It's Critter Time!

I see there's a thread related to the PC Engine here already, but it's about a series covering the games, not the console broadly in itself! So here it is!

The strangely diminutive and modular console which was mostly exclusive to Japan. Yes the US did get the Turbografx, but it seems like it had half the life there than the PC Engine did in Japan. It was more popular than the Mega Drive!

The fascinating thing about the PC Engine is how, due to it being more like a partnership between a software company (Hudsonsoft) and a hardware company (NEC), it received so many more weird and wonderful hardware various than perhaps any other console, as its variants weren't centrally managed and NEC wanted to make more hardware to sell. It seems even more than the Mega Drive, and we know how Sega were! But that's part of what makes it so interesting. And unless you have a Duo, it's all enticingly modular, too! You can mix and match so much for something that's not really intended to be like Lego!

For myself, I've settled on the classic white PC Engine with the Interface Unit, to make up what is known as the Briefcase, as it closes up and has a cool little carrying handle Nice and tidy and compact, and incredibly cute and stylish too!

However, I then also got very lucky...and snagged a Supergrafx!!! Amazingly overwrought console; it really puts the "Engine" in PC Engine, feels so interesting to touch and hold with all the shapes and ridges, and also provides the privilege of playing...five exclusive games. At least three of which are worthwhile!!
But honestly though, it is really awesome to have such a ridiculous console which also lets me play a cool port of 1941 Counter Attack and the neat shmup Aldynes. Not that I'm any good at them, but they are fun to play xP

I also have Super CD-ROM², which is an independent, SNES-sized module which can eat a PC Engine. Or just bite onto the tail of a Supergrafx like a Shelder evolving it into a Slowbro. It's also excellently ridiculous, although the reason I have mine is because it was cheap due to not working...and it didn't turn out to be an easy fix, aha. Oh well, maybe someday If I can get it to work I might get rid of my briefcase, but I'm in no hurry to do that, hehehe...

And yes, there are so many other fun games, like the Bonk series, so many other shmups, and Castlevania Rondo of Blood! I'd also personally recommend a cute little puzzle game called Tricky Kick :3

Definitely a retro blind spot for me. I've played some really neat games on it, especially CD versions, but I need to mess around with it more.

This is on our list to play more games on though. Really we only found out about it at all because of the Wii Virtual Console giving us hot titles like Bonk, Dungeon Explorer, and Battle Lode Runner. All cool games! Obviously Rondo of Blood is a known banger on the CD side, but we also got the chance to play some Ai Cho Aniki and thats an experience.

But what really matters is the kusoge. Shingen Takeda is a weird obsession for us. Tremendously unserious game with the world's most casual sword clashes. Also Gamola Speed is kind of shit but charmingly eccentric.

The PC-Engine CD is such a fascinating system because no one really knew what to do with all that space, so people got to experiment. Some real interesting games include...

Kiri Kaze: Ninja Action


Fiend Hunter


Götzendiener


Bazaar de Gosāru no Game de Gosāru

(Fun Fact: Game Freak made this the same year as Pokemon Green/Red)

Yeah there's a whole lot of extended animation sequences in CD-ROM² games. I suppose when you look at it all it's not so surprising that NEC tried to capitalise on it with the PCFX. But yeah, it was more to fill space really, haha! The games themselves didn't often need all that space, and honestly, some of the animation sequences I've come across so far can be so looooong. But it's definitely fascinating, indeed!

YYEEEEESSSS, THIS THREAD

Can I just say how excited I was, after I finally succeeded in replacing the middle gear for the laser seek mechanism for the CD-ROM² drive, and after very carefully adjusting and trying out potentiometer values and FINALLY getting the intro for Emerald Dragon to play, even if the first main town's tile graphics eventually ended up getting garbled (which just took some more slight potentiometer adjustments) --

I mean, just the feeling that I was finally going to be able to experience for myself THE AMAZING WORLD OF THE MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM, as it was presented in the late 1980s and early 1990s?

It's just a weird time when everything about CD-ROM content was still being figured out. Like, it's weird, seeing games like Pomping World and Side Arm(s) that had title screens with black backgrounds as if they were early cartridge games, but that's what they knew to do!

Like, even the disc labeling, looking a lot like what you might see from very early CDs from like Columbia Records or RCA Records. Some looking rather spartan in design like with the Valis discs, some looking absolutely lovely with a matte kind of finish like, I think it might be Ys I & II, certainly Side Arm(s) --

augh. I need to explore it more.

But yes, the HuCards too! Once I get the TurboNanza mod finally installed into my little PC Engine, I'm also looking to playing through more of Metal Stoker! I really dug the music in it, and I feel like I could get a better hang of its control scheme too.

And the console and CD-ROM² unit are themselves just
SO
SMALL
AND
CUTE

Love my lil PC Engine! I have a Core Grafx II Model.

I've got a number of HuCards, but I also have a Super HD System 3 for it, which lets you load basically any game and adds HDMI output.

Big Nihon Falcom fan, so the PCE is like the perfect platform for me, haha