any good sega 32x games that are worth checking out

I say they should have skipped Saturn in the USA and continued with the 32x/Neptune because just like the trend today, many good Saturn Japanese games had no chance of being ported. The 32x was developed by Sega USA, so my guess is it would have had a lot of 3rd party support unlike the Saturn. I don't know if it was easier to make games for than the Saturn, but my gut says it was. Sega lost a lot of money trying to sell the Saturn in the USA which could have been directed to the 32x/Neptune alone.

 

And possibly kept them around long enough to support the Dreamcast for a full term.

 

yeah the contoles need alot of getting used to but the graphics for a rushed game where good

 

The cost of cartridges vs CDs was a turn off for 3rd parties to Nintendo. And the 32X was not nearly powerful enough to port the arcade titles. You have to remember - arcades were still popular in Japan and decently popular in the US. Sega had STRONG arcade sales - they needed a way to put those in homes. The 32X couldn't handle that.

 

I dunno, the N64 is a totally different beast, and you are not counting the pokemon-effect from 98

Personally I think the 32X was the right choice in paper because Sega had a userbase in the tens of millions and the 32X was in the long run cheaper than SFX carts in the Snes.

Also I think SOA knew how rushed and bad the Saturn hardware was and the 32X would give SOJ enough time to redesign the Saturn to make it better for 1996, then launch a bit earlier than th N64 to steal its thunder.

Remember, the PSX wasnt that big at the time, it wasnt until 97 that gamers really stopped seeing it as just another 3DO

 

What??

The Saturn came out in 94 in Japan - May 95 in the US. And by 96 when N64 launched the PSX was running strong and Saturn was pulled from the market by 1997

 

I know, I'm saying it should be delayed to be redesigned (again, because it was already redesigned once in 94 after the PSX t-rex demo) and keep the 32X around instead.

The PSX was still expensive in 95 and I recall a lot of my friends and other gamers thinking it was just another console put by a company that knew jack about games like Panasonic and Phillips did only a few years before, it wasn't until 97 that the N64 definitely lost the race, in 96 it was still riding on the hype of mario64

 

The N64 didn't lose too badly - it sold a lot of units. EVERYONE I knew had an N64 except 2 people who had Playstations. One only got the Playstation because in 96 his house was borken into an his Saturn was stolen!

 

I knew plenty of people who had N64s and a good number that had Playstations. As a consumer you couldn't lose by buying one over the other but if you really wanted your Square RPGs or Nintendo franchises you went with one over the other.

 

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Metal Head. It was a pretty good mech simulator, for the time. I don't have many 32x games, but they aren't that bad, honestly.

Though getting it to work can be a pain.

Like Sony and Microsoft just did with their respective console redesigns (the Super Slim and Xbox 360 E)?

But I think Sega burned a lot of bridges with third parties and retailers with their surprise launch of the Saturn. It probably hurt the Dreamcast as well, as it didn't have great third parties, and Sega had pissed off Wal-Mart at the worst possible time.

 

I think Sega would have definitely been better off if they had never green lighted the 32X. Instead they should have focused on quality releases and support for the Sega Genesis and GameGear while preparing for a proper Sega Saturn launch. The surprise launch definitely had a negative effect. And there was no need for it. Sega was in a strong position until they started with their bone headed moves. What you lose by the 32X not existing and the Saturn launch being a bit later would certainly have been worth the positive effects.

I'm not sure what momosgarage means by "skipped the Saturn in the USA". You can't "skip" the console. That would be extremely strange to have two different consoles out at the same time for the same generation. It would split your software support unnecessarily. Again the 32X was a dead end. I think they gambled on the idea of a cheaper stop-gap add-on being viable and lost. There wasn't a big enough gap and it was handled poorly. They'd have been better served by focusing on the core Genesis titles and the Saturn. The 32X is a neat oddity for us today, but as a product in the 90s it certainly proved to be a bad idea.

 

yeah and thats how the saturn became a fan fav for collectors

and didnt the dreemcast do very well in japan?

 

That's easy to explain, look at the 3 BEST selling titles in North America for the Saturn: Virtura Fighter 1.02 million units, Sega Rally Championship 1.16 million units and Virtua Fighter 2 1.93 million units. They sold 14 million Genesis's in North America and only 1.2 million Saturn's. I would have bet on a portion of the 14 million existing users upgrading with a Sega CD and 32x and kept the Saturn in Japan only. The 32x sold over 600,000 units with practically no games. Its been proven that North America is a very expensive region to market too. The marketing savings alone from bypassing the Saturn would have made it a sound business practice in North America alone.

Virtua Fighter was ported to the 32x and Virtua Fighter 2 could easily have been ported too. Although not on par graphically with Sega Rally, Virtua Racing Deluxe showed something could have been cobbled together. None of the best selling Saturn games in North America had to be on Saturn from a technological perspective. They could have instead been ported to the 32x/CD combo and had a chance and selling to the 14 million install base in North America. The American consumer at the time would have been more likely to buy into the incremental upgrade, it should be obvious at this point they had no interest in the Saturn.

 

You're not making business sense. The vast majority of games at the time were developed in Japan. Part of what made things work was that the same game would be sold in Japan as well as in Europe and America. If the Saturn was, as in your plan, never released in the US it would have been a disaster. I'm not sure what you mean about the American consumer not having interest in the Saturn. There was lots of interest in the Sega Saturn. People wanted to get a Saturn. Sega was very popular around 92~94.

The problems began with the Sega 32X. The Sega CD can be left out of it, it was an experiment that some people really did enjoy. And it came out at a reasonable time. The things that nuked Sega Saturn's interest were a number of things. First the 32X being announced/released. This certainly confused consumers. The Saturn was coming, but now there is something called the 32X to upgrade your Genesis? The other thing that hurt was Sega and 3rd parties didn't have the resources to properly support the 32X AND the Saturn. More things that hurt were the Saturn's relatively high price compared to the Playstation, the surprise early launch that hurt retailers and software developers/publishers.

There was no reason to have the "incremental upgrade". The Saturn would have done just fine but things were mismanaged. Looking at the Saturn's performance in Japan, it could have been a success here as well. But Sega alienated/pissed of many parties including some consumers at a time when a new strong competitor was entering the scene (Sony). Another thing is that some consumers aren't on the edge. They get new systems a year or two after they come out. My point here being when Sega wasn't strongly supporting the Genesis here, Nintendo was doing so with the SNES. So maybe that influenced some consumers when it came time to step up, to choose the N64 over the Saturn.

There's lots of things that went on but I think it's pretty clear Sega of Japan should have turned down the 32X. Instead focusing on quality Genesis titles and getting the Saturn ready for a proper launch, including getting developers situated with development tools. Keep in mind, I think the 32X is actually pretty cool. I just think it's obvious it turned out to be a waste of precious resources and helped lead to the decline of Sega.

 

I lived near Los Angeles in the 90's. I knew many people with Turbografx CD, Sega CD, 32x and even a few TurboExpress's, but no one I knew bought the Saturn, CD-i or 3DO. Everyone I knew went straight to N64 or Playstation. Also there weren't many games ported to the US Saturn anyway, sure it was all "milk and honey" for game releases in Japan, but basically EA sports titles were likely to have been bigger sellers in the USA market back then. Just like today. In fact look at some of the best selling USA games in 1994 and 1995 made by america developers: NBA live, Need for Speed, Rayman (not american), Worms and Twisted Metal. You didn't need a Saturn or Japanese Developers to play John Madden Football or any of the others I mentioned, a 32x would have sufficed.

 

Ye should read "Service Games: Rise and Fall of SEGA", goes into great detail of how the company was mismanaged and the inter-company bitching between the US & Japan lead to its downfall.

 

No, what I meant by PS3.5 would be like the 32X - an entirely new hardware platform with new software. Not like the super slim or the 360E at all.

 

The people you knew do not represent the whole market. It's just what you saw which doesn't mean it holds true everywhere. And what do you mean a 32X would have sufficed? You aren't going to play Need for Speed or Twisted Metal on the 32X. The 32X is more limited than you must think. The 32X as a 3D gaming system compared to the PS1, N64, or Saturn, is rather pathetic. But you seem to have a thing for the 32X. It's a nifty creation sure, but I'd take a Saturn over it any day.

There were good US released Saturn games like Quake, Duke Nukem, X-Men COTA, Guardian Heroes, Nights, Saturn Bomberman, Panzer Dragoon, Street Fighter Collection, Street Fighter Alpha 1 and 2, Marvel Super Heroes, Mega Man X4, Mega Man 8, Shining Force 3, Resident Evil. The Saturn could have stood up to the competition if management had been better.

 

One I haven't seen mentioned yet: Shadow Squadron. Not bad graphics for a 32X game, very smooth animation, great music, if somewhat dull gameplay. It's worth checking out. There's a Saturn version too, which I've never played.

 

what was that fighting game cyper brawl or cosmic carnage, its fun too.