The Sega Game Gear officially launched in 1991 (1990 in Japan), and from the start, there was no doubt about its technical advantages over the original Game Boy. But the public never responded as Sega hoped. Despite that, the Game Gear became something of an unfinished business for many enthusiasts, and one of them is Jeff Geerling, who, with the help of a complete hardware transplant and a Compute Module 4 as the brain, turned a damaged Game Gear into the ultimate retro console.
History tells us that the Sega Game Gear sold just over ten million units in its six years of availability, a respectable number… but definitely insufficient to counter the Game Boy's success. The Game Gear paid for its technical superiority with dreadful battery life (three hours using six AA batteries), a larger size, a higher price on shelves, a limited catalog, and a series of accessories that increased the cost of staying in that ecosystem.
However, the desire to have a miniaturized Master System with a color screen never completely faded, and those who didn't manage to buy a Game Gear back in the '90s are now looking to repair old units and settle that debt (the Game Gear Micro never left Japan). The problem is that Game Gears haven't aged well. Almost all of them suffer from deteriorating capacitors and ruined screens, so Jeff Geerling on YouTube decided to follow the path of a complete transplant, courtesy of the Zega Mame Gear.
How to rebuild a Sega Game Gear with a Raspberry Pi
The Zega Mame Gear is available on its official page for £56, but Jeff had to face a difficulty many of us have experienced: getting a Compute Module 4 at a reasonable price. In fact, he received the kit in the early months of the year and needed all this time to get the module.
After buying a shell on eBay and some replacement buttons, Jeff discovered that installing the components is quite simple (no soldering) despite the lack of documentation. The most complicated part (and thankfully optional) is drilling the case to enable two extra buttons on the Game Gear. Personally... no. Unless there's no alternative, I think these mods should be "no cut", and the list of emulated games with two buttons or fewer remains huge (Game Gear, Master System, NES, Game Boy, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, etc.).
Finally, Jeff warns that the Zega Mame Gear is not perfect. RetroPie always needs additional tweaks, and beyond its natural performance, the Compute Module 4 is too much hardware (it threw several undervolting alerts) for the mod's power distribution. A Zero-series model would be much more appropriate in this configuration.
