Its Bits not Bytes, I miss spoke.

Sega should have just made Virtua Racing itself a Lock-On unit, so that you could plug other games into Virtua Racing.

Frankly, the SVP cart would have been a better idea than the 32X business-wise. 40 bucks for a special cartridge that keeps the Genesis relevant for a little longer until the Saturn's actually ready would have been less of a debacle than a rushed $180 add-on that only released months apart from the base hardware's real successor and did nothing but sour consumer trust. But the root of all of SEGA's problems still stemmed back to Hayao Nakayama and the Japanese home office cutting Sega of America off at the knees and ruining all the work Tom Kalinske had done in making SEGA relevant over here. They were never the same and the effects can still be felt today.

it's amazing how SEGA cared about 3D arcade ports so early, and then went on making the Saturn a 2D-oriented machine :p

I wish they had stuck with the cartridge instead of the 32x.

Shareholders from this period should have called for the heads of Sega leadership. They singlehandedly ruined the company.

Kind of wonder what would have happened if Sega just released a $50 SVP chip cart rather than making a ton of expensive under supported Genesis accessories and spreading themselves too thin.

There needs to be an SVP homebrew community.

I always fantasize about what kind of games and hardware you could find in alternate realities where things might have just gone that little bit different

Personally, I wish they had decided to go with the stand alone SVP lockon cart over the 32X. Sure, it's less powerful, but it's also much easier to plug and play, and I think there was still life in the old Genesis at the time. Also I would have included Virtual Racing on the cart, so if you don't have another cart plugged in it will play that instead.

The problem with Sega at that time was that the company lacks focus and specific goal.

I imported Virtua Racing SVP for the Totally Video Game stores our parent company owned and I managed. It was a hit and we ordered 10 more, we couldn’t keep them in the store, they were constantly rented and the amount of money we made back on those rentals was obscene. I still have one of those copies along with a large inventory of Genesis boxed games I got to keep when the operation folded just before the tech bubble burst in 2000. I miss those days dearly, writing for VGA/Cyberactive and helping run the three Totally Video Game rental/retail stores. It was just an amazing time and gamers weren’t so jaded. *shakes fist at cloud at current video game landscape of loot boxes, micro-transactions, and kids paying $100 for a fucking digital hat.

I don't think the patent would have been too much of an issue, Codemasters were good friends with Sega, to the point (aside from EA), they were the only third party developer allowed to make their own official cartridges for the system.

Alternate Timeline:

All this time, I always thought that Sonic & Knuckles "LOCK ON TECHNOLOGY" was intended for more than just a sonic game. The SVP cart, has lock on technology. I'm quite excited to see that they did indeed have more ideas.

Wow man I am consistently floored by the quality of your research and editing. This was a fascinating piece on a little known sega hardware topic that doesn't get much coverage. Loved this video bro.

Incredible work. You're knocking it out of the park with the quality of content and production value.

All I can think of is when AVGN commented on the Genesis like it was on life support with all the add ons for that system.

Man, that is some good production and research. You think the SVP could of bridge the gap between Genesis and the Saturn? The 32-X didn't seem to do so well from my memory.

Amazing level of research here - loved that Codemasters patent that you uncovered at the end!