Game Gear is an 8-bit handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear mainly competes with Nintendo Game Boy, Atari Lynx, and TurboExpress from NEC. Handheld shares much of its hardware with the Master System and is able to play its own titles as well as the Master System, most recently made possible by using an adapter. Containing a colorful backlit screen with landscape format, Sega positioned Game Gear as a handheld superior technology for Game Boy.
Although Game Gear rushes to market, the game library and its unique price point give it an edge over Atari Lynx and TurboExpress. However, due to problems with short battery life, lack of original titles, and weak support from Sega, Game Gear could not surpass the Game Boy, sold 10.62 million units in March 1996. Game Gear was replaced by Genesis Nomad in 1995 and discontinued in 1997. It was re-released as a budget system by Majesco Entertainment in 2000, under license by Sega.
Game Gear reception is mixed, with praise for the colorful backlit display and processing power for time, criticism for its large size and short battery life, and questions about the quality of its game library.
Video Game Gear
History
Developed under the name "Project Mercury", Game Gear was first released in Japan on October 6, 1990, in North America and Europe in 1991, and in Australia in 1992. Originally retailed at JP Ã, 19,800 in Japan, US $ 149.99 in North America, and GBÃ, £ 99.99 in Europe, Game Gear was developed to compete with Game Boy, which Nintendo had released in 1989. The console has been designed as a portable version of the Master System, and features a more powerful system than The Game Boy, including a colorful screen, is different from its rival monochromatic screen. To improve the design of their competition, Sega exemplifies Game Games in a form similar to Genesis controllers, with the idea that longer curved and longer surfaces will make Game Games more comfortable to hold than Gim Boy. Apart from the similarities played by Game Gear with the Master System, the latter games are not directly played in Game Gear, and can only be played on handhelds by using an accessory called Master Gear Converter. The original title of Pack-in Game Gear is Columns , which is similar to the Tetris cartridge that Nintendo has entered when launching the Game Boy.
With a belated start to the handheld game market, Sega rushed to get Game Gear to the store quickly, having lagged behind Nintendo in handheld sales in the market. As one method to do that, Sega bases the hardware of Game Gear on Master Systems, albeit with a much larger color palette than its predecessor: Game Gear supports 4096 colors, compared to 64 colors supported by Master Systems. Part of the goal of this step is to make Master System games easy to port to Game Gear. Although Game Gear is designed to be technologically superior to the Game Boy, the design comes at the expense of battery life: while the Game Boy can run for more than 30 hours on four AA batteries, Game Gear requires six AA batteries and can only run for three to five hour. With its fast launch in Japan, the handheld device sold 40,000 units in the first two days, 90,000 in a month, and the reorder number for the system was over 600,000. According to Sega of America marketing director Robert Botch, "there is clearly a need for a quality portable system that provides features that other systems fail to deliver, which means easy-to-see, colorful graphics and interesting quality games that appeal to you, all ages. "
Release and marketing
Prior to the launch of Game Gear in 1990, Sega had successfully marketed its 16-bit home console, Genesis, by advertising it as a "more mature" option for gamers. In accordance with this approach, Sega positioned Game Gear as an "adult" option compared to Game Boy. While Sega marketing in Japan does not take this perspective, instead of choosing ads with Japanese women displaying handheld devices, Sega advertising around the world clearly positioned Game Gear as a "cooler" console than Game Boy.
In North America, Game Gear marketing includes side-by-side comparisons of Sega's new handheld with Game Boy, and likens Game Boy players to the fat and uneducated. One Sega ad displays a quote, "If you are color blind and have an IQ of less than 12, then you will not mind the portable you have." Such ads pulled fire from Nintendo, who tried to protest against Sega for insulting the disabled. Sega responded with a statement from Sega of America president Tom Kalinske saying that Nintendo "should spend more time improving their products and marketing than working behind the scenes of coercive activity." In the end, this debate will have little impact on sales for Game Gear.
Europe and Australia are the last regions to receive Game Gear. Due to delays in receiving new handhelds, some importers pay as much as £ 200 to have a new system. After the release of Game Gear in Europe, video game distributor Virgin Mastertronic announced the Game Gear price of Ã, £ 99.99, positioning it as more expensive than the Game Boy, but cheaper than Atari Lynx, which is also a color system. Marketing in the UK includes the use of the slogan, "To be as good as this requires Sega", and also includes advertisements with biker with Game Gear.
Decline
Support for Game Gear by Sega is hurt by its focus on home console systems. In addition to the success of Genesis, Sega also supports two peripherals for its home system, Sega CD and 32X, as well as developing its new 32-bit system, Sega Saturn. Despite selling 10.62 million units in March 1996, Game Gear could never match the success of its main rival, Game Boy, which sold over ten times that amount. The system's late sales are further hurt by the Nintendo release of Game Boy Pocket, a smaller version of Game Boy that can run on two AAA batteries.
The plan for the 16-bit successor to Game Gear was made to bring the Sega handheld game into the fifth generation of video games, but the new handheld system never materialized for Sega, leaving only Genesis Nomad, the portable version of Genesis, to take its place. In addition, Nomad is meant to complement the Game Gear instead of replacing it; in press coverage leading to the release of Nomad, Sega's representative said that the company did not drop support for Game Gear in favor of Nomad, and that "We believe both can co-exist". Although Nomad was released in 1995, Sega did not officially end support for Game Gear until 1996 in Japan, and 1997 worldwide.
Although the system was no longer supported by Sega in 2000, third-party developers Majesco Entertainment released the Game Gear version for US $ 30, with game retailing for US $ 15. New games released, such as the Super Battletank port. This version is also compatible with all previous Game Gear games, but is not compatible with TV Tuner and some Master System converters. More than ten years later, on March 2, 2011, Nintendo announced that their 3DS Virtual Console service on Nintendo eShop will feature games from Game Gear.
Maps Game Gear
Technical specifications
The handheld game console, Game Gear is designed to be played while being held horizontally. This console contains a 3.5-MHz Zilog Z80 8-bit Z80 chip for a central processing unit, similar to Master System. The screen measures 3.2 inches square, and is capable of displaying up to 32 colors at once from a total of 4096 color palettes, at a screen resolution of 160 ÃÆ'â € "144 pixels. The screen is brightly lit so the player can play in low lighting situations. Powered by 6 AA batteries, Game Gear has a battery life of about 3 to 5 hours. To extend this duration and to save money for consumers, Sega has also released two types of external rechargeable battery packs for Game Gear. The system contains 8kB of RAM and an additional 16kB of video RAM. It produces sounds using Texas Instruments SN76489 PSG, which is also used in the Master System; However, unlike the Master System, stereo sound can be supplied through output for headphones. Physically, Game Gear measures 210mm, 113mm height, and 38mm depth.
Some accessories are created for Game Gear for the duration of your life. TV Tuner accessory is connected to the system cartridge slot, and allows one to watch TV on the Game Gear screen. Released at $ 105.88 ($ 186 in 2016), this add-on is expensive but unique to collectors and contributes to the popularity of the system. Another accessory, Super Wide Gear, enlarges the Game Gear screen to compensate for its relatively small size. Also released is a Game Gear Car Adapter that plugs into a car or cigarette lighter to power up the system while on the move, and the Gear-to-Gear Cable that establishes a data connection between two Game Gear systems uses the same multiplayer game and lets users play against each other.
During its lifetime, Game Gear also receives a number of variations. Later releases included several different colors for the console, including a blue "sport" variation released in North America bundled with World Series Baseball '95 or The Lion King . The white version was also released, sold in a bundle with a TV tuner. Other versions include the red Coca-Cola themed units, bundled with Coca-Cola Kid games, and Kids Gear, a special Japanese variant devoted to children.
Game library
Over 300 games are released for Game Gear, though at the time of the console launch, there are only six software titles available. The prices for the game cartridges initially ranged from $ 24.99 to $ 29.99 each. The sleeve is printed black plastic with a rounded front to help remove it. Some titles for the system include Sonic the Hedgehog , The GG Shinobi , Space Harrier , and Ilusi Land starring Mickey Mouse i>, which is considered the best game for the system by GamesRadar. Then the title took advantage of the success of Genesis, a 16-bit Sega game console video game, with games released from franchises originally released on Genesis. Most of the Game Gear libraries consist of the Master System port. Due to the landscape orientation of the Game Gear screen and the similarity in hardware between the handheld console and the Master System, it is easy for developers to install Master System games into Game Gear.
Due to the Nintendo license practice during Game Gear's lifetime, several third-party developers are available to create games for the Sega system. These are factors that contribute to a large number of Master System ports for Game Gear. Likewise, because of this, the Game Gear library contains many games that are not available on other handhelds, pulling away sales from Atari Lynx and NEC TurboExpress and helping to establish Game Gear positions in the market. Although the Game Gear library consists of over 300 titles, however, the Game Boy library contains more than 1000 individual games.
Some Game Gear titles are released in the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console service on Nintendo eShop. Emulators for the Virtual Console release are handled by M2.
Reception
Game Gear surpasses Atari Lynx and NEC TurboExpress, but lags far behind Game Boy in the handheld market. Retrospective acceptance to Game Gear varies. In 2008, GamePro listed Game Gear 10 on the "10 Worst Handheld of All Time" list and criticized the technological aspects of its deployment, but also stated that Game Gear can be considered a success because it has nearly 11 million units sold. According to GamePro's GamePro reviewer Blake Snow, "Unlike the Game Boy, Game Gear shakes the position of landscape detention, making it less narrow for humans with two hands to hold.And though Game Gear can be considered successful, relatively high, constant consumption of AA batteries, and the lack of exciting games finally make Sega from releasing a true replacement. "
GamesRadar offers some praise for the system and its libraries, stating, "With an 8-bit processor and a bright color screen, it's basically a Sega Master System in your hand.How much of our batteries dried up playing Sonic, Madden and Road Rash on the bus or at in the car, or in the dark when we're supposed to be sleeping? You can not do that to the Game Boy! "In contrast, IGN reviewer Levi Buchanan notes that Game Gear's biggest mistake is its game library when compared to Game Boy, stating that" less compared to its main rival, bathed in quality games No matter that Game Gear is stronger Color screens do not reverse luck Content and innovation outweighs the technology, the formula Nintendo is currently using with the ongoing rise of DS and Wii. "Buchanan then goes on to praise some parts of the Game Gear library, however, state "Some System tweaks The main is a very good game, and the fun is tough for time. " Retro Gamer praised Sega's achievement in defending against Nintendo's competition in the handheld gaming market with Game Gear, noting that "for all the handheld devices that have gone up against Nintendo's power and eventually lost, Sega's Game Gear has lasted the longest, only lost in sales by Sony PSP.For his fans, it will remain part of the classic game device whose legacy lives forever. "
See also
- Atari Lynx
- Game Boy
- Genesis Nomad
- VMU
Note
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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