Let's Save the Sega 32X!

[Music] I've done a few of these let's say videos now and found each and every one of them fun and interesting to talk about there's certainly a measure of hindsight to them but there is also the fact that without any way to put the new strategy into practice you still have no clue if the changes would have amounted to any anything different it leaves the ideas open to discussion and just adds to the fun I really love hearing the opinions not just on what I would have done differently but the ideas all of you present as well I do have to admit however the subject of the 32x is one I initially resisted for this type of episode since the add-on was such a spectacular failure and one of the worst ideas by any gaming company ever I honestly believed it couldn't be saved all the sight in the world cannot rescue a terrible plan the execution and timing behind it was so fundamentally broken I would have had to have changed every single aspect of it to make it even feasible and if you wind up changing everything are you actually saving it or are you just wiping it clean and starting with something entirely new after writing up a few drafts and changing strategies a number of times I had that aha moment where I believe I finally found found a route worth talking about if nothing more than for Sega fans to wax nostalgic about a bygone era in this episode we will be taking sega's 32-bit add-on for the Genesis and attempt to turn around its fortunes can it be done let's find [Music] out our very first thing to do was considering the success of the 32x is to deal with the Saturn let's face facts here Sega putting out two 32-bit options at virtually the same time was ludicrous and nothing short of a terrible strategy you don't need hindsight to help you figure that out most of the gaming magazines at the time said it for you while Sega wasn't trying to compete directly with itself creating two markets a low and a high end did exactly that since Sony was already on the market Sega needed all its focus there and that's what makes the 32x such a challenging device to juggle the first step then is to set our two devices on two very different paths in the west the Saturn launches in Japan in November of 1994 because the mega drive there was so soundly defeated we don't need to change that virtual a fighter is going to shoot that console to instant success and help Sega establish its largest ever Japanese installed Base by quite a stretch we will not alter that trajectory and allow the Saturn to organically proceed in Japan for the US and Europe however the 32x needs time to Anchor itself in that market and give Genesis owners a chance to see what it can bring to the table the Sega Saturn needs to be pushed back to a March 1996 release there now I know what you're thinking that gives Sony a six-month Head Start in the US market by itself to soak up tons of sales and consumer interest but if you look at sega's original performance with the Saturn in 1995 that early release did nothing to help them anyway by giving the Saturn some Breathing Room it allows our development tools to mature and allows us to give third parties more time to come to terms with that sega's internal graphical libraries will be finished and can be widely distributed before the Saturn ever launches in the west it also allows us to launch with only the very best software for the Saturn by then games like virtu a Fighter 2 Sega rally virtual a cop X-Men Children of the atom and countless others will not just be ready for the west but perhaps notably improve thanks to the extra time it also gives Sega all the time it needs to get a Sonic ready for Saturn's launch for the sake of this video it also gives us roughly a year and a half to release promote and establish the 32x as a viable option for millions of Genesis and Mega Drive owners these changes give our 32x a pathway to possible success and our Saturn a better chance to impress the public in the long [Music] run the Sega 32x was never welld designed for its intended purposes in my opinion from its completely unnecessary dual CPUs to its underpowered and inadequate graphical capability it almost seemed like this thing was slapped together by people who had no clue what the hell types of games they wanted to make I had always believed that in order for the 32x to work it had to be cheap it had to show a marked improvement over the original Genesis and it absolutely had to have some measure of architectural compatibility with the Saturn these were not easy things to accomplish but the way Sega originally went at it made even a 19-year-old Sega Lord X scratch his head in utter confusion this leads to our next big step redesigning the 32x into a lean mean game making machine that customers actually want to own and support the first step is stripping out that second sh2 we don't need it and it was extra cost for absolutely no benefit one sh2 will cut costs and be more than enough for our purposes here the original 32x VDP was designed to bring the big visual upgrade upgrades that would sell the device in other words the extra color and Sprite upgrades the problem is that it was implemented in such a way that results were often poor and little more than Genesis graphics with a few extra colors to offset this we will move over our Sega 315 5883 chip from the Saturn as the 32xs main Graphics chip that's right our new 32x will have all the power and benefits of Saturn's VD P1 as it always should have been since the 32x is an add-on this leaves the Sega Genesis to take care of the backgrounds and its Sprites can be used for things like life bars and other onscreen display graphics that only leaves the sound system and I think we will leave that alone the pwm and the 32x adds two additional sound channels to the Genesis and I believe that's enough for this device in effect these changes turn our 32x into sort of a Sega Saturn Jr it will have one Hitachi sh2 a more capable VDP and extra sound features the Genesis will pick up the rest of the image by handling the backgrounds and pick up the remaining duties for the Sound and Music this should make Saturn conversions not just the reality but far easier on developers while Saturn sits out North America and Europe in 1994 and 1995 many of its games can still see the light of day on the 32x thanks to such similar hardware and that my friends may make all the difference in the [Music] world the launch of the original 32x was a rushed affair with only a few meaningful software releases at $159 it needed some killer apps and Sega really dropped the ball there particularly once the initial offerings launched we are going to change everything about how this was handled the 32x will still launch in November of 1994 in both the US and Europe since our New 32x Uses Hardware Sega is already mass-producing there shouldn't be a problem with keeping the same release window in the west cutting out that second sh2 CPU and the original 32x VDP should also pay for the inclusion of the Saturn's vdp1 so we will be launching with two packages available the first is the core 32x package that comes with the unit ac adapter console spacer patch cable and RF adapter this will retail for $149 and its equivalent in other regions the second pack will be our value bundle which will come with everything the core comes with stereo RCA composite cables and Virtual Fighter retailing for $189 we also mount an aggressive 32x campaign with a special edition of Sonic and Knuckles that launched on the Genesis right before the 32x landed so this is a perfect time to offer up an enhanced 32x release we keep the lock on technology but replace the bonus stages with new 3D visuals that stand out more if there's time we could even add in some Sprite scaling enemies and maybe an extra stage or boss encounter a great side effect of this is that it also frees up Knuckles chaotics development to go full s Saturn bringing over that team to help get Sonic extreme ready for the Saturn's North American debut in 1996 so far we have made some pretty big changes to the 32x and the market it needs to compete in but no console Hardware can sell without games backing it up and it's here where we need to really get things right the original 32x timeline saw pitiful lineup of games in its early months while Doom Star Wars arcade and virtual racing Deluxe started things off strong it was followed up with garbage like Cosmic Carnage Motocross championship and a slew of 16 bit ports they didn't give the platform much of an identity we are addressing all of that here in addition to the original launch games of virtual racing Deluxe and Star Wars arcade we will put emphasis on a virtual fighter Port as a launch game our new architecture should easily see the Saturn virtu of fighter moved over with the expected concessions of the cartridge format this will allow us to delay Doom a bit put a few more month's work into it and make that version the very best it can be with all the stages and improved soundtrack and the major bosses 32x Doom will move from a curiosity to a well-reviewed mustone we will also be dropping both Cosmic Carnage and Motocross Championship moving those teams on to Golden Axe the Revenge of Death Adder and outrunners we will tout the four player action of the former and the incredible Sprite scaling of the latter these games will complement the Stellar afterburner release and we'll move all the resources over from space Harrier to get outrun finished as it always should have been this will give us a strong arcade representation to satiate Die Hard Sega fans since we're moving knuckles chaotics team over to the Saturn I think it would be incredibly important for the 32x project Sega Sonic the Hedgehog a port of the system 32 arcade original to be finished and released with a special track ball controller this will give the 32x a console exclusive Sonic of its very own without impacting the work done on the Saturn since the 32x now has a VDP capable of far more than before this port of Sega Sonic could even see some nice upgrades in terms of Sprite right size detail and even some polygon elements in the backdrops and special effects I will also want a 32x port of paner draon this conversion will need some TLC to be sure the code itself should be easy enough to bring over but without vdp2 and the limitations of the cartridge it's going to need to look quite different I'm thinking we take a more cartoonish cell-shaded approach to the polygons this will allow the Genesis to make simple forward scrolling backdrops did still look good as the 32x moves past the opening few months it will need some impressive offerings to keep people interested and Sega absolutely must have some sports representation going on companies like a claim showed with ports like NBA Jam tournament Edition that just a few tweaks could go a long way with making a Genesis game look great we need that same thinking with our 32x NFL football game and our 32x NBA basketball game these games were all already great on the Genesis and a big boost in color and Sprite detail would Elevate them enough the first year to give us a starting point we can expand much further in the second year but right now time is of the essence the good news is is that we have a starting point for soccer with a conversion of the Saturn game Victory goal we can also Port over the Saturn's Pebble Beach Golf Links later in 1995 we can also move over the Saturn's greatest 9 baseball title as our 32x World Series Ser entry given our new 32x architecture we also have access to every other Saturn project that existed in 1995 we will turn as many as we can to the 32x without hurting the lineup for the eventual Saturn release in 1996 we can get versions of Daytona USA Clockwork night shin shoben and a stall while these games are entertaining Saturn owners in Japan 32x versions will be entertaining North American and European Sega fans this also sets free the resources Sega had spent on the Saturn for the original early release and the software that Sega of America thought would sell it gin War Congo bug and Blackfire are all cancelled relinquishing monies programmers and time to make 32x software happen Japan is pumping Saturn games out at a Breakneck pace and the North American and European launch of that system will still be stacked with the best of it right now we need all Hands-On deck to make the 32x a success while that Saturn software matures its development tools improve and our third parties use the 32x as a testing ground for their own software releases and speaking of third parties they too will see a radical shift in what games they are developing [Music] one of the very nice things about assuming our changes so far have made a positive impact on the installed base of the 32x is that third-party software will see completion just looking at the list of games that were originally in development for the 32x we would hopefully see the likes of Rayman finished which should be a very good representation of the Jaguar original I'd love to see Core Design finish up soulstar X Capcom get dark stalkers on there and Street Racers see a proper polygon update there's a bunch of others but you get the point if the 32x is selling better you are going to attract more support giving many of these games a higher chance of seeing the light of day we also need to make sure our cartridge technology is ready for these games Sega had primarily made 32 megabit carts the largest size the Genesis supported but we'd need to expand upon that for the 32x up to it at least 64 megabits that's 8 megabytes or the size of games like Super Mario 64 Wipeout 64 or cruising USA it's not perfect or even ideal but it should give us a leg to stand on to make 32x games look and sound the best they can without the software prices shooting into the stratosphere this should also give the games the 32x did see in its life a possible leg up and being that much better that Mortal Kom Combat 2 Port could have seen a radical Improvement just going up to as little as 40 Megs getting arcade level Sprites more animation and even better sound effects the nice thing about our new VDP strategy is that even going into 1996 third parties will be able to put their best work on the Saturn while still being able to easily Port down many of those games to the 32x they won't have the same processing power they won't have bdp 2's infinite planes they won't have the advantage of all that CD storage what they will have is the same CPU code the same VDP for Sprites and polygons the Lesser setup will need extra care but it should also make ports a greater reality and far more attractive to our third parties if the 32x and Saturn are to coexist if they are to cater to two separate markets we need to go a similar route that Sega went with the Genesis and the countless arcade boards based stor the Motorola 68,000 it paid off there and hopefully it will do the same for us [Music] here some of you may be asking about the Sega CD perhaps you feel that 32x CDs are a viable option I don't think so in fact I feel exactly the opposite the Sega CD Market in late 1994 is in steep decline if not already completely dead moving any 32x development there is a mistake so much so to make room for our 32x push Sega needs to quietly put the Sega C to bed as the 32x launches that market has failed and there is nothing we can do about it if we are to focus the needed resources to give the 32x any real chance it's selling better with that we will be cancelling a number of Sega CD releases and moving them to the 32x in the cartridge format will move Eternal Champions challenged from the Dark Side over to the 32x the cills will need to be rethought but that shouldn't be an issue given that game's breath of content The Adventures of Batman and Robin driving game will go the Batman Returns route see extensive modification by the developer Clockwork tortoise and include the full cartridge version as well we will move shining 4 cd over renaming it Shining Force X the game data itself should easily fit onto a cartridge but we will need a new chip Tunes based sound track with the 32xs extra sound channels we should be fine there as well given that the Sega CD is being phased out in 1994 we work closely with Electronic Arts to take their original Road Rash project and instead poured it over as a 32x game based on the 3dio Edition we will need a new soundtrack but you know the Genesis never had any real problem in that respect with any luck better sales may even motivate EA Sports to Port over Matten 1995 to the 32x with the power of our new VDP we should see legitimate Sprite scaling in those games finally we scrap the Sega CDs wild Woody Al together move Sega multimedia Studio over to the 32x and get Jurassic Park complete edition done this will be both the original Genesis adventur combined into one huge game with a slew of quality of life improvements there will be save memory to keep your game going Sprites will see big upgrade in color and detail using pre-rendered technology more layers of Parallax scrolling will Adorn those backgrounds better story sequences will tell a cohesive Adventure improved sound effects for the dinosaurs and environment and perhaps most important of all some stage design tweaks so it's more clear where you should be going and what you should be doing I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and my thoughts on the subject remember it's all in good fun and meant to spark up some good-natured conversation I really do feel the only way for the 32x to have been a viable option is if the architecture was much more similar to the Saturn's than it was different these two platforms needed to exist together not separately and I feel the changes I made should keep it cheap enough to do that the 32x with a single sh2 the vdp1 from the Saturn and the same Ram pool and sound Hardware as before should make it a cut down Saturn for all intents and purposes that gives us a much more appealing environment for not only Sega itself but our third parties to strive as well many software changes here will hopefully spur on a stronger launch and therefore a stronger chance at more support in the following months and years but as much as I hate to admit it everything I did here no matter how well it went would still not be my first choice had I any real control over the situation the changes made here were done for the sake of the subject matter to save the Sega 32x from absolute commercial failure the simple truth is is that splitting your Market between two 32-bit options was a terrible move by Sega Sony was huge had countless resources and was no stranger to commercial success in the electronics Industry Sega needed its full attention on one product making it the best it could be 32x took away valuable resources in the form of money Manpower and creativity for a stretch of time there was a part of Sega with their eyes off the Saturn and on a product that had nowhere to go but down it was a distraction they didn't need and an important reason why Sega struggled so hard that generation I'm seal Lord X thank you guys for watching and I will catch you next time [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Sega Lord X

Views: 46,366

Keywords: genesis, sega genesis, 32x, segalordx, sega lord x, sega saturn, sega dreamcast, mega drive, megadrive, game gear, mega cd, saturn, master system, sega, sega cd, gameplay, review, movies, retro games, retro gaming, video games, ps4, xbox, wii, nintendo, gamecube, n64, ps1, ps2, ps3, psp, vita, switch, atari, sega 32x

Id: 1JFUZkI0bjY

Length: 23min 18sec (1398 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024