Game Gear

The Game Gear, codenamed Project Mercury during development, was an 8-bit handheld console developed and released by SEGA during the fourth console generation. It primarily competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, as well as the Atari Lynx and NEC's TurboExpress. It shares much of the hardware with the SEGA Master System, and is even backwards compatible with it via the use of an adapter. It also had a similar button set up, with a directional pad, Start button, and A and B buttons. It was SEGA's only portable console, not counting the Genesis Nomad.
Unlike the Game Boy, it was able to display its games on a full color backlit screen in a landscape format, and overall was the technologically superior handheld. Similar to the marketing of the SEGA Genesis, SEGA positioned the Game Gear as a "more mature" and "grown-up" option compared to the Game Boy. In North America, advertisements for the system also poked fun at people who played the Game Boy, calling them fat and uneducated, with one such commercial saying "If you were color blind and had an IQ of less than 12, you wouldn't mind which portable you had." Along with the Genesis' marketing against the SNES, this fueled the console war between Nintendo and SEGA, drawing more eyes to the console.
While its color screen, library, and price gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx and TurboExpress, the Game Gear could not keep up with the Game Boy in terms of sales and reception. It sold 10.6 million units in its lifetime before being discontinued in 1997, while the Game Boy sold about six times as much. Reception for the system was mixed, as many praised its color screen and processing power for the time, but also criticized the poor battery life and clunky build that made it harder to carry around than the Game Boy, and questioned the quality and consistency of the Game Gear's library.
==Accessories==
===TV Tuner===
The TV Tuner, also known as the TV Auto Tuner, was an accessory with a whip antenna that plugged into the Game Gear's cartridge slot, allowing the viewing of analog television stations over-the-air. SEGA were quick to market this shortly after the Game Gear released for two reasons; handheld televisions were a relatively new invention and were very pricy in the early 90s, and because it required a colored screen, something the system could take advantage off that the Game Boy couldn't. Unfortunately, this made the Game Gear's already short battery life drain even faster than when playing games, making it largely redundant unless the user had an AC adapter. The gradual switch from analog television to digital also makes the add-on worthless nowadays.
===Gear to Gear Cable===
The Gear to Gear Cable, also known as the VS Cable, allowed two Game Gears to be linked together, allowing for multiplayer. This is nearly identical in concept to the Game Boy's own Game Link Cable, although there was no add-on that supported four players.
===Master Gear Converter===
The Master Gear Converter allowed the Game Gear to play Master System cartridges. Because the hardware between the two consoles were so similar, they were able to accept games from each other. The converter plugged into the cartridge slot, and had a slot itself where Master System games could be inserted. This was almost identical to the Power Base Converter for the Genesis, though as the game resolution was resized to fit the system's small screen, it would sometimes make sprites hard to see, such as bullets or text.
==Game Gear Micro==
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of SEGA, a miniature version of the Game Gear, the Game Gear Micro, was released in Japan on October 6, 2020. They were much smaller than the standard Game Gear, and easily fit in the palm of a hand. Four color variants - black, blue, yellow, and red - were released, and each had a selection of four pre-installed Game Gear games (i.e. the black one had Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue one had Sonic Chaos, etc.) A white Game Gear Micro was also released, included in the Aleste Collection for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as a bonus. They were only sold in Japan, and never made it overseas.
==List of Game Gear Games==
Any page that has the Game Gear Games category on them will be added here automatically.
Category:Sega Consoles
Category:SEGA
Category:Handheld Consoles