Do you like the 32X?

[esteban]

Do you like movies about gladiators?

[MrBroadway]

Do you like movies about gladiators?

The 32X was not nearly as entertaining as that movie.

[esteban]

Do you like movies about gladiators?

The 32X was not nearly as entertaining as that movie.

[Bloufo]

32X related, so kinda on topic,

[SignOfZeta]

Now if Sega had made the cartridge port on the back of the Saturn with the ability to play 32x games (like I thought they did back in the day) things might have turned out differently...

Yeah, the Saturn would have been even more expensive and less successful because of it and the legacy of the stupid ass 32x would have done even more damage to Sega.

[Black Tiger]

The only backwards compatibility that could have helped the Saturn early on is if it played at least Genesis carts. It was still a good time in history for backwards compatibilty and the Playstation had nothing it could use.

[Groover]

When it was out I was not a fan. I had a Sega CD and felt it wasn't getting the love it deserved. The 32X was gone so quick. I have a 32X I played Star Wars on it. I also have Night Trap CD32X. It works great in creating the Tower of Power.

[SamIAm]

There's an old proverb that goes:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The 32X is kind of like Sega's nail, or lack thereof. Obviously, it's not the only reason they had trouble, just as the kingdom in the proverb probably had more issues than one horse with a bad shoe. However, if I could go back in time and reverse just one of Sega's decisions, this would be it. No 32X means the Saturn probably gets off to a better start, especially in the US, and you can take that right on out to the Dreamcast putting up a real fight against the Playstation 2 however you like to imagine it.

An add-on like the 32X seems like such a neat idea in so many ways. I get why people only wish it had been done differently, rather than done away with altogether. However, it really should never have made it off the drawing board. It's simply a matter of it being foolish to divide your consumers and your development resources. There was no way you could successfully turn the Genesis into a next-gen system and simultaneously launch another stand-alone next-gen system, period. Since the Genesis makes a lousy backbone for a next-gen system, Sega's choice should have been pretty obvious.

My two-cent armchair retrospect strategy for Sega in 1994 would be to can the 32X and the Saturn both. Sony's Playstation was just too well-designed to take on directly with anything, let alone the mess that the Saturn was. Instead, drop the price of the Genesis and the Sega CD as low as possible to ride out the storm until 1996, then release a system with the processing power of the N64 and the CD storage of the Playstation. And have a damn 3D Sonic game ready at the release.

[crazydean]

SamIAm, you make some good points, but hindsight is 20/20.

The 32X was quite ugly. I think the Genesis/Mega Drive was an attractive system. I think the power base converter looked good and matched up well with the system. The Sega CD looked good, too, even the model 2 system contoured pretty well. The 32X was clearly rushed. I just wish it looked better sitting next to my monitor and other consoles.

Other than aesthetics, is there any reason not to just leave the 32X unit on all the time?

[MrBroadway]

Other than aesthetics, is there any reason not to just leave the 32X unit on all the time?

You save a plug if you don't.

[VenomMacbeth]

Other than aesthetics, is there any reason not to just leave the 32X unit on all the time?

If you want to use a Power Base or play Virtua Racing (the normal MD version) then yes.  VRDX makes the latter sting a little less though.

[xelement5x]

There's an old proverb that goes:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The 32X is kind of like Sega's nail, or lack thereof. Obviously, it's not the only reason they had trouble, just as the kingdom in the proverb probably had more issues than one horse with a bad shoe. However, if I could go back in time and reverse just one of Sega's decisions, this would be it. No 32X means the Saturn probably gets off to a better start, especially in the US, and you can take that right on out to the Dreamcast putting up a real fight against the Playstation 2 however you like to imagine it.

An add-on like the 32X seems like such a neat idea in so many ways. I get why people only wish it had been done differently, rather than done away with altogether. However, it really should never have made it off the drawing board. It's simply a matter of it being foolish to divide your consumers and your development resources. There was no way you could successfully turn the Genesis into a next-gen system and simultaneously launch another stand-alone next-gen system, period. Since the Genesis makes a lousy backbone for a next-gen system, Sega's choice should have been pretty obvious.

My two-cent armchair retrospect strategy for Sega in 1994 would be to can the 32X and the Saturn both. Sony's Playstation was just too well-designed to take on directly with anything, let alone the mess that the Saturn was. Instead, drop the price of the Genesis and the Sega CD as low as possible to ride out the storm until 1996, then release a system with the processing power of the N64 and the CD storage of the Playstation. And have a damn 3D Sonic game ready at the release.

The other thing that Sega needed to do if they were dropping the 32X is better utilize the SVP enhancement chip or something similar to bring out a game with the visual pop of DKC. 

But honestly, their abandonment of the Genesis so early was a huge mistake like you said, and was almost like just leaving money on the floor. Sure the hardware was older in Japan but the US was still going strong with it, and if you look at titles near the end of the Genesis lifespan it's pretty neat what they were doing with just stock hardware still and no enhancement chips like the SuperFX. 

[Black Tiger]

The Genesis akready had more than enough processing power and chips like SVP don't enhance color. If Sega was going to make games like DKC, then they needed to get good dev teams wirking on good games and after that was secure, then coat it with fugly pretendered cgi. The games they did try towards the end with cgi didn't use it enough for animation or just weren't good games. If Sonic 3 or a new sequel with a subtitle like "Sonic World" that played the same, but had massive amounts of cgi animation, it would have been tge closeat thing to cgi-based DKC-killer. But they were all up against Toshinden and Ridge Racer and Nintendo only coasted by as long as they did because of their extremely loyal fan base who had no Nintendo alternative.

The kind of game that shows how ugly the DKC series is, is Monster World IV. Aside from looking better and being a great game, it's also technically impressive and features stuff like a Mode 7 cinematic. Since JRPG were rapidly becoming more popular, Surging Aura and Langrisser II would have been other good choices to bring over.

But nothing was going to be a magical fix that would keep Sega in the lead. Nintendo never recovered either.

[vestcoat]

Is it worth buying? I don't want to buy this just to take up space in my game room.

Considering the 32X can be had for the price of a pizza and fits on top of a Genesis, the question you should be asking yourself is: "Am I willing to hassle with another wall wart?"

Yeah. f*ck it. Who cares? Spend another ten for Doom and Virtual Racing. Have fun.

No one has suffered buyer's remorse over the 32X since 1994.

[SignOfZeta]

There's an old proverb that goes:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The 32X is kind of like Sega's nail, or lack thereof. Obviously, it's not the only reason they had trouble, just as the kingdom in the proverb probably had more issues than one horse with a bad shoe. However, if I could go back in time and reverse just one of Sega's decisions, this would be it. No 32X means the Saturn probably gets off to a better start, especially in the US, and you can take that right on out to the Dreamcast putting up a real fight against the Playstation 2 however you like to imagine it.

An add-on like the 32X seems like such a neat idea in so many ways. I get why people only wish it had been done differently, rather than done away with altogether. However, it really should never have made it off the drawing board. It's simply a matter of it being foolish to divide your consumers and your development resources. There was no way you could successfully turn the Genesis into a next-gen system and simultaneously launch another stand-alone next-gen system, period. Since the Genesis makes a lousy backbone for a next-gen system, Sega's choice should have been pretty obvious.

My two-cent armchair retrospect strategy for Sega in 1994 would be to can the 32X and the Saturn both. Sony's Playstation was just too well-designed to take on directly with anything, let alone the mess that the Saturn was. Instead, drop the price of the Genesis and the Sega CD as low as possible to ride out the storm until 1996, then release a system with the processing power of the N64 and the CD storage of the Playstation. And have a damn 3D Sonic game ready at the release.

I agree with much of this.

I hope you guys really really love your 5th port of Space Harrior because that's the reason why Sakura Wars 4 is 25 minutes long and why Shenmue never got finished.