Game Gear -to- Genesis Adapter

[Wildfire McCloud]

I was curious about this, and a quick search came up with nothing relating to this. From what I gather, the Game Gear is basically a Master System, but with support for a larger color palette. The Genesis also contains a Master System and is compatible with Master System games with the use of a Power Base Converter. So, my question is, how difficult would it be to make a Game Gear to Genesis adapter? The SNES had the Super GameBoy, so why not the Genesis with a "Mega Game Gear" or something? Or would the expanded color palette throw a wrench into the whole Master System compatibility and make it harder to build such a thing?

I'd figure it would be a welcome device among Genesis or Mega Drive fans, since the Game Gear has a notoriously bad screen, and with that kind of setup, you could play Game Gear games on a nice big TV screen. (Btw, I'm aware of the ease of emulation, I would still prefer real hardware. And I'm not asking anyone to do it, I'm just wondering how possible that would have been)

[Christuserloeser]

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5673 - Game Gear on Genesis ?
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7761 - Building The Mega Game Gear

To sum it up: Isn't possible as the Game Gear uses a different VDP than the Mega Drive / Genesis - although both indeed happen to have a Master System compatibility mode.

It would require some kind of setup similar to the 32X, with a dedicated adapter with the GG hardware inside the adapter and which then also would house the AV and power connector plus cartridge slot. - It would be MUCH easier to 'simply' add controller ports and AV out to a regular Game Gear, effectively turning it into a console, rather than trying to somehow utilize the MD/G.

[Guntz]

Yeah, I forgot to post a topic like this. I want to know what the tech heads here know if a Genesis Gear adapter is possible.

[Wildfire McCloud]

Ah, I suppose I should have searched a little harder then. Thanks though, those threads definitely make it clear why it wouldn't work without basically putting an entire Game Gear into a cartridge setup like the 32X. Though I do have to say I'm a bit surprised that the Game Gear seems to have a larger palette than even the Genesis, their home console. I think SEGA might've gone a little overboard with their need for "BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL COLOR." :)

[Flygon]

Eh, I don't think they went overboard.

If the SNES can do the palette, why can't a handheld console? :p

[tomaitheous]

Eh, I don't think they went overboard.

If the SNES can do the palette, why can't a handheld console? :p

The LCD itself probably couldn't display more than 4096 colors. Why waste the money?

[Golpezas]

I found this utility a long time ago at Zophar :o. Unfortunatly I lost the URL.

[Christuserloeser]

This utility adds a MD header to GG files. I don't think you'd get any games to work with that on anything. I even tried it with my MegaCart after some idiot called atreyu187 claimed it worked for him with Ys for Master System.

[Aarzak]

I also find it amusing that the GG has a higher color palette than the Genesis, and almost as much on-screen colors. WTF mate, what were they thinking???

Now that I think about it, were there even any GG games which showcased that higher color palette?

[Flygon]

The thing with the Game Gear (Along with the Game Boy Color, which almost does the Mega Drive in terms of 'Colours on screen') is that they still can't quite display so many sprites on screen (And in the Game Boy Colors case, is stuck to 3 colours (Not inc. transperancy) per sprite).

That, and you know, having only one background layer is a pain in the ass.

[Christuserloeser]

I didn't quite get what you were referring to in terms of GBC and Genesis (aren't there like only four colors on GBC?), but I think what happened with Game Gear was that they definitely wanted to do a portable SMS.
They must have really loved the hardware. Sega, Compile and Taito stubbornly worked on Master System exclusives well into the mid '90s, when they already had discontinued support for the hardware in Japan for years.
But for some reason someone probably didn't feel comfortable with just releasing said portable SMS (which really would have been the better idea in hindsight) so they looked for an easy way to improve on it. Reducing the resolution from 256x192 to 160x144 probably was necessary to keep battery life reasonable, but adding colors and stereo sound probably wasn't much of a big deal with the given structure of the VDP.
So, both the MD and the GG are based on the SMS hardware (which in turn was based on the SG-1000), but they evolved into different directions.

[kool kitty89]

I also find it amusing that the GG has a higher color palette than the Genesis, and almost as much on-screen colors. WTF mate, what were they thinking???

Now that I think about it, were there even any GG games which showcased that higher color palette?
A lot of GG games took advantage of the larger palette, only a handfull used the SMS compatibility mode.

However, you're wrong about almost as many colors onscreen, it's not even 32 colors vs 64 colors: SMS has 2x 16-color palettes, but only 1 can be used for sprites with the BG able to use either per tile. The Genesis has 4 subpalettes any of which can be used for any tile or sprite. The GG is just a portable SMS with small viewing window (160x144 opposed to 256x192-224).
Do note the MD was released several years earlier than the GG though. (but it probably should have used a 12-bit palette, would have been a better feature to have than the shadow/hilight feature) Probably a cost issue, but a 12-bit palette should have been practical. (this has been discussed before though -along with number of subpalettes -could have been 8 rather than 4 etc)


I didn't quite get what you were referring to in terms of GBC and Genesis (aren't there like only four colors on GBC?), but I think what happened with Game Gear was that they definitely wanted to do a portable SMS.
Umm, the GBC does have a 15-bit palette like the SNES, but I beleive it's lmited to 2-bit (4-color) tiles like the GB and NES. (or like mode 0 in the SNES, except I'm not sure how many subpalettes the GBC uses, and mode 0 still uses 16-color sprites on the SNES)
But it's the master palette that was being discussed.



They must have really loved the hardware. Sega, Compile and Taito stubbornly worked on Master System exclusives well into the mid '90s, when they already had discontinued support for the hardware in Japan for years.
But for some reason someone probably didn't feel comfortable with just releasing said portable SMS (which really would have been the better idea in hindsight) so they looked for an easy way to improve on it. Reducing the resolution from 256x192 to 160x144 probably was necessary to keep battery life reasonable, but adding colors and stereo sound probably wasn't much of a big deal with the given structure of the VDP.
So, both the MD and the GG are based on the SMS hardware (which in turn was based on the SG-1000), but they evolved into different directions.
Umm, a protable SMS would have been no better an idea than the Nomad. You can't depend on hardware sales on money, and the carts are impractical for portable gaming as well. And expecting it to improve SMS popularity in the US/JP would have been misguided. (opposed to EU/UK/Brazil, where they just wouldn't sell more games than otherwise, so very little insentive)

I'd say, if anything, a more original system, more optimized for cost/size/power consumption and strayed more from the SMS architecture. (a lot probably could have been solved by dropping the backlight though)

I'm sure the resolution had little to do with power consumption, and much more to do with cost of the screen. (though somehow they managed to get normal SMS games to work -albeit flickery, so I'm not sure) The power consumption comes mainly from the backlighting, again, I think it may have been better to drop the backlight for a simple reflective color LCD screen like the GBC/GBA/NGPC. (or offer a game gear jr as such, in addition to the backlit deluxe model)