I loved my gamegear but in all honesty I spent most of my time playing next to a wall outlet because it took 6 batteries and it wasn’t the most portable device due to size and weight. My parents couldn’t afford 6 Duracells/Energizers per play session so I had to make due with low cost rechargeable batteries. I would get between a half hour to an hour of play of time on road trips. I eventually got a car adapter but again, not the most comfortable playing experience when you have wires hanging. Whenever my parents moved their elbows in the car it would often unplug the cord and I would lose all my progress. On a positive note, my gamegear always attracted the attention of other school kids which made me some friends so I’m thankful for that.
Sounds like we had similar experiences with our GameGears back in the day, but eventually my mother got me the official SEGA battery pack that has a belt clip, and my father(divorce parents) not knowing my mother had got the SEGA ver. a few weeks later for my B-day got me the Doc's battery pack that goes under the GameGear and uses the screw hole to stay attached, so I would use the Doc battery pack, and WideGear lol.
I mean when your a kid a lot of times you'd make friends and those friends let you come over and play games or use the pool whatever I know for a fact because my parents didn't like or want me playing games never got me any consoles I had to go play at other kids houses. That is until later when I convinced them a Game Boy would get me active, haha suckers! But yeah as a kid you kind of have to use and get used.
thats how kids were....they became friends with other kids so they could experience something new. That's how I became friends with my neighbors...they had a Sega Genesis and I had a Super Nintendo...then later on, I had PlayStation and they had Saturn...we'd go to each others houses, stay up all night playing games that we couldn't play at home. Had a friend that lived down the road that had a PlayStation with a modchip with almost the entire PlayStation game library...ANYTHING that was released, he had a copy of it....(even the Mary Kate & Ashley game)
I had an Atari Lynx, I had some rechargeable batteries, but back then they weren't that good and they only worked for about 1.5 hours. But still, that came in handy for occasions when I HAD to have it on the go. Mostly, I plugged it into the wall. But honestly, that was fine. I was mostly playing it in my bedroom (where there was no TV) and then I left for college, where I also had no TV.
On the battery bit, from what I heard most parents did indeed get tired of buying tons of batteries for this thing. Someone I know grew up with this system and when he stumbled upon one in a game shop he said "Oh, I remember this thing! So many hours spent plugged into the wall playing it..." AC adapter when batteries weren't available!
I mean that AC adapter is a life saver. Most people who play games aren't exactly moving around. Normally when I'm playing a portable game device, whether it's my Gameboy, Gamegear, or Switch I'm at home on the couch or on my bed. The only time battery life is ever an issue is if I'm on a trip.
I had an AC adapter. they'd get loose in the plug, and I had to get another. I also had a clip on rechargable battery that you plugged onto the ac adaptor hole. you didn't have the official game gear case for your games and accessories? also, this had multiplayer via a cord. I also had a sonic the hedgehog backpack with a gamegear holder on the back.
@@rockapartie I remember having rechargeable batteries but they were a massive rarity (and had much shorter life) for most of the 90's. I remember my friends being amazed I had chargeable batteries when I got my first gameboy colour + pokemon yellow circa 1998
11 year old me got this xmas morn, burned through my first 6 batteries in the first 2 hrs, so I trudged through the snow to the only store open, the gas station, and bought 6 more batteries. Proceeded to burn through those during the next 2 hrs, blowing 12 batteries before 11am. The next day I bought an AC adapter at radio shack.
Haha I got mine for my birthday. Before I even played it me and my dad went out for a little while. By the time we got back, my brother had drained all the batteries. Straight back out to buy an AC adapter. Possibly the thing never saw another set of AAs lol.
The battery life was an issue to be sure, but you have to remember, the primary buyers of these handhelds were kids asking their parents to buy them. The kids weren't reading technical reviews and had no concept of battery life or screen quality. It was black and white vs color. However, the Game Boy had two HUGE advantages that Sega had no prayer against. Mario and Tetris. Mario mania was still sweeping the nation and Tetris was THE killer app. But let's remove that from the equation. Little Billy is howling for a Game Gear or Game Boy for Christmas. You flip open the Sears catalog. One costs $90, the other costs $150. You notice the cheaper one has Mario going for it. So which one does Little Billy get for Christmas?
As a kid I remember playing a little game on my Game Gear that was very similar to Tetris, I believe it was called "Collumns", at the time I honestly didn't know the difference lol.
As a kid, being that my parents would leave me and my sister in the car when they'd go into shops, I used to wish I had a game gear...not so much for the games (tho those would have been great) but for the tv tuner. The idea of a portable tv....wow, that was mindblowing to kid me.
I love that literally it just takes a few tweaks and a new screen and you basically have a significantly better product. That's the thing I love about retro products they only get better with age.
And tweak the batteries compartment so it can use voltage-compatible rechargeable & replaceable batteries (not necessary have to be in the size of two AA-sized batteries-3x). The mod's cost are worth it.
It was essentially a Master System on the go - and that was pretty badass. Add to that a radio and TV receiver and you have a terrific portable system. The only downside was that horrific battery life.
I'm from the UK so didn't get it either, but I knew about it, it was shown in UK gaming magazines. I had an Atari Lynx though which was more powerful than the Game Gear hardware wise.
Game Gear was technically better and more powerful than the old Master System from 85. Yes alot of the games were ported over to it, but most notably the Sonic games! You can tell Sonic is faster on the Game Gear and the colors are better too on the Game Gear as well! To me it was more like a portable Genesis before I knew of the Nomad. Give the Master System credit though, for being 2 yrs newer than the NES that came out in 83 the Master System seemed better far as its graphics ECT. For me it was The Genesis that stole the show and still steals it for me today.
I mean, I was a kid in the 90’s. I don’t recall having trouble finding rechargable batteries, but maybe they were more expensive? I had a lot of electronics and a lot of recharable batteries, personally.
@@AlienFrequency Could be just less common, RC cars did usually have Ni-Cd batteries indeed, Ni-Cd were common enough but weren't just as popular as they got on early 2000s (also would last a heck lot less, but as light as crappy zinc batteries). Dunno when the Ni-MHs got popular, at 1st they were like only on more expensive stuff, could be just they were uncommon around here too
Yeah I think they were less common, more expensive, and different technology (Nicad vs Lithium). I'm not a battery expert, but it seems to me that lithium batteries are a new-ish thing that came about maybe in the early 2000's? I just remember my folks buying me rechargeable batteries in the 90's, because I'd burn through standard batteries so fast. So, personally, I always had them available to me.
Rechargeable batteries were way more expensive and they wore out over time with diminishing returns on each charge. Given the time needed to charge them it really wasn't worth it. So many downsides. You would use up the charge on one set with constant use before another set was done charging, so at some point you're going to want regular batteries anyway. Add in the cost of the charger itself and it's a fools game.
As a Game Boy owner I felt very envious when I discovered the GG for the first time. But the feeling completely vanished when I realized you could play max 1 hour with rechargable batteries. I could play almost 10 hours with 4 rechargeable batteries on the Game Boy.. That was the precise moment I realized how clever was Nintendo's "less is more" rule for the first time!
This channel is my absolute favorite. You are so clear and knowledgeable. I still have my Game Gear at my parents. I had a huge pack that I kept my games in Power Rangers, some Olympics game, Sonic, Shaq Fu, etc. I remember the battery wouldn't even last to my grandparents (about 3 hours). I remember my uncle having a TV Tuner. SEGA was way ahead of its time.
Just to let you know that this guy doesn't know much. The Atary Lynx was the first color backlit display and with 16BiT ...The GameGear doesnt deserve any credits and this video as well!
Tbf the gamegear has a decent recognition by many to be a color game system. Its just with such heavy advantages come a price as well as poor attraction to third party which meant these systems wouldnt be sold well. Plus. The system wasnt very reliable either. The capaciters dont last very long meaning youd be lucky to find a system thats used that still works
@@superex1118 Capacitor problems are easily fixed. One of the easiest fixes in all of electronics in fact. That is, assuming the capacitors haven't leaked and corroded the circuit board. Of course, even that is beyond most people, but just keep that in mind if you run across one with capacitor problems - even an electronics amateur with mediocre soldering skills should be able to fix something if capacitors are the only thing wrong with it.
That's what I'm thinking. I was blown away when I learned about the Lynx a few years ago, I couldn't believe how good the games looked considering the year it released!
I had both a Gameboy Color and a Game Gear as a child, and while my GBC was easier to tote around to my Grandparents' house and grocery shopping trips with my mom, I loved playing on the Game Gear at home. We actually had an AC adapter for ours, because I remember spending most of my time on the sofa near the outlet playing Sonic & Sonic 2, Lion King, and Mickey's Castle of Illusion. We owned an NES, but aside from that, the Game Gear was literally the best looking system I owned until I got my hands on a Playstation. Sure, the Game Gear ate AA batteries for breakfast, but damn was it nice to play a game in full colour like that.
I always wanted a Game Gear growing up. My cousin had one, but the batteries were always dead. Now that I'm an adult, i found one for under $10 and started collecting. It really is an amazing little system.
I owned a GameGear when they first launched, and 6 hours was a dream in normal use, as SEGA got 6 hours out of a unit by turning it on with no game inserted, no user input, and the volume at it's lowest. the most I would get on Average was 3 - 4hrs out of a set of good batteries, and with the official SEGA battery pack when it was new maybe 4 1/2 hours, and about the same with an aftermarket Doc's branded one.
Heavy Palmz With some cheaper alkaline batteries that were not as well made, and Heavy Duty Batteries 2 - 2 1/2 hours of use was about right for the Game Game, but on good alkaline batteries like Energizers, or Duracells 3 - 4 hrs really was the average for a set.
Just Squid well, if we look at early mobile phones, you could use them for one week without charging. Modern mobile phones on the other hand run out of power before you can even look. The Game Gear was also ahead of its time in that aspect xD
The Nomad is awesome for exactly that reason. It's Sega saying "fuck it" and building something completely overpowered for it's time and therefore totally impractical and stupid. It was pretty much the Dodge Hellcat Demon of the videogame world. "Lets build this overpowered stupid thing that nobody else is ballsy/stupid enough to try just because we can" haha.
BullFrog I think the Nomad’s biggest problem is Sega launched it too early. Sega should have waited until 99-00 to release it, & built it with better more energy efficient technology. Imagine if every Sega nomad came w/ an adapter that was basically just a Sega Genesis cartridge w/ a slot for smaller nomad cartridges so, you can take out the adapter & play Sega Genesis games or leave it in & play nomad games on smaller game gear sized cartridges. You can even put the nomad adapter into a Sega genesis & play brand new nomad games on a Sega Genesis. Sega’s biggest problem was probably a lack of imagination when it came to their hardware.
@@mhobin12 Same here pretty sure I sold it back in the early 2000's I sold a lot of things right before the retro craze came along and made things highly more valuable. I have a lot of regrets but luckily I still have a lot of good stuff I didn't sell.
8:07 actually the Gameboy Micro was the first Gameboy to have a backlit screen. The original SP had a frontlit screen, the revised SP with a backlit screen didn’t come out until about a week after the Micro. A lot of people confuse which came first, since the releases were so close together, but the Micro was released first.
I had the rechargeable battery for this thing.. it was pretty much required with the battery life of this thing. But it let you plug it in to charge like your talking about.. Added size to the unit but.. eliminated that problem a bit.
I loved my Game Gear but hated the battery life. I usually just kept it plugged in while I played. I can actually remember going to places with my older sister and asking the business owners if I could use their electric outlet, which was a very strange thing to ask back then, I got some very odd looks. These days they probably wouldn't think twice if you asked to use an outlet.
you know this guy never owned this in the nineties,, because anyone who did used rechargable batteries. I knew no one who kept buying batteries every other day. That is just an absolutely ridiculous statement.
I took it out with me once and never did it again. This was a system you would only play plugged in and it was terrific for it, especially if there wasn't a spare TV in your house for a proper console.
Obviously you didn't own it either bc they sold an ac adapter that plugged into the wall. Why piss with an hours worth of play off rechargeable's when you could play indefinitely?
As a kid, I had to buy my own batteries. One of the first things I got for the GameBoy was the AC power cable. I also bought a GameGear brand new and on the same day, picked up the Sega rechargeable battery pack. It worked great back then.
The Game Gear really is an impressive system for its time, but the size and battery life were probably two of the biggest barriers to it even achieving the success it maybe deserved. The physical system, other than its size, still actually looks pretty slick today imo.
I remember getting my Game Gear for my birthday during my childhood back in the 90s. I also remember many friends and family members having one. I even remember at least one friend having a battery backup for the device. Whenever I used mine, I would take a crapload of batteries with me. I have also used this third-party multi-plug device that I think my parents got from Radio Shack; we originally got it for the Super Nintendo. I do remember changing the plug and voltage on the kit and playing my Game Gear during road trips.
Oh I'd love to see a tear down of a turbo graphic 16 handheld I only knew one kid who ever had one he had rich-ass Parents. That thing was insanely expensive I mean I think it was $350 bucks at the time which was amazing for console graphics on the go but I think the battery life again was terrible I wonder if you could fix the backlighting like The Game Gear here cuz I bet it would become highly valuable if you did.
A couple of things that always stood out to me was the fact that this thing had full color screens and could be played in the dark compared to the gameboy's black and green screens and had to have a light source nearby to play.
As an example of just HOW relatively advanced the Game Gear was: the Game Gear literally had the first color LCD display I, (and I suspect many others) had ever seen in person.
I traded in My game Gear with 20 games for a PC engine GT with 3 games. One of those games was Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. Mind blown and I could ignore that I had to make Street Fighter work with 2 buttons.
Awesome tech wave video Jon(SW). Really nice taking apart of the Sega Game Gear. This is why I have never really been big on Handhelds cuz of the Gameboy n Game Gear. Both had rubbish small screens, awkward controls, running out of batteries was very annoying as a kid, couldn't play it on the TV and the games never looked as good as the Consoles but I would still say guys that Handheld gaming has probably been the most important thing too happen in gaming and it's all thanks too the Nintendo Gameboy n Sega Game Gear for forward thinking.
So fond of the Game Gear back then, the portability aspect and brightly lit screen drew me and my brothers in. Really had so much fun back then, eventually the screen turned white and we never replaced it, opting for later consoles such as Saturn and Playstation.
I remember being like 8 years old and that a kid from my neighbourhood had a game gear. It was constantly empty, as rechargeable batteries had less capacity and it was charging for a day and playing for 1 hour.
The Game Gear was absolutely perfect for road trips... we had the car adapter to plug it into a car outlet, it would last all day on that outlet, no need for replacement batteries, and it was so much more comfortable to hold than a Gameboy and the screen was easier to see both when it was bright during the day and at night you couldn't even see the Gameboy.
That's why you get a pair of nice rechargeable AAs and in my case I have 2 pairs so I can charge the ones that run out after I put the freshly charged ones in. They last quite a while too and take just as long as it takes to charge a ps4 controller to charge. I really should look into a new charger tho mines from like 10 years ago. It;s still pretty nice but maybe they have faster charging ones now. I also have that charger that used to be advertised on TV as charging non-rechargeable AAs and it works from what I remember I think it's called Mighty Charger.
@Javier m Correct and let me tell you I would much prefer being able to switch out some Double A's as opposed to having to screw around with charging cables. actually I find it to be the best feature of the XBone controller, for those unaware the touch pad on the PS4 controller constantly draws power as it has to be on at all times to take any possible inputs. Sadly it draws so much that it drastically reduces battery life.
Great video! I was onboard the submarine USS Topeka when this came out, my mom got it for me as a gift to stay busy on long, boring patrols. I can't tell you how awesome it was to have that cutting edge tech onboard a US fast attcack sub loaded with cutting edge tech.
Yeah, Lynx was more advanced, two years earlier and then there was the Turbo Express. Sorry, as a piece of hardware, Game Gear really didn't look special at all when it launched.
I loved my Gameboy and Game Gear as a kid! Both were awesome. I don't think I ever played my Game Gear with AA's, though, and if I did it was with rechargeables. I quickly bought the battery pack and 90% of the time is was plugged into the wall or a cigarette lighter jack for continual power.
Me too, but one feature he failed to mention and possibly the biggest flaw is that you couldn't save. Meaning you had to complete the game in one sitting. I remember getting to the final level of Sonic on a road trip where I couldn't plug in and my battery crashed... I had to start from the very beginning
@@Bob-et3vc Lots of GG games used a password system- at a certain point in the game it would give you a code to write down. Then you can shut it off, start the game back up and enter at the password screen and start where you left off. Not everything had this tho. Some games you just had to beat straight up lol... GG Sonic 1 was one of those games..
Back in the mid 90's, my aunt bought me a game gear for my birthday and I had it for a couple weeks before deciding to return it and get something else. I remember the screen quality was one of the main reasons.
This handheld still is amazing. I think the issue with it was it's price though, it was much more advanced than the black and green screen Gameboy, could player master system and even had a TV tuner. But the price I'm sure sure went up after launch. You don't need batteries for this, I never used batteries in my youth, it came with a power adapter.
The Game Gear was amazing at the time! As a kid, batteries were too damn expensive so I used the AC adaptor exclusively. In terms of display and sound, it murdered the Gameboy. Playing SMS games handheld was ahead of its time as well! You really have to put yourself in the shoes of a 8 year old kid, playing a handheld color system on Christmas of ‘90! The Gameboy seemed so far behind!
I have the Majesco made version of the Sega Game Gear and mine is in near excellent condition! This is the one to hunt for as this version didn't suffer from bad capacitors as the old Sega made ones did. These back in 2000 were simply known as the Ames Department Store editions alongside the Sega Genesis model 3 which was also made by Majesco.
Great video, SpawnWave. I used rechargeable AA batteries for my GameGear (also, for my Game Boy) It was hard when the batteries were in the charger because I couldn't play haha. Remembering playing Sonic before going to school. Awesome, just awesome.
This is one of those weird ones where, I remember the GameGear being more popular than the GameBoy however, I think it was, everyone owned a Game Boy, but got tired of it and enough had Game Gear that when people hung out on trips, you just passed the game gear around. I was the only one out with a game boy for a few years. Then the batteries got too expensive and finding an outlet was necessary and people went back to the game boy or we stopped playing portable games or something. I remember it being a success...
Sega...go back to being awesome Multiplat all games And be adventurous again Good luck I will buy all games if you do better. playstation burned us by messing with accounts they don't own. Make an available PC xbox Nintendo everything everywhere Peace
I miss my Game Gear, that was part of my childhood!! I remember I had the battery banks that also worked as comfort grip with an adapter and largely increased the battery life!!
Loved my gamegear. I was in 5th grade and had the insight to buy rechargeable batteries,also the gamegear came with a power adapter that you plugged in the wall socket. So in short batteries weren't really much an issue.
You're being very generous with battery life there my friend. I remember getting my game gear for Christmas at my mom's house, putting columns into it and playing it for less than three hours before it died. I was very sad teenager, cuz Mom only bought one set of batteries for it.
This is sadly yet another example of Sega's 90s incompetence. It's a shame because I have tremendous appreciation for the Genesis in every way (love it slightly more than Snes), but everything else Sega did just buried themselves alive (s-cd, 32x, sega channel, saturn, dc, literally everything else was foolishly executed). Regarding the GGear, the second the engineers realized in 1990-91 that they couldn't create a viable power solution the project should have been postponed until the tech matured or just cancel the back-light altogether. But Sega was always GO GO GO rush it out of door asap anyway with no conscious thought to consumer concern/interest or practicality through simple common sense. (And then they did it again with the NOMAD!) But yeah great vid Spawn!
@referral madness I prefer to say an amazing forward-thinking company that did some profoundly retarded things. It's a shame management always managed to screw them. Truly a failure from the top down.
Didn't help the Japanese branch was so salty, that they sabotaged the Western Branch. "No, go ahead and make the 32X. We've got nothing planned that would get in the way." *32X reaching launch date* "So, we'd just like to announce the Sega Saturn. A true 32bit gaming console."
The narrative has been a little skewed towards that, especially in recent years, but it's a little silly to think its quite *that* simple (it's also inaccurate. Japan initially pushed for the 32X as a bit of a knee jerk reaction to the Jaguar). But it's worth noting that some people in higher positions in Sega of America didn't think the Saturn was required either. The Mega-Drive/Genesis install base was such that some of SoA seriously believed people would always just stick to the cheaper 16-bit machine that had more games, and those games would always be cheaper than the next gen competition. That was also a doomed approach, and kind of strangely naive given all those NES owners that jumped to either the Mega-Drive or Super Nintendo. People will always move onto the next thing sooner or later, despite the price gap, and it generally only takes a couple of years before the returns on previous generation hardware no longer justify continued development for it.
It wasn't incompetent on their behalf at all with the Game Gear. They just figured people would buy batteries often as people waste money on much dumber things every day. The hardware itself was amazing for the time I had one and waa blown away with its graphics.
In the case of the Game Gear, I'd say that issue was more due to the technology limitations of the time period as the video argues. The color and backlit screen ate up more battery life for the Game Gear than the Game Boy's monochrome display, thus making the latter more ideal for handheld gaming for longer periods of time and less costly for buying batteries. Rechargable batteries weren't in wide usage until at least a decade later, so that effected things with the reliability of the Game Gear as a handheld game system. As for all the additional Genesis add-ons and systems made during the mid-90s, that seemed like a mix of both Sega overextending itself and Sega's Japan and American branches not being on good terms with one another by that point. By the mid-90s, Sega of Japan wanted to have more control over marketing operations in America and pushed Sega of America into following their actions from the Saturn's abrupt early release when third-party distributors wouldn't have their games ready until later in 1995 to reducing support for the Genesis shortly afterward in spite of the console still being popular with consumers. In addition, Sega of America was not made aware of the Saturn's development from Sega Japan until just as the 32X add-on was ready for launch in America. Plus, having all those consoles in market by 1995 showed Sega had no clue what kind of direction it wished to take itself and showed consumers that they overextended their hand with what they were doing.
I had one of those. I was so pissed when dad traded my Game Boy in for this. Still a nice console, but it was way too bulky and you have to have a lifetime supply of batteries or find a cord you can use and save batteries. He liked doing that. He took my NES and a whole library of games and traded it in for the Super NES and a handful of games. Then he bought me the Sony stuff a PS 1 and the PS 2. man I miss those now.
That's sad. I fucking love my 3DS, but I wish Sony did a better job with the Vita. Didn't fuck us over with those dumb overpriced Vita cards, and actually posed a challenge to the 3DS, forcing Nintendo to compete better. Competition is always a good thing.
My siblings and I had a game gear AND a master system growing up. It was beyond cool taking our master system cartridges with us on the long road trips we used to take and playing them in the car via the game gear. I also fondly remember playing the Jurassic Park and Sonic Chaos on it. Needless to say, being a battery hog, we got that battery pack you mentioned. Much more cost effective in the long run though a completely absurd concept by today's standards. This video was a massive trip down memory lane and full of nostalgia. Especially when you showed the device playing Golden Axe. That game was super popular with my brothers and I. Thanks so much for making this video. I'm going to keep smiling for the rest of the day now.
And one day, we'll all look back and say: "Remember when Microsoft made consoles?" "Who remembers when Sony was a thing?" "Guys, remember the time before cloud processing?" "Who cares about gaming! The zambies are coming! Grab your M4!"
I loved that little thing. I had the wall outlet and the tv antenna add on. Sadly it took way too many batteries. But I did get to use it on my tv here and there.
orange duck yea i think when this came out the only gameboy was the original brick, that just had 2 colors.. a yellowish weird color and black! Lol.. so it was definitely ahead of its time.. if only it had a battery adapter.. i cant remember if it came with an A/C adapter or not..
In the US the NEC Turbo Express debuted before the Game Gear, and essentially was the Gameboy's 1st competitor. It shared a very similar look with a slightly larger frame to the original Game Boy. The exceptions are it's color screen (which shared the same color palette as Turbografx 16 console) added turbo switches (which were also on Tg16 controller), and a primarily black painted frame (similar to the Tg16). Conceptually it's kind of the 1st portable console (debuting before the Game Gear's Master System converter and years before the Sega Nomad). It played Tg16 console games exclusively. The TE had its issues (very pricey, energy muncher (6AA batteries), game library limited to Tg16, among other issues).
No kid, in this things hayday, was running off batteries. You would have had your power adapter with you everywhere you go. You left the car outlet adapter in the car, and you carried your AC adapter with you everywhere you went. Most people I knew had the NiCad extended/rechargeable battery packs, too.
Only 1 kid that I knew owned a Game Gear. He rode my bus and sat next to me. I was fascinated by the system and it was hard to not beg him to play it. Probably got to play it 3-4 times and only one game, Road Rash, but it was awesome. He hoarded the GG most of the time and looking back knowing it took 6 batteries and lasted around 3 hours, I don't blame him
But they came with a AC adapter for using at home, only really needed the batteries for when you'd be out and about. Long car journeys. I loved the old tv adapter, was great for when I'd go fishing with my dad when I was young
I was a home micro gamer in the 1980s, and when my eldest son was born in 1987 my opportunities for gaming dipped, and when my younger son was born in 1990, gaming time at home was almost non-existent. So I thought I'd look at getting a handheld system I could take to work and play during lunchtimes, and obviously be able to whip out quickly to play at home when an opportunity allowed. I investigated the Game Boy, Game Gear and Atari Lynx and picked up a Game Gear ... it was fabulous and I still love the system and it's games now. I also picked up a Master System and Master Gear adapter to play Master System games on the TV or on the Game Gear. While I can appreciate many of the GameBoy's strengths, all of them were negated by the experiences offered on the Game Gear, which stayed my handheld of choice until I bought a GBA SP :-)
Large backlit color screen, stereo sound when headphones were used, tv adapter (optional), but was a monster when using batteries unless you had the AC adapter and rechargeable battery pack.
I have a gamegear for years I hadn't touched since I was a kid. It was so rusty wasn't working so I went to a local independent game store that repairs consoles so they did for me and now works perfectly. Wonder Boy and Star Wars games were my favourite
I had a gamegear as a kid and the battery problem was exactly why I purchased the "battery pack" which was this black oval tube to carry around that seemed to last about as long as the batteries normally would. I didn't think they looked bad at all especially since I usually kept them in a holder or backpack. Considering the cost of batteries I never understood why anyone went without the battery pack since it was cheaper than batteries ended up being. I never had the super wide gear, but I do recall having something similar for the original gameboy (which I now regret exchanging towards a GBA) that both magnified and lit up the screen. I never heard of the genesis adapter (even though I had a genesis which is now sitting in my attic), but I did have a TV tuner which probably can't work today.
Ha, I remember that 'TV add on'...I could pick up 3 basic local channels, which were all pretty boring, but the fact you could even do that with a portable was mind blowing at the time, it had some great games for the system back in the day, but was WAY HUGE and had to be carried around in a case, it did actually have a wall adapter that let you plug it into an outlet and play the system that way when you had no batteries, but it sorta defeated the whole 'portable' aspect at that point, haha, but I still have my game gear after all these years, lol.
I had a Game Gear when they came out. I played it so much that I got to where I could play the first level of certain games with my eyes closed. My parents always kept me stocked up on batteries, I did have the adapter it came with but rarely did I keep it plugged in. I had wanted a Game Boy but my parents wanted to get me the "better system" and it was the better system it just wasn't the system all my friends had. Looking back just my "rich" friends had the Game Gear. I played it for a while about 6 months ago when I was visiting my parents. Somehow I was smart enough as a kid to never store it with the batteries inside and for being owned by a 7 year old, there's not a scratch on it, not even the screen. I watched my ex boyfriend in high school put his perfectly good one in a trash can when he moved out of his parent's house. I wish I would have had the foresight to take it because I'd love to have an extra one to mod for better battery life. I don't want to risk the one I've had since I was a kid...too sentimental.
My screen just went white in '96 and it didn't load games anymore, and my stupid 15 year old self threw it away... Didn't even cross my mind that someone could fix it. 🙄
I only bought batteries for mine a few times, until I bought a universal power supply for it. I used a power supply to play the thing for the most part, since I never needed to play it while away from electricity and the battery life was short. People act like the only way to play it was with batteries.
Turbo Express came out 1990 (a year before Game Gear) and literally played the same games as the home console (Turbo GrafX-16). NEC was the leader in making a portable home console.
It was consistently 2.5 hr max with standard alkaline non-rechargeable AA batteries. I mostly played with the wall charger, and later the car charger. Still went through TONS of AA's before I got both though.
I never needed that magnifier with my game gear and when I was home I had the ac adapter and when we were out I have to oval shaped battery pack and also a tv tuner it was pretty sweet. The screw hole at the back was for the first party rechargeable battery pack kind of like the battery case for the nomad
I'm not sure but white LED lights were not available around the time this was released right? So they had to work with what they had. A little thing so trivial for us today but took almost 80 years to be finally made possible. The history of the LED is pretty cool to watch.
When I was a kid, I had a box of rechargeable batteries and the TV Tuner adapter. A group of us used to sit in the school library and watch daytime TV haha. Good times... I miss the 90s.
The Game Gear was pretty awesome. My brother had one when we were kids, I was so jealous of that color backlit screen. Fortunately, he let me play it a lot. I think he had a rechargeable battery pack that bolted to the back of the system, and if I recall correctly, it wasn't a horribly giant and ugly piece of crap to add to the system. The battery life still wasn't spectacular, but it saved my parents a lot of money on batteries.
Replace the screen and the florescent tube, add Energizer Lithium AA and I bet you’ll get upwards of 18-20hrs. I have a camera that takes 2AA and with standard Energizer it works for 1.5hrs. I use Lithium’s in it and I get a solid 4hrs. No joke.
I will never understand the love of Phillips screws. I am personally a Torx guy. You can give a torx screw a ton of torque and it will never strip. Plus the fit is so tight that the screw stays on the end of the driver while you’re positioning it in the hole of taking it out. Pretty much every screw I ever stripped was Phillips. There are different sizes of Phillips but many size drivers will actually be able to still work, which makes it super easy to use a driver that seems to work and then -SLIP! And it’s toast from there. With Torx there is no ambiguity between sizes. It either fits or it doesn’t. And very quickly you are able to identify sizes on sight just like with socket and bolt/nut sizes. Torx FTW!!!
I was born in 1989 and the reason the gamegear never caught on was because it was more expensive and it was not that portable, you could stick the gameboy in your pocket (if you had good sized pockets) and also it was easier to sneak into school than a gamegear. I seen my cousin had a gamegear back when it came out and was mindblown. But I was very poor growing up and only was able to get the gameboy color when it came out. And I was pretty satisfied with it.
The battery “problem” isn’t a problem anymore. I made myself 2packs of chargeable plug-in wall adapters for the Game Gear. I had to do that with my Star Wars lights too, cuz the usb connector is hella glitchy. So there u go for any “battery only” electronics. I made one for my Black Series Light saber as well. Tho, it’ll shut off after 1 minute of inactivity. So I’m working on a oscillating fan base as a base. It will swivel, thus keeping the power on; looks hella cool too, with the saber moving back n forth.
One of the things that the gamegear required for owner sanity was the rechargeable battery packs. Plug it in over night to recharge and was normally ready to go in the morning... I kind of wish the Nomad had been backwards compatible with the gamegear stuff since it was a superior system though only, really, worked as a portable Genesis...
SEGA was always that company that pushed technology and was very innovative, major kudos to SEGA. They still make lots of fun games to this day.
I loved my gamegear but in all honesty I spent most of my time playing next to a wall outlet because it took 6 batteries and it wasn’t the most portable device due to size and weight. My parents couldn’t afford 6 Duracells/Energizers per play session so I had to make due with low cost rechargeable batteries. I would get between a half hour to an hour of play of time on road trips. I eventually got a car adapter but again, not the most comfortable playing experience when you have wires hanging. Whenever my parents moved their elbows in the car it would often unplug the cord and I would lose all my progress.
On a positive note, my gamegear always attracted the attention of other school kids which made me some friends so I’m thankful for that.
Sounds like we had similar experiences with our GameGears back in the day, but eventually my mother got me the official SEGA battery pack that has a belt clip, and my father(divorce parents) not knowing my mother had got the SEGA ver. a few weeks later for my B-day got me the Doc's battery pack that goes under the GameGear and uses the screw hole to stay attached, so I would use the Doc battery pack, and WideGear lol.
referral madness well I basically did the same to kids who had backyard swimming pools so I guess there’s a little give and take lol.
I mean when your a kid a lot of times you'd make friends and those friends let you come over and play games or use the pool whatever I know for a fact because my parents didn't like or want me playing games never got me any consoles I had to go play at other kids houses. That is until later when I convinced them a Game Boy would get me active, haha suckers! But yeah as a kid you kind of have to use and get used.
thats how kids were....they became friends with other kids so they could experience something new. That's how I became friends with my neighbors...they had a Sega Genesis and I had a Super Nintendo...then later on, I had PlayStation and they had Saturn...we'd go to each others houses, stay up all night playing games that we couldn't play at home. Had a friend that lived down the road that had a PlayStation with a modchip with almost the entire PlayStation game library...ANYTHING that was released, he had a copy of it....(even the Mary Kate & Ashley game)
I had an Atari Lynx, I had some rechargeable batteries, but back then they weren't that good and they only worked for about 1.5 hours. But still, that came in handy for occasions when I HAD to have it on the go. Mostly, I plugged it into the wall. But honestly, that was fine. I was mostly playing it in my bedroom (where there was no TV) and then I left for college, where I also had no TV.
On the battery bit, from what I heard most parents did indeed get tired of buying tons of batteries for this thing. Someone I know grew up with this system and when he stumbled upon one in a game shop he said "Oh, I remember this thing! So many hours spent plugged into the wall playing it..."
AC adapter when batteries weren't available!
I mean that AC adapter is a life saver. Most people who play games aren't exactly moving around. Normally when I'm playing a portable game device, whether it's my Gameboy, Gamegear, or Switch I'm at home on the couch or on my bed. The only time battery life is ever an issue is if I'm on a trip.
That's what I did
I had an AC adapter. they'd get loose in the plug, and I had to get another. I also had a clip on rechargable battery that you plugged onto the ac adaptor hole. you didn't have the official game gear case for your games and accessories? also, this had multiplayer via a cord. I also had a sonic the hedgehog backpack with a gamegear holder on the back.
@@rockapartie I remember having rechargeable batteries but they were a massive rarity (and had much shorter life) for most of the 90's. I remember my friends being amazed I had chargeable batteries when I got my first gameboy colour + pokemon yellow circa 1998
Mains power was/is readily avaliable. The GameBoy used a lot of batteries too.
11 year old me got this xmas morn, burned through my first 6 batteries in the first 2 hrs, so I trudged through the snow to the only store open, the gas station, and bought 6 more batteries. Proceeded to burn through those during the next 2 hrs, blowing 12 batteries before 11am. The next day I bought an AC adapter at radio shack.
Daniel McMahon lol
Haha I got mine for my birthday. Before I even played it me and my dad went out for a little while. By the time we got back, my brother had drained all the batteries. Straight back out to buy an AC adapter. Possibly the thing never saw another set of AAs lol.
Right and then the "battery thing" wasn't a thing
The battery life was an issue to be sure, but you have to remember, the primary buyers of these handhelds were kids asking their parents to buy them. The kids weren't reading technical reviews and had no concept of battery life or screen quality. It was black and white vs color. However, the Game Boy had two HUGE advantages that Sega had no prayer against. Mario and Tetris. Mario mania was still sweeping the nation and Tetris was THE killer app. But let's remove that from the equation. Little Billy is howling for a Game Gear or Game Boy for Christmas. You flip open the Sears catalog. One costs $90, the other costs $150. You notice the cheaper one has Mario going for it. So which one does Little Billy get for Christmas?
As a kid I remember playing a little game on my Game Gear that was very similar to Tetris, I believe it was called "Collumns", at the time I honestly didn't know the difference lol.
@@MFTony727 i was going to mention that game cause it was awesome
Whose little Billy?
@@MFTony727 haha I had columns for my sega genesis!
@@MFTony727 Columns is Tetris like, but the falling blocks are basically all they have in common. It's currently the only game I have for the system.
As a kid, being that my parents would leave me and my sister in the car when they'd go into shops, I used to wish I had a game gear...not so much for the games (tho those would have been great) but for the tv tuner. The idea of a portable tv....wow, that was mindblowing to kid me.
I bought one of these cheap, but it was in awful condition. It had a worm in the screen. Still worked, but every game you played was Earthworm Jim.
Wait... is "A worm" some tech term I don't know, or are you meaning _a real freaking worm?_
Real worm. Could’ve also been a fake worn I suppose.
_Oh my gosh, that's disgusting! lol_
And I thought I had it bad with a bit of dust trapped between the LCD and the white backing panel!
Did you eat it?
Ah. The good old days...batteries and magnifying accessories.
I love that literally it just takes a few tweaks and a new screen and you basically have a significantly better product.
That's the thing I love about retro products they only get better with age.
And tweak the batteries compartment so it can use voltage-compatible rechargeable & replaceable batteries (not necessary have to be in the size of two AA-sized batteries-3x).
The mod's cost are worth it.
It was essentially a Master System on the go - and that was pretty badass. Add to that a radio and TV receiver and you have a terrific portable system. The only downside was that horrific battery life.
The PC Engine GT was a Pc Engine on the go which was way more badass
@@AlexOjideagu2 now i wish we got that worldwide! I would love to play on a PC Engine...never played one before
I'm from the UK so didn't get it either, but I knew about it, it was shown in UK gaming magazines. I had an Atari Lynx though which was more powerful than the Game Gear hardware wise.
Game Gear was technically better and more powerful than the old Master System from 85. Yes alot of the games were ported over to it, but most notably the Sonic games! You can tell Sonic is faster on the Game Gear and the colors are better too on the Game Gear as well! To me it was more like a portable Genesis before I knew of the Nomad. Give the Master System credit though, for being 2 yrs newer than the NES that came out in 83 the Master System seemed better far as its graphics ECT. For me it was The Genesis that stole the show and still steals it for me today.
I loved my game gear I had the TV adaptor . And I hid under my bed on a school night and watched tremors haha
Tremors was 👌🏿👌🏻
It was so bad it was good unlike the sequels they were just bad
Buying batteries every other day? No man, smart kids bought rechargeable batteries.
True, but... They weren't all THAT common on the early 90s, I do remember using them through the early 2000s.
I mean, I was a kid in the 90’s. I don’t recall having trouble finding rechargable batteries, but maybe they were more expensive? I had a lot of electronics and a lot of recharable batteries, personally.
@@AlienFrequency Could be just less common, RC cars did usually have Ni-Cd batteries indeed, Ni-Cd were common enough but weren't just as popular as they got on early 2000s (also would last a heck lot less, but as light as crappy zinc batteries).
Dunno when the Ni-MHs got popular, at 1st they were like only on more expensive stuff, could be just they were uncommon around here too
Yeah I think they were less common, more expensive, and different technology (Nicad vs Lithium). I'm not a battery expert, but it seems to me that lithium batteries are a new-ish thing that came about maybe in the early 2000's? I just remember my folks buying me rechargeable batteries in the 90's, because I'd burn through standard batteries so fast. So, personally, I always had them available to me.
Rechargeable batteries were way more expensive and they wore out over time with diminishing returns on each charge. Given the time needed to charge them it really wasn't worth it. So many downsides. You would use up the charge on one set with constant use before another set was done charging, so at some point you're going to want regular batteries anyway. Add in the cost of the charger itself and it's a fools game.
As a Game Boy owner I felt very envious when I discovered the GG for the first time. But the feeling completely vanished when I realized you could play max 1 hour with rechargable batteries. I could play almost 10 hours with 4 rechargeable batteries on the Game Boy.. That was the precise moment I realized how clever was Nintendo's "less is more" rule for the first time!
Lol. "max one hour"?
Don't be an idiot.
And where did you use the GameBoy most time? Inside or outside? Inside, correct.
This channel is my absolute favorite. You are so clear and knowledgeable. I still have my Game Gear at my parents. I had a huge pack that I kept my games in Power Rangers, some Olympics game, Sonic, Shaq Fu, etc. I remember the battery wouldn't even last to my grandparents (about 3 hours). I remember my uncle having a TV Tuner. SEGA was way ahead of its time.
I frickin love this channel. It quickly became my favorite.
Spaxer same here i always watch his videos everyday.
I love a good technological autopsy. But seriously breaking Tech down and looking at all it's workings has always fascinated me.
I played mine connected to the power brick
Just to let you know that this guy doesn't know much. The Atary Lynx was the first color backlit display and with 16BiT ...The GameGear doesnt deserve any credits and this video as well!
I remember having the official Sega battery back accessory for the Game Gear, worked pretty well.
What about the Atari Lynx? It had 16 bit visuals and 3d polygons. In 1989......
Tbf the gamegear has a decent recognition by many to be a color game system. Its just with such heavy advantages come a price as well as poor attraction to third party which meant these systems wouldnt be sold well. Plus. The system wasnt very reliable either. The capaciters dont last very long meaning youd be lucky to find a system thats used that still works
And that, would really have been Epyc... *rolls eyes* I'll get my coat.
@@superex1118 Capacitor problems are easily fixed. One of the easiest fixes in all of electronics in fact.
That is, assuming the capacitors haven't leaked and corroded the circuit board.
Of course, even that is beyond most people, but just keep that in mind if you run across one with capacitor problems - even an electronics amateur with mediocre soldering skills should be able to fix something if capacitors are the only thing wrong with it.
That's what I'm thinking. I was blown away when I learned about the Lynx a few years ago, I couldn't believe how good the games looked considering the year it released!
...did it tho?
I had both a Gameboy Color and a Game Gear as a child, and while my GBC was easier to tote around to my Grandparents' house and grocery shopping trips with my mom, I loved playing on the Game Gear at home. We actually had an AC adapter for ours, because I remember spending most of my time on the sofa near the outlet playing Sonic & Sonic 2, Lion King, and Mickey's Castle of Illusion. We owned an NES, but aside from that, the Game Gear was literally the best looking system I owned until I got my hands on a Playstation. Sure, the Game Gear ate AA batteries for breakfast, but damn was it nice to play a game in full colour like that.
I can relate to that. Later on in the late 90s I got a TV tuner cartridge for it and used to watch TV on it... lol
Honestly, the Game Gear was a great option if you didn't already have the Master System.
Used to play the Game Gear every once in a while but didn't realize the battery life was so poor! Liked as always! :D
JesseAndMike
I bet you did...
I always wanted a Game Gear growing up. My cousin had one, but the batteries were always dead. Now that I'm an adult, i found one for under $10 and started collecting. It really is an amazing little system.
Too ahead of time since it ate up like 6 batteries in less than 5 hours
Wasn't it 3 hours
I owned a GameGear when they first launched, and 6 hours was a dream in normal use, as SEGA got 6 hours out of a unit by turning it on with no game inserted, no user input, and the volume at it's lowest. the most I would get on Average was 3 - 4hrs out of a set of good batteries, and with the official SEGA battery pack when it was new maybe 4 1/2 hours, and about the same with an aftermarket Doc's branded one.
More like 2 hours
Heavy Palmz With some cheaper alkaline batteries that were not as well made, and Heavy Duty Batteries 2 - 2 1/2 hours of use was about right for the Game Game, but on good alkaline batteries like Energizers, or Duracells 3 - 4 hrs really was the average for a set.
Just Squid well, if we look at early mobile phones, you could use them for one week without charging. Modern mobile phones on the other hand run out of power before you can even look. The Game Gear was also ahead of its time in that aspect xD
Now I want to see the Sega NOMAD tear down!! lol
The switch before the switch
The Nomad is awesome for exactly that reason. It's Sega saying "fuck it" and building something completely overpowered for it's time and therefore totally impractical and stupid. It was pretty much the Dodge Hellcat Demon of the videogame world. "Lets build this overpowered stupid thing that nobody else is ballsy/stupid enough to try just because we can" haha.
BullFrog I think the Nomad’s biggest problem is Sega launched it too early. Sega should have waited until 99-00 to release it, & built it with better more energy efficient technology. Imagine if every Sega nomad came w/ an adapter that was basically just a Sega Genesis cartridge w/ a slot for smaller nomad cartridges so, you can take out the adapter & play Sega Genesis games or leave it in & play nomad games on smaller game gear sized cartridges. You can even put the nomad adapter into a Sega genesis & play brand new nomad games on a Sega Genesis. Sega’s biggest problem was probably a lack of imagination when it came to their hardware.
I miss my nomad
@@mhobin12
Same here pretty sure I sold it back in the early 2000's I sold a lot of things right before the retro craze came along and made things highly more valuable. I have a lot of regrets but luckily I still have a lot of good stuff I didn't sell.
8:07 actually the Gameboy Micro was the first Gameboy to have a backlit screen. The original SP had a frontlit screen, the revised SP with a backlit screen didn’t come out until about a week after the Micro. A lot of people confuse which came first, since the releases were so close together, but the Micro was released first.
@DejaVoodooDoll Yep that was the first, but it was only released in Japan, shortly before the Color came out, so it's no surprise it's not counted
Um actually 🤓☝️
I had the rechargeable battery for this thing.. it was pretty much required with the battery life of this thing. But it let you plug it in to charge like your talking about.. Added size to the unit but.. eliminated that problem a bit.
The one that sticks out from the battery compartment right. That thing was heavy...
*you're (contraction of "YOU aRE")
"Your" is for possession.
I loved my Game Gear but hated the battery life. I usually just kept it plugged in while I played. I can actually remember going to places with my older sister and asking the business owners if I could use their electric outlet, which was a very strange thing to ask back then, I got some very odd looks. These days they probably wouldn't think twice if you asked to use an outlet.
you know this guy never owned this in the nineties,, because anyone who did used rechargable batteries. I knew no one who kept buying batteries every other day. That is just an absolutely ridiculous statement.
That or people got an AC adapter. People seem to never mention that.
I took it out with me once and never did it again. This was a system you would only play plugged in and it was terrific for it, especially if there wasn't a spare TV in your house for a proper console.
i love the part where he claims you "had to use batteries" while pointing the power cord port directly at the camera
Obviously you didn't own it either bc they sold an ac adapter that plugged into the wall. Why piss with an hours worth of play off rechargeable's when you could play indefinitely?
I had the rechargeable battery pack accessory.
As a kid, I had to buy my own batteries. One of the first things I got for the GameBoy was the AC power cable. I also bought a GameGear brand new and on the same day, picked up the Sega rechargeable battery pack. It worked great back then.
The Game Gear really is an impressive system for its time, but the size and battery life were probably two of the biggest barriers to it even achieving the success it maybe deserved. The physical system, other than its size, still actually looks pretty slick today imo.
It definitely looked better, but then the Game Boy Color was released.
I remember getting my Game Gear for my birthday during my childhood back in the 90s. I also remember many friends and family members having one. I even remember at least one friend having a battery backup for the device.
Whenever I used mine, I would take a crapload of batteries with me. I have also used this third-party multi-plug device that I think my parents got from Radio Shack; we originally got it for the Super Nintendo. I do remember changing the plug and voltage on the kit and playing my Game Gear during road trips.
SEGA:. Can we copystrike Nintendo Switch?
@referral madness who are they? I don't recall that name
Oh I'd love to see a tear down of a turbo graphic 16 handheld
I only knew one kid who ever had one he had rich-ass Parents. That thing was insanely expensive I mean I think it was $350 bucks at the time which was amazing for console graphics on the go but I think the battery life again was terrible I wonder if you could fix the backlighting like The Game Gear here cuz I bet it would become highly valuable if you did.
A couple of things that always stood out to me was the fact that this thing had full color screens and could be played in the dark compared to the gameboy's black and green screens and had to have a light source nearby to play.
Sega always reached to push things ahead. Cost them everything
As an example of just HOW relatively advanced the Game Gear was: the Game Gear literally had the first color LCD display I, (and I suspect many others) had ever seen in person.
Turbo Express smoked the Game Gear. NEC was 5 years ahead of the Nomad.
Even the Lynx was miles ahead.
And the TurboExpress came out first, and played the actual TurboGrafx games!
Yup, the Turbo Express was the Rolls Royce of portables.
Yup. I wanted that so bad
I traded in My game Gear with 20 games for a PC engine GT with 3 games. One of those games was Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition. Mind blown and I could ignore that I had to make Street Fighter work with 2 buttons.
Awesome tech wave video Jon(SW). Really nice taking apart of the Sega Game Gear. This is why I have never really been big on Handhelds cuz of the Gameboy n Game Gear. Both had rubbish small screens, awkward controls, running out of batteries was very annoying as a kid, couldn't play it on the TV and the games never looked as good as the Consoles but I would still say guys that Handheld gaming has probably been the most important thing too happen in gaming and it's all thanks too the Nintendo Gameboy n Sega Game Gear for forward thinking.
Wait wait wait ... the Game Gear have a AC/ adapter , that is the same as the one for Megadrive/ Genesis ! DID YOU KNOW THAT ?
:O i didnt.. fml (20years too late)
So fond of the Game Gear back then, the portability aspect and brightly lit screen drew me and my brothers in. Really had so much fun back then, eventually the screen turned white and we never replaced it, opting for later consoles such as Saturn and Playstation.
The future is 20 years ago young man!
We had rechargeable AA batteries growing up, battery life was only really an issue on long flights, car rides... It still works fine too.
Don’t forget the Atari Linkx, I had both the Game Gear and the Atari as wet as the Sega Nomad
Actually there a lot of great Lynx games.
I remember being like 8 years old and that a kid from my neighbourhood had a game gear. It was constantly empty, as rechargeable batteries had less capacity and it was charging for a day and playing for 1 hour.
The Game Gear was absolutely perfect for road trips... we had the car adapter to plug it into a car outlet, it would last all day on that outlet, no need for replacement batteries, and it was so much more comfortable to hold than a Gameboy and the screen was easier to see both when it was bright during the day and at night you couldn't even see the Gameboy.
Lol it’s funny how he says back in the 90s we used batteries. And now Xbox users are the only ones still using batteries
Haha that's true, but at least it's only 2 batteries and they last for days unlike this piece of junk.
@@retrosoul8770 but it's not as good as built in rehargables. But at least they last a good while
That's why you get a pair of nice rechargeable AAs and in my case I have 2 pairs so I can charge the ones that run out after I put the freshly charged ones in. They last quite a while too and take just as long as it takes to charge a ps4 controller to charge. I really should look into a new charger tho mines from like 10 years ago. It;s still pretty nice but maybe they have faster charging ones now. I also have that charger that used to be advertised on TV as charging non-rechargeable AAs and it works from what I remember I think it's called Mighty Charger.
@Javier m
Correct and let me tell you I would much prefer being able to switch out some Double A's as opposed to having to screw around with charging cables. actually I find it to be the best feature of the XBone controller, for those unaware the touch pad on the PS4 controller constantly draws power as it has to be on at all times to take any possible inputs. Sadly it draws so much that it drastically reduces battery life.
@@johnny2x484 it isn't as bad with the switch though. Since my switch is in the dock when not being used my batteries have never ran out
Great video! I was onboard the submarine USS Topeka when this came out, my mom got it for me as a gift to stay busy on long, boring patrols. I can't tell you how awesome it was to have that cutting edge tech onboard a US fast attcack sub loaded with cutting edge tech.
But Atari Lynx was released a Year earlier.
Yeah, Lynx was more advanced, two years earlier and then there was the Turbo Express. Sorry, as a piece of hardware, Game Gear really didn't look special at all when it launched.
The Lynx was pretty awesome, and you could play opposite hands if need be.
took the words right out of my mouth. can we see the turbo express guts now please ?
This guy doesnt know much! How the he** the GG deserve credits over the Lynx, with his first color display lit and 16 bit as well!
MenfisRetroSpace It’s not that serious they both deserve praise as both where ahead of their times...
I loved my Gameboy and Game Gear as a kid! Both were awesome. I don't think I ever played my Game Gear with AA's, though, and if I did it was with rechargeables. I quickly bought the battery pack and 90% of the time is was plugged into the wall or a cigarette lighter jack for continual power.
I just used rechargeable AA batteries.
TimboSlice083 I used those too, but they lasted an hour at best and had to charge for ages
Me too, but one feature he failed to mention and possibly the biggest flaw is that you couldn't save. Meaning you had to complete the game in one sitting. I remember getting to the final level of Sonic on a road trip where I couldn't plug in and my battery crashed... I had to start from the very beginning
@@Bob-et3vc Lots of GG games used a password system- at a certain point in the game it would give you a code to write down. Then you can shut it off, start the game back up and enter at the password screen and start where you left off. Not everything had this tho. Some games you just had to beat straight up lol... GG Sonic 1 was one of those games..
Back in the mid 90's, my aunt bought me a game gear for my birthday and I had it for a couple weeks before deciding to return it and get something else. I remember the screen quality was one of the main reasons.
You could play this while it was plugged in like the Switch.
This handheld still is amazing.
I think the issue with it was it's price though, it was much more advanced than the black and green screen Gameboy, could player master system and even had a TV tuner. But the price I'm sure sure went up after launch.
You don't need batteries for this, I never used batteries in my youth, it came with a power adapter.
The Game Gear was amazing at the time! As a kid, batteries were too damn expensive so I used the AC adaptor exclusively. In terms of display and sound, it murdered the Gameboy. Playing SMS games handheld was ahead of its time as well! You really have to put yourself in the shoes of a 8 year old kid, playing a handheld color system on Christmas of ‘90! The Gameboy seemed so far behind!
Justin Bacio
Um it didnt come out until 91 bc that's the Christmas my brother received his. Have a video to prove it.
* falsefrag * You didn’t catch me in a lie, just an error. You can keep your video. I’m sure it’s legit 🙄
I have the Majesco made version of the Sega Game Gear and mine is in near excellent condition! This is the one to hunt for as this version didn't suffer from bad capacitors as the old Sega made ones did. These back in 2000 were simply known as the Ames Department Store editions alongside the Sega Genesis model 3 which was also made by Majesco.
I wanted a Gameboy to play Pokemon and Tetris. I got the Game Gear instead. I was a very disappointed child.
Why it was a thousand times better? Stfu
I was always more partial to Columns over Tetris personally.
This is a fantastic video. So much information packed into 13 minutes. I never really knew much about this console; now I know a lot about it.
One reason is they didn’t make batteries powerful enough to support the Game Gear😂
Great video, SpawnWave. I used rechargeable AA batteries for my GameGear (also, for my Game Boy) It was hard when the batteries were in the charger because I couldn't play haha. Remembering playing Sonic before going to school. Awesome, just awesome.
Pretty sure we had nickel cadmium batteries in the 90s
Yeah but they were crap.
This is one of those weird ones where, I remember the GameGear being more popular than the GameBoy however, I think it was, everyone owned a Game Boy, but got tired of it and enough had Game Gear that when people hung out on trips, you just passed the game gear around. I was the only one out with a game boy for a few years. Then the batteries got too expensive and finding an outlet was necessary and people went back to the game boy or we stopped playing portable games or something. I remember it being a success...
Sega...go back to being awesome
Multiplat all games
And be adventurous again
Good luck I will buy all games if you do better. playstation burned us by messing with accounts they don't own.
Make an available PC xbox Nintendo everything everywhere
Peace
GTFO with that shit.
I miss my Game Gear, that was part of my childhood!! I remember I had the battery banks that also worked as comfort grip with an adapter and largely increased the battery life!!
Look at where sega now releasing games On their ex competitor consoles😂😂😂
@referral madness
They probably wanted some more cash
BOI Z Same place Sony is going to be soon..
It's a shame, too. They were very creative and innovative back in the day, an unafraid to take a fun idea to production.
@@whiteknight5100
How,when they pay companies to do their exclusives. They probably don't even own most of them
@@boiz9552 Lol. Good point. Sony ain't going no where
Loved my gamegear. I was in 5th grade and had the insight to buy rechargeable batteries,also the gamegear came with a power adapter that you plugged in the wall socket. So in short batteries weren't really much an issue.
SEGA will rise again like a phoenix! Well you can dream.
It's already happening, apparently in partnership with Google.
You're being very generous with battery life there my friend. I remember getting my game gear for Christmas at my mom's house, putting columns into it and playing it for less than three hours before it died. I was very sad teenager, cuz Mom only bought one set of batteries for it.
This is sadly yet another example of Sega's 90s incompetence. It's a shame because I have tremendous appreciation for the Genesis in every way (love it slightly more than Snes), but everything else Sega did just buried themselves alive (s-cd, 32x, sega channel, saturn, dc, literally everything else was foolishly executed).
Regarding the GGear, the second the engineers realized in 1990-91 that they couldn't create a viable power solution the project should have been postponed until the tech matured or just cancel the back-light altogether. But Sega was always GO GO GO rush it out of door asap anyway with no conscious thought to consumer concern/interest or practicality through simple common sense. (And then they did it again with the NOMAD!) But yeah great vid Spawn!
@referral madness
I prefer to say an amazing forward-thinking company that did some profoundly retarded things.
It's a shame management always managed to screw them. Truly a failure from the top down.
Didn't help the Japanese branch was so salty, that they sabotaged the Western Branch.
"No, go ahead and make the 32X. We've got nothing planned that would get in the way."
*32X reaching launch date*
"So, we'd just like to announce the Sega Saturn. A true 32bit gaming console."
The narrative has been a little skewed towards that, especially in recent years, but it's a little silly to think its quite *that* simple (it's also inaccurate. Japan initially pushed for the 32X as a bit of a knee jerk reaction to the Jaguar).
But it's worth noting that some people in higher positions in Sega of America didn't think the Saturn was required either. The Mega-Drive/Genesis install base was such that some of SoA seriously believed people would always just stick to the cheaper 16-bit machine that had more games, and those games would always be cheaper than the next gen competition.
That was also a doomed approach, and kind of strangely naive given all those NES owners that jumped to either the Mega-Drive or Super Nintendo. People will always move onto the next thing sooner or later, despite the price gap, and it generally only takes a couple of years before the returns on previous generation hardware no longer justify continued development for it.
It wasn't incompetent on their behalf at all with the Game Gear. They just figured people would buy batteries often as people waste money on much dumber things every day. The hardware itself was amazing for the time I had one and waa blown away with its graphics.
In the case of the Game Gear, I'd say that issue was more due to the technology limitations of the time period as the video argues. The color and backlit screen ate up more battery life for the Game Gear than the Game Boy's monochrome display, thus making the latter more ideal for handheld gaming for longer periods of time and less costly for buying batteries. Rechargable batteries weren't in wide usage until at least a decade later, so that effected things with the reliability of the Game Gear as a handheld game system.
As for all the additional Genesis add-ons and systems made during the mid-90s, that seemed like a mix of both Sega overextending itself and Sega's Japan and American branches not being on good terms with one another by that point. By the mid-90s, Sega of Japan wanted to have more control over marketing operations in America and pushed Sega of America into following their actions from the Saturn's abrupt early release when third-party distributors wouldn't have their games ready until later in 1995 to reducing support for the Genesis shortly afterward in spite of the console still being popular with consumers. In addition, Sega of America was not made aware of the Saturn's development from Sega Japan until just as the 32X add-on was ready for launch in America. Plus, having all those consoles in market by 1995 showed Sega had no clue what kind of direction it wished to take itself and showed consumers that they overextended their hand with what they were doing.
I had one of those. I was so pissed when dad traded my Game Boy in for this. Still a nice console, but it was way too bulky and you have to have a lifetime supply of batteries or find a cord you can use and save batteries. He liked doing that. He took my NES and a whole library of games and traded it in for the Super NES and a handful of games. Then he bought me the Sony stuff a PS 1 and the PS 2. man I miss those now.
No one has ever defeated Nintendo when it comes to handheld gaming. Remember that.
So? Even as a nintendo fanboy, it was nice having interesting alternates like the gamegear and PSP.
Apple and Google both did. Handheld gaming is still big, but smartphones have run away with a big chunk of that market.
That's sad. I fucking love my 3DS, but I wish Sony did a better job with the Vita. Didn't fuck us over with those dumb overpriced Vita cards, and actually posed a challenge to the 3DS, forcing Nintendo to compete better. Competition is always a good thing.
That's like saying Sony defeated Nintendo because the PS4 outsold the 3DS. Doesn't work like that, Derangel.
@@derangel9143 smartphone games really aren't games.
They're extortionate banking simulators.
My siblings and I had a game gear AND a master system growing up. It was beyond cool taking our master system cartridges with us on the long road trips we used to take and playing them in the car via the game gear. I also fondly remember playing the Jurassic Park and Sonic Chaos on it. Needless to say, being a battery hog, we got that battery pack you mentioned. Much more cost effective in the long run though a completely absurd concept by today's standards.
This video was a massive trip down memory lane and full of nostalgia. Especially when you showed the device playing Golden Axe. That game was super popular with my brothers and I. Thanks so much for making this video. I'm going to keep smiling for the rest of the day now.
And one day, we'll all look back and say:
"Remember when Microsoft made consoles?"
"Who remembers when Sony was a thing?"
"Guys, remember the time before cloud processing?"
"Who cares about gaming! The zambies are coming! Grab your M4!"
I loved that little thing. I had the wall outlet and the tv antenna add on. Sadly it took way too many batteries. But I did get to use it on my tv here and there.
gbc is better
nothing beats playing dkc for 10 hours on 2 AAs
orange duck yea i think when this came out the only gameboy was the original brick, that just had 2 colors.. a yellowish weird color and black! Lol.. so it was definitely ahead of its time.. if only it had a battery adapter.. i cant remember if it came with an A/C adapter or not..
orange duck You mean GBA right? DKC never came out for the GBC. Or are you talking about Donkey Kong Land for the original GB?
No, there is a port for the GBC (only DKC1 though).
orange duck It’s called DK Land instead of Country.
In the US the NEC Turbo Express debuted before the Game Gear, and essentially was the Gameboy's 1st competitor. It shared a very similar look with a slightly larger frame to the original Game Boy. The exceptions are it's color screen (which shared the same color palette as Turbografx 16 console) added turbo switches (which were also on Tg16 controller), and a primarily black painted frame (similar to the Tg16). Conceptually it's kind of the 1st portable console (debuting before the Game Gear's Master System converter and years before the Sega Nomad). It played Tg16 console games exclusively. The TE had its issues (very pricey, energy muncher (6AA batteries), game library limited to Tg16, among other issues).
Game gear is cool
The reason it failed was also the price. I remember never seeing one. No one had that much cash. But looking back now you've opened my eyes!
Meow!
Moo
No kid, in this things hayday, was running off batteries. You would have had your power adapter with you everywhere you go. You left the car outlet adapter in the car, and you carried your AC adapter with you everywhere you went. Most people I knew had the NiCad extended/rechargeable battery packs, too.
Just like people carry their phone chargers everywhere they go nowadays. So, indeed, ahead of its time, waaay ahead.
Only 1 kid that I knew owned a Game Gear. He rode my bus and sat next to me. I was fascinated by the system and it was hard to not beg him to play it. Probably got to play it 3-4 times and only one game, Road Rash, but it was awesome. He hoarded the GG most of the time and looking back knowing it took 6 batteries and lasted around 3 hours, I don't blame him
But they came with a AC adapter for using at home, only really needed the batteries for when you'd be out and about. Long car journeys.
I loved the old tv adapter, was great for when I'd go fishing with my dad when I was young
I was a home micro gamer in the 1980s, and when my eldest son was born in 1987 my opportunities for gaming dipped, and when my younger son was born in 1990, gaming time at home was almost non-existent. So I thought I'd look at getting a handheld system I could take to work and play during lunchtimes, and obviously be able to whip out quickly to play at home when an opportunity allowed. I investigated the Game Boy, Game Gear and Atari Lynx and picked up a Game Gear ... it was fabulous and I still love the system and it's games now. I also picked up a Master System and Master Gear adapter to play Master System games on the TV or on the Game Gear. While I can appreciate many of the GameBoy's strengths, all of them were negated by the experiences offered on the Game Gear, which stayed my handheld of choice until I bought a GBA SP :-)
Large backlit color screen, stereo sound when headphones were used, tv adapter (optional), but was a monster when using batteries unless you had the AC adapter and rechargeable battery pack.
I have a gamegear for years I hadn't touched since I was a kid. It was so rusty wasn't working so I went to a local independent game store that repairs consoles so they did for me and now works perfectly. Wonder Boy and Star Wars games were my favourite
I had a gamegear as a kid and the battery problem was exactly why I purchased the "battery pack" which was this black oval tube to carry around that seemed to last about as long as the batteries normally would. I didn't think they looked bad at all especially since I usually kept them in a holder or backpack. Considering the cost of batteries I never understood why anyone went without the battery pack since it was cheaper than batteries ended up being. I never had the super wide gear, but I do recall having something similar for the original gameboy (which I now regret exchanging towards a GBA) that both magnified and lit up the screen. I never heard of the genesis adapter (even though I had a genesis which is now sitting in my attic), but I did have a TV tuner which probably can't work today.
Ha, I remember that 'TV add on'...I could pick up 3 basic local channels, which were all pretty boring, but the fact you could even do that with a portable was mind blowing at the time, it had some great games for the system back in the day, but was WAY HUGE and had to be carried around in a case, it did actually have a wall adapter that let you plug it into an outlet and play the system that way when you had no batteries, but it sorta defeated the whole 'portable' aspect at that point, haha, but I still have my game gear after all these years, lol.
I had a Game Gear when they came out. I played it so much that I got to where I could play the first level of certain games with my eyes closed. My parents always kept me stocked up on batteries, I did have the adapter it came with but rarely did I keep it plugged in. I had wanted a Game Boy but my parents wanted to get me the "better system" and it was the better system it just wasn't the system all my friends had. Looking back just my "rich" friends had the Game Gear.
I played it for a while about 6 months ago when I was visiting my parents. Somehow I was smart enough as a kid to never store it with the batteries inside and for being owned by a 7 year old, there's not a scratch on it, not even the screen. I watched my ex boyfriend in high school put his perfectly good one in a trash can when he moved out of his parent's house. I wish I would have had the foresight to take it because I'd love to have an extra one to mod for better battery life. I don't want to risk the one I've had since I was a kid...too sentimental.
Main reason is being 32 years old and still functioning. I recently fixed one and its running perfect with all oem parts except the oem caps.
My screen just went white in '96 and it didn't load games anymore, and my stupid 15 year old self threw it away... Didn't even cross my mind that someone could fix it. 🙄
I only bought batteries for mine a few times, until I bought a universal power supply for it. I used a power supply to play the thing for the most part, since I never needed to play it while away from electricity and the battery life was short. People act like the only way to play it was with batteries.
We all ran it on the power adapter around the house. Average journeys in the UK were 2 to 3 hours. It was fine for us.
Turbo Express came out 1990 (a year before Game Gear) and literally played the same games as the home console (Turbo GrafX-16). NEC was the leader in making a portable home console.
It was consistently 2.5 hr max with standard alkaline non-rechargeable AA batteries. I mostly played with the wall charger, and later the car charger. Still went through TONS of AA's before I got both though.
I spent my childhood in the 90s with rechargeable batteries, heck i still use that same charger today xD
I never needed that magnifier with my game gear and when I was home I had the ac adapter and when we were out I have to oval shaped battery pack and also a tv tuner it was pretty sweet. The screw hole at the back was for the first party rechargeable battery pack kind of like the battery case for the nomad
I'm not sure but white LED lights were not available around the time this was released right? So they had to work with what they had. A little thing so trivial for us today but took almost 80 years to be finally made possible. The history of the LED is pretty cool to watch.
When I was a kid, I had a box of rechargeable batteries and the TV Tuner adapter. A group of us used to sit in the school library and watch daytime TV haha. Good times... I miss the 90s.
The Game Gear was pretty awesome. My brother had one when we were kids, I was so jealous of that color backlit screen. Fortunately, he let me play it a lot. I think he had a rechargeable battery pack that bolted to the back of the system, and if I recall correctly, it wasn't a horribly giant and ugly piece of crap to add to the system. The battery life still wasn't spectacular, but it saved my parents a lot of money on batteries.
I had a game gear and I remember I only had a couple mainline sonic games and sonic pinball. Impressed yours is in such good condition!
Replace the screen and the florescent tube, add Energizer Lithium AA and I bet you’ll get upwards of 18-20hrs. I have a camera that takes 2AA and with standard Energizer it works for 1.5hrs. I use Lithium’s in it and I get a solid 4hrs. No joke.
I will never understand the love of Phillips screws. I am personally a Torx guy. You can give a torx screw a ton of torque and it will never strip. Plus the fit is so tight that the screw stays on the end of the driver while you’re positioning it in the hole of taking it out. Pretty much every screw I ever stripped was Phillips. There are different sizes of Phillips but many size drivers will actually be able to still work, which makes it super easy to use a driver that seems to work and then -SLIP! And it’s toast from there. With Torx there is no ambiguity between sizes. It either fits or it doesn’t. And very quickly you are able to identify sizes on sight just like with socket and bolt/nut sizes. Torx FTW!!!
I was born in 1989 and the reason the gamegear never caught on was because it was more expensive and it was not that portable, you could stick the gameboy in your pocket (if you had good sized pockets) and also it was easier to sneak into school than a gamegear. I seen my cousin had a gamegear back when it came out and was mindblown. But I was very poor growing up and only was able to get the gameboy color when it came out. And I was pretty satisfied with it.
The battery “problem” isn’t a problem anymore. I made myself 2packs of chargeable plug-in wall adapters for the Game Gear. I had to do that with my Star Wars lights too, cuz the usb connector is hella glitchy. So there u go for any “battery only” electronics.
I made one for my Black Series Light saber as well. Tho, it’ll shut off after 1 minute of inactivity. So I’m working on a oscillating fan base as a base. It will swivel, thus keeping the power on; looks hella cool too, with the saber moving back n forth.
One of the things that the gamegear required for owner sanity was the rechargeable battery packs. Plug it in over night to recharge and was normally ready to go in the morning...
I kind of wish the Nomad had been backwards compatible with the gamegear stuff since it was a superior system though only, really, worked as a portable Genesis...