Now, in actuality, a vast majority of Game Gear games also appeared on the SMS overseas, usually with better visuals due to the much larger playfield. Thus, the overall demand for a consolized game gear isn't quite as high as you'd might expect, because you can simply grab the SMS versions of these games. However, there do exist a number of great game gear exclusives, like Fantasy Zone Gear, Gunstar Heroes, Ristar, Panzer Dragoon Mini, and probably the best exclusive on the system - Tails Adventure. It's for titles like the above that I've finally got off my ass and started to build a real deal consolized Game Gear.
By now, I assume most are familiar with this:
That fantastic project is the ultimate gold standard of any consolized game gear mod. I, unfortunately, don't have the tools nor skill to build anything close to that. At the same time, I want something that feels a good deal more like a real console experience than simply a game gear with a TV port running out. Hence, I've spent my lunchbreak designing CAD scaled drawings of my work in progress:
I call it the Game Gear Station. the top half is a tight shelf that a game gear modded with RGB out and a controller-out slides into and locks. When playing, you can actually slide that game gear out and use it as a controller for player 1. it remains tethered to the console with a thick cable running from the base of the game gear to the docking area of the base. On the front I plan to have 2 controller ports. One runs directly to the tethered game gear, the other passively connects to a controller extension port on the back where you can connect a companion game gear also equiped with a controller mod. This lets you either use the second game gear as player 2 if you need 2 screens, or to play on the TV with 2 controllers if the video is mirrored between the game gears, like with fighting games.
The back has ports for SCART RGB-out, an s-video output, stereo A/V, along with a single detachable standard power cable and the above mentioned Player 2 Controller EXT port. The top of the unit is going to be fitted with a small piece of plexiglass to provide a short shelf so that you can set a companion game gear on top when you have it connected to the Controller EXT port. To set up 2 player action, you'd set the second game gear on the shelf, plug the back of the game gear into the Controller EXT port.
Demension-wise, it'll be about as tall as 3.5 game gears stacked on top of each other, just a hair wider than a stock game gear, and about as deep as 1.5 game gears. Hopefully it won't take me weeks to actually begin building this. I need to gather some parts to begin my wood work and set aside a weekend or two actually build the box, and I need to add in the controller mod for my own game gear.
That, of course, is just the physical box for the system. Building the hardware to do what I want to do is the more fun part, and I'm already knee-deep into that portion of the project. For the sake of this project, I will be essentially restoring two game gears to working order and outfitting them with RGB mods for different reasons.
The main game gear - the one permanently tethered to the Game Gear Station, is almost complete. With the help of a friend online, I have successfully built the circuitry necessary to output RGB. What I had to do was tap a few lines running to the screen of the game gear, and then use a few timers to extract the RGB information running encoded to the screen and put them out through passive wiring. Late last night, after 3 previous attempts at building said circuit, I finally accomplished this and managed to get RGB running out of my game gear through a scart cable to a monitor. From here, I have ordered a JS Technology RGB to S-Video converter so that I can offer both RGB and S-Video out on my Game Gear Station. This is all an external conversion, which means that my work on video conversion is essentially complete.
The friend who helped walk me through the construction of the RGB circuit (which I certainly couldn't have done on my own) is currently sending me the second game gear I require. Because I was struggling so mightily to build just one circuit, he offered to handle the second for me. This game gear is a fully restored unit with all its caps replaced and its screen replaced by a light-weight LED backlit screen that is being fed an RGB signal provided, again, by said circuit. Because this uses an LED screen instead of an LCD screen, the battery life on this unit dramatically increases, lasting about as long as a stock gameboy now.
My next step, beyond actually building the box, is to build some controllers and controller ports to affix to the Game Gear Station and the LED Companion game gear when it arrives.
Anybody else ever do any consolization efforts? I have a consolized Neo Geo MVS done by a friend, and also a consolized Atomiswave done by the same guy. Anyone care to share their work?
