Throwback Thursday: Sega Game Gear

By on Jun 24, 2010 at 4:41 PM
Gaming June 24, 2010

game-gear

In the previous installment of Throwback Thursday, we flipped the calendar all the way back to 1977 and took a look at the Atari 2600. This week, we’re easing things up and bit and giving a shout out to the Sega Game Gear, circa 1991. From the get go, the Game Gear had its work cut out for it. Bulkier, slower and more than double the price of Nintendo’s Game Boy ($199 versus $90), the Game Gear never managed to steal Game Boy’s thunder as it was expected to do by Sega’s top brass. But thanks to a 3.2″ 160×144 32bit color display and a string of best sellers like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, and Aladdin, Sega did at least manage to make money off of the system until it pulled the plug… err,  six batteries out of it in 1997.

BGR Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets of yesterday and yesteryear.

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  • Chris

    I still got mine. With a tote case, games. I don’t use it but it works.

    • lberkeley

      Same here… I could never bring myself to part with it.

      • Brandon

        Same here. I keep moving and it keeps coming with me. The trick was to get a wall adapter (and car adapter).

        I remember when I first put batteries in it… and then changed them like 4 hours later. lol

  • ryan dargewich

    heck yes

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Gmac

    Wow the memories lol. I got one when they first came out for Christmas in 1991. This blew my gameboy out of the water. But the best to me was the sega nomad that laid full geneses games. Now that was a classic system. I loved shinobi on my GG.

  • Zargon

    I spent many lonely hours playing with this.

  • Evan

    Ha I so had one of these. Loved it!

  • http://gumballtech.com besweeet

    I still have mine with several games. Haven’t turned it on in YEARS. I’ll be playing it tonight.

  • Ryan

    I loved that thing back in the day! Too bad if you ran it off batteries it died in about 30 min. But it was tons of fun!

  • Mercado

    Damn, I’m getting old…

  • Jerry Fartwell

    I had one as well, It had a baseball game that i was addicted to around 1993

  • http://www.twitter.com/benmarvin Ben Marvin

    Hellz yeah. Always wanted one of these when I was a kid. Now I just have Gensoid on my Android phone.

    PS, would be awesome if you had contests and gave away the retro products in Throwback Thursday. C’mon cheaper than giving away new Droid Incredibles.

  • PHug

    SEGA NOMAD FTW!!!

  • edjr

    atari lynx FTW! I loved it.

    Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).

  • Anticitizen

    Nobody’s mentioned the coolest accessory for the GameGear – the TV tuner that plugged into the cartridge slot and let you watch TV under the covers when you were supposed to be asleep. The coolest gadget of my tweenage years.

    • http://www.facebook.com/frank.roeslerIII Frankus

      yes, the illusive TV turner that I could never get my parents to purchase for me! I would DREAM bout getting that TV tuner and watching TV when I was bored. I played the hell out of that thing, along with most other sega products! I currently still have my Sega Master System, Sega Genisis with x32 attachment and the CD attachment, Sega Game Gear, and Sega Dreamcast! The only thing i’m missing is a Sega Saturn! Anyone got one I can buy :)

  • j fone

    yoooooo oh my gosh! no bgr….. i am scarred still i left mine on the little league field when i was in the third grade….. someone swyped it…. i had the case that held all the games tooo…. this is a soar subject but a jem for these eyes..

  • OC’d Droid

    still have 2 of them on the shelf next to me -in mint condition.

  • jazzyl

    Wow I remember the Gamegear well it brings back a lot of memories… Anyone who still remember the master system?

     Sent via BlackBerry

  • Logicknot

    My sister had one when i was younger. The 6 batteries on it was just rediculus. Sigh if only sega made it to the days of li batteries for gaming devices

  • Mike

    You guys remember the tv tuner for the game gear? Priceless memories of youth before the internet *sigh*

  • Eston Potter

    I was a big critic of the Apple culture until the iPhone caused me to “rethink possible” (oh, sorry that’s from AT&T). Any, ex-MAC Lab assistant at my college years ago, was transformed into an Apple “culture” hater, to later returned to the fold via the iPhone culture.

    My streak of bad luck over the years garantee I will not win – Al Bundy. However, like good old Al, that has never stopped me from getting up and trying.

  • Jon Hayden

    I always loved playing Echo the Dolphin on my game gear. I saved up ALL of my money for like a year to purchase the thing, and my dad promised to buy me a game for it, if I could save up for just the system.

    I ended up with this jet fighter thing, that was really bad. Maybe I didn’t fully know how to play it, but I could never get through the first level.

    Sonic and Echo had me addicted though.

  • msatlas

    I had one and a couple different extended battery packs. There was a rechargeable Sega one about the size of a potato that had a belt clip. One time my dad took me with him to the DMV to renew his driver’s license and here I was this little kid playing Sonic with a giant battery pack clipped to my waistband. Hut that was an old NiMH battery and stopped holding a charge after a year or two. I also got some other battery pack that clipped on to the back of the Game Gear and took another 6 AA batteries. It was clunky as hell but made for much more playing time on road trips.

  • thomas

    wow the memories…..the game boys, sega game gear, atari lynx….the past was ill with the game systems

  • josh

    i went from playing sonic on genesis to gamegear. played it past getting a gameboy color too.lol

  • T-Will

    I still have mine too, I wonder if it’s worth anything on eBay/Craigslist?

    The funny thing about those 6xAA batteries is that they only ran the Game Gear for 2 hours before dying. I remember picking up one of those multi-adapters from Radio Shack to power it in the car.

  • Anonymous

    Wow, just came across all these throwback articles….memories…….NEO-GEO ANY1?????

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