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I have had my Sega Game Gear now for about 27 years. I loved it when I was a kid and took mine everywhere with me. That said, I had one gripe about my favorite Sega system in that there was never a Ninja Turtles game on it. Meanwhile there were three TMNT games on the original GameBoy. That got me to thinking that perhaps there is now a way to get a GameBoy game onto a Sega Game Gear cartridge for play on the Game Gear. I've seen all sorts of varient cartridges such as multicarts (even on GameBoy and Game Gear), emulators for GBA playing NES or even Game Gear games from a GBA cart, and then of course the crazy amounts of cartridge modding ranging across all cartridge based systems. We even have amazing Raspberry Pi systems that can hold well over 10,000 games on a device that fits in the palm of your hand.

So far, I've researched enough that I've seen there is a cartridge called the EverDrive across most cartridge based systems including Game Gear. I did some digging and apparently that is a dead end for me as the Game Gear's EverDrive is built to only run Game Gear and Master System games on it. If I'm doing that, I'm going to simply get the actual real cartridges for my collection. It's also really expensive costing $77 just for the cart board without the outter casing. The site that I found has all the parts needed to get it running but it would be around $100 USD for the final product without shipping costs and it wouldn't do what I wanted in the first place. Thus, a dead end.

So why go through all the trouble of attempting this when I can play these outdated Ninja Turtles games on just about any other device? It's because I simply want a Ninja Turtles game on my Sega Game Gear.

If it simply isn't possible to get a GameBoy rom working on a Game Gear cartridge for use on my Game Gear, would it be possible to get the rom(s) working on a Master System cartridge? At that point, I could just get the Master Gear Converter and play it that way.

Thanks for any help you may be able to provide in my quest.

It's not technically possible without basically rewriting it (hundreds of hours of work for skilled professionals). The physical cartridge doesn't have much to do with it.

They use related CPUs and a kind of similar memory map but (at least the ROM and RAM are in the same place) that's about the only similarity (there were a few GG games there were designed to ported to both systems with similar code but that's because the developers carefully developed them for that purpose. Even the CPU similarity isn't much as the GB variation was heavily modified from stock, whereas I think SMS/GG used a pretty stock Z80?)

Yes, the SMS/GG CPUs are stock Z80s. Cross developed games would have system specific engines for sound and graphics, plus significant changes to deal with the different limitations, so it's not just tweaks to the code.

That is unfortunate to hear but understandable. Looks like my best bet for playing a Ninja Turtles game on my Game Gear is with the video in option on the TV Tuner and literally plugging an older system into it.

Thanks for the help guys.

It is possible to port a Game Boy game to the Game Gear. I have an unreleased port of Pokémon Red to the Game Gear that's like 90% complete. It's only possible thanks to the disassembly, though, which is a result of thousands of person-hours.

Basically if somebody was really dedicated, I'd wager most Game Boy games can be ported.

Sanqui wrote

It is possible to port a Game Boy game to the Game Gear. I have an unreleased port of Pokémon Red to the Game Gear that's like 90% complete. It's only possible thanks to the disassembly, though, which is a result of thousands of person-hours.

Basically if somebody was really dedicated, I'd wager most Game Boy games can be ported.

Yes, as long as you have a disassembly in hand, the instruction set is similar enough that you can almost go by search and replace. Of course, graphic and sound related code would have to be completely replaced, though.

That's the hundreds of hours of work I referred to.

Years later, we have people who make their own games for Game Boy and also put them on the Master System and Game Gear. Mostly because of GBDK, but I believe we can do this. As long as we know what we're doing, it would be revolutionary. Try to start off with something simple, like Tetris.

Just gonna put the specifications for people who want to learn about how the Game Boy works here.

If you get an Analogue Pocket (and the appropriate adaptors) you can play Gameboy and Game Gear games as well as GBC, GBA, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Colour.

One handheld to rule them all.

https://www.analogue.co/pocket

Author	Message
Telekill Joined: 18 Feb 2018 Posts: 8	Getting an original GameBoy game on my Sega Game Gear Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 7:32 pm
Telekill Joined: 18 Feb 2018 Posts: 8	I have had my Sega Game Gear now for about 27 years. I loved it when I was a kid and took mine everywhere with me. That said, I had one gripe about my favorite Sega system in that there was never a Ninja Turtles game on it. Meanwhile there were three TMNT games on the original GameBoy. That got me to thinking that perhaps there is now a way to get a GameBoy game onto a Sega Game Gear cartridge for play on the Game Gear. I've seen all sorts of varient cartridges such as multicarts (even on GameBoy and Game Gear), emulators for GBA playing NES or even Game Gear games from a GBA cart, and then of course the crazy amounts of cartridge modding ranging across all cartridge based systems. We even have amazing Raspberry Pi systems that can hold well over 10,000 games on a device that fits in the palm of your hand. So far, I've researched enough that I've seen there is a cartridge called the EverDrive across most cartridge based systems including Game Gear. I did some digging and apparently that is a dead end for me as the Game Gear's EverDrive is built to only run Game Gear and Master System games on it. If I'm doing that, I'm going to simply get the actual real cartridges for my collection. It's also really expensive costing $77 just for the cart board without the outter casing. The site that I found has all the parts needed to get it running but it would be around $100 USD for the final product without shipping costs and it wouldn't do what I wanted in the first place. Thus, a dead end. So why go through all the trouble of attempting this when I can play these outdated Ninja Turtles games on just about any other device? It's because I simply want a Ninja Turtles game on my Sega Game Gear. If it simply isn't possible to get a GameBoy rom working on a Game Gear cartridge for use on my Game Gear, would it be possible to get the rom(s) working on a Master System cartridge? At that point, I could just get the Master Gear Converter and play it that way. Thanks for any help you may be able to provide in my quest.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14741 Location: London	Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:57 pm Last edited by Maxim on Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
	It's not technically possible without basically rewriting it (hundreds of hours of work for skilled professionals). The physical cartridge doesn't have much to do with it.

KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 511	Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:09 pm
KingMike Joined: 14 Oct 2008 Posts: 511	They use related CPUs and a kind of similar memory map but (at least the ROM and RAM are in the same place) that's about the only similarity (there were a few GG games there were designed to ported to both systems with similar code but that's because the developers carefully developed them for that purpose. Even the CPU similarity isn't much as the GB variation was heavily modified from stock, whereas I think SMS/GG used a pretty stock Z80?)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14741 Location: London	Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:29 pm
	Yes, the SMS/GG CPUs are stock Z80s. Cross developed games would have system specific engines for sound and graphics, plus significant changes to deal with the different limitations, so it's not just tweaks to the code.

Telekill Joined: 18 Feb 2018 Posts: 8	Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:20 pm
Telekill Joined: 18 Feb 2018 Posts: 8	That is unfortunate to hear but understandable. Looks like my best bet for playing a Ninja Turtles game on my Game Gear is with the video in option on the TV Tuner and literally plugging an older system into it. Thanks for the help guys.

Sanqui Joined: 11 Feb 2014 Posts: 10	Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:48 pm
Sanqui Joined: 11 Feb 2014 Posts: 10	It is possible to port a Game Boy game to the Game Gear. I have an unreleased port of Pokémon Red to the Game Gear that's like 90% complete. It's only possible thanks to the disassembly, though, which is a result of thousands of person-hours. Basically if somebody was really dedicated, I'd wager most Game Boy games can be ported.

haroldoop Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 874 Location: Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil	Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:11 am
	Sanqui wrote It is possible to port a Game Boy game to the Game Gear. I have an unreleased port of Pokémon Red to the Game Gear that's like 90% complete. It's only possible thanks to the disassembly, though, which is a result of thousands of person-hours. Basically if somebody was really dedicated, I'd wager most Game Boy games can be ported. Yes, as long as you have a disassembly in hand, the instruction set is similar enough that you can almost go by search and replace. Of course, graphic and sound related code would have to be completely replaced, though.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14741 Location: London	Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2018 7:20 am
	That's the hundreds of hours of work I referred to.

Stokes Joined: 17 Feb 2020 Posts: 677 Location: United States	Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 2:09 am
	Years later, we have people who make their own games for Game Boy and also put them on the Master System and Game Gear. Mostly because of GBDK, but I believe we can do this. As long as we know what we're doing, it would be revolutionary. Try to start off with something simple, like Tetris. Just gonna put the specifications for people who want to learn about how the Game Boy works here.

English Invader Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Hertfordshire, UK	Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2024 10:10 pm
	If you get an Analogue Pocket (and the appropriate adaptors) you can play Gameboy and Game Gear games as well as GBC, GBA, Atari Lynx and Neo Geo Pocket/Pocket Colour. One handheld to rule them all. https://www.analogue.co/pocket

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