Sega decided that they wanted to take a bite out of
Nintendo's
Game Boy sales and came up with essentially a portable
Sega Master System. Sporting 4000+ colors and a
backlight,
Sega unleashed the Game Gear (known as Project Mercury in the
Sega Planetary Projects) upon the world in 1991 for a price of $159.99 (with no pack-in game). The unit required six AA batteries and lasted for roughly six hours before requiring new ones. The unit is held lengthwise and features a control pad, two action buttons, and a Start button. 99% of the units were black in coloring, although Japan did receive a shipment of white models briefly, and a golden jeweled model was auctioned off for charity once. Here are the unit's specs:
- Main Processor: Z-80 (8-bit)
- Processor Speed: 3.58 MHz
- Resolution: 160 x 146
- Colors Available: 4,096
- Colors on screen: 32
- Maximum Sprites: 64
- Sprite Size: 8x8
- Screen Size: 3.2 Inches
- Audio: 4-lyr
- RAM: 24K
Many of the games that were released for the Sega Genesis hit the stores along with their portable equivalents. Some games tried to be identical ports, such as Earthworm Jim and Ristar, while others were new games altogether, such as Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble, while others still were games ported over from the Sega Master System, such as Sonic the Hedgehog. Using the Sega Master System specs enabled developers to port over their 8-bit projects with ease, and Sega hoped this attribute would attract developers. The final kind of games for the unit were games that originally debuted on the Nintendo Entertainment System that had been reworked for the Game Gear, such as Battletoads and, yes, Mega Man.
Sega released several peripherals for the unit including a TV tuner that plugged into the cartridge slot and allowed gamers to watch broadcast television on the little color backlit LCD screen. The Game Gear itself outlived the tuner by several years, as Sega shut down production on the tuner after demand for it never materialized. Some blamed the high price of the tuner, while others avoided it due to the poor quality of what was obviously a gimmick.
While the Game Gear did moderately well in the USA and Europe, the system never met the company's goals in Japan and Nintendo continued to win the handheld gaming war. Sega did manage to trump the TurboExpress unit, a portable version of the Turbografx-16, but in the end they pulled the plug on their first and last portable 8-bit gaming unit in 1996. Sega tried their hand at portability again with the Nomad and the Sega CDX machines in the ensuing years, again with limited success. Your best bet for finding a working Game Gear and games for it would be online auctions or used game stores. Failing that there are a number of working emulators that can recreate some of the portable 8-bit classics.
Sega Game Gear Game List
Adventures of Batman and Robin
Andre Agassi Tennis
Arcade Classics
Arena: Maze of Death
Ariel: The Little Mermaid
Asterix and the Great Rescue
Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe
Baku Baku
Batman Forever
Batman Returns
Battletoads
Beavis & Butthead
Berenstein Bears
Blackjack-Poker Face Paul
Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble
Bust A Move
Caesar's Palace
Captain America
Castle of Illusion
Chakan
Championship Football and Baseball
Cheese Catastraphe - Speedy Gonzales
Chicago Syndicate
Chuck Rock
Cliffhanger
Columns
Crystal Warriors
Deep Duck Trouble starring Donald Duck
Defenders/Oasis
Desert Speedtrap
Desert Strike
Disney's Aladdin
Disney's Bonkers Wax Up!
Disney's Lion King
Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Dracula
Dragon: Bruce Lee
Dragon Crystal
Dynamite Headdy
Earthworm Jim
Ecco 2 Tides of Time
Ecco the Dolphin
Evander "Real Deal" Holyfield's Boxing
Fantasy Zone
FIFA International Soccer
FIFA Soccer '96
Foreman Boxing
Formula One
Fred Couples Golf
G-Loc Air Battle
Game Genie (cheating device)
Garfield: Caught in the Act
George Foreman
Gin-Poker Face Paul
GP Rider
Greendog The Beached Surfer Dude
High Speed II
Hook
Incredible Hulk
Indiana Jones
Iron Man X/O
The Itchy and Scratchy Game
Joe Montana
John Madden '95
Judge Dredd
Junction
Jungle Strike
Jurassic Park
Klax
Last Action Hero
Leader Board
Legend of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse
Lemmings
Lost World: Jurassic Park
Lucky Dime Caper
Madden '96
Majors Pro Baseball
Mega Man
MLBPA Baseball
Mickey Mouse: Castle of Illusion
Mickey Mouse: Ultimate
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie
Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat II
NBA Action starring David Robinson
NBA Jam
NBA Jam Tournament Edition
NFL '95
NFL Quarterback Club
NFL Quarterback Club '96
NHL All-Star Hockey '95
NHL Hockey '96
Ninja Gaiden
Out Run Europa
Pac-Attack
PGA Tour Golf
PGA Tour Golf '96
Phantom 2040
Poker Face Paul's Blackjack
Poker Face Paul's Gin
Poker Face Paul's Poker
Poker Face Paul's Solitaire
Populus
Primal Rage
Psychic World
Putt & Putter
The Quest for the Shaven Yak starring Ren & Stimpy
RBI Baseball
Real Deal Boxing
Return of the Jedi
Revenge of Drancon
Riddick Bowe Boxing
Ristar
Samurai Shodown
Scratch Golf
Shaq-Fu
Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Shinobi
Shinobi 2
Bartman Meets Radioactive Man
Slider
Smash TV
Solitaire Funpak
Sonic Blast
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Drift
Sonic Drift 2 / Sonic Drift Racing
Sonic Labyrinth
Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Sonic Chaos / Sonic and Tails
Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble / Sonic and Tails 2
Sonic Two-in-One
Sonic Spinball
Space Harrier
Speedy Gonzales
Spiderman: Sinister 6
Sports Trivia Championship Edition
Star Trek: TNG
Star Trek Generations
Star Wars
Stargate
Streets of Rage
Streets of Rage 2
Strider III
Strider Returns
Super Columns
Super Golf
Super Monaco GP
Super Monaco GP 2
Super Return of the Jedi
Super Smash TV
Super Space Invaders
Surf Ninjas
Tails' Adventure
Tails' Sky Patrol
Talespin
Taz: Escape from Mars
Tempo Jr.
Tom and Jerry: The Movie
USHRA Truck Wars
VR Troopers
Vampire
Virtua Fighter Animation
Wheel of Fortune
Wimbledon Tennis
Winter Olympic Games
Wolfchild
Woody Pop
World Cup Soccer
World Cup USA '96
World Series Baseball
World Series Baseball '95
WWF Raw
WWF Steel Cage
X-Men
X-Men Game Masters Legacy
X-Men: Mojo World
References:
http://www.vgmuseum.com/systems/gg/
http://www.atani-software.net/segabase/SegaBase-MasterSystem.html
http://www.myers66.freeserve.co.uk/Game%20List7.htm