The Sega Genesis & Sega CD vs The Sega 32X - The Complete Series 

Genesis does what everyone 32Xpects the 32X to be able to do! I'll work on that.

It's funny since Genny is the base system. I think Knuckles Chaotix scrolls smooth. It probably takes the help of Genesis. When 32X decides to scroll by itself it isn't nearly as smooth. Scaling and moving objects seems smooth but scrolling an entire screen layer left and right is better for the Genesis to handle. I heard Knuckles uses the Genesis to scroll everything except the characters themselves. Even though it's using the Genesis graphics engine for the lands, it still uses the extra colors of the 32X in conjuncture to make it more vibrant. Developers needed to make the best of both systems, and how it was designed to work.

@@Lightblue2222 This makes me wonder if the 32x is actually using the cpu it has to handle anything. The clock speed is supposed to be faster than the genesis clock speed but not as fast as the saturns clock speed. If it is actually being used I have to wonder if it's being used properly because all these dropped frames sure don't make it look like it.

@@HellTantrumbull well its forsure used on anything that scales foward in size since Genesis was never great at that. And it's used on whatever is 3D. The characters in Knuckles Chaotix scale in and out at times, and there are some 3D elements here and there. I've just heard that scrolling 2D backgrounds is the 32X's weakness. Maybe it wasn't designed to do that on its own since the Genesis already can. Since the Genesis is part of the 32X, that means it should have no problem. My guess is that developers relied too heavily on one side or the other without properly balancing the system. I dont think any of the Japanese Sega made games had issues. Probably just the western developed games. I heard Sega of Japan was so mean to Sega of America that they would make America figure out their hardware for themselves with very little help.

Well there's only one that was SERIOUSLY lower than the Genesis version, and I have almost every 32x games, and both the GEN and 32x of this one, that's FIFA '96. But I still popped in FIFA 32x over the Genesis version every single time I played the game after aquiring the 32x port almost 2 years after I got the GEN one. The fully 3D engine back then was just so incredibly impressive and far above the fully 2D engine with sprite players that just the experience was well worth getting fully used to the pretty slow gameplay all things considered. It was absolutely awesome to experience back then, as the only soccer game I had ever experienced with a fully 3D field engine like the 32x port had was FIFA 3DO, which was an earlier game, I believe the 94 or 95 iteration of FIFA, except it didn't have a year attached to it's title on the 3DO. And playing that on the one friend I had who's older brother owned a 3DO since like 6 months after launch (whenever his older brother wasn't at home of course, that dude was EXTREMELY protective of that damn 3DO, he wouldn't even let his brother play 2 player with him on it which was complete overkill... I think I remember that his parents had to spend like pretty absurd money on that console in later 1994, and he ended up having to receive it and 1 game as his entire presents for 2 birthdays and a Christmas, but that was a seriously good representation of really just how impressive it looked back in 1993 for people who regularly bought videogame mags. The amount of an upgrade over the SNES, GEN, and what the Jaguar appeared to be was really just a massive jump, people who lived video gaming in 91-93 were fuckin HYPED for that machine and the hopeful ushering in of machines like it in terms of power and polygons, even though the Jaguar was advertised largely along side the 3DO in the magazines, what the screenshots and opinions of the writers were telling you, was that the Jaguar wasn't even ACTUALLY in the same league as far as performance, which was later proven to be very true when they were released). Anyway, my introduction to personal 3D and polygon gaming at my home was my 32x alongside Virtua Racing Deluxe, Star Wars Arcade, and Doom on Christmas 1994, all pretty damn awesome ports of fully 3D engine games, with many polygons in the 2 former, and I had SO much fun with especially VR and DOOM, and experienced true awe seeing these 3 3D/polygonal games coming from a mushroom that only had to be put in my Genesis' cartridge slot to achieve, and I even somehow had a TV in the living room that I could bring my GEN/32x combo up from the basement when the TV wasn't being used that had an S-Video port, although I didn't know what the port was or what it was for until almost a year after I had my 32x, but promptly got an S-Video cable upon learning all about it, which upped the anti as far as visual fidelity immensely compared to the composite I used on the TV up until then, and especially the RF connection I was forced to use with the basement TV (But oh well, at least the RF only basement TV was a 27 inch screen, which mostly made up for it as that was a sizable screen to play games on in 1994. It really was an AMAZING and such an exciting time in home gaming at the time on consoles, and when I learned about the 32x in the magazines leading up to it's release, knowing I had a Genesis 1 already, I was SERIOUSLY pumped for it, as it's sub $180 price tag on release day meant that I was almost sure I could convince my parents to get it for me for Christmas since it had been 3 years since I had got a console/, expensive gift like that, and it would only be the second I ever received, and even alongside games, which to my Dad's credit he went all out on getting me 3... I absolutely treasured my 32x, and because of my experience with it in 94-96, I still do treasure it. But yeah, I had always been a moderate fan of soccer games, and when I read FIFA '96 was coming to the 32x in I believe it was early 1996, I was all in...but alas it ended up being a EUR only release....which caused me to have to wait a bit under 2 years after it's release to finally get it....when we finally had internet in our house. Although I suppose it ended up being for the best as I'm pretty sure I ended up only having to pay $10 for it brand new on an admittedly sketchy ass looking website that I was actually significantly worried I was just gonna end up paying for nothing cause this was a late 1997 website for a retail store that we're talking about here, and shit was SO different back then, people didn't know how to build a professional looking website back then, that was something you hired people to do, whcih I seriously doubt they did from the way it looked and performed lol. Alas I did actually receive my copy of FIFA 96 along with the ONE copy of DarXide they had left on the website, but also only for $15, which even though was listed as new, it came as a cart w/manual, unlike FiFA which came in its box. But ultimately I was very glad to have discovered the website, as I ended up buying 2 backup 32x's for $16! New in box, people couldn't give them away by 1998, along with my Saturn that was only fuckin $25 used with 2 controllers, Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, and Virtua Cop, all 3 brand new, but in like some sort of official sleeve release with all 3 of them, and the Saturn smelled like straight cologne when I got it haha. I played SO MUCH Virtua Fighter 2 and almost as much Daytona after I got that damn Saturn, then Sega Rally also from that website new for $10. Ended up being an AWESOME videogame store/website, which I would say with unbelievable prices, but in 1998, which is crazy to believe when you see the stuff now, people/stores were literally giving away their Saturn/32x stock to just get rid of the shit already by that point, it was treated like those consoles and their games were almost worthless by that point...how I wish I knew how much things were going to change with those consoles and their libraries while I had access to so damn much of the stock back in 1998 on that site for nearly ALL clearance level prices other than the few 1998 release Saturn games and some late 97 ones still at that point at least... I would have focused so damn much of the money I had on buying just a shit tone of 5 and 10 dollar Saturn and doubles/triples of 32x games if I had ANY idea.... Win some lose some I suppose...

That’s rough… and I can see why you left consoles after that experience. Sega tough me a valuable lesson that no matter how big the hype and marketing push, system can be dead within a year. Fortunately, I never got burned like that during the 90s. I was much more paranoid. The closest call I ever got was I almost paid full price for a CDS, even though I already own a Genesis. Bullet dodged.

To be honest I wish I had gotten into PC gaming back then. Now and then I'd randomly get a CPU game as a present, and I'd play it because I didn't have many options on my dad's girlfriend's computer. But some were pretty solid and many more that I didn't know about were even better.

I got burned on the 32x AND Saturn back to back, because I was just a kid who didn’t know about import gaming, so after Burning Rangers (the last Saturn release I got brand new) I got an N64. I did also get a Dreamcast, but I was hoping that because the 64 had launched only a few years prior it would stay on the market for awhile, so if Sega fucked up again (as they kind of did) I would still have new releases on something. The Dreamcast was awesome, just like the Saturn was, it wasn’t the Sega games teams that fucked the company up and they gave me great titles. Third parties showed up much stronger in North America for the Dreamcast than they did for the Saturn.

I meant to say, CPU games. I already was into console games at the time.

I never had a 32x or Saturn I went to N64 after Genesis thanks to my parents I later got a Dreamcast for my birthday l

Back in the 90's that sounds like a hell of an upgrade to the Genesis experience for only 100 bucks. You're right though, it's a shame we never got more releases at that quality level before it all went to hell.

Me 2 I got starwars cause everything else was nwo sold out

I’d really like to see what dev teams might have done with more time to get familiar with the hardware.

They launched the 32X in the same year of Saturn launch in Japan. If 32X was launched in 1993 I think it would be successfull, but in 1994 it was a mistake.

@@GuilhermeMiranda89 yea that’s just one in a long line of Sega’s blunders. It worked out for me. Nearly 30 years later and we got a sweet rom hack of MK2 from master linkuei.

And it’s also a mastersystem in one , trough ,while the genesis was made with mastersystem compatibility in mind, it would be cool if sega lord x would come with part 4 of it to ccompare genesis titles with master system versions of it, in fact i find it so funny how the pakage of the powerbase convertor says. “With this adaptor you can play master system games wich you bought at the time for you master system also your genesis so you don’t have to buy new games” ,ahahaha what was sega trying, to convince consumers to buy their power base convertor in favor of buying new genesis games??? Haha am glad it didn’t work or sega would,ve hanged their selfes with it.

aka Megazord!

@Dave Davies Yea, but that supposes that the devs thought it was worth their time updating the HUD, when they already had a hud for the Genesis version that they could use. This kind of stuff really stands out to us now, but on a crt it may have been barely perceptible.

Woot!

Finally a true SEGA fan. SEGA forever!!!! I love my 32X and my SEGA CD too!!!

The 32X is one of those “great in concept, horrible in execution”. It simply didn’t have the software to validate its existence.

It was a piece of 💩!

The 32X had great potential, but many of the games were actually WORSE than the Sega CD versions. Imagine if SEGA had put the same marketing and development muscle into better arcade, shmup, and jRPGs on the Sega CD. The Console Wars would likely have turned out much differently if enthusiasts and developers hadn't been run off.

Your step sister had fine tastes

Sounds like a great step mother

You're just mad because Big Daddy Cool beat Undertaker!!!!

I would be mad too, but Taker got him irl at Mania 12, so it’s whatever.

Remember this was the days of SEGA USA and SEGA JAPAN not actually working well at all with each other. Most of the crap the runined the company was the fact that it was essentially two different companies in operation competing against each other. I think at this time only Nintendo had real tight control over their extended company branches.

@@eskanda3434 I totally agree with you.

@@braddl9442 Even Nintendo sometimes did not get the developers in the west. Like when Rare was developing Goldeneye, Nintendo did not really like you were killing real people so they suggested what if after the game is done James Bond goes to a hospital and handshakes the people you shoot. Yea someone at Nintendo really say that to Rare.

Yeah, the Sega CD made perfect sense and already had a large installed base. The 32X made absolutely no sense and just pissed everyone off.

Super Mario kart is way better than mode 7.

short development times too

It was the rushed development time and sudden announcement of the Saturn release while most of these 70 titles were still being worked on, contributing to 29 of them being cancelled.

The only thing that was wrong with the 32X and SEGA CD was the industry bias against SEGA nothing else.

They also suffered from being confusing. I was the biggest Sega fan boy and only now am I realizing I don't think I ever fully understood what the hell was going on with those add ons.

I read egm reviews and knew to stay far away.

You all prolly dont give a damn but does someone know a trick to get back into an instagram account..? I was dumb lost my password. I love any tips you can offer me

@Ahmad Ronald Instablaster :)

@Lachlan Saint thanks for your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now. I see it takes quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.

@Lachlan Saint It worked and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy:D Thank you so much, you saved my account !

@Ahmad Ronald glad I could help xD

Agreed, the 32x is and was better as an add-on

It probably wasn't worth it to them to make an all new game when the Saturn was coming soon

Virtua Fighter looks fun. I got Sega Genesis on my switch and they had Virtua Fighter 2 and I thought "Why not the 32x version?"

Virtua Racing is still fun and cheap

And also drained and sucked software titles away from the sega cd, genesis and saturn.

I need to do a video on the failed Roadmap to Hell: Venus, Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Pluto, etc.

There were a few standouts on the 32x that I remember. Star wars arcade Virtua fighter Virtua racing Soulstar WWF WrestleMania the arcade game Mortal Kombat 2 After burner deluxe Space harrier deluxe

32x had good stuff. Just ports were trash

The Sega CD was capable of 4,000 textured polygons per second, itself. So it was more powerful than Nintendo's FX chip. More importantly, it was capable of scaling, rotation, mode 7 style graphics, arcade sound, and amazing games like Batman Returns and Soulstar. Imagine if Sega of America had been able to spend the same $10 million marketing 3D graphics on the Sega CD, then bring more good titles using M2 mode. People would still have believed in Sega and not questioned their sanity. They could already display 256 colors out of an expanded pallet of 3,375 in either Shadow-Highlight Mode or by mixing background tiles as with some FMV.

Oh come on? I feel I was pretty damn critical of the 32X.

You're cute.

@@DennisBolanos Your mom said the same thing when we wrestled with our shirts off!!..... you were born 9 months later.

@@Jolly-Green-Steve WTF? Whatever...

@Brian Babin yeah just admit that the Sega CD was under-powered and had dog shit software.

@@Jolly-Green-Steve I would say 98% of the software just didnt take advantage of what was there. Soul Star and Battlecorps are like early ps1. If all the games had been like those then the add on would have seemed more worth it. Instead we got games that were literally no better than Genesis. Once cartridge size increased some Sega CD games were even ported to standard Genesis with no difference at all. Like Sol Feace is no different than Sol Deace except for the music. And the Sega 6 Pak Cartridge was better than the 5 in 1 CD.

You have to put it into perspective though, the FMV games back in the day were absolutely mind blowing. They don't hold up today, but going from side scrolling 2D to interactive movies was incredible then.

@@mattorama Not really. They were a novelty at the time, and the reviews said the same thing. If Sega had focussed on good games instead of FMV, they'd have had more success. The failure of Mega CD, CDi and even 3DO which had loads of this crap ported over, speaks for itself.

Lol

I was going to make a similar joke; “What did the 32x bypass the Blaster Processor?!

Sega is still around today yknow, they just make games not consoles

Never forget that sega always forgets us 🙋‍♂️

180,000 flat shaded polygons/sec for the 32X, verses 180,000 Gouraud shaded, textured polygons/sec for the PS1. Yes, many PS1 games could've been ported directly to the 32X CD had SEGA made this process easier with development tools and a PS1-like API.

I have a $300 arcade stick with all custom Sanwa parts, super high quality stuff. But I still perform best competitively with an Xbox One controller.

The Sega CD was capable of Mode 7 but you'd never know it unless you played Sonic CD. Ultimately FMV was a gimmick that didn't pay off. I think it has some potential for cutscenes between regular gameplay but not a substitute for gameplay itself

@@williamdrum9899 What about Battlecore and Soul Star?

We're not worthy!

I can use closed captioning while watching it..

Nep Nep!!!!! Do you want pudding?

@@mawile2468 What flavor pudding?

@@scramblesthedeathdealer Custard 😝

@@mawile2468 I thought custard was its own thing, not a flavor. I don't know.

@@scramblesthedeathdealer No Nep Nep still likes Custard💜 Just ask Compa

Mine was $19.95, and games were already $3-5. I could've bought the whole library had it been available. SEGA should've stuck with the Sega CD.

What killed me is that I had a Genesis but damn the Snes was killing it ! The Snes single handedly took the 32x, Genesis, Sega CD on it’s own.

@@pipikakachu Yeah in 1994, Nintendo had donkey kong country. Same launch window was 32X, biggest argument against the 32X

It was poorly timed, but it would be interesting to see what a dev team could do with more time and experience with the hardware.

I didn't know that. I never played it for PC or 3DO. I played it originally on Sega CD.

The 32X CD needed 3 giant power adaptors what a piece of crap!!! If it all ran on 1 adaptor it would still suck anyway

I love this channel and its videos, but also, it was literally the last century, and it was even the LAST MILLENNIUM, so it blows my mind that there are still people around, who lived through the 16-bit era... in the previous century / previous millennium!!

It’s amazing. If you go back not too long ago on the original Xbox for example EA and Ubisoft made some truly fantastic games. I don’t know what happened.

Absolutely tragic that the Sega CD was capable of everything that the 32X was doing in software for rotation and scaling back in 1992, and updating the screen at 60fps (instead of 30fps for the 32X). Worse was that the sound was objectively better, and the 500MB in assets on a CD that cost $1 to make, versus having to spend $70 for a 4MB 32X game that was sometimes worse than bone stock Genesis. Even the Afterburner, Space Harrier, and intended Outrun ports could've been done as well and three years earlier on the Sega CD--and with better soundtracks and cut scenes.

Was Saturn popular in South Africa?

Yes, it's all 3 in 1.

Sadly, and I loved the 32X. From a developer's vantage point, the combined Tower of Power was almost as hard to develop for as the 8-processor Saturn, but they were never going to be selling to even one million customers with all three.

Yup, says so in the title and description.

Actually there are numerous instances where the Genesis and 32X have different contrast/brightness in their image quality. Most of this footage was captured by on the same device and on the same hardware. For instance, there are times when the Genesis version appears darker, like WWF Raw.