What you can do

What You Can Do

A Game Gear project usually starts as a repair and grows into a set of upgrades. Here is the full range of what is possible, roughly in the order most people tackle it.

Repair

• Full recap: the essential job. Replacing every capacitor restores audio and stable power, and often clears up a dim or wavy screen too.
• Cleaning: removing leaked electrolyte, refreshing the power switch and volume wheel, and reseating ribbon cables.

Display upgrades

• McWill LCD: a sharp, bright modern panel with selectable scanlines and scaling options. The premium choice.
• IPS LCD: a cheaper drop-in alternative that still looks far better than the original screen.

Software and media

• EverDrive-GG: a flashcart that loads Game Gear, Master System, and SG-1000 titles from an SD card. Bare-board versions need a donor cartridge shell.

Connectivity

• Controller-port mod: play with an external gamepad.
• Clean AV-out: send video and audio to a display or capture device.

There is no firmware to update on a Game Gear, so every item above is a hardware task. Always finish the recap before adding any of these mods, since a flaky board will sabotage your results.