Why did the 32X need so much wiring?

I been thinking about it and it makes no sense: why all that AV out/in crap when you can easily access the Genesis' 68k and zilog from the cart port?

I know the Genesis was used to render the backgrounds and junk, but wouldnt it be easier to just unify all the processing power instead?

 

x

 

Sega always did everything the hard way.

That's why...

 

The AV port gives the 32X the RGB lines from the Genesis. They aren't available anywhere else. The cart port has all the other lines needed for mixing the 32X video with the Genesis video.

And it's just one simple connector - why do people bitch about "how hard it is to connect a 32X"??? Run the jumper cable from the Genesis to the 32X, plug the TV cable into the 32X, plug in the power, and connect the 32X to the Genesis. It's hardly brain surgery... the average audio deck is much harder to wire up correctly, what with all the speakers and antenna wires and audio connectors for half a dozen systems.

 

Some people actually find having a daisy chain of coaxial cables preferable to using even composite video if it means less cables.

 

Its easy to setup these if you know a lot about Sega,well when i was young had my first ever game console that was a model 2 mega drive i did not know how to setup i was showed once and that's how i learn i only needed to be show once i can do anything.

32x did not have many games anyway only for knuckles chaotix and doom maybe others i don't have a full list of 32x games or how many was ever released.

 

around 35 released games for the 32x i think, give or take

 

but, unless they're like splitting their AV cables up by component (audio L, audio R, and video), wouldn't that' be the same number of cables running from the console to the tv?

 

I never said it was hard for me to put it together, all I'm saying is that from a design standpoint its stupid and for me it seems that linking the SH2s to the Genesis hw through the cart port alone was a much more elegant solution than mixing 2 video sources.

Of course the question is if it could be done and the time, and would have that made the 32X more powerful or at least easier to develop for?

 

Er, your question was already answered. The cartridge port doesn't have any pins to transmit video information. The only way you make the genesis output more colors, is to take the video out of the genesis, and pass it to an entirely different set of hardware that can produce more colors, which is exactly what the 32X does. It takes the genesis Video Out, and uses it as a hardware layer.