Gaming Bits: History of the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16: Part 1: Dethroning The Big N (1987-1989) (56k Warning)

This Gaming Bits Segment is brought to you by the A. Yoshi Patreon...

I did this YEARS AGO!!!!! DO I HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN?! I did a history piece on the PC Engine years ago for all 2 of you who remember the Real Gaming News Network, but I want to make a newer version of this so yeah, this month on the A. Yoshi Blog is PC-Engine Month!!!!! In 1987, The Nintendo Famicom was at it's peak, with exclusives like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kid Icarus, The Mysterious Murasame Castle, along with other 3rd party hits like Castlevania, Mega Man, Bubble Bobble, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and many others. But NEC and Hudson Soft had an idea to make a more powerful console. This had everything going for it, but it was only really successful in japan, and a decade later, Hudson was back to hardware only. What was this mysterious console's story? What did it have going for it? Find out on PC-Engine Month!!!!!




In the 1980s, NEC was mega powerful, with their computers, telecommunication systems, and more. Makes sense since they've been around for almost a hundred years, read more about NEC's successes here. They teamed up with Hudson Soft in 1987, of whom they had a tight relationship with, releasing Adventure games on NEC Platforms. Hudson soft pitched ideas for a new chipset for the Famicom, which was rejected. The new console would use cards similar to Hudson's own BeeCards for the MSX. This console would come to be known as...






The PC Engine, the first "16-Bit" video game system. I say 16-bit in quotes because it had a 8-bit CPU running at 7.16 MHz, but it did have a 16-bit GPU. It had an up to 565x242 resolution, 482 out of a possible 512 colors displayable at a time, 64 sprites displayable at a time, 8x8 tiles, 6 channels of audio, and used HuCards, sadly the console only used RF, Which is a worthless way of connecting games to the TV, It way fixed in later versions, but RF was pretty much on it's way out in 1987, also it only had 1 controller port, which was true of all versions of the PC Engine, we'll get to a fix for that later.







the first couple of years of the PC-Engine's existence were pretty slow as far as games, but as the years went on, there were more and more games being released with it's many upgrades. It was outdone a year later by the Sega Mega Drive, but PC Engine eventually won, due to it's many improvements we'll get to...

With the PC Engine, you got a controller similar to the NES, but you could play up to 5 players with the PC Engine Multitap, Most of said games were sports titles, but 5 Players, that's freaking CRAZY!!!!






There were several versions of the PC Engine, like the X1 Twin (which we discussed a couple of Gaming Bits segments ago), and the Core Grafx, Which added A/V to the system, but in '89 The Console came to American shores with the TurboGrafx-16. It added a more American friendly design, but otherwise was the same... It tried, but never really caught on, due to the much more powerful and American friendly Genesis came out. it did have one innovation however, A packed in Rapid Fire Controller. However in 1988, just in time for the Christmas Season...







The PC-Engine CD-ROM² was the first CD Add-On to any console. It had 64KB DRAM, and you could insert a BIOS Card with 1Mbit of RAM, This is when the PC Engine started taking the throne from Nintendo's Famicom. It had video capabilities, voice capabilities. It would later get the 2.0 and 2.1 versions of the card with bug fixes, This is where a bulk of the PC Engine's games are...












GAMES OF THE ERA:

Blazing Lazers, a fun as hell shmup, very arcade style. it was one of the big reasons to get a PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16.

Legendary Axe, A great hack 'n slash platformer that showed how powerful the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16 Could be....

Keith Courage, A Mech game where you fight dudes with guns for heads. This was actually the pack-in for the system in the US.


There's some games I missed, but I'll get to these next time. when these games really shined...




NEXT TIME:

^The Golden age of the console^

All images belong to their respective owners and this blog is meant to be educational, so these images are protected under fair use. However, if you'd like one or more images taken down, please contact me at Anonymousyoshi007@gmail.com.