The Game Gear is a handheld games console, first released in Japan in 1990, by Sega.

The Game Gear was Sega‘s first handheld console and – since it was rushed to market to compete with the Nintendo Game Boy – it shares much of its hardware with the Sega Master System (Sega‘s 8-bit gaming console at the time). It can, in fact, play Master System games with a “Master Gear” adapter.

The Game Gear has a full-colour, backlit LCD screen and a Z80 CPU. Sound is mono, via an in-built speaker, and there’s also an audio jack for headphones.

Games came on cartridges, which are inserted into a slot on top of the device.

While the Game Gear did have superior hardware to the Game Boy, its Achilles heel was its battery life. Six AA batteries would last three to five hours, depending on the games being played. Which isn’t much – especially compared to the Game Boy, which could run for up to 30 hours on four AA batteries.

Sega discontinued the Game Gear in 1997, although Majesco continued to sell a licensed version of the console until 2002. The Game Gear sold an estimated 14 million units over its lifetime.

This week we’re going to be posting only Game Gear games on the site, in celebration of this classic handheld, and afterwards we’ll post a full list of links to the individual games, here.

Enjoy,

The King of Grabs

More: Game Gear on Wikipedia