Despite the way it seems nowadays, Sega used to be a big player in the console making business and not just the video game making business, in fact, they were at one point the creators of the top-selling video game console in the late 80s and early 90s.
Despite a strong start for the Sega Genesis, it started to fall behind after the debut of the Super Nintendo, so Sega created add one for the Genesis to extend its life span. The second of these add one was the Sega 32X and here are somethings that you should know about it.
10 Release Date
The Sega 32X was first released on November 21, 1994, in the North American market. Shortly after on December 3, 1994, the 32X was released in Japan and in January of 1995 in made it's way to the European Union. When compared to its previous Sega Genesis add-on predecessor, the Sega CD, it was fairly cheap, cost $159 US Dollars when compared to the Sega CD's initial price tag of $299 USD and the initial price of the Sega Genesis, $189 USD. Keep in mind that these numbers are not adjusted for inflation and are the cost at the time they were released.
9 Naming Disputes
Despite most people nowadays just calling the 32X or the Sega 32X the add on was actually given a lot of different names by a lot of different people in different places. During its development, it was given the codename of Project Mars, which is a bit of an early indication of what would become Sega's habit of naming consoles after planets. While the console adds on was distributed across the world it had different names in each. In Japan, it was the Super 32X and in North America, it was called the Genesis 32X and the Mega 32X in Brazil.
8 Terrible Sales Numbers
Like we mentioned earlier, the 32X retailed for around $159 USD which is $30 dollars less than the actual Sega Genesis console. This was a lot considering that there weren't much games made for the system at launch and even by the end of its life span. This combined with the rumours that it might actually damage Sega Genesis game cartridges and the knowledge that the Sega Saturn was released six months after the 32X's release in North America and that the Saturn was already available in Japan lead to it only selling 800,000 units.
7 Went On Top Of The Sega Genesis
A bit of a minor footnote but it is still worth mentioning. Similar to the Sega CD, the 32X physically attached to the original Sega Genesis console by inserting the 32X into the top of the Sega Genesis where you would normally put the game cartridges.
This would also sometimes require you to have a separate prong attachment that you would need to insert into the Genesis first so that the 32X would fit because certain early models of the Genesis would not be able to accommodate the 32X otherwise. After inserting the attachment on top you would also need to connect the 32X and the Genesis through an extra cord for some reason
6 Backwards Compatibility
Direct backwards compatibility, or being able to play older generation games on newer consoles by inserting old games into the new console, hasn't been talked about lately, but older consoles had it most of the time. As mentioned in the last entry, to use the 32X you needed to mount it on top of the Sega Genesis where you would normally put the game cartridges. While on top of the Genesis, the 32X would still be able to play Sega Genesis games but like we mentioned there were rumours that the 32X could damage Sega Genesis games.
5 It's Own Adapter
Just like the Sega CD, despite being directly shoved on to the top of the Sega Genesis and even connected the second time through an adapter, the 32X required it's own separate power adapter that needed to be plugged into the wall.
This means that if you had the complete set up of the Sega Genesis, The Sega CD and the Sega 32X you would have three huge power adapter blocks and you would need to plug each of them into an outlet for them to work. You couldn't plug them all into a single power bar either as they are all too big, so you would only be able to fit two on a standard power bar.
4 CD 32X Games
So somewhere in the offices of Sega in the mid-90s, someone came up with the idea that the company should make use of the power of both Sega Genesis add one and produce games that require both the 32X and the Sega CD, this terrible idea lead to the creation of the CD 32X games. This is a pretty weird idea considering the low sales of both the 32X and the Sega CD, especially when you realize that the number of people who probably own both wasn't that high or at least not high enough to make a return on the investment of developing an entire game.
3 How Much Does It Cost Today
When you look for a 32X online nowadays, it can be fairly hard to find. This is likely due to the low amount of sales that it had during its very short lifecycle of basically less than half a year and that's if you're only counting it's North American release and not its Japanese one. While looking for a 32X on eBay came across a few sellers offering it along with the Sega Genesis. This is pretty standard but what is somewhat perplexing is the price as some are offering the bundle in the double digits, others are offering it for almost 500 dollars and getting many bids.
2 Best Game
The game that is widely considered to be the best one made for the 32X is Knuckles Chaotix. Even though it did not have much in the way of competition, only a total fo 40 games were made for the 32X. Knuckles Chaotix being the most critically acclaimed game fro the add on makes sense, as it is a sonic spin-off but it gets a lot of credit for introducing a bunch of new characters into the Sonic world, as well as for being considered the last true classic 2D Sonic game before the release of Sonic adventures in 1998 took the series in a 3D direction.
1 Doomed To Fail
We've mentioned multiple times that the 32X had an incredibly short life span of at most 6 months. This is because the Sega Saturn was released on May 11, 1995, in North America, which is just 6 months after the 32X's release in North America and fans knew well in advance that the Saturn was coming. That still isn't as bad as the situation in Japan as the 32X was released there on December 3, 1994, but the Sega Saturn was actually released before that on November 22, 1994, giving the 32X no chance in its home country.