Sega Game Gear Appreciation Thread: Separating The Men From The Boys

Any recommendations on capacitor kits? I see a number of options out there…

https://console5.com/store/

Both Socksfelloff and I got ours from these guys. Prepackaged, good quality, and not expensive.

Perfect, thanks - that was going to be my pick if no one had any preferences.

Small update: my super cheap broken Game Gear arrived today and it has the tell-tale cap issues for sound/video. Unfortunately, batteries don’t appear to be working and the only way to power the unit is through the AC adapter. Any chance this is also related to bad capacitors, or should I plan to dig deeper to get that fixed?

Well, cap replacement kits come with replacements for every capicitor in the Game Gear. I’d definitely replace each one instead of testing and only replacing the bad ones (guaranteed a good 75% are in rough shape).

Once all caps are replaced, you can see if batteries are working again. If not, it’s another issue all together.

@Socksfelloff
CONGRATS on your mcwillized GameGear! I would never forget how satisfying it was to see that screen lit up the first time. Totally epic experience.

Subsequently I bought this cheap desoldering iron with electronic suction, makes decapping so much easier for my other GG. (:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmR0eQ4nJ8c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izdohNax-5M

I grabbed a bootleg to play on the GG, just for the kicks of it. But hey this bootleg is fun, I like the AstroFlash (port from Sega MarkIII) very much. Not too bad for the 11usd spent on the EBay

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Looks great! Super tempted to get a cheap desoldering iron too, even though I know you get what you pay for… there’s just so few jobs I’d need it for.

I want to dip my toe in the Game Gear library and was thinking of grabbing a couple off the 3DS VC. Any recommendations based on that limited library? Tails Adventure is on lock but would like a couple of others.

Shinobi and Shining Force. Games like Sonic and Vampire: Master of Darkness are also good but, if you can, I would play the Master System versions instead which are mostly the same but without the cropped screens.

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Created some custom Game Gear cases to go along with my custom GB and GBA cases. These have really helped to keep my loose carts more organized.

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These look really slick!

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Had been reaching out locally for a cheap Game Gear for a while and finally someone who had one stored away in his loft got back to me.

Allowed me to hold onto it for a week to decide if I wanted as it was not working anymore:

There was no sound, but you could just about manage to make out the screen if you tilted it back and forth and multiple turning it on and off:

Managed to come to an agreement on a price of £10 for it.
So quite happy with that.

So far managed to get sound back, but those white lines on the screen are dead pixels so think a replacement screen is in order sadly :cry:

Still need to finish the recap first and a general clean up. Possibly try to buff out the scratches from the plastic screen lens, but expect will be buying a replacement glass one.

This will end up have a repair log but not something I am placing a priority on right now.

A Mcwill screen will likely end up in this, but that is far from ideal sadly.

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Even without the lines and dead pixels the screen would need replacing! The ghosting on this thing- I have no idea how I used to play on it back when I was a kid.

I recapped mine to bring back the sound, seems it’s a common issue. £10 is a good price I think.

Bought all three Nazo Puyo games and The G.G. Shinobi off the Japanese eShop for 3DS. I don’t know what to expect from any of these which makes it all the more exciting!

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Was surprised to find the third Nazo Puyo game (Nazo Puyo: Aruru no Ru) has an RPG-like presentation with significantly upgraded and more detailed visuals compared with its two predecessors.

M2’s optional per-sprite motion blur is great in their 3DS Virtual Console implementation. Here’s some shaky footage recorded earlier today:

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GG Shinobi is great! It can seem to be difficult at first, but only until you figure out the order of the stages. If you can’t progress or if you seem to miss out on lots of exploration / items, you may lack the correct ninja. And of course, replaying the stages to figure it out makes you git gud.

The last stage is essentially a labyrinth, which you can map. Several paths can be used to get to the last boss.

This really shows the importance of reading the manual - didn’t realise you could switch ninjas!

I am enjoying it so far, though, you can tell they designed it from the ground up for the Game Gear. Like the best handheld sidescrollers from its era it’s deliberately slower paced with fewer enemy encounters that are more thrilling and dangerous.

Thanks for the tips, with some experimentation across many short playthroughs over the last few weeks I did finally make it to the last stage with all the health extensions! Mastering the valley level made the rest seem easy by comparison!

But…

This last stage is making me want to tear my hair out, I must have taken the wrong route because I’m redoing the entrance section. The amount of precision and trial and error you need from new character Green just makes it unfairly difficult - if I had time to understand Green’s jumping mechanics and shuriken arc it might be okay, but one of the rooms (with the spike pits and spear enemies) just wipes out lives so fast…

Since upgrading my game gear with the mcwill screen and an everdrive x7, I’ve been spending more time with it and really loving it.

A little niggling imperfection though, was the little pieces of plastic missing near my dpad.

While this didn’t seem to change the feel of it, I decided to purchase a new shell for it, as they’re fairly inexpensive.

I was originally going to go with purple, but discovered that the aftermarket buttons seem to require their own aftermarket silicone pads, because the stock NA pads have a ball bearing in them for the pivot. Stock one is on the right.

So, I chose to go with a more subdued look so I could stick with the stock buttons, and went with a dark clear smoke color.








I’m really happy with it! It feels more sturdy and substantial than the stock shell, and the brand new textured plastic feels great in comparison to the worn feel of my original. I’m a little disappointed at how dark it is, as you can barely see through it at all unless it’s under bright light. But, it’s fantastic nonetheless.

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