Ultimate Game Gear Facts

This Site has the Ultimate Facts that you wanted to know about the Game Gear.

Sega was one of the first companies to bring you a color portable gaming system. With 8-bit full color graphics Game Gear packs all the action of Sega's Genesis games into a small portable system. Game Gear runs on batteries when you are on the road, so you can play anywhere. When you get home, conserve battery power by plugging in the optional AC adapter.

Game Gear Specs

Bits (CPU)........8

Bits (Gx).........8

CPU..............Z80

MHz (CPU)........3.6

ScreenSize......3.2"

Graphics...160 x 144

Colors.......32/4096

Sprites...........64

Sprite size....8 x 8

Audio..........4-lyr

RAM..............24K

It has been surgested that some games, can change colors on successive scan lines, and use more colors than the 32 mentioned above.

The Game Gear should be the same all over the world. That means that you can buy software anywhere in the world and it should work with your GG, with out any converters, as you need with SNES, Genesis, Master System and so on.

Rechargeable Battery Pack

The Rechargeable Battery Pack is a portable, rechargeable battery, which weights about 400 gram. It is recharged with a AC adapter or a regular adapter, and it takes about 8 hours. This will in return give you 3 to 4 hours of uninterrupted fun with you GG. It is great for travel and saves you some money on batteries. I have never regred that I bought mine.

Super Wide Gear

The Super Wide Gear is basicly just a big lense, which magnifies the screen on your GG. So instead of a 3.2" screen, you'll have a 5" screen. It is good for some games, but not all. As it is with all video games, the larger the screen - the harder it is to keep track of every thing, that is going on, on the screen. One downside about the Super Wide Gear is that it is very hard on your eyes.

AC adapter

The AC Adapter is the universal adapter for all of the Sega models. Instead of this one you could use a regular adapter (probaly much cheaper), but there are two things which makes this one better. It runs on the correct number of amps. A normal adapter run with amps around 500 or 600, while this run around 1200. A lot of times when you use a regular adapter, the power indicater on the GG will start to blink because, the GG "thinks" it is about to run out of power. You can live with that, but sometimes the screen will go blank, like when you run out of batteries.

The second thing is that the plug fits the GG. Many of the regular adapters doesn't really fit the plug of the GG. So when for instance puts down the GG on a table (or something) to take break, there will be a short periode of time, where the GG doesn't get any power, which will make the GG reset.

I can just say that the AC adapter is one of my better investments for the GG.

Master Converter

The Master Converter is a device which you plug in where you normaly put in the games. This will enable you to plug in games from the Sega Master System and play them on your GG. I have heard that some 2 player games doesn't work propaly on the GG. I would also guess that you lose some detail, on the screen, as the Master System screen size 240 x 226 and it can display 52 colours out of 256 colours. If the game are using is a PAL game, then it will not run at the correct speed.

Game Genie

The Game Genie is a cartridge-like thing, you plug between the GG and the cartridge. When you start the GG, a menu pops up and you can type a code, which will change something in the game. For example, you can have more lives or weapons, start at which levels you want or something else. The codes are available in magazines, on the net or you can program your own codes.

Tv Tuner

The Tv Tuner is another device which you plug in where you normaly put in the game, which makes you able to watch tv on your GG. The Tv Tuner has gone out of production, because got into a fight with the producers of the TV Tuner. To prevent that the company continued to produce the Tv Tuner, Sega changed the GG, so the new models do not support the Tv Tuner. You can see if you GG supports th Tv Tuner by checking the models number. Does the number end with a letter, then does your GG NOT support the TV Tuner. The Tv Tuner is made is different models to support the different Tv systems around the world. As I know it is made in a NTSC, a PAL and a SECAM model. The Tv Tuner should be quite hard on your batteries, but with a Rechargeable Battery Pack you should get three hours of uninterrupted tv. The Tv Tuner has a small arial, but it can also be hocked up to cable.

Car Lighter Adapter

The Car Lighter Adapter is a cord, which you can plug into the cigaret lighter of your car (or somebody others car), so you can play, while driving. I guess that it has some sort of transformer, build in, as a car battery runs on 12 volts and the GG only runs on 9 volts.