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i thought ya'll might find this interesting. :)

after about 3 months work, spread out over about 3 years... this is finally done! woot!

the handy gear is the ultimate game gear. 5" screen, internal rechargeable batteries, recased, master gear converter hard wired on, many things removed to make the game gear able to run off 7.4v (and also save tremendously on battery life). i wanted it to look as much like an actual game gear as possible. placement of everything is based off of the game gear itself. anyway, enough chattering, on to some videos and pics!

youtube videos:
detailed description
quick description
level 1 of sonic

specs:
system - game gear
batteries - 2 3.7v li-ion 5700 mAh (6 hours - video gets wobbly at 5.5 hours - power led flashes and the video colors invert a few mins before batteries die)
case - frankencased zn-40, game gear case, and master gear converter housing
screen - psone screen modded with 6 leds
controller - original game gear buttons and pads, random controller cut up for the board
random tidbits - power led changed from red to pink; case has custom made decals/sticker; has a master gear converter hard wired on to allow for sms playability

if you are interested, here is the partial build thread (that i was making during a contest on another forum back in the day) and the link to all the pics i took.

a few measurements of the system:

weight of system (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 2 lbs 1.7 oz/2 lbs 2.8 oz/2 lbs 3.8 oz
thickness - 2 5/8"
height - 5 1/4"
height with sms game - 6 3/4"
length - 9 1/8"

compared to a game gear:

weight of system (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 13.4 oz/14.4 oz/ 1 lb 4.1 oz
weight of system with 6 aas (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 1 lb 2.3 oz/1 lb 3.3 oz/1 lb 9 oz
thickness - 1 1/2"
thickness with master gear converter - 2 5/8"
height - 4 3/8"
height with sms game - 5 1/16"
length - 8 1/4"

it is just a bit larger than the game gear itself. considering it has a 5" screen, internal batteries, and the master gear converter hard wired on, that’s pretty fricken awesome! not to mention it looks fricken awesome! tee hee! :)

original post

Nice work. One of the problems with trying to play SMS games with a MasterGear is that the screen is too small and your console addresses that issue very well.

Whoa... This figuratively made my jaw drop to the floor. And even further down when I watched some of the videos and the narration was a female. There's really not many - if any - female technicians that I know of. And you made a vast improvement on that handheld!

Say, will it someday be for sale, or is it gonna be a one-of-a-kind for you to have so we'll all be jealous of you? :P

Incredible work :)
How does it feel to hold the system? I can see it must be pretty exciting to play on a large nicer screen on what feels like a Game Gear (compared to say, using a emulator).

Looks great, seems like it is really heavy in comparison? Can you still hold it to play for extended periods of time or do you need to put it down like you did playing sonic on YouTube?

Also any plans to make more of these for sale?

thanks, guys!

to answer some questions:

i don't currently have any plans to make any more of these. the casing was a real pain in the butt to get worked out. adding in the master gear converter really just made things that much more difficult, esp when it came to making the case.

i also don't plan on selling this one. but... who knows, if the right figure was thrown at me, i just may consider making more. now that i know what all to do, it would be a lot easier.

it feels very similar to a game gear itself. it is heavier and a bit wider. but the grip area really isn't much thicker. so it really does feel basically like holding the game gear.

in comparison to the game gear, yeah, it's really heavy. it's lighter (i believe) than my last portable. and by "heavy" i mean maybe 2 lbs. so it's not really all that heavy. easy to play holding it. i simply set it on the table for the video so that i knew i was capturing the screen properly. :)

Awesome!!!

Here is the list of GG games that run in SMS mode:

Castle of Illusion (I see you have this one, would be good for a game play video)

Excellent Dizzy Collection, The
Fantastic Dizzy
Jang Pung II
Olympic Gold
Out Run Europa
Predator 2
Prince of Persia
R.C. Grand Prix
Rastan Saga
Super Kick Off
Taito Chase H.Q.
WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge

This is a really amazing piece of tech! I'm curious bout the battery life. Now give it a TV-Out and you have the ultimate 8-Bit Sega System

I can't believe it's even bigger than the original GG! But the fact that it has a working GG slot and Master Converter melted in makes it awesome!

Here's my usual GG-TV setup for comparison:

ccovell wrote

I can't believe it's even bigger than the original GG! But the fact that it has a working GG slot and Master Converter melted in makes it awesome!]

considering it has a larger screen, the master gear converter hard wired on, and 2 3.7v 5700 mAh internal rechargable batteries... of course it's gonna be bigger. but it's not all that much bigger. esp when you consider the size of the game gear with the master gear converter in place.

and, it wouldn't really be possible to keep it teh same size as the game gear since the converter displays in teh center half. simply putting a 3" screen in a game gear would produce a much smaller picture...

Nice work!

I geuss its kind of like a GG XL (in the same was as DSi XL).

first post edited to include weights of the system.

I am impressed. Lovely looking machine!

For those of us not using the American weight system :) it's 1015g with an SMS cart compared to 710g for a GG + batteries + Master Gear + SMS cart.

It's also worth noting that in GG mode, the screen has a large border as it's a GG-TV signal for a regular screen. Making it "fullscreen" would require a scaler. Does it show borders in SMS mode too? On all sides? How about in extended-height video mode (e.g. Micro Machines)?

In the detailed description video it shows the GG version of Castle of Illusion, which uses the whole screen as it runs in SMS mode. Looks great (would be good for a game play video, hint hint)

Maxim wrote

For those of us not using the American weight system :) it's 1015g with an SMS cart compared to 710g for a GG + batteries + Master Gear + SMS cart.

It's also worth noting that in GG mode, the screen has a large border as it's a GG-TV signal for a regular screen. Making it "fullscreen" would require a scaler. Does it show borders in SMS mode too? On all sides? How about in extended-height video mode (e.g. Micro Machines)?

thanks for doing that conversion for me. i didn't even think about converting to grams till just a bit ago. lol!

sms games do not have a boarder. they display in full screen:

and... i don't have any extended-height video mode games... so i'm not sure... i imagine they would show the same as they do on a tv when using this board.

and the gg games that display in sms mode do also take up the full screen:

i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :)

I just thought it's worth reinforcing that regular GG games don't fill the screen; Castle of Illusion might confuse matters.

In SMS mode there is indeed the usual borders as you'd get on a TV with not much overscan - top and bottom, a little bit on the right and typically more on the left. Presumably it's also not 1:1 pixel-wise.

Quote

i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :)

You'll have to get some practice in then lol :)

Logbomber wrote

Quote

i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :)

You'll have to get some practice in then lol :)

lol! yeah, i guess so. currently trying to get an accurate count on battery life (just over 4 hours right now and still going strong). as soon as i'm done with that, i'll take some video of an sms game and of castle of illusion. :)

first post edited with battery life

Logbomber wrote

Quote

i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :)

You'll have to get some practice in then lol :)

well, i tried getting some video last night of castle of illusion & golden axe warrior. but my camera was not cooperating at all. the picture was way too dark. and i'm not exactly sure how to fix that. everything i did didn't seem to help...

but as soon as i figure out how to get a better video up, i'll get those videos done.

I wonder what a console through the TV-Tuners AV-in would look like on this screen

That doesn't work. The TV Tuner works by letting the tuner drive the GG's LCD directly, with the GG chips doing nothing. The screen here is tapping the output of the GG's video chip, which won't be doing anything, so most likely you'll get a blank screen.

Too bad. At least I learned something ^^'

Author	Message
lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Handy Gear - lovablechevy's ultimate Game Gear - finished! Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:11 pm Last edited by lovablechevy on Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:16 am; edited 2 times in total
	i thought ya'll might find this interesting. :) after about 3 months work, spread out over about 3 years... this is finally done! woot! the handy gear is the ultimate game gear. 5" screen, internal rechargeable batteries, recased, master gear converter hard wired on, many things removed to make the game gear able to run off 7.4v (and also save tremendously on battery life). i wanted it to look as much like an actual game gear as possible. placement of everything is based off of the game gear itself. anyway, enough chattering, on to some videos and pics! youtube videos: detailed description quick description level 1 of sonic specs: system - game gear batteries - 2 3.7v li-ion 5700 mAh (6 hours - video gets wobbly at 5.5 hours - power led flashes and the video colors invert a few mins before batteries die) case - frankencased zn-40, game gear case, and master gear converter housing screen - psone screen modded with 6 leds controller - original game gear buttons and pads, random controller cut up for the board random tidbits - power led changed from red to pink; case has custom made decals/sticker; has a master gear converter hard wired on to allow for sms playability if you are interested, here is the partial build thread (that i was making during a contest on another forum back in the day) and the link to all the pics i took. a few measurements of the system: weight of system (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 2 lbs 1.7 oz/2 lbs 2.8 oz/2 lbs 3.8 oz thickness - 2 5/8" height - 5 1/4" height with sms game - 6 3/4" length - 9 1/8" compared to a game gear: weight of system (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 13.4 oz/14.4 oz/ 1 lb 4.1 oz weight of system with 6 aas (by itself/with gg game/with sms game) - 1 lb 2.3 oz/1 lb 3.3 oz/1 lb 9 oz thickness - 1 1/2" thickness with master gear converter - 2 5/8" height - 4 3/8" height with sms game - 5 1/16" length - 8 1/4" it is just a bit larger than the game gear itself. considering it has a 5" screen, internal batteries, and the master gear converter hard wired on, that’s pretty fricken awesome! not to mention it looks fricken awesome! tee hee! :) original post

English Invader Joined: 30 Aug 2009 Posts: 162 Location: Hertfordshire, UK	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 3:43 pm Last edited by English Invader on Sun Jun 26, 2011 4:16 pm; edited 3 times in total
	Nice work. One of the problems with trying to play SMS games with a MasterGear is that the screen is too small and your console addresses that issue very well.

mk1995 Joined: 11 Jan 2009 Posts: 116 Location: Germany	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 3:44 pm
mk1995 Joined: 11 Jan 2009 Posts: 116 Location: Germany	Whoa... This figuratively made my jaw drop to the floor. And even further down when I watched some of the videos and the narration was a female. There's really not many - if any - female technicians that I know of. And you made a vast improvement on that handheld! Say, will it someday be for sale, or is it gonna be a one-of-a-kind for you to have so we'll all be jealous of you? :P

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8648 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:11 pm
	Incredible work :) How does it feel to hold the system? I can see it must be pretty exciting to play on a large nicer screen on what feels like a Game Gear (compared to say, using a emulator).

Braveheart69 Joined: 23 Feb 2010 Posts: 311 Location: USA	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 5:39 pm
	Looks great, seems like it is really heavy in comparison? Can you still hold it to play for extended periods of time or do you need to put it down like you did playing sonic on YouTube? Also any plans to make more of these for sale?

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 6:13 pm
	thanks, guys! to answer some questions: i don't currently have any plans to make any more of these. the casing was a real pain in the butt to get worked out. adding in the master gear converter really just made things that much more difficult, esp when it came to making the case. i also don't plan on selling this one. but... who knows, if the right figure was thrown at me, i just may consider making more. now that i know what all to do, it would be a lot easier. it feels very similar to a game gear itself. it is heavier and a bit wider. but the grip area really isn't much thicker. so it really does feel basically like holding the game gear. in comparison to the game gear, yeah, it's really heavy. it's lighter (i believe) than my last portable. and by "heavy" i mean maybe 2 lbs. so it's not really all that heavy. easy to play holding it. i simply set it on the table for the video so that i knew i was capturing the screen properly. :)

Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:05 pm
Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	Awesome!!! Here is the list of GG games that run in SMS mode: Castle of Illusion (I see you have this one, would be good for a game play video) Excellent Dizzy Collection, The Fantastic Dizzy Jang Pung II Olympic Gold Out Run Europa Predator 2 Prince of Persia R.C. Grand Prix Rastan Saga Super Kick Off Taito Chase H.Q. WWF Wrestlemania Steel Cage Challenge

Dee Liteyears Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Somewhere out in Germany	Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 9:16 pm
	This is a really amazing piece of tech! I'm curious bout the battery life. Now give it a TV-Out and you have the ultimate 8-Bit Sega System

ccovell Joined: 26 Dec 2004 Posts: 374 Location: Japan	Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 2:25 am
ccovell Joined: 26 Dec 2004 Posts: 374 Location: Japan	I can't believe it's even bigger than the original GG! But the fact that it has a working GG slot and Master Converter melted in makes it awesome! Here's my usual GG-TV setup for comparison:

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 2:36 am
	ccovell wrote I can't believe it's even bigger than the original GG! But the fact that it has a working GG slot and Master Converter melted in makes it awesome!] considering it has a larger screen, the master gear converter hard wired on, and 2 3.7v 5700 mAh internal rechargable batteries... of course it's gonna be bigger. but it's not all that much bigger. esp when you consider the size of the game gear with the master gear converter in place. and, it wouldn't really be possible to keep it teh same size as the game gear since the converter displays in teh center half. simply putting a 3" screen in a game gear would produce a much smaller picture...

thatawesomeguy Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 729 Location: Melbourne, Australia	Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 11:44 am
	Nice work! I geuss its kind of like a GG XL (in the same was as DSi XL).

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:16 pm
	first post edited to include weights of the system.

chewy Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 27 Location: Aylesbury, UK	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 2:34 pm
	I am impressed. Lovely looking machine!

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 4:44 pm
	For those of us not using the American weight system :) it's 1015g with an SMS cart compared to 710g for a GG + batteries + Master Gear + SMS cart. It's also worth noting that in GG mode, the screen has a large border as it's a GG-TV signal for a regular screen. Making it "fullscreen" would require a scaler. Does it show borders in SMS mode too? On all sides? How about in extended-height video mode (e.g. Micro Machines)?

Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:07 pm
Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	In the detailed description video it shows the GG version of Castle of Illusion, which uses the whole screen as it runs in SMS mode. Looks great (would be good for a game play video, hint hint)

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 7:58 pm
	Maxim wrote For those of us not using the American weight system :) it's 1015g with an SMS cart compared to 710g for a GG + batteries + Master Gear + SMS cart. It's also worth noting that in GG mode, the screen has a large border as it's a GG-TV signal for a regular screen. Making it "fullscreen" would require a scaler. Does it show borders in SMS mode too? On all sides? How about in extended-height video mode (e.g. Micro Machines)? thanks for doing that conversion for me. i didn't even think about converting to grams till just a bit ago. lol! sms games do not have a boarder. they display in full screen: and... i don't have any extended-height video mode games... so i'm not sure... i imagine they would show the same as they do on a tv when using this board. and the gg games that display in sms mode do also take up the full screen: i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :)

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 8:39 pm
	I just thought it's worth reinforcing that regular GG games don't fill the screen; Castle of Illusion might confuse matters. In SMS mode there is indeed the usual borders as you'd get on a TV with not much overscan - top and bottom, a little bit on the right and typically more on the left. Presumably it's also not 1:1 pixel-wise.

Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 6:20 pm
Logbomber Joined: 06 Apr 2009 Posts: 207	Quote i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :) You'll have to get some practice in then lol :)

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 7:04 pm
	Logbomber wrote Quote i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :) You'll have to get some practice in then lol :) lol! yeah, i guess so. currently trying to get an accurate count on battery life (just over 4 hours right now and still going strong). as soon as i'm done with that, i'll take some video of an sms game and of castle of illusion. :)

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:19 am
	first post edited with battery life

lovablechevy Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 15 Location: San Antonio, TX	Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 1:12 pm
	Logbomber wrote Quote i'll look into doing a playing video using an sms game and also castle of illusion. i've just never actually played castle of illusion, so it could make for a very humorous video! :) You'll have to get some practice in then lol :) well, i tried getting some video last night of castle of illusion & golden axe warrior. but my camera was not cooperating at all. the picture was way too dark. and i'm not exactly sure how to fix that. everything i did didn't seem to help... but as soon as i figure out how to get a better video up, i'll get those videos done.

Dee Liteyears Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Somewhere out in Germany	Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 3:28 pm
	I wonder what a console through the TV-Tuners AV-in would look like on this screen

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14734 Location: London	Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:15 pm
	That doesn't work. The TV Tuner works by letting the tuner drive the GG's LCD directly, with the GG chips doing nothing. The screen here is tapping the output of the GG's video chip, which won't be doing anything, so most likely you'll get a blank screen.

Dee Liteyears Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 24 Location: Somewhere out in Germany	Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:03 am
	Too bad. At least I learned something ^^'

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