Sega System 32

Sega System 32 is the name of an arcade platform released by Sega that debuted in 1990. It was a successor to the Sega System 16 and Sega System 24 boards, and contains a 32-bit RISC processor at 16 MHz, hence its name.

It was the last board to be released under the “Sega System” naming scheme – the “Sega Model” series would begin in 1992 with the Sega Model 1. Whereas Model 1 hardware was designed specifically with 3D games in mind, System 32 primarily catered for 2D games. Like the Sega X Board and Sega Y Board it is capable of scaling many sprites in real-time, resulting in several “pseudo-3D” games.

A variant of this hardware, System Multi 32 was created for use with twin cabinets, specifically for games that where more than one player could play on separate screens.

Unlike other Sega arcade hardware from this period, few System 32 games have ever been ported to home consoles. A re-imagining of Air Rescue hit European Sega Master Systems in 1992 (which although shares the same name, is almost completely different in design to the arcade version), OutRunners saw a vastly reduced port to the Sega Mega Drive by Data East and Rad Mobile was heavily tweaked and turned into Gale Racer for the Sega Saturn. Everything else seems to have been deemed “too good” for the Mega Drive and “not good enough” for the Saturn.