The Sega 32X Experience
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- Опубліковано 3 січ 2019
- In 1994, Sega launched its ill-fated 32X upgrade for the Genesis and Mega Drive platforms. It would go on to be considered one of the worst ideas in gaming history. In this episode, I'm going to talk a little about what it was like to own a 32X, some of the games I enjoyed, and how it made me feel when Sega abandoned the platform just a little over a year later.
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Opening animation done by:
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Episode Notes:
Opening SEEEEGAAAAA chime from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending music from Batman for the Sega Genesis. - Ігри
These are some of the videos that turn a bad day into a great day
Glad to hear you liked it. :)
I remember getting my 32x with knuckles chaotix bundle back in 95'
When I loaded up that game I went mad! That intro noise then the intro song and then the graphics! My lord! I played that game with my brother over and over. I only had it for knuckles chaotix and I was happy. Still got my original game too. Then I got a Saturn in 97' when they were giving away the 3 pack in games with a nights demo and bootleg sampler. Good memories...
My mom snagged a 32X for me in clearance from Blockbuster for a nutty $15, and while I know people love to cast judgement on the thing, but I have a big soft spot for the odd add-on (I was too young to know the drama and industry such and such behind it) and I will always have a place in my heart for Virtua Racing Deluxe. Also, it hurts me that it took over 20 years to get another 2D Sonic that looks as breathtakingly beautiful as Chaotix.
Also, man, a 32X CD remastered version of Lunar would have been a sight to behold...
@7MGTESupraTurboA I didn't say it wasn't a failure... I just have a soft spot for it because of personal experience, I would never argue that the 32X was a good system or even a good idea from the get-go, but I was a tiny bean who was still in grade school at the time, I didn't know about all that back then :°
Micaiah, I agree with you 100%. I bought my 32X under similar circumstances for a freaking steal; mine still works and I love playing it. If I had forked over $150 for the add-on and $70 per game, I'm sure I would feel differently, but a cool clearance system with a bunch of damn good clearance games? What's not to love? I also think it's a darned shame that with as many times as the main Sonic games have been anthologized to death, we are nearly 25 years later and Knuckles Chaotix has never been ported or included in a collection. It's beautiful and one of Sonic Team's best soundtracks of all time, bar none. Cheers to the 32X -- the niftiest flop that ever was! :)
I got 2 32X now and I love it! I know more can be done with it and wish it would have been. It's too bad they f'd up because this thing kicks ass!
I got a 32X on launch for Christmas and I loved it. I recall wishing more games would come out for it, but I loved the good ones that I had. Awesome to see Chaotix getting the love ot deserves here in these comments, because people like to bag on that game. I was always wowed by the colors and loved the tether mechanics! Also all the different characters you could play as. It's a forgotten gem.
$70 dollars a game though is an extortionate sum. Especially when there's so many bad games.
It's really refreshing to see such a balanced video on the 32X - great job, as always! Despite being a huge Sega fan at the time, even I didn't see the point in getting a 32X, especially seeing as the Saturn had already been released in Japan by then. From Scot Bayless, a producer at SoA at the time:
"I'm Joe Gamer and I decide to take the plunge and buy 32X. Now, about 10 minutes later, you guys tell me I need to dump my 32X and buy Saturn? But now I'm broke! 32X was also a body blow to Sega's credibility. The first punch was Mega-CD, and then along comes 32X - another rushed launch with a weak starting line-up. At that point, even the die-hard Sega fans were starting to ask what the heck we were thinking."
Buying a Dream Cast was the "kick in the balls" for me when they just quit production. Sega CD and 32X games had that Netscape Navigator quality full motion video.
If the Saturn wasn't already on its way, the 32X could have allowed Sega to wait an extra year or two to release their next-generation console, which could have let them make something that was noticeably more powerful than the Playstation, possibly being capable of things like perspective-correct texture mapping or fully 3D scenes with decent draw distances, which Sony's console always struggled with. As it was, though, it was obsolete as soon as it was launched, with the Saturn already having been announced by the time the 32X was released.
If Sega really wanted a low-cost stopgap then they should have made the Genesis Virtua Racing port into a lock-on cartridge so that other games could use its extra processor, or maybe encouraged the development of Sega CD games that used that add-on's sprite scaling and rotating capabilities for 3D gaming. The 32X was just way too expensive for what it did.
221b Sega planned on making the lock on cart during the summer or late 94. Also, Virtua Fighter and Daytona USA was to supposed to use the SVP along with the rumored Star Wars Arcade game. Since the 32x project came, it was cancelled. They should cancelled the 32x, push out titles for the SVP chip, genesis and Sega CD. The rest will be moved over the Saturn along with gathering the resources for the development kits to 3rd parties.
Funny story on how I got a 32X: Sometime back in 1999/2000 I went into Funcoland, and as soon as I went up to the counter, the cashier slid a boxed 32X, boxed Doom, boxed Star Wars Arcade, and boxed Metal Head towards me and said "Merry Christmas", I got all that for free. Looks like they were phasing out 32X, out of the store. Back then no one wanted this stuff, you couldn't give this stuff away (except to me), that's why prices were so low, unlike today where demand for all these old games has skyrocketed.
Unfortunately, I couldn't play the system because it didn't have the Model 1 Genesis adapter. About 6 years later, looking through my box of controllers, dead center, at the bottom of the box; like a movie, conveniently placed there; I find the adapter (note: in 2004 I bought a lot, for a Sega CD, Genesis model 2, and a bunch of accessories and a few games, off Ebay) it looks like that Sega CD lot also had the adapter I needed, so now I can finally play the 32X.
Favorite Games: Doom, Knuckles Chaotix, Star Wars Arcade [I have beaten this and have done a walkthrough here on UA-cam], Kolibri, and Spider-man Web Of Fire.
Definitely liked Kolibri. No love for Tempo?
@@AlexvrbX Never played it.
@@silverwings21 If you find a good deal, it's a worthy addition IMHO.
@@AlexvrbX I've been toying with the idea of getting the complete library of 32X games, because there is so few of them. So it will be on my radar.
When it first came out I wanted one so bad I talked my grandma into buying me one like 2 weeks after they came out. I was never regretful but disappointed with the support it got. I thought it was capable of so much more especially since I already had a Sega CD too. The 32xcd combo seemed like it had potential.
I still feel the desire to own a 32x simply for that epic port if Virtua Fighter. Such an unexpectedly high quality job.
I bought 32x about 4 months after it's initial release, and to say I was disappointed is quite the understatement. Funny thing is, when I bought it and got home, I sat there reading the back of the system box, and believing that combined with my Sega CD, I would never need to buy another system and I was on top of the world. Needless to say, I was truly devastated when things played out how they did. But I got over it and moved on to Saturn the next year. And I still always loved my Sega CD. The only Justice was, when the 32x was discontinued, and all the games were on clearance, I was able to buy the whole library and still have that complete 32x game library on my shelf today. 90% of the games I bought brand new on clearance for $10 or less, never even thinking that in the future they would have any resale value. Probably the best investment I ever made in the 90s, and it was completely unintentional. At the time I bought them though, I did feel great about getting so many games for next to nothing, because it offset the fact that I felt ripped off buying the system at full retail, not to mention full retail Doom and Star Wars. With tax, it was almost $300. But Doom was a good port. Keep up the good work.
Sega were always their own worst enemy.
After the Genesis, I think they though being first to market was most important thing.
No joke. More times than not, when their Western branches had a good idea, the head office in Japan would shrug it off.
Hey! Leave WWII out of this!
@@subzero8679 There might be stupid Japanese Enterprise-men, but, the best video games have always comed from Japan. Just to mention the legend of Yu Suzuki, and many others.
WCW OF Video Games smhh
I remember Toys R Us having shelves full of $20 32X's. I didn't end up getting one til I was older and into collecting. I got it before prices skyrocketed. Sadly I sold it a few years ago when I needed some cash.
You remember how much you sold it for?
@@demonreturns4336 It was boxed but not in amazing condition (the box) and I believe I sold it for around $100.
Thank you for a great video again.
I used to own a 32x back in 1995 but
the only game I was able to purchase was Virtua Racing Deluxe. But I did spend so much time playing it. It was like a whole new concept for me with the polygons and everything..
I wish I could play more 32x games.
Great video as always. Really like that bit you mention about the Doom port. It's really easy to look back on this stuff and criticize the technical flaws without any perspective on the time period. Really adds a lot to hear what the gamers of the era were thinking.
Exactly - if you were someone who couldn’t afford a PC, 32X Doom got you pretty close to the experience for a fraction of the cost.
32x was fairly priced and had a bunch of good games. its unfairly bashed really. probably segas biggest mistake was not making the saturn 3d friendly from the beginning. took too long to get impressive looking 3d out on saturn AND the other big mistake was they priced the Saturn $100 too high to begin with,.
I mean, you said it, it's just a bunsh of good games, the Sega CD or PC Engine CD had way more than a bunch of good games talking about peripherals and , even some of the worst consoles out there have a bunch of good games
Panzer Dragoon was a North American launch title. Shit looked better than anything anywhere else in 1995.
@@Thor-Orion I guess thats true but the game wasnt good enough to warrant $400 for the saturn and 60 more for the game
Dude my Friend got Doom and a 32x for Christmas and it was sooooooo much fun
Yup, I played the heck out of Doom on it. Since I didn't know about the PC content missing at the time, it meant nothing to me. I just enjoyed what was there.
@@SegaLordX Its crazy how that is, right? Today I think the PC port of Street Fighter II is crap, but back then, it was "Hey! I have Street Fighter II...on my PC!"
Good episode, again. Your show really grew on me, kudos!
Even though I catch myself in a "what if Sega would have.." scenario I doubt the extra money saved from a 32x campaign would have given a better Saturn. Hitachi as Main CPU grew historically and they went the video chip road the way they went ditching 2 probably better alternatives. As it stands today my wife which I dragged into retro gaming can´t tell much of a difference between Saturn and PS1 in the 3D department but grew fond of the 2 / 2.5D games on the Saturn. My 32x and Mega CD are currently in the mail, time and travelling took my childhood Sega from me years ago.
Please continue the great work and thanks again for this well made video.
The Mega-CD is awesome and was a totally legit move (although 1° Sega of Japan should have released more games for it that made heavy use of the ASIC scaling/rotation chip and 2° the system should have been released earlier in Europe. I mean, 1993, really?!) but the 32X was unnecessary. This, or the Saturn was unnecessary. It was either one or the other but releasing both hardwares should have NEVER happened.
Now the 32X _could_ have been something but it needed more games and also games more polished than the rushed Doom port for instance. A system like the Wii proved to be successful despite being underpowered for its time so the 32X could have also been a success compared to its contemporaries the PlayStation or the Nintendo 64 but, again, and only *if* it had lot of heavy hitters and heavy hitters *exclusive* to the system. Some of the existing 32X games are excellent and show some great potential as do After Burner Complete, Virtua Fighter, Kolibri or Stellar Assault so with more games like this (including promising planned games such as Castlevania: The Bloodletting or Beyond Zero Tolerance) and thanks to the massive Mega Drive user base, the 32X could have been successful and could have been "enough" for that generation up until the Dreamcast came out.
The Saturn should've also used the Silicon Graphics chipset that the N64 used. Would've had better shooters, platformers, and racing games.
You lived the life I wanted. I still wish I could own a 32x to this day. I do miss my genesis after it was stolen... But I watch your channel to relive my youth and live vicariously through your experiences. Thanks for the videos!
I did feel duped when I bought a 32X, but I did really enjoy Virtua Fighter and Wrestlemania arcade. Those were 2 solid fighters and I put a lot of hours in them
Back in the day, I rented a 32X from my local video store several times. I remember playing Mortal Kombat, Star Wars Arcade and Cosmic Carnage in particular. I'm sure I rented more, but nothing really impressed me. What's ironic, is I sold my Genesis, Sega CD and all my games to buy a PS1 when it first came out, and I wasn't impressed with it either. At least not at first. It took a year or so before I felt like I had made the right decision.
Same here!
Actually, traded my Genesis in at either Babbages or funcoland.
$50 credit.
And bought a PSX.
Not impressed initially.
You know, had Sega debuted a lush and vibrant and ultra colorful 2d Sonic title, obviously using the that 32x color palette, I very well would have bought in.
This was the beginning of the end for Sega as a console maker 😔
Unfortunately you are correct.
I think you hit the nail on the head with timing. The promise of what could be with CD tech was put to absolute shame in the early years. FMV was a joke from the get. I never could understand what the appeal was for it. I lived in those times and pretty much everyone I knew couldn't understand it either. We had such high hope for improved music, sprite scaling and rotation (at least with the SEGA CD) and were just hoping that the developers would actually take advantage of what the tech had to offer. Sadly, only a few did the add-on even a bit of justice. Personally, I was really into JRPG's and had been blown with Y's Books I and II for the Turbo Duo (another add on that was just too early and too expensive) and really looked forward to seeing what SEGA could do.
Alas, SEGA was happily running headlong down the road of self-destruction and what could have been never was.
I love your videos, X. Keep up the good work!
As an owner of the 32X and SegaCD at the time I never understood the hatred. There were decent games on the 32X but no games like Sonic the Hedgehog or Super Metroid. For the most part it had games that were already on the Genesis and Super Nintendo as well as SegaCD. If it lasted longer we could have seen some great games, plus it was both CD and Cartridge based. Out of all the consoles released that generation like the 3DO and TurboGrafx-16 it still had the better library.
I'm still waiting on Alien vs Predator on the 32X from Capcom!
I like the 32X, but mostly for its unfulfilled potential and what could have been.
Rather then what it turned out to be.
Sega did a great job of building up hype for the 32x. I remember seeing an hearing about all the cool stuff the 32x was going to do an play sadly Sega just didn't deliver on that. Oddly enough I still like my 32x an play what few games I do have for it.
I really enjoy this channel, it's reinvigorated my love for Sega games
I'm glad I never got swindled by sega. I got the Genesis shortly after release. Then the dreamcast after it got canceled. I bought a used saturn for 25 dollars years later but never played it much. I didnt know how many great imports were out for it in 2001.
I almost bought one back in the days but thank God, the guy working at my local game store had a saturn for sell and I just couldn"t say no to that, especially back then they were in short supply.
Great video man. 32X was a disappointment for sure, with a hand full of games worthwhile; VR deluxe and MK 2 were great IMO. Although graphics were mixed, even in those 2 games; the Megadrive was almost always used for the background graphics, because the 32x couldn’t produce smooth scrolling (there’s a great Digital Foundry video on this topic). This meant the limited color palette of the megadrive was even a issue on most 32x games.
Maybe but I think 64 colors ought to be enough for backgrounds. As with everything it seems to come down to developer creativity.
Doom on 32X isn't so bad when one takes into account the fact that many people didn't have that good of a PC in 1994, the game really needed a 486 (preferably a DX2 66Mhz) to run well , and alot of people were still stuck with a 386 or even less.
In hindsight, its easy to say that even in 1994 , the Mega Drive was still doing fine competing with the SNES, and there really wasn't a need for 32X , though of course at the time Sega were probably concerned about the Jaguar and 3DO being a threat.
It was never a hard choice for me. "Do I get a game console, or spend that money upgrading my computer?" Computer always won out, and I never felt like i made a poor choice, when games like Doom and the like came out.
@@SomeOrangeCat At the time I also mainly used a PC (played NES and Mega Drive at friends' houses) though one has to remember that PCs at the time were very expensive, not to mention quite hard to use for alot of people.
Really took Win9x for PC gaming to become a bit more accessible, at least for anyone who wasn't into PCs big time
That doesn't even factor in the rushed nature of the port. They ported the Jaguar port to yet another architecture in an extremely short period of time, and it was fairly decent taking this into account. Better than the also-rushed Saturn adaptation, IMO. I think that was entirely third-party though, not id. Realistically they could have just taken the 32X code and bumped the resolution a little and it would have been better than what they ended up with.
I agree with your assessment on the business end and would probably have shared on the personal end it if I had been an early adopter of the 32X, but my view of the system was always more positive and more nostalgic than most people's because of the circumstances of when I bought it. I bought the 32X on clearance (for $20!!!) brand-new from my local Wal-Mart along with a bunch of games that had also been heavily discounted ($5-$10), including Knuckles Chaotix, Star Wars Arcade, and Space Harrier. It was years before I was able to save up to buy a Saturn (also on its way out, coincidentally), and the 32X served as a great "bridge" system and a cool novelty to show my friends whenever they came over. So in a weird sort of way, my experience with both the 32X and the Saturn was what Sega wanted from a customer service satisfaction end, even if it ended up losing them a ton of money because I was a perennial late adopter.
Your experience is exactly why arguing about which video games and systems are "best" is utterly pointless. We each have had such difference experiences with each of them, it's never an apples to apples comparison. I love hearing stories like this with supposedly "bad" hardware or games.
Great video. I have a 32X and love it! Sega should have went the route of Nintendo when it had the GBA, DS, and Wii. 3 unique platforms or pillars with clearly defined roles. Sega's downfall is with all the infighting with Sega itself. The 32X and Saturn could have co-existed as a 2 pillar system. The Sega Saturn for unique memory intensive games like Panzer Dragoon and Astal and the 32X could have been home to ports of Sega's 32 bit arcade games and super scaler games like a true arcade port of Super Monaco GP and Golden Axe Return of Death Adder. I would have paid good money be able to play perfect ports some of these arcade games at home with no loading. Sadly, to this day, many of these arcade classics still have not seen a proper home console release. So sad of what could have been. My only hope is that the homebrew community or indie third parties would make games that use the capabilities of the system especially with the Polymega coming out and its ability to play 32X games so more people will have access to the 32X hardware. Thanks again for the video.
I totally agree. They should have ported more arcade games on 32x and now people wouldn't have called it a flop. It had the potential, good hardware and was capable of handling most arcade games of the era, including some 3d titles
How on earth did Sega get away with those blatent lies in it's adverts? 40x more powerful than the snes? hmmm 6x more powerful than 3DO!?... pull the other one lol They must have used the most obscure benchmarks imaginable to come up with those claims.
Sega of America's marketing was pretty much Michael Bay dressed as Poochy from The Simpsons.
Anyone know the background music at 9:00? It sounds so familiar and it's driving me crazy! Sounds so good!
+RetroSpectors
Sounds like it's from Virtua Racing Deluxe: "Replay".
@@silverwings21 thank you!!!! virtua racing was the only decent 32x game I had when I was 11yrs old, and I had like seven 32x games lol!!
@@RetroSpectors You're welcome.
The 32x Space Harrier looked awesome!
Thanks for a positive view on the system. Games were good on it but as you said the support ended quickly.
Let's just dwell on how short that glimpse of Cosmic Carnage was at the end in the ad.
I sort of wish Kalinske was able to fully take the reigns and do what he wanted cause the 32x seemed like a really good idea. When I was a kid I remember parents giving me the choice between the Saturn and the 32x and I always rented the 32x. I really liked it cause I liked the version of doom it got and some other fighting games. Just semi recently within the last year or so I remember reading something saying that future consoles may have attachments that give upgrade paths in order to keep cost down because as consoles evolve the hardware becomes more expensive. Sorta seems as if the 32x and the ideas behind it were ahead of it's time. I'm enjoying your channel and am glad I stumbled on to it. Thank You!
Are you kidding me with those beginning quotes? Tom Kalinske was seldom wrong when it came to the gaming industry. However, it appears he and Sega bit off more than they could chew and it cost them dearly. Like you I supported the Sega 32X as well. Although I practically jumped ship when I got my Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation on September 9, 1995 (yes, at the same time). Why oh why didn't Sega give us full backwards compatibility with the Saturn? They were one of the first to embrace this idea with all of their Mark systems and the Genesis. They could have really struck a huge early blow to the PlayStation while keeping everything before it viable. For God sake the Saturn had a freaking Motorola 68k 16-bit processor inside. Can you imagine a Sega Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn in one machine?! They could have even made upgraded Genesis carts to take advantage of the extended color palette.
Addendum- I don't know if it's safe to say that any PC of the time (that could run Doom) was significantly more powerful than the 32X. PC's definitely had the 32X beat in the RAM department and processor to processor comparison but...the 32X had two of them. I know the 32X could have very easily run Doom in full screen had ID more time and include the entire game with simplified geometry. I wonder if it could run the full PC version of the original Doom if given the proper development time and enough cart space? I think it just might be able to. The original Doom for PC did not require hardware acceleration and ran typically off of on-board video.
Virtua Racing Deluxe was actually a really good game
I still remember when the AVGN made his vids about Sega & when he said that he got his 32X at some flee market for only $2.50 ...fastward to present day & you'll be lucky if you can find *just the 32X itself nothing else* for under $180 on eBay 😭🤷🤦🤦🤣
I wanted a 32X for years, but they were always expensive as heck here in Brazil. Thank God this dream never became a reality. One less regret! 😂
There should be a video on cancelled 32x games. Rip old Sega
The home-brew community should really go to town on expanding the library of the 32X. It would be MEGA fun!
Thank you for this! I've always felt that the 32X never got a fair shake. I also agree with that Streets of Rage 3 for the system.
It's just sad that Sega had to either scrap their projects or abandon their consoles a little too early, one after another. The Mega Drive was truly a flash in the pan for them. But yeah, creating a console and pushing others to support your machine is a brutal undertaking like no other. Applause for Sega for managing to duke it out for 4 console generations, especially given their resources.
Love your channel a ton thanks for the content 👌🏽
That point about the 32X being released a year earlier is spot on, with more support it could have done well and there were a lot of interesting titles that were in the works like Virtual Hamster. Would have been interesting to see some Capcom fighters on there too.
A year earlier would have meant the hardware would have been different, likely a SVP chip with a custom graphics co-processor. That would have meant it would have been significantly cheaper though, which may have been a very good thing.
@@SegaLordX yeah, I was never mad at Sega for it cause I got it cheap and it held me over till I was able to get a Saturn and the Saturn still to this day is one of the best systems out there in terms of game content.
By the way I always enjoy your videos and commentary, keep up the good work.
On its own, all other factors aside, 32X had potential -- high color palette, quality audio capabilities for cartridge, decent internal polygon rendering, speed, Genesis-level control tightness, Sega-exclusive games. Better overall than Jaguar, 3DO, CD-I, pretty much any pre-Saturn console. Considering how many people already had a Genesis, a lot more folks might have snagged a 32X if it had a truly great launch lineup to get people intrigued from the start.
Yo, Metal Head was good for it's time! It's still the only 32X game I bother to find a ROM for. :(
Enjoyable video and instructive thank you find me somebody that knows their history👍👍👍
God, those quotes by Kalinske in the beginning are chilling to read, even all these years later. The failure of the 32x reminds me of the failure of the PC Engine SuperGrafx. At least not as embarassing as the Virtual Boy.
Great video as always. Your content is top notch!
Thanks bud. Appreciate the message. :)
It just kills me to know that the 32X could've been the only place to get a great port of Capcom's Alien vs Predator. Darkstalkers was apparently in the works too. Could you imagine a port of Super Street Fighter II Turbo or X-Men COTA in mid -late 1995 with no loading times? I would've bought one for Capcom's arcade ports alone!!
You’re the best type of fan, The fan that criticizes a product when it needs to be. Not just praise everything that comes out lol
Never even heard of the 32x. I went from sega genesis to sega cd-x and then the dreamcast later on.
It was so expensive at first, for what it was. I remember getting some good play out of the 32X after the deep discounts :) A few really good games on 32X for sure!
It was discounted hard too. I remember out Toys R Us having a stack of them for $29 at the end.
Love this channel. Bring more 8 bits content please
Almost 30 years later, Sega can make up for their error in a way by releasing the NEPTUNE Mini- the scrapped Genesis/32X hybrid pictured in several game mags back in the day. It looked sleek & it could have 20-25 Genesis games, 15-20 32X games & a handful of Sega CD games. I'd pay $250-$300 for it easy. That would be a good intro before the Saturn & Dreamcast Minis to finish things off.
I'd prefer a Saturn/32x Hybrid as their next Mini. They missed a trick by never doing a Neptune though.
@@CharlesDarkson - whatever we can get would be good
@@bifftannen1598 Maybe a Saturn & 32X Hybrid could be called the 'Sega Jupiter' 😄
Before the 32x was released it was hyped on SEGA Visions magazine and all I cared about was, if it would have turn the Genesis into a Saturn compatible console! Other than that I saw SEGA becoming like Atari. The later happened sadly...
A lot of parallels between Sega and Atari. Both couldn't manage to do anything right after their one successful system, both were arcade powerhouses in their heyday. Atari with vector graphics, Sega with super-scaling and later, polygons.
It was too expensive. All of Sega's add ons were. And that's coming from someone who had a Sega CD (and I love it because I had both Lunar 1 and 2. 2 of the best RPGs ever made). When you take into account that you need to own a genesis, the add-ons don't really help sell the system. Lets say you want to jump in. At launch the 32X was 150. plus another $100 for the genesis. Another 50 bucks and a year+ of waiting, you can get yourself a N64. Sure, the price came down months down the line, making a purchase more attractive, but devs stopped releasing games for it, with focus being shifted towards the Saturn/PS1/N64 consoles, making you wonder why to bother in the first place.
It's a tough deathspiral to get out of. You need games to sell a system but you also need to sell the system to get devs to put more games on it. That's why that initial launch is so importantly. Honestly, only Sony managed to come back from something like that with the Ps3. Others have just faulted. X1 never recovered from its $500 price point, even after removing Kinect its paled in comparison to PS4 sales, WiiU flopped at the start, so did the Vita. The 3DS had a slow start but it's the handheld market, who was going to threaten it? PSP was old news and Vita was even more expensive. Phones are nice but nothing compares to the tactile buttons and hardware afforded by dedicated consoles.
Felman87
The 32X itself wasn't expensive for the hardware, thats ridiculous to say when you consider the price of a 3DO or even the Jaguar with all things considered, even if you did have to buy a Genesis it still worked out a good deal but the 32X was really only aimed at the 30 million Genesis/Mega Drive owners. Obviously in hindsight we know things didn't work out for any of the 3 mentioned but i believe the 32X was the best option over all.
The 3DO was reasonably priced if you take into consideration that the manufacturers didn't take huge a royalty cut from each softare unit sold like Sega and Nintendo did. They had to make their profit on the machine so couldn't sell them at a loss.
@@RetroGamesBoy78 Ya, it was $150 with the rebate. To say it was too much is crazy.
16BitBaz
You cant look at it that way though, the fact it was a poor business model is neither here nor there, it was super expensive and thats a fact.
@@RetroGamesBoy78 Yes as a consumer item it was expensive, but for the tech and the time it was probably reasonably priced. If they used a software model like Nintendo they might have been able to half the price and sold it at a loss like Sony did with the PS3. But they tried to do it like a computer where you pay up a lot up front for the hardware but then the software is much cheaper unlike the give the hardware away console model and then rip your customers off for years with every game they buy. It's a false economy as you end up spending more in the long run.
I love the 32X. It lives on thanks to PC's and emulation! 🦄
i have to say i really enjoyed metalhead, id never played a mech game before and i enjoyed what it offfered. You are spot on with Doom, it was brilliant and all my pc owning friends were amazed that not only could it run but that the control system worked very well (it was also vastly superior to the abysmal saturn version). Star Wars arcade was best played in 2 player y-wing mode and brought an experience id never had on a 16bit system and totally captivated me.
Great video people forget there was much excitement about the 32x and the initial batch of games were impressive for the time.
There certainly wasn't any hate among my friends. We were excited and wanted the thing to succeed.
Got my mom to get me this for Christmas, mainly for mortal Kombat , but it had nice graphics for the few games you could rent at blockbuster.
32X was one of those things your parents would get you for Christmas because the kid at the store convinced them it was the next big thing, even though you had no clue it even existed. Then you get it and you're like "uh, thanks dad!" and you try to be appreciative but you realize there's no games to even rent for this system and the playstation looks amazing. This may be a bit autobiographical
Soothing video as always Sega lord X !
Tempo looks amazing!
The 32x was never the problem. The problem was Sega (of Japan) rushing the Saturn to the market too soon and killing off the Genesis. Had the Genesis been allowed to stay in production as a budget alternative for a few more years, similar to how Nintendo continued to market the SNES well past the introduction of the N64, the 32x would have naturally developed a more mature library of quality titles. The rush to the Saturn (which was a great system IMO), with its botched surprise launch, did far more damage to Sega's reputation in the west than the 32x did.
Sega of America former employee BS excuses, covering up their own incompetence. It was a "you snooze - you loose" market and the Saturn was (all-considering) the inferior hardware when compared to the PSX. Getting a jump-start on Sony in the US was a reasonable gamble in such an environment. The real mistake there was not lowering the price to $300 right away and eating the costs. The surprise launch butt-hurt some retailers, but was actually a great thing for fans like me. We were starved for proper 32-bit gaming at home and being able to get a Saturn in May was awesome. No one wanted new Genesis games by then. The system was really showing its age and parlor tricks like Donkey Kong Country wouldn't have worked because of the colors barrier. The 32x was exciting at first and I had fun with a number of its titles, but it was DOA and Sega knew it, continually lying and hyping the shit out of it despite everything. It left a terrible taste in my mouth.
Yeah, Nintendo played the long game with the SNES and it paid off in spades! 'Games with polygonal graphics? We have those! Doom? We have that too! No additional hardware required!" They knew how to keep their base happy.
Sherbert's World of Schlock Doom used the super fx 2 chip on the snes.
@@maroon9273 Which was not a system add-on, as It came inside the cartridge. You didn't need to fork out money for an extra thing to make the game work.
Sherbert's World of Schlock I know right and then pay $70 for a new 32x game.
I liked the 32x Star wars truly tested your skills as a gamer. Virtua racing was a pretty good arcade port. great video as always.
I would love to see what a 32X-CD game pushed to its limits could have been. The FMV games on the 32X CD were drastically better looking than the Sega CD alone. It should of been able to complete with the PS1 (32X+CD I mean).
Great vid man! I think a similar situation to the 32X you should look to cover soon would be the NEC Supergrafx!! Super small exclusive library and an expensive stop gap.
Except that the Supergrafx was a failure on all fronts:
- it was a beefed-up PC Engine in an attempt to keep up with the Mega Drive or the forthcoming SNES but it still has many limitations: single controller port, 8-bit CPU, limited sound (1941 or Aldynes sound like NES games...)
- it was way too expensive for what it is (almost two times more than its competitors despite not even being better)
- it has only 5 games (and 2 of those aren't exclusives btw)
No wonder that it flopped.
And talking about this, I'd like to know the amount of Supergrafx sold as I can't find this number anywhere.
@@ryzmaker11 In a lot of ways that's still very similar to the 32x. Pc engine was a 8bit/16bit going to the SuperGrafx which still had a 8bit cpu but everything else was doubled to better match the megadrive and snes (half step to a more proper 16bit attempt). 32x came to the 16 bit console Megadrive/genesis and added to it: 2 processors (SH2s), some extra ram, vram, extra color and slightl better sound to take it a half step to 32bit gaming (proper 16bit to a half step at 32).
Both didn't have console exclusive but their library didn't necessarily work with previous iteration. Yet they were backwards compatible with pc-engine and genesis respectively. They also were compatible with the CD ad ons. CD-ROM2, super CD-ROM2 & ARCADE CD-ROM2 for SuperGrafx and Sega CD/Mega CD for the 32x.
@@Rotary_Lover_89 I get your point about the upgrade parallel but the huge difference is that the 32X is an add-on that works *with* your Mega Drive whereas the Supergrafx was a whole new system that made your recently acquired PC Engine already useless. It was just an awful move.
Also the 32X has much more games in comparison including more exclusives (Chaotix, Tempo, Stellar Assault, Kolibri...) and some of these games are more of a departure compared to stock Mega Drive hardware than Supergrafx games are compared to stock PC Engine hardware.
@@ryzmaker11 You are right, those differences are what makes the 32X a better route in my opinion and fortunately makes it easier for people like me who couldn't afford or knew the 32x at relevancy have it now to enjoy its library.
In the end they were both attempts to be competitive but ultimately fail vs the competition and their own brand.
@@Rotary_Lover_89 I was also late into the 32X (back then I didn't even know it existed) but I had an instant crush when I discovered it, circa 2010, alongside its port of Space Harrier. I was blown away by the quality of the port and by the fact that the system still used cartridges. And then I discovered Virtua Racing Deluxe and Virtua Fighter and again, wow!
As I explained in my other comment here, I think that the 32X could have been successful but it was either the 32X or the Saturn, not both.
Love your channel dude, Sega forever ✊
Thank you. :)
32X hardware wise was a BIG upgrade from stock Genesis or even Neo Geo. 15-bit color depth, thousands of sprites and 256 colors / sprites was a big deal...others including Neo only had 16 colors/sprite. Games like Kolibri and Tempo really showed what 15-bit color depth could look like in a game, even PC games maxed out at 8-bit during this era. Arcade perfect versions of Space Harrier and After Burner couldnt have been done on ANY other home platform at the time including 3DO and Jaguar.
awesome video as always i have a 32 x but dont use it much ill always be a rabid Sega cd fan
I had a Sega CD for about two weeks before returning it (this was back when you could do that) because it sucked so bad. Later got the 32X and ended up keeping it, but only had two games. Doom and Star Wars Arcade. I played the hell out of Doom but found SWA very lacking. It was impressive at first but the gameplay just didn't keep me interested. That was when I dropped Sega and went for the Playstation. I loved Sega and really wanted a Saturn, but the $400 price tag was waaay out of range for a birthday or Christmas gift. I don't think I knew anybody who had one.
It was a bad idea for the reason it was going to split up game development between it and the 32x. It would have been a great idea had it come another year earlier and served it's purpose as a stop gap solution until the saturn was released and nothing more. Way too ambitious from a project stand point when the saturn was well known to be not far off. Price was not cheap either? It's an add on, it shouldn't cost more than the host system.
The 32X should have been a year earlier. It wouldn't have had the same hardware, but Sega already had a similar plan in place to bring its Sega Virtua Processor(SVP) to the Genesis. It was revealed in the summer of 1993, and would have been significantly cheaper than the 32X design. That should have been Sega's upgrade path if they truly wanted one.
@@SegaLordX no doubt that there would have been a strong chance for success if that was the case
Even better postponed the Sega CD add on and release around 92 or 93 feasibly with some of the 32x hardware. Or just cancelled the 32x, sell the VDP as a booster adapter either the expansion or cart module. CPU and the audio chip as a enhancement chips and a SVP booster cart for the genesis.
@@maroon9273 SVP in a booster cart would have been a worth while release. Virtua Fighter and Star Wars arcade, along with the version of VIRTUA RACING we got would have made the device a hot xmas item in 94 if the price was fair. Even release a DELUXE pack with all three titles at a discounted price.
Brett Raleigh similar to the 32x package deals. Also, a decompression chip and a one or two channel audio chips from the 32x and Sega Saturn.
SEGA's Problem was their abandonment of their consoles if they just held on people would have gone with it, the 32X wasnt a bad idea the Saturn just needed more support and the dreamcast was great to i think they screwed themselves over i would love SEGA to come back into the Console Race they have so many Games i reckon they could do very well.
Parents didnt want to buy us a new consol. The add on was more appealing. A few kids on my block had one. And I still remember the feeling of it blowing me away with star wars arcade. I hadn't seen anything like that in a home.
I disassembled my 32x. It was a total mess inside. It is loaded with masking tape and wires going every which way. The only game I played extensively on it was Metal Head, and I really enjoyed it at the time.
I tried to combine a Genesis and 32X into one unit years ago. It was a hell of an undertaking that I eventually got working but it was ugly as sin. The way the 32X is made did me no favors in the attempt.
Any loyal Sega fan would’ve been consistently kicked in the balls every 2 years. The 32X stopped in 1996, the Saturn in 1998, and the DC in 2001. Any loyalty from the Genesis era was well and truly lost. Millennial & Gen X gamers do not forget what Sega did and may still not have forgiven them for the triple whammy gut punches they delivered.
Anyone answer this question for me: why do Motorola 68000 created sprites in Brutal 32x run much faster than the sh2 created backgrounds of that same game?
I still rock my Genesis model one I would have gotten a 32x but wasn't enough games for me and I loved my Saturn
5 years flies when your having the time of your life
A friend of mine owned a 32X and Virtua Fighter.... man was I jealous. I was amazed by the visuals. In retrospect the Genesis was still a hot brand. Sega should have focused on releasing more high quality games for it like Nintendo did with the Super NES late in it’s lifespan. The additional equity may have helped convince people to look into the Saturn rather than take the wait and see approach.
At least Nintendo didn’t screw their customers like Sega did with the 32X. They squeezed as much as they could out of the SNES instead of doing ridiculous add-ons.
32x came a year to late.
They should have sold it as both independent system like the neptune and the upgrade mushroom unit.
However they needed the mushroom to cheap. Like $100 upgrade cheap. With the neptune being $150.
From day one.it should have been a 2d focus system, made it a 2d power house like the Saturn and kep the Saturn for pure 3d gaming.
It would have been a great move for Sega and allow them to have 2 32bit systems going forward in that generation.
I never owned the 32x as i knew it was a stopgag, but i honestly loved the idea of powering up my Genesis ! If the saturn/ps whered never announce, the 32x would of been a great machine 😏
More than a Sega CD and about equal to a Saturn, I always wanted a 32X when I was a kid. As a huge Genesis fan, I thought it could provide that longevity (and who doesn't like add-ons). For whatever reason--price and contentedness with my Genesis--I never did get one. Probably for the best.
Sega should have stuck with their original plan, which was to release a device with a built-in SVP chip meaning they didn't need to put it into individual carts. Just dump that out for £50 max with Virtua Fighter as a launch title and I think people would have been interested. Going with a half-baked attempt to upgrade the Mega Drive/Genesis to a 32-bit machine was crazy, it would only have worked if Sega had fully committed to it and stated that the Genesis, with the upgrade, was going to remain their focus going forward. But everyone knew the Saturn was coming, so the 32X only ever looked like an attempt to squeeze a bit more juice out of the Genesis.
Ah man seeing a new eternal champions game on the back of the sega saturn box and never hearing anything else was a good kick in the nuts from sega to me
I don't regret getting a 32X... Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Afterburner, Space Harrier, Tempo, Kolibri and Knuckles Chaotix made it worth the purchase for me. Only part that saddens me is that they didn't make more Super Scaler ports like OutRun, Enduro Racer or Galaxy Force.
After the warm welcome that Space Harrier and After Burner received, you have thought it a priority to get more super scalers on it. Hell, an Outrunners port would have been killer.
I was that ONE idiot that bought a 32X but never actually bought any games for it so I never even played it - sigh-
Worst part is I have no idea what happened to it over the years of moving from apartments to house when I was younger and I’d imagine that my mom probably threw it out at some point
- double sigh-
Any system that provides a solid port of SPACE HARRIER cant be all bad
In hindsight it's easy to criticise the 32x but it was hugely exciting looking at all this tech Sega were working on.
It would have been nice if Sega focused on the Sega Neptune (AKA standalone Genesis/32X 2-in-1) instead of making the 32X into an add-on for the Genesis.
As long as the Saturn existed, the idea of the 32x or a standalone 32x/Genesis hybrid would have failed.
it actually would have made a huge difference as the megadrive portion would just be a chip on the side for compatibility rather than a giant bottleneck for the entire system that limited its buffer memory and colour palette. All the compromises in the 32x were to allow it to interface with the megadrive's architecture.
@@mashakos1 When you look at it that way, it makes sense that the 32x should have been a dedicated console.
32x never should have existed, not in a million years, neither should the sega-cd have. So much money and resources wasted both from Sega and devs making software for them.
I think what Sega should've done was make it so the Saturn could play Sega Genesis games. And that Saga should've forget about the Sega CD and 32X.
Really enjoyed the premise of this video: forget about everything you've read, you've heard, etc., and here's what it was like from someone that actually played the damn thing at the time.
I try and angle some of my videos this way to take away the hindsight that most "history of" stories put on the hobby. Often the actual experience of these devices go well behind the details you usually hear.
Hello SegaLord, I have a request on a topic that I can not find a forum and it is the difference ROM size of the required cartridge from Megadrive to a 32x to run the same game, or almost the same game, except for small differences in colors or details but that would not warrant 50% more than Megadrive, I can see this clearly in games like Pitfall (16 vs 24 Mbits ROM), WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game (unknown vs 32 Mbits), Virtua Racing (16 vs 24 ), Primal Rage (24 vs 32), NBA Jam Tournament Edition (24 vs 32), MK (24 vs 32). There are games like Space Harrier or After Burne 2 that when using the 32x Scaling capabilities, it should save ROM space by not using the trick of multiple Sprites of different sizes that the Megadrive used to create the false Scaling but that it was to occupy a lot of cartridge space, but comparing the 4Mbits cartridge versus the 24mbits cartridge makes me question things. The other games that appear in both consoles do not present this and if there are ones that use cartridges of the same size, just mention those that present this difference.