Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Sega ran this one under their Welcome to the Next Level slogan, and the joke is brilliant. A kid is deep into his Game Gear on an airplane, the flight attendant leans in and gets completely hypnotized by that color screen, and the slogan itself shows up on the plane's overhead sign right next to the no smoking light. The whole cabin becomes the next level.
Here is the fact that it makes this ad hit even harder, and it fits the airplane perfectly. Sega actually sold a TV Tuner accessory that plugged into the Game Gear and turned it into a fully working handheld color television. It came with a little antenna and a kickstand, and it let you watch real broadcast TV on the thing. Stop and think about that for 1991. A pocket sized color TV you could watch actual television on, decades before phones did anything close. That is about as next level as the early 90s got.
The Game Gear was basically a Sega Master System you could hold in your hands, with a full color backlit screen and a wide landscape shape that a lot of people found comfier than holding the Game Boy upright. And Sega leaned all the way into accessories for it, a magnifier lens called the Super Wide Gear, a car adapter, rechargeable battery packs, and a link cable for head to head play. It was not just a game machine, it was a color screen you could actually do stuff with.
Of course that gorgeous backlit screen and that TV tuner came at a price, they drank batteries for breakfast, which is a whole story on its own. But you cannot deny Sega was swinging for the future here. Those TV tuners are collector gold now.
Did you ever have a Game Gear, and did you know about the TV tuner? Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#gamegear #sega #welcometothenextlevel #tvtuner #handheldgaming #retrohandheld #segavsnintendo #portabletv #mastersystem #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #gaminghistory #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
Sega ran this one under their Welcome to the Next Level slogan, and the joke is brilliant. A kid is deep into his Game Gear on an airplane, the flight attendant leans in and gets completely hypnotized by that color screen, and the slogan itself shows up on the plane's overhead sign right next to the no smoking light. The whole cabin becomes the next level.
Here is the fact that it makes this ad hit even harder, and it fits the airplane perfectly. Sega actually sold a TV Tuner accessory that plugged into the Game Gear and turned it into a fully working handheld color television. It came with a little antenna and a kickstand, and it let you watch real broadcast TV on the thing. Stop and think about that for 1991. A pocket sized color TV you could watch actual television on, decades before phones did anything close. That is about as next level as the early 90s got.
The Game Gear was basically a Sega Master System you could hold in your hands, with a full color backlit screen and a wide landscape shape that a lot of people found comfier than holding the Game Boy upright. And Sega leaned all the way into accessories for it, a magnifier lens called the Super Wide Gear, a car adapter, rechargeable battery packs, and a link cable for head to head play. It was not just a game machine, it was a color screen you could actually do stuff with.
Of course that gorgeous backlit screen and that TV tuner came at a price, they drank batteries for breakfast, which is a whole story on its own. But you cannot deny Sega was swinging for the future here. Those TV tuners are collector gold now.
Did you ever have a Game Gear, and did you know about the TV tuner? Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#gamegear #sega #welcometothenextlevel #tvtuner #handheldgaming #retrohandheld #segavsnintendo #portabletv #mastersystem #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #gaminghistory #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
