There was demonstration one in our local Kmart in the electronics section. It had sonic the hedgehog on it. Everytime my mom would take us to the mall, I would beeline for the Game Gear and Gameboy they had and play until she got me.
Never knew anyone with one, but I always wanted one when I was a kid. Magazine coverage made them look awesome. Now I’m old and still want one! But it seems they’re a bit high maintenance…
I’ve emulated some of the games, but I don’t have the money to buy one at the moment. I would like to get one, though.
I had a friend who had one and it looked amazing! Just like a real console attached to a TV, and indeed it was basically a portable Sega Master System in design. I only had a gray-scale GameBoy so the display on the Game Gear was incredible by comparison.
I do remember my joy, when finding out that instead of feeding it with batteries, I could even use the power adapter of the master system to play with the Gamegear. 😄
I’ve got a one that has long since died due to the leaky capacitors. Tried to resurrect it but no luck so far. May look to salvage the chips for a full mainboard replacement at some point.
Mine still works. I still play Sonic and Simpsons every once in a while.
I was envious of anyone who had one when I was a kid, but now I don’t know if there’s any games on it that make buying this system worthwhile.
I lusted after these when I was a kid, and eventually blew all my saved up Christmas/Birthday money on one.
The battery thing really sucked, but still had a lot of fun with it. Must of played that first level of Sonic 2 a thousand times.
My white whale was the TV tuner, I thought the idea was so cool as a kid.
I had a friend who brought their Game Gear with the TV tuner to the playground in elementary school, and it was a moment of absolute future shock. It didn’t matter that we could barely tell what was happening on the screen, because I couldn’t believe that it was even possible!
I saw a kid hook up the TV tuner in the back of the bus and was insanely jealous.
the boss levels on sonic 2 game gear were SAVAGE, my god
Shinobi 2 for Game Gear was a childhood favourite even if I didn’t have any batteries and just had to hang out near an outlet to play it. I booted it up on my Analogue Pocket recently, and it’s still super fun! I enjoyed a bunch of games on the system, but that’s the one that feels like an all-time classic to me.
Yes. Absolutely. Shinobi 2 for Sega Game Gear is an all time classic.
It’s a shame more people don’t encounter it when exploring retrogames. It’s so easy to assume the Genesis versions of each title will be better, and skip trying the GameGear version.
I had one as a kid. Only had Sonic 2 and Lion King game. I dunno why I never got another game for it. I ended up playing my GameBoy a lot more than this. My family had a Sega Genesis, never a NES or SNES, so the parents must have gotten this since I was a fan of Sega and Sonic.
I am one of the people that never got past the first boss of the Sonic game, that damn crab thing in the ground. I should emulate it and see if I can do any better as an adult. Likely not!
Love and hate, for sure.
As a kid it was the coolest thing ever, but the thing was a battery eating machine, so it was always a struggle to get my parents to buy a new set. Eventually they got me an A/C adapter which was… somewhat compatible. It fit, but shake it a little too much and POP, game reset. And of course that always happened after beating a tough boss. 20 years later I’m still annoyed.
I hope I can find mine tucked in some old drawer at my grandma’s and give it a well-deserved overhaul.
I had one as a kid. That thing went through batteries so fast, I messed mine up because of it. I had a battery pack for an RC car, and it looked like a bunch of AA batteries in series, so I took it apart. It worked in my game gear for a little bit until I smelled burning plastic. It melted a part of the battery compartment and my game gear wouldn’t take batteries after that, only running off AC power.
My first RPG was on game gear, Dragon Crystal. That was the one where you have a dragon egg following behind you and you had to push your body against the trees to reveal the maze-like path. I don’t know if there was an end to that game, but I barely made it to hatching the dragon.
I loved the Sonic games, Castle of Illusion, Columns, the Streets of Rage series.
I had the adapter so I could play my master system games.
Bought mine in the 90’s from a high school friend. Got the car adapter and it was a lifesaver for the family road trips which we did a lot of back then. I kept it even though it stopped working years ago. Then learned how to recap it during the pandemic and got hooked to console modding. That was a slippery slope. I’ve since bought, fixed, and customized 6 game gears with custom-painted shells and installed the different variations of screen and power upgrades. Now I find broken consoles and fix/upgrade them as a hobby. There’s something so satisfying about bringing life back to gaming hardware that people have given up on.
Thank you for doing this. It’s so cool to bring new life to old systems.
I relate to the game gear during long car rides (Mortal Kombat II!!!). Awesome that you’re restoring them now!!
My cousin had one. I had a GameBoy. I was jealous at first, but I realized I had Zelda and the batteries would last an entire car trip. Being into retrogames, I’d love one, but I feel like as a Kid I got the better deal TBH.
A relative had one in the 90s, I would occasionally play it. They had Sonic and a few other side scrollers. I thought the colour graphics were cool compared to my Game Boy. But the Game Gear was always had to be plugged in due to the battery drain so it seemed a bit pointless as a handheld, especially when the same relative also had a Mega Drive. 🤷
It’s a handheld I’d like to revisit some day if I come across one cheap.
