Majesco Game Gear "Updated"

[HercTNT]

Finally got my hands on a Majesco made game gear. They came out around 2000 and supposedly have better audio and video then sega made game gears. I'm gonna recap cap it and do a led backlight mod.

Edit:  Steve already recapped the gamegear for me and I finally got the parts to back light it. The original inspiration for the mod came from here: http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13132. The method I used was the DS top screen backlight and the gameboy power inverter. The DS needs 15 volts to power the backlight and the gameboy inverter does the job nicely. The article mentions removing the plastic around the gamegear screen to make it brighter and have everything fit. I do not recommend this as its easy to damage the GG screen. Instead i used a small pair of wire snips to remove the bottom plastic edge from the GG screen allowing it to fit without further modification. I have 4 pics to share. As usual, sorry my camera is junk. The first three pics show various states of testing and wiring, the last is the screen when on. Sorry the picture is blurry, but you will notice the backlight is even all the way across with no hot spots.

Sorry folks, will add other two pics to post at end of thread. man i suck at this.

[turbokon]

Never seen one of those. Got pics?

[SignOfZeta]

Why recap something from 2000? Are they that badly made?

[Tatsujin]

Llolyeah, same thoughts .

[HercTNT]

its my understanding that the majesco game gears had superior screens but cheap caps. numerous threads talk about recapping them for max performance. I'm going to recap mine just to be on the safe side. It will still need the led mod anyways to get a better backlit screen and max battery life.

[Lilgrafx]

Why would anyone want a game Gear in 2000? Great Idea Majesco 

[roflmao]

If I could get a Game Gear now with a better screen for a reasonable price, I would.  I love being able to play my SMS games on the go, but my current Game Gear has a horribly washed out screen (probably cap related though, because it's ancient). 

I wonder if Steve's Express screen mod would also work on a Game Gear.  Didn't I just see something about that being done to a Nomad?

[HercTNT]

Lil, it was a very successful idea. there are some high quality gamegear games. The majesco game gear improved the lcd screen and battery life. considering i got the whole thing for $17 i would say it was a great deal.

[Lilgrafx]

Lil, it was a very successful idea. there are some high quality gamegear games. The majesco game gear improved the lcd screen and battery life. considering i got the whole thing for $17 i would say it was a great deal.

That's an awesome deal, but with the Advance and the NGPC on the market did it do well?

[PunkCryborg]

Keep in mind, the game gear and SMS was very popular in europe and south america where majesco held a lot of licensing from sega. So in the US it probably wasn't too profitable, they had other markets though to make up for it.

[SuperDeadite]

I remember getting my Majesco GG in 2000.  I only had a Gameboy as a kid, but then one day in the Kmart ad it listed GameGears for $20 and games for $5 each.  Went out and got one and the 3 games they had.  Good times, all boxed up in the USA at this point though.

[HercTNT]

Pretty much my thoughts on it. It may not have the library of some other systems, but more than worthwhile to play. I"m gonna get a flash cart for it and play some of the japanese translations.

[DragonmasterDan]

I've brought my Majesco Game Gear to system repairer extraordinaire Chop5, it didn't seem to have any cap issues like the Sega units. However, mine only worked off of an AC adapter, not battery power. Chop was able to fix that. It definitely has a better screen than the Sega made units, with less blur in fast motion and a slight improvement with sharpness.

[HercTNT]

thats what i'm hoping for. i already modded up a few game gears but could not get over the blurry screen.

[Duo_R]

Yes, but little different process. RGB signals need to be converted to video. Here is some pics:

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=70261

If I could get a Game Gear now with a better screen for a reasonable price, I would.  I love being able to play my SMS games on the go, but my current Game Gear has a horribly washed out screen (probably cap related though, because it's ancient). 

I wonder if Steve's Express screen mod would also work on a Game Gear.  Didn't I just see something about that being done to a Nomad?

[KnightWarrior]

This TV Tuner and the Master Gear won't work

[meka]

The Majesco Game Gear does not have the bad cap problem of the Original Game Gear, around the late 80s and part of the 90s there was a bad cap epidemic within the elctronic industry.

[esteban]

I had no idea that the Game Gear was re-released by Majesco in 2000. Insanity.

I'd love to have one.

[xcrement5x]

The best way I've found to spot a Majesco GG instead of an older model is that the start button is more of a purple than the blue that was used in original releases.

I've got a ton of older versions, but the Majesco revisions are hard to come by.

[guyjin]

I remember seeing gamegears being sold in TRU after 2000 - but assumed that they were leftovers from back in the day.

I'm sure they were very successfull, since the Gameboy had just caught up to it technology wise

[HercTNT]

i recieved my game gear today. it needs some work. after i do said work, i will post picks. i already ordered the caps. hopefully i dont screw it up and send it to steve to make it right.

[KnightWarrior]

I still love the Game Gear, Not made by Majesco

[Duo_R]

Picked up a standard Game Gear, got it in  a lot with other items i was interested. What is unique / worth picking up for this system? Is the stock screen pretty bad i assume? Haven't seen one of these in ages.

[Frank_fjs]

Stock screen is pretty bad, even with a recap. I don't play many GG games on mine, I tend to play Master System carts via the converter.

[HercTNT]

finally got my caps and led's for the mod. gonna work on it this week. when i finish it i will post pictures.

[VenomMacbeth]

Picked up a standard Game Gear, got it in  a lot with other items i was interested. What is unique / worth picking up for this system?

Fantasy Zone Gear
The GG Shinobi
Ninja Gaiden (not quite up to par with the other NG games, but still cool)

If you're into Sonic games, Sonic Chaos is really fun (as are Sonic 1 and 2, but not as much so.)  GG Aleste & GG Aleste II are also top shooters, but are quite pricey. 

Stock screen is pretty bad, even with a recap. I don't play many GG games on mine, I tend to play Master System carts via the converter.

How well does yours work?  Every time I would use it, my screen would flicker pretty badly, making the game almost unplayable.

[Frank_fjs]

How well does yours work?  Every time I would use it, my screen would flicker pretty badly, making the game almost unplayable.

Mine works fine, have never experienced any issues.

[motdelbourt]

I had a Majesco Game Gear. I thought it was a great buy, and the technology was by no means far behind the times in 2000, at least not in graphics, gameplay, or visuals. You had the Game Boy Color, which was on par with the Game Gear but not backlit, and a few other similar systems with the same problem. Even the first model GBA did not have that lit screen.

I picked up a bunch of Sonic and SNK fighting games for my Game Gear and loved it. Majesco rereleased "some" good games such as the Sonic games, and there were a few others like the Lion King. But second hand older releases were readily available.

Majesco also rereleased a few Genesis, and maybe some Super NES games IIRC. I have a sealed SFII CE that I purchased for $1 around 2002 or so. I "think" they made it. Now that was obsolete at the time.

[PikachuWarrior]

Tail's Adventure is a neat action/rpg type of game. Uses passwords to continue where you left off. Defenders of Oasis is a standard traditional rpg that uses battery saves (my cart still saves great).

I want to do the capacitor fix on mine. Last time I tried, the solder pads on the motherboard got ripped off, which I don't think is able to be fixed, so I bought another one off of ebay for a little under $30 shipped. That one has really loud sound, but the screen has bleeding colors vertically, and the sprites have ghosting problems.

[HercTNT]

same exact problem with mine, great sound, bleeding colors and bad view angle. unfortunatley my recap effort failed. my brand new soldering iron broke in the middle of soldering a cap. i stepped in way over my head anyways last time i used standard can type caps, this time i had surface mount and i blew it. gonna have to ask steve to bail me out on this one.

[VenomMacbeth]

Mine works fine, have never experienced any issues.

Well, then what games are you playing with it?  I know some games flicker worse than others.  I think I tried Outrun and Sagaia, but the caps were so bad on the GG I tried it on that Sagaia pretty much killed the whole system. :lol It just cut off on me.

[thesteve]

well hercTNT you can post your pic's now

[HercTNT]

Sorry steve, I have real bad memory. This is my Majesco gamegear that steve recapped for me. I have plexi polish coming to take the scratches out of the screen. Before the recap it worked and looked terrible. Bad viewing angles, would not power right up. after the recap its looks fantastic. The majesco screen is a tad better than a standard gamegear screen. still waiting on the parts to do the new backlight. when i get them i will post another pic, if i forget, steve will remind me 

just after i posted this, my plastic polish showed up. It came out pretty good, but there is a ton of dust behind the screen. i won't post another pic until i get an air duster and finish the backlight mod. should look great then.

[HercTNT]

resurfaced the screen, removed dust. not sure if it looks any better in this picture, but it looks better to me.

[HercTNT]

Final pic, one was corrupted and would not post.

[PikachuWarrior]

looking good. looks sort of hazy. I still have to recap mine. :\

[HercTNT]

my camera is hazy. i wish i could do better, i just can't. its really bringing me down as i want to share stuff, just can't do it right.