Sega’s Game Gear gets the book it really deserves

It may not have dethroned the Game Boy, but the Game Gear was certainly the “best of the rest” in the handheld console wars of the early 90s.

With its color display, attractive design, and a wealth of high-quality games, the Game Gear has outlasted the Atari Lynx and PC Engine GT to represent a real alternative to Nintendo’s dominance – and now it’s getting its own (unofficial) book.

The tome’s author is Ken Horowitz of Sega-16, who previously wrote “The Sega Arcade Revolution” and “Beyond Donkey Kong: A History of Nintendo Arcade Games.”

“This new work, due out next year, will dive deep into Sega’s portable console,” Horowitz says on social media. “It presents a comprehensive narrative of the Game Gear’s development and launch in Japan, as well as its launch in North America, Europe, Brazil, Australia and South Korea.”

Horowitz promises that the as-yet-untitled book will also offer “a comprehensive look at the Majesco re-release and the legacy of the Game Gear in the decades that followed with the GG Micro and downloadable games for the Wii and other platforms.”

He adds that “dozens of contemporary documents and interviews with nearly 30 executives, programmers, artists, composers and producers, including the heads of Sega of America and Sega Europe, Tec Toy and Ozi Soft” were part of the research for the book, which will also include a selection of the console’s most notable games, “with detailed descriptions of 68 Game Gear exclusive and variant titles from every region.”

To top it all off, there’s a guide to Game Gear accessories and console variants, as well as eleven question-and-answer style interviews with programmers, artists, and composers.