JVC X'Eye Report
The story of my JVC X'Eye
Several years ago when I was working at FuncoLand and still very young, a guy came in to trade an X'Eye. Seeing as how the SKU was not in the system, I offered the guy cash out of my pocket; $25 to be precise, (which also included about 15 boxed Master System games --I scored LOTS of cool stuff like this).
The unit was in bad condition. It appeared that it had been given a bath in soda, and then left to sit for about five years. I took it home, took it apart, and cleaned it up. I removed all of the gunk, most of which was in the CD area.
After I determined that it was clean (very clean), I fired it up. The internal software came on. I tried it with a cart; very crisp picture; much clearer than my old model 1Genesis had been able to produce in years.
Then I tried a CD. It just wouldn't read them. Figuring that the laser/reader had been too badly damaged as a result of the soda bath and other sticky grossness, I wrote it off as unfixable.
Recently my Sega CD went out. Instead of coughing up the $30 to replace the sucker on eBay, I was prepared to trade away my X'Eye for the Sega CD. Being that a working X'Eye is can fetch $75 to $120 on eBay, I felt that this was a fair trade to another part who could fix it. Being that my X'Eye was not working and I hadn't the parts to repair it, and that I really need my Sega CD, I felt that this was a fair deal for me as well. (Sorry to everyone who was willing to make the trade!)
So, there I was cleaning it up before shipping it out, I decided to give it one last try. I hooked it up and put in a CD. Nothing. I noticed that I had the CD mount so off balance that the CD was actually touching the bottom of the CD bay, and wasn't even spinning. Well, no game can play like that! So, I took off the top cover to the system. When I held down the button that indicates that the CD door is closed, presto-worko! I am the proud owner of a fully functional JVC X'Eye!Now I can play my Sega CD games... Snatcher, here I come!
The X'Eye appears to work with all of my Sega CD games and quite well with most of my Genesis games. There does appear to be some compatibility issues with some older Genesis titles, however. My copy of Shadow Dancer took several tries to start on the JVC system, and no problem on my model 1 Genesis.
The X'Eye also worked flawlessly with all of my Sega CD games. So, I thought to myself, "Let's try it with the 32X, maybe I can pack that Genesis away and save some space."
So, I hooked the 32X up to the X'Eye. A funny looking combination. I remembered reading many years ago that the 32X was not compatible with the X'Eye, but I also remember reading that it really was, and Sega just wasn't licensed by the FTC to advertize compatibility with the X'Eye (same for the CDX, so I have been told). I didn't want to somehow destroy this very nice system that I just obtained, although I've owned it for years now.
Once hooked up I popped Blizzard's Blackthorne into the 32X. Success! Feeling good, I want to try out a 32X CD game. Now, because the 32X covers the X'Eye's CD port, the 32X must be removed before inserting and removing a CD... "What a pain," I thought.
Well, as it turns out the X'Eye glitches on 32X CD games, so apparently it is not fully compatible. It appears that I am still in the market for a new Sega CD, though I'll probably only use the Genesis/Sega CD/32X combo for 32X games only, (of which I own all but four, so it's worth it).
An interesting fact about the X'Eye is that it came packaged with the same controller as the model 1 Genesis - the best three button ever made, except the cord is six feet as opposed to three, which makes me happy. If only they made their 6-button controllers as nice.
Here's an image:
The less rare but sometimes more expensive Japanese unit was called the Wondermega, and looked slightly different:
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Originally Posted by fishsandwich
