64XX - The 64-Bit add-on for the 32X!

[villahed94]

Indeed.

[Zebbe]

I dunno about that, seems kind of wasteful. The Sega CD works great as it is. A new VDP isn't necessary if you just provide a DSP for graphics enhancement. What the 32X really needs is RAM, not ROM space. That's what made the Sega CD sort of suck too, lack of RAM.

It needs a CD-ROM to be able to compete with the PlayStation, which had a great advantage over the 64 thanks to that. Bigger games become too expensive if the meg count is too high.

[SpaceFlea]

EDIT: DAMN IT! I spelled Genesis wrong... I started to write Genny and decided to change it but left in the extra 'n'... now I feel all sorts of doofy.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

In 1998 would we then see a Sega DVD add-on?

[Zebbe]

Maybe it's better with a disc station, like the 64DD? They can be called X-disX.

[Jadty]

EDIT: DAMN IT! I spelled Genesis wrong... I started to write Genny and decided to change it but left in the extra 'n'... now I feel all sorts of doofy.

FUND IT!

[Cjey]

The 64XX need its own power supply (maybe two)

[Bastardcat]

In this alternative universe, do we all have merkins?

[eddiespruce]

In this alternative universe, do we all have merkins?

I don't know, but I could do without them.

[TVC 15]

"I would actually call it the sega dream64xx cause it sounds reet cool, and then with that released they could concentrate aon making an even betterer saturn but instead call that the dreamcacther 128, then you could have a handheld with like 1 rather than 2 or 3 SH2 in it but liek really good graphics and bigger carts with coller but like not as draining the battery as much so it would be better thnan the gameboy, wich is a piece of carp."

Oh yeah thats what I do if we could go back in time and the video game industry was like a mega Simcity build your own video game company marathon construction kit, with the infinite money cheat turned on. Oh yeah blow that arrogant 'Pretendo' and 'Plaything' out the water.

Sigh....

[Guntz]

EDIT: DAMN IT! I spelled Genesis wrong... I started to write Genny and decided to change it but left in the extra 'n'... now I feel all sorts of doofy.

Aaaaaaaaand we have a winner! I don't think I've see anything so ridiculously awesome in my life. We need to start developing this thing pronto.

[villahed94]

But what about if the user has a model 1 Genesis and a model 1 Sega CD???

[Robivy64]

The 64xx Handy will feature an optional hand job attachment.

This will allow the gamer to still feel satisfied with his purchase despite the lack of quality games.

[Guntz]

The 64XX Handy will only be released in Europe.

@Villahed: A Model 1 64XX will be released to coincide with the release of the regular 64XX. There will not be a version compatible with the X'Eye or CDX.

[kool kitty89]

6 megabits of RAM in 1995?????????. That would have made it cost no less than $400.

Nah, 6 Mbits is no big deal in 1994 at all, especially if you're talking relatively common 16-bit FPM DRAM (rather than SDRAM) via the cart slot (the only possible expansion on the 32x without internal hacks).
Mass market DRAM averaged about $3 per megabit in 1995 for 4M densities (that's $12 per chip), though that cost would be a bit inflated by the time it reached the end user (unless Sega took a loss on sales).

Remember, 1Mbit is only 128 kB, so 6 Mbits is just 768 kB (so the same size as the Sega CD's Program+word RAM).

If you meant 6 MB, that would be a bit expensive in 1995, around $144 at the vendor level (ie how much Sega would have to pay to stock the chips -assuming they didn't get a special deal for better than average prices and assuming they weren't using expensive/new SDRAM)

6 MB is way beyond what any of the competition (save Neo CD) was using, and 1 or 2 MB in 1995 (along with the MCD) would have been more than enough to at least make it reasonable for competitive multiplatform development.

The problem is that that RAM (or all expansion on the 32x) has to deal with the cart slot bottleneck, so the only way to get high bandwidth is to use relatively fast/expensive RAM (and even then it's limited to 46 MB/s peak due to the 23 MHz 16-bit bus of the SH2s) and you've got the other weaknesses of the system. (and cost inefficiency of the system as a whole -if they were to combine it as a single unit it still would be relatively cost ineffective . . . unlike if they'd released a combined unit in the first place that bypassed the old bottlenecks but retained compatibility, things an add-on can't do unless the bottlenecks aren't there in the first place -more like the PC Engine )

And then there's the obvious non-technical problems of marketing. (the whole point this thread is poking fun at )

In 1998 would we then see a Sega DVD add-on?

Wasn't there a DVD add-on for the Dreamcast? (theNewguy mentioned SoE bundling DVD players to try and boost sales -ineffectively, but maybe those were standalone players and not add-ons for the DC at all)