Sega 32X cartridges

From Sega Retro

Doom (North American version), one of the first commercially available Sega 32X cartridges.

Sega 32X cartridges are the primary storage medium for the Sega 32X.

Design

By design, the Sega 32X can accept any standard Sega Mega Drive cartridge, however in addition to this it can run 32X software housed on a different type of cartridge. While the dimensions are similar, the shape differs with the 32X and (labels aside) the design is consistent across all regions. Unlike the Japanese Mega Drive there is no cartridge lock, but there are also no end labels.

Region encoding

Similarly to the Mega Drive, Sega chose to implement region encoding in 32X cartridges at a software level, meaning it was up to developers and publishers to decide whether to implement the feature. However, as few publishers supported the 32X, the majority of games were published by Sega and therefore usually have some form of region locking enabled.

With only a small handful of region-exclusive 32X games, there was never enough demand for 32X region converters. Most, if not all, PAL 32X games are partially optimised - while gameplay is often slower than their NTSC counterparts, the music has almost always been corrected and some games such as Chaotix take advantage of the larger screen resolution.

NTSC-J consoles

Locked

NTSC-U consoles

Locked

PAL consoles

Locked

Sega Mega Drive
Topics Technical specifications (Hardware comparison) | History | List of games | Magazine articles | Promotional material | Merchandise | Cartridges | TradeMark Security System
Hardware Japan | North America | Western Europe | Eastern Europe | South America | Asia | South Korea | Australasia | Africa
EZ Games | Genesis 3 | LaserActive | Mega Jet | Mega PC | Mega Play | Mega-Tech System | Mega 6 | Nomad | Teradrive | Mega Drive Mini | Mega Drive Mini 2
New Mega Drive | Tianli VCD/DVD Players | "Consoles on a chip" | Licensed clones (Magic 2 | Mega Game II | Power Pegasus | Super Bitman)
Unlicensed clones
Add-ons Game Box | Power Base Converter | Mega-CD | 32X (Mega-CD 32X) | Mega Modem | Demo System DS-16
Cases Sega Genesis Nomad Carrying Case | System Carry Case
Controllers Control Pad | Six Button Control Pad | 6 Button Arcade Pad | Arcade Power Stick 6B | Konami Justifier | MK-1470
Action Chair | Activator | Arcade Power Stick | Keyboard | MegaFire | Mouse | Mega Stick | Menacer | Remote Arcade System | Ten Key Pad | Third Party Controllers
Accessories 4 Way Play | AC adaptor | Cleaning System | Control Pad Extension Cord | Game Factory | Genesis Speakers | Headset | HeartBeat Catalyst | Microphone | Region converter cartridges | Mega Terminal | Nomad PowerBack | RF Unit | SCART Cable | Stereo Audio Video Cable | Team Player | Video Monitor Cable | Third-party AC adaptors | Third Party Accessories
Network services Sega Channel | Sega Game Toshokan | Mega Anser | Mega Net | TeleBradesco Residência | XB∀ND
Development tools ERX 308P | ERX 318P | Sprobe | SNASM68K | SNASM2 (Mega Drive) | SNASM2 (32X) | PSY-Q Development System (Mega Drive) | PSY-Q Development System (32X) | 32X CartDev | Sega Mars Development Aid System | Sega 32X Development Target
Unreleased Edge 16 | Floppy Disk Drive | Mega Play 1010 | Sega VR | Teleplay System | Video Jukebox