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.
Originally Posted by Ed Oscuro
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by Ed Oscuro; 03-12-2013 at 06:40 PM.
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.
At least Japanese GG is worth owning for a certain niche. I've never seen any successful region mod in action.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.
Lum fan.
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.
You'd have to remap the Game Gear colors somehow. It has a wider total palette, despite fewer on screen at once.
Lum fan.
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.
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.
Game Gear charger
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!
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.
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.
Lum fan.
So it should be allright for use?
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