629
TIL there was a TV tuner attachment for the Game Gear! (media.piefed.world)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
115 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 96 points 11 months ago (37 children)

The game gear had two major issues:

-It was too far ahead of its time (something SEGA unfortunately did multiple times, cfr Dreamcast's online gaming capabilities)

-Battery life sucked major donkey cock

It was also somewhat pricey, but the former point was paramount.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 37 child comments
    •
  • [–] 55 points 11 months ago (21 children)

    The battery life was hilariously bad, it was almost the defining trait. It was made especially prominent since it was being compared to the OG Game Boy which could go 20 hours on four AA batteries. The GG could only go about five, if you were lucky, on six AA. Mine basically lived plugged into the wall with a long extension code so I could use it from anywhere in my bedroom.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 21 child comments
    •
  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (19 children)

    The GG could only go about five, if you were lucky, on six AA

    Which, while of course requiring exponentially more power, the Switch 2 only goes for about 6 hours on less demanding games, funny how battery life hasn't really changed much for advanced handhelds.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 19 child comments
    •
  • [–] 15 points 11 months ago* (8 children)

    Sure but the switch 2 has a rechargeable battery unlike the game gear which had to be supplied with new batteries every time which cost money.

    I’m not sure if rechargeable AA were common in those days.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Rechargeable batteries were common, but in my experience they tended to not hold up as long as normal batteries and took 6-8 hours to recharge. At that time they also degraded quickly, were expensive, and overall just a massive hassle to try and manage.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    The IBM thinkpad that runs on windows 95 that I have still has a vaguely functional battery. The battery can last a whole 5 minutes still, damned battery was probably more expensive to produce than the entire rest of the laptop.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    Ha, I still have my IBM ThinkPad but it has never had a working battery in its life with me. The hinge on one side is also still cracked and I could never properly close it.

    Was my first laptop in the mid-2000’s running Windows 95. I got a USB 1.0 Ethernet adapter so I could surf the web on the DSL line we had at home before we finally upgraded to a wireless router.

    Good times. On MySpace, ripping music to the 4GB IDE HDD I had into MusicMatch (before I learned about iTunes), checking news for Halo 3, trying to play games…

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    The biggest problem with rechargeable dry cells is that each one supports 1.2 volts, while alkaline are 1.5. Some devices wouldn't even run, most run more poorly and run out of battery even faster.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

    Fwiw, should you need it, there are AA lithium batteries with a usbc slot for charging and they deliver 1.5v. I bought a pack out of curiosity and was very pleasantly surprised.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Make sure to get some that mimic battery power loss at the end. Some models just shut off when they are empty and others slowly reduce the voltage so that battery indicators on devices are able to pick that and display a warning to change batteries soon.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 5 points 11 months ago (7 children)

    This is also why I have never considered the Switch a portable system. It was a hybrid that was never quite a "real" console or a handheld, and thus made compromises on both ends. I personally never used the Switch undocked, I'd have rather they sold a fixed model with no screen or joycons that just plugged in.

    The real reason that Game Gear was so power hungry is that it was just a Sega Master System crammed into a handheld. This is why it felt wildly better and more advanced then the Game Boy. Sega did the same thing years later with the Sega Nomad aka a Genesis crammed into a handheld.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    the real reason it was such a bitch for power is that it had a compact flourescent tube for the backlight.

    when you remove that and replace it with a LED backlight suddenly the battery life explodes.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (3 children)

    I figured the backlight was a big part of it. crazy that people actually modded a game gear

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    You would not believe the amount of mods the GameGear has, my dude.

    and they are expensive as fuck, lol

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 19 points 11 months ago (9 children)

    Game Gear "services" are quite common now - you can get them recapped to solve the infamously troublesome sound dropouts, and most will change the screen to a far more power efficient LCD display as well to let you play at night.

    It still eats batteries, but at a much slower rate.

    I'm just gutted I left mine in the garage in storage where the damp air fucked it for good

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 9 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 11 months ago* (5 children)

    How bad is it? You would be amazed how salvageable they are with the right chemical soak and solder reflow.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 5 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Honestly I never opened it. I have a Master System II and in fairness, the difference in game ports are negligible for the most part, so I never really looked at repairing it.

    Speaking more broadly, I wouldn't mind learning how to solder - my skills have mostly been in software rather than hardware. Things like fucking about with a Raspberry Pi and their expansion boards sounds like a right laugh.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    if the board is completely fucked, people have made reproduction boards to move the components to, too.

    soldering isnt hard, it just takes common sense, a modicum of thought, and a little bit of patience and carefulness.

    If you are on a extreme budget, try to find a used Weller soldering station at a pawn store/garage sale/thrift store/etc and just take some dead electronic device you have and practic desoldering and resoldering the components on it.

    if you have a bit of money to spend, pick up a Hakko FX-888d station and beginners soldering project (You can get radios, various LED projects, and some lead solder etc etc, all for pretty cheap, and by the time you've done one you'll be well on your way to basic soldering skills on most non-micro components.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    That's very kind of you, thank you for the crash course - some great pointers!

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    np, good luck with it, if you try to pick it up.

    Its a great skillset to have, even at a basic beginner level.. Once you get comfortable with a soldering iron, so many dead electronics suddenly can be repaired for cheap instead of replaced... You have no idea how many TVs I've saved just from the dump just with capacitor replacements alone.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 child)

    The best mod would be changing it from batteries to a cell phone style rechargeable battery. At least then I wouldn't care as much of how quick it dies since im not replacing a ton of batteries every day. Even rechargeable ones, you still gotta take them out and put them back, which is annoying as well.

    I miss mine as well. I remember as a kid our grandmother got me and a few cousins it for Xmas one year. I also remember breaking it the following year during a parent kid picnic at school where it got crushed. I still remember it, which says a lot because I have very few memories from way back then!

    Edit: of course they made this mod! If I ever find one for cheap I would love to do this just as a hobby.

    https://handheldlegend.com/products/cleanjuice-game-gear-rechargeable-battery-module

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 6 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Being too ahead of its time was kind of Sega's thing when it came to hardware. They beat Nintendo to market with 16-bit graphics by like 2 years, Sony to 3D GPU and CD-ROM by a year, the Game Gear absolutely blew every other portable out of the water for as long as it was on the market...

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    yeah the battery life was horrible. it would eat 6 AA batteries like they were candy. I only ever used mine when it was either plugged into the wall or plugged in the cars cigarette lighter which my dad hated cause he smoked.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago

    Hear hear. The Game Gear was basically a portable Sega Master System only better. Can you imagine Nintendo putting out a whole-ass portable NES? They didn’t have the balls.

    To this day, one of my favorite gifts I ever received, way back in Christmas of checks notes 360 B.C.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 11 months ago

    So many batteries. Car trips more than an hour (when we really wanted games) took a while pack of batteries. And the little brothers really got screwed because they would be stuck with the second turn, and about to die batteries.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent