Game Gear

Wikipedia

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| discontinue 1997
| CPU media [[Cartridge (electronics)|Cartridge
| units sold 11 million"gamepro"/>
| onlineservice
| topgame
| successor Sega Nomad

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The is a handheld game console which was Segas response to Nintendos Game Boy. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress.

Work began on the console in under the codename "Project Mercury", following Segas policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets. The system was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, North America, Europe and Brazil in ,"gamepro"> and Australia in 1992. The launch price was $150."gamepro"/> Sega dropped support for the Game Gear in early .

Features
Design

The Game Gear was a portable version of the Master System with a lower resolution screen, but allowed for a larger color palette. In addition, it could also produce stereo sound (through headphones) as opposed to the Master Systems monaural output, though very few games made use of the stereo capabilities. Unlike the original Game Boy, the system was held in a "landscape" position, with the controls at the sides, making it less cramped to hold.

Because of the similarities between the Master System and the Game Gear, it was fairly easy for Master System games to be ported to Game Gear cartridges. Alternately, the Master Gear Converter was released during the systems lifetime which allowed original Master System games to be played on the Game Gear.

Variations
The blue Game Gear sports edition, identical to the standard Game Gear, except in body color, was released in 1993, with the game World Series Baseball. Another specialty edition was a red Coca-Cola themed Game Gear unit, released to the Japanese market in 1994, which came with a game entitled . Another limited edition released in Japan only was the white Game Gear, with only 10,000 units s read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega+Game+Gear