Retro Review – Sega Game Gear

In 1991, Sega free the sport Gear. A technically superior hand-held system that was alleged to go toe-to-toe with the vastly in style Nintendo Game Boy, the sport Gear was unable to beat its contestant owing to many flaws and issues that obstructed sales. whereas its historical impact isn’t quite as expansive because the Game Boy, this was still one amongst the most effective hand-held systems at the time.

Historical Impact

Though the sport Gear was unable to beat Game Boy in terms of sales, it did mark many firsts for Sega and for vice normally.

This was one amongst the primary hand-held systems with a color screen. Game Boy simply had a little black and inexperienced screen with poor distinction that was usually troublesome to ascertain. Game Gear, on the opposite hand, had a full-color, backlit screen that was unbelievably straightforward to ascertain.

This was conjointly one amongst Sega’s initial romps with accessories. like their Master System (which was presently completed with the 32X, Sega CD system, and different accessories), the sport Gear had lots of accessories that different systems weren’t giving. These enclosed the Super Wide Gear enlarged the screen, a TV tuner, and kit to Gear cabling for two-player action.

The last accent, and doubtless the foremost helpful one, was the Master Gear. This was associate adapter that allowed players to play Master System cartridges on the sport Gear. This conjointly virtually doubled the amount of obtainable games from 250 to 469.

Strengths

The backlit color screen was a novelty, and one amongst the sport Gear’s main strengths. The 3.2-inch screen was larger than the sport Boy, and therefore the color undoubtedly beat the four reminder grey that the sport Boy was capable of displaying.

This was one amongst the primary systems that was ergonomically designed for real use. the sport Boy was terribly slim, however the sport Gear was wide enough in order that you'll simply use each hands. Nintendo would later use an identical style with their Game Boy Advance.

Sound was conjointly far better. This offered full stereo sound with over the straightforward “beeps” and “boops” that the sport Boy supported.

The last strength was that the majority games, just like the early Sonic franchise, were created to be picked up and vie with none difficult controls. you'll simply get into the sport with none directions.

Weaknesses

The biggest weakness that unbroken folks from shopping for it absolutely was the battery power. other than being the primary time that Sega introduced lots of accessories for a system, this was their initial system wherever Sega used technology that was too advanced for the time, that diode to technical issues. as an example, the Sega CD had {a terribly|a really|a awfully} onerous time operating with CDs and therefore the Dreamcast was rife with technical issues and was very loud loading.

The Sega Game Gear needed six AA batteries and solely lasted 2 hours, that was nothing compared to the sport Boy’s four AA batteries and 6 to 10 hours of battery life.

Inexpensive capacitors were utilized in the audio system, that diode them to fail when intensive enjoying.

The screen refresh rate was rather low. This caused some fast games to stall, and it conjointly caused the resolution to considerably drop if you captive too quickly.

Conclusion

While technically superior in virtually each means, the sport Gear didn't equally vie with the sport Boy owing to some major problems, with the 2 biggest being value and battery life. although this method wasn’t as in style at the time, it's become a significant piece for collectors owing to its expansive library and place in vice history.