Definitely not, Saturn is slightly better than 32X and the PlayStation is far superior when comes to graphics and sounds compared to Saturn but Saturn has better drawbacks distance and water reflection that PS1 and the Orignal DOS PC version don't have.
Nice to see people working on ports for the 32x. Just goes to show the 32x was underutilized at the time. It was capable of so much more than the bare minimum effort ports it mostly got.
One thing I'd love to see is homebrew devs finally realizing some of those unreleased games. Like the ports of Darkstalkers and Alien VS Predator. Heck, we could even get Piggsy (the guy behind the SotN Genesis demake) to bring Castlevania: The Bloodletting to life!
now I'm thinking Tomb Raider could be ported to the N64, like Resident Evil 2 was. If it can run on the 32x, the more powerful N64 and the bigger cartridges can help. With midi music and compressing the FMVs, it could be made to fit on a 64mb cartridge.
@chrisbirch2002 then the fmvs could be adapted into slide shows.it's not the ideal but better than nothing. it could be an interesting homebrew project to try to port it to the n64.
@chrisbirch2002 if you want a port in a system that's not supposed to be able to do it but does it anyway, search for "castlevania symphony of the night" for Megadrive/Genesis, or Portal for n64.
I just can't believe they didn't try and make a 32X port of Revenge of Death Adder, I mean that was the best sequel ever and it only recently came to consoles in some collection iirc, right? I mean why even make that console add-on if there was barely anything of note that was exclusive other than that Hummingbird game which comes to mind.
to be fair Sega did put some decent effort into releasing solid games for the 32X in the year or so before they dropped it completely. Virtua Racing delux, Virtua Fighter, Star Wars Arcade, Knuckles Chaotix. But their developers were spread pretty thin at the time.
Man, 10-15 fps on tomb raider is really impressive for the 32x even in this rough early stage. I agree that there was no real way to compete with cheaper CD based games back in the day but I always wondered what could have been
I dont have the same thinking, i beliebe the capabilities 3d are much than ever you beliebe ever seen in ps1, and the second sh2 was unuseed clesrly in much games, remember was the power graphic exaple of amok or dark savior on ssturn and are games not at max power of the chipset, much routines for litle bus, neptune i beliebe in format cartrige was better option than complex cd32x
i think the main thing holding back homebrew devs creating new software that utilizes the Sega CD hardware is the fact that there isn't an SGDK equivalent available for SegaCD. but when/if that ever happens, i think we will start to see what the 32x was really capable of. I think the Sega CD + 32x + Genesis might be powerful enough for a nearly arcade perfect port of Golden Axe. The current port is damn close
Hopefully, they keep em coming. I love seeing what the 32x was capable of. sad it didn't get this treatment back in the day. Apparently, it was fairly capable
I wonder if there is a technical issue surrounding this, the official mega cd version was also one player, I wonder if the original Mega drive version was coded in a peculiar way that when they tried to read the more complex graphical elements from the arcade version it just didn't work right.
It would certainly be interesting to see if people doing these tweaks could improve the visuals of other Genesis games using 32X. But something that would be even more impressive is seeing Sega CD and 32X working together in content that isn't a FMV game.
Bro, I've been following you since the early days of your channel. I too have large NES, Genesis ,TG-16, PSX, ETC collections that I mostly purchased during those eras. I really enjoy how you revisit these great consoles and games. Your content keeps getting better and you seem like a dude I could sit down with, have a beer and play some Splatterhouse 2 all evening!
Something tells me an unoptimized demo tomb raider would be on brand for the 32x if it released back then. Still it’s very cool and would like to see what a finished version would be
The Tomb Raider demo is astounding. I see some little touches like background and color in Golden Axe ( I think ), but, I hope more will be added to it ...
absolutely AMAZING work on the open Lara Tom Raider port! Imagine if it was a launch title (in this condition) together with the current version of Doom 32X Resurrection. It would've definitely changed people's perception of the 32X hardware, especially since people were so keen on 3D back in the mid 90's. I personally cherishing pixel art A LOT, but to most gamers it was really seen as boring "yesterdays technology"... Anyway, I still think the 32X would've failed due to be being complementary hardware sandwiched between the end of a generation, during the hype-train of the next generation. But when looking at something like this I definitely feel like the 32X could've have been a hardware platform that aged more gracefully, especially if it was given more support and more talent.
If they had a trifecta of good ports of Virtua Fighter, Doom and Tom Raider at launch and advertised it everywhere, this thing would be flying off the shelves that 1994 Xmas season, because PS1 didn't have anything of THAT quality at launch. 😂One can dream.
As nice as this looks, I wonder how expensive these games would've been at the time. SegaLord said they came on quitr hefty cartridges, and I wonder if people would have just looked at them, compared them to the cheaper CD-ROM versions, and decided not to get them. In the end they may have turned into financial disasters that would've hurt SEGA even more.
Sounds good, but there's a RAM limitation there. 32X only has 256KB RAM, and Mega CD has 768KB. Very limiting. It'd need a RAM cart to really be of use.
I absolutelly love seeing modern day devs take up a challenge by diving into old tech and to try to sqeeze the most out of it. I wish I had the time to do the same, it sounds fun and rewarding... : ) That Tomb Raider port is amazing in itself. Sure it takes too much space on a rom but using a sega CD as storage for FMV, assets and music would have been quite possible but would also have made this a very niche product, in the US at least, while being popular in Europe and Brazil untill the Saturn's price dropped enougth in those regions. That being said, Developping this back in 93-94 would have been a nightmare and would, in no way, look and play as smoothly. So again, kudos to the devs here and now. : )
I love the rom hacking community! I did hear about the Golden Axe 32X version recently and looking forward to checking it out! I had no idea there was a Tomb Raider 32X project as well. That is pretty impressive! I definitely would love to see more 32X hacks (either ports or improvements to existing 32X games). I'm crossing my fingers for some sort of Knuckles' Chaotix revamp!
@@MacUser2-il2cx Yup, I saw that one that replaces Mighty with Sonic. I always hoped there would be one that had like design or quality of life improvements as I heard the game is decent but extremely flawed.
@@mattb6522 It's a really old hack, i think it was the first 32X hack ever too. But back then most hacks were just generic character sprite swaps. It does need an update.
@@mattb6522 There IS a couple of DOOM 32X hacks that have Sonic and Blaze in them. There is one for Sonic and one for Blaze which i think is the sequel to it? There's also a hack of DOOM for the 32X that switches the music with Sonic Spinball's OST...
Loving the 32X being in the spotlight for once. That Tomb Raider port really shows the potential for near Saturn/PS1 level content. Would be cool to see a port of Hexen or a Quake demake. Hell, a Sonic fan project using the graphics from Chaotix could be amazing too.
both are too fast paced games .... at 8-10fps they would be unplayable TR is more suited for 15fps athough I do not think anyone will actually play this, especially on real hw :)
You'd have seen more Sega CD 32X titles that incorporated extra RAM on the 32X cart, I'd imagine, but at that point you're basically asking consumers to build their own Saturn.
I would like to hear someone make some port that really shows off how capable the upgraded sound of the 32X is. This work is superb. I am so happy to see this being accomplished.
The 32x is probably most similar to the GBA. 2 channels for playing samples, but 10-bit instead of 8 (less noise and hiss), and more cpu power which could allow for more channels or better sample rate. You also have the full genesis audio of course, rather than original gameboy sound.
Stuff like this is starting to fill that empty void of never knowing what the full potential of the 32x was. I'd love to see lots of Sega arcade super scaler ports.
I always missed the stone corpses in the Sega Genesis, but I thought that they could have pulled it off if it was developed by '95 when developers knew the system better.
I can only imagine what it would be to play Tomb Raider on the Mega Drive with the 32X, I always considered the 32X much closer to the 16-bit console than it ever was to the 32-bit generation, so, it's almost like a 16-bit console running a 32-bit trailblazer, this is remarkable.
They were FMV games that weren't possible on the carts of the time. I don't think any company besides DP would have released games that required both the Sega CD and the 32X. The market was miniscule and there would be no way to recoup the development cost.
@@NOOBNUT08it could probably be used for all the cut scenes. I also wonder if it could just fit the hole game on the disc and some how have it work with the 32x
Golden Axe: I actually like a mix 32x - character select screen, characters, dragon Arcade - Hud, Dragon fire Both - Backgrounds I am undecided on and could go either way
It’s so cool we’re taking this add on that was once just a joke that people liked to crap all over and actually using its power to do some really cool things on the Genesis. I’ve always been a fan of the 32X but its library was definitely overly lacking.. but now we hopefully start to see it being used to its full potential and it can become what Sega envisioned it to be all along.
@@Gary_Hun It's the logical thing to do. The original Golden Axe on the Sega Saturn would have to be done completely from scratch, so better to focus such big efforts (similar to what's been done now with X-Men: The Video Game) on The Revenge of Death Adder, which doesn't have any contemporary home version (or anything outside of what was done for the Sega Astro City Mini). This 32X version is relatively easy to do because it relies on the base of the existing Mega Drive version.
I have always known that 32x is capable of a lot more and I didn't hate the device itself, because unlike most people I think that having an addon that upgrades your console is a great idea. Imaging having an ability to upgrade your PS4 to PS4 pro. 32x had the power to bring the majority of the arcade games plus some of the early 3d titles. I'm pretty sure that some of the FPS games like Hexen or Heretic could have also been on 32x. They're dark enough to hide some of the distance, which would have the performance.
You know, the 32x was 3/4 of a good idea. The SuperFX chips on the SNES were expensive, and it’s not an entirely dumb idea to just have a peripheral that you buy once instead of having to package it in a cartridge and buy a bunch of times. I think if they had managed to price it down a bit, it would have gotten more games and sold more units.
Still kinda dumb. The number of games that used those special chips on the SNES was few in total. Keep in mind that a lot more fans were likely to buy the chipped games over a device PLUS the games. Making an addon device to play a handful of exclusive games would still have been a waste of Nintendo's time.
If you could use the 32x cartridge slot as a ram expansion, the CD drive would have been able to get much better results. I just wonder if the drive and the bus are fast enough to stream the info? Of course at that point, you nearly re-invented the Saturn.
The 32X was able to work along with the Sega CD to enhance those games as well. Tomb Raider could have definitely been released as one of those rare games that required the CD and 32x (there were a few that required both).
Dude I might brush up on the current tools and forgotten stuff for Genesis rom hacking. If it's not a all compassing nightmare and completely alien to romhack a 32x rom, I already have several ideas for smaller projects and a big one that will be very incremental (and maybe never be anything else than experimental, but that's how you improve and also see what are the biggest bottlenecks and stuff. If there's a particular source to get into it quick and dirty while I'm still too busy but still have a few moment to read here and there, I'd definitely love a link! Great vid dude!
I am *thrilled* that this is happening! Both of those games are showing a lot of potential, and I can't wait to see them when they are finished. Golden Axe might even end up looking and sounding Arcade perfect which would be incredible. Tomb Raider will obviously be a lot tougher, but that one is going to be the most interesting. 32X was made as basically a cheaper alternative to the Saturn, capable of producing 3D games, but we saw so very little of that. We never got to see the 32X pushed to the limit, so Tomb Raider is our chance to finally see how much the 32X is truly capable of. Will it be as good as the Saturn version, or perhaps even the PS1 version? I suspect the answer to both is "no", but I'm very curious to see how close it can get.
Segalord, man I don't know if you will see this, but I love your channel it's such a great time loop for me. I was born in 1980 and Sega was my everything, I was one of the lucky kids where my mom bought me the Sega Channel and my friends would come over after school to play with it like, seriously Sega was ahead of it's time, ya the 32x I had that too but man was I upset with it lol. Keep up the great work. all love, all Sega.
I have offered to help optimize the code on so many of these projects, And almost all of them withhold their code or don't want me getting involved until they finished their side of things. I'd really just like a Sega Genesis project to work on. And I can do 68000 and RISC Assembly.
@Hamdad Most of the retro developers are this way. Or they wait until the project is ready for release then want to have someone spend 1-2 weeks on peephole optimizations. Why?
On the one hand, the timeline were SEGA never made the 32X and concentrated all efforts on the Saturn would probably have ended up the better one for SEGA overall... but now that we're in the timeline we're in, I do think it's very cool some people are actually diving deep into the machine and making better use of it. It was probably not economically feasible to do back then, but at least hobbyist in the present can make good on the missed promises of the past.
There are many reasons to beat up the 32x, but #1 for me might be the 32 mbit / 4 MB cartridge limit. It's not like it was some far-off figure that the designers couldn't imagine reaching. 32 megabit / 4 MB games may have already existed by the 32x's release (not 100% sure) and 24 megabit / 3 MB games were already mainstream. Sure, there is always bankswitching, but it's yet another barrier on a platform full of barriers.
7:10 We do have to remember that the N64 did sort of answer this question. They did pull off RE2 on the 64, so not ideal but doable with the right team.
N64 games were also much more costly than the CD games available at the time. On 32X, Sega would be asking a $70-$80 premium for games that did not look or run as well as Saturn and PSX games.
I don't think space would have been an issue. Most CD based games were really small, with the majority of the disc being used for music and movies. Tomb Raider doesn't have a ton of music, so I'd imagine the ROM wouldn't need to be too large unless they try to do the movies. Even so, the 32X did have Sega CD support, so it wouldn't have shocked me if we saw dual cartridge/CD releases had the addon been successful. Final point, those mad scientists fit RE2 on an N64 cart with FMVs. I don't know if the 32X's CPUs could decompress with that much efficiency, but it would have been doable if it took off. I've always wondered if Sega would have given 32Xs free to Sega CD owners if it would have taken off more just due to installed units.
No company would have published 32X CD games outside of Sega/FMV. This first stage ROM is 16 megabits with no sound or music. The full game, even compressed, would have been far larger than any existing 32X cart.
@@SegaLordX I might be entirely overly optimistic, but I would suspect that the full game without FMV or music could be compressed into a 128 Mbit ROM size. Insanely expensive for the 90s, but doable. Not sure I agree with the Sega CD statement though; if they could get the install base up by offering a promo for SCD users, I think more companies would have pumped out CD conversions of big brother games if they knew the majority of 32x users had the CD addon. Only problem is anyone who bought a SCD likely was an early PS/Sat adopter.
It'd be great if a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge could have its contents replaced with 4MB RAM for the 32X, allowing games to be burned to CD and loaded to the cartridge ala the Saturn 4MB cart. Games could even have a cart AND a CD with RAM cart, for larger games with less load times.
Regardless of everything, being a fan of Tom Raider and SEGA, seing the game running that well without optimization is beyond amazing. The only way I can see that fit into a cartgide is to cut a lot of content and videos. Or doing the magic wizard of RE2 on N64 which I can not see possible because Tomb Raider has 3D large environments........unless....they somehow could use the cd combo from the Mega/Sega CD..... But hell, it's still very impressive.
I bet if the 32x took off, more CD+32X games would have been made, and the neptune would have been a full tower of power instead. And smaller games would have been just the cartridges. But, that would have still been a stretch.
Your comments about how much work would need to go into a 32X version of "Tomb Raider" reminded me of an idea I wish Sega had implemented: selling Combo games requiring both Cartridge and Disc, with the Cartridge serving as both program storage and RAM upgrade, while the CD stored the textures, models, sprites and other components necessary for the game. The full setup of CD, Genesis and 32X would have been needed to do it, and other than the Saturn and Turbografx, the only machines physically capable. Had Nintendo stuck with their deal with Sony to make the Nintendo Playstation, the cost justification might have been there - especially had Sony and Nintendo explored this possibility first. Cost might be the main reason why this was never explored, but I wonder if the technicality would have been there to do this... A great "What if" mystery...
If only SEGA did an update on their Genesis2, that would have helped tremendously. They launched a genesis 2 that was basically a cheaply made genesis1...they could have take the opportunity to have a faster 68000 processor (maybe 10mhz), update the sound with a couple more channels (and the ability to do proper voices) and maybe also fix the colors (128 colors would have make a difference on some games). I am not talking about calling but it would have been great to have a sort of scalling to make version of games like outrun or out runners rad mobile.....Genesis was their best console they should have tried to update it once the SNES was out.
Seeing the 32x running something that's more than just a flat polygon is so cool
Metal Head had cool graphics with textures.
And it’s still more capable than that parody of a 64-bit console called Atari Jaguar! especially framerate-wise.
Darxide is more than flat polys.
Darxide almost has PS1 level graphics, but with a very lower framerate.
That Tomb Raider port is impressive
Glad to see the 32X getting more love.
32x needed redeemed! I'm so glad for this support from the retro community!
That Tomb Raider blows my mind, it looks like the Saturn version
I think it actually resembles the PS1 version more. The Saturn version has a much darker colour palette.
@@Retro.Gamer.1982no. Saturn
I think it looks better than the Saturn version. Like other guy said it looks more like the PS1 version.
Definitely not, Saturn is slightly better than 32X and the PlayStation is far superior when comes to graphics and sounds compared to Saturn but Saturn has better drawbacks distance and water reflection that PS1 and the Orignal DOS PC version don't have.
Source is from psx version that's why it looks that way. Still impressive as all hell
I’d love to see the arcade voices and grey corpses added to Golden Axe
This!
@@AntiHeroFett
The gamers demand corpses!
@@TechRyze haha, 100%!
A 32x port of Strider would be so amazing!! I'm blown away by Tomb Raider!
Nice to see people working on ports for the 32x. Just goes to show the 32x was underutilized at the time. It was capable of so much more than the bare minimum effort ports it mostly got.
Yep - the work done with Doom Resurrection shows what a few determined developers can squeeze out of the hardware.
@@TechRyze Only thing I wished there was a way to make it work like directly to hdmi... i guess mister is the only way to do so, without DAC, etc.
One thing I'd love to see is homebrew devs finally realizing some of those unreleased games. Like the ports of Darkstalkers and Alien VS Predator. Heck, we could even get Piggsy (the guy behind the SotN Genesis demake) to bring Castlevania: The Bloodletting to life!
games were cut back substantially for the N64 and it still did ok. RE2 is the exception, that was a miracle.
now I'm thinking Tomb Raider could be ported to the N64, like Resident Evil 2 was. If it can run on the 32x, the more powerful N64 and the bigger cartridges can help. With midi music and compressing the FMVs, it could be made to fit on a 64mb cartridge.
@chrisbirch2002 then the fmvs could be adapted into slide shows.it's not the ideal but better than nothing.
it could be an interesting homebrew project to try to port it to the n64.
@chrisbirch2002 if you want a port in a system that's not supposed to be able to do it but does it anyway, search for "castlevania symphony of the night" for Megadrive/Genesis, or Portal for n64.
I just can't believe they didn't try and make a 32X port of Revenge of Death Adder, I mean that was the best sequel ever and it only recently came to consoles in some collection iirc, right? I mean why even make that console add-on if there was barely anything of note that was exclusive other than that Hummingbird game which comes to mind.
Star wars arcade was exclusive and knuckles chaotix
to be fair Sega did put some decent effort into releasing solid games for the 32X in the year or so before they dropped it completely. Virtua Racing delux, Virtua Fighter, Star Wars Arcade, Knuckles Chaotix. But their developers were spread pretty thin at the time.
The list of canceled games is as long as the list of games actually released.
tomb raider running on a 32x is mind blowing!
Man, 10-15 fps on tomb raider is really impressive for the 32x even in this rough early stage. I agree that there was no real way to compete with cheaper CD based games back in the day but I always wondered what could have been
That's about as many frames as you would get playing on say, Pentium 75 (maybe even 90) PC back in the day, so not bad at all.
That't what the CD 32X games were for 😉
It's not a much different experience than playing on the PC with the S3 ViRGE.
I dont have the same thinking, i beliebe the capabilities 3d are much than ever you beliebe ever seen in ps1, and the second sh2 was unuseed clesrly in much games, remember was the power graphic exaple of amok or dark savior on ssturn and are games not at max power of the chipset, much routines for litle bus, neptune i beliebe in format cartrige was better option than complex cd32x
I never thought I'd see the day that Tomb Raider would be running on the 32x! My God, what talented developers!
Would be really cool if they made it in to a Sega CD 32x game with the animated cutscenes from the Turbographix version :)
Yeah, that'd be really popular with the 3 people that own a Mega CD and a 32X.
@@Boogie_the_cat As opposed to the 5 people who own a 32X
i think the main thing holding back homebrew devs creating new software that utilizes the Sega CD hardware is the fact that there isn't an SGDK equivalent available for SegaCD. but when/if that ever happens, i think we will start to see what the 32x was really capable of. I think the Sega CD + 32x + Genesis might be powerful enough for a nearly arcade perfect port of Golden Axe. The current port is damn close
@@Boogie_the_cat Heh. I resemble that remark. And a CD 32X Tomb Raider would be a lot better than that Corpse Killer mess we actually got..
@@Boogie_the_cat I mean with the Mega SD or Everdrive that support CD images and the 32x... there should be a lot more than 3. Maybe 10? :P
My week isn’t complete without listening to that beautiful Sega intro.
If the 32X had stuck around, i think we would have seen a lot of 32X/CD combo games. 32X for the processing power, Sega CD for the storage.
Tomb Raider running on a 32X is crazy impressive.
Hopefully, they keep em coming. I love seeing what the 32x was capable of. sad it didn't get this treatment back in the day. Apparently, it was fairly capable
There's Tomb Raider Unfinished Business and X-Men Arcade you might want to cover on the Saturn.
Both projects are very impressive. The community continues to surprise us every day ! Just sad Golden Axe seems 1 player only... for now.
I wonder if there is a technical issue surrounding this, the official mega cd version was also one player, I wonder if the original Mega drive version was coded in a peculiar way that when they tried to read the more complex graphical elements from the arcade version it just didn't work right.
I love these 32x projects. If I could use time travel I would bring them back and make them all launch titles.
Releasing Tomb Raider anytime before the Saturn releases would’ve been amazing!
@@robertpeacock894 it would have been an absolute killer app
It would certainly be interesting to see if people doing these tweaks could improve the visuals of other Genesis games using 32X.
But something that would be even more impressive is seeing Sega CD and 32X working together in content that isn't a FMV game.
Bro, I've been following you since the early days of your channel. I too have large NES, Genesis ,TG-16, PSX, ETC collections that I mostly purchased during those eras. I really enjoy how you revisit these great consoles and games. Your content keeps getting better and you seem like a dude I could sit down with, have a beer and play some Splatterhouse 2 all evening!
Nice! The 32X is a beast if it's got the right programming and enough memory for the assets.
Sega community are the best, period
Wasnt aware of the Golden Axe 32X project. I had seen the TR one though. Some great stuff for the 32X! Cheers for the overview.
Something tells me an unoptimized demo tomb raider would be on brand for the 32x if it released back then. Still it’s very cool and would like to see what a finished version would be
That golden aze looks really good. That is some amazing work
I love the 32x coverage
The Tomb Raider demo is astounding. I see some little touches like background and color in Golden Axe ( I think ), but, I hope more will be added to it ...
absolutely AMAZING work on the open Lara Tom Raider port! Imagine if it was a launch title (in this condition) together with the current version of Doom 32X Resurrection. It would've definitely changed people's perception of the 32X hardware, especially since people were so keen on 3D back in the mid 90's. I personally cherishing pixel art A LOT, but to most gamers it was really seen as boring "yesterdays technology"... Anyway, I still think the 32X would've failed due to be being complementary hardware sandwiched between the end of a generation, during the hype-train of the next generation. But when looking at something like this I definitely feel like the 32X could've have been a hardware platform that aged more gracefully, especially if it was given more support and more talent.
If they had a trifecta of good ports of Virtua Fighter, Doom and Tom Raider at launch and advertised it everywhere, this thing would be flying off the shelves that 1994 Xmas season, because PS1 didn't have anything of THAT quality at launch. 😂One can dream.
As nice as this looks, I wonder how expensive these games would've been at the time. SegaLord said they came on quitr hefty cartridges, and I wonder if people would have just looked at them, compared them to the cheaper CD-ROM versions, and decided not to get them. In the end they may have turned into financial disasters that would've hurt SEGA even more.
If I ever get a time machine, watch out 1994! 😆
Saturn needed to run all 32X software.
Thanks!
I think that most games would have needed to be Sega CD 32x. The cartridge size would have indeed been too small for any ambitious games.
Sounds good, but there's a RAM limitation there. 32X only has 256KB RAM, and Mega CD has 768KB.
Very limiting. It'd need a RAM cart to really be of use.
@@TechRyze That's where a 32x RAM Cart could come into play, plug it into the cart slot and the game disc to the CD tray.
Really cool to see the 32x getting some love. A Super Hang on and Out Run port is what I would love to see on the 32x
I absolutelly love seeing modern day devs take up a challenge by diving into old tech and to try to sqeeze the most out of it. I wish I had the time to do the same, it sounds fun and rewarding... : )
That Tomb Raider port is amazing in itself. Sure it takes too much space on a rom but using a sega CD as storage for FMV, assets and music would have been quite possible but would also have made this a very niche product, in the US at least, while being popular in Europe and Brazil untill the Saturn's price dropped enougth in those regions.
That being said, Developping this back in 93-94 would have been a nightmare and would, in no way, look and play as smoothly. So again, kudos to the devs here and now. : )
I love the rom hacking community! I did hear about the Golden Axe 32X version recently and looking forward to checking it out! I had no idea there was a Tomb Raider 32X project as well. That is pretty impressive! I definitely would love to see more 32X hacks (either ports or improvements to existing 32X games). I'm crossing my fingers for some sort of Knuckles' Chaotix revamp!
So far there's a hack that adds Sonic to Knuckles Chaotix but that's about it. I agree we need a update!
@@MacUser2-il2cx Yup, I saw that one that replaces Mighty with Sonic. I always hoped there would be one that had like design or quality of life improvements as I heard the game is decent but extremely flawed.
@@mattb6522 It's a really old hack, i think it was the first 32X hack ever too. But back then most hacks were just generic character sprite swaps. It does need an update.
@@mattb6522 There IS a couple of DOOM 32X hacks that have Sonic and Blaze in them. There is one for Sonic and one for Blaze which i think is the sequel to it? There's also a hack of DOOM for the 32X that switches the music with Sonic Spinball's OST...
Loving the 32X being in the spotlight for once. That Tomb Raider port really shows the potential for near Saturn/PS1 level content. Would be cool to see a port of Hexen or a Quake demake. Hell, a Sonic fan project using the graphics from Chaotix could be amazing too.
both are too fast paced games .... at 8-10fps they would be unplayable
TR is more suited for 15fps athough I do not think anyone will actually play this, especially on real hw :)
You'd have seen more Sega CD 32X titles that incorporated extra RAM on the 32X cart, I'd imagine, but at that point you're basically asking consumers to build their own Saturn.
I would like to hear someone make some port that really shows off how capable the upgraded sound of the 32X is. This work is superb. I am so happy to see this being accomplished.
The 32x is probably most similar to the GBA. 2 channels for playing samples, but 10-bit instead of 8 (less noise and hiss), and more cpu power which could allow for more channels or better sample rate. You also have the full genesis audio of course, rather than original gameboy sound.
@@jc_dogen thank you for the informative info!
golden axe looks great....tomb raider looks promising
Stuff like this is starting to fill that empty void of never knowing what the full potential of the 32x was. I'd love to see lots of Sega arcade super scaler ports.
Seems like XProger won't rest until Tomb Raider is running on the Spectrum ;)
I always missed the stone corpses in the Sega Genesis, but I thought that they could have pulled it off if it was developed by '95 when developers knew the system better.
Hold up... Am I only now realizing they turned to stone and not just turned grey? Did just the villains turn to stone?
Still want to see Gilius using a golden axe like in the arcade
I can only imagine what it would be to play Tomb Raider on the Mega Drive with the 32X, I always considered the 32X much closer to the 16-bit console than it ever was to the 32-bit generation, so, it's almost like a 16-bit console running a 32-bit trailblazer, this is remarkable.
6:20 There were CD 32X games that required the Sega CD and 32X. Those ports weren't that far outside the realm of possibility.
They were FMV games that weren't possible on the carts of the time. I don't think any company besides DP would have released games that required both the Sega CD and the 32X. The market was miniscule and there would be no way to recoup the development cost.
@@SegaLordX But in the case of the open Lara project, couldn't the Sega CD be used in combination with the 32X?
@@NOOBNUT08it could probably be used for all the cut scenes. I also wonder if it could just fit the hole game on the disc and some how have it work with the 32x
Sega Lord X gracing our presence as always
seeing tomb raider run on the 32x is a massive eye opener, if that had been shown instead of flat polygons i think it would have faired a lot better
Golden Axe Looks Amazing!, Definitely adding that to the Favorites list over the Genesis version for a while to try it
I wish we had more sega cd games that used the 32x
Golden Axe: I actually like a mix
32x - character select screen, characters, dragon
Arcade - Hud, Dragon fire
Both - Backgrounds I am undecided on and could go either way
I'm not Golden Axe's biggest fan, but I always forget how epic the theme tune is.
Sega Rally on the 32X would be awesome.
Looks great 32x Golden Axe close to the arcade back grounds
It’s so cool we’re taking this add on that was once just a joke that people liked to crap all over and actually using its power to do some really cool things on the Genesis. I’ve always been a fan of the 32X but its library was definitely overly lacking.. but now we hopefully start to see it being used to its full potential and it can become what Sega envisioned it to be all along.
The 32X is a powerful add on and like the Saturn, using both cpu is the key to get amazing graphics
Is it only me, or a Saturn port of Golden Axe would make a ton more sense? You know, technological wow factor aside, actual practical sense...
Sega Saturn would be better receiving Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder instead.
@@WeskerSega I'm way too big of a Golden Axe fan to say screw this and that, now THAT on Saturn, yeaaah...
@@Gary_Hun It's the logical thing to do. The original Golden Axe on the Sega Saturn would have to be done completely from scratch, so better to focus such big efforts (similar to what's been done now with X-Men: The Video Game) on The Revenge of Death Adder, which doesn't have any contemporary home version (or anything outside of what was done for the Sega Astro City Mini). This 32X version is relatively easy to do because it relies on the base of the existing Mega Drive version.
I have always known that 32x is capable of a lot more and I didn't hate the device itself, because unlike most people I think that having an addon that upgrades your console is a great idea. Imaging having an ability to upgrade your PS4 to PS4 pro. 32x had the power to bring the majority of the arcade games plus some of the early 3d titles. I'm pretty sure that some of the FPS games like Hexen or Heretic could have also been on 32x. They're dark enough to hide some of the distance, which would have the performance.
You know, the 32x was 3/4 of a good idea. The SuperFX chips on the SNES were expensive, and it’s not an entirely dumb idea to just have a peripheral that you buy once instead of having to package it in a cartridge and buy a bunch of times.
I think if they had managed to price it down a bit, it would have gotten more games and sold more units.
perhaps if it was released exactly when virtua racing released....
Still kinda dumb. The number of games that used those special chips on the SNES was few in total. Keep in mind that a lot more fans were likely to buy the chipped games over a device PLUS the games. Making an addon device to play a handful of exclusive games would still have been a waste of Nintendo's time.
That was the plan at one time, an SVP chip lock-on cart.
At this pace, we'll sooner get an update of Sonic Classic Heroes with 32X's horsepower.
Imagine a team of both Sonic AND Chaotix at once.
I was always fascinated by the 32X! Ahead of it's time.
Tomb raider would be great as a 32x + Mega CD port
I didn’t hear the First Blood deputy scream “ahhhhh shhhhhiiit” that’s my favorite
This is great stuff. I already tested Golden Axe on a real 32X. It was really good, looked great with the Retrotink 4K.
If you could use the 32x cartridge slot as a ram expansion, the CD drive would have been able to get much better results. I just wonder if the drive and the bus are fast enough to stream the info? Of course at that point, you nearly re-invented the Saturn.
The 32x has a ton of untapped potential
The 32X is a monster!
The 32X was able to work along with the Sega CD to enhance those games as well. Tomb Raider could have definitely been released as one of those rare games that required the CD and 32x (there were a few that required both).
Tomb Raider on 32x is a marvel.
Thanks for the update. I'm a die hard Sega fan and will die one. Great content like always 👍🏾
Am I wrong thinking that golden axe would make a damn good live action movie??? .. the music is iconic
So, Conan?
Dude I might brush up on the current tools and forgotten stuff for Genesis rom hacking. If it's not a all compassing nightmare and completely alien to romhack a 32x rom, I already have several ideas for smaller projects and a big one that will be very incremental (and maybe never be anything else than experimental, but that's how you improve and also see what are the biggest bottlenecks and stuff.
If there's a particular source to get into it quick and dirty while I'm still too busy but still have a few moment to read here and there, I'd definitely love a link!
Great vid dude!
I am *thrilled* that this is happening! Both of those games are showing a lot of potential, and I can't wait to see them when they are finished. Golden Axe might even end up looking and sounding Arcade perfect which would be incredible. Tomb Raider will obviously be a lot tougher, but that one is going to be the most interesting. 32X was made as basically a cheaper alternative to the Saturn, capable of producing 3D games, but we saw so very little of that. We never got to see the 32X pushed to the limit, so Tomb Raider is our chance to finally see how much the 32X is truly capable of. Will it be as good as the Saturn version, or perhaps even the PS1 version? I suspect the answer to both is "no", but I'm very curious to see how close it can get.
Segalord, man I don't know if you will see this, but I love your channel it's such a great time loop for me. I was born in 1980 and Sega was my everything, I was one of the lucky kids where my mom bought me the Sega Channel and my friends would come over after school to play with it like, seriously Sega was ahead of it's time, ya the 32x I had that too but man was I upset with it lol. Keep up the great work. all love, all Sega.
Thanks, dude. Appreciate the comment.
I have offered to help optimize the code on so many of these projects, And almost all of them withhold their code or don't want me getting involved until they finished their side of things. I'd really just like a Sega Genesis project to work on. And I can do 68000 and RISC Assembly.
That's a shame, wonder why they're being so guarded? It's not like they're gonna sell the final product
@Hamdad Most of the retro developers are this way. Or they wait until the project is ready for release then want to have someone spend 1-2 weeks on peephole optimizations. Why?
This is amazing!! TR in 32x WTF
Sega was it's own worse enemy back in the day.
The color is actually better on the 32x mod. 32x could've been so much more but of course sega of America mishandled its release.
On the one hand, the timeline were SEGA never made the 32X and concentrated all efforts on the Saturn would probably have ended up the better one for SEGA overall... but now that we're in the timeline we're in, I do think it's very cool some people are actually diving deep into the machine and making better use of it. It was probably not economically feasible to do back then, but at least hobbyist in the present can make good on the missed promises of the past.
Open Lara is the new Doom.
There are many reasons to beat up the 32x, but #1 for me might be the 32 mbit / 4 MB cartridge limit. It's not like it was some far-off figure that the designers couldn't imagine reaching. 32 megabit / 4 MB games may have already existed by the 32x's release (not 100% sure) and 24 megabit / 3 MB games were already mainstream. Sure, there is always bankswitching, but it's yet another barrier on a platform full of barriers.
32x i still need in my collection, emulation aint the same, glad to see this hopefully i can get a 32x soon enough
That Tomb Raider port is mindblowing O_O
Need more 32x content!!! cmon game porters.. MORE!
The 32X Tomb Raider looks like the version I played on my computer back in the day when I had Windows 95 and a Pentium II processor.
7:10 We do have to remember that the N64 did sort of answer this question. They did pull off RE2 on the 64, so not ideal but doable with the right team.
N64 games were also much more costly than the CD games available at the time. On 32X, Sega would be asking a $70-$80 premium for games that did not look or run as well as Saturn and PSX games.
Amazing capabilities 3d, and much more simply than saturn, i want one neptune with a lot of games please next cristmas❤
I don't think space would have been an issue. Most CD based games were really small, with the majority of the disc being used for music and movies. Tomb Raider doesn't have a ton of music, so I'd imagine the ROM wouldn't need to be too large unless they try to do the movies.
Even so, the 32X did have Sega CD support, so it wouldn't have shocked me if we saw dual cartridge/CD releases had the addon been successful.
Final point, those mad scientists fit RE2 on an N64 cart with FMVs. I don't know if the 32X's CPUs could decompress with that much efficiency, but it would have been doable if it took off.
I've always wondered if Sega would have given 32Xs free to Sega CD owners if it would have taken off more just due to installed units.
No company would have published 32X CD games outside of Sega/FMV. This first stage ROM is 16 megabits with no sound or music. The full game, even compressed, would have been far larger than any existing 32X cart.
@@SegaLordX I might be entirely overly optimistic, but I would suspect that the full game without FMV or music could be compressed into a 128 Mbit ROM size. Insanely expensive for the 90s, but doable.
Not sure I agree with the Sega CD statement though; if they could get the install base up by offering a promo for SCD users, I think more companies would have pumped out CD conversions of big brother games if they knew the majority of 32x users had the CD addon. Only problem is anyone who bought a SCD likely was an early PS/Sat adopter.
This is wild. Hats off to the modders making these.
It'd be great if a Sonic & Knuckles cartridge could have its contents replaced with 4MB RAM for the 32X, allowing games to be burned to CD and loaded to the cartridge ala the Saturn 4MB cart.
Games could even have a cart AND a CD with RAM cart, for larger games with less load times.
32x true 32 bit games would have had neo geo levels of cost. And yet the 32xCD would have been the solution to so much of this.
Regardless of everything, being a fan of Tom Raider and SEGA, seing the game running that well without optimization is beyond amazing.
The only way I can see that fit into a cartgide is to cut a lot of content and videos. Or doing the magic wizard of RE2 on N64 which I can not see possible because Tomb Raider has 3D large environments........unless....they somehow could use the cd combo from the Mega/Sega CD.....
But hell, it's still very impressive.
I bet if the 32x took off, more CD+32X games would have been made, and the neptune would have been a full tower of power instead. And smaller games would have been just the cartridges. But, that would have still been a stretch.
I currently have a real tower of power and another setup with 32x + MegaSD... so would very much welcome a CD+32x version of Tomb Raider!
man love that golden axe theme
I would like to see one addition to Golden Axe... Using the sprite scaling the arcade has
It’s still really early
@@MarginalSC and it looks incredible for being so early!makes me want to learn how to program
The 32x had so much potential. It’s cool to see this kind of stuff now.
Your comments about how much work would need to go into a 32X version of "Tomb Raider" reminded me of an idea I wish Sega had implemented: selling Combo games requiring both Cartridge and Disc, with the Cartridge serving as both program storage and RAM upgrade, while the CD stored the textures, models, sprites and other components necessary for the game. The full setup of CD, Genesis and 32X would have been needed to do it, and other than the Saturn and Turbografx, the only machines physically capable. Had Nintendo stuck with their deal with Sony to make the Nintendo Playstation, the cost justification might have been there - especially had Sony and Nintendo explored this possibility first.
Cost might be the main reason why this was never explored, but I wonder if the technicality would have been there to do this... A great "What if" mystery...
If only SEGA did an update on their Genesis2, that would have helped tremendously. They launched a genesis 2 that was basically a cheaply made genesis1...they could have take the opportunity to have a faster 68000 processor (maybe 10mhz), update the sound with a couple more channels (and the ability to do proper voices) and maybe also fix the colors (128 colors would have make a difference on some games).
I am not talking about calling but it would have been great to have a sort of scalling to make version of games like outrun or out runners rad mobile.....Genesis was their best console they should have tried to update it once the SNES was out.