Sega Mega CD 32X Homebrew?

Started by guest5526, March 03, 2015, 09:07:14 AM

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guest5526

I've been a Sega fan since I before I got a Game Gear as a youngster, and one of the things that's fascinated me most about Sega is some of the 'add-ons' they brought out for the Megadrive-the Mega CD and 32X.

Both receive a lot of criticism, and neither have a great deal of good games (not saying that there are none, just not many! FMV anyone?! :76:)

zapiy

What a fantastic first post, (hey don't forget to introduce yourself in the relevant forum) i am amazed no one has done exactly what your suggesting, i would love to see someone push the 32X addon for sure, the way i see it the Atari is getting the XM module that boosts the consoles power and games made for it but not exlusively, surely some additional programming that enable a cart to work on the 32X would not be a huge stretch for these very talented people?

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

guest5526

Thanks Zapiy, sometimes as a non-programmer I feel a bit embarrassed posting on forums like this, but just because I can't do it myself doesn't mean I don't have ideas. Would be nice to see if someone out there is capable and interested in a project like this for a neglected piece of hardware.

zapiy

I can't program game code either, don't mean you should not have an opinion or an idea..

We have a few programmer here and i hope some post in here, we have one or two that program for the MD/Genesis in particular.

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

AmigaJay

Whilst its a good idea in principle, I've heard the 32X isn't the easiest beast to dev for. But also the market is small for retro games on one machine, but for someone to make a game for the megadrive/mega-cd/32x combo will be very small.
There are tech demos for the 32X out there, but unless someone has the passion and alot of time to make a game that pushes the hardware i can't really see it happening...that's not to say it won't just imo of course.
Old School Gamer Since 1982 - Creator of various gaming websites and blogs 1998-2018

zapiy

Do you know if it would be possible to make a game that works on the MD/Gen and will be enhanced if used on the 32X as well, that was it is like all other homebrew with an extra selling point?

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

AmigaJay

Quote from: "zapiy"Do you know if it would be possible to make a game that works on the MD/Gen and will be enhanced if used on the 32X as well, that was it is like all other homebrew with an extra selling point?
That's not possible, because the 32X cartridge's won't fit in the Megadrive cartridge slot anyway.
Old School Gamer Since 1982 - Creator of various gaming websites and blogs 1998-2018

zapiy

Yeah lol I mean could a game be created that detects if it's connected direct to the MD/Gen or the 32X and the game runs accordingly?


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Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

AmigaJay

Quote from: "zapiy"Yeah lol I mean could a game be created that detects if it's connected direct to the MD/Gen or the 32X and the game runs accordingly?


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Technically it could be possible, though again it would be too much hassle for anybody to deal with.
Old School Gamer Since 1982 - Creator of various gaming websites and blogs 1998-2018

zapiy

I guess but people do similar things for other systems so you never know lol... :21:

Own: Jaguar, Lynx, Dreamcast, Saturn, MegaDrive, MegaCD, 32X, GameGear, PS3, PS, PSP, Wii, GameCube, N64, DS, GBA, GBC, GBP, GB,  Xbox, 3DO, CDi,  WonderSwan, WonderSwan Colour NGPC

Shadowrunner

I would love to see someone make a 32X CD that really uses the hardware! Basically you would have to find someone who is a very talented programmer and who has a soft spot for those systems. Someone who would love to show what the hardware was capable of and didn't care about how many copies they sold. Hopefully someday someone like that will come along :)

Lorfarius

The closest you can get at the moment is Pier Solar which was an RPG but that only used the Mega CD with the cart at the same time.

TrekMD

Hi neorococco.  Welcome to RVG.  You do pose a great question.  I'm no programmer either and I ask the same type of question for other systems that have ways to expand the system capabilities. Nonetheless, the potential with the Sega CD and 32X is really great and it would indeed be fantastic to see a game developed that uses the full potential of the combo. 

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


guest5526

I've seen a few ideas popping up on here, I just want to say what I know and clarify a couple of things.

As far as my research tells me, when all three systems are plugged together they ALL have access to each other's resources. So, for example, you could have a MD game plugged in to the top which *could* access the MCD's CD-ROM, or simply use it's extra processor. Equally, it could use the 32X, separately to or in addition to the MCD. I am not sure if you could make a cartridge that could be compatible with both the MD separately AND the 32X, but if it was possible the shape of the cartridge would just have to be the same as the MD in order for it to fit into both, so that wouldn't be the issue. The 32X fully supports MD games lol. However, that's not what I started this thread to discuss.
Quote from: "zapiy"Do you know if it would be possible to make a game that works on the MD/Gen and will be enhanced if used on the 32X as well, that was it is like all other homebrew with an extra selling point?

I would like to see a game released on CD that uses all 3 systems to their fullest-pushes them and really tries to see if (and this may sound crazy) they could compete with the Saturn. Imagine if Sega had released the Mega CD 32X as their full 32-bit next-gen console...(obviously in a single package too but still available as separate upgrades to the MD as well), rather than making a new console (the Saturn), maybe this would have changed things a lot...involved a lot less hating at the time from disgruntled early adopters! It's a question that needs answering!

(My thoughts on the issues affecting performance would probably be with the slightly slower SH2s in the 32X and the single speed CD-ROM in the MCD (as opposed to the 2x one in the Saturn), but both the MCD32X and Saturn are complex consoles so perhaps with all the ins and outs they *may* be comparible?)