Thread by @gosokkyu

Sega's classic hardware producer Yosuke Okunari, M2 president Naoki Horii & M2 director Takayuki Komabayashi discuss the making of the Game Gear Micro, some of its hidden secrets and M2's own white GG Micro game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/interview…🇯🇵

https://twitter.com/game_watch/status/1311320401155252225

they start off talking about the package design: the Game Gear & Big Window Micro packages are based off the old GG+1 & Big Window II boxes respectively, with selective changes made to account for their smaller size; as with Mega Drive Mini, the OG package designers were involved

("Game Gear+1" is the designation for the hardware/software bundles, with Sonic 2 and Nazo Puyo Puyo being two of earliest such packages)

on preorders: they planned the reveal for Sega's 60th on June 3 & allotted a certain number of units to the three stores handling GG Micro, but they sold out immediately & they've been working to ensure additional units since

if all goes well, they'll have doubled their targets

within Sega, they had no idea how GG Micro would be received & their initial attitude was just hoping they could break even

projects like these cost a lot just to start so you typically wouldn't make em without expecting good profits but they were more like "I hope ppl buy this"

on M2 president Horii's reaction to learning of GG Micro: their first collaboration with Sega was on the GG version of Gunstar Heroes, so it seemed destined that they'd work on a project like this; he watched it the whole time wondering about the playability of such a tiny device

M2 director Komabayashi's role: direction, planning and "buying snacks for everyone at Mister Donut whenever someone arrives at the office"

the GG Micro's LCD screen was there from the original mock; they showed it to Okunari in that state while he was working in a different dept & he told them they could consult with him anytime & by the time the decision to go ahead had been made, he ended up officially taking over

on the GG Micro's games: Okunari picked them, same as with MD Mini, but Komabayashi specifically pushed for GG Shinobi; to prove it'd be possible to beat on the final hardware, he cleared the game on the dev hardware with a 1-yen coin over the directional keys to simulate a d-pad

that early dev kit was basically just a bare PCB hooked to a monitor; at first they were using it to verify the playability & legibility of the RPGs & then they decided that if Komabayashi could beat GG Shinobi under those conditions, action games on the final unit would be fine

the big challenge for GG Micro was the schedule: not only were they talking about an extremely quick turnaround but they'd be writing the GG emulation software for new hardware that was not only lower-spec than usual but needed to take power consumption into account

to that effect, M2's emulator was customised not only for the low-spec processor but to balance accurate/fast emulation over power consumption—a lot of the typical routines would push the CPU, so they had to find more efficient workarounds wherever possible

on the Gunstar Heroes for Game Gear, which M2 made back in the day: they'd just ported Gauntlet to Mega Drive & Gunstar was their second game; when they met with Sega they were asked what they wanted to work on next, Horii said he'd like to port R-Type Leo or Edward Randy, and...

...Sega's reply was "Gunstar Heroes is like the MD version of Edward Randy, so why don't you do a GG version?"

(incidentally, M2 recently made a handshake deal to do a proper reissue of the original arcade version of Edward Randy, so look forward to that sometime this century)

they were ofc excited to put it on GG Micro, but Komabayashi had a complaint: Gunstar Heroes GG was designed to exploit the OG GG's super-blurry screen to display lots of sprites without visible flicker, but that flicker was very obvious on the modern LCD & had to be addressed

Horii points out that from the very first pitch for Gunstar Heroes GG, they specifically sought to exploit the blur of the GG screen & Sega okayed it, so it's not like the GG Micro suddenly exposed issues that didn't already exist, they knew they were skirting back then too

by default, Gunstar Heroes GG runs in an anti-flicker mode (left) but you can active the original flicker settings (right) by holding ↓ while booting from the menu

incidentally, many of the Gunstar GG devs, including the programmer who wrote the flicker routine, are still at M2

having those OGs around meant they were also able to fix 25yo bugs and so on

one big surprise came from the data repository sent from Sega: Komabayashi found an old "COMING SOON" attract loop demo made for Gunstar GG, either for Tokyo Toy show or CSG, the predecessor to TGS

…and of course, as minor as it may be, they had to include it on the Game Gear Micro! hold ↑ while booting Gunstar GG to see the old trade show attract demo; you'll know if it's running bc the Sega logo will be on a black screen & the Treasure logo won't have the treasure box

Horii points out something from the demo: it shows both Gunstar Red & Blue, but due to space issues, you can only play as Red in their version, and due to hardware constraints they weren't able to make link cable co-op a reality either

some games were edited to remove link play options, which don't work on GG Micro; for Puyo Puyo 2, which had 4 options arranged in a square (right) that were being reduced to 2, they edited the menu gfx to show full-screen Carbuncle & even implemented an unused blinking animation

aside from misc bug fixes across the lineup, they also added new easy type version of the Megami Tensei Gaiden games: a x3 exp/money boost for Last Bible, and a x2 exp/money boost for Last Bible Special, optionally accessible by scrolling all the way to the right on the menu

Komabayashi had to clear all the RPGs as part of his job & even the meijin himself thought they were tough and that the x2 boost for Last Bible still wasn't enough, hence these easy-type versions

the other RPGs (Shining Force Gaidens, Royal Stone) weren't tweaked in this manner

they also altered some cheat codes inputs:

Carbuncle/Nasu blobs in Puyo 2: 1+start during the intro demo

Human blobs in Puyo 2: 2+start during the intro demo

Sonic & Tails level select: ↑↑↓↓ on the title screen

Sonic & Tails sound test: ↓↓↑↑ on the title screen

Komabayashi designed the Game Gear Micro front-end, just as with MD Mini, and even though it's not nearly as practical on such a small screen, he maintained details like being able to view the back covers & spines of the game boxes on the menu

the Game Gear Micro's main menu features two original tunes: one by M2's chibi-tech and, as recently revealed, another by former Westone composer Shinichi Sakamoto—switching in & out of the menu will change the tune, there's not secret to it

however, there is a third song...

the Game Gear Micro's open-source credit page features another piece of music: a rendition of the UFO Catcher DX tune "Greensleeves", which was suggested & covered by sfx programmer Satoshi "PAC" Fujushima as a continuation of the UFO catcher vibe established with MD Mini's intro

while it has nothing to do with Game Gear per se, UFO Catcher DX's sound hardware was similar to that of GG & that same tune was used as Flicky's name entry theme, so it has some relevance as part of the broader commemoration of Sega's 60th anniversary

GG Micro's battery life varies due to battery and so on but is roughly 3 hours; if the GG Micro goes below 5% battery it'll lock you to a screen like this one, you won't be able to resume play but you'll have time to swap battery, plug into USB, etc

there are 6 screens in all

(here's another one, revealed the other day

https://twitter.com/gosokkyu/status/1310960195435192322

)

these images were drawn by Yoshimi Mishima of the company Toru Kikaku, who's done design work for a few recent M2 projects including certain M2STG releases

on M2's white GG Micro containing GG Aleste, GG Aleste II, Aleste mkIII, Power Strike & the all-new GG Aleste 3: this idea was proposed by Okunari, who suggested they might be able to do a Micro w GG Aleste I+II with the release of Aleste Branch, provided it was done by year-end

at that point, they were still unsure whether ppl would even care about GG Micro at all, so Horii wanted to help out more directly; even so, he didn't think Aleste Branch (their brand-new Aleste game) would be ready in time, so they came up with Aleste Collection as a substitute

the other concern at the time was that Horii wasn't sure GG Micro was going to be a great fit for STG, so the idea with Aleste Collection was to present all the games for PS4/Switch and then present the GG Micro as more of a bonus item

they initially thought it impossible to add new games a la MD Mini's Darius & Tetris, but people inside & outside pulled together to create GG Aleste 3

Okunari thinks it absurd that their response to not being able to finish their existing game in time was to make another one

due to the short schedule, M2 initially thought they could only handle 2 games max for each GG Micro colour, but that later became 4, and between working on those and their own Aleste Micro (plus the 2-3 month gap between releases) they somehow found time to make GG Aleste 3

when M2 requested they include Aleste mkiii on their Game Gear Micro, Okunari was worried that a mkiii/SMS game might not be super playable on the Micro, so he told them if they could clear it on the Micro, it'd be ok...and so ofc they hustled & programmer Fukui managed a clear

partly due to those concerns, Okunari suggest they include the Big Window Micro as part of the package

after all his worrying, Okunari's first-ever GG Aleste I&II clears happened on GG Micro (thanks to save states)

M2's white GG Micro is a genuine third-party-published product; Horii likens it to the Othello Multivision, a licensed SG-1000 clone

M2's always wanted to be a third-party publisher for Sega—he pitched a project in the final days of the Dreamcast but left his run too late

Horii also apologises for the availability issues with the Aleste Collection LE; when Okunari went to increase production on the 4-colour Micros, he asked M2 if they needed to increase production on their white version and that version is now at well over 3x initial numbers

they also made an easy-type version of Aleste mkIII without the power-downs

in closing, Horii talks about his fondness for GG, including how the batteries would always go flat between their office & Sega's old office in Otorii, & how M2's gone out on a limb with the white Micro

Okunari comments on how they'd planned it as a casual charm-type toy you could carry with you, but COVID means everyone's going to be cooped up & playing at home

Komabayashi also hopes ppl appreciate the "playable toy" aspect & ended up ordering the 4-colour set for himself

...and that's that, enjoy