From: savoia@sw.stratus.com (Rick Savoia)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: Gameboy vs. Gamegear; FROM THOSE WHO'VE USED BOTH
Date: 13 Nov 92 12:46:30 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: watts.sqa.stratus.com

In article <1duj6uINNrqh@early-bird.think.com>, laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) writes:
> In article <1992Nov12.094307.8193@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM> bcarl@ccscola.Columbia.NCR.COM (Brian Carl) writes:
> >I'm considering (finally) buying into the hand-held market, and was looking
> >for some OBJECTIVE opinions from people who have ACTUALLY PLAYED a fair
> >number of games on BOTH Gameboy and Gamegear portables.
> >
> >Which game has greater overall playability?  Which has a better overall
> >game selection?  Understanding that I loved the Mega Man series on NES,
> >and also like puzzle games in general, which system would be more appealing 
> >to me?  Which system has the best overall (basic system and individual
> >game costs) cost?
> 
> The GB is a decent little system -- 8-bit, monochrome, but OK for what it
> was designed for.  It's fine for graphically simple puzzle games (e.g.
> Tetris) but most of the GB games I saw left me flat, and I was struck by
> the fact that it actually costs more to have a GameBoy comparable to a Lynx
> (add light, magnifying screen, etc.) and you still have a B/W system.  The
> only thing that could make the GB interesting would be if it were really
> inexpensive, which it isn't.

Well, it all depends how much you think you need.  I bought the 
Gameboy before a 12 hour plane trip.  If you look hard enough, 
you can get a really good price on one on sale.  I've since only
bought 2 games from stores.   All the rest I've bought off the
Net for really good prices.  For the amount I play (not a great
amount but still a few hours a week), I really enjoy it.   I don't
need to bother with the magnifying screen and all I bought for 
extra equipment was the NUBY game light (the small one without the
magnifying screen) and that cost me $10.
> 
> The Lynx has some really cool hardware, so it can do graphics scaling and
> distortion, like the Super NES, and has a library of plenty of original
> games as well as a few ports from other systems.  Given that it doesn't
> cost much more than a GB, and it's color with backlighting, aside from the
> other differences, it's an easy trade up.

The last plane flight I was on, I was talking to a kid who 
had bough the Lynx system.  He said that he liked it but
wished it had Tetris like the GB did.  I started talking
to him about other features of the systems and one of the
things that made me really glad I bought a GB was battery
life.  Apparently, he could only play the Lynx for 2-4
hours without recharging.  I was really surprised.  The 
whole idea of a portable to me is to be able to play it 
when you want, where you want and not worry about things
like battery life.  I find that it is sometimes months
between battery replacement with my GB and that's with
2-3 hour playing times most times I play.

Good luck in your search.
-- 
==========================================================
Rick Savoia                     | "I'm just very selective
savoia@watts.sqa.stratus.com    | about the reality 
Rick_Savoia@vos.stratus.com     | I accept" - Calvin
==========================================================