PC-E is the full name PC Engine. In 1987, the home game console was launched by two Japanese companies, Hudson (Henderson, the game company that developed famous games such as Bomb Man , Gold Digger , Island of Adventure) and NECh (Japanese electrical appliances, pioneer of home computers). From the history of game consoles, it is definitely the 8-bit host with the strongest functions in the industry. Its powerful functions and the number of supporting equipment are unimaginable.
bombs have been played by everyone. This is Hudson's famous work
After the release of Nintendo 's FC console in 1983, the gaming industry ushered in the golden age of the home computer market. Various game design ideas are becoming more mature, and a large number of high-quality games laid the player foundation in that era. However, with the improvement of game quality, FC's own skill limitations have increasingly affected the developers' creativity. Especially the hegemonic policy implemented by Nintendo under Laoshanui's rule also caused a headache for third-party manufacturers. At this time, many game developers began to have ideas about console hardware, including the Hudson company we are talking about today.
Hudson
Hudson (acquired by konami in 2011) is an old game development company. It was founded in 1973. It was once a Nintendo FC console research and development partner and an important early software supporter. Its famous works such as "Gold Digger", "Bombman", and "Story of Adventure" sold on the FC platform have always been loved by players.
Gold diggers, now they find it difficult to play
At the beginning, Laoshanui learned from Atari's failure experience and was still relatively friendly to third-party software vendors. Nintendo only charges 100 yen per card game developed by third-party games. The card can be produced by the manufacturer on its own, but FC sales gradually increased. After becoming the overlord of the game industry, Laoshanui's nature leaked out and increased the mortgage system ( To prevent rebellion), the licensing fee continues to rise to 2,000 yen, and all cassettes must be produced through Nintendo's own processing plant (Nintendo has the final say on how much it produces). When Nintendo launched the FC disk drive in 1986, it directly announced that Nintendo must have half of the copyright of all software developed by third-party software manufacturers. This is not just a dividend on the game, but also means that all peripheral and peripheral profits related to this game score half of Nintendo, and even the company's lifeline is controlled by Nintendo.
First-generation PCE host, you can see how small the host is based on the size of the handle
In October 1987, four years after Nintendo FC was released, the PCE host jointly created by Hudson and NEC landed in Japan. The specifications of this device are amazing. Although it is equipped with an 8-bit CPU, the image processing chip that Nintendo has no interest is much unexpected. The picture expressiveness completely defeats FC, which is also far beyond all game consoles of the same era, and is even not weaker than the subsequent MD and SFC (equivalent to installing an entry-level CPU but creating a top-level graphics card).
This street fighter's picture is no different from that of an arcade. It directly kills the four-person street fighter
Castlevania blood wheel. When I first saw it, I thought it was the PS version of
PCE host design is also very distinctive. The first is the small size of the host, and the size of a palm, PCE is like a small box integrating black technology (the host and the handle are about the same size as the GBA). Second, PCE is called PC Engine, which is really not a title party. According to Hudson's design ideas, this host is positioned as a core engine. It realizes other power supply outside the game through various expansion devices, which can be imagined and unexpected. You really use this host as a PC. Below is a family portrait of peripherals and modified hosts, which are unimaginable.
13 facelifts or peripheral devices
, the most classic one is CDROM2 (CDROM square). The host has added CDs, breaking the bottleneck of cassettes in one fell swoop. This is also the world's first CD media host.
The more you do it, the more complicated it becomes
PCE handheld console, fully compatible with PCE games, and the performance instantly kills GB of the same period, but the biggest disadvantage is that the six-section No. 5 battery can only be played for one hour (it is better to buy PCE if you can only play at home), and it is completely unportable.
At that time, I thought that X
was too many console facelifts and peripherals (according to statistics, there were 13 types), and many of them were incompatible, and the facelifts were expensive. For example, the cheapest Shuttle was less than 20,000 yen, while the most expensive facelift PCE LT even sold more than the later SNK's arcade motherboard NEO-GEO, reaching a terrible 98,800 yen.
Because Nintendo's tyranny at that time caused dissatisfaction among most third-party game developers, PCE took advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win many third-party franchises. Coupled with the excellent development environment and hardware quality, as well as Hudson's own excellent development capabilities, PCE quickly opened up in the market. PCE has a super rich gaming category, and the total amount is even enough to compete with SFC. For the familiar "Yusu", "The Demon Realm of the Heaven", "Legend of Heroes", and especially the CD peripherals, the game capacity is not limited, and more classic games appear on this platform. If the
Tianwei Magic Mirror Series is done well, it will be the same level as Final Fantasy and DQ
In short, PCE is definitely not a failed work, breaking the market structure of Nintendo, and once surpassed Nintendo in the Japanese market. In 1999, there were even game manufacturers selling new games on this platform. PCE actually has a high-quality hardware platform and a huge competitive advantage. However, since Hudson and NEC are both hardware manufacturers' planning ideas, they actually customized their business goals to make profits based on peripheral equipment, and have created so many face-to-face models that are not very compatible with each other. Since ancient times, shopping malls are like battlefields. If you miss the opportunity, you will never come back. The subsequent strong release of Sega MD and SFC will gradually decrease in the later stage, and even rely on many "Eighteen Forbidden" games to support it. After that, it gradually declined until it disappeared, which is very regrettable.
Forever PCE
