Game Gear
The Game Gear is an 8-bit fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendo’s Game Boy, the Atari Lynx, and NEC’s TurboExpress. It shares much of its hardware with the Master System, and can play Master System games through the use of an adapter.
Although the Game Gear was rushed to market, it still went on sale more than a year after the Game Boy. With a full-color backlit screen, a landscape format and a more powerful Z80 CPU, Sega positioned the handheld device as technologically superior to the Game Boy. Ultimately, its unique game library and price point gave it an edge over the Atari Lynx and TurboExpress, but its short battery life, large size (due to its screen), lack of original games, and weak support from Sega left the Game Gear unable to surpass the Game Boy, selling 10.62 million units by March 1996.
The Game Gear was discontinued in 1997. It was re-released as a budget system by Majesco Entertainment between 2000 and 2002, under license from Sega.
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