Nobody before or since has made consoles like Sega did in the 1990s. The company was constantly trying new things, many of which involved attaching clunky accessories like the Sega CD or 32X onto a Genesis console. Between 1983 and 2001, it released a whopping 15 different pieces of hardware.

Sega also enjoyed making new things from its old things, like the Game Gear handheld, which debuted in Europe and North America 35 years ago this month. The Game Gear used many of the same components as the 8-bit Master System, and aimed to be a more “mature” competitor to Nintendo’s massively popular Game Boy. It didn’t pan out the way Sega had hoped, but the Game Gear nevertheless played an important role in shaping the ambitions and scope of handheld gaming.

The Game Gear featured a full-color, backlit LCD screen, a major selling point in contrast to the dingy gray and green visuals of the Game Boy. Sega wasn’t the first to offer a color handheld — the Atari Lynx and NEC’s Turbo Express came first — but it was........

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