Game Gear
Sega's first handheld gaming console was the Sega Game Gear, which was in response to Nintendo's Game Boy. Although it was beaten to the colour handheld market by the Atari Lynx and the Turbo Express, it soon became the most popular.
In 1989 Sega began development on the Game Gear, under the codename "Project Mercury" which was basically a portable Master System which featured a lower screen resolution but larger colour palette making it much more intense graphically. The Game Gear's layout was different from its competition with the buttons on the right side of the screen and the joystick on the left and it also featured a television tuner adapter, which no other gaming system did.
Although it was possible to play Sega Genesis games on the Game Gear, the colour palette on the Game Gear had made it impossible to play its games on the Master System.
The Sega Game Gear would eventually fall to the back of the pack, since it came with only Sega developed games and it was not able to take a large enough portion of Nintendo's North American market.
Original Authors: Gobel Team (Nick)
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 07/07/2007
