32x and what was Sega thinking?

[ja_le_co]

Actually, I remember that all this hardware confused me at the time. I had stayed with Sega up through Sega CD, and loved it. But 32X confused me

There was something so exciting about CD technology at the time. I think there was something unique (for me) about having an add-on, but when the 32X came, it was like "another add-on, really?" It's hard to recall if my dubious feelings naturally occurred, or if I was swayed by the opinions of the magazines at the time.

I vividly remember logging onto CompuServe's videogame section to see pics of Virtua Fighter for the upcoming Saturn and getting excited for a Sega product again. Never bought one though.

[Gunstar Green]

SOA was thinking the same thing Sony and MS are thinking now. "We've got a huge install base, why not squeeze as much life out of this as possible?" But mentioning that a better product would be out soon when pimping out your new piece of hardware probably wasn't bright.

That's where the East vs. West headbutting comes into play. SoA wanted them to hold off on the Saturn because the Genesis was still doing well in the United States and SoJ wanted to move on because the Mega Drive's popularity was pretty abysmal in Japan.

SoA gets demonized but their idea actually sounded good on paper from the standpoint of the American market. In hindsight yes, they should have just dropped it and let Sega move on with the Saturn which they initially thought was further down the line than it actually was, which turned the 32X from its original purpose as a stop-gap into a pointless upgrade.

SoJ deserves some blame here as well, things arguably could've gone a lot better if instead of making the 32X they just continued to support the Genesis up until after the Saturn's release. Instead they just dropped all support early and let the Super Nintendo run away with the market share, making it look like to the consumer that Sega had just given up.

[dtrack]

This 2001 pic alone worth checking this topic!
32x was about Mortal Kombat 2 for me. All the ports sucked bad (however the PC was decent with a strong hardware). Genesis had weak colors, animation (and no crouch punch even with a 6-button pad?), snes had ultra low resolution and full of glitches, and low of everything. PSX and Saturn had loading times and misplaced audio and so on. 32x is still the shit if you don't count emulation. Virtua Racing was also good but then the Saturn was slightly better maybe. The only issue was me, i never owned one
Other than that: garbage.

2001.gif

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[Erik_Twice]

Virtua Racing was also good but then the Saturn was slightly better maybe.

Protip: Now handhelds can emulate the 32x so you can play Virtua Racing on the go. That's pretty awesome! Now if we could only get Daytona ported...

[ExedExes]

Virtua Racing was also good but then the Saturn was slightly better maybe.

One of the few 32X games I did enjoy was VIRT-YA RACING DELUXE. I got the title right. Get a copy and check out the voices

Metalhead was another one, but thanks to the stupid radar that breaks down halfway through your mission for some reason, it's no good.

[bryan_65]

32x was about Mortal Kombat 2 for me........32x is still the shit if you don't count emulation

I will have to agree. I still play that port once every week or two.

[Breetai]

There was something so exciting about CD technology at the time. I think there was something unique (for me) about having an add-on, but when the 32X came, it was like "another add-on, really?" It's hard to recall if my dubious feelings naturally occurred, or if I was swayed by the opinions of the magazines at the time.

I don't think it was just the magazines. I had a Sega CD and was PISSED that Sega sort of ditched it in in favour of another add-on. The Sega CD was not cheap, either; not even when the 32X came out. I didn't need any magazine to tell me to skip over the 32X and wait for the Saturn. Others like me were even more upset at Sega and didn't even give the Saturn a second look.

[noiseredux]

That was me breetai.

[Breetai]

That was me breetai.

I did the best I could while posting from the toilet.

[RCBH928]

Any way I do not recall many , if any , add-ons that improve graphics.

I haven't seen any add-on that doesn't

I meant to say I have not seen Graphic Improving Add-ons much
Most add-ons are to connect other devices like a light-Guns, modem, memory card, keyboards. The following extremely popular consoles never had graphic improving add-ons as far as I know:
Gamecube, Dreamcast, PS2,oXbox, SNES,NES, Gameboy,Gamegear, Neo-Geo, Master System,Wii, psx.

I think the only consoles that had graphics improving add-ons are:
Genesis, N64(You really dont feel it), and the PC engine CD .

I also did not know that the Sega CD improved graphics, I thought it just let the Genesis read CDs