Game Gear collecting

[hashiriya1]

Sweet. I am a casual GG collector. I have about 25 games, all JPN. It is cheap, but some of the rarer games can get up there in price. Aleste II is a great game for the GG! I have it as well.

[dunpeal2064]

Aleste II was a pretty cool little shooter. Anyone that likes Musha or Robo Aleste should give it a spin.

If only it were more difficult.

[Krejlooc]

Oh speaking of Aleste, turns out they both got western releases as Power Strike games (just like the SMS versions). However, Power Strike I and Power Strike II on the GG are completely different games from Power Strike I and Power Strike II on the SMS. So there are actually 4 aleste games on the Sega 8-bit.

I'm a bit of an Aleste whore, actually. I have all the Power Strike games (and now the JPN GG Aleste 2), and I also have Aleste and Aleste 2 on the MSX, along with the Zanac/Gunhed games, and Musha and robo aleste. I adore that series!

If anybody really likes the aleste games, you should try Bomber Raid on the SMS by activision. It plays like an Aleste knock-off.

[Nemoide]

I'm considering Panzer Dragoon Mini right now. It appears to be the priciest game gear game released. I've also picked up boxed copies of all the US Sonic games (and I still had Tails Adventure from when it was new).

Is there anything major or obvious missing thus far? Again, GG exclusives only, so no stuff like Battletoads or Earthworm Jim, as I have those games for my SMS already.

Where would you find PD Mini? I regret never buying that when it was regularly on eBay. Since I own every other PD game, I kind of want it. But then when I'm face with the prospect of spending $80+... my motivation tends to wane.

I'm kind of fond of the Game Gear. It was my first game-playing device. But I don't really like playing it as much as I do games on other systems, so I don't actively seek much out for it.

[Krejlooc]

I'm considering Panzer Dragoon Mini right now. It appears to be the priciest game gear game released. I've also picked up boxed copies of all the US Sonic games (and I still had Tails Adventure from when it was new).

Is there anything major or obvious missing thus far? Again, GG exclusives only, so no stuff like Battletoads or Earthworm Jim, as I have those games for my SMS already.

Where would you find PD Mini? I regret never buying that when it was regularly on eBay. Since I own every other PD game, I kind of want it. But then when I'm face with the prospect of spending $80+... my motivation tends to wane.

I'm kind of fond of the Game Gear. It was my first game-playing device. But I don't really like playing it as much as I do games on other systems, so I don't actively seek much out for it.

Try asking on assembler.

[nightrnr]

The consolized GG doesn't really have much to show right now, just video running out of the game gear via a SCART cable to a TV. It looks like a normal game gear right now. After I have controller ports installed, I plan on building a nicer box to make it look and feel more like a console. I'm installing controller ports in the second game gear, too, so you can play fighting games with 2 controllers on your TV (or play normal 2-player game gear screens using the second screen if you need to).

Impressive.
You've got to take some pics of your completed work to share on here.
Anyways, I do a little tinkering with the system myself, but wimped out as far as the video mods go.

I love collecting for the system though... but I usually don't care about the boxes and manuals for the games (I'm the same way with older Game Boy games). As long as the carts aren't beat to hell, I'm happy.

Been meaning to do something of a Game Gear (and Master System) fan blog, but haven't done anything yet.
... will watch this thread with interest...

[BoneSnapDeez]

Here's an obscure one for ya...

Check out Fray: Shuugyouhen - it's a spin-off from the Xak series and quite a fun game. Japan-only, of course. And quite expensive.

[Krejlooc]

The consolized GG doesn't really have much to show right now, just video running out of the game gear via a SCART cable to a TV. It looks like a normal game gear right now. After I have controller ports installed, I plan on building a nicer box to make it look and feel more like a console. I'm installing controller ports in the second game gear, too, so you can play fighting games with 2 controllers on your TV (or play normal 2-player game gear screens using the second screen if you need to).

Impressive.
You've got to take some pics of your completed work to share on here.
Anyways, I do a little tinkering with the system myself, but wimped out as far as the video mods go.

This is by far the most difficult mod I've ever done. It was much more complex than simply tapping the lines running to the video screen - the video is encoded into a weird format, even though it's normal RGB, so I had to build a circuit with a timer to extract the RGB channels from the video line running to the screen. I'd done only simple stuff like cap replacements prior to this, and it took me several weekends to do and I needed help from a lot of knowledgeable people. I'm pretty great at the software side of things, but my degree is in Comp Sci, not EE. any sort of circuitry stuff is usually over my head and I require step by step instructions and supervision.

Hence why my friend in Estonia is going to handle the controller ports himself. In truth, I could do that myself, because it's all passive wiring, but he's going to do some extra neat stuff to it that's all EE-like, like adding turbo buttons and making the C button into a dedicated 1+2 button. Things like that.

I'm an enormous SMS fan, I consider it my favorite system of all time, and the GG is an extension of the SMS. Collectively, they're known as the Sega 8-bit line, and they pack a powerful punch. There are very few GG exclusives - most GG games went to the SMS in the UK or Brazil, but those GG exclusives really compliment the SMS library.

One neat thing I've found with my mod - the GG screen itself is what resizes the SMS picture, not the GG hardware. That is, if you run SMS software on a GG, the GG draws the entire screen in framebuffer, and the physical screen itself shrinks that down in real time. This means two things - when I output my game gear to a TV in game gear mode, there is a boarder around the screen that is simply unavoidable. It's cropped when it displays on the GG, but you'll see the whole thing on a TV.

Second, and cooler, is that SMS games run full screen on the GG. This turns my consolized GG into one of the best SMS models around, because if I play SMS software, it runs full screen like a normal SMS, except I also have a pause button in my hand on my custom controllers. My friend in Estonia is also going to add a toggle to enable FM sound when in SMS mode on this game gear.

Neat stuff all around. I'm still a few months out from all this stuff being done. I need to devote an entire weekend to physically building the box to house all this stuff, and it'll take a few weeks to get it sent off to my friend overseas and I'd expect it'll take him a few days alone to do the additional work.

But the hardest part is done, thus far - outputting the GG to a TV.

[hashiriya1]

Here's an obscure one for ya...

Check out Fray: Shuugyouhen - it's a spin-off from the Xak series and quite a fun game. Japan-only, of course. And quite expensive.

Someone, I forgot who, is selling that in the BST forum.

[Krejlooc]

Here's an obscure one for ya...

Check out Fray: Shuugyouhen - it's a spin-off from the Xak series and quite a fun game. Japan-only, of course. And quite expensive.

Someone, I forgot who, is selling that in the BST forum.

Does it play like the Xak games? And, more importantly, is it as text-heavy as the Xak games?