In order to lengthen this duration and to save money for consumers, Sega also released two types of external rechargeable battery packs for the Game Gear. Powered by 6 AA batteries, the Game Gear has an approximate battery life of 3 to 5 hours. The screen is backlit in order to allow gamers to play in low-lighting situations. Its screen is 3.2 square inches in size and is able to display up to 32 colors at a time from a total palette of 4096 colors, at a display resolution of 160 × 144 pixels. The console contains an 8-bit 3.5 MHz Zilog Z80 chip for a central processing unit, the same as the Master System. Reception of the Game Gear was mixed, with praise for its full-color backlit screen and processing power for its time, criticisms over its large size and short battery life, and questions over the quality of its game library.Ī handheld game console, the Game Gear was designed to be played while being held horizontally.
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It was re-released as a budget system by Majesco Entertainment in 2000, under license from Sega. The Game Gear was succeeded by the Genesis Nomad in 1995 and discontinued in 1997. However, due its short battery life, lack of original games, and weak support from Sega, the Game Gear was unable to surpass the Game Boy, selling 10.62 million units by March 1996. Though the Game Gear was rushed to market, its unique game library and price point gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx and TurboExpress.
Sega positioned the Game Gear, which had a full-color backlit screen with a landscape format, as a technologically superior handheld to the Game Boy. It shares much of its hardware with the Master System, and can play Master System games by the use of an adapter. The Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, the Atari Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress. The Game Gear is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on Octoin Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. 160 × 144 pixel resolution, 4096-color palette, 32 colors on-screen