The Sega Neptune

[Greg2600]

The 32X wasn't properly supported. It seemed that Sega of America were interested in extending the Genesis shelf life before moving to Saturn, while Japan wanted to shelve the Genesis and go with Saturn. It was a pissing match, and obviously nobody won. I think the hope was that developers would create games on 32X, partially to get practice on the SH-2 microprocessors that powered it and Saturn. That didn't happen. Again, Japan was completely unsupportive of the 32X, and killed SOA/SOE by stopping Genesis support and releasing the Saturn early.

[TheChristoph]

Afterburner and Space Harrier are pretty good reasons to have a 32X. Even when it was new though, it's pretty laughable that your killer apps were ports of ten-year-old arcade games.

I think the 32X was a pretty cool idea, but maybe it should have been build into the Sega CD. I like the idea of console upgrades, but they fundamentally have the chicken and the egg dilemma. Nobody wants to upgrade until there are great games for it, but there are going to be few games outside of the first party until units are sold.

[Leo_A]

My only regret with my 32X that I acquired long after its commercial demise, is that Outrun appeared prior to its existence.

The Genesis port is nice and all, but I can't help but imagine what the 32X version could've been after enjoying Afterburner II and appreciating what was accomplished with Space Harrier (Which isn't my cup of tea, but a showcase just the same for the sprite scaling capabilities of the 32X).

A few more Sega Super Scaler arcade ports, and this would be a must have for classic gamers of today.

[celerystalker]

My only regret with my 32X that I acquired long after its commercial demise, is that Outrun appeared prior to its existence.

The Genesis port is nice and all, but I can't help but imagine what the 32X version could've been after enjoying Afterburner II and appreciating what was accomplished with Space Harrier (Which isn't my cup of tea, but a showcase just the same for the sprite scaling capabilities of the 32X).

A few more Sega Super Scaler arcade ports, and this would be a must have for classic gamers of today.

I would have been all about more Super Scaler ports. Galaxy Force II, Power Drift Racing, maybe do Super Thunderblade... that would have been awesome. Space Harrier is my favorite 32X experience by a mile.

As it was, I also agree that the thing was laughable from a business point of view. How many development teams could try to support this, the Genesis, Game Gear, Sega CD, Pico, Saturn, and arcade all at the same time? Had it been ready about 2years earlier and like Leo said, tackled some Super Scaler and other sprite-based arcade games, it may have been a real game changer instead of a joke.

[WCP]

The other thing that must be said is that the 32X was released nearly 1 full year after the Atari Jaguar, and costs "almost" as much as a Jaguar, yet it requires you own additional hardware (A Sega Genesis). The Jaguar seems like a much better financial gamble for the money, and it had an amazing port of Doom.

(Yeah, I know the 32X Doom had music, but it was in a tiny window. The Jag version of Doom was full screen, and had nice ambient sounds.)



I just think the 32X at $169.99 (with no actual games, just some coupons) was a bad price to technology ratio. Either the thing should have been much cheaper, or it should have been more powerful and maybe they could have took the price to $199.99 . They chose neither option and ended up in a no man's land of too expensive and not powerful enough to really notice much difference.

I need to go take a look at usenet posts back in November and December 1994 and early 1995. Would be very interesting to see what people on the ground were saying at the time.

I bought one at launch, and at first I had hope for the machine. I didn't think it was a complete piece of ish until a few months later. Initially, Virtua Racing Deluxe and Star Wars Arcade was enough to satisfy my launch cravings. It was only later after trying more and more software that I began to realize that the 32X just didn't have what it took to do anything special.

[Greg2600]

The plan on the Neptune was a Nov. 1995 launch, 1 year after the 32X, at $200. Many now may wonder, what the fuck were SEGA thinking? Well, the Saturn was originally slated for that time period as well, although DOUBLE the price. That's a key though. You may not think so now, but 20 years ago $200 was a massive gap. Outdated or not, the 32X and later proposed Neptune was designed to keep players in the SEGA corner. At the end of the day, whether they bought a Neptune or Saturn, SOA didn't care, because it was still their sale. They knew that the Saturn would take some time to kick into high gear, and the 32X platform was meant to bridge the gap. They lacked the cartridge chip hardware SNES had, and they needed to extend the life of the Genesis. The 32X began as an add-on, at SOA's insistence, so they didn't really piss off the install base. Why Neptune? Again, you give families' who could never afford a Saturn a decent alternative. Although $200 was too high. The 32X add-on was never intended to be sold in large quantities after that first year or so. That's where the Neptune came in. 32x had a decent handful of games, but it stopped there. It just didn't have time or resources to build its library. SEGA didn't invest in additional product, and that was Nakayama's bad call. He pulled all cartridge support, which included the Genesis, Game Gear, 32X, and the Neptune project.

[ReaXan]

As someone who started the thread I have to say my views on the 32X have changed over the years. I think I was wrong on most of the points I made and I think I was disappointed overall that this system had such a lackluster amount of games and wish there had been a different strategy taken by Sega with this type of add-on technology for people on a budget.

http://www.sega-16.com/2006/03/segas...oad-not-taken/

I think what Sega did with Virtua Racing on the Genesis was the better way to go and maybe a premium priced Genesis game line would have accomplished what the 32x was meant to do. Still weaker than a 32x most likely but could have been the road Sega should have taken.

Sega planned to sell the SVP in a separate cartridge that would work in the same fashion as Galoob’s Game Genie. This way, gamers would only have to purchase the technology once. However, Sega canned the project for unknown reasons and instead chose to focus its efforts on more powerful hardware — namely the 32X. Thus the SVP chip died a quick death, leaving the technology’s untapped potential to fade with time.


However I still think the system was brilliantly marketed to kids after all these year. The box itself just makes a 12 year old boy as myself think he is getting a massive upgrade to his Genesis.



I don't think ive ever seen a console box that ever just jumped out to me as a kid like the 32x did and never will.

[Steve W]

I don't play my 32X very much, mainly because it got glitchy when I used it - freezing games and such. I will fire up a 32X emulator however, just to play Shadow Squadron/Stellar Assault. Other than the terrible buzzing background noise, it's a pretty good game that keeps me going back. I still hope to get to level 6 someday, but it's too dang easy to get killed on level 5 when you're facing an armada with a single ship.

I've never taken a liking to any other 32X game to any degree... and I didn't get one at launch, I ran out and bought mine when I heard that Toys R' Us were clearing them out at $19.99. At least I didn't have to pay much for disappointment.

[Tanooki]

I know there wasn't a lot for the 32X but what is there isn't bad and some quite good. I just never could justify the price for the thing, still can't now, but I have considered it and still do. I imagine if I found a stupid cheap deal on the thing with the model1 latch on parts to it I'd go for it since I've had a Genesis again since the start of last November. I would love nothing more than to tear into some of those 1st party unique titles, Star Wars, Star Trek, the sorta panned (not that I'd care) DOOM port, and some others. 32x wasn't bad, it just wasn't handled well is all. Had Sega stuck with it longer, brought the point of entry cost down, and not crushed it when the Saturn made it to market I think it would feel more justified in existence like the SCD.

[celerystalker]

I mocked the 32X as a teenager openly, but I do have an American and a Japanese version now. I mainly use them for Star Wars and the excellent Space Harrier port. I love how it handles scaling sprites, and the stuff that uses that has aged really well.

[bb_hood]

I know there wasn't a lot for the 32X but what is there isn't bad and some quite good.

I havent played it alot but I would very much agree with the above.
I dont know what the systems sell for now, but for the longest time you could find 32X systems as "system only" for like 5$. I would see them all the time. Mine I got 'system only' for 20$ shipped a few years back. Granted you need all the hookups and games but in some instances you can do without them because:
1. the sega everdrive plays 32X roms.
2. if you have a sega trio power adapter you dont need the power adapter. Ive got a sega trio and its totally worth owning.
3. if you have an RGB setup you will need another cable anyway, i think it might use the genesis one. Also the cable that connects the genesis to the 32X is not hard to find, china has been reproducing them and they are like 10$ if you need it.

So yeah, when I got my 32X it only cost me 20$ and I was playing it.

I mocked the 32X as a teenager openly, but I do have an American and a Japanese version now. I mainly use them for Star Wars and the excellent Space Harrier port. I love how it handles scaling sprites, and the stuff that uses that has aged really well.

Seriously though it deserved to be mocked back them. Tacking all that crap onto the genesis was stupid. Then they force you to use 3 ac adapters if you want sega cd also, and of course you have to connect the tv a power outlet. Hooking up tons of crap at once sucks. It was just horrible and everyone knew it.
Nowadays however, its just more retro games in the catalog. Its really not much effort if you have the sega trio.