Sega Master Gear Switch Genesis Drive

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https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-retro-revisiting-sega-nomad-the-original-switch

I was going to write something on this topic, but those paid journalist bastards just couldn't let me have this one thing, lol

That's cute and all, but all Nomad fanboys got bullied by the Nintendo kids on the bus, so no one cares.

Whatever Nintendoes, Sega does first...

Sega was always ahead of the curve, experimenting with new ideas years and even decades before the rest of the industry. From motion controls and touch tablets to VR and holograms, Sega has already done it decades ago.

@Jag85: This was part of their problem I believe - they gave the consumer mixed messages about their hardware...

@Jag85: Even had emails for the Saturn I believe.

I remember having a Game Gear and it had an adapter to play Master System games on the Game Gear, never did get a Nomad though.

The Switch is uncomfy as fup on your hards compared to the Game Gears design perfection.

Had to buy this to make it less asshole.

Game Gear is still a great system. I play it from time to time. In fact, I just picked up Earthworm Jim for it.

Back in the day the Game Gear was phenomenal. Color backlight screen with Sonic on the go. You couldn't beat that and yet, Game Boy still outsold it. Sad.

Hell, you could even make the Game Gear a portable TV with the TV Tuner attachment. Awesome.

@Juub1990: Yup. Mega Drive, Saturn and Dreamcast all had online gaming services.

I had a Game Gear, never a Nomad though.

Lol Sega didn't best Nintendo at motion controls the power glove was the first one nice try to jag neither did they invent 'vr

I had one (I didn't know where I put it.) it was good but is a little heavy due to all the AA batteries it needed and the screen sizes is kind of small..

Hard to believe that even Sony was close to eating Nintendo's lunch had they followed through with a dock for the Vita. I'm sure at least someone on the Vita design team is kicking themselves right now.

They did actually.

Virtual Boy wasn't VR either. It was 3D, which Sega done first.

And if you want to be a real asshole about it. 1965.

@mariokart64fan: Ah but they did do many things first...

• First 16 bit system
• First color handheld
• First back lit handheld
• First gaming handheld with TV watching capabilities.
• First add on content with S&K Lock on Tech.
• First memory card
• First console expansion capabilities
• First built in online functionality

CDi barely beat Sega CD to release by a year but Sega CD was far more affordable and successful.

I’m less impressed by who does something first and more concerned with who does it better.

Well... at the least the Nomad had good graphics for it's time... the same can't be said about Switch.

I came close to getting a nomad a few times, but I always figured I'd be glued to an outlet like with the Game Gear. Still, it's such a cool device.

I had a Nomad and it was a great little system. Not really portable since it had a battery life of 30-40min., but nice system for the car and at home. Endless hours of fun with Sonic, MK, and NBA Jam during that time. The AC adapter on the Genesis was really finicky, so you'd have to be extra careful if you were the one holding the system. The 2p controller plugged into the bottom, so you had 3 cords hanging off the thing while it played on the TV.

Sega should re-release it as a mini system with a couple tiny wireless controllers. Probably make a killing.

Remember my mate owning a sega game gear couldn't believe I was playing sonic portable. Those were the days miss sega in the console business sad how it all ended up.

Hang-On (1985) had motion control four years before Power Glove (1989).

Sega VR was announced in 1991 and released for arcades in 1993.

I'll take two

Worldwide, Sega CD's Japan release was only a week after the CDi's US release, so there's barely any gap between them, though the SCD's US release was delayed by almost a year. However, the first CD-ROM gaming system was actually NEC's PC Engine/Turbo CD, which came out several years earlier. But years before that, Sega introduced the first laserdisc video game, Astron Belt, so it was Sega that introduced optical-disc storage to video games in the first place.

I was a major Sega fanboy as a kid and thanks to games like Shining Force 2 and Shenmue will always love Sega, but some of the facts are shaky even before I do much research. (All are free to correct me if I'm wrong).

16 bit: Depends on whether you count Turbo Grafx 16/PC Engine, but its shaky whether it counts and I'll give you that. I think that had two 8bit processors working in tandem or something like that. Gamesack expanded on that, I'm not particularly technical. It did advertise as a 16bit console however.

Colour handheld/Backlit: Atari Lynx actually preceded it on both counts. Yeah I know, a more powerful system. Shame it was dogshit and Gamegear was better.

TV/Lock on/online: As far as I'm aware you are probably correct. Online sega goes back to the mega drive. Thats pretty far. Can't think of a console which precedes it. I remember those pocket TVs you could get but its highly unlikely any company ever went down the TV tuner route as Gameboy didn't have the pallette for it and no other company had the reach.

Memory card: I think Neo geo preceded it. I remember you could take your data into the arcades with you from home. Not that anyone could afford a neo geo.

Expansion capabilities: To which do you refer? Many consoles back in the day had expansion ports for all sorts of things.

To address some of those points:

16-bit - The PCE/TG16, despite having an 8-bit CPU, was advertised as 16-bit because it had a 16-bit GPU, i.e. graphics processors with 16-bit data bus. However, the first console with a 16-bit GPU was the Sega Master System, as its graphics processor also had a 16-bit data bus. In terms of CPU, the first gaming system with a partly 16-bit CPU was the Sega Vic Dual, a 1977 arcade system that used the Zilog Z80, which had a hybrid 8/16-bit CPU design.

Colour/backlit handheld - True, the Atari Lynx release a year before the Game Gear. However, both were in development more-or-less around the same time.

Memory card - The first gaming system with a memory card format was the Sega SG-1000, released way back in 1983. It used the Sega Card format, which was also used for the Master System, but later abandoned.

Expansion capabilities - The Sega SG-1000 had expansion capabilities way back in 1983. It could even be expanded into a fully-functional PC.

@Jag85: OK, so Lynx was first. And the cards you were referring to are not memory cards. They are game cards. Cards which the game come on, not cards to save a game. So that doesn't count.

@DocSanchez: The Sega Card was a memory card. There was also a re-writable version of the Sega Card in Japan, called My Card EP, where games could be downloaded onto. It's a memory card in a general sense, not in the specific saving sense you're referring to.

Sega was ahead of Nintendo in so many different occassions. Maybe you never heard of Arcades before