Just because it had a 8 bit CPU doesn't mean it was less powerful than the SNES! In fact it's 8 bit CPU ran at twice the speed of the SNES 3.58 MHz CPU! It ran at 7.16 MHz! And unlike the 8 bit address bus in the SNES CPU, it had had a 24 bit address bus in it's 8 bit CPU! The SNES had a great color palette of 256 colors on screen at once! But the PC engine was almost double that at 482 on screen at once! And unlike the NES 8 bit graphics processor it had a more modern dual 16 graphics processor just like the ones in the Genesis and SNES! So you can't say it was underpowered it could easily compete with the 16 bit consoles! And it would completely blow the NES and master system out of the water! A truly amazing console!!!!!
The SNES wishes it played as smoothly as the PC Engine. So much slowdown. It looked great with slow frame rates, but it also had a lower resolution than the Genesis. It had great sound too, but it wasn't a huge leap in quality.
I think part of the reason the Turbografx-16 struggled in the US is that despite the larger system you still had to buy an adapter called "the Multitap"if you wanted to play 2 player games. All that extra space and they couldn't afford to put in an extra controller port.
@@summer20105707 Agreed. Nintendo were tyrants until the genesis shook their hold on the market and the Playstation destroyed it. Nintendo never really learned but at least the Switch is a lot of fun.
I didn't get into the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx 16 game library until about 3 years ago. I had really been missing out. That console and it's CD addition has some absolute classic and outstanding games on it
When you're "only scratching the surface" and you already managed to find these many good games, that should speak volumes as to the system's overall quality... Needless to say, yes, the system is absolutely worth playing! I just think you shouldn't be paying the exorbitant prices they go for these days, get them on the Virtual Console, a TurboEverdrive or a Super SD System, or simply emulate them, the games are a blast and shouldn't be missed out on by retro gamers!
I actually imported an IFU-30 with the core grafx earlier this year. I can say absolutely it is worth playing in 2018. There are so many great games for it that never left Japan. This was a great video showcasing the system.
First saw the PC Engine in a 1987 copy of C&VG that Tony Takoushi was raving about. Never got one as I never saw one for sale but we have 2 of them now with Everdrive carts plus the new Mini version. One of my favourite consoles of all time. Truly a classic.
5:28 Umm, sorry mate but no, the Super System Card didn't add any extra colours or special effects, it only added RAM, so all of the extra effects and detailed graphics you see are being processed by the same base hardware as a stock PC engine... And no, the Arcade Card didn't add support for polygons, once again, it only added RAM, for a total of a little over 2MB of RAM, which was rather impressive at the time! With all that memory they could just pre-render their "polygonal models" and display them on the screen as sprites...
Pretty much. A lot of effects are obtained with tricks or by mimicking the real thing. That's the case for the conversion of Art of Fighting in which the scaling is replaced by a drastic (and very disorienting) switch between smaller and bigger sprites and background when the fighters are close to each other.
Once upon a time when I was one of your patrons, I had asked what your thoughts were on this system. I'm glad to see you talking about it finally :D This has been my favorite console since 1991 and I always advocate for it. I love the PC Engine so much, in fact, that my team and I made a new game for the console. Hopefully, you'll fall in love with it with your loaner and decide to jump into the world of PC Engine and check out its amazing CD Library. Good job overall. :)
Many years ago I remember seeing reviews for pc engine games in magazines like CVG but had never seen the system or games anywhere. Finally started playing some of its games a few months ago when I got a raspberry pi. I can’t believe this great little system never took off here in the UK. Some of the games are amazing.
PC Engine had some amazing games - some much better than the equivalent Sega Megadrive / Genesis versions (Thunder Blade, Outrun). Hudson converted & published R-Type for the PCE under licence from IREM... Hudson developed the PCE Hardware so had a big stake in its sucess... and they needed to ensure good software was available to help sell the system. IREM later converted & published its own titles like Vigilante, Ninja Spirit and Mr Heli. The PCE did have a native RGB out via the Multi-out port at the rear - afaicr only model not featuring this is the PCE Shuttle. Taito supported the console well with some great conversions, and many other Taito games were also licenced to NEC AVE / NEC Home electronics for conversion - and even SFII CE was better on PCE than the MD Version. I got most of the HuCards released in Japan including the SuperGrafx - PCE is one of my favorite format systems of all time. I also post videos of PC Engine gameplay :-)
I had a lot of fun scouring Toys R Us and pawn shops in both Flint and Detroit from 1992-1995 trying to find odd titles here and there. Before I sold my collection in 2004, I had over 200+ Cards and CDs for it and each and every extremely rare game. I still regret selling The Dynastic Hero alone for $400 at that time, lol
Ok so for those of you confused as to why the system had an 8 bit cpu let me explain. The CPU inside the PC Engine was basically nothing more than an interrupt controller, memory management unit, and I/O port, sound generator. Meaning the 16 bit graphics processor did much of the heavy lifting as far as what’s seen on screen and this could very well be a trick by Hudson to lower production expenses. The CPU had variable speeds at 1.79MHz and 7.16MHz. While the dedicated Graphics processor had 64KB of VRAM.
Still the CPU could do serious stuff. The SNES often choked when controlling many objects. Take a game like Super Metroid or DK Country. Basically nothing happens on screen. The fast speed 6502 clone on the other hand could do some serious enemy AI or world generation. It also had the flexibility to put extra RAM in the cartridge.
8-bit CPU 16-bit color encoder, and 16-bit V.D.P. chp= Just means it's an 8-bit memory address while the visuals handled are processed as 16 bit. You can view the Turbografx 16/ PC Engine as either "the world's most powerful 8-bit console" or "a fairly cost-effective 16-bit console with the first console CD add-on." A bit like the SNK Neo Geo being touted as "24 bit" when really you could view it as "the world's most specialized 16-bit arcade board turned console." In the end "bits" mean almost next to nothing and the real judgment call is the coding of the software/ specialist hardware capabilities. Case in point the first 16-bit console is the Mattel Intellivision, but you don't see people clamoring to compare it to the SNES and Mega Drive. You don't see people comparing it to the Sega Master System and NES.
I'm amazed how much of your content I've somehow missed these past few years, even tho I subscribed over 4 years ago, anyways, it's brilliant going back through your uploads to see the fantastic content I haven't seen yet. Excellent work as always brother.
Cheers for the heart matey!! Dunno if you've noticed, but I subscribe to you via both my TH-cam accounts - the other being Phantom Works. First rate content brother. I just find your videos soooo amazingly chilled out viewing. Really looking forward to checking out some of your feature length videos next.
Nice video but there are some mistakes about the super cd-rom like it was written . Also, the Duo-Rx was released in 1994, not 1992. Finally, many games look much better on pc-engine than Megadrive due to the better colors palet (Wings of Thunder) whereas Megadrive uses more parallax scroll than pc-engine in many games since pc-engine does not have parallax in hard. Some pc-engine games use also the best resolution you can find on the 16 bits console (352*259) like Ninja Spirits, making graphics look very sharp. This system is also well know to be one of the best ever in shmup and jrpg games.
Im sure there was a PC Engine 'shuttle' as well.. basically a pc engine in a large case shaped like a pace shuttle. I saw one at a show in London many, many years ago...
If anyone wants to know what that badass cover at 15:00 was for, it's a horror RPG called _Jaseiken Necromancer_ . Surprisingly H.R. Giger was actually commissioned for this cover, and it's not just an imitation.
I think the TurboGrafx 16 would've done amazing if they would've kept the original PC engine and PC engine CD design and only changed the name! I loved the smaller design!!!!
I bought mine during a travel to Japan, in a Bookoff store somewhere in Osaka borders, last year, and it rules so much! Mine came with a original box, 2 controllers and a 3 player multitap. Too bad I didn't know the name of the games to look up before returning home... But I do have Rtype I and Bomberman already
I also think it's foolhardy to try and say that the systems graphics don't hold up against the SNES or Genesis as that is simply untrue. One only needs to play some of he Super CD titles to see that this is not the case. The system actually has the best ports for many different Arcade games, and with the expanded RAM is actually more graphically capable than the other 16 bit systems in some instances!
Quick correction, the original PC Engine through to the Core and Core II all have RGB output via the rear expansion port but all require circuitry to make this output compatible with consumer equipment. The Core and Core II both use a 5-pin DIN AV socket to provide composite video (CVBS) & stereo audio output.The Core II does not have any improvements to this design to provide native consumer grade RGB output. Infact, the Core II can often be found to have an older AV board design revision than typically found in the Core because it was a way for them to remarket and use up existing stocks. Quite enjoyed the video! Would like to see Bomberman '94 get some attention as that was ported to the Mega Drive as Mega Bomberman and still impresses me to this date. Fantasy Zone, Sidearms and the Parodius games are well work a play. 👍
I still remember walking in at a Amiga Copy Party in 87 or so . And a guy sat there playing R Type on a PC Engine . That totally blew my mind . I bought and had almost everything from PC Engine back then CD ROM , GT , LT , SuperGrafx , Shuttle . PC Engine was a epic legend . Still great to play on my Pi , emulated perfectly . Have some 30 cards lying around somewhere , still .
And following the trend of misinformation, the SuperGrafx did NOT add new graphics chips. It simply had two of the same CPU's instead of one. The graphics chip was exactly the same as previous versions.
Not quite. The SuperGrafx actually still ran on the same single HuC6280 CPU @7.16Mhz, but added an additional HuC6270 VDC (Video Display Controller) for a total of 2 VDCs. This added an additional 64 sprites and an additional BG layer to the system bringing the total sprites count up to 128 and BG layers up to 2, which also necessitated the addition of the HuC6202 VDP (Video Display 'Prioritizer') to combine and control the twin VDCs outputs. They also upped the work RAM to 32KB over the stock 8KB found in the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. You had the right idea, but swapped which component was doubled. It's ok though, it's confusing. =)
I think you should cover the "crush" series. Some of the best pinball to ever grace a console. Be-Ball/Fu Man Chew is a fun puzzle game. Parodius is good fun also.
I've been to that place in Cambridge a few years ago when I visited my sister. First time I got to see/play a turbografx 16 and the game they had was J.J and Jeff which I loved. That place is absolutely amazing! Retro gamers heaven!
Pc engine qualifies as one of the most genuinely underrated consoles in history. Not these pretend underrated consoles that always crop up whenever that question is asked and fanboys just go for their beloved failed system. (My case would be the gc. For others the dreamcast or saturn). Pc engine had very little support outside of Japan but was released at a time when 8 bit consoles were still very much the in thing everywhere else. And some of the games that were released were damn near arcade perfect ports. Considering virtually no one in the West played the damn thing there's a massive back catalogue of greats to enjoy. It has the best graphical version of shinobi out of any of the other ports and the r type port is damn near spot on.
My opinion would plump for the Commodore Amiga, a system that doesn't get mentioned as much even though it was massive in the UK, up there with the MegaDrive and the SNES, which probably means it's not that underrated and I'm just a long time member of the PC Master Race by American terminology (even though by British terminology, the Amiga was an Amiga, not a PC) Or it could be that he doesn't feel as if he could cover it as he doesn't have a CD32 (pretty sure he does have an A500 though, having said that, the CD32 seems to get more coversage from American TH-camrs than the regular Amiga even though the regular Amiga has more games and was actually sold in the USA, unlike the CD32) The Amiga was a strange beast though. Arcade ports tended to suck balls, but the Amiga would have an excellent OG IP which could have served as a port (example the Amiga port of Out Run is a load of shit, Lotus Esprit Challenge or Jaguar XJ220 on the other hand)
GeoNeilUK even the amiga got a lot of recognition and ownership in the UK and Europe though. I knew plenty of kids who owned either an amiga or atari st. And they both received coverage not only in the gaming mags (mean machines' total) at the time but also on the few shows in the UK dedicated to gaming such as bad influence and gamesmaster. Hell even a lot of originally exclusive titles for those home computers eventually found their way to consoles (sensible soccer' cannon fodder' zool) so it wasn't what I would call underrated for its time. As it was rated
I have never played one, as it was never released in any form in my country. But I have played some emulators and wow, I got really impressed, there was nothing like it at the time.
"I have never played one, as it was never released in any form in my country. But I have played some emulators and wow, I got really impressed, there was nothing like it at the time." Can I ask what system you're talking about here? There are quite a few impressive systems discussed in this thread - not only the PC Engine (which can be emulated using Mednafen) but also the Commodore Amiga (which can be emulated with any program that has the letters UAE in its name... WinUAE, FS-UAE... though you will need the Kickstart ROMs) Both were awesome systems.
Agree .. outstanding system indeed. The only other system close to being as underrated is the Colecovision. @GeoNeilUK: the Amiga was a primarily a computer, not a console /except for TV and CD32) and interestingly didn't do well anywhere, except for Europe, where it took over from the C64 and dominated the home computer market until people moved over to PCs in the 90s. Don't get me wrong, like the C64 it was great for gaming, has a great library (I still LOVE Syndicate or Cannon Fodder) but that was just one aspect of it.
The PC Engine actually had TWO "PC" addons. The Turbo Booster Plus, which added a memory bank for storing saves, as well as improved audio and video outputs; and the CD attachment, which... did everything the Turbo Booster Plus did on top of it's CD functionality...
The pc engine is the most under rated system in my opinion. It has many fun to play games. It really was ahead of its time when it was released in Japan.
The turbo grafx 16 always reminds me of playing it at my uncle's when visiting my grandparents, with games like bonk's adventure titles, so gundam, and those jj brothers or whatever they're called, the sunglasses guys you show near the end LOL...
While the US Turbo Grafx only had a few hundred releases, I find the quality ratio to be the highest of any system I can think of. Meaning whenever I go through the game lists on emulation , most of the games are atleast good if not great. Going through NES,Genesis and SNES I can find alot of bad and mediocre games easily. It has alot of great exclusive games. The system has alot more great games in the japanese markets, especially the CD version. I got the system later at a cheaper price. I think the store was trying to get rid of them and it was very cheap. It got overshadowed and underrated for sure. Aside from owning a few of the big games like Jackie Chan and Bonk 2 and playing Air Zonk and Bonk 3, Ninja Spirit on a friends system (plus others), the best discovery for me is when I found Splatterhouse on the system in a babbages for maybe 30 bucks. I loved Splatterhouse 2 for genesis, but do to lack of info back then, had no idea what the first game was for or if it even existed. That game ended up being awesome too. Its the only console port of the game I know of, except for the FM Towns Marty version which is very close to the arcade original (I have it posted up on the channel). The TG 16 version was a great port and preserved the gameplay. Its just missing some detail.
Joan yep. Just like the NES . Originally they wanted to release the same design as the original famicom but it didnt meet american electrical standards.
Considering I just bought a modded turbo duo r just a couple months ago, I’d say yea, its worth playing in 2018 and every year after that. Great system that I missed out on (but wanted) as a youngster. Oh well, at least I had a Dreamcast and Saturn as a kid.
My understanding is its a 6502 (8 bit cpu) with a mmu that can do 16 bit addressing (up to 2 megabytes) - its not that much different than the cpu that powers the SNES. My impression of the Turbo-Gfx failing miserably in the US was it launched here around the same time as the SNES and had little games available for it :(. I still got one for Christmas ;).
Actually the CPU is closer to the NES CPU, so much so, that if you look around on the net there are ROMS of converted NES/Famicom games for the TG-16, and it was release before the SNES, the big reason it failed was marking as in over 80% of the US you could not walk into a store that sold games, and buy one. I live on the border of SC/GA on the SC side, and the only place in 2 states outside of the Mall in Atlanta I ever saw the TG-16 was at my local Putt Putt Golf and Games where you could rent the console, and a game in 30 min blocks with stations they had setup for various different consoles, but Nintendo, and SEGA consoles, and games where all over the place, and at a better price with games more people wanted.
The PC Engine was the best console at that time technology speaking but they fucked up the marketing in Europe. I had the duo and spent countless hours on it despite having other consoles as well.
Wow! I have to say thank you because somehow it seems I missed Bravoman completely until now. I thought I had all the scrolling shooter games on the system. Apparently not! Cheers!
Best video game console ever made. By far. Because the games! and everything was done right. That 8 bit processor with two 16 bit graphics chips was PERFECT.
You wrong, in France the awful american version of the PC Engine is missing, it was the japanese version of the console (Core Graphx) and japanese games due to import.
Favorite games: Devil's Crush, Space Harrier, Blazing Lasers, Ys I&II, Valis II&III, Bonk I&II, Dungeon Explorers, Cosmic Fantasy 2, and King of Casino (cause it's like going to Vegas but not really losing anything). Those were the games I owned at any rate. Ys III was ok, Ninja Spirit was ok, and there were some others that I would play but not really go all hardcore on. The CD games were great because I'd look the CD audio output up to my stereo and get incredible music while playing the games. I don't think the Ys I&II soundtrack had even one bad tune on it. They were all terrific especially with the cinematics.
Star parodier is amazing, so is the bomberman games. My Wii still has star parodier on it before it was removed from the Virtual Console store. I still wonder if this raises the value of my console.
One under dog, NES console game that's outstanding to me as much as the TG-16 would be Blue Shadow, or Shadow of the Ninja. The animation is impressive.
I'd rather get the Analogue Duo once it comes out, along with the Turbo Everdrive (you must unscrew the outer shell before sticking in the Everdrive)...
When did this ever get a UK release? I remember C&VG reviewing it... But I never saw one at retail. I imported mine direct from Japan just to play Gunhed, Don Doko Don and R-Type I & II
Vampire Hunter D could've _by itself_ reinvigorated vampire fandom to a whole new generation back when i was a kid! we really shouldn't have watched it, but our parents had no idea about it 'cause anime was so new to the West, thus we snuck watching it when it wasn't "family time" in the evening. one would be hard-pressed not to appreciate the very real link time-wise between the age of kids who would appreciate Castlevania and anime vampires; it was a no-brainer. arguably Vampire Hunter D and the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG was to Castlevania as a huge arcade presence was to Ghouls and Ghosts / Ghosts and Goblins - the interest spread like wildfire in both cases in the West, with the Castlevania series being the clear winner
The pinball games alien and devil crush would be good. Legendary axe and bloody wolf. So many good titles for this under rated system even in North America they had some fun games.
I wish I could have seen this when released. I have given a 8 year old the laptop version, having mistakenly believed that it was just a knockoff walmart special in payment for helping to clean out my "I'll use this again" building. I now have to stop my wallet's crying.
My fav old school console, totally underrated, far ahead of its time (and the competition), and a must have for everyone who loves arcade (style) games imo. I'd rather die than sell mine LoL
I'd like to see why and how it ties in with the ColceoVision and why the same program that will emulate the MSX will also emulate the ColecoVision (don't know about the Adam) and the Sega SG-1000.
My one friend had this system. We would take turns tryng to beat Bonk's Adventure or Keith Courage. It was a great system that got overlooked here in the states. Now the Turbo Express... Lets just say the local gas station was raided of AA batteries when my pal got it.
Do you have permission to use that (I'm pretty sure, their video on the Famicom has a shot that looks nearly identical) CGR footage on the Famicom, or is it fair use?
I probably spend as much time in SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium on Neo Geo Pocket Color (seriously, if there was a modern version of the Xperia Play, that would totally be my daily driver phone)
I loved my Tg16 I owned that before I got my hands on my Super Famicom with UFO disk drive unit. Most of my Super Famicom SNES games are on 3.5" floppy disk hehe. Tho since I haven' booted those up in a while..I'm not sure of their operating condition in 2020
None of those things you said about the Super System Cards are true... seriously, where did you get your info from? The ONLY thing these cards contain is firmware to allow CD's to be ran and extra RAM, that's it. It does NOT add any extra graphical ability whatsoever.
My younger half/brother had the TG16 back in the day. We played a it a lot because it was the only console he had at the time and I somewhat enjoyed the games but I always regarded it as kind of the poor man’s Super Nintendo. The games weren’t great IMO, he had a lot of games, which now demand a high price tag. Funny enough, the one we enjoyed and played the most was JJ and Jeff. Then our mom eventually got him the Sega Genesis, also I thought was the poor man’s version of the Super Nintendo. But I now have a curated collection of both the Genesis and SNES and they’re both around 30 games each so I believe they’re equally good.
Just because it had a 8 bit CPU doesn't mean it was less powerful than the SNES! In fact it's 8 bit CPU ran at twice the speed of the SNES 3.58 MHz CPU! It ran at 7.16 MHz! And unlike the 8 bit address bus in the SNES CPU, it had had a 24 bit address bus in it's 8 bit CPU! The SNES had a great color palette of 256 colors on screen at once! But the PC engine was almost double that at 482 on screen at once! And unlike the NES 8 bit graphics processor it had a more modern dual 16 graphics processor just like the ones in the Genesis and SNES! So you can't say it was underpowered it could easily compete with the 16 bit consoles! And it would completely blow the NES and master system out of the water! A truly amazing console!!!!!
Ray Padilla you are correct sir!
Well said.
!!!!
The SNES wishes it played as smoothly as the PC Engine. So much slowdown. It looked great with slow frame rates, but it also had a lower resolution than the Genesis. It had great sound too, but it wasn't a huge leap in quality.
I have a Turbografx-16 and I screen shot your specs commet 🙏🏻☯️🥶‼
I think part of the reason the Turbografx-16 struggled in the US is that despite the larger system you still had to buy an adapter called "the Multitap"if you wanted to play 2 player games. All that extra space and they couldn't afford to put in an extra controller port.
Not to mention Nintendo's anti competition monopoly rules.
@@summer20105707 Agreed. Nintendo were tyrants until the genesis shook their hold on the market and the Playstation destroyed it. Nintendo never really learned but at least the Switch is a lot of fun.
I absolutely love my pc engine with my everdrive on it. It is still one my classic consoles I play the most !
I didn't get into the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx 16 game library until about 3 years ago. I had really been missing out. That console and it's CD addition has some absolute classic and outstanding games on it
When you're "only scratching the surface" and you already managed to find these many good games, that should speak volumes as to the system's overall quality...
Needless to say, yes, the system is absolutely worth playing! I just think you shouldn't be paying the exorbitant prices they go for these days, get them on the Virtual Console, a TurboEverdrive or a Super SD System, or simply emulate them, the games are a blast and shouldn't be missed out on by retro gamers!
I actually imported an IFU-30 with the core grafx earlier this year. I can say absolutely it is worth playing in 2018. There are so many great games for it that never left Japan. This was a great video showcasing the system.
First saw the PC Engine in a 1987 copy of C&VG that Tony Takoushi was raving about. Never got one as I never saw one for sale but we have 2 of them now with Everdrive carts plus the new Mini version. One of my favourite consoles of all time. Truly a classic.
5:28 Umm, sorry mate but no, the Super System Card didn't add any extra colours or special effects, it only added RAM, so all of the extra effects and detailed graphics you see are being processed by the same base hardware as a stock PC engine...
And no, the Arcade Card didn't add support for polygons, once again, it only added RAM, for a total of a little over 2MB of RAM, which was rather impressive at the time! With all that memory they could just pre-render their "polygonal models" and display them on the screen as sprites...
AND... the CoreGrafx II didn't have RGB output. In fact, no model had it unless you mod them.
Yeah, so much straight up wrong information in this video. Why even go into the technical specs if you don't know what you're talking about?
E Magid he may be trying to trap Watch Mojo again
This guy spends more time and energy being insulting than he does researching anything.
Pretty much. A lot of effects are obtained with tricks or by mimicking the real thing. That's the case for the conversion of Art of Fighting in which the scaling is replaced by a drastic (and very disorienting) switch between smaller and bigger sprites and background when the fighters are close to each other.
Once upon a time when I was one of your patrons, I had asked what your thoughts were on this system. I'm glad to see you talking about it finally :D This has been my favorite console since 1991 and I always advocate for it. I love the PC Engine so much, in fact, that my team and I made a new game for the console. Hopefully, you'll fall in love with it with your loaner and decide to jump into the world of PC Engine and check out its amazing CD Library. Good job overall. :)
It's still worth it in 2021, and Neo Geo and all the great retro games of days past still hold up today for me. Thank you mr. Top-hat for your video.
Many years ago I remember seeing reviews for pc engine games in magazines like CVG but had never seen the system or games anywhere. Finally started playing some of its games a few months ago when I got a raspberry pi. I can’t believe this great little system never took off here in the UK. Some of the games are amazing.
PC Engine had some amazing games - some much better than the equivalent Sega Megadrive / Genesis versions (Thunder Blade, Outrun). Hudson converted & published R-Type for the PCE under licence from IREM... Hudson developed the PCE Hardware so had a big stake in its sucess... and they needed to ensure good software was available to help sell the system.
IREM later converted & published its own titles like Vigilante, Ninja Spirit and Mr Heli.
The PCE did have a native RGB out via the Multi-out port at the rear - afaicr only model not featuring this is the PCE Shuttle.
Taito supported the console well with some great conversions, and many other Taito games were also licenced to NEC AVE / NEC Home electronics for conversion - and even SFII CE was better on PCE than the MD Version.
I got most of the HuCards released in Japan including the SuperGrafx - PCE is one of my favorite format systems of all time.
I also post videos of PC Engine gameplay :-)
Nec-pc engine ake turbo grafx 16 is one of kind underrated console is a amazing
I love the PC Engine. Very proud to own one in my collection
I had a lot of fun scouring Toys R Us and pawn shops in both Flint and Detroit from 1992-1995 trying to find odd titles here and there. Before I sold my collection in 2004, I had over 200+ Cards and CDs for it and each and every extremely rare game. I still regret selling The Dynastic Hero alone for $400 at that time, lol
Ok so for those of you confused as to why the system had an 8 bit cpu let me explain. The CPU inside the PC Engine was basically nothing more than an interrupt controller, memory management unit, and I/O port, sound generator. Meaning the 16 bit graphics processor did much of the heavy lifting as far as what’s seen on screen and this could very well be a trick by Hudson to lower production expenses. The CPU had variable speeds at 1.79MHz and 7.16MHz. While the dedicated Graphics processor had 64KB of VRAM.
Still the CPU could do serious stuff. The SNES often choked when controlling many objects. Take a game like Super Metroid or DK Country. Basically nothing happens on screen. The fast speed 6502 clone on the other hand could do some serious enemy AI or world generation. It also had the flexibility to put extra RAM in the cartridge.
8-bit CPU 16-bit color encoder, and 16-bit V.D.P. chp= Just means it's an 8-bit memory address while the visuals handled are processed as 16 bit. You can view the Turbografx 16/ PC Engine as either "the world's most powerful 8-bit console" or "a fairly cost-effective 16-bit console with the first console CD add-on."
A bit like the SNK Neo Geo being touted as "24 bit" when really you could view it as "the world's most specialized 16-bit arcade board turned console."
In the end "bits" mean almost next to nothing and the real judgment call is the coding of the software/ specialist hardware capabilities. Case in point the first 16-bit console is the Mattel Intellivision, but you don't see people clamoring to compare it to the SNES and Mega Drive.
You don't see people comparing it to the Sega Master System and NES.
I'm amazed how much of your content I've somehow missed these past few years, even tho I subscribed over 4 years ago, anyways, it's brilliant going back through your uploads to see the fantastic content I haven't seen yet. Excellent work as always brother.
Cheers for the heart matey!! Dunno if you've noticed, but I subscribe to you via both my TH-cam accounts - the other being Phantom Works. First rate content brother. I just find your videos soooo amazingly chilled out viewing. Really looking forward to checking out some of your feature length videos next.
I like PCEngine's After Burner than SegaMegadrive version.
Nice video but there are some mistakes about the super cd-rom like it was written . Also, the Duo-Rx was released in 1994, not 1992.
Finally, many games look much better on pc-engine than Megadrive due to the better colors palet (Wings of Thunder) whereas Megadrive uses more parallax scroll than pc-engine in many games since pc-engine does not have parallax in hard. Some pc-engine games use also the best resolution you can find on the 16 bits console (352*259) like Ninja Spirits, making graphics look very sharp. This system is also well know to be one of the best ever in shmup and jrpg games.
Love this little console.
For the handheld, I'd like to see you try out the pinball games (Alien Crush or Devil's Crush), Ninja Spirit, and Neutopia.
Im sure there was a PC Engine 'shuttle' as well.. basically a pc engine in a large case shaped like a pace shuttle. I saw one at a show in London many, many years ago...
Awesome stuff!
If anyone wants to know what that badass cover at 15:00 was for, it's a horror RPG called _Jaseiken Necromancer_ . Surprisingly H.R. Giger was actually commissioned for this cover, and it's not just an imitation.
I think the TurboGrafx 16 would've done amazing if they would've kept the original PC engine and PC engine CD design and only changed the name! I loved the smaller design!!!!
I bought mine during a travel to Japan, in a Bookoff store somewhere in Osaka borders, last year, and it rules so much!
Mine came with a original box, 2 controllers and a 3 player multitap.
Too bad I didn't know the name of the games to look up before returning home... But I do have Rtype I and Bomberman already
Feel free to make a long video for the get. I love your videos more than almost anyone else on TH-cam these days.
sonic sega me too, THGM rules!
I also think it's foolhardy to try and say that the systems graphics don't hold up against the SNES or Genesis as that is simply untrue. One only needs to play some of he Super CD titles to see that this is not the case. The system actually has the best ports for many different Arcade games, and with the expanded RAM is actually more graphically capable than the other 16 bit systems in some instances!
Quick correction, the original PC Engine through to the Core and Core II all have RGB output via the rear expansion port but all require circuitry to make this output compatible with consumer equipment.
The Core and Core II both use a 5-pin DIN AV socket to provide composite video (CVBS) & stereo audio output.The Core II does not have any improvements to this design to provide native consumer grade RGB output. Infact, the Core II can often be found to have an older AV board design revision than typically found in the Core because it was a way for them to remarket and use up existing stocks.
Quite enjoyed the video! Would like to see Bomberman '94 get some attention as that was ported to the Mega Drive as Mega Bomberman and still impresses me to this date. Fantasy Zone, Sidearms and the Parodius games are well work a play. 👍
The PC Engine was the Switch of its day in some ways-a small package with impressive capabilities.
I still remember walking in at a Amiga Copy Party in 87 or so . And a guy sat there playing R Type on a PC Engine . That totally blew my mind . I bought and had almost everything from PC Engine back then CD ROM , GT , LT , SuperGrafx , Shuttle . PC Engine was a epic legend . Still great to play on my Pi , emulated perfectly . Have some 30 cards lying around somewhere , still .
You sound like Pitt the prime minister from Blackadder 3. Great vid btw x
And following the trend of misinformation, the SuperGrafx did NOT add new graphics chips. It simply had two of the same CPU's instead of one. The graphics chip was exactly the same as previous versions.
Not quite. The SuperGrafx actually still ran on the same single HuC6280 CPU @7.16Mhz, but added an additional HuC6270 VDC (Video Display Controller) for a total of 2 VDCs. This added an additional 64 sprites and an additional BG layer to the system bringing the total sprites count up to 128 and BG layers up to 2, which also necessitated the addition of the HuC6202 VDP (Video Display 'Prioritizer') to combine and control the twin VDCs outputs. They also upped the work RAM to 32KB over the stock 8KB found in the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine. You had the right idea, but swapped which component was doubled. It's ok though, it's confusing. =)
I think you should cover the "crush" series. Some of the best pinball to ever grace a console. Be-Ball/Fu Man Chew is a fun puzzle game. Parodius is good fun also.
I've been to that place in Cambridge a few years ago when I visited my sister. First time I got to see/play a turbografx 16 and the game they had was J.J and Jeff which I loved. That place is absolutely amazing! Retro gamers heaven!
Pc engine qualifies as one of the most genuinely underrated consoles in history. Not these pretend underrated consoles that always crop up whenever that question is asked and fanboys just go for their beloved failed system. (My case would be the gc. For others the dreamcast or saturn). Pc engine had very little support outside of Japan but was released at a time when 8 bit consoles were still very much the in thing everywhere else. And some of the games that were released were damn near arcade perfect ports. Considering virtually no one in the West played the damn thing there's a massive back catalogue of greats to enjoy. It has the best graphical version of shinobi out of any of the other ports and the r type port is damn near spot on.
My opinion would plump for the Commodore Amiga, a system that doesn't get mentioned as much even though it was massive in the UK, up there with the MegaDrive and the SNES, which probably means it's not that underrated and I'm just a long time member of the PC Master Race by American terminology (even though by British terminology, the Amiga was an Amiga, not a PC)
Or it could be that he doesn't feel as if he could cover it as he doesn't have a CD32 (pretty sure he does have an A500 though, having said that, the CD32 seems to get more coversage from American TH-camrs than the regular Amiga even though the regular Amiga has more games and was actually sold in the USA, unlike the CD32)
The Amiga was a strange beast though. Arcade ports tended to suck balls, but the Amiga would have an excellent OG IP which could have served as a port (example the Amiga port of Out Run is a load of shit, Lotus Esprit Challenge or Jaguar XJ220 on the other hand)
GeoNeilUK even the amiga got a lot of recognition and ownership in the UK and Europe though. I knew plenty of kids who owned either an amiga or atari st. And they both received coverage not only in the gaming mags (mean machines' total) at the time but also on the few shows in the UK dedicated to gaming such as bad influence and gamesmaster. Hell even a lot of originally exclusive titles for those home computers eventually found their way to consoles (sensible soccer' cannon fodder' zool) so it wasn't what I would call underrated for its time. As it was rated
I have never played one, as it was never released in any form in my country. But I have played some emulators and wow, I got really impressed, there was nothing like it at the time.
"I have never played one, as it was never released in any form in my country. But I have played some emulators and wow, I got really impressed, there was nothing like it at the time."
Can I ask what system you're talking about here? There are quite a few impressive systems discussed in this thread - not only the PC Engine (which can be emulated using Mednafen) but also the Commodore Amiga (which can be emulated with any program that has the letters UAE in its name... WinUAE, FS-UAE... though you will need the Kickstart ROMs)
Both were awesome systems.
Agree .. outstanding system indeed. The only other system close to being as underrated is the Colecovision.
@GeoNeilUK: the Amiga was a primarily a computer, not a console /except for TV and CD32) and interestingly didn't do well anywhere, except for Europe, where it took over from the C64 and dominated the home computer market until people moved over to PCs in the 90s. Don't get me wrong, like the C64 it was great for gaming, has a great library (I still LOVE Syndicate or Cannon Fodder) but that was just one aspect of it.
Yep. Blazing Lasers still the console best IMO. Still emulate that game frequently.
The PC Engine actually had TWO "PC" addons. The Turbo Booster Plus, which added a memory bank for storing saves, as well as improved audio and video outputs; and the CD attachment, which... did everything the Turbo Booster Plus did on top of it's CD functionality...
What is that PC Engine game at 0:46? It looks cool for a JRPG.
The pc engine is the most under rated system in my opinion. It has many fun to play games. It really was ahead of its time when it was released in Japan.
It was treated shamefully in north america.
The turbo grafx 16 always reminds me of playing it at my uncle's when visiting my grandparents, with games like bonk's adventure titles, so gundam, and those jj brothers or whatever they're called, the sunglasses guys you show near the end LOL...
I love chun-lee thumbnail she is the best waifu in street fighter
I not crazy or weird but love chun-Lee she strong woman in the world
and finest lol
While the US Turbo Grafx only had a few hundred releases, I find the quality ratio to be the highest of any system I can think of. Meaning whenever I go through the game lists on emulation , most of the games are atleast good if not great. Going through NES,Genesis and SNES I can find alot of bad and mediocre games easily. It has alot of great exclusive games. The system has alot more great games in the japanese markets, especially the CD version.
I got the system later at a cheaper price. I think the store was trying to get rid of them and it was very cheap. It got overshadowed and underrated for sure. Aside from owning a few of the big games like Jackie Chan and Bonk 2 and playing Air Zonk and Bonk 3, Ninja Spirit on a friends system (plus others), the best discovery for me is when I found Splatterhouse on the system in a babbages for maybe 30 bucks. I loved Splatterhouse 2 for genesis, but do to lack of info back then, had no idea what the first game was for or if it even existed. That game ended up being awesome too. Its the only console port of the game I know of, except for the FM Towns Marty version which is very close to the arcade original (I have it posted up on the channel). The TG 16 version was a great port and preserved the gameplay. Its just missing some detail.
I had the turbo duo model it was a good system those cd games had some great games
actually the reason the TG16 size was because of FFC regulations at the time...
Joan yep. Just like the NES . Originally they wanted to release the same design as the original famicom but it didnt meet american electrical standards.
Keith Courage...a badly named hero...
Alex Kidd: "Am I a joke to you?"
The Turbo Grafx was actually released in North America on August 29, 1989, not in 1990 as was stated...just an FYI!!!
Considering I just bought a modded turbo duo r just a couple months ago, I’d say yea, its worth playing in 2018 and every year after that. Great system that I missed out on (but wanted) as a youngster. Oh well, at least I had a Dreamcast and Saturn as a kid.
Well done.
So much to cover, that wasn’t covered.
A nice start as far as the games are concerned.
👍
My understanding is its a 6502 (8 bit cpu) with a mmu that can do 16 bit addressing (up to 2 megabytes) - its not that much different than the cpu that powers the SNES. My impression of the Turbo-Gfx failing miserably in the US was it launched here around the same time as the SNES and had little games available for it :(. I still got one for Christmas ;).
Actually the CPU is closer to the NES CPU, so much so, that if you look around on the net there are ROMS of converted NES/Famicom games for the TG-16, and it was release before the SNES, the big reason it failed was marking as in over 80% of the US you could not walk into a store that sold games, and buy one. I live on the border of SC/GA on the SC side, and the only place in 2 states outside of the Mall in Atlanta I ever saw the TG-16 was at my local Putt Putt Golf and Games where you could rent the console, and a game in 30 min blocks with stations they had setup for various different consoles, but Nintendo, and SEGA consoles, and games where all over the place, and at a better price with games more people wanted.
The PCE/TG-16 was never released in England.
Yes it was never officially released in the UK but Telegames later sold modified pal versions. You can buy them on their website
The PC Engine was the best console at that time technology speaking but they fucked up the marketing in Europe. I had the duo and spent countless hours on it despite having other consoles as well.
The Bonk games are up there with Sonic and Mario in my opinion.
Boo's ad placement, don't punish me for loving you
I cannot really see what is to complain about, I have put alot of hardwork into this and they are all skippable anyway :)
Wow! I have to say thank you because somehow it seems I missed Bravoman completely until now. I thought I had all the scrolling shooter games on the system. Apparently not! Cheers!
Love my pc engine with the super sd system 3 and a hori controller 😎
Best video game console ever made. By far. Because the games! and everything was done right. That 8 bit processor with two 16 bit graphics chips was PERFECT.
You wrong, in France the awful american version of the PC Engine is missing, it was the japanese version of the console (Core Graphx) and japanese games due to import.
Favorite games: Devil's Crush, Space Harrier, Blazing Lasers, Ys I&II, Valis II&III, Bonk I&II, Dungeon Explorers, Cosmic Fantasy 2, and King of Casino (cause it's like going to Vegas but not really losing anything). Those were the games I owned at any rate. Ys III was ok, Ninja Spirit was ok, and there were some others that I would play but not really go all hardcore on. The CD games were great because I'd look the CD audio output up to my stereo and get incredible music while playing the games. I don't think the Ys I&II soundtrack had even one bad tune on it. They were all terrific especially with the cinematics.
Star parodier is amazing, so is the bomberman games. My Wii still has star parodier on it before it was removed from the Virtual Console store. I still wonder if this raises the value of my console.
Great video and I can't wait for the next history vid about the portable turbo grafix
One day I will own this console. Thank you for this review, much appreciated.
One under dog, NES console game that's outstanding to me as much as the TG-16 would be Blue Shadow, or Shadow of the Ninja. The animation is impressive.
14:44 theres a Battle Royale game on the Turbo Grafx 16?!? Bloody hell you just can't escape them!
I'd rather get the Analogue Duo once it comes out, along with the Turbo Everdrive (you must unscrew the outer shell before sticking in the Everdrive)...
Splatterhouse was the first game I played on an ACTUAL TG-16. Everything else was via emulation or the Virtual Console.
More footage of you in sweat pants please! *-*
Make sure to cover the AMAZING Legendary Axe!!
The SuperGrafx was released in November 1989, not 1991.
Another console where the American version looks awful.
Go big or go home.
and now ya see why people like me waited for the Turbo Duo. The fairly large pack in of games was a nice benefit too
It looks like a T with the CD-Rom attachment....
yeah it's a bit goofy looking , even more so when you realize the CD reader just clips into the weird T-looking monstrocity of a cradle
Nathan Gatten you shut your mega-ducking mouth
When did this ever get a UK release? I remember C&VG reviewing it... But I never saw one at retail. I imported mine direct from Japan just to play Gunhed, Don Doko Don and R-Type I & II
Vampire Hunter D could've _by itself_ reinvigorated vampire fandom to a whole new generation back when i was a kid! we really shouldn't have watched it, but our parents had no idea about it 'cause anime was so new to the West, thus we snuck watching it when it wasn't "family time" in the evening. one would be hard-pressed not to appreciate the very real link time-wise between the age of kids who would appreciate Castlevania and anime vampires; it was a no-brainer. arguably Vampire Hunter D and the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG was to Castlevania as a huge arcade presence was to Ghouls and Ghosts / Ghosts and Goblins - the interest spread like wildfire in both cases in the West, with the Castlevania series being the clear winner
The pinball games alien and devil crush would be good. Legendary axe and bloody wolf. So many good titles for this under rated system even in North America they had some fun games.
Hey, thanks for this, I actually requested it on Twitter.
11:32 which game is that intro from?
I think it's Galaxy Fraulein Yuna. it's a digital comic.
The Kanye/TG16 connection is so random and beautiful
Great video for a great console, mate!
I wish I could have seen this when released. I have given a 8 year old the laptop version, having mistakenly believed that it was just a knockoff walmart special in payment for helping to clean out my "I'll use this again" building. I now have to stop my wallet's crying.
Fantastic overview.
whos the artist that drew the Chun li thumbnail?? please and thank you...liked and subbed!
I absolutely love this channel
My fav old school console, totally underrated, far ahead of its time (and the competition), and a must have for everyone who loves arcade (style) games imo. I'd rather die than sell mine LoL
Keith Courage is called like that because it's the name of the Anime it's based on!
Plz make a retrospective about the MSX
I'd like to see why and how it ties in with the ColceoVision and why the same program that will emulate the MSX will also emulate the ColecoVision (don't know about the Adam) and the Sega SG-1000.
No mention of the PC Engine Shuttle model?
My one friend had this system. We would take turns tryng to beat Bonk's Adventure or Keith Courage. It was a great system that got overlooked here in the states. Now the Turbo Express... Lets just say the local gas station was raided of AA batteries when my pal got it.
FFS was that you wrestling ? You are freakin JACKED AS FUCK !
I liked the thumbnail
Yep, same here.
Do you have permission to use that (I'm pretty sure, their video on the Famicom has a shot that looks nearly identical) CGR footage on the Famicom, or is it fair use?
PCEngine/ TG-16 mascot = Bonk
TurboDuo mascot = Air Zonk
Great video. PCE is my go to system on retropie.
I probably spend as much time in SNK vs Capcom: Match of the Millenium on Neo Geo Pocket Color (seriously, if there was a modern version of the Xperia Play, that would totally be my daily driver phone)
If you love shmups it is an amazing system and I too probably play it more on my Retropie than any other 16-bit machine.
Blazin lazers!
Though we still have Project X and Apidya on the Amiga, even if they do kick my arse in level 1-1!
1:39 What’s the Japanese version of “do not attempt”? ;)
I loved my Tg16 I owned that before I got my hands on my Super Famicom with UFO disk drive unit. Most of my Super Famicom SNES games are on 3.5" floppy disk hehe. Tho since I haven' booted those up in a while..I'm not sure of their operating condition in 2020
NEC really should do a classic mini version of this a la NES/SNES & Playstation. Not sure how well it would sell but I'd definitely buy one!
Wish granted
None of those things you said about the Super System Cards are true... seriously, where did you get your info from? The ONLY thing these cards contain is firmware to allow CD's to be ran and extra RAM, that's it. It does NOT add any extra graphical ability whatsoever.
I have not watched the video yet, but there is only one answer HELL YEAH!
Play the Valis games and more importantly Double Dragon 2.
My younger half/brother had the TG16 back in the day. We played a it a lot because it was the only console he had at the time and I somewhat enjoyed the games but I always regarded it as kind of the poor man’s Super Nintendo. The games weren’t great IMO, he had a lot of games, which now demand a high price tag. Funny enough, the one we enjoyed and played the most was JJ and Jeff. Then our mom eventually got him the Sega Genesis, also I thought was the poor man’s version of the Super Nintendo. But I now have a curated collection of both the Genesis and SNES and they’re both around 30 games each so I believe they’re equally good.
Poor man's Super Nintendo or rich man's Nes.
Top Hat Gaming Man ahhh! Touché
Are you Simon millers brother?
Cover Strip Fighter .... LOL
"Bloody games, yeah.... " - top hat gaming man.
i been trying to find one at my goodwills but no luck , i found a boxed master system i got for 2.00
I am not a "banking assistant" or an "accountant". 😝 lol