Tito from Macho Nacho Productions has just released a video showcasing a fully reverse-engineered, single ASIC Game Gear motherboard. The developer, Mathijs Nilwik, fully reverse engineered both the main board, as well as sound and power boards. Mathijs is selling the boards, pre-populated with high quality off-the-shelf components, but NOT the proprietary Sega chip, cartridge slot and expansion port – So, not for beginners, but an amazing option for experts. Please check out the video for all the info you’ll need, plus a few more thoughts after the links:
Support Mathijs: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mathijsnilwik
Mathijs eBay Store: https://ebay.us/Yeg1hR
Main Website: http://www.syf.nl/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mathijsnilwik/
Support Tito’s Work: https://www.patreon.com/MachoNachoProductions
Mathijs didn’t just aim to replicate the original, he improved upon it in many ways. First, he omitted all the components that drove the original LCD screen. Personally, I think this was the right move: Having far less capacitors on the board allows for less to repair in the future and I double most people would be interested in putting this much work, just to use the original, terrible screen; If you’d like the original experience, just restore what you have.
Next, he improved upon the original sound board, by increasing the ground plane, which reduced the high pitched noises you often hear from a GG. He also provided breakout pads to make installation of modern screen kits much easier than before. He also added an easy region jumper to select between Japanese and Worldwide language selection.
This project is still ongoing and it seems like there’s a lot more to come! Mathijs said he’ll be open sourcing a few aspects of the project and will consider reverse-engineering other motherboard revisions of the Game Gear as well!
