Who else remembers the love/hate relationship this thing caused?
You LOVED playing yours, but HATED the awful battery life.
You LOVED reading segas official catalogue full of game gear games and genesis games, but HATED that there was always that one game gear game you always wanted but could never get (huge props if you remember the catalogue)
You LOVED playing your friends game gear, but HATED that you had to give it back to them because you wanted one yourself and didnt own one.
You LOVED playing all your game gear games, but HATED there was always that one game you couldn't even pass level one on.
You LOVED playing a game on it, got excited when reaching a new level, just to either die or have the game gear die, forcing you to start over completely again, which you HATED.
My suffering: playing Sonic Triple Trouble. The chaos emerald levels with knack were fucking BRUTAL (they made Elden Ring look easy by comparison-at least at my young age). After hours and HOURS I finally got them all, just to get a game over on an easy part of the final level. Pain, nothing but pain.
My most cherished nostalgic memory: sitting on our couch, game gear plugged in, and playing it while soaking in the christmas tree lights, various household holiday lights and decorations, along with the accompanying presents. I cant quite place why that memory has stuck with me. If I had to guess, at the time, I was truly at my happiest. I got to play my game gear and anticipate my presents!
.......I truly long for those days again.
After having a Genesis and Game Gear, I wanted this thing so fucking bad.
Wound up with 2 of these over the years and they were the absolute best, but carrying around a Brazilion batteries wasn't ideal.
Way too good for it's day.
That's awesome, but so is Saga.
Probably the game I played the most on the Game Gear was Shinobi II The Silent Fury.
I still have the continue code I always used to have everything unlocked. "3FFFE".
Ooof.... Shinobi series was tough
Damn, I completely forgot playing Shinobi on Game Gear... I don't remember which one it was. I thought it was 3, but apparently that wasn't on G.G. It was probably 2.
I vaguely recall being stuck at the last level where it required switching back and forth through all of the powers you obtained throughout the game, and it was really fucking hard. Don't think I ever beat it.
And you could watch TV in it
With the Tv Tuner. That was bought separately. For not a little amount.
Yeah, i know. Our "rich friend" had both, of course
I never actually saw the tuner in the wild
To be honest, it was fairly underwhelming.
Yeah it felt very.... Niche.
I had a game gear. Never knew it existed. Would have been dope watching a bunch of shitty local channels
There was also an adapter to play Master System games.
My dad was a bit of a tinkerer, and he attached a power plug to the battery terminals of my gameboy and gamegear to avoid buying me batteries. So long as the wires never popped off the battery springs, I was right as rain.
My dad did the same thing. It was permanently wired to his car and we loved it. We drove cross country a few times and played the entire time.
I still do that to some of my electronic devices—the ones that aren’t soldered-in LiPO4 batteries anyway.
They sold rechargeable battery packs for them. I'm almost positive mine had an ac adapter plug on the console itself too.
I still have mine and my daughter is probably old enough to enjoy it. Guess I need to repair the barrel jack connector and make a USB PD to barrel jack adapter so she can play all day. Thanks for the reminder!
I have one in my closet.. It runs but the screen has gone to shit, which I hear happens when they're stored away. I was thinking of replacing the screen with an LED but I just don't have the time
Have you thought about paying for it?
That or I'll sell it to someone who will do it and enjoy it
Mine has dead capacitors so I can't play it any more. 30 year on, I don't think I could speed run Sonic 2 any more. I loved NBA Jam. I have memories of playing in the car in the driveway because I only had a car power adapter.
Caps are a lot easier and cheaper to fix than you might expect.
It can be revived!
Sonic 2 was the game I could never get past the first zone on lol
The first boss was stupid hard on Game Gear. Beating it was 50% luck. The MasterSystem version only had low bouncing rocks to dodge.
I wasn't the one who hated the battery life--my mother, who had to pay for the batteries, hated the battery life.
I just loved it.
I remember I had a yard sale once. I was selling spiderman action figures from the 1994 animated series.
I traded 6 figures for a game gear, with 1 game.
I had a genesis at home, and the AC adapter worked in it.
Still to this day I can't believe I got that deal. I have no idea what ever happened to that thing. That was like 30 years ago.
I wanted one so much. I had a game boy, but at home i had a Genesis. I really wanted to play sonic on the go.
Ah, the pioneer days for handhelds. I wanted a game gear so bad, then I got one for christmas!
My brother and I actually had NES at home and Gameboys, but we traded them in for Gamegears.
The OG Steam Deck.
My cousin had one that didn't see much use, but we would play Prince Of Persia every now and then. He also had Chessmaster and some kind of bootleg cartridge that had Spy vs Spy and probably other games I don't remember. He also had the TV antenna.
I believe I would have given it way more use had it been mine.
I also remember seeing some kind device to record yourself while playing being advertised?
I seem to vaguely remember that camera as well 🤔
The adapter would fry if you played too long, so I bought a generic one, my friends had to do the same.
Nba jam was my jam. I think it's the game i played the most. I never liked basketball or sports games, this thing had me in a death grip
I loved the Game Gear. It truly blew my mind when I learned as an adult that it was basically a Sega Master System made portable. Made me imagine what could have been if the Game Boy had been a portable NES.
Favorites: Sonic Spinball, Castle of Illusion, Taz Mania, Chuck Rock, Mortal Kombat.
Wait, what?
Yep. Most of the games on the Game Gear were Master System games.
TIL
Played so much road rash on my dad's gear during long drives in the Ohio countyside, I think we either had a adapter for the cig lighter or a special battery pack or both because it seemed to last long enough for me, but definitely shorter than. My OG Gameboy ran for. Was a great color handheld before that was common
Honestly it was way ahead of it's time.
Third one was me. My friend had one and I loved playing Columns on it. I remember we did a camp out in a tent in the backyard and ran an extension cord for the power adapter since that thing ate batteries like there was no tomorrow
Mine is fried. But still in a closet at my mom's. Damn, I really wish I could play ristar again 🥲
Duuude ristar was so dope
I only heard about the game gear when I read an article about Defenders of Oasis, one of the only original RPGs to come out on it.
I managed to emulate it on my phone and it's an adequate game, I'd like to see what a modern entry in the series would look like