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SEGA 32X

Sega 32X box

Genesis with Sega CD and 32X attached.

 

 

As the 16-bit generation drew to a close Sega released this add-on to the Genesis to satiate customers in the lead up to the Sega Saturn release. Although initially popular, this add on was plagued by various shortfalls from the very beginning.

To be fair the system really has some decent hardware, has pretty good 3D capabilities, and could push a moderate amount of polygons. There are also five 32x/Sega CD games which use both add-ons in concert increased graphic and sound capability. However the console lacked the wide 3rd party support which most developers reserved for Sega's upcoming Saturn machine. Supply, compatibility, and a rushed initial game library further doomed the console.  Within a year support for the console had dried up.

Most of the (few) games are built around the "wow" factor, as in "Wow, my Genesis can do THAT with this thing on it?" Electronic Gaming Monthly called this thing "The Super Nintendo adapter for your Genesis." Pretty sad when your 16 bit competitor can dish out games that look as good as yours without an expensive add-on. Best game for this thing is probably Virtua Fighter. That's about it.  What is also sad is that this thing contributed to giving Sega a reputation for vaporware which eventually lead to Sega removing themselves from the console manufacturing business altogether.

 

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Name:

Sega 32x (USA)

Sega Super 32x (Japan)

Sega Genesis 32x (Europe)

Company:

Sega

Year:

1994

Games:

44

CPU:

Two Hitachi 32-bit RISC processors at 23MHz/40MIPS

Co-processors:

Genesis 68000, Z80, VDP and 32X VDP


RAM:

4Mb plus the Mega Drive RAM


Colors:

32,768


Polygons:

50,000 polygons per second


Resolution:

320x224


Sound:

2-channel stereo digital PCM (+12 channels of the Mega Drive)