A flashcart includes some of the nice things about emulation like the ability to not pay an arm and a leg for rare/expensive games, the ability to try before you buy, etc but all on original hardware the same way you played as a kid, or not making you worry about cleaning games. I honestly prefer to have the real game in front of me than a flash cart for stupid reasons but playing on a flashcart at least is a very reliable experience that lets me play a game the same way I would have when I was 10.
Emulating on my laptop or a retron or whatever is never quite the way I remember stuff; there's always at least to some extent vertical tearing and sound never quite sounds correct. This is most easily noticeable while playing a technical game like, say, Street Fighter 3 or something always feels at least a little bit wrong to how I'd rather play it on a console.
If the only argument you have against a system is that it takes up space then a flashcart truly does seem the best thing to have lying around. The 32X itself takes up little room and has several unique games that are well worth owning (in particular when you consider the low price point of the platform in modern times).
Focus on 3D. Shoehorning it into whatever it is you had already designed, and 11th hour compensation affected by what your opposition is doing, ain't gonna cut it.
Unfortunately, that's what they did with the Saturn too. It was a 2D powerhouse with 3D added at the last second. And because Sega didn't think that Americans wanted 2D games, they left most of the good ones over in Japan. To me, those issues were more damaging than anything caused by the 32x.
Perhaps that would have worked better but I'm absolutely unconvinced. I'm honestly of the opinion that the 32 bit generation has the highest ratio of bad to good games of any generation post atari. The problem with that console generation in a nutshell is that the hardware wasn't good enough for good looking 3d games; at the same 3d is the next big thing and nobody is focusing on 2d anymore.
You have a lot of growing pains as developers attempt to understand how to work with 3d cameras so you have a bunch of absolute garbage games that are way worse than the previous generations worst offerings.
I think of the N64 library in particular here; there are next to no games on the system that I like whatsoever. Around 200 different 3d platformers where you're wandering around in fog with graphics that don't really make sense to me because there sure weren't enough polygons for anyone to work with back then. You often have very few objects on screen of interest and slow paced action. And then I often hear that the N64 graphics hardware was originally going to be in the Saturn. It seems to me that if the Saturn had the same graphical hardware as the N64 you wouldn't have had all the entertaining Saturn games that I liked but instead would be saddled with the N64's garbageware.
If the Saturn was more of a 3d powerhouse (and $100 cheaper, and no bad will towards Sega from previous dropped add-ons, and didn't have a surprise release with next to no games for almost a year) then you would likely have ended up with fewer games that I can look back on fondly and remember playing. Instead of finally having accurate arcade ports of CPS2 and Neo Geo fighting games that were excellent ports. Compare the PS1 versions from the same era and they seem to be a bunch of nigh-unplayable mistakes. With the Saturn the way it was you had the scads of shooting games or neat games like Guardian Heroes, or Clockwork Knight. I loved the game Dragon Force; it used the limited capability for 3d along with it's excellent 2d processing power to make a game unlike any other that clearly couldn't have been done on any platform other than the Saturn at the time.
Perhaps I'm alone here but I liked the Saturn a lot for what it was and only wish others hadn't been taken in as much by early 3d graphics and that Sega of America had taken more chances and released more of the 2d games that were released in Japan.
