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[Lady Decade] The Story of The SEGA 64X - A Ridiculous Sega Saturn Console Add On Documentary

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
If they really could have delivered it for a sub $50 price tag there might have actually been some good potential there but I just don't see how that could have been possible.
 

Kilau

Gold Member
Lady is cracking me up, never seen her videos until now.

I loved the Sega addons back then and I still do even though they were all pretty awful, it was like magic getting the Genesis to play CDs. I’d have probably been all over the 64X had it come out.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Of course I would’ve loved to see how this turned out and what kind of games we got… but man this just sounds like a horrible idea in practice. Sounds like it’s just a brand new, incompatible system that uses the old Saturn as I/O.

Sega’s “vision” (or lack thereof) for hardware seems to be to just spam the market with tons of upgrades and new hardware. Like, release base console, release some upgrades for base console, release a mid-gen refresh that combines all them in one, then maybe release a next gen console that’s something completely different.
 

ManaByte

Member
I thought this was a april fool joke, ive owned every console since the nes, and even drove for 2hrs after work to get a saturn from only shop that had one on day of release, but cant ever remember reading a article on this
It was in EGM in the mid 90s.

I didn't watch the video, but this has most of the information:
 
I feel bad for the Sega dev teams, there was a time where a team could have been making games for the Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, 32X + Sega CD, Saturn, Game Gear, or Model 2, yet every single one of them was its own thing so their dev environment and resources would have been totally siloed because releasing on two or more platforms meant essentially making two or more distinct games.
 

ManaByte

Member
Of course I would’ve loved to see how this turned out and what kind of games we got… but man this just sounds like a horrible idea in practice. Sounds like it’s just a brand new, incompatible system that uses the old Saturn as I/O.

Sega’s “vision” (or lack thereof) for hardware seems to be to just spam the market with tons of upgrades and new hardware. Like, release base console, release some upgrades for base console, release a mid-gen refresh that combines all them in one, then maybe release a next gen console that’s something completely different.

Not sure what the video was talking about, but that wasn't it. It was closer to an upgrade cart than a whole new system. It was going to plug either into the expansion port on the back of the system or the cart slot. Would've made the system about 50% of Model 3 and had a pretty decent VF3 port ready for launch.
 

Dural

Member
Not sure what the video was talking about, but that wasn't it. It was closer to an upgrade cart than a whole new system. It was going to plug either into the expansion port on the back of the system or the cart slot. Would've made the system about 50% of Model 3 and had a pretty decent VF3 port ready for launch.

Yeah, the video mentioned it would've been included with VF3 for like $90 US for the package. Honestly doesn't seem like too bad a deal when you look at the prices for some of the N64 games at the time.
 

Thaedolus

Member
Man, knowing how difficult the base Saturn was to program for, adding this thing to it sounds like a damn nightmare. And I’m not sure how I’ve never heard of it until now, I had a Saturn in the 90s and got a 9/9/99 Dreamcast, this is kinda wild to just now hear about
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Not sure what the video was talking about, but that wasn't it. It was closer to an upgrade cart than a whole new system. It was going to plug either into the expansion port on the back of the system or the cart slot. Would've made the system about 50% of Model 3 and had a pretty decent VF3 port ready for launch.
Hard to find lots of info about this but apparently 64x was going to have its own GPU and possibly its own CPU as well https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/...at-never-happened-and-some-quot-what-ifs-quot

Sure sounds like it’s almost a brand new system. And if I’m understanding it right, Sega CD and 32x were similar. They had their own CPU, memory, etc and basically just used the base console as I/O
 

ManaByte

Member
Yeah, the video mentioned it would've been included with VF3 for like $90 US for the package. Honestly doesn't seem like too bad a deal when you look at the prices for some of the N64 games at the time.

Sega of America at the time viewed it similar to the RAM cart that the Capcom fighters used in Japan (which never came here).
 
Not sure what the video was talking about, but that wasn't it. It was closer to an upgrade cart than a whole new system. It was going to plug either into the expansion port on the back of the system or the cart slot. Would've made the system about 50% of Model 3 and had a pretty decent VF3 port ready for launch.
The Dreamcast was only marginally more powerful than Model 3 Step 1, and actually less powerful than the other Steps. I have a hard time believing half a Dreamcast would be released as an add-on to the Saturn in 1996 or 1997. And if it did, certainly not for any reasonable price.
 

ManaByte

Member
The Dreamcast was only marginally more powerful than Model 3 Step 1, and actually less powerful than the other Steps. I have a hard time believing half a Dreamcast would be released as an add-on to the Saturn in 1996 or 1997. And if it did, certainly not for any reasonable price.

This was a Sega of America project, much like Blackbelt. Dreamcast (Katana) was Sega of Japan. SoA was aiming a bit higher.
 
This was a Sega of America project, much like Blackbelt. Dreamcast (Katana) was Sega of Japan. SoA was aiming a bit higher.
I mean I get that, but the Model 3 was the pinnacle of gaming graphics, even well above PC, for years, and a cabinet cost tens of thousands of dollars or something ridiculous like that. It isn't something that was getting shoved into the expansion port of a Saturn.
 

nush

Gold Member
Lady is cracking me up, never seen her videos until now.

I loved the Sega addons back then and I still do even though they were all pretty awful, it was like magic getting the Genesis to play CDs. I’d have probably been all over the 64X had it come out.
It's Top Hat Gaming Mans wife, she's just presenting on her own channel to double dip on the Patreon subs. Classic Youtuber grift.
 

CamHostage

Member
If they really could have delivered it for a sub $50 price tag there might have actually been some good potential there but I just don't see how that could have been possible.
SEGA would have still SEGA'ed this all up because they're SEGA, would have been interesting for Saturn players to have that level of performance at the time though.

Flip-side, if there was any way of having a "PlayStation 64" plugin or a "PlayStation Pro" midgen console like this that somehow added in the newer visual technologies like z-buffer and floating point operation (which I don't think is a real thing that could have happened, but we're just dreaming here,) that would have been an amazing fork in the gaming history time continuum to experience...
 
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SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
SEGA would have still SEGA'ed this all up because they're SEGA, but if there was any way of having a "PlayStation 64" plugin or a PlayStation Pro that somehow added in the newer visual technologies like z-buffer and floating point operation (which I don't think is a real thing that could have happened, but we're just dreaming here,) that would have been an amazing fork in the gaming history time continuum to experience...
I mean look, at no price point could this have radically turned the tide of the generation, but what I mean is that at that price it probably would have gotten decent support and we would have seen some superior ports on Saturn hardware compared to the other systems and maybe given it the shot in the arm it needed to stay on shelves until Dreamcast arrived.
 

nbkicker

Member
It was in EGM in the mid 90s.

I didn't watch the video, but this has most of the information:
Maybe thats why im from uk and egm magazine wasnt really available over here, dont think any uk mag ran the story about it
 

nush

Gold Member
Maybe thats why im from uk and egm magazine wasnt really available over here, dont think any uk mag ran the story about it
It was, you could buy it and Gamepro In WH Smith's and Menzies.

This is just the Saturn 3D accelerator cart that was covered in both Edge and the official Saturn magazine. Calling it 64x after a Famitsu joke article is just clickbait.
 

ManaByte

Member
It blocks the CD tray, I think it was an April Fools joke?

I don't think an image of it really ever came out, or if they ever got to the stage of something that would connect to the system. Someone just stuck a 32X on a Saturn.

This is just the Saturn 3D accelerator cart that was covered in both Edge and the official Saturn magazine. Calling it 64x after a Famitsu joke article is just clickbait.

Wait, you're telling me a YouTuber would give their video a sensational title and thumbnail just for monetized views?
Oh My God Omg GIF
 
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SEGA would have still SEGA'ed this all up because they're SEGA, would have been interesting for Saturn players to have that level of performance at the time though.

Flip-side, if there was any way of having a "PlayStation 64" plugin or a "PlayStation Pro" midgen console like this that somehow added in the newer visual technologies like z-buffer and floating point operation (which I don't think is a real thing that could have happened, but we're just dreaming here,) that would have been an amazing fork in the gaming history time continuum to experience...
To think there is some alternate universe out there where PlayStation polygon textures didn't wobble.

Fucked up to think about...
 
So same thing 3DO was doing with the M2 before it became a standalone console, an unnecessary 64bit addon.

so many mistakes made by sega after the successfull genesis/megadrive

Which itself ended up not being a success after all the mistakes that were made. Also handing their lead in the US to Nintendo for free.

It would be crazy too see what a stable Sega could have done
 

Azurro

Banned
Of course I would’ve loved to see how this turned out and what kind of games we got… but man this just sounds like a horrible idea in practice. Sounds like it’s just a brand new, incompatible system that uses the old Saturn as I/O.

Sega’s “vision” (or lack thereof) for hardware seems to be to just spam the market with tons of upgrades and new hardware. Like, release base console, release some upgrades for base console, release a mid-gen refresh that combines all them in one, then maybe release a next gen console that’s something completely different.

The thing about Sega is that, as a company, it had no vision, it was completely reactionary. At one point they wanted to launch something to combat the Atari Jaguar, which says it all about their lack of planning. That and their lack of a unified leadership, with the ridiculous frictions between the US and Japan, with such silly examples such as Yuji Naka not letting the people in America developing the Saturn Sonic game access to the Nights engine for no good reason other than ego, as well as the Black Belt and Katana fiasco.

The more information that later came out, it seems SEGA arrived to their only successful platform almost through chance, given how mismanaged the rest of the platforms, add ons and even the Genesis itself were.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Yup I was super excited about that myself at the time. VF3 was the big game attached to it.
 

ksdixon

Member
What was it, the Neptune?

Whichever prototype was supposed to be Saturn CD's with MegaDrive cartridge port in the back. That should have been the way forward, cut the SegaCD and 32X off at the knees and play to your strengths.
 

ManaByte

Member
What was it, the Neptune?

Whichever prototype was supposed to be Saturn CD's with MegaDrive cartridge port in the back. That should have been the way forward, cut the SegaCD and 32X off at the knees and play to your strengths.
Neptune was the standalone 32X.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
so many mistakes made by sega after the successfull genesis/megadrive
Which was due to leadership in the west. The mega drive wasn’t nearly as popular in Japan. The team in Japan hated the US team so much they actively hindered them at every turn.

can you imagine that, management actively against the only people who are making them a lot of money. So stupid.
 

nush

Gold Member
The team in Japan hated the US team so much they actively hindered them at every turn.

It was more that the Japanese sales and marketing teams had the successes of the west rubbed in their faces by SOJ management. That's where the animosity was fostered.
 
They were never stable, I mean look at all this.

sega_consoles_collection_by_alex_tout_court_d6polzw-fullview.jpg

Well that's what I said lol. I said it would be crazy if they were.

Also there are 4 things missing in that picture so the collection isn't complete yet. 5 if you include that Amstead officially licensed computer.

Then you have the Sega kids and education consoles which would add 3 more.

Yeah it's not good.
 
At one point they wanted to launch something to combat the Atari Jaguar,

Which came out, that was the 32X which ended up being pointless because SOJ killed it early, that's the real reason consumers and especially retailers were pissed off.

People always wrongfully blame the 32X as a symptom that harmed Sega in the mid 90's but the 32X in reality was actually working and was about to quickly sell more than a million units and more before SOJ cut them off. It was selling at a much faster rate than the Sega CD ever did.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
They were never stable, I mean look at all this.

sega_consoles_collection_by_alex_tout_court_d6polzw-fullview.jpg
Man I really wanted that combined SegaCD/Genesis back in the day (the one that looks like a DiscMan, forget what it was called).

but anyway yeah, I think if 64X actually released it would’ve got lots of support and really proved their dominance over PlayStation. Why, I bet they’d still be a major player in the console hardware space today.
 
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