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Sega Game Gear
The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console and was Sega's response to Nintendo's Game Boy. It is the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the Turbo Express. more...
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Work began on the console in 1989 under the codename "Project Mercury", and the system was released in Japan on October 6, 1990. It was released in North America and Europe in 1991 and in Australia in 1992. Support for the Game Gear was dropped in early 1997.
Design and technical features
The Game Gear was basically a portable Master System with a lower resolution screen, but allowed for a larger color palette, and therefore potentially better-looking graphics. In addition, it could also produce stereo sound (through headphones) as opposed to the Master System's monaural output, although very few games made use of the stereo capabilities. Unlike the original Game Boy, the system is held in a "landscape" position, with the controls at the sides, making it less cramped to hold. One of the more famous and unusual peripherals for the Game Gear was the "TV Tuner Adapter", a device that plugged into the system's cartridge slot, and allowed one to watch TV on the Game Gear's screen. Other add-ons included a magnifying glass to compensate for the relatively small size of the Game Gear's screen.
Sega had taken a similar approach when developing the Sega Mega Drive, basing it on Sega's 16-bit arcade hardware. This enabled direct conversion of popular games. Likewise, because of the similarities between the Master System and the Game Gear, it was possible for Master System games to be written directly onto ROMs in Game Gear cartridges. Similarly, an adapter called the "Master Gear" allowed Master System cartridges to be plugged in and played on the Game Gear. The reverse (playing a Game Gear game on a Master System console) was impossible due to the Game Gear's aforementioned larger color palette.
Specifications
Main processor: Zilog Z80 (8-bit);
Processor speed: 3.58 MHz (same as NTSC dot clock);
Resolution: 160 x 144 pixels;
Colors available: 4,096;
Colors on screen: 32;
Maximum sprites: 64;
Sprite size: 8x8 or 8x16;
Screen size: 3.2 inches (81 mm);
Audio: 4 channel tone generator;
RAM: 24 KB;
Batteries: 6 AA;
Emulation
As of 2006, emulators for Game Gear have been made for the GP2X, GP32, Nintendo Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Symbian, Windows Mobile, PC and PlayStation Portable which use less power, fewer batteries and a smaller form factor along with emulation through software.
Sales history and Game Boy rivalry
The Game Gear was not very popular in Japan, where it was released to a generally apathetic audience, with build quality issues plaguing it early in its service life. Another problem was battery life; while better than earlier color backlit systems, its 5 hour battery life still wasn't as good as the Game Boy (due to that system's monochrome screen, lack of a backlight, and less powerful hardware). Battery life was a much bigger issue before handheld systems had built-in rechargeable batteries: gamers needed either a constant supply of AA batteries, or a rechargeable battery pack that was sold separately.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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