Item Number 38: Portable Game System, Sega Game Gear (x3)

Time in possession: Between 6 and 4 years, depending on the individual unit.

Description: 3 Sega Game Gear systems, all suffering from various degrees of abandon. Only one of the systems actually works for any length of time, although I haven't checked in a while so that may no longer be true.

Cost: One of these systems belonged to an ex-girlfriend who was done with it, but I honestly can't remember where I came across another two. If I had to guess one of them would have been bought at a flea market (I'd often buy boxes filled with old video game stuff from people who weren't aware of what they were selling or just didn't care) and another off an eBay case lot. Really though, I couldn't tell you for sure. Lets just say $40 for the lot. That's actually pretty generous considering.

Story: I didn't know a lot about video games when I was a kid. I mean, I did read all the game magazines I could get my hands on and played as many as my parents would allow me, but in hindsight there wasn't a lot of thought going into my video game selections. The early games I nearly broke myself trying to beat on my NES? Mission Impossible, Werewolf, Iron Sword? They really, really sucked. If not for my childhood ignorance and stubborn drive I wouldn't have played any of those games for any length of time. I certainly wouldn't now. All that being said, I always, even back then, knew that the Game Gear was a shitty system.

The Sega Game Gear was Sega's answer to the Game Boy, a phenomenally more successful machine. (according to the ever reliable wikipedia the Game Boy sold 69 million units while the Game Gear only managed 8.9) Now before I go off sounding like a Nintendo fan boy (which, to be honest, I am) there were some nice features on the Game Gear: It had a colour screen which was back lit, a feature that would take Nintendo over a decade to implement in their own handhelds. It was easier for many people to hold, being wider. It eventually got a TV tuner, turning the system into a portable TV which was a pretty neat use of the technology. See, already I'm grasping at straws. The system's flaws more then make up the difference here: The colour screen was prone to becoming a blurred mess and worse than that was prone to burning out (the problem with two of my systems). The machine was a battery monster, chewing through 6AAs typically in 5 hours. Those batteries made the thing a heavy brick (just what you want in a portable electronic device!) and the worst sin of all: It didn't have any good games.

It is telling that when the original Game Boy was being given the intense shot in the arm that was Pokemon ('98) the Game Gear had already petered off into nothingness, dropped from support and forgotten. Owning one, I find myself seldom drawn to do anything with the system, although should a bugler ever break in I would not be opposed to hucking it at their head. These things have got to be good for something, right?

(Edit: Actually, they are good for something! They allowed this post to use both the "broken" and the "broken?" tags. Nobody cares except me...)

Item Number 23: Belt Watch

Time in possession: About a year

Description: A battery powered classic-style pocket watch with a chain attached to a leather carrying case. The case has a loop which can be used to attach it to a belt.

Cost: A present from my folks, so free, but I can't imagine that it was more than $10. In fact, I would bet money that it was one of those $10 watches from a mall kiosk. $10 even. Okay, I've now officially used "$10" too much.

Story: I suck at owning watches. Actually, I suck at owning many things: Perhaps that is part of the reason the idea for this project appealed to me: I lose things so easily, so at least this way I can have a record of them, before they slip away into the ether.

But watches: I am particularly bad at holding onto watches. Ever since I bought my first watch when I was 12, I've been unable to hold on to one for more then a year. Well, that's not exactly true: I do still have some of my older watches, but only because they broke early on and have since been thrown into tupperware containers of broken things, each of them tossed in with the faint hope of one day repairing them, that hope becoming more and more ridiculous as additional broken items are added, until the box is essentially a garbage that has never been emptied.

Which is why this watch is kind of funny: I've had belt watches before, although usually the ones that clip into a belt loop. They tend to get smashed between my hip and a wall (sadly, I only have one occasion where I can blame this on being drunk, the rest simply my clumsiness) but got used frequently because of how easy it was to just clip them on my pants and go. This one, I never really used because it was a little more of a production to wear. Then, along comes my trip to Texas a couple of months ago: While I'm packing for the trip, I see my watch hanging next to my various wristbands, bracers and pendants. "Hey! I'll need a watch in Texas!" and so I toss it in my bag and think nothing more of it until we arrive and I'm changing.

The watch doesn't work.

I don't even know if it EVER worked (I assume it did, I probably checked it out when I got it although I have no memory confirming that) but it certainly doesn't work now.

So, off it goes, into my tupperware box, until the day that I (ha!) fix it, or decide that I don't need a tupperware box filled with broken shit.