Sega Game Gear (WIP)

Check the dumping hardware overview for a list of known preservation hardware.

If you need help, please come chat with us on the VGPC or No-Intro discord servers.

Dumping Game Gear games requires specialized hardware and currently has limited options. The methods listed below require soldering a Game Gear slot or buying a pre-built device.

Important Notes

• Unopened games should have their ROM and save data dumped before attempting to play them. This avoids inadvertent modification of the data and helps preserve any possible rewritable data in its unused/“factory” state. This is especially important for types of cart that store the ROM on rewritable media, or games that come with special save data pre-installed. But it is not necessarily possible to know in advance, hence why its advisable to dump first. Note in your submission whether the physical media was sealed and include a photo of the cart/packaging in its sealed state, if possible.
• You should clean the physical media's electrical contacts before trying to dump it, then dump it, and if it doesn't match something in the database, clean it again and dump it a second time, checking if both dumps match using a file comparison tool or calculating the SHA256 of each file and comparing those values. This helps ensure that dirt on the contacts is not causing interference, and that dirt was fully removed during the cleaning process.
• Especially for rare items, make sure to keep the media and dumping hardware around as long as possible (and keep in contact with any future owner if possible), in case an issue with the dump comes up. At minimum (again, if possible) its good idea to keep it around for a while after its been added to the database.

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1. JoeyGG
2. Sanni Cart Reader
3. SMSCPROGR

Using a JoeyGG is fairly straight-forward. Insert your game into the JoeyGG, connect the USB cable to your computer, and your computer should mount a USB drive containing the game's ROM and save data.

The Sanni Cart Reader requires building or purchasing an adapter to dump Game Gear cartridges. Visit the Sanni Cart Reader wiki for proper settings, and dumping instructions.

This Sega Master System/Mark-III cartridge reader/programmer can dump Game Gear games with a Sega Master System to Game Gear adapter.

If you're comfortable with it, you can communicate with the reader over XMODEM, otherwise, clone the project's repo and extract the dumpcart.py script. Connect the reader to your computer. On GNU/Linux, it should mount as a character device under /dev/ttyACM0, otherwise change the –device flag to the correct device.

./dumpcart.py --device /dev/ttyACM0 --read gamename.gg

Once you've dumped your games, it's time to generate and submit metadata to a preservation project for validating and cataloging. See the dump submission instructions for more information.