Saturday Hardware - PC Engine
Today on Saturday Hardware - let's have a look at one of the most under-rated consoles in existence. PC Engine also known as Turbografx-16 in the country of uncle Sam. Not only but this is actually my very own personal favorite - And one of the pioneers in terms of CD-Rom tech when it comes to console.
Story goes that game publisher Hudson, wanted to enter the hardware game developing chips that were quite advanced for their time. which was first pitched to Nintendo, had Nintendo accept to enter a deal with Hudson - History would have been very different. At the same time NEC also wanted to enter the console market after their success with PC-88 and PC-98 Platforms.
It was a match made in heaven for the two firms, as NEC lacked understanding of the video game industry and Hudson had plenty of it with their game publishing and developing in Japan.
From that union came out the PC Engine, released in Japan in October 87 - The same year the small console was a titan managing to outsell the competition for this year with both the Sega Mark III and the Famicom. In Europe, the Pc Engine was released to the market via distribution circuit - released in October 1989 in France.
The console was modded to accept 50hz PAL signals, the console also was released in the UK the following year.
With that said, the console is a bit of a sorcery. It's a 16-bit graphic chip that is cadenced by a 8 bits processor - defined due to its core processor 8 bits as the queen of 8 bits systems.
The available color palette of 512 of which can displayed 482 at its maximum made for more vivid games, with an enhanced resolution by comparison of both the NES and the Sega Master System.
These cards were for the large majority of it., Shmups - the console is affectionately known to be the console for them. Also where these little bad guys could contain nearly perfect arcade conversion. Such as Fantasy Zone.
This console remains my favorite to this day, the library of games though is difficult to come by, and import is generally the best solution to procure games for it as the ones that were rebranded in Europe didn't suit all that well. A Charming console that should have been marketed harder in Europe and NA.
There was also various attachments for the console in itself, AV Booster, Super CD Rom and others as well as reiteration of the console. but that's for another time.