Game Gear:Master System Games on Game Gear
The Game Gear hardware is fairly similar to that of the Master System, with only a handful of enhancements (namely stereo sound and a much larger color palette). In addition, the Game Gear itself is capable of running Master System cartridges using a passive adapter, making it one of the few handhelds capable of playing games from a home console. Several companies made such adapters, with some being officially licensed by Sega. All of these adapters were only sold in North America, Europe and Australasia.
None of these adapters are compatible with Sega Card games, and due to the Game Gear lacking any controller ports, it is totally incompatible with games that require the Light Phaser light gun, Sports Pad, 3D glasses, or the Japan-only Paddle Control. The Game Gear does not have support for FM audio on certain games, but a modification board from SYF is available which can add YM2413 support.
Although the Game Gear does not have controller ports, the link cable port can be used to connect a passive adapter with a Master System-compatible controller port at the other end for a second player.[1] This adapter can only be used for two-player SMS games, and is not compatible with two-player Game Gear games. It may also be useful for SMS games which use two controllers for a single player, such as Cyborg Hunter.
Regional Differences
All Game Gears run at 60 Hz, which may pose a problem for PAL Master System games which were coded to run at 50 Hz. This can cause some games to run too fast, while others may have severe glitching or not run at all. A detailed list of SMS games which have problems running at 60 Hz can be found on this page. Some of these PAL games also saw a release on the Game Gear, where they do not exhibit odd glitches or speed differences. It is also possible to modify a Game Gear to play PAL SMS games properly by wiring the "NTSC" pin on the VDP (VA0 boards) or main ASIC (VA1 and later) to 5V instead of GND. However, this may have unintended consequences on Game Gear games.
Japanese Game Gears will also treat Master System games as if they were being played on a Mark III or Japanese Master System. This will cause some games to display a "Sega Mark III" splash screen before the title or have Japanese text. No adapters for playing Mark III/Japanese SMS cartridges on a Game Gear were ever released.
Screen Issues
Although the Game Gear's LCD screen is capable of properly scaling the higher resolution that SMS games run at, the display quality is not ideal for many games. This poses a large problem for games with a large amount of text, especially RPGs like Phantasy Star, Ys, and Miracle Warriors; games which have a number of small, fast-moving projectiles like Astro Warrior or Choplifter also have issues due to the slow response time of the Game Gear's passive matrix LCD.
The nature of the Game Gear's screen also precludes the ability to play games which require the Light Phaser or 3D glasses, as both of these accessories require the use of a CRT TV. Many LCD screen replacements such as those from BennVenn[2] or RetroSix are capable of displaying SMS games at their full resolution and with much greater fidelity than the original LCD.
Graphical Corruption on VA0 Game Gears
A handful of SMS games exhibit graphical glitching when played on a Game Gear with a VA0 (twin ASIC) board revision, due to the behavior of the 315-5378 VDP in regards to VRAM write cycles. If a game tries to write to VRAM once for every 26 CPU cycles, the data might not be reliably written, resulting in graphical glitches. [3] These glitches are mainly limited to garbage background tiles and do not affect gameplay. The following SMS games are affected:
- After Burner
- Casino Games
- OutRun
- Phantasy Star[4]
- Sonic the Hedgehog
This problem does not occur on VA1 or later board revisions.
SG-1000 Games
SG-1000 games are capable of running on the Game Gear, but the Game Gear VDP does not actually map a color palette to them, causing many games to be near unplayable. This can be remedied by applying patches on SG-1000 ROMs, then loading them on a flash cart. These patches give these games a color palette very close to those used by the SG-1000's TMS9918 VDP.
Game Gear Games Running in Master System Mode
Below are the following Game Gear games which run in Master System mode:[5]
| Title | Notes |
|---|---|
| Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse | Also on Master System |
| Cave Dude | Unreleased prototype, also on Master System as a South Korea-only release |
| Chase H.Q. | Also on Master System |
| The Excellent Dizzy Collection | |
| Fantastic Dizzy | Also on Master System |
| Jang Pung II | Korean exclusive, also on Master System as a South Korea-only release |
| Olympic Gold | Also on Master System |
| OutRun Europa | Also on Master System |
| Predator 2 | Also on Master System |
| Prince of Persia | Also on Master System |
| Rastan Saga | Japanese exclusive; the original Master System version was never released in Japan |
| R.C. Grand Prix | Also on Master System |
| Street Hero | Unreleased prototype; the original Master System version was only released in South Korea |
| Super Kick Off | Also on Master System |
| Super Tetris | Unlicensed release |
| WWF WrestleMania Steel Cage Challenge | Also on Master System |
Note that when playing these games on a flash cart, the file extension on the ROM must be renamed from .gg to .sms, otherwise the flash cart will load it as a Game Gear game and it will not work properly.