Teppo Holmqvist Posted April 24, 2006 Posted April 24, 2006 This was written in hurry, so there can (and probably is) some grammatical errors. Short history of Turbographx-16 The PC-Engine was a videogame console that was made as a joint operation between Hudson Software and NEC. Console was published in 1987 and like its main competitor NES, it was 8-bit console. However, what separated it from its competitor was that it boasted incredible 16-bit graphic chip that allowed displaying 512 colours at once and whopping 8 kilobytes worth of ram. Though PC-Engine didn’t have faster processor than NES, larger memory capacity and better GPU made possible to convert classic arcade games almost precisely to the system, and do other visually impressive things that weren’t simply possible with NES. Console was extremely successful in Japan and actually took place as a most popular 8-bit console in the region. Unfortunately console failed miserably on other regions for various reasons. But what went wrong? Nearly everything. First, NEC waited way too long for publishing Turbograx-16 in USA. When Turbografx-16 came to the US market in 1990, market was completely saturated with NES. NEC had originally planned to tout Turbografx-16 as a USA’s first 16-bit console, but NEC didn’t anticipate that Japanese arcade company Sega would release their brand new Genesis console in USA so soon as they did. NEC quickly found itself fighting for the 16-bit console market with Sega, and about six months later Super Nintendo also came into market. NEC had very realistic chance to take second place in 16-bit console race, but the company had serious problems with localizing games. Most popular PC-Engine games were released on CD and had lots of Japanese speech and text. Localizing these games for US market took very long time, and by the time that games were translated, it was too late and Turbografx-16 had third place in 16-bit console race. It also didn’t help NEC’s cause that CD-ROM add-on for Turbografx was very expensive and hard to find (CD-ROM add-on debuted with price of 399 dollars and could be found only in the biggest cities). Though Turbographx-16 failed in USA, it stayed quite popular in Japan for some time. Last games for the system came out in 1999. Technical stuff First games for PC-Engine were released in credit card sized data cartridges that were called HuCards (Hudson + Card). In 1988 NEC released CD-ROM drive add-on for the console, and it soon became standard way to release games for PC-Engine. To keep pace with technological progress, NEC made it possible to replace console’s system card that had the console’s bios, main memory and internal storage system for CD-ROM games. First add-on was Super System Card v3.0 that expanded console’s memory to 256 KB’s and made it possible to play Super CD-ROM games with console (later models had this card integrated to the system). Second add-on was Arcade Card that added 2 MB’s worth of memory to the console. There weren’t many games for the Arcade Card, but it made possible to do some incredible arcade conversions like nearly perfect conversion of SNK’s Fatal Fury Special. Must-haves for Turbographx-16 Air Zonk Ancient book of Ys I & II Bomberman Bomberman '94 Bonk's Adventure Darius Alpha Dracula X: Rondo of Blood Fatal Fury: Special Gate of Thunder Gradius Gunhed Keith Courage Lord of Thunder Neutopia Neutopia I Neutopia II New Adventure Island Out Run R-Type Soldier Blade Splatterhouse Street Fighter 2: Champion Edition Strider Hiryu Twin Bee Valis 2 Valis 3 Wonderboy A 30 minute promotional TG-16 video which highlights some of it's most remembered titles:
Sarka Posted April 24, 2006 Posted April 24, 2006 Oh wow, thanks. I'm now almost looking forward to playing it on the VC!
Daroh Posted April 24, 2006 Posted April 24, 2006 I think ill probably get Bonks adventure, I seem to recall playing a port of it for the Amiga ages ago, seeing him on Saturn Bomberman reminded me of it. And from what i remember the game was quite fun... (recalls being eaten by a giant dinosaur and having to play a level within it) And thanks for the info! very informative!
Teppo Holmqvist Posted April 24, 2006 Author Posted April 24, 2006 Some additional tech stuff that I forgot.... Turbografx (sans -16) did also get release in Great Britain and mainland Europe, but in very limited quantities. As a result of this, European version is extremely rare. Cartridges had normal your normal regionlocks, but there are many import devices that allow you to play JAP games in US Turbografx (note: all import devices don't fit into all models). CD games didn't have any region lock except in those rare cases that game had its own HuCard to add more memory to system. NEC also released handheld PC-Engine that was called Turboexpress in USA. It was technically perfect replica of its bigger brother and did even take HuCards. From what I have heard, however, it ate batteries fast and was relatively heavy.
DiemetriX Posted April 25, 2006 Posted April 25, 2006 Why isn't new adventure island on that list? If I remember correctly it was an amazing game.
Teppo Holmqvist Posted April 25, 2006 Author Posted April 25, 2006 Why isn't new adventure island on that list? If I remember correctly it was an amazing game. Look at N.... NEW Adventure Island. It is US name for the game.
Teppo Holmqvist Posted September 17, 2006 Author Posted September 17, 2006 ** Bump ** I just decided to bump this because most of our members don't still know anything about PC-Engine.
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