15 Facts About 32X

The 32X uses its own ROM cartridges and has its own library of games.

At the suggestion from Miller that his American team would be able to design the system, the 32X was designed as a peripheral for the existing Genesis, expanding its power with two 32-bit SuperH-2 processors, the same as those that would be used in the Saturn but with a lower clock speed.

The original design for the 32X add-on, according to Bayless, was created on a cocktail napkin, but Miller denied this.

Advertising for the system included images of the 32X being connected to a Genesis console to create an "arcade system".

Top developers were already aware of the coming arrival of the Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation, and did not believe the 32X would be capable of competing with any of those systems.

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The quick development time of the 32X made game development difficult, according to Franz.

The 32X failed to catch on with the public, and is considered a commercial failure.

In September 1995, the retail price for the 32X dropped to $99, and later the remaining inventory was cleared out of stores at $19.

The 32X came with a spacer so it would fit properly with the second model of the Genesis; an optional spacer was offered for use with the Sega Genesis CDX system, but ultimately never shipped due to risks of electric shock when the 32X and CDX were connected.

Installation of the 32X requires the insertion of two included electromagnetic shield plates into the Genesis' cartridge slot.

The 32X contains two Hitachi SH-2 32-bit RISC processors with a clock speed of 23 MHz, which Sega claimed would allow the system to work 40 times faster than a stand-alone Genesis.

The 32X includes 256 kilobytes of random-access memory, along with 256 kilobytes of video RAM.

Several of the games released for the 32X are enhanced ports of Genesis games, including NFL Quarterback Club and World Series Baseball '95.

Retrospectively, the 32X is widely criticized as having a shallow library with a lack of support and a poor idea in the wake of the release of the Sega Saturn in Japan.

Bayless believes firmly that the 32X serves as a warning to the video game industry not to risk splintering the market for consoles by creating add-ons, and was critical of the Kinect and PlayStation Move for doing so.