are a bunch of GG exclusives, but by and large the majority of the best GameGear games are also on Master System and almost always better on Master System.

Better yet, buy a Master Gear converter and take the Master System on the go. I got my first Game Gear way back before the dinosaurs died off for that single reason. I had almost zero interest in the Game Gear's native library and instead hunted down all the SMS games I could find. If you could deal with the tiny text (Monopoly? Shanghai? HA!), you were able to build yourself a serious portable library. By the time I got my hands on an actual Master System, I had a decent collection of games.

My recommendations for Master Gear games:

R-Type
Phantasy Star
Miracle Warriors
After Burner
Galaxy Force
Golden Axe
Columns
Outrun
Ys

All of these have text that is easy to read on the GG's screen and make for hours of battery slaughtering fun :)

[ZP3]

Better yet, buy a Master Gear converter and take the Master System on the go. I got my first Game Gear way back before the dinosaurs died off for that single reason. I had almost zero interest in the Game Gear's native library and instead hunted down all the SMS games I could find. If you could deal with the tiny text (Monopoly? Shanghai? HA!), you were able to build yourself a serious portable library. By the time I got my hands on an actual Master System, I had a decent collection of games.

My recommendations for Master Gear games:

R-Type
Phantasy Star
Miracle Warriors
After Burner
Galaxy Force
Golden Axe
Columns
Outrun
Ys

All of these have text that is easy to read on the GG's screen and make for hours of battery slaughtering fun :)

I have heard great things about the Phantasy Star games, but have never played them. Are they a typical JRPG series?

[recorderdude]

I've heard that the Shinobis are great games, what sets them apart from Ninja Gaiden?

Shinobi is notable for having a ton of COMPLETELY different series in of itself; arcade shinobi games, rrevenge-style shinobi games, and the game-gear teamwork shinobi games. the Genesis games have one arcade-style game and two that go a more standard side-scrolling fare with limited (though plentiful) shuriken and a plethora of moves. The Game Gear games are a combination of power rangers and megaman; you choose a stage starting with the most basic ninja, and free four others, each with special abilities. One throws bombs, one has a spinning cross attack sort of like the one in castlevania but more versatile, one that shoots lightning, hell, you can even free a ninja that has the exact same abilities as in revenge of shinobi for the genesis! (btw, all weapons are unlimited use). You find upgrades for your life bar among other powerup items, and you'll need them because these games are HARD, especially part 1. Given the fact that they play REALLY well and they're some of the only killer GG exclusives outside of sonics, a LOT of people really enjoyed them.

Also, since they're WAY slower paced than the sonics, it's much easier to keep up with them on the GG's blurry screen.


I have heard great things about the Phantasy Star games, but have never played them. Are they a typical JRPG series?

I only own II for the genesis myself, but #1 gets a shiton of praise and I can see why. It's very much ahead of its time in graphics and story. Some even claim it's their favorite JRPG of all time.

I believe Phantasy Star was the first JRPG series set in the distant future *to come to america*, but I may be wrong.

[ProjectCamaro]

I had a Game Boy growing up and loved it to death but I had an uncle who had a Game Gear and whenever he brought it out the Game Boy's all went away because the Game Gear was in color and just so much cooler.

[ZP3]

I had a Game Boy growing up and loved it to death but I had an uncle who had a Game Gear and whenever he brought it out the Game Boy's all went away because the Game Gear was in color and just so much cooler.

I have been impressed with my gamegear in comparison to my Gameboy. I might even venture to say that I like it more than my Gameboy Color! (With the exception of Pokémon) I think the Game Gear has an underrated library, the games for it are dirt cheap, and its plain awesome. What's not to love?

[Greg2600]

The screen is not to love. You can honestly play games on that thing?

[recorderdude]

GG's honestly not as bad as people make it out to be. I've played game gear and original brick game boy and I can safely say that the GB is FAR less tolerable for graphically intense games. How ANYONE played donkey kong land on that damn thing I have no idea.

I think it's more that people who are used to zero ghosting on conoles like the DS are surprised when they find it on older ones.

[SparTonberry]

I'm not sure either. And that's why, as much as I love my Game Boy, I will call Donkey Kong Land a glorified tech demo. Luckily for the sequels, Nintendo/Rare realized playability was more important than amazing graphics we can't see anyways! :)

[Gameguy]

GG's honestly not as bad as people make it out to be. I've played game gear and original brick game boy and I can safely say that the GB is FAR less tolerable for graphically intense games. How ANYONE played donkey kong land on that damn thing I have no idea.
Try using a Gameboy Pocket. I can't play games enjoyably on an original Gameboy, not for any real length of time. I do have Donkey Kong Land and while I never beat it I used to play it quite a bit on my Gameboy Pocket.

There was a time when I really liked the Game Gear, back before I got my GBP. Someone let me play their Game Gear for awhile and playing Aladdin and Deep Duck Trouble was really fun. When we went to get one we were told that the system was being discontinued so we went with the GBP instead, I found lots of fun games with that so I didn't mind it. Now the Game Gear aged horribly and I don't collect it, I don't remember the screens being that bad back when I first played the system. The low battery life gets annoying fast too.

[recorderdude]

DKL works just peachy in both my GBC and GBA. I keep it for that :P Also, it's totally worth beating, or at least getting further into. There's some really unique levels in it, like the ones where you jump on flying pigs on city rooftops.

As for GG's main issue, battery life, I just find myself plugged into the wall for most playsessions anyway so it doesn't bug me that much. I tried using a powerback, but as yall may remember, it fucking exploded from normal use, so DON'T USE A POWERBACK.

[theclaw]

Don't the DKL games have graphical glitches on GBC or later?

[o.pwuaioc]

Don't the DKL games have graphical glitches on GBC or later?

Of what sort? I never noticed anything on my GBC or GBA.

[RP2A03]

Of what sort? I never noticed anything on my GBC or GBA.

The color pallet is probably wrong or at least it is when I play Mega Man V on GBA.

[Ed Oscuro]

good list from recorderdude, I would also look at Sylvan Tale (there's a translation patch out for it!) and I'm trying to find out something about Moldorian

Gotta love those action games.

Hate the hardware though - bad screen, never remembered them looking good, and tough to keep in good shape. Desperately needs a TV output mod. Still, much of this can be fixed, but it's just beyond my means at the moment.

[ZP3]

good list from recorderdude, I would also look at Sylvan Tale (there's a translation patch out for it!) and I'm trying to find out something about Moldorian

Gotta love those action games.

Hate the hardware though - bad screen, never remembered them looking good, and tough to keep in good shape. Desperately needs a TV output mod. Still, much of this can be fixed, but it's just beyond my means at the moment.


Maybe I am just lucky, but my Game Gears screen has given me no trouble thus far! (Knock on wood) I bought it used, and while this I've heard is risky with Game Gears, my particular model is in perfect shape. I never had one growing up, but I think hardware wise, the Game Gear has aged just fine.

[recorderdude]

Even the most devoted gamegear collectors have to acknowledge the all-too-common capacitor problem, in which old capacitors fail and leave the screen dim and sound nonexistant. It WILL happen to every GG eventually. It just hasn't happened to my main GG yet.

[ZP3]

Even the most devoted gamegear collectors have to acknowledge the all-too-common capacitor problem, in which old capacitors fail and leave the screen dim and sound nonexistant. It WILL happen to every GG eventually. It just hasn't happened to my main GG yet.

Does anybody do repairs on Game Gear capacitors?

[NintendoTwizer]

It is a pretty great system. I started collect for it not to long ago. So far the prices seem really reasonable for loose games. You can pick up most games for a couple bucks each.

[FoxNtd]

I heard the blue GGs were a hardware revision to improve the quality of the capacitors but I don't know if there's truth to this. (Speaking of the US Blue GG releases.)

Japan has a variety of GG colors like yellow and red. There are also special packages like the Coca Cola version and the red GG packed in with Magic Knight Rayearth. I wonder if ANY of the Japanese GGs were revised internally to address the caps issues?

I figured it's worth knowing this, so that in the future I can choose an adequate model and look up the info I need about cap replacement so I know what to expect. :)

[Ed Oscuro]

The best bet for a GG is still probably the Majesco release. It's much newer (like 5-7 years) and probably used better caps.

The caps weren't really a well-known problem at the start, and it's often taken 10 or more years for these units to start experiencing difficulties, long after the products were discontinued in most cases.

There are often small revisions made during production runs of devices but I wouldn't bet any of them went towards using made-in-Japan capacitors; revisions often go for making things cheaper to build. Part supplier changes or even fairly substantial internal revisions can come at any time during a run and aren't tied to external packaging or even the outward look of the device in some cases. If you had a bunch of boxes and GG shells lying around, for example, you wouldn't likely go to the trouble of changing anything just because something on the inside changed (which 99% of users actually didn't care about, judging from the shape of remaining GGs, never bothered with because they junked their systems after a few years).

The good and bad news is that there are better capacitors and there's direct replacements for every part you're likely to see in these old systems. The bad news is that some caps still have abnormally high failure rates, so you want to check out a site like badcaps.net to find out what's good to use.

Does anybody do repairs on Game Gear capacitors?
Yes. In fact there's somebody on eBay selling "sound PCBs" for the system, although I'd go with an old fashioned personal service instead of junking an internal PCB.

I need to figure out what's going on with my PC Engine GT...I think my GGs are in better shape than that (in terms of sound and video quality). I pulled it apart the other day, didn't see anything obviously wrong, but I know there's something not right with it.

And now I've discovered a computer system of mine probably has some caps related problems, too. I turned it on for possibly the second or even first time in its existence, got a prompt...and today I got nothing, just a light flickered a couple times. Kind of got hit by it all at once, heh. I guess I'll have to learn how to solder because sending these off will be way too expensive, unless I can find some local service.

[BlastProcessing402]

Ah the GameGear, aka Batteries McEatsalot.

An ac adapter is almost a must with that thing, which kinda kills the portability factor. There's a reason Nintendo waited around a decade later to finally put out a real backlit system, they had to wait for battery tech to catch up.

Still, it's hella cool to play Phantasy Star on one of these using a Master Gear converter, even with the minor graphical glitches. Fortunately most SMS games don't even have that issue.

[theclaw]

I heard the blue GGs were a hardware revision to improve the quality of the capacitors but I don't know if there's truth to this. (Speaking of the US Blue GG releases.)

Japan has a variety of GG colors like yellow and red. There are also special packages like the Coca Cola version and the red GG packed in with Magic Knight Rayearth. I wonder if ANY of the Japanese GGs were revised internally to address the caps issues?

I figured it's worth knowing this, so that in the future I can choose an adequate model and look up the info I need about cap replacement so I know what to expect. :)

At least Japanese GG is worth owning for a certain niche. I've never seen any successful region mod in action.

[Sysop]

Even the most devoted gamegear collectors have to acknowledge the all-too-common capacitor problem, in which old capacitors fail and leave the screen dim and sound nonexistant. It WILL happen to every GG eventually. It just hasn't happened to my main GG yet.
If someone can make a Super Game Boy style accessory for the Mega Drive, then I would be very happy. Collecting for the Game Gear is all well and good, but when the screen is near impossible to see and the only way to hear the game is through headphones, it really kills off the excitement for it.

[theclaw]

You'd have to remap the Game Gear colors somehow. It has a wider total palette, despite fewer on screen at once.

[Gameguy]

I heard the blue GGs were a hardware revision to improve the quality of the capacitors but I don't know if there's truth to this. (Speaking of the US Blue GG releases.)
I had a blue one but didn't really notice much of a difference. It was apparently originally bundled with some sports game, I don't know about any improvement in build quality. I used to have a bunch of Game Gear stuff but sold it all years ago.



Still, it's hella cool to play Phantasy Star on one of these using a Master Gear converter, even with the minor graphical glitches. Fortunately most SMS games don't even have that issue.
I have the Phantasy Star Collection for GBA so I wouldn't have even thought of playing it on the Game Gear, personal preferences I guess.

[ZP3]

Allright guys, I've got a question for ya'll. I recently purchased a third party wall adaptor that supposedly works with the Sega Genesis, Sega Nomad, and Sega Game Gear. My only question is the fact that this charger has a black tip. I had always thought that the sega adaptors had yellow tips. Does this make any difference? I'd rather not short out my Game Gear this early into collecting for it. Thanks!

[Spartan]

I have a lot of love for The Game Gear. I no longer own one but I did when I was a teen. The system was definitely ahead of it's time. The only thing I didn't like too well was that it ate batteries for breakfast! The games I remember really liking were the Sonic games, Mortal Kombat II and Psychic World. I always wished Kid Chameleon would have been released for it, I had a lot of fun with that on the Sega Genesis! Enjoy your Game Gears everyone, I wish I still had mine.

[theclaw]

Allright guys, I've got a question for ya'll. I recently purchased a third party wall adaptor that supposedly works with the Sega Genesis, Sega Nomad, and Sega Game Gear. My only question is the fact that this charger has a black tip. I had always thought that the sega adaptors had yellow tips. Does this make any difference? I'd rather not short out my Game Gear this early into collecting for it. Thanks!

As I understand Sega actually changed the Game Gear power input for us.
North American was center positive. Most units in Europe and Japan at least were center negative.

[ZP3]

As I understand Sega actually changed the Game Gear power input for us.
North American was center positive. Most units in Europe and Japan at least were center negative.

So it should be allright for use?