The 32X has to rank as one of the more costly mistakes made by Sega during the '90s. An effort to extend the lifespan of the Mega Drive / Genesis hardware, it failed for a wide range of reasons; it was too expensive, didn't get enough software support, and ā perhaps most obvious of all ā was in direct competition with Sega's Saturn console, which is where the company should really have been focusing all of its attention.
Even so, it's tempting to sit here today and ponder what the add-on would have been capable of had it been pushed to its full potential. There are clearly some within the hacking community who feel the same way, as an update now exists that upgrades the Mega Drive version of Golden Axe to take advantage of the 32X's extra power.
Created by jvisser, 'Golden Axe 32X edition' enhances the 1989 home version of Golden Axe in the following ways:
- The maps are reworked based on the arcade version of the game and displayed using the 32X
- Eye animations for the turtle and eagle are back in
- Uses the arcade version of the door open/close animation
- Demo/Attract mode resembles the arcade game more closely
- The cast screen had been moved to the main menu and is now interactive
- Credits are skippable
The catch? Well, the console-exclusive duel mode is gone, and the hack currently doesn't work on original hardware. Its creator has invited "anyone that wants to take a shot at fixing it" the chance to look at the source code.
We're still mad we never got that 32X port of Revenge of Death Adder, but this will certainly help ease the pain.