Game Gear marketing design


This little page is sort of my freaky attempt to compile all the GG case / box / whatever else design info I have, trying to show you in how many ways they changed little things here and there from time to time in order to keep us GG gamers happy (and, just by the way, make more money).

When the GG was first made public in 1991, they had a simple design in Europe, as this picture shows:

Normal European design
All GG stuff sold at that time came in boxes designed like this, which is a little boring since this grey grid pattern was always the same and just the little picture showing what's inside differed (logically). The games also were packed this way, and only the picture on the cover, the screen shots on the back and the little description text (in seven languages) were allowed to be different. The manuals also were standardized in this design. The font was always the same, they were in black and white, and one double page always showed the same part of the manual in the seven different languages (arranged in seven columns, four on the one and three on the other part of the double page).

On the contrary, the stuff sold in the US was packed quite differently, actually allowing more indviduality for each accessoir / game:

Old US design
The picture of the game here is bigger, and the whole box is colored according to the game's style. Also, the US manuals were very different, differing in fonts, sometimes being colored, and being free from a too tight standard look.

The japanese design is even more open-minded. Each box and manual is different (the boxes are also smaller), and only the GG logo (the one like that on the GG itself) always is the same. The manuals are colored thorougly and have more images / screen shots than the European / US manuals:

Japanese design

After some time, the European part of Sega must have realized that the original design was way too boring, so they allowed some of the games to be packed more according to the game than to a packaging standard:

New Eropean design

The manuals with this also were more changing, now often being separated into seven books one after the other in one rather than one manual in seven languages simultaneously. However, the accessoires and GGs sold remained packed the old "boring" way. And some new games also still had (and have) the old look.

Some time later, I believe in 1994, Sega of America also changed the design completely and came up with this new purple look:

New US design
This made it all come back to a more standardized look, but a good one. They didn't just change the game box design (like in Europe) but the whole GG palette look, i. e. also the GG and accessoires packaging.

Meanwhile, I think in early 1995, Sega Europe thought up another method how to sell more older games: They just packed them in a brownish box saying "Classic Game Gear" and that was it! A classic GG games should sell more than an ordinary one. Of course they left cartridge and manual look as it had been before:

European Classic Game Gear design

And now this is getting really freaky...

Because they didn't just change box and manual look. There were also a few changes in the game cartridge plastic boxes. You know, the boxes you use for game cartridge storage so they don't catch too much dust and stuff. First, there was this design all over the world:

Normal cartridge case

This box had the japanese Game Gear logo on the upper front part (like the logo next to the GG screen on the GG itself). On the back, the three words "Made in Japan" made everything clear. While Sega of America were introducing their new purple GG look (as shown above), they also made up their own version of the GG cartridge case:

New US cartridge case
This one might look the same, but it isn't since they replaced the old Japanese GG logo with their own new more edgy version of it (like the one I used in the MNM Game Gear Nostalgia Corner logo). On the back it of course reads "Made In USA". And, when Europe got its own GG factory in the UK (in 1995 I think), they made up a new European GG case:
New Eropean cartridge case
Here, you can clearly see the difference: A little changing in the opening button part (maybe to make opening the case easier) and a new GG logo at the top (in a standard Arial-like font in italics) made this stand apart. The back reads "Assembled in UK".


Please also take a look at my other GG sections, like the list of accessoires and the general info page, and, the unique Game Gear Ratings And Reviews!

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(c) copyright 1997 by N-p-s N-g-s.