NEC TurboGrafx-16
From GamerWiki
 NEC TurboGrafx-16
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| Manufacturer: | Nippon Electric Company |
| Alternate Names: | NEC PC Engine (Japan) |
| Announced: | ? |
| Release date: | JP: 1987 NA: ? EU: n/a AU: n/a |
| Initial Price: | JP: ? NA: ? EU: ? AU: ? |
| Discontinued: | ? |
Contents |
Description of Hardware
The TurboGrafx-16 started out as the PC Engine and was a collaborative effort between Japanese software maker Hudson Soft (which maintains a chip-making division) and NEC. In a classic example of good timing, Hudson was looking for financial backing for a game console they had designed, and NEC was looking to get into the lucrative game market. The PC Engine was and is a very small video game console, due primarily to a very efficient three-chip architecture and its use of HuCards, credit-card sized data cartridges. It featured an enhanced MOS Technology 6502 processor and a custom 16-bit graphics processor, as well as a custom video encoder chip, all designed by Hudson.
The PC Engine was extremely popular in Japan, besting Nintendo's Famicom in sales soon after its release, with no fewer than twelve systems released from 1987 to 1993, and new games released as recently as 1999. It was capable of up to 512 colours at once in several resolutions, and featured very robust sprite handling abilities. The Hudson-designed chroma encoder delivered a video signal more vibrant and colourful than both the Famicom and the Sega Mega Drive and is largely regarded as the equal to Nintendo's Super Famicom, the PC Engine's contemporary competition.
It was the first console to have a optional CD module, allowing the standard benefits of the CD medium: more storage, cheaper media costs, and CD audio. The efficient design, backing of many of Japan's major software producers, and the additional CD ROM capabilities gave the PC Engine a very wide variety of software, with several hundred games for both HuCard and CD formats.
Several of the PC Engine systems and its US-released counterparts are possibly the most commonly misspelled video game systems of all time. The -Grafx suffix, used for the Japanese CoreGrafx and SuperGrafx, as well as the US TurboGrafx, is spelled incorrectly almost as often as not. Grafix, graphx and countless permutations thereof abound.
Hardware Specifications
- CPU : Two Hu6280 chips (clone of the 65CO2) with a speed of 7.2 MHz
- Resolution : 256x212
- Colour palette : 512
- Number of simultaneously displayable colours : 256
- Video RAM : 64k
- Number of simultaneously displayable "sprites" : 64
- Audio capacity : Six audio tracks, eight octaves of which 1 is a FM track
- Game support: HuCard (Hudson Card)
With only one exception (the SuperGrafx) all PC Engine hardware could play the entire HuCard library, and every CD system could play all the CD games - with the right system card.
Hardware Revisions
- PC Engine
- CoreGrafx
- CoreGrafx II
- PC Engine Shuttle
- PC Engine GT
- PC Engine LT
- PC Engine Duo
- PC Engine Duo R
- PC Engine Duo RX
- X1 Twin -- Sharp X1 computer and PC Engine. Only plays HuCards
- LaserActive -- Pioneer's Laserdisc player had optional gaming modules, including the ability to play PC Engine games.
- SuperGrafx
Games
A full list of NEC PC Engine games documented on GamerWiki can be found at the NEC PC Engine category. Please add any further games to the games to be added page.
(Anything below here in the games section needs to be removed if the game is in blue or moved over to the the games to be added page list if it's in red.)
- Alien Crush (Hudson Soft, Naxat Soft)
- Atomic Robokid Special (Publisher, UPL)
- Chan and Chan (Hudson Soft, Hudson Soft)
- Cyber Combat Police (Publisher, FACE)
- Dragon Spirit (Publisher, NAMCO)
- Fantasy Zone (Publisher, NEC/Sega)
- Gekisha Boy (aka Photograph Boy) (Publisher, IREM)
- Heavy Unit (Publisher, Taito)
- King of Casino (Publisher, Victor Musical Industries)
- Mr. Heli (Publisher, IREM)
- Rabio Lepus Special (Publisher, Video System)
- Saint Dragon (Publisher, AICOM)
- Tales of the Monsters Path (aka YOKAI DOCHUKI) (Publisher, NAMCO)
- Valis III: The Fantasm Soldier (Publisher, LASER Soft/TELENET)
Peripherals
- CD-ROM
- ...etc...
Emulation
- Magic Engine is perhaps the best PC Engine emulator. It is a shareware package supporting PC Engine, Supergrafx and CD-ROM formats (using actual CD-ROM media).
- Other emulators include Hugo for the Xbox and GPEngine for the GP32.
Trivia
- First game console to feature a CD-ROM add-on.
- CD-ROM games are region free, playable on any region CD-ROM system.
- Never released in Europe, the PC Engine was a popular import and easily obtainable during its lifespan. However, the TurboGrafx did get a release. A change in colour from the US version (black to grey) and using 50hz PAL, it was release unsupported with only the pack-in games for potential buyers.
- The system was more successful in Japan than the Sega Mega Drive.
External Links
- Sunteam's PC Engine Software Bible
- The best PC Engine emulator, 'Magic Engine'
- PC Engine screenshot gallery
This article uses source material obtained from Wikipedia The original article can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pc_engine
