SEGA Game Gear

[pbj]

So here's another console I needed as much as I needed another finishing nail in my brain.

It showed up on my radar because it was part of a lot that included a CIB copy of Space Harrier 3D.  I am slowly trying to accumulate all the 3D games CIB, and Space Harrier is one of the more expensive ones.  "Surely this won't go for the opening bid" I confidently thought at 3am when I was doing my usual make bad decisions on eBay routine.

Well, turns out there's no interest in a dead Game Gear these days, so here we go.



At this point I've already cracked it open and scrubbed a bunch of battery acid debris out of it.  That improved it from turning on and shutting off almost abruptly to staying on even if I mess with the brightness knob. It's still not booting anything but there's some hope.

And as much as it pains me to say it, apparently the solution is our friend:



I didn't own a Game Gear as a kid but there's actually some interesting stuff on it.  I briefly owned one in college... back when eBay first started and I went through one of those "let's get all the 90s consoles I missed!" phases.  I still maintain the Atari Jaguar is the biggest piece of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- I have ever owned.  Anyway, I had a roommate that would ---fudgesicle--- anything, and when he wasn't getting his dick wet, he was jerking off promptly 10 minutes after the lights went out.  It was like clockwork.  I used to grip that poor Game Gear and pray for death as my upper bunk swayed back and forth.  He's got his own set of stories about me, maybe he's sharing them on a dead forum somewhere.

Anyway, that Game Gear made it through a couple of BYOAC hands over the years apparently and has been lost to the sands of time. 

The cap kit is in the mail.  Stay tuned.

 

[bobbyb13]

This looks like a fun resurrection in the making.
Wish I knew enough about this ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- to dare try something like that.
I'm still barely getting past replace something that is obviously charred and hope for the best.

Sounds like you should have requested the top bunk!

[pbj]

When I approached this, my goal was to find and replace the one or two actual bad caps and then lord it over everyone that cap kits were unnecessary shotgun repairs.  Yeah... no.  Every single capacitor was crumbling to dust on this thing.  EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.

The kit came with some creatively sized replacements that were a lot of fun to figure out how to mount:



But I got them all replaced on the motherboard and was greeted with this disco dance strobe light.



Recapping the power supply cleared that up (even though the voltages measured correct).  Then I had no audio.  Recapping that fixed the audio.  The start button trace was corroded away by battery damage in two places, so a leftover component leg across those cleared that up.

So here's where it sits now:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N5QlAb1MZiM

Fully working but my god that screen.  Apparently sometimes this is as good as you can get them.  At this time of year, it's time to put this back together and tuck it away until the holidays stop raping my wallet.  But it was a foolish waste of money to get a worthless completely dead system 'playable' again!

 

[Mike A]

Nice work.

Love it.

[danny_galaga]

I like how the CAP KIT pic is of resistors 😄

I'm very jealous of your skills fixing this stuff 🧐

[RandyT]

Fully working but my god that screen.  Apparently sometimes this is as good as you can get them.  At this time of year, it's time to put this back together and tuck it away until the holidays stop raping my wallet.  But it was a foolish waste of money to get a worthless completely dead system 'playable' again!

When the GameGear came out, it's competition was the original GameBoy.  Compared to the horrible mono-green screen of that, the GameGear was amazing.  I have many fond memories of playing Sonic on it.  It's amazing how nostalgia and the lack of other options can make something seem so much better than it was.  Even when brand new, the display was dim and had terrible viewing angles.  FWIW, the Nomad isn't much better...display technology just wasn't far along at that point.

The only reason to restore one would be for hardware archival/collection reasons.  Those early handhelds are so well-emulated, you'll never have a better experience than running your games on almost any cheap handheld device with a modern display.  Even the ones with the worst displays today, will offer a better experience and battery-life than the original hardware. 

The pics are interesting.  After seeing them, I'm scared to even look in mine now.

[pbj]

Did you come into one of my "buy some dumb console, fix it, make a bunch of repro cartridges for no reason" threads and seriously ask, "have you considered a pi?"

 

 

[danny_galaga]

Did you come into one of my "buy some dumb console, fix it, make a bunch of repro cartridges for no reason" threads and seriously ask, "have you considered a pi?"

 

 

😄

[shitoken]

I have one lying here. At first screen was working but very dim cannot see the game clearly. I replaced power board caps. Now it won't turn on at all. Not sure what went wrongs. Caps was exactly the same but new. Very frustrating and put it on the side.

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[pbj]

Voltages good on your power board?  You can test that without plugging in the motherboard.  You also have to clean the pads under the old capacitors.  I had to go back and rework a few of them.

[shitoken]

I am not sure how to check voltage . I have a multimeter.


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