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| Sega Game Gear |
| The Sega Game Gear was made by SEGA Inc. under the name "Project Mercury". It was the third 3rd handheld system to be released in color, and was SEGA's answer to Nintendo's extremely popular Game Boy. The Game Gear was released in America in 1991 at a price of $150. The price drove away some buyers, but the system managed to garner some decent sales against it's competitors, the Atari Lynx and Nintendo Game Boy. The Game Gear was released bundled with the game Columns, a puzzle game similar to Tetris. SEGA wanted to make sure that the system had a wide variety of games to play to make the system appeal to a broader audience. The prices of game ranged from $24.99 to $29.99. 300 Games were released for the Game Gear in it's lifetime. Even though the Game Gear sold 11 Million Units in it's lifetime, the system was bogged down with bad battery life (6 AA batteries lasting 5-6 Hours total) and a rather unportable figure. The Game Gear was finally discontinued by SEGA after 6 years in 1997. |
| Technical Specifications: Main Processor - Zilog Z80 (8-Bit) Processor Speed - 3.58 MHz Resolution - 160x44 Pixels Colors Avaliable - 4,096 Colors On-Screen: 32 Maximum Sprites - 64 Sprite Size - 8x8 or 16x16 Screen Size - 3.2 inches (81 mm) Audio - 3 square wave generators, 1 noise generator. System has 1 mono speaker but is capable of Stereo sound with headphones. RAM - 8KB Video RAM - 16KB Power - Runs on 6 AA batteries or 9V DC Charger. |
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| But the legacy of the Game Gear wouldn't fully die out in 1997. In 2000, Majesco re-released the Game Gear Core System in blue with 6 games built into the system.. Then in 2006, the Game Gear was remade into a smaller version by Coleco, and had 20 Game Gear and Sega Master System games built-in. |
| Colors - Black (Standard) Blue (Sports/Majesco Versions) Red (Coca-Cola Version Japan Only) White (Limited Editon 10,000 Units) |
| Recommended Games - Sonic the Hedgehog Tails' Adventure Columns Bust-a-Move Sonic Chaos Deep Duck Trouble Streets of Rage 2 Sonic Triple Trouble Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Surf Ninjas |
| Discontinued - Late 1996/Early 1997 |
| Add-ons - Game Gear TV Tuner MasterGear Converter Gear-to-Gear cable PowerBack Super-Wide Gear |
| Media - Cartridge |
| Units Sold - 11 Million (Approximately) |
| Launch Price - $150 US Dollars |
| Launch Dates: Japan - October 6th, 1990 America/Europe - 1991 |
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