Ian aka Historic Nerd just released a video chronicling the story of Sega’s failed 32x. I think this video did a great job piecing together the stories from both the Japanese and North American Sega managers, to try and correct some of the myths that have been repeated over the years. Overall, this seems like a great summary of the failed add-on, told with what’s become Ian’s signature 3D modeling visuals, with tons of old commercials and promotional footage weaved in.
I totally understand why both divisions of Sega would think capitalizing on an existing install base would be the right move for everyone. And while it’s really easy to speculate in hindsight, it might have been better to accomplish that by utilizing more add-on chips like the SVP. Either way, the 32x was a massive failure, but also a really interesting experiment.
If you’d like to see what “could have been”, if the 32x took off, check out the Doom 32X Resurrection project, as well as the 32xCD version. It shows what was possible on original hardware, if software dev’s had the time and desire to get the most out of the ugly little mushroom turd: https://www.retrorgb.com/victor-luchitz-unveils-doom-cd32x-fusion-a-new-era-for-the-doom-32x-resurrection-project.html
