sega game gear help

[420GOAT]

hello, my girl just picked up a game gear at the flee market for $10. well the screen is dark and i see its common. any one here have the caps for the screen on the cheap? thanks.

[CrackTiger]

hello, my girl just picked up a game gear at the flee market for $10. well the screen is dark and i see its common. any one here have the caps for the screen on the cheap? thanks.

Game Gears are as common in most parts of America as they are around hear, from what I've read online. You should be able to find a fully working one for $10.

[Tatsujin]

If that ain't gonna help, lol.

[roflmao]

I think I read here in the forums that chop5 does a cap swap for the Game Gear.  I've been meaning to contact him about it because I was recently given a Game Gear and it's got very low sound and a very washed out screen.  I'm sure the sound issue is cap related, but don't know about the screen.  Anyway, you might want to send a PM his way.

[ApolloBoy]

I'm sure the sound issue is cap related, but don't know about the screen.

Screen issues are caused by bad caps as well.

[Frank_fjs]

Even with fresh caps the screen isn't the best.

[HercTNT]

outside of replacing the caps you can also do an led backlight mod. this will dramatically improve battery life, and help the look of the screen alittle.

[guyjin]

did you mess with the contrast dial at all? I've seen people mistake it for the volume control and declare it non-working.

[roflmao]

I'm assuming you are referring to the Brightness dial?  On mine, I can make the screen really bright or really dark, but the picture is never very good.  It's acceptable/playable though. If there's a separate Contrast dial, then I'm retarded and can't find it.

The volume, on the other hand, is maxed out and barely audible, and in my ear has to be an inch from the speaker to faintly hear anything. 

I didn't know there was an led backlight mod.  Sounds pretty cool!

[PikachuWarrior]

The gamegear I have has really loud volume, but the video/screen has bleeding colors that go vertical on sprites and background images so it looks like a painting that you splash water and starts to run down.

[420GOAT]

lookinrt some info.

[420GOAT]

hello, my girl just picked up a game gear at the flee market for $10. well the screen is dark and i see its common. any one here have the caps for the screen on the cheap? thanks.

Game Gears are as common in most parts of America as they are around hear, from what I've read online. You should be able to find a fully working one for $10.

after looking into this, for ten bucks all you get is a broken game gear, so i dont feel bad, fuck i usually drink more than that in a day! any way i may try this myself, but im a mechanic not a fucken electronics guru. i did fix my boys xbox by taking it apart and changing the belt. after a couple tutorials i feel i can do it but can anyone point me to just the video caps....yes im a bastard for not wanting to change them all, but baby steps fellas.

[PikachuWarrior]

there are a few tutorials on Youtube.

[kazekirifx]

I have 3 Game Gears and all of them have screen and sound issues. I fixed the sound on one of them. These things tend to break. I reckon you'll have a hard time getting lucky and finding a fully working one at a flea market for $10.

I don't even like portable consoles. I'd kill for a way to connect real Game Gear hardware to a TV or larger monitor, since I just can't enjoy emulation, knowing that it's emulation. Actually, I think I did find an article online once about someone who managed to mod a Game Gear for this purpose, but it was way way too serious an operation for my taste.

[420GOAT]

there are a few tutorials on Youtube.

none show me just the video caps.

[SNKNostalgia]

Replace all of them. Might as well do it so there are no problems in the future.

[kazekirifx]

Replace all of them. Might as well do it so there are no problems in the future.

He sounds like he knows what he's doing, so that might be good advice.

It would be horrible advice for the relatively inexperienced like me, though. I've broken electronics while trying to do simple mods and fixes - even attempting to replace caps. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it," is my motto.

[turbokon]

I have 3 Game Gears and all of them have screen and sound issues. I fixed the sound on one of them. These things tend to break. I reckon you'll have a hard time getting lucky and finding a fully working one at a flea market for $10.

I don't even like portable consoles. I'd kill for a way to connect real Game Gear hardware to a TV or larger monitor, since I just can't enjoy emulation, knowing that it's emulation. Actually, I think I did find an article online once about someone who managed to mod a Game Gear for this purpose, but it was way way too serious an operation for my taste.

The tutorial I saw required building a board. If thesteve is into gamegear, I'll bet he'll be able to find an easy way to mod for a composite out in a heartbeat. That guy is a mad genius!!

[thesteve]

from what i have been able to find out, the easiest way to play GG games on a TV with real hardware is an adaptor for the SMS (same chipset).
that said the GG is missing the video decoder from the SMS, so it never produces any thing close to video out.
the board to do it is a clone of the custom video decoder used in the SMS.

[kazekirifx]

from what i have been able to find out, the easiest way to play GG games on a TV with real hardware is an adaptor for the SMS (same chipset).
that said the GG is missing the video decoder from the SMS, so it never produces any thing close to video out.
the board to do it is a clone of the custom video decoder used in the SMS.

An SMS modded to play GG carts would rock! Any idea how feasible this would be? I know there are some hardware complications involved.

I know there are patched ROMS out there for some GG games like GG Aleste to be played on SMS, but in that case each game needs to be modded separately.

[thesteve]

i thought it was more direct.
i see the GG can play SMS games

[PikachuWarrior]

Yeah, but it's harder to do in reverse.

[420GOAT]

i found a local killer electronics supply store nearby and got a iron, solder, and all the caps and then some for $9!!!! so i figured what the hell and tried my hand at electronics, at first it was a bit shaky but by the last few i was getting the hang of it. now i know why some mods are best left to the pro's. here is my first cap replacement ever! im no longer a mother board virgin.





here it is in the end, so i dont have to tilt the screen to see any more, but then the thing will play for a minute, then it cuts off, then after two secs it cuts off. if i keep the contrast low it stays on but i cant see the fucken screen. there are still lines though so i think the lcd is junk now.  here is the final product. well no point of throwing away good money after bad so ill cut my losses and may just scrap it or sell it for parts and get my girl another "good" one. or maybe the Nomad. any ideas on my power issue? thanks.

[thesteve]

id start by looking over your cap change.
if any caps are reversed they can short when loaded.
stripes in the pic are a common LCD failure mode (non system specific)

[SNKNostalgia]

Also, shorten the legs of the caps to 2/3 cm to 1 cm. The legs might be touching or will eventually touch other components.

As mentioned, before doing anything match up + and - with the caps and the motherboard. If any are backwards turn them around and power up the system, if that doesn't work then replace the caps that were in backwards as they could be fried. Check for an gooey leakages that are brown and clean it off. Check if there is any corrosion where the leakage was at.

As for the LCD screen. There are people that replace them with current gen LCD screens, that have 3x-4x the picture quality. You can do the same to a Nomad and maybe even a Turbo Express/GT. Also, I have seen a guy take the rechargeable battery packs for handhelds and replace them with long lasting Lithium Ion batteries.

[thesteve]

the TE/GT screen I do.
others do the nomad.
the GG was an anomaly of sorts, as it doesnt have anything close to a video signal.
there are some encoders out there for the GG, but i havent seen them for sale and wouldnt call them final products.

[420GOAT]

now all the the caps but one had a stripe. the legs are not touching anything. one did have a "NP" with no stripe. i cut the legs even which were different lengths. then i could nut remember which was neg. it never blew up so i thought it was ok. the info on game gears says that its common for the power to cut off and led is trhe cure.

[thesteve]

the np cap doesnt have a polarity

[kazekirifx]

This rules.

http://www.lcv.ne.jp/~mgs1987/sega/gg2.html

and I'd settle for this too

http://www.sankichi.flnet.org/ggtv-rev01.html

Here's one in English
http://members.optusnet.com.au/eviltim/ggrgb/ggrgb.html

All of this modding is too complicated for my taste. I'd pay good money for one made by someone else though.

[CrackTiger]

i thought it was more direct.
i see the GG can play SMS games

The Game Gear might be able to run the games, but it has a lower resolution and SMS games get cropped. The Game Gear has a huge master palette and I believe stereo sound, so those don't translate properly to SMS hardware. I have seen working SMS console with a Game Gear added to them, but it was basically a two-in-one console.0

[kazekirifx]

The Game Gear might be able to run the games, but it has a lower resolution and SMS games get cropped. The Game Gear has a huge master palette and I believe stereo sound, so those don't translate properly to SMS hardware. I have seen working SMS console with a Game Gear added to them, but it was basically a two-in-one console.0

That's exactly right. For more info on what it takes to make a GG game run on SMS, you should check out this page where a guy has hacked five GG roms to run on SMS.
https://www.chrismcovell.com/segahacking/gg2sms.html

Yep, lots of palette issues, and also how to handle the SMS "pause" button, and make do without the GG start button.

[VenomMacbeth]

I've recently come into possession of a game gear, with cap issues.  Any idea where to get caps not online?  I'm not aware of any electronics stores around here & I checked radio shack, they had no capacitors. :/

[thesteve]

so sad to hear that radio shack has given up their only reason to live.
tell us where you are and we can try to find you a source