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| What were the purposes of Sega Cd and 32x? |
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| Einhander:
I understand they played CD's and were add on devices to the Genesis, but were they really necessary? I have never played one, so I am not an expert with it. But it just seems a little bit pointless. Why would you need it to hook up to the Genesis? It's not actually enhancing your Genesis, right? it's just something that works only if you hook it up to your Genesis? Why didn't they just make it a next gen console? |
| sheep2001:
Firstly, 32x does not play CD's - it plays cartridges. They are not standalone consoles - they use the core chips of the megadrive/genesis. Sega CD/MegaCD is not really any more powerful than the genesis - it just has the ability to use CD media (and therefore FMV/CD Soundtracks). If you want a standalone then the Wondermega or the JVC eye are what you want. Bearing in mind how many households already had a genesis - why would Sega release a slightly enhanced machine, with no means for the existing customer base to get the enhancements without ditching what they already have. If you've never played one, and don't really know what it does, not sure where the opinion of them being pointless comes from? |
| KalessinDB:
Because the Death Star Genesis is AWESOME. |
| TDIRunner:
As Sheep said, the Sega CD didn't really enhance the Genesis other than adding the ability to play FMV and adding CD quality audio (although apparently the Genesis can do this on its own). The 32x technically enhanced the Genesis by 32 bit graphics amongst other features. Basically the point was to extend the life of the Genesis. Whether or not this helped or hindered Sega is debatable, but the general consensus is that it hurt Sega in the long run. With that said, the Sega CD was moderately successful selling almost 3 million units. It had Nintendo scared enough to begin a partnership with Sony to develop a CD based add on for the SNES (much more to that story that I'm not getting into). The 32x was just a flop as the Saturn was just around the corner. It only sold around 650k units and there wre only 40 games were released for it. Most of them were remakes of Genesis or Sega CD games. I think the AVGN put it best. The add-ons for the Genesis were designed to extend the life of the Genesis and with everything hooked up with all of the extra cables, the Genesis/CD/32x looked like it was on life support. |
| ZX the Hedgehog:
As a self-proclaimed SEGA fanatic, I think I can say the point of it. The Sega CD add-on was basically a cash-in attempt to get into the CD market before it was taken over by other companies such as Nintendo, following the release of the Turbografx CD for the Turbografx 16. They had high hopes for its greater storage capacity and audio potential, but, honestly, it had its flaws, and was advertised for the digital video potential it never really had or could pull off. Many factors decreased sales, such as the Night Trap case, which, looking back, was absurd, and the fact that the Playstation hit a few years later. That being said, it has quite a cult following, with its exclusives such as the cyberpunk adventure game Snatcher. Then there was the 32X, which stuck in the top of the console, and connected to an expansion port in the rear of the unit. It had its own cartridge library, but could also use the Sega CD with 5-10 32X CD games, which came on a disc, and utilized both the SEGA CD and an attached 32X to play back better quality games. However, the 32X flopped, as nobody wanted to stick the money into the thirty-ish cartridge games made for it. They really didn't add enough, and fade3d out of necessity. They do enhance the Genesis. There were many games which required these add-ons, but the Genesis always sold more units, so more games were made. However, these fixed basic flaws with the system which hurt it as it aged, and attempted to prolong the life until the flop that was the Saturn came out. They considered releasing a new system early on, but the cost for what was basically an enhanced Genesis made it pointless to do. So, they released the consoles as additions to the original machine, and had it built to be able to play better games. |
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