This was my first console! I was 7 years old, and my father said he was getting me a video game system. He looked at the SNES, Genesis, and the X'Eye at a local Radio Shack. I remember him saying that "CD was the wave of the future", and it would pay off to have a system that would be an all in one solution. I have very fond memories with the X'Eye. I still have it and it is in working condition. :)
My dad worked at an AV shop and we got one for free. I never knew what "SEGA Genesis" referred to because I grew up thinking the X'EYE was the official SEGA console.
Thanks for this little history lesson! My dad used to work for JVC (Victor Company of Japan) and NIVICO (Nippon Victor Corporation) as an electronic repairman in the late 70s and early 80s, he used to repair TVs and VCRs. This is in Greece. Later on he started selling them as a wholesaler instead of fixing them. He also imported Fisher Electronics products. Man, I was privileged to be raised in a house filled with the latest consumer electronics. He still has his old workshop filled with old JVC manuals, schematics and components on vintage electronics scattered all over the place. Today it serves as a storage room cluttered with myriads of things one accumulates in his life...
+Larry Bundy Jr I mean i woulden't mind having one system rather than stacking three freaking consoles on top of each other xD I mean i know theres this snes console that is like two other systems in one which can plug into the tv (obvisouly) sorry for the grammar-
I'm hoping to do a lot more videos on hardware this year. First up is the JVC X'Eye! I also added a new outro after the video ends. It seemed fitting given my style. Hope you like it!
+Gaming Historian Just curious... as the letter X is sometimes read as the JVC [Cross] Eye? No clue if that was the case, and I can't tell if it is funnier as an accident or intentional name.
The ability to play karaoke cd-Roms is such a feature that would appeal to the Asian market. Karaoke has never been as popular in the US as in Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines and Thailand.
@John Sabp Not as much in other part of the world as in Asia Or at least that's the "rumour",is like common knowledge but i haven't been able to find a source
Ah man, I got one of these for Christmas in 2001, and it only cost about $30 at the time. Unfortunately, the laser failed about a year later, and I ended up trading it. But it was a really neat piece of hardware, and I wish I'd had the acumen to fix it back then.
I actually had one of these around 94-95: I have no clue where or how my Aunt got it for me, but I did enjoy playing Final Fight CD on this thing. This thing was really cool! Thanks for doing a feature on this!
+Joe Johnson Can you recall per chance if your Aunt was a catalog shopper? I remember seeing these in both Service Merchandise and Best! Catalog Showroom as a kid, and do believe I read that they were heavily marketed through sales catalogs. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs had them too.
The timing on this video being released is great! I just went to a gaming convention this past weekend and saw two of these systems for the first time but did not know anything about them, thanks! :D
Never realized how unique this was. I bought mine at Best Buy (day after Thanksgiving, 1994) for $79.00. The Genesis alone was selling for $150 at the time. Still like new and I'm glad I kept the box and all the packing material.
Also worth mentioning is the proprietary and expensive power supply of the X'Eye that is often missing from used models. Easily one of the favorite consoles in my collection.
Yes sir. They aren't around much anymore unfortunately. But in the 90s and up til around 2012 or so, JVC was my first choice for anything they made. Home Theater, Car Audio, and I had a sweet 24" flat crt...wish I had kept that TV. They were generally a hair cheaper than Sony or Panasonic, and every bit as good. Miss them being in the market more prevalently. They've now merged with Kenwood. Also a brand I've grown to trust.
Fun fact: Because it uses the standard Mega Drive 2 A/V output, you can use Mega Drive 2 RGB cables too. S-video output might even be useable without needing to mod it, assuming the video output hardware is the same and it’s just the port that got removed.
I loved watching this one. I have 2 X'Eyes. I bought my first one with a stack of games from a friend of mine about 10 years ago for $50. That was my first Sega CD. Then, a few years ago, I happen to stumble upon another X'Eye in a salvage store around the corner from my old house. It was just the system itself, but it was only $10 and was in perfect working condition! I got a lot of awesome stuff from that salvage shop. My Intellivision with the Voice Synthesis Mod, my second Turbografx-16 and all the games I own for it (around 17), and some really rare Genesis like The Hyperstone Heist and Castlevania Bloodlines as well as the Sega CD version of Lords of thunder. Every game was $3, regardless of platform.
Thank you for letting me know that the 32X works. I have a JVC X'Eye and because I'm a collector with limited space I have my Sega CD and Genesis stored, and wasn't sure if the 32X would work when I eventually buy one.
I gotta say, the "funding for gaming historian.." bit at the end of each video really hearkens back to the old PBS model. As a huge fan of historical documentaries and of course PBS I say hats off to you, nicely done. And of course yet another solid, well structured and informational video.
I first saw this when Somecallmejohny used this for his Sonic CD review. His Uncle (who is a huge gamer, and introduced him to gaming) let him borrow it.
I remember seeing this console heavily discounted at Best Buy. It was priced at just $30. I passed up on it, because I had sold all of my Genesis and Sega CD stuff so I could get import games for my Saturn.
Yeah, but an Iphone 7 is stare of the art. This is a frankenstein machine thrown together very late in the consoles lifespan. That would be more like paying almost 800 bucks for an iPhone 5/6 hybrid 3 months before the 7s release
Jeremiah Payte iphone work of art? Lol they cost 300 to make and sell for 1200. The only thing the iphone is is marketing and millions of dumb sheep falling for it.
Love the X'Eye. I found one at a pawn shop nearly 15 years ago, and it's been my main Sega Genesis console since then. Lots of love for my model 1 and Sega CD, but the X'Eye is just very convenient. Great video, man.
***** Heh, yeah, I've had mine for years. Maybe I just got really luck because I haven't had any problems yet. Granted I haven't played it every single day. Lately though I actually have been playing some Android Assault just to hear that kick-ass music! I've even been thinking about replaying Lunar or Snatcher. Anyway, the possibility of it failing is now going to be in the back of my mind. I'd really hate for that to happen as I love the slimness and convenience of it.
Awesome video. Got one a few months ago with all hook-ups and two controllers and about 4 games for $65 at Goodwill. The ONE decent Goodwill I have ever found.
I had one of these! I loved it and it was my introduction to the genesis after being with the SNES for a while. Also introduced me to Popful Mail one of my favorite games
My cousin had one of these! I remember visiting him and playing games together when I was really little, and being absolutely confused as to why it had a cartridge slot and a CD slot both. (I only had Nintendo consoles as a kid) I couldn't figure out why it had both, but we only used one of them for games. I remember playing Sega games on it, but no Sega console looked like it, so I could never figure out just what the hell was wrong with my memory.
My pops won this x'eye in a raffle sealed nib @ an employee function & gave it to me as a kid. Wish I still had the box, but I've kept it mint all these yrs & still play it to this day!🎮💥💪🏽😁
+Gaming Historian, you've truly turned into of the best content providers on RU-vid over the years! Thank you for all of the hard work and dedication you put towards making them! Looking forward to seeing what's to come!
these were going for 60$ canadian in the montreal area in 95-96, they were on sale at a local furniture retail chain store called Brault et Martineau!! still got it!
I have one in the box. Got a lot of use out of it. Brand new for $99 from Good Guys when they were clearing them out. I'll have to dig it out this weekend. Had a JVC game with it "Wonder Dog".
I remember running into this JVC X'Eye at a Best Buy back in the mid 90s, this was a current video game historian's dream, in their video game section they had top loading NES consoles running Wario Woods, a shelf with 3DO games, a Philips CD-I section running those horrible Zelda "games", and of course the "new" JVC X'Eye proudly on display, I don't remember it being so high, so maybe it was when they were closing out the systems. I was just there getting Super Metroid so I think we all know who won.
+Rave Raptor Know that feeling man. Around half a year ago, I stumbled upon an advert for someone selling a ps2 slim new, like completely new with the plastic still on. Worst part was that he was selling it for about 15$, and I didn't take the chance :(
Bought my husband the JVC X'Eye for Valentine's Day this year. He loves your channel and collects a lot of esoteric game systems and games. Thanks for your content!
@@ModernDayMagus Aha, yea, sure. It's a player's fault that this "engine" (it's not an engine, it's a game) is poorly coded, not elecbyte's (whos bad at coding) fault.
Love your show. It has really high production values for a RU-vid channel. I would expect to see this sort of thing on the History Channel. How has your show not been picked up by a cable network? I would love to see what you could do with a small cable TV show budget and professional production staff.
I got my X'Eye in the mail on Monday, June 5th, and you're right, Norman. The Power and Reset buttons are pretty satisfying to press, but the Open button is also a wonder. I couldn't stop pressing that button and listening to that loud click. As I said earlier, however, it'll be a stand-by spare for when my SEGA CDX breaks down. Even so, I don't think I would've known about this system without you. I thank you for letting us know about this amazing system.
I have an X'Eye and it's FANTASTIC. My favorite part about the power/reset buttons is that you can use the tip of the Genesis controller to press them!
I LOVE MY X'EYE!!! It's the preferred way of playing all my Sega cartridges, but I do have a small problem. The console can't load Sega CD games, it just freezes completely when I try to load them. It's not the laser/reader, because the console can play music CDs just fine and the cartridge slot works perfectly, too. Could it be the capacitors need replacing?
Never realized these were so rare! My family had one, and so did the next door neighbors, living in Honolulu around 1995/96. Whenever I've tried to tell people about it in the decades since, however, no one has ever heard of it.
This seems like it would have been better sold at $350-400 instead of the rather outrageous $500 they were asking for. Shame it sold so poor, it looks nice and is apparently really good.
@@babybuussj4 Because Sega may have been willing to license third-party hardware, but they weren't about to license their brand name for the product to a competitor, because that would have been completely insane...?
All your videos are great! Thank you for your quality films. I also like your laid back style, it seems like all the other retro youtubers scream at the viewers.
my buddy had this console. he actual had a game that was a sega cd game but didnt work on my saga cd console but worked on his jvc called third world war. i would let him borrow my sega cd and he would give me his jvc just to i could play it at home.
How is it possible to have a downvote already? It has only been up for like 10 minutes. So someone just subscribes to this channel and once a video is out, he/she just dislike it immediately?
I have one of these. I am considering selling it, it is working great. However, the convenience of having a genesis and sega cd at the same time with one power supply is great, and the system actually works with a 32X unlike the CDX. However, I might consider keeping it if I could do an RGB mod for it, as I want to both be able to get the best possible video quality as well as be able to use a SCART to HDMI convertor so I could record gameplay.
I actually bought my boxed X'Eye off eBay last year for about $220 and the thing was "mint"...I doubt anyone played the darn thing. Now I need to see if I still have those CD-G discs laying around that my CDi wasn't able to read and annoy my wife some more.
is the space between the controller ports the same as the other mega drive? I know some adapters for multiplayer games and such plug into both ports however if the spacing is different it would of course not work.
+Animated Freak Excellent question! I measured from the beginning of the first port to the end of the 2nd port and it's about 2 inches, which is about the same as all the other Genesis consoles too.
I'm glad to finally find some info on this little gem! I lucked into mine in pristine condition a few years back at a GoodWill for $5 and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Funny enough I've never thought to try my 32X on it. Good to know it works.
Not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I got three of these back in the day. The 3 titles it came with offered a PC-Like Experience and it felt very futuristic with 16 bit being the norm. Also, The JVC X'EYE model had a top notch music CD app built in with PC-Level features like track programming, equalizing, and visualization. The spin motor died on my first, and I was too young to get it fixed at about 13 in 1995. My second was lost in a fire, and my third had some kind of electrical short preventing it from turning on. Good times.
I have both the X'Eye and the CDX. I'm glad I was able to pick up the X'eye when I did. I did not pay anything close to $300 for it - more along the lines of $100 on eBay.
why did i immediately feel how satisfying it was to push the power and reset button as soon as you pressed them though? almost like i could feel the action in my fingertips myself
It's worth noting that the Audio on these units is superb and the RGB output is simply gorgeous. It's by far the best stock revision as far as audio and video quality goes. No need for a Megaamp or RGB amp if you have one of these. The biggest drawback however is that you can't play Master System games on it via an Everdrive as it can't do the proper soft reset into SMS mode that is required for this. It can however play Master System games perfectly fine with a proper cart adapter. Plenty of 3rd party ones exist that are small and are about the size of a Genesis cart, so no need for the giant Power Base Converter that won't fit.
+8-Bit Eric its not gay so long as u "Grapple" in the ring, wear as lil as possible (speedos are ok), be a lil flamboyant and let ALOT of people watch ;-) If you do that, then its fun family sports entertainment!
Wow. I lucked out when I got an X'Eye last summer. I bought it for $151 and it works just fine. To get the best audio and video quality, get a Genesis Model 2 SCART cable and SCART to HDMI adapter. You won't be disappointed.
EBsessed And yet his best episodes were always those where he actually talked coherently about a game instead of just spending the entire episode literally shitting on it and screaming.
+DGneoseeker1 In case you have not seen those videos yet, try james and mike mondays which I in general find more enjoyable as they go deeper into the games they are playing and its background/history as well as their own memories and experiences around the time.
When I was young I always wanted a Sega CD. I had the Genesis but my parents didn't understand the idea of an add-on component so they wouldn't get it for me. I had to wait until PlayStation to play Lunar Silver Star Story and to this day I haven't had the chance to play Lunar Eternal Blue. I wasn't even aware that X'Eye even existed until your video. Thanks for sharing!
My first Genesis was the X'Eye. My parents got it for me for Xmas at only $300 at EB Games. I still have it. My 32X is still attached to the top. Playing games like Farenheit 32X, where you had to switch discs was complicated; I had to angle the 32X but not remove it in order to get the disc drive open wide enough to swap discs! The karaoke element was awesome tho. Didnt just play CD-g, but had a feature to make ANY CD karaoke. It turned down the vocal track while boosting the rest of the audio. It wasn't perfect (it guessed which was which and sometimes the cds had the vocals on a track it didnt expect and you'd end up turning off the guitar instead). It's what I used to record my first song parodies to send to Dr Demento.
As someone who owned a Genesis (Model 1), the Sega CD, the Power Base Converter, and the 32X when he was growing up, I would think that the real benefit to having an all-in-one would be not just the convenience of it being easily accessible, but rather conserving power. With the exception of the Power Base Converter, which I don't think had its own power supply, I remember having a real problem trying to find a way to plug all that crap in together. Not only did they all have their own AC adapters, but they were all those bulky, block-types that blocked other outlets when you use them. You could take a single, decent-sized power strip and use up the whole thing just for your Genesis and its add-ons. In the end, though, it didn't matter, because Sonic CD was the only game I ever played on the Sega CD that I felt was worth playing, and despite owning several 32X games, literally zero were worth it. However, that stereo headphone jack on the original Genesis was and is one of my favorite features of the console, so seeing that this thing had both that and an integrated mic input alone might well have sold me on this machine had my Genesis Model 1 failed after the Model 2 had been released.
Purchased this at a Best Buy for the low price of $89 back in October '95. Sold the box, manual games and proprietary composite cable the system originally came with over the years but still kept the system itself. 26 years later both cartridge port and cd laser still work great. Oh and the sound on this system is amazing. Easily on par with the original HDG Genesis model 1. The picture is pretty crisp too with proper RGB cables.
I had one of these and left it at home when it moved out. Years later my mom asked about it and I didn't know it was rare so I just told her to donate it. I hope she did, and some collector got a hell of a lucky find at Goodwill or something.
Love this. I had one, got it as a Graduation gift in 1995. By then they were priced to move, if I remember correctly. Mostly wanted it to play Working Design releases. Sold it about three years back, along with the rest of my gaming stuff. That little system brought me a lot of joy. Popful Mail, Lunar 1 and 2....sigh...
