Photo: Evan-Amos · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Sega Game Gear
Sega · Released Apr 1991 · Original (1990)
Sega's colour, backlit answer to the Game Boy — technically superior, but undone by an enormous appetite for AA batteries.
Pros
- +Backlit colour screen, well ahead of the Game Boy
- +Strong arcade and Sonic ports
- +Master System compatibility via adapter
- +Comfortable landscape grip
Cons
- −Notorious battery drain (six AA cells, ~3-5h)
- −Large and heavy
- −Screen blur on fast motion
What can it play?
Emulation performance by platform, based on real-world testing.
Full specifications
Hardware
- Chipset (SoC)
- Zilog Z80
- CPU
- 8-bit Z80 @ 3.58 MHz
- GPU
- Sega VDP
- RAM
- 8 KB + 16 KB video
- Storage
- Cartridge Game Gear ROM cartridge
- Weight
- 290 g
- Dimensions
- 210 x 113 x 38 mm
- Cooling
- Passive
Display
- Size
- 3.2″
- Resolution
- 160x144
- Panel
- Backlit LCD (4096-colour palette)
- Refresh rate
- 60 Hz
- Touchscreen
- No
Battery & Connectivity
- Battery
- 2000 mAh
- Real-world life
- ~4 hours
- Wi-Fi
- None
- Bluetooth
- None
- Ports
- Gear-to-Gear cable, 3.5mm headphone, DC in
- Expandable storage
- No
Controls
- Analog sticks
- 0
- D-pad
- Yes
- Face buttons
- Yes
- Analog triggers
- No
- Gyroscope
- No
- Hall effect sticks
- No
Software & custom firmware
Ships with: None (cartridge-booted)
Also plays natively: Game Gear cartridges, Master System games (adapter)
No third-party custom firmware tracked for this device.
Our verdict
The Game Gear delivered a backlit colour screen and arcade-quality Sega ports at a time when the Game Boy was a dim green slab. Its undoing was battery life: six AAs lasted only a few hours, and the device was big and heavy. Still, with Master System compatibility and a likeable library, it is a beloved piece of handheld history.