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Description
The Game Gear was basically a portable Master System with a lower resolution screen, but allowed for a larger color palette,
and therefore potentially better-looking graphics. In addition, it
could also produce stereo sound (through headphones) as opposed to the
Master System's monaural output, although very few games made use of
the stereo capabilities. Unlike the original Game Boy, the system was
held in a "landscape" position, with the controls at the sides, making it less cramped to hold. One of the more famous and unusual peripherals for the Game Gear was the "TV Tuner Adapter", a device that plugged into the system's cartridge slot, and allowed one to watch TV
on the Game Gear's screen. Other add-ons included a magnifying glass to
compensate for the relatively small size of the Game Gear's screen, and
a rechargeable battery pack.
Sega had taken a similar approach when developing the Sega Mega Drive,
basing it on Sega's 16-bit arcade hardware. This enabled direct
conversion of popular games. Likewise, because of the similarities
between the Master System and the Game Gear, it was possible for Master
System games to be written directly onto ROMs in Game Gear cartridges.
Similarly, an adapter called the "Master Gear" allowed Master System
cartridges to be plugged in and played on the Game Gear. The reverse
(playing a Game Gear game on a Master System console) was impossible
due to the Game Gear's aforementioned larger color palette.
Specifications
- Main processor: Zilog Z80 (8-bit)
- Processor speed: 3.58 MHz (same as NTSC dot clock)
- Resolution: 160 x 144 pixels
- Colors available: 4,096
- Colors on screen: 32
- Maximum sprites: 64
- Sprite size: 8x8 or 8x16
- Screen size: 3.2 inches (81 mm)
- Audio: 3 square wave generators, 1 noise generator, the system has a mono speaker, but stereo sound can be had via headphone input.
- RAM: 24 KB
- Batteries: 6 AA
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