I remember as a teenager some friends asking why I had so many “Kiddie games” because of Castle/World of Illusion and Quackshot for the Genesis. Because they were awesome, that’s why!
Still hear this as adults to which I respond is imagining you’re Lionel Messi in the latest FIFA or pretending to be a soldier in the latest CoD grown up then?
This was the system that introduced me to gaming! I remember playing Sonic the Hegehog 1 on this the night my parents gave it to me, I was in the back seat at night and we were stuck in traffic over the bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, it was an unforgettable memory.
I only remember one of my friends having a game gear in the 90s. He was so much greedier with it than people would be with their game boys due to the short battery life. One life on Shinobi was all you’d get off him if he liked you.
Yeah I only ever saw other kids playing one....never had one handed to me like a Game Boy, which I had to wait all the way until 1995 to get one of my own
Well ye 6 batteries and if they were the dollar store kind ffs it didn't last long at all x.x 😂 luckily the Genesis 2 plug worked when you was at home lol. Those were the days haha
I never knew anyone who has a Game Gear growing up. We all had Game Boys because they were cheap. I finally picked one up in high school. Found it in a box of Dreamcast games at a yard sale for three dollars, and made a huge profit because the box also had Project Justice. I've still got the Game Gear, and my son loves playing it.
I had a gameboy and my older brother had a game gear. I was jealous for the first 6months until it was obvious that the longer battery life and superior games actually made gameboy the better system even though the game gear was clearly more badass.
@@skins4thewin yea, neither one of us had the entire library of games obviously but Tetris, super Mario land 1 and 2, metriod 2, Zelda, and final fantasy were all awesome games I had and he had sonic , columns, ninja gaiden and others and they didn’t have the same longevity for us. He ended up getting a gameboy
@@AustinSincrow Yeah the Gameboy was amazing no question. If only it were back-lit. Still can't believe we didn't get the Gameboy Light here, no clue why.
Nothing was more amazing then getting a game gear for Christmas. I remember seeing the logo through the wrapping paper and not being able to sleep at night because I was so excited. I miss that feeling.
I distinctly remember, as a very young kid, saving up allowance money - getting no toys or treats of my own volition - and saving up after a few months to get my very own Game Gear, it was the blue model that came with The Lion King, and I still remember how great it felt to walk into that store and buy a game system with my own money. Of course, adopting the console so late means I missed a lot of these titles, Lucky Dime Caper in particular has been on my radar for a while, and I still kick myself to this day for passing up Revenge of Drancon when seeing it at a thrift store a few years ago; at the time, from the name and title, I had no idea it was Wonder Boy!
Man, I remember my parents buying the Toys R Us set for me back in '92. It came with The Majors Pro Baseball, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, the two battery packs, a screen magnifier, a large hard case and a voucher to order the T.V. Tuner attachment. I took this thing on every summer vacation we went on for years. Damn, those were good days.
I loved my Sega Game Gear was so awesome to have at the time though battery life was not great, had a TV tuner for mine as well so could watch TV on it.
I had the TV tuner too .. The big telescoping metal antenna 🎮😊🏝📺 I could almost imagine Nintendo coming out of left field and releasing a similar product for the switch, although I would love a much more discreet antenna. I think I might even have to pick it up if they did. 🤔🏝😉 ... .. or they could just release a modern punch out with regular controller controls and I would totally be good with that also 🥊😁
SO many memories. I had Columns, Monaco GP, Fantasy Zone, Psycho World, G-Loc, Land of Illusion, Wonder Boy and the SMS Adapter. Used it to play a LOT of Wonder Boy III, still one of my favourite games today.
I remember listening to an interview with Tom Kalinske and how it was frustrating that they could not fix the battery issue, it was imo the best handheld of the 90s, the backlight made it so easy to play games and I loved it for what it was. A common misconception is that the Master system and Game Gear versions of the game was the same, it's not true. Alien Syndrome and Predator 2 were different to their MS counterparts.
It really is too bad the backlight tech just wasn't there yet. Gotta wonder how it could've been. I sure didn't play on mine much because of how many batteries it ate; an expensive system at the time with expensive battery use. Nowadays, I know it's a system worth owning.
It looks like the Game Gear had a really strong line-up in that first year in the US. Really happy to see GG Shinobi among all those great games. I've been working on my Mega Drive port of the game a fair bit recently and hope that I can do the original justice!
@@orderofmagnitude-TPATP Yeah it's going to take a while :) Maybe if I was just doing that game alone instead of both it and SotN then it would get done much quicker, but I really enjoy switching between the two - it helps keep things fresh for me!
I loved my game gear so much an excellent handheld and had the master gear converter ❤️
2 года назад+62
I remember listening to an interview with Tom Kalinske about how frustrating it was that they couldn't fix the battery issue; it was, in my opinion, the best handheld of the 1990s; the backlight made it so easy to play games, and I loved it for what it was. A common misconception is that the Master System and Game Gear versions of the game were the same; this is not the case; Alien Syndrome and Predator 2 were not the same as their MS counterparts.
It's too bad they didn't do a Game Boy Pocket-style redesign in 1997 or 1998. I'm sure they could've updated its internals by that point to make it smaller and give it better battery life (especially if they made the display backlight toggleable like the GBA SP). It could've gone against the Game Boy Color for a few more years. It had a strong back catalogue, and some of the later Game Gear games were quite impressive graphically.
@@themadmadcow It would have been a non factor without Pokemon. The Gameboy went from near obsolete for a couple years to a huge seller again after they localized Pokemon.
The Game Gear was the very first console I owned. It would have been perfect without the battery problem, cause my father refused at a point to buy some more of them! Sonic and Castle of Illusion were the first games I could finish. It was anyway a 90's device for me because I officially pronunced mine dead in 1999.
with a ~2 hour battery life, i never considered it portable. more like carriable... till the closest wall plug :P i still have my GG here, i think i only ever used it on batteries once
Absolutely LOVED the Sega Game Gear. It's cultural impact, chiptune music among it's games, and tech were highly underrated even back then. I would have loved to see what a Game Gear 2 would have looked like
Knowing Nintendo prototyped a 32 bit handheld in 1995, the Game Boy Color came out in 1998 and the high resolution WonderSwan came out in 1999, if I were Sega around this time, I would've looked into getting a 16 bit Game Gear Ultra ready for 1997! It would've been slightly higher resolution than the Master System, used the same screen technology that later found its way into the Game Boy Color and its competitors, had sprite scaling capabilities (so Space Harrier and Galaxy Force would be able to turn out better on it than they did on the Mega Drive), have full Game Gear and (with adaptor) Master System compatibility and just be a handheld actually capable of competing with the Game Boy! I would even have looked into beating Nintendo to the idea of a 2 screen/touchscreen handheld shortly into the 2000s!
@@darrenwinn22 I would’ve held off a Game Gear 2 for a few years, knowing Nintendo prototyped a 32 bit handheld in 1995, I could’ve held off a Game Gear successor until 1997, using the same screen technology that later went into the Game Boy Color, but at slightly higher resolution than the Master System, I would’ve made it 16 bit (the WonderSwan came in 1999), added sprite scaling capabilities (so Space Harrier and Galaxy Force would be a lot more doable on the system) and just make sure the handheld is done right!
In retrospect, I think a Game Game 2 would be too expensive for the market at the that time to desire, considering what they'd have to do to top the 1st Game Gear. It probably would have been close to between $200-$250 back in the mid-90s
I was the only Master System fan I knew due to growing up in the US. When the Game Gear was released, I just dismissed it thinking "that's more or less just a portable Master System which I have at home". Looking back, I should have paid more attention to the diverse catalog the Game Gear had over the master System.
My dad sold cars in the 90s and sometimes people would leave stuff in them. I was blown away when he brought me a whole game gear with 5 games ,car power cord and the battery expansion pack. Having a genesis already I mostly enjoyed it either at home with the wall adapter or in the car with the 12v plug. I quickly gave up on batteries because my dad said we could either find more game or buy batteries he couldn't stand that 6 AA would die so fast
I still remember when I got the GG for my bday. My parentss surprised me...I got a GG case (the suit case one where you could store like 10 games), a gg, ac adapter and like 5 games. I don't know how they pulled it off, and I honestly don't remember if I even asked for a GG.
Klax was amazing. Many memories of playing this, instead of doing a piece of work for my university course. The tagline "It is the 90s, and there is time for Klax" seems astoshingly appropriate at the time... :)
I picked up a gamegear on a road trip to Seattle from Vancouver when it came out. I got Shinobi, Castle of illusion, and the pack in columns. It was such a killer system…except for the battery life. Shortly after a few months i managed to get the master gear converter, and Phantasy star became portable! Epic for the day!
It was a killer system alright... A battery killer that is. Yeah it was a cool system. While I didn't have one my friend did. The problem was always going to the store to buy batteries with left over change.
@@Gatorade69 DiD yOu NoT hAvE rEcHaRgAbLe BaTtErIeS?! Legit though, if you still have a Gamegear, rechargable batteries are a must. I use a pair of Energizers in my Neo Geo Pockets, and that system is already surprisingly good on battery life as it is.
@@nicksrandomreviews Oh I had rechargeable batteries. Radioshack branded ones that seemed to not last near as long as regular batteries though I had a Sega Nomad and I assume it goes through batteries just as quick as the Game Gear, maybe faster. Even later in life when I had energizer branded ones for my Xbox360 controller they still seem like they had half the charge of regular batteries.
@@maxxdahl6062 Hard to use an AC adaptor when you don't have any power sockets available to you. My friend would literally be locked outside of his house "to play" while his mom was gone. He had both a game gear and Game boy and even a virtual boy later on after he got in on super discount.
I used to LOVE Dragon Crystal! Spent so much time on that one back in the day! Also psychic world, slider, and Mickey! Now I gotta go play all these again! Great video.
22:24 I was never a huge fan of the SMS/GG sound chip, but GG Shinobi definitely had one of the best soundtracks anyone managed to put together for it. Yuzo Koshiro does it again.
I wasn't born around the 80's or 90's, but since I grew up playing NES/Famicom games on a cheap knockoff Famiclone, I grew up enjoying retro gaming a whole lot. To be honest, the SMS/Game Gear had a lot of advantages over the NES. SMS games always feel faster for some reason, with vivid colors and better graphics. However the sound chip is absolutely awful. I try to like some tracks in some games, but I just can't. The best 8bit game console ever would be a Master System with an NES sound chip... And also Select and Start on the controller, like the NES!
I remember taking our Game Gear to school once (maybe 1992), when there was a mandatory cross country run on for the girls and higher years. Me and friends stayed in a dormitory room and I played through Sonic the Hedgehog with everyone in the room watching, and was on the last level when a teacher came in and said we have to go outside to cheer people in at the end of the race, I protested but I never managed to show my friends the end of the game! Still a bit bitter about that 😂
In an electronics engineering class in high school we ran a PlayStation through the Game Gear TV Tuner. I still have mine. But there's a short in the AC input. I should try to fix it.
6:21 I had Slider as a kid. I bought it with my birthday money in 1st grade from Toys R Us. I have NO IDEA why I bought that one, I really have no idea, I never heard of it before, I guess I thought it "looked cool" or something, it was so long ago I basically just remember buying it, and I played it A LOT after I got it, it turned out to be one of my favorite games for the Game Gear! I think I played Sonic Chaos, Sonic 1, and Slider the most. I found out years later that Slider is actually part of a little mini game franchise called "Sqweek" or "Super Sqweek" that was released for some Atari systems and some earlier PCs, like Amiga, and the creator HATED that they renamed it to "Slider" for the Game Gear installment released in North America. 99 total levels in that fun pick-up-and-play game, with a password feature! It you get 4 of the different colored teddy bears, you get 5 extra lives and skip to the next level. Some pretty cool puzzle mechanics in some of the levels. At the end there's a screen where it shows that you rescued a girl Slider character (same sprite as Slider, but with a pink bow on her head)....of course! Early 1990s video games in all their glory.
This handheld was very memorable for me. The first and only handheld I've ever had, my father saved up an entire month of his paycheck to buy it, and I would get 1 game on every birthday (or on occasion find one at a thrift store for $5-10) But man, 6 AA batteries to power it for only around 3 hours (less if the volume is too high) it goes through regular batteries too quickly and rechargeable were quite expensive back then. Also, the AC adapter didn't have a built-in voltage transformer like most adapters do today, so when I brought it with me to visit relatives in China I plugged into the 220V outlet, and it promptly fried the adaptor. Even after getting a replacement (still fairly rare and expensive by China's standard at the time) I still had no way of playing it, until my grandfather found this antique transformer they had lying around the house. The transformer was bulky, had to lug it around everywhere, but at least it allowed the handheld to run without issues The games I had were Sonic 2/Chaos/Triple trouble, Ninja Gaiden, Super Columns, Chakan, and the only RPG I got, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Love the game gear! One of the biggest parts of my collection, including about half the games and 25+ 2 player games with gear to gear cable. So many great titles!
The Game Gear overlay alone secures the win on this vid. My mom picked up a Game Gear back in the day. Never got too many games for it, but when emulation came around I realized I missed out on a few nifty experiences. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
My grandma bought me and my cousins gamegears as a kid.I remember all the crazy accessories and games.I loved my gamegear and as an adult now i need to pick one up.
Excellent! You are one of the very few that provides content for the Game Gear. More of it please, would love to see category videos like you do for the Saturn
I really wish there were more videos on the GameGear. I feel like it's really underrated and for the 350 games it had I barely know any of them. I've recently started building up a collection in anticipation of my Analogue pocket coming in though :)
Awesome episode man! I love the game gear since it's my first portable console that I still own from my childhood. I'm currently going for a complete US collection, which there are apparently 233 games.
The GG was my first handheld system. That was the best Christmas ever. I myself did the same thing, plugged it into the wall and played that beast for hours. Loved it.
I wasn't allowed consoles growing up until my parents started testing the waters with a used game gear in 1996 - late in the system's life but it changed my life
I remember seeing the game gear as a kid. Unfortunately I never owned one. It wasn't until Christmas,when I got a mega drive. The master system had nothing on the big black powerhouse. Truly transport's me back to my childhood. I do enjoy today's games,but they haven't got the same soul. As a kid your imagination would fill in the blank's as u became transfixed. So much of my art is because of Sega.
I got the Game Gear in 1992 and loved it. Battery life was never much of an issue for me since I had both the recharagble battery pack, ac adapter and car adapter. The place i played it most was while laying in my bed. I loved it because of how much "cooler" it was than a gameboy. Years later I got the Nomad and my game gear adapters all worked with it so again no real battey issue. Infact i never used a single AA battery for the Nomad,
My cousin once had a GG!! Columns and Shinobi were the only games she had. Too bad she didn’t have more games but it was still a lot of fun back in the day!!!!
My first handheld at the age of 4-5 years old was a game gear. It was 1998. Amazing piece of equipment but I remember very specifically my mom hating it because of how much she spent on batteries for the thing. It was amazing for road trips though. Driving from Illinois to Mississippi and back every summer. Green Day’s Nimrod in CD player, eating Moon Pies…. God.
You were among the elite if you rolled up on lunch time at school with a Game Gear, TV Tuner, and screen shield (light blocking hood)/magnifier set up. It was about as big as a regulation basketball by the time you had it all set up, but god damn was it cool.
I remember that, during this time, the toy stores had quite many game gear games to sell. They proposed maybe slightly less games compared to the game boy (I'm actually not sure to remember well, it could have been equal but I think it was a bit less) but it was an important device anyway. However, I think that there were 2 main problems to be able to really compete against the game boy : as everybody knows, the batteries' life and also the fact that no game (well, as far as I know) had the option to save your progression. Some games had a password system but it was of course far less convenient than a save system that you could find on the game boy. Anyway, thanks for your video. It brings me quite a few good memories.
Dude, it's 2022, PLEASE, put SECTIONS in your videos, seriously! Especially a compilation like this! If in years, I am looking for a quick opinion on a particular early GG game, I would be able, in a few seconds, to see whether you covered it, and select exactly where it is. It would absolutely help to "future-proof" your videos. Also, you probably already have most of those sections already identified in whatever video editing software you are using, as well as in your script, so it really takes less than five minutes to implement them...
I use to have the Gamegear back in the day (I lost it in the move) and I remember having a great time playing the Sonic games, Tails Adventure, and Lucky Dime Caper on them
I always was interested in new portables but GGear don't convinced me at the moment of release because to play for a regular time was needed to be plug and for that was better to sit in front of a TV. Yes GBoy screen was a Painful but, the "portability" was real. I'm 44 now and "teamNintendo" but its a joy to see how much love and care you put in your videos. That one is Amazing!
The Game Gear with the TV adapter was an early road trip favorite in our family. We had the car power adapter so us kids in the back seat could view stuff on the trips to Disney World / Busch Gardens...
Most of us played space harrier on the Sega master first. I didn’t know there was an arcade version until after the 32X failed and I played that version and heard that it was an arcade perfect port. It’s easy to appreciate the Sega master version when you’re not comparing it to arcade machines you’ve never seen.
I had one growing up, got the Game Gear Sports Pack as a young kid & I absolutely LOVED it! I played my Game Gear just as much as I did my Game Boy. Thank god I also got one of the Battery Dildo's to help save on batteries!
Holy crap! G-Loc! I think I had that game. The Game Gear was mind-blowing when it came out but I can't remember which games I had too well. I know I had GG Shinobi, Columns and Donald Duck Caper. I also still own my cartridge of Ax Battler but other than that I'm fuzzy.
I bought the Game Gear even after owning an Atari Lynx. My findings was that the Game Gear to be more simplistic games compared to the Lynx scaling and rotation. My Lynx just had more power and the amount of things going on screen was far more than I ever seen on my Game Gear but I played and enjoyed it just the same and both ate batteries like they were candy. Both are great handhelds especially since getting both modded with McWill screens, makes all the games way more playable and fresh too
I remember back in 2nd grade when I had a friend in school and his mom and my mom took us shopping together. And my friend's mom bought my friend a new GameBoy Pocket. And my mom wouldn't buy me one. So I got jealous and I said, "I'm going to save up and get something even better - THE SEGA GAME GEAR!!!" And so that summer, I saved up a lot of money babysitting my little cousin who was probably 3 or 4. And I think I saved up close to a $100 by the end of that summer, that when a new school year was about to start, all that money that I saved up to buy the Game Gear just disappeared. And I remember how much I got pissed off because my mom spent it all on my new school supplies. I'm not mad at her about that now; that would be ridiculous. But in retrospect, I now understand that a Game Gear would have been a poor investment for my 7-year-old self. The Game Boy, even in all of its obsolete technology compared to the Game Gear, was always the right choice all along to me. The Game Boy had more games (and I'd argue that it had better games than the Game Gear) and more power-efficient with fewer batteries and longer battery life, making it the better choice for portable gaming throughout the 90's over Sega's Game Gear. And it was more affordable too. The Game Boy's " puke-green" and black monochrome display was just a small price to pay, in terms of technical specs. But this is not to say that the Game Gear sucks. I think the reason for my opinion is that I never was given the opportunity to spend as much time with the Game Gear as I was given with the Game Boy when growing up. If I was able to buy the Game Gear with that money I saved up that summer, perhaps my opinion for the Game Gear may be more favorable.
Thank you for this! I always was intrigued by the Game Gear, in fact I wouldn’t home a handheld console until my college years (2013-2016), and finally purchased a Game Boy Advance SP since it’s backwards compatible. What’s especially interesting is your Game Gear is modified with an LCD monitor which I imagine is a world of difference!
Год назад+1
On Indiana Jones : "I refuse to give it any more..." **throws himself into the river**
As kids, my buddy had a Sega Game Gear. I don't think he had many games for it but he did have Sonic 1 and 2. I played the heck out of those back then. I remember the console being super comfortable to hold and that screen while not perfect as it tended to blur at different viewing angles, did look pretty nice. Nothing but fond memories of this handheld.
I owned a Gameboy back in the day. My first game played on Game Gear was Lucky Dime Caper. I was so excited seeing color screen!! Thank God today I have the full European set of the games and I love it❤❤
I loved the GG. It was well ahead of it's time as there was no other handheld on the market that could come close to it. Unfortunately, it was battery destroyer. I used to use a long AC adapter to compensate. Crystal warriors was my go to! Also, my first ever experience with an JRPG. Great memories!
@@danmoney9932 I think I perhaps recalls seeing an atari lynx in a shop window once when I was a kid but knew nothing about it as I didn't know anyone who had owned one (or even played one for that matter.) It certainly wasn't pushed in the UK very well which is a shame because it was also a very impressive system.
I really enjoyed the GG. I had a huge Master System library and the adapter was amazing option to have. Literally one of the earliest ways to play console games on a handheld. Between the GG, PSP & Vita, I’m still surprised that Nintendo owned the handheld market with (often vastly) inferior hardware.
I kind of wish Sega would release a new modern handheld device. Just something simple and not expensive that can play the Sega library of games. I can't help but feel it could sell relatively well. Maybe I'm weird but I would buy it.
I just spent wayyyy too much money on getting my original GG upgraded with new capacitors and McWill screen. What a difference. I’m back to playing it all the time like 30 years ago 😂
One thing I really like about the GG is that it's the extension the Master System needed, being basically a portable SMS, it received games from third parties, more JRPGs and the current games from the 16-bit era, even Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Shodown, Mega Man are there and well represented for the hardware, it also adds tons of exclusives, it's hard for me to separate both platforms and I'm really glad it happened, since the SMS, while having a great library, benefits a lot from the GG, as SEGA managed to attract lots of other companies during the Genesis lifetime. I noticed you used the SMS version for Castle of Illusion, probably using the Master Gear, it has the full SMS resolution. I played the GG Shinobis a few years ago and couldn't help but think this formula should have been brought to the Genesis or even the Saturn. An action platformer with this expanded gameplay using a great IP like Shinobi was a great idea and well executed. I've heard one of the reasons the Game Gear can display more colors is due to its lower resolution, which makes sense, but I can't confirm, have you heard this as well?
Surprisingly, the Game Gear version of Castle of Illusion is, as far as I can tell, the Master System version and running in Master System mode. I saw a video featuring a Game Gear turned into a console with TV output and Castle of Illusion displayed at full screen unlike Sonic which was also shown. I suspect Castle of Illusion displays in a similar way as it would through the Master Gear.
@@ravagingwolverine I just checked and you're right, Castle of Illusion uses the full SMS resolution, apparently, they aren't 1:1 all around, chests and other items use different sprites, but I'm surprised it isn't zoomed it, I was probably comparing it to the other Illusion games on the handheld. The two sequels are zoomed in.
@@roberto1519 Yeah, it's easy to mix up since there are three Mickey/Illusion games for the GG. I found it pretty surprising too when first I saw that Castle of Illusion was running at full Master System resolution. I know Rastan on the GG is another example. That one also has some sprite differences, but that might be a regional difference, but it doesn't surprise me if there could be sprite changes for the GG releases.
As a kid, one of my friends let me borrow his Game Gear and games for a weekend. I had never played the system before, but I was extremely impressed! I spent hours playing Columns, Sonic 1, Lucky Dime Caper and Castle of Illusion. My only disappointment was the battery life, so I only really played it with the power adaptor. My parents weren't thrilled with me draining 6 AA batteries every few hours (this was slightly before rechargeable AA batteries were more readily available for consumer use). It was an underrated portable system and very impressive technology-wise for its time. However, I still prefer the GameBoy mainly due to its library of games.
What killed the Game Gear was it’s battery life; well the Game Gear was a full block head V8 engine equipped Chevy Camaro that sucks gas while the Game Boy was a Volkswagen Bug that is cheap on Gas that is why Game Gear was number 2 yet Atari have it’s Lynx so even Atari had a portable game console.
There was an A/c and wall adapter for it. There were a ton of accessories for it really. I think it was meant to be played where there was just no access to a console hooked up to a TV if you wanted to game. You didn't necessarily have to be "on the go"
Agreed. I mostly played it in my room plugged into a wall socket where there was no television. I had a great time with the Game Gear and didn't have to use batteries all that often.
I got my game gear years after it was release, I had the following games: .chess master, dr robotnik's mean bean machine, dynamite heady, fatal fury, krusty's fun house, lion king, mickey mouse land of illusion, mighty morphin power rangers, Sonic 2, Sonic triple trouble surf ninjas, and wwf raw.
I got a Gameboy one Christmas after a couple years of begging. My cousin got a game gear the same Christmas and I remember seeing it for the first time ever and being mesmerized lol
I was a Game Boy person back in the day, so I didn't bother with the Game Gear. Oh boy, that was one of the BIGGEST regrets of my life! The Game Gear is SUCH A GREAT SYSTEM! Sure, I would've mostly powered it with a mains adaptor, car adaptor and/or rechargeable battery pack, knowing how expensive batteries were at the time, but it is still a GREAT system! I did get a Game Gear eventually in 1998 and I couldn't be happier with it! My system still has the original screen, I got it recapped in 2012, still works fine but adjusting the volume can enduce a hiss that goes away with another adjustment. I do plan to get that fixed later this year. Sadly, in 2001, a new student arrived in my class, his name was Leigh Oliver Marsh, and he was an avid Nintendo fanboy, hating on Sega in almost every way! He even claimed an issue to the official Nintendo magazine portrayed Mario flushing a Game Gear down the toilet! Deep down, I could tell he was making that up just to upset me. If I had known at the time how bad the Game.com was (all I knew was its version of Indy 500 is terrible) and if I had one, I would've DARED him to play it! Despite its short battery life and not having as big a game library as the Game Boy, the Game Gear is a system I can't recommend enough! It has a great form factor, great graphics, great sound, a bigger color pallet than even the Mega Drive, better Ren & Stimpy, Power Rangers and The Lost World: Jurassic Park games than the Game Boy and it is just too good a system to leave out of your collection! Alternatively, some Game Gear games are available to download to your Nintendo 3DS and the Atari Lynx version of Slider, Super Sqweek, is available for the Evercade as part of the Atari Lynx Collection 1 cartridge.
I brought my game gear and TV Tuner into school one day and this girl wanted to watch TV so I let her use it.. The teacher took it from her and put it in his desk. She stole it back for me. Just a childhood memory I will always remember.
I remember seeing all these systems in one of those Sear catalogs and for some reason, I always wanted the Turbografx handheld. Ended up getting a Lynx even though everyone had the GameBoy and Game Gear. I guess I just wanted something no one else had ha!
I am not much of a Baseball fan when it comes to video games, only a couple Baseball games have grabbed my attention enough for me to really play. Baseball Stars 2, Super 2020 Baseball, The Bigs, and Clutch Hitter.
Its got a color screen, thats all there is good to say about it. Like seriously, imagine having a Game Gear while your friends are playing Pokemon Red Version, Revenge of the Gator, Yoshis Cookie, or Final Fantasy Legend.
I don't recall why but for whatever reason I never owned the original Game Boy, by '89 I was still playing my Game & Watch and Tiger Electronics (Yeah I know...) and leading into the 90's I had the Game Gear. Pretty much echo everything you said about Castle of Illusion, loved the GG port of it. One of my favorite games on the handheld is Defenders of Oasis, sunk quite a few hours into it.
Devilish, on the Sega Gen, has one of most fantastic soundtracks I've ever heard on any console, not just on the Gen. Orchestral at its finest on the system.
My sibling owned a Game Gear when we were growing up and I liked it when I got to play it, aside from the battery life. We used to play sports games and the Tails game from what I remember. We also owned a Game Boy, which was our first foray into gaming in general. Man, I miss when Sega used to make consoles and handhelds. Our first console was the Mega Drive/Genesis.
I remember as a teenager some friends asking why I had so many “Kiddie games” because of Castle/World of Illusion and Quackshot for the Genesis. Because they were awesome, that’s why!
Still hear this as adults to which I respond is imagining you’re Lionel Messi in the latest FIFA or pretending to be a soldier in the latest CoD grown up then?
World of illusion is fun still holds up
This was the system that introduced me to gaming! I remember playing Sonic the Hegehog 1 on this the night my parents gave it to me, I was in the back seat at night and we were stuck in traffic over the bridge between Brooklyn and Queens, it was an unforgettable memory.
Sounds awesome bro!
Its true. I was the bridge.
I only remember one of my friends having a game gear in the 90s. He was so much greedier with it than people would be with their game boys due to the short battery life. One life on Shinobi was all you’d get off him if he liked you.
He was generous 🤣
Yeah I only ever saw other kids playing one....never had one handed to me like a Game Boy, which I had to wait all the way until 1995 to get one of my own
Well ye 6 batteries and if they were the dollar store kind ffs it didn't last long at all x.x 😂 luckily the Genesis 2 plug worked when you was at home lol. Those were the days haha
Imagine if battery life was better back then.
We had a game gear back in the day, always just used the ac adapter, it never had batteries in it
I never knew anyone who has a Game Gear growing up. We all had Game Boys because they were cheap. I finally picked one up in high school. Found it in a box of Dreamcast games at a yard sale for three dollars, and made a huge profit because the box also had Project Justice. I've still got the Game Gear, and my son loves playing it.
Am honestly surprised it still works! The vast majority of Game Gears now need to be recapped as the caps have gone bad.
I had a gameboy and my older brother had a game gear. I was jealous for the first 6months until it was obvious that the longer battery life and superior games actually made gameboy the better system even though the game gear was clearly more badass.
@@AustinSincrow I dunno bout that tho... Game Gear had a ton of great games as well!
@@skins4thewin yea, neither one of us had the entire library of games obviously but Tetris, super Mario land 1 and 2, metriod 2, Zelda, and final fantasy were all awesome games I had and he had sonic , columns, ninja gaiden and others and they didn’t have the same longevity for us. He ended up getting a gameboy
@@AustinSincrow Yeah the Gameboy was amazing no question. If only it were back-lit. Still can't believe we didn't get the Gameboy Light here, no clue why.
That donald duck sprite is one of the most impressive sprites I've ever seen on 8 bit hardware.
Nothing was more amazing then getting a game gear for Christmas. I remember seeing the logo through the wrapping paper and not being able to sleep at night because I was so excited. I miss that feeling.
The fact that the video was in GG resolution, looks neat on a phone, is nifty.
I distinctly remember, as a very young kid, saving up allowance money - getting no toys or treats of my own volition - and saving up after a few months to get my very own Game Gear, it was the blue model that came with The Lion King, and I still remember how great it felt to walk into that store and buy a game system with my own money.
Of course, adopting the console so late means I missed a lot of these titles, Lucky Dime Caper in particular has been on my radar for a while, and I still kick myself to this day for passing up Revenge of Drancon when seeing it at a thrift store a few years ago; at the time, from the name and title, I had no idea it was Wonder Boy!
Man, I remember my parents buying the Toys R Us set for me back in '92. It came with The Majors Pro Baseball, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, the two battery packs, a screen magnifier, a large hard case and a voucher to order the T.V. Tuner attachment. I took this thing on every summer vacation we went on for years. Damn, those were good days.
I loved my Sega Game Gear was so awesome to have at the time though battery life was not great, had a TV tuner for mine as well so could watch TV on it.
I had the TV tuner too ..
The big telescoping metal antenna
🎮😊🏝📺
I could almost imagine Nintendo coming out of left field and releasing a similar product for the switch, although I would love a much more discreet antenna. I think I might even have to pick it up if they did. 🤔🏝😉 ... .. or they could just release a modern punch out with regular controller controls and I would totally be good with that also 🥊😁
I loved my GG but yeah I definitely ended up playing it plugged in a lot, plugged into the car or wall. Batteries were expensive for a little kid!
SO many memories. I had Columns, Monaco GP, Fantasy Zone, Psycho World, G-Loc, Land of Illusion, Wonder Boy and the SMS Adapter. Used it to play a LOT of Wonder Boy III, still one of my favourite games today.
I remember listening to an interview with Tom Kalinske and how it was frustrating that they could not fix the battery issue, it was imo the best handheld of the 90s, the backlight made it so easy to play games and I loved it for what it was. A common misconception is that the Master system and Game Gear versions of the game was the same, it's not true. Alien Syndrome and Predator 2 were different to their MS counterparts.
It really is too bad the backlight tech just wasn't there yet. Gotta wonder how it could've been. I sure didn't play on mine much because of how many batteries it ate; an expensive system at the time with expensive battery use. Nowadays, I know it's a system worth owning.
For me GameGear is the best portable between GameBoy and Lynx.
Best ergonomics, best size and good graphics
Best handheld of its time.
It looks like the Game Gear had a really strong line-up in that first year in the US. Really happy to see GG Shinobi among all those great games. I've been working on my Mega Drive port of the game a fair bit recently and hope that I can do the original justice!
Can't wait for that too drop.... I know its going to be time; but it will be worth it
Pigsy Retro Game Dev 👍👍👍👍
That's awesome.
Damn I was just going to mention that! Thank you for the awesome work.
@@orderofmagnitude-TPATP Yeah it's going to take a while :) Maybe if I was just doing that game alone instead of both it and SotN then it would get done much quicker, but I really enjoy switching between the two - it helps keep things fresh for me!
After a complete viewing I think this is one of the best you have ever made.
I loved my game gear so much an excellent handheld and had the master gear converter ❤️
I remember listening to an interview with Tom Kalinske about how frustrating it was that they couldn't fix the battery issue; it was, in my opinion, the best handheld of the 1990s; the backlight made it so easy to play games, and I loved it for what it was. A common misconception is that the Master System and Game Gear versions of the game were the same; this is not the case; Alien Syndrome and Predator 2 were not the same as their MS counterparts.
It's too bad they didn't do a Game Boy Pocket-style redesign in 1997 or 1998. I'm sure they could've updated its internals by that point to make it smaller and give it better battery life (especially if they made the display backlight toggleable like the GBA SP). It could've gone against the Game Boy Color for a few more years. It had a strong back catalogue, and some of the later Game Gear games were quite impressive graphically.
@@themadmadcow even though it played pretty sluggish, sonic blast looks amazing, especially since it's a GG game
@@themadmadcow It would have been a non factor without Pokemon. The Gameboy went from near obsolete for a couple years to a huge seller again after they localized Pokemon.
At least wait until there are more comments than this, before stealing one.
Didn’t Sega license a re release to Majesco in 2000 though? Was the Majesco version the same hardware?
The Game Gear was the very first console I owned. It would have been perfect without the battery problem, cause my father refused at a point to buy some more of them! Sonic and Castle of Illusion were the first games I could finish. It was anyway a 90's device for me because I officially pronunced mine dead in 1999.
why you dint just bought the AC adapter?
Or rechargables
@@khhnator You know it's a transportable device, right? I could play mostly when we moved anywhere.
@@ihreMaskeSitztNichtRichtig Ja, warum nicht? Weiß ich nicht, ich war nur ein Kind.
with a ~2 hour battery life, i never considered it portable. more like carriable... till the closest wall plug :P
i still have my GG here, i think i only ever used it on batteries once
Absolutely LOVED the Sega Game Gear. It's cultural impact, chiptune music among it's games, and tech were highly underrated even back then. I would have loved to see what a Game Gear 2 would have looked like
Knowing Nintendo prototyped a 32 bit handheld in 1995, the Game Boy Color came out in 1998 and the high resolution WonderSwan came out in 1999, if I were Sega around this time, I would've looked into getting a 16 bit Game Gear Ultra ready for 1997! It would've been slightly higher resolution than the Master System, used the same screen technology that later found its way into the Game Boy Color and its competitors, had sprite scaling capabilities (so Space Harrier and Galaxy Force would be able to turn out better on it than they did on the Mega Drive), have full Game Gear and (with adaptor) Master System compatibility and just be a handheld actually capable of competing with the Game Boy! I would even have looked into beating Nintendo to the idea of a 2 screen/touchscreen handheld shortly into the 2000s!
It probably would have looked a lot like a Sega Nomad...
@@darrenwinn22 I would’ve held off a Game Gear 2 for a few years, knowing Nintendo prototyped a 32 bit handheld in 1995, I could’ve held off a Game Gear successor until 1997, using the same screen technology that later went into the Game Boy Color, but at slightly higher resolution than the Master System, I would’ve made it 16 bit (the WonderSwan came in 1999), added sprite scaling capabilities (so Space Harrier and Galaxy Force would be a lot more doable on the system) and just make sure the handheld is done right!
In retrospect, I think a Game Game 2 would be too expensive for the market at the that time to desire, considering what they'd have to do to top the 1st Game Gear. It probably would have been close to between $200-$250 back in the mid-90s
I was the only Master System fan I knew due to growing up in the US. When the Game Gear was released, I just dismissed it thinking "that's more or less just a portable Master System which I have at home". Looking back, I should have paid more attention to the diverse catalog the Game Gear had over the master System.
My dad sold cars in the 90s and sometimes people would leave stuff in them. I was blown away when he brought me a whole game gear with 5 games ,car power cord and the battery expansion pack. Having a genesis already I mostly enjoyed it either at home with the wall adapter or in the car with the 12v plug. I quickly gave up on batteries because my dad said we could either find more game or buy batteries he couldn't stand that 6 AA would die so fast
I still remember when I got the GG for my bday. My parentss surprised me...I got a GG case (the suit case one where you could store like 10 games), a gg, ac adapter and like 5 games. I don't know how they pulled it off, and I honestly don't remember if I even asked for a GG.
Damn your parents must have been rich!... all I got was a regular Gameboy 😥 lol
Klax was amazing. Many memories of playing this, instead of doing a piece of work for my university course. The tagline "It is the 90s, and there is time for Klax" seems astoshingly appropriate at the time... :)
I picked up a gamegear on a road trip to Seattle from Vancouver when it came out. I got Shinobi, Castle of illusion, and the pack in columns. It was such a killer system…except for the battery life. Shortly after a few months i managed to get the master gear converter, and Phantasy star became portable! Epic for the day!
It was a killer system alright... A battery killer that is.
Yeah it was a cool system. While I didn't have one my friend did. The problem was always going to the store to buy batteries with left over change.
@@Gatorade69 Easy fix. Use an AC adapter. :P
@@Gatorade69 DiD yOu NoT hAvE rEcHaRgAbLe BaTtErIeS?!
Legit though, if you still have a Gamegear, rechargable batteries are a must. I use a pair of Energizers in my Neo Geo Pockets, and that system is already surprisingly good on battery life as it is.
@@nicksrandomreviews Oh I had rechargeable batteries. Radioshack branded ones that seemed to not last near as long as regular batteries though I had a Sega Nomad and I assume it goes through batteries just as quick as the Game Gear, maybe faster. Even later in life when I had energizer branded ones for my Xbox360 controller they still seem like they had half the charge of regular batteries.
@@maxxdahl6062 Hard to use an AC adaptor when you don't have any power sockets available to you. My friend would literally be locked outside of his house "to play" while his mom was gone. He had both a game gear and Game boy and even a virtual boy later on after he got in on super discount.
I used to LOVE Dragon Crystal! Spent so much time on that one back in the day! Also psychic world, slider, and Mickey! Now I gotta go play all these again! Great video.
22:24 I was never a huge fan of the SMS/GG sound chip, but GG Shinobi definitely had one of the best soundtracks anyone managed to put together for it. Yuzo Koshiro does it again.
I wasn't born around the 80's or 90's, but since I grew up playing NES/Famicom games on a cheap knockoff Famiclone, I grew up enjoying retro gaming a whole lot. To be honest, the SMS/Game Gear had a lot of advantages over the NES. SMS games always feel faster for some reason, with vivid colors and better graphics. However the sound chip is absolutely awful. I try to like some tracks in some games, but I just can't. The best 8bit game console ever would be a Master System with an NES sound chip... And also Select and Start on the controller, like the NES!
I remember taking our Game Gear to school once (maybe 1992), when there was a mandatory cross country run on for the girls and higher years. Me and friends stayed in a dormitory room and I played through Sonic the Hedgehog with everyone in the room watching, and was on the last level when a teacher came in and said we have to go outside to cheer people in at the end of the race, I protested but I never managed to show my friends the end of the game! Still a bit bitter about that 😂
I have many fond memories of this system. It definitely got me through MANY family road trips as a kid.
In an electronics engineering class in high school we ran a PlayStation through the Game Gear TV Tuner. I still have mine. But there's a short in the AC input. I should try to fix it.
6:21 I had Slider as a kid. I bought it with my birthday money in 1st grade from Toys R Us. I have NO IDEA why I bought that one, I really have no idea, I never heard of it before, I guess I thought it "looked cool" or something, it was so long ago I basically just remember buying it, and I played it A LOT after I got it, it turned out to be one of my favorite games for the Game Gear! I think I played Sonic Chaos, Sonic 1, and Slider the most. I found out years later that Slider is actually part of a little mini game franchise called "Sqweek" or "Super Sqweek" that was released for some Atari systems and some earlier PCs, like Amiga, and the creator HATED that they renamed it to "Slider" for the Game Gear installment released in North America. 99 total levels in that fun pick-up-and-play game, with a password feature! It you get 4 of the different colored teddy bears, you get 5 extra lives and skip to the next level. Some pretty cool puzzle mechanics in some of the levels. At the end there's a screen where it shows that you rescued a girl Slider character (same sprite as Slider, but with a pink bow on her head)....of course! Early 1990s video games in all their glory.
This handheld was very memorable for me. The first and only handheld I've ever had, my father saved up an entire month of his paycheck to buy it, and I would get 1 game on every birthday (or on occasion find one at a thrift store for $5-10)
But man, 6 AA batteries to power it for only around 3 hours (less if the volume is too high) it goes through regular batteries too quickly and rechargeable were quite expensive back then. Also, the AC adapter didn't have a built-in voltage transformer like most adapters do today, so when I brought it with me to visit relatives in China I plugged into the 220V outlet, and it promptly fried the adaptor. Even after getting a replacement (still fairly rare and expensive by China's standard at the time) I still had no way of playing it, until my grandfather found this antique transformer they had lying around the house. The transformer was bulky, had to lug it around everywhere, but at least it allowed the handheld to run without issues
The games I had were Sonic 2/Chaos/Triple trouble, Ninja Gaiden, Super Columns, Chakan, and the only RPG I got, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya
Love the game gear! One of the biggest parts of my collection, including about half the games and 25+ 2 player games with gear to gear cable. So many great titles!
The Game Gear overlay alone secures the win on this vid.
My mom picked up a Game Gear back in the day. Never got too many games for it, but when emulation came around I realized I missed out on a few nifty experiences. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
My grandma bought me and my cousins gamegears as a kid.I remember all the crazy accessories and games.I loved my gamegear and as an adult now i need to pick one up.
Excellent! You are one of the very few that provides content for the Game Gear. More of it please, would love to see category videos like you do for the Saturn
I really wish there were more videos on the GameGear. I feel like it's really underrated and for the 350 games it had I barely know any of them. I've recently started building up a collection in anticipation of my Analogue pocket coming in though :)
Awesome episode man! I love the game gear since it's my first portable console that I still own from my childhood. I'm currently going for a complete US collection, which there are apparently 233 games.
The GG was my first handheld system. That was the best Christmas ever. I myself did the same thing, plugged it into the wall and played that beast for hours. Loved it.
Never having owned a GG, this is my only real window into my childhood dreams, and what may have been. Thanks for making these videos.
I wasn't allowed consoles growing up until my parents started testing the waters with a used game gear in 1996 - late in the system's life but it changed my life
I remember seeing the game gear as a kid.
Unfortunately I never owned one.
It wasn't until Christmas,when I got a mega drive.
The master system had nothing on the big black powerhouse.
Truly transport's me back to my childhood.
I do enjoy today's games,but they haven't got the same soul.
As a kid your imagination would fill in the blank's as u became transfixed.
So much of my art is because of Sega.
I got the Game Gear in 1992 and loved it. Battery life was never much of an issue for me since I had both the recharagble battery pack, ac adapter and car adapter. The place i played it most was while laying in my bed. I loved it because of how much "cooler" it was than a gameboy. Years later I got the Nomad and my game gear adapters all worked with it so again no real battey issue. Infact i never used a single AA battery for the Nomad,
I'm not sure how I missed this one.
27:39 that Batmobile section was pretty dang impressive on Game Gear
My cousin once had a GG!! Columns and Shinobi were the only games she had. Too bad she didn’t have more games but it was still a lot of fun back in the day!!!!
My boy pumping out content like it's 1995!
My first handheld at the age of 4-5 years old was a game gear. It was 1998. Amazing piece of equipment but I remember very specifically my mom hating it because of how much she spent on batteries for the thing. It was amazing for road trips though. Driving from Illinois to Mississippi and back every summer. Green Day’s Nimrod in CD player, eating Moon Pies…. God.
" Sylvan Tale " on Game Gear is one of the best game ever made. Higly recommanded as the Lord usually says.
My parents never bought me a genesis but I was able to get a Gamegear and a few games for making honor role all year and I loved that thing so much.
My first portable system, i love it! I still have it with my games from the 90s. Nice video!
You were among the elite if you rolled up on lunch time at school with a Game Gear, TV Tuner, and screen shield (light blocking hood)/magnifier set up. It was about as big as a regulation basketball by the time you had it all set up, but god damn was it cool.
Awesome video. The Game Gear does indeed deserve a LOT more love! I absolutely adored mine growing up!
I remember that, during this time, the toy stores had quite many game gear games to sell. They proposed maybe slightly less games compared to the game boy (I'm actually not sure to remember well, it could have been equal but I think it was a bit less) but it was an important device anyway. However, I think that there were 2 main problems to be able to really compete against the game boy : as everybody knows, the batteries' life and also the fact that no game (well, as far as I know) had the option to save your progression. Some games had a password system but it was of course far less convenient than a save system that you could find on the game boy.
Anyway, thanks for your video. It brings me quite a few good memories.
Dude, it's 2022, PLEASE, put SECTIONS in your videos, seriously!
Especially a compilation like this! If in years, I am looking for a quick opinion on a particular early GG game, I would be able, in a few seconds, to see whether you covered it, and select exactly where it is. It would absolutely help to "future-proof" your videos.
Also, you probably already have most of those sections already identified in whatever video editing software you are using, as well as in your script, so it really takes less than five minutes to implement them...
I use to have the Gamegear back in the day (I lost it in the move) and I remember having a great time playing the Sonic games, Tails Adventure, and Lucky Dime Caper on them
I always was interested in new portables but GGear don't convinced me at the moment of release because to play for a regular time was needed to be plug and for that was better to sit in front of a TV. Yes GBoy screen was a Painful but, the "portability" was real.
I'm 44 now and "teamNintendo" but its a joy to see how much love and care you put in your videos. That one is Amazing!
The Game Gear with the TV adapter was an early road trip favorite in our family. We had the car power adapter so us kids in the back seat could view stuff on the trips to Disney World / Busch Gardens...
Most of us played space harrier on the Sega master first. I didn’t know there was an arcade version until after the 32X failed and I played that version and heard that it was an arcade perfect port. It’s easy to appreciate the Sega master version when you’re not comparing it to arcade machines you’ve never seen.
I had one growing up, got the Game Gear Sports Pack as a young kid & I absolutely LOVED it! I played my Game Gear just as much as I did my Game Boy. Thank god I also got one of the Battery Dildo's to help save on batteries!
Holy crap! G-Loc! I think I had that game.
The Game Gear was mind-blowing when it came out but I can't remember which games I had too well. I know I had GG Shinobi, Columns and Donald Duck Caper. I also still own my cartridge of Ax Battler but other than that I'm fuzzy.
I bought the Game Gear even after owning an Atari Lynx. My findings was that the Game Gear to be more simplistic games compared to the Lynx scaling and rotation. My Lynx just had more power and the amount of things going on screen was far more than I ever seen on my Game Gear but I played and enjoyed it just the same and both ate batteries like they were candy. Both are great handhelds especially since getting both modded with McWill screens, makes all the games way more playable and fresh too
I remember back in 2nd grade when I had a friend in school and his mom and my mom took us shopping together. And my friend's mom bought my friend a new GameBoy Pocket. And my mom wouldn't buy me one. So I got jealous and I said, "I'm going to save up and get something even better - THE SEGA GAME GEAR!!!"
And so that summer, I saved up a lot of money babysitting my little cousin who was probably 3 or 4. And I think I saved up close to a $100 by the end of that summer, that when a new school year was about to start, all that money that I saved up to buy the Game Gear just disappeared. And I remember how much I got pissed off because my mom spent it all on my new school supplies.
I'm not mad at her about that now; that would be ridiculous. But in retrospect, I now understand that a Game Gear would have been a poor investment for my 7-year-old self. The Game Boy, even in all of its obsolete technology compared to the Game Gear, was always the right choice all along to me. The Game Boy had more games (and I'd argue that it had better games than the Game Gear) and more power-efficient with fewer batteries and longer battery life, making it the better choice for portable gaming throughout the 90's over Sega's Game Gear. And it was more affordable too. The Game Boy's " puke-green" and black monochrome display was just a small price to pay, in terms of technical specs.
But this is not to say that the Game Gear sucks. I think the reason for my opinion is that I never was given the opportunity to spend as much time with the Game Gear as I was given with the Game Boy when growing up. If I was able to buy the Game Gear with that money I saved up that summer, perhaps my opinion for the Game Gear may be more favorable.
Thank you for this! I always was intrigued by the Game Gear, in fact I wouldn’t home a handheld console until my college years (2013-2016), and finally purchased a Game Boy Advance SP since it’s backwards compatible. What’s especially interesting is your Game Gear is modified with an LCD monitor which I imagine is a world of difference!
On Indiana Jones : "I refuse to give it any more..."
**throws himself into the river**
I had both game gear and game boy as a kid and never shared my game gear with anybody. Still have and play it ever once in a while. Great memories.
As kids, my buddy had a Sega Game Gear. I don't think he had many games for it but he did have Sonic 1 and 2. I played the heck out of those back then. I remember the console being super comfortable to hold and that screen while not perfect as it tended to blur at different viewing angles, did look pretty nice. Nothing but fond memories of this handheld.
I remember playing the hell out of Shinobi. It was hard as hell! Seriously one of the hardest Shinobi games made and took me forever to beat.
I owned a Gameboy back in the day. My first game played on Game Gear was Lucky Dime Caper. I was so excited seeing color screen!! Thank God today I have the full European set of the games and I love it❤❤
thanks bro great vid had a game gear myself but i was too young to know what to ask my parents for
I loved the GG. It was well ahead of it's time as there was no other handheld on the market that could come close to it. Unfortunately, it was battery destroyer. I used to use a long AC adapter to compensate. Crystal warriors was my go to! Also, my first ever experience with an JRPG. Great memories!
The Atari lynx was arguably more technically impressive but even worse on batteries and barely any 3rd party game support
@@danmoney9932 I think I perhaps recalls seeing an atari lynx in a shop window once when I was a kid but knew nothing about it as I didn't know anyone who had owned one (or even played one for that matter.) It certainly wasn't pushed in the UK very well which is a shame because it was also a very impressive system.
@@BradXXXBartender I'm in the UK, I had one before the gg came out and tbh instill liked my lynx but the GG was better and I was jealous of sonic etc.
Man, your videos are so great. They bring back so many memories but without the sugar coating BS. Good job! Greetings from Rome.
I really enjoyed the GG. I had a huge Master System library and the adapter was amazing option to have. Literally one of the earliest ways to play console games on a handheld.
Between the GG, PSP & Vita, I’m still surprised that Nintendo owned the handheld market with (often vastly) inferior hardware.
I kind of wish Sega would release a new modern handheld device. Just something simple and not expensive that can play the Sega library of games. I can't help but feel it could sell relatively well. Maybe I'm weird but I would buy it.
That box art for Slider is unsettling
I just spent wayyyy too much money on getting my original GG upgraded with new capacitors and McWill screen. What a difference. I’m back to playing it all the time like 30 years ago 😂
One thing I really like about the GG is that it's the extension the Master System needed, being basically a portable SMS, it received games from third parties, more JRPGs and the current games from the 16-bit era, even Fatal Fury Special, Samurai Shodown, Mega Man are there and well represented for the hardware, it also adds tons of exclusives, it's hard for me to separate both platforms and I'm really glad it happened, since the SMS, while having a great library, benefits a lot from the GG, as SEGA managed to attract lots of other companies during the Genesis lifetime. I noticed you used the SMS version for Castle of Illusion, probably using the Master Gear, it has the full SMS resolution.
I played the GG Shinobis a few years ago and couldn't help but think this formula should have been brought to the Genesis or even the Saturn. An action platformer with this expanded gameplay using a great IP like Shinobi was a great idea and well executed.
I've heard one of the reasons the Game Gear can display more colors is due to its lower resolution, which makes sense, but I can't confirm, have you heard this as well?
Surprisingly, the Game Gear version of Castle of Illusion is, as far as I can tell, the Master System version and running in Master System mode. I saw a video featuring a Game Gear turned into a console with TV output and Castle of Illusion displayed at full screen unlike Sonic which was also shown. I suspect Castle of Illusion displays in a similar way as it would through the Master Gear.
@@ravagingwolverine I just checked and you're right, Castle of Illusion uses the full SMS resolution, apparently, they aren't 1:1 all around, chests and other items use different sprites, but I'm surprised it isn't zoomed it, I was probably comparing it to the other Illusion games on the handheld. The two sequels are zoomed in.
@@roberto1519 Yeah, it's easy to mix up since there are three Mickey/Illusion games for the GG. I found it pretty surprising too when first I saw that Castle of Illusion was running at full Master System resolution. I know Rastan on the GG is another example. That one also has some sprite differences, but that might be a regional difference, but it doesn't surprise me if there could be sprite changes for the GG releases.
As a kid, one of my friends let me borrow his Game Gear and games for a weekend. I had never played the system before, but I was extremely impressed! I spent hours playing Columns, Sonic 1, Lucky Dime Caper and Castle of Illusion. My only disappointment was the battery life, so I only really played it with the power adaptor. My parents weren't thrilled with me draining 6 AA batteries every few hours (this was slightly before rechargeable AA batteries were more readily available for consumer use).
It was an underrated portable system and very impressive technology-wise for its time. However, I still prefer the GameBoy mainly due to its library of games.
What killed the Game Gear was it’s battery life; well the Game Gear was a full block head V8 engine equipped Chevy Camaro that sucks gas while the Game Boy was a Volkswagen Bug that is cheap on Gas that is why Game Gear was number 2 yet Atari have it’s Lynx so even Atari had a portable game console.
There was an A/c and wall adapter for it. There were a ton of accessories for it really. I think it was meant to be played where there was just no access to a console hooked up to a TV if you wanted to game. You didn't necessarily have to be "on the go"
Agreed. I mostly played it in my room plugged into a wall socket where there was no television. I had a great time with the Game Gear and didn't have to use batteries all that often.
I got my game gear years after it was release, I had the following games: .chess master, dr robotnik's mean bean machine, dynamite heady, fatal fury, krusty's fun house, lion king, mickey mouse land of illusion, mighty morphin power rangers, Sonic 2, Sonic triple trouble surf ninjas, and wwf raw.
Sega Lord X: “Thank you for watching”
Me: “Thank you for making!”
I remember my gamegear and then my Nomad just black hole-ing entire packs of batteries at the mall.
Loved the Game Gear as a kid. Actually, spent more time with a Game Gear than I did with any other handheld before the GBC!
I got a Gameboy one Christmas after a couple years of begging. My cousin got a game gear the same Christmas and I remember seeing it for the first time ever and being mesmerized lol
I feel like it is important to mention that emulated GG games look 100x better because there is no motion blur which was a huge issue on the game gear
I really liked the Game Gear. I even had the Master Gear converter. Didn’t mind the battery life. Just wish the screen wasn’t terrible.
I was a Game Boy person back in the day, so I didn't bother with the Game Gear. Oh boy, that was one of the BIGGEST regrets of my life! The Game Gear is SUCH A GREAT SYSTEM! Sure, I would've mostly powered it with a mains adaptor, car adaptor and/or rechargeable battery pack, knowing how expensive batteries were at the time, but it is still a GREAT system! I did get a Game Gear eventually in 1998 and I couldn't be happier with it! My system still has the original screen, I got it recapped in 2012, still works fine but adjusting the volume can enduce a hiss that goes away with another adjustment. I do plan to get that fixed later this year. Sadly, in 2001, a new student arrived in my class, his name was Leigh Oliver Marsh, and he was an avid Nintendo fanboy, hating on Sega in almost every way! He even claimed an issue to the official Nintendo magazine portrayed Mario flushing a Game Gear down the toilet! Deep down, I could tell he was making that up just to upset me. If I had known at the time how bad the Game.com was (all I knew was its version of Indy 500 is terrible) and if I had one, I would've DARED him to play it! Despite its short battery life and not having as big a game library as the Game Boy, the Game Gear is a system I can't recommend enough! It has a great form factor, great graphics, great sound, a bigger color pallet than even the Mega Drive, better Ren & Stimpy, Power Rangers and The Lost World: Jurassic Park games than the Game Boy and it is just too good a system to leave out of your collection! Alternatively, some Game Gear games are available to download to your Nintendo 3DS and the Atari Lynx version of Slider, Super Sqweek, is available for the Evercade as part of the Atari Lynx Collection 1 cartridge.
I brought my game gear and TV Tuner into school one day and this girl wanted to watch TV so I let her use it.. The teacher took it from her and put it in his desk. She stole it back for me. Just a childhood memory I will always remember.
I remember seeing all these systems in one of those Sear catalogs and for some reason, I always wanted the Turbografx handheld. Ended up getting a Lynx even though everyone had the GameBoy and Game Gear. I guess I just wanted something no one else had ha!
I am not much of a Baseball fan when it comes to video games, only a couple Baseball games have grabbed my attention enough for me to really play. Baseball Stars 2, Super 2020 Baseball, The Bigs, and Clutch Hitter.
Its got a color screen, thats all there is good to say about it. Like seriously, imagine having a Game Gear while your friends are playing Pokemon Red Version, Revenge of the Gator, Yoshis Cookie, or Final Fantasy Legend.
I like power rangers, pr the movie, sonic chaos, tails adventure, and several others
gamegear was my first video game console. Gosh, I love it so much during my childhood.
I don't recall why but for whatever reason I never owned the original Game Boy, by '89 I was still playing my Game & Watch and Tiger Electronics (Yeah I know...) and leading into the 90's I had the Game Gear. Pretty much echo everything you said about Castle of Illusion, loved the GG port of it. One of my favorite games on the handheld is Defenders of Oasis, sunk quite a few hours into it.
Good old days....thanks for this
Love that frame! You're the GOAT
"Running chores" huh? ok.
Macy Gray I try
ALEXA! Macy Gray I try
Devilish, on the Sega Gen, has one of most fantastic soundtracks I've ever heard on any console, not just on the Gen. Orchestral at its finest on the system.
Well I do enjoy learning about retro stuff I missed out on😅
Hello!
26.2.22
My sibling owned a Game Gear when we were growing up and I liked it when I got to play it, aside from the battery life. We used to play sports games and the Tails game from what I remember. We also owned a Game Boy, which was our first foray into gaming in general. Man, I miss when Sega used to make consoles and handhelds. Our first console was the Mega Drive/Genesis.