The PC Engine was a video game console released in Japan by NEC in 1987, and then in North America in 1989 under the name TurboGrafx-16. A PAL version was released in limited numbers for the UK and European market as the Turbografx.
The unit was an 8-bit system with a 16-bit graphics chip, capable of displaying 482 colours simultaneously. The console itself was very compact, due to its efficient three-chip architecture and its use of HuCards (or TurboChips in North America), which were credit-card sized data cartridges.
The console was also the first to include an optional CD-ROM peripheral, which gave users the benefits of more storage, cheaper media costs and Red Book audio.
The PC Engine had a wide variety of software, with several hundred games for both the HuCard and CD formats. Although many games were available on CD, the CD catalogue grew at a much slower pace than that of the HuCard (TurboChip) titles. However, as the CD-ROM software did not include any region protection, European and North American players could also draw from the wide range of Japanese software available. Many mail order import stores advertised Japanese PCE CD and HuCard titles in the video game publications of the era.
In Japan, the PC Engine was extremely popular, beating Nintendo's Famicom in sales soon after its release. Its chroma encoder delivered a video signal more colourful and vibrant than both the Sega Mega Drive and the Famicom and is largely regarded as the equal to Nintendo's Super Famicom (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) even though that system was not released until 1990. However, after the release of the Super Famicom, the PC Engine began to lose ground, and NEC released an Arcade Card expansion, which brought the total amount of RAM up 2048 K. This extra memory enabled the console to display 3D polygon graphics well beyond the graphics that could be produced by the competing Super Famicom and Sega Mega Drive. However, by this point, it was too late, and only a few Arcade Card games were ever produced, and the expansion was never released in the U.S.
Initially, the TurboGrafx-16 sold well in North America, but it suffered from a lack of support from third-party software developers and publishers, along with poor marketing. The platform game that came included in the pack (Keith Courage in Alpha Zones) did not show off the capabilities of the TG-16 in nearly the same way as Super Mario World did for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) or Altered Beast did for the Mega Drive.
Another problem for the TG-16 was its limited hardware; whilst the Mega Drive only came with one controller, it provided a port for a second - unlike the TG-16, which only supplied one controller port. Anyone wanting to play multiplayer games were required to buy an accessory known as the Turbo Tap, which permitted five controllers to be plugged into the system, along with the additional controllers themselves.
By 1994, the TurboGrafx-16's place in the market had been firmly defeated by the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo.
Games
Some of the most popular PC Engine/TurbGrafx-16 games included:
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