Legacy of the Sega Game Gear

Released in 1990 in Japan and 1991 in the United States and Europe, the Sega Game Gear was Sega’s answer to the Nintendo Gameboy and the most successful handheld not made by Nintendo.

The Game Gear was capable of displaying up to 32 colors with 8-bit color graphics. Since both the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear ran off the same processor, Sega released the “Master Gear Converter”, which allowed Sega Master System games to be played on the Sega Game Gear. This led to sequels of Master system games such as: Fantasy Zone, Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap and Axe Battler: Legend of Golden Axe.

Aside from the “Master Gear Converter,” Sega also released the Game Gear TV Tuner that allowed users to watch TV on their Game Gear system.

At the end of its life span, the Game Gear had close to 250 games in addition to Sega Master System games. The Sega Game Gear was home to many popular Sega series like: Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and some exclusives such as: Sonic Chaos, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Labyrinth and Sonic Triple Trouble.