Vintage gaming community.
Rules:
If you see these please report them.
I had a friend who had one and it looked amazing! Just like a real console attached to a TV, and indeed it was basically a portable Sega Master System in design. I only had a gray-scale GameBoy so the display on the Game Gear was incredible by comparison.
I do remember my joy, when finding out that instead of feeding it with batteries, I could even use the power adapter of the master system to play with the Gamegear. π
I lusted after these when I was a kid, and eventually blew all my saved up Christmas/Birthday money on one.
The battery thing really sucked, but still had a lot of fun with it. Must of played that first level of Sonic 2 a thousand times.
My white whale was the TV tuner, I thought the idea was so cool as a kid.
I had a friend who brought their Game Gear with the TV tuner to the playground in elementary school, and it was a moment of absolute future shock. It didnβt matter that we could barely tell what was happening on the screen, because I couldnβt believe that it was even possible!
I saw a kid hook up the TV tuner in the back of the bus and was insanely jealous.
the boss levels on sonic 2 game gear were SAVAGE, my god
I had one as a kid. That thing went through batteries so fast, I messed mine up because of it. I had a battery pack for an RC car, and it looked like a bunch of AA batteries in series, so I took it apart. It worked in my game gear for a little bit until I smelled burning plastic. It melted a part of the battery compartment and my game gear wouldn't take batteries after that, only running off AC power.
My first RPG was on game gear, Dragon Crystal. That was the one where you have a dragon egg following behind you and you had to push your body against the trees to reveal the maze-like path. I don't know if there was an end to that game, but I barely made it to hatching the dragon.
I loved the Sonic games, Castle of Illusion, Columns, the Streets of Rage series.
I had the adapter so I could play my master system games.
Wished I had one as a kid, as an adult with emulators it honestly just isn't a big part of my gaming. Columns is great though.
My cousin had one. I had a GameBoy. I was jealous at first, but I realized I had Zelda and the batteries would last an entire car trip. Being into retrogames, I'd love one, but I feel like as a Kid I got the better deal TBH.
My cousin had one, but due to the battery drain, could only play it plugged into the wall. He only had one or two games for it, and we eventually would play with the ac adapter more than the game gear itself. It was a "universal" ac adaptor that had a lot of different plugs on it, and we would touch stuff together to make sparks fly. In retrospect this was all probably incredibly dangerous, but we were just dumb kids.
Never knew anyone with one, but I always wanted one when I was a kid. Magazine coverage made them look awesome. Now I'm old and still want one! But it seems they're a bit high maintenance...
I had one growing up and I actually just got it back the other day! I'm building a Sanni card reader sometime next week and I'm gonna dump all my games (if the saves still exist...which I doubt.)
There was demonstration one in our local Kmart in the electronics section. It had sonic the hedgehog on it. Everytime my mom would take us to the mall, I would beeline for the Game Gear and Gameboy they had and play until she got me.
I was walking home from school one day, and I saw that my neighbors had thrown out a box for a game gear with their recycling. In retrospect, I probably should've grabbed it for the sake of collecting video game memorabilia, especially since the box was in pretty good condition.
Oh, and I unlocked the Game Gear Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic Adventure DX Director's Cut on the Game Cube
Quick edit: I saw it in their recycling in like 2007
A relative had one in the 90s, I would occasionally play it. They had Sonic and a few other side scrollers. I thought the colour graphics were cool compared to my Game Boy. But the Game Gear was always had to be plugged in due to the battery drain so it seemed a bit pointless as a handheld, especially when the same relative also had a Mega Drive. π€·
Itβs a handheld Iβd like to revisit some day if I come across one cheap.
Mine still works. I still play Sonic and Simpsons every once in a while.
I've got a one that has long since died due to the leaky capacitors. Tried to resurrect it but no luck so far. May look to salvage the chips for a full mainboard replacement at some point.
It's a shame that such good pice of hardware does not have software at the same level.
I've emulated some of the games, but I don't have the money to buy one at the moment. I would like to get one, though.
Wished they weren't so prone to failing. I've got one that will not power on, sitting in it's box on my couch. Haven't made it around to opening it up.
The sooner, the better. Failed caps can leak and cause much more severe damage.
Bought mine in the 90's from a high school friend. Got the car adapter and it was a lifesaver for the family road trips which we did a lot of back then. I kept it even though it stopped working years ago. Then learned how to recap it during the pandemic and got hooked to console modding. That was a slippery slope. I've since bought, fixed, and customized 6 game gears with custom-painted shells and installed the different variations of screen and power upgrades. Now I find broken consoles and fix/upgrade them as a hobby. There's something so satisfying about bringing life back to gaming hardware that people have given up on.
Thank you for doing this. It's so cool to bring new life to old systems.
I relate to the game gear during long car rides (Mortal Kombat II!!!). Awesome that you're restoring them now!!
The βrichβ kid I knew had one. It seemed ridiculously cool to me at the time, although I didnβt understand why on the long trip we were on heβd only use it for about 5minutes at a time because he was worried about batteries.
Had one, mostly played it plugged into the wall. I was a big fan of Defenders of the Oasis and the Streets of Rage 2 conversion (it's not great, but good enough for 9 year old me). The Ristar port was pretty solid if memory serves me well.
They mod well these days and have replacement screens that have the correct ratio, which wasn't always the case. If you put a good screen into one of these things, they really pop.
Older cousin had one, loved it, but also I was like 4. I wish I owned one though anyway.
It was the handheld version of showing blood in mortal kombat. My super NES only showed sweat βΉοΈ I was very jealous of my friend for that, but enjoyed playing it.
I was envious of anyone who had one when I was a kid, but now I don't know if there's any games on it that make buying this system worthwhile.
Shinobi 2 for Game Gear was a childhood favourite even if I didnβt have any batteries and just had to hang out near an outlet to play it. I booted it up on my Analogue Pocket recently, and itβs still super fun! I enjoyed a bunch of games on the system, but thatβs the one that feels like an all-time classic to me.
Yes. Absolutely. Shinobi 2 for Sega Game Gear is an all time classic.
It's a shame more people don't encounter it when exploring retrogames. It's so easy to assume the Genesis versions of each title will be better, and skip trying the GameGear version.
Love and hate, for sure.
As a kid it was the coolest thing ever, but the thing was a battery eating machine, so it was always a struggle to get my parents to buy a new set. Eventually they got me an A/C adapter which was... somewhat compatible. It fit, but shake it a little too much and POP, game reset. And of course that always happened after beating a tough boss. 20 years later I'm still annoyed.
I hope I can find mine tucked in some old drawer at my grandma's and give it a well-deserved overhaul.
I grew up with it and only had 3 games for it. Adventures of batman and robin, Sonic 2 and X-Men. I played X-Men the most and it's a really fun game with nice music. Years later I discovered the rest of it's library though emulation
That X-Men game was a solid metroidvania for the time. I tried to revisit it recently and I didn't have the patience, but back when it came out I had a great time for a lot of hours with it.
It was my first console, played a lot on it. After a few years I traded it with a friend for Warhammer stuff. I still regret it!
Saw a classmate with one once and it looked hilariously massive to me. Would be cool to explore the library someday.
Good stuff, especially sonic triple trouble. Working on a recap now