Installing both 32 and 64 bit versions of a package

[Lucas Clemente Vella <lvella@gmail.com>]

For some time I wanted to install the 32bit version of libsdl1.2debian
in my 64bit Ubuntu system, in order to install zsnes, a 32bit
application only (written almost entirely in assembly). But if I try
to do so with 'apt-get install libsdl1.2debian:i386', it will try to
remove my native libsdl alongside everything that depends on it.

Why I can't have both versions together? It is some design issue of
APT? Is there some not-so-hackish way to workaround this problem?

-- 
Lucas Clemente Vella
lvella@gmail.com