PC Engine
The PC-Engine was a video game console released by NEC, a Japanese company. It was released in 1987.For more information on the North American version of the system, see: Turbografx 16.
The PC Engine used cards instead of cartridges to hold its games, and while its processor was 8-bit, its graphics could have up to 256 colors at once in different resolutions. It was the first console to have a separate CD system, for full orchestral soundtracks and full-motion video. The PC Engine was extremely popular in Japan, and started outselling the Famicom. At the time, the Sega Megadrive wasn't doing to well in Japan, especially due to the lack of a CD-ROM system. Many games in its popular Japanese library had not been translated to the North American Turbografx 16. However, the Super Famicom would gain an upper hand against this console. Its overall impact on the Japanese market was not much, although the Megadrive had as little or even less of an impact than the PC Engine had.
In 1992, after the Sega Mega-CD came out, the PC Engine and its CD drive became combined into the Duo.
The PC Engine GT is a portable version of the PC Engine. It had a very crisp screen and also included a tuner. It could play all of the PC Engine games, yet had low battery life.
Another variation of the hardware is the SuperGrafx, an improved, backward-compatible version of the PC Engine with two sets of PC Engine hardware. This allowed for two background planes instead of one, and twice as many sprites. However, very few SuperGrafx-enhanced games were made, and the system fell into obscurity.
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