Sega Game Gear Games News Released: October 1990, 19 years ago CPU Speed: Zilog Z80 3,57 MHz Memory: 8 KB RAM / 16 KB VRAM Video: 160x144 / 4096 colors Game Controller: Buttons Price in 1990: $149

"Project Mercury" was Sega's codename for the development of the Sega Game Gear. Sega's policy was to codename its systems after planets, hence the Sega Saturn. The Game Gear, however, was a handheld system that was third in the line of handheld system, following the expensive Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress. The Game Gear saw its earliest release in Japan in 1991 and was released in subsequent years in North America and Australia. It featured a $150 initial price tag and had a solid six year run before Sega dropped support in favor of other adventures. Technically speaking, the Game Gear was designed to be a compact, portable version of the Master System. Understandably, the resolution was lower, but it allowed for an extensive color palette and could produce stereo sound when headphones were used. The Game Gear was released in several variations to appeal to a variety of gaming-genre enthusiasts. One such special edition was the Game Gear sports edition, which was technically exactly the same as the original except that it was blue. It was released in 1993 with World Series Baseball. The Coca-Cola Game Gear came with the Coca-Cola Kid marketing game and was released only in Japan. With only 10,000 units sold, it has become a hot collector's item as well as a functionally good play. Kids Gear was a wildly colored system (still essentially the same) that focused on children's game in its marketing tactics. As a fourth generation game, Sega's Game Gear sold over eleven million units, a pretty fair success.

No posts found.