After Nintendo released their Game Boy in 1989, Sega started work on their very own portable game system.  The Game Gear was to be "everything the Game Boy wasn't".  It would have a full color backlit screen and be more comfortable in the hands.  The underlying processing power would come from an architecture very similar to that of the Master System.  This would mean extremely easy porting of games from the Master System, which proved to be an attractive feature for third-party software developers.>

The Game Gear was released in Japan in October 1989, in the US the following year and in Europe the year after that.  It was indeed superior to the Game Boy both graphically and ergonomically, however, its 3 hours battery time (compared to the Game Boy's 10-35 hours) was a major weakness.  The portable saw its first version of Sonic in 1991, which was to be the first of 10 Sonic titles on the system.>

Various accessories were released for the Game Gear.  The TV Tuner turned it into a full-color portable TV, the multi-link cable allowed for more than one Game Gear to be connected together and the Master Gear converter allowed Master System games to be played on it.  There was also a rechargeable battery pack, a car adaptor and a magnifying lens screen.>

Over 240 games were released for the Game Gear.  After a successful few years, it saw its end in 1997.>

Technical Specs:>

CPU: 8-bit Z80 (3.58MHz)
RAM: 8KB, 16KB Video RAM
Colors: 4096 (32 on screen)
Sprites: 64
Sprite Size: 8x8 pixels
Resolution: 160x146 pixels
Screen: 3.2" backlit LCD
Sound: 4 channel stereo>