At 01:14 PM 4/27/00 -0700, you wrote:
What about my 32X? According to some tech specs I
skimmed off the 'Net, it also has twin processors
under its hood. Admittedly, the sound was no real
improvement and all it did up the Genny to the level
of, say, a Super FX game on the SNES, but I'm
wondering if that part of the system design actually
was integrated properly, or not like the Saturn and
Jaguar?
I don't know much about the 32X. I do know it was designed hastily as a
stopgap measure to the "real" next generation. A bad business move on
Sega's part: the planned obsolescence of it. Nintendo got a lot of
criticism but ultimately did the right thing in extending the SNES while
the N64 was late arriving on the scene.
It takes so long to ramp up development on any new platform, and even
successful platforms don't last that long, that you simply can't get away
with a lame-duck platform intended to only last a year or so.
I guess you could see the 32X as related to the Starpath Supercharger, but
I don't think the Supercharger came close to the pricepoint of the 32X. So
it was more like buying a whole new system vs. a cartridge. The 32X was
what, $99 or something? Plus, writing for 32X meant leveraging very little
Genesis experience, whereas you could write 2600 games in mostly the same
way on the Supercharger.
I like hardware enhancements to consoles, when they are done right. The
memory expansion on the N64 comes to mind as a modern example. By not
having to include it on every cart, it keeps costs down for the consumer,
and games can be written with fallbacks so it doesn't lock anybody out. I
think consoles need to become more expandable, but in a very careful
manner. The Playstation is a very closed box. But from the looks of it,
PS2 will be a borderline PC architecture with lots of ins and outs, which
should give it the best chance of a long lifespan.
Glenn Saunders - Producer - Cyberpunks Entertainment
Personal homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1698
Cyberpunks Entertainment: http://cyberpunks.uni.cc
--
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/
