Gaming on the Go: Game Gear Rises From The Grave....

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Game Gear Rises From The Grave....

It's only been three weeks or so since I discovered a hand held console, previously unknown to me. Quite how it had escaped my notice, I do not know, but I was 'researching pharmaceuticals'(!) at the time of it's birth, and a lot of the Nineties are a bit of a haze to me... (Cough!)

Anyway, the console in question is the wonderful Sega Game Gear. Like an obese, elderly relative of the PSP, this wonderful machine was Sega's riposte to the Nintendo Gameboy, and quite frankly, it blew their black and white effort out of the water.

Essentially, the Game Gear was a Sega Master System in miniature, and thus Sega were able to port it's Master System software back catalogue, straight to it's new system. Utilising established 16 bit arcade hardware, Sega delivered the concept of portable gameplay, of static home gameplay quality, to a stunned gaming audience.

The games were simply written into ROMS for the substantially smaller Game Gear cartridges. For those not wanting to re-buy Master System titles they had grown to love, on a new cartridge for the Game Gear, a clever adaptor was crafted by Sega boffins, to allow Master System cartridges to be played on their 'new' handheld. But wait! That's not the only adaptor the Game Gear had in it's peripheral repertoire... Crikey no!

The GG also had a television adaptor which made it into the smallest available colour portable T.V. of the 1990's. And one peripheral , dear reader, that allowed one lucky owner to actually pick up German satellite porn in the early '90s...
But hey! That's another story for another site.. More information about this particular story, and how I came across my GG can be found at the 'Yard and you can see it by clicking here.

Since owning one I've been looking at them on Google Image, checking out availability on eBay and referencing it's techno specifications and software releases on Wikipedia ( I have twelve titles so far and will be reviewing each one, on this site, in the coming months) . It turns out there are some collectors items to be coveted like the 'Coca Cola Kid' edition and the lovely 'Magic Knight' edition. Jeez! I've now got my 9th console to squander the family budget on... It'll end in tears.

Because I was unaware of this lovely piece of kit during it's 1990-1997 lifespan, I never had chance to own it, love it, cherish it and mourn it's passing. There must have been those of you out there who did, however.

Well for those of you pining for a bit of Game Gear love, I've got great news. It's been rereleased. Re-packaged. Re-invented. Reincarnated. Reborn!

Say hello to the 21st Century Game Gear. The Playpal. All of those retro titles fat, balding geeks like myself, who were once thin, flowing haired geeks, have been longing to play since 1997 are back! To find out about this beautiful piece of hand held 2D 'game gear' click here.