Game Gear

The Game Gear is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sega. It was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, in North America and Europe in April 1991, and in Australia in 1992. The Game Gear was the first handheld console by Sega and competed with Game Boy from Nintendo, Lynx from Atari, TurboExpress from NEC in the fourth generation of video game consoles. Sega rushed the 8-bit Game Gear to market to compete with the Game Boy. It shares much of its hardware with the Master System, and can play Master System games with an adapter. Its hardware is superior to Game Boy, with a full-color backlit screen and a Z80 CPU. However, it resulted in a much shorter battery life, running for three to five hours on six AA batteries. Sega based the landscape design on the Sega Genesis controller and sought to repeat the Genesis's success by positioning the Game Gear as a more mature and attractive alternative to the Game Boy. The Game Gear received praise for its hardware, but criticism for its short battery life, large size, and weak support from Sega. Its game library—which includes many ports of Master System games—and price point gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx and TurboExpress, but it was unable to effectively compete with the Game Boy. Sega canceled plans for a 16-bit successor and reduced Game Gear support to prioritize its home consoles. It sold approximately 14 million units. Majesco rereleased the Game Gear as a budget system between 2000 and 2002, under license from Sega.