SEGA GAME GEAR Dreams Can Come True
em Retro

I have never saved up my pocket money for anything. When I was little, relatives would give me money, especially my Gran, but I had no idea what to do with it. I would usually end up spending in on a load of sweets and stuff. But around 1990-91 I suddenly had a purpose. I had been pulled in by the hype, and there was only one thing in the world I wanted to get, that was a Sega Game Gear.

Around the late 80s to early 90s I was pretty hardcore about computer games, well as hardcore as a 14 year old could be anyway. I was getting about 4 different videogame magazines per month and read them all from cover to cover.


SYSTEM ADDICT: THE HORROR
When I was 15 it became an addiction. There was a lot of scare and hype around that time of kids getting addicted to computer games and the damage it would cause (my Aunty once blamed my killing a fly on violent tendencies inflicted upon me by computer games, but then I did disintegrate it with a plasma rifle I'd acquired after defeating the mother-ship guarding Phâlon VII, so maybe she did have a point).

My parents and myself included believed I was a computer game addict. I would play the things at any chance I could get, and would become extremely moody if I was away from them for too long. The industry seemed to effectively quell this computer game addiction problem though by making most of the games these days shit.

I even got placed at a computer games shop in town for a week of work experience from school. The guy who worked there during the week was pretty cool and let me play on the window display Megadrive nearly all the time. I got to help people out about which systems to get and which software to buy and I thought it was the greatest job anyone could ever have.

Just a bit of background and digression there. Anyway, the first of these magazines that got me hooked was Computer & Video Games. I loved this magazine and around 1989-90 news of a new handheld to rival the Game Boy came out. This little beauty was going to be a Master System in your hand.

Having previously owned a Master System and loved it, and at the time siding with Sega in the video game war, I couldn't wait to get my mitts on this gem of a system.


WAITING FOR CHRISTMAS
So I had a year to save up, and towards the end of that year, with the Game Gear's release imminent, my family were, from what I remember, offering me money left right and centre; knowing that I now had a purpose for this cash they seemed so frivolous to distribute.

The Game Gear was going to cost, according to all the magazines, around £99. I had miraculously managed to save that amount by the day of release and my Dad very nicely drove me to town to pick one up from the little computer store I was later going to have my work experience in.

The store was empty of customers and I could see the little silvery boxes perched above the counter. It was a very exciting moment, I had waited a year for this, and we all remember how long a year seems to last when you're young.

So the guy working there got one down for me, and for some reason, although knowing damn well I was going to buy one no matter what, I asked if I could try it out first. I don't know, maybe I thought it was all too good to be true, like it was some cruel prank concocted between Sega and my parents to get me to actually save my money, like I was going to turn the console on and it would just say "What, you really thought this was going to work?" across the screen and blow up in my hands whilst the store guy and my Dad just start laughing maniacally between themselves.

Anyway, it worked like a charm and I bought it, but it seems my £99 wasn't enough, my Dad also had to shell out an additional £30 or so - you see, in my excitement I'd forgotten a couple more things that really were essential to making the whole Game Gear experience worthwhile; namely a game to play, and batteries to power the thing, six of them to be exact.

See this was the Game Gear's greatest downfall against the Game Boy. Now the Game Boy was shit, a lot of people will disagree, but I'm sorry, it was. It was black and white and old technology, well it wouldn't have been so bad if it was black and white or monochromatic, but it wasn't was it? It was more green and grey. And quite the contrary to what I'm like now, I didn't want to live in the past, I wanted the console of the future. I could never understand why people chose a crappy green/grey console over a lovely full colour curvy beast like the Game Gear, and to my mind there was only one good reason and that was the battery life.

Game Boy batteries would last about 20 hours on 2 AA's, the Game Gear however would last for 6 hours on 6 AA's. Something I'd read about but didn't care much for. That is until the night I got it home, happily battling away on Castle Of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, and before I knew it the thing shuts off, followed by a sigh of disappointment. And this was before battery backup, or the technology to save games on cartridges.


PLASTIC ALIEN TECHNOLOGY
So the rest of the night was pretty much spent just admiring the thing. My solution at the time was to buy rechargeables, of course I still had the problem of the batteries running out, but at least this way it was a little less expensive. After a short while the only real answer to achieving limitless play was to invest in a multi-adapter and just sit near a plug socket playing away. Which when I think about it meant that I may aswell have just bought another Master System (I previously sold my original when I got my Amiga). Well, at least I had the option to take this with me on holiday, which was quite often back then, and it made those horrendous caravan holidays a lot more enjoyable.

Well I loved the little console, and to be honest was pretty shocked about how amazing everyone thought the Game Boy Color was when it came out. People seemed to think it was a ground breaking technological advancement in handheld gaming, forgetting that it was old 8-bit technology and that the Game Gear was out roughly 6 years previous to the GBC; the only difference of course being the use of a non-backlit screen, saving on battery power, but making it useless in poor lighting.

I only managed to accrue 6 games during my time spent with the console, mostly because they were pretty expensive and there were never that many great games that came out, especially for someone who had an Amiga and the thrill of handheld gaming had worn off slightly.

I still have the machine though, and it's amazing how much larger it is than I remember it being. For some reason it doesn't work properly anymore. Well it does work, but not with an adapter. No, it now only works with batteries, so I could start using it again, or then again just spend a month's battery money on a Game Boy Advance.

david twomey

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