The Mega Sg, by Analogue, is a jack-of-all-trades FPGA Sega console when it comes to the 80’s and 90’s. While it can play Genesis/Mega Drive and the Master System out of the box (as well as including an edge connector for the Sega/Mega CD), additional adapters can also be obtained so Game Gear, Mark III, Sega MyCard, SG-1000 and SC-3000 games can be played through the Sg. But you’ll notice something distinctly missing: yes, there’s no mention of the 32X. Why is that?

Well, it turns out hardware support for the 32X is problematic since it does its own thing when it comes to sending the analogue video signal to the Genesis. However, Kevtis (real name, Kevin Horton) who is the programmer for the Sg’s FPGA chip, the Altera Cyclone V, has just announced that 32X support is finally on the way.

It won’t be simple to implement, however. As reported by writer and YouTuber, SmokeMonster (via RetroRGB) the official Analogue DAC and a “custom mixing cable” is required to make it all happen. “Woah, woah wooooah”, you might be exclaiming, however – “slow down, what in the heck is the DAC?”

Well, it turns out that is a story entirely by itself. Seen as a golden goose by those in the know since last year, the DAC (digital analogue converter) is planned to be an official product by Analogue for plugging the Mega Sg and the Super Nt into analogue monitors such as CRT’s and PVM’s. Earlier this month, Analogue finally sent out prototype review samples of the DAC, including to SmothMonster himself.

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Now that it’s a product we’ve seen in the flesh, 32X owners will be happy to know that support is on the way (the Sg also recently received a firmware update with the updated code). Watch this space for further news of the DAC and the “custom mixing cable” to bring this idea to completion.

Brendan Meharry Brendan Meharry (149 Posts)

Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.