PC Engine

July 10th, 2007 Leave a comment Go to comments

The PC Engine was a video game console released by NEC, a Japanese company, in 1987.

Introduction

The PC Engine was a collaborative effort between Japanese software maker Hudson Soft (which maintains a chip-making division) and NEC. In a classic example of good timing, Hudson was looking for financial backing for a game console they had designed, and NEC was looking to get into the lucrative game market. The PC Engine was and is a very small video game console, due primarily to a very efficient three-chip architecture and its use of HuCards, credit-card sized data cartridges. It featured an enhanced MOS Technology 65C02 processor and a custom 16-bit graphics processor, as well as a custom video encoder chip, all designed by Hudson.

The PC Engine was extremely popular in Japan, besting Nintendo ’s Famicom in sales soon after its release, with no fewer than twelve systems released from 1987 to 1993, and new games released as recently as 1999. It was capable of up to 512 colors at once in several resolutions, and featured very robust sprite handling abilities. The Hudson-designed chroma encoder delivered a video signal more vibrant and colourful than both the Famicom and the Sega Megadrive and is largely regarded as the equal to Nintendo’s Super Famicom, the PC Engine’s contemporary competition.

It was the first console to have a optional CD module, allowing the standard benefits of the CD medium: more storage, cheaper media costs, and redbook audio . The efficient design, backing of many of Japan’s major software producers, and the additional CD ROM capabilities gave the PC Engine a very wide variety of software, with several hundred games for each the HuCard and CD formats. Here’s a screenshot gallery .

Several of the PC Engine systems and its US-released counterparts are possibly the most commonly misspelled video game systems of all time. The -Grafx suffix, used for the Japanese CoreGrafx and SuperGrafx, as well as the US TurboGrafx, is spelled incorrectly almost as often as not. Grafix, graphx and countless permutations thereof abound.

The Hardware:

Technical Specifications

  • CPU : 8-bit HuC6280A , a modified 65C02 running at 3.58 or 7.16 MHz (switchable by software). Features integrated bankswitching hardware (driving a 21-bit external address bus from a 6502-compatible 16-bit address bus), an integrated general-purpose I/O port, a timer, block transfer instructions, and dedicated move instructions for communicating with the HuC6270A VDC.
  • GPU : A dual graphics processor setup. One 16-bit HuC6260 Video Color Encoder (VCE), and one 16-bit HuC6270A Video Display Controller (VDC). The HuC6270A featured Port-based I/O similar to the TMS99xx VDP family.
  • Resolution:
  • X (Horizontal) Resolution: variable, maximum of 512 (programmable in increments of 8 pixels)
  • Y (Vertical) Resolution: variable, maximum of 240 (programmable in increments of 8 pixels)
  • The vast majority of PC-Engine games use 256�224, though some games, such as Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective did use 512�224. Chris Covell’s ‘High-Resolution Slideshow’ uses 512�240.
  • Color:
  • Depth: 9 bit
  • Colors available: 512
  • Colors onscreen: Maximum of 481 (241 background, 240 sprite)
  • Palettes: Maximum of 32 (16 for background tiles, 16 for sprites)
  • Colors per palette: Maximum of 16
  • Sprites:
  • Simultaneously displayable: 64
  • Sizes: 16�16, 16�32, 32�16, 32�32, 32�64
  • Palette: Each sprite can use up to 15 unique colors (one color must be reserved as transparent) via one of the 16 available sprite palettes.
  • Layers: The HuC6270A VDC is capable of displaying one sprite layer. Sprites could be placed either in front of or behind background tiles.
  • Colision detection: The HuC6270A VDC can detect if there has been a colision between sprite #0 and any other sprites.
  • Tiles:
  • Size: 8�8
  • Palette: Each background tile can use up to 16 unique colors via one of the 16 available background palettes. The first color entry of each background palette must be the same across all background palettes.
  • Layers: The HuC6270A VDC was capable of displaying one background layer.
  • Memory:
  • Work RAM: 8KB
  • Video RAM: 64KB
  • Audio capacity:
  • 6 PSG audio channels, programmable through the HuC6280 CPU .
  • The addition of the CD-ROM peripheral adds CD-DA sound, and a single ADPCM channel to the existing sound capabilities of the PC-Engine.
  • Game Media:
  • HuCard (TurboChip in North America): A thin, card-like game media. The largest Japanese HuCard games were up to 20Mbit in size.
  • CD: The PC-Engine was the first home video game console to offer a CD-ROM accessory.
  • With only one exception, the SuperGrafx , all PC Engine hardware could play the entire HuCard library, and every CD system could play all the CD games – with the right system card.

Hardware variations

Stand-alone systems

  • PC Engine (1987)
  • White, only RF output
  • PC Engine Shuttle ( 1989 )
  • UFO-shaped system, unique expansion port (no CD option), AV output
  • PC Engine SuperGrafx (1989)
  • The only PC Engine unit to contain enhanced HuCard functionality. Only five games were released for it. (Two regular PC Engine releases, Darius Plus and Darius Alpha, were enhanced to utilize the extra sprite capability of the SuperGrafx.
  • PC Engine CoreGrafx (1989)
  • Dark grey, blue label, AV output
  • PC Engine CoreGrafx II ( 1991 )
  • Light grey, orange label, AV output, Identical in function to the CoreGrafx

CD-ROM accessories

  • PC Engine CD-ROM� ( 1988 )
  • Designed for the original PC Engine
  • PC Engine Super CD-ROM� (1991)
  • Designed for the CoreGrafx II

Portable systems

  • PC Engine GT ( 1990 )
  • Portable system, identical in shape and function to the US-released TG Express
  • PC Engine LT (1991)
  • Semi-portable system (no battery option) similar in size to a normal PC Engine or CoreGrafx. Uses a very large attached screen, and folds up like a laptop (hence the LT moniker)

Duo systems

  • PC Engine Duo (1991)
  • Combination PC Engine + CD ROM system, dark grey, has a CD door lock and headphone port
  • PC Engine Duo R ( 1993 )
  • Same as the Duo, but white/beige, shaped differently, and lacks the lock and headphone port.
  • PC Engine Duo RX ( 1994 )
  • Same as the Duo R, slightly blue in colour. The only PCE packaged with a six-button pad.

Others

  • X1 Twin
  • Combination of Sharp X1 computer and PC Engine. Only played HuCards.
  • LaserActive
  • Pioneer + NEC released a Laserdisc player with video game modules. One module allowed the use of PC Engine games.

Other region variations

  • TurboGrafx 16 – North American version of PC Engine
  • TurboGrafx CD – North American version of CD-ROM 2
  • Turbo Express – North American version of PC Engine GT
  • Turbo Duo – North American version of PC Engine Duo
  • Vistar 16 (Korean)
  • Several clones
  • TurboGrafx 16 – European (PAL) variant. Slightly different PCB layout to accommodate additional circuitry for PAL display, otherwise is identical to the NTSC TurboGrafx 16.

Unofficial variations

  • Various PC Engine Shuttle clones exist, with varying levels of compatability with original PC-Engine games. One of the more common types is the “PC Boy”.
  • New Tai Sang Corporation released bootleg HuCards which were sometimes patched to add features like invincibility. Unlike most bootlegs these closely resembled the original games in terms of packaging, even with color labels and manuals.
  • The PC Engine was never officially released in France, but one chain of videogame stores imported them and made SCART conversions on a moderate scale.

Unreleased and rumoured hardware

  • A modem was developed but never released.
  • A SCSI interface for the Duo CD-ROM drive to be used by a PC existed in prototype form only. (it was featured in a TTi-published TurboGrafx 16 oriented magazine in the US)

Peripheral compatibility

All PC Engine systems support the same controller peripherals, including pads, joysticks and multitaps. Except for the Vistar, Shuttle, X1, GT and systems with built-in CD ROM drives all PC Engine units shared the same expansion connector, which allowed for the use of devices such as the CD ROM unit, game saves and AV output. See the External Links (bottom) for details on this connector.

The TurboGrafx and Vistar units use a different controller port than the PC Engines, but adaptors are available and the protocol is the same. The TurboGrafx offers the same expansion connector pinout as the PC Engine, but has a slightly different shape so peripherals must be modified to fit.

Video formats

All PC Engine hardware is natively NTSC, including the European version which creates PAL-compatible video with the use of a chroma encoder chip not found in any other system in the series.

CD Hardware details:

Drive unit:

- Single-speed CD-ROM drive, managed by a NEC microcontroller and using the SCSI-I interface.

Interface tray:

- ADPCM chip with variable speed input clock, and 64K DRAM for audio sample storage. Only one channel of 4-bit audio was supported.

- 64K DRAM for storage of program code and data loaded off the CD-ROM. The RAM could be supplemented by using different System Cards, and some later systems had additional RAM built-in.

A library of support routines and start-up code (BIOS) was provided in several forms, either built in to a particular console or as standalone ‘System Cards’. The known revisions are:

  • v1.00 – First release (HuCard, came with the PC-Engine CD-ROM interface unit)
  • v2.00 – Upgrade (HuCard, sold separately)
  • v2.10 – Upgrade (HuCard, sold separately) – bug fix?
  • v3.00 – Final release (built into several products and available as a HuCard – see below)

The corresponding CD-ROM products were:

  • PC-Engine Interface Unit (IFU-30), came with System Card (CD-ROM� System, v1.00) (has 64K RAM)
  • System Card (CD-ROM� System, v1.00) (standalone, available as a replacement for the above)
  • System Card (CD-ROM� System, v2.00)
  • System Card (CD-ROM� System, v2.10)
  • Super System Card (Super CD-ROM� System, v3.00) (Has additional 192K RAM)
  • Arcade Card Pro (Arcade CD-ROM�, v3.00) (Has additional 192K RAM and 2048K RAM)
  • Arcade Card Duo (Arcade CD-ROM�, v3.00) (Has additional 2048K RAM)
  • Super CD-ROM� System (Super CD-ROM� System, v3.00) (Has 256K RAM)
  • PC-Engine Duo (Super CD-ROM� System, v3.00) (Has 256K RAM)
  • PC-Engine Duo R (Super CD-ROM� System, v3.00) (Has 256K RAM)
  • PC-Engine Duo RX (Super CD-ROM� System, v3.00) (Has 256K RAM)
  • RAU-30 (Extension cable for the SuperGrafx to fit into the IFU-30 tray)

The PC-Engine Interface Unit has 64K RAM and a v1.00 System Card. Later the v2.00 and v2.10 System Cards were released, with no additional hardware (only software changes). It will play CD-ROM� games directly, and needs the Super System Card or Arcade Card Pro for Super CD-ROM� or Arcade CD-ROM� games.

The Super System Card adds 192K RAM for a total of 256K available. The Super CD-ROM� System and PC-Engine Duo/R/RX consoles have the entire 256K built-in along with v3.00 of the System Card software, and can play both CD-ROM� and Super CD-ROM� games without using any additional cards.

The Arcade Card Pro is for the original PC-Engine Interface Unit, adding the 192K RAM required by Super CD-ROM� games and the 2048K RAM and additional support hardware used by Arcade CD-ROM� games.

The Arcade Card Duo is for the Super CD-ROM� System and PC-Engine Duo/R/RX consoles, which adds the 2048K RAM and additional support hardware. Because these systems have 256K of RAM built-in, this does not need to be provided and is why the Arcade Card duo was less expensive than the Pro version.

Note: Because the aforementioned consoles use the same BIOS revision as the Arcade Card Pro, it isn’t known (as a cost-saving measure) if the Arcade Card Duo includes the BIOS software itself, or if the existing built-in BIOS is used.

The various CD-ROM game types are:

  • CD-ROM� (pronounced CD-ROM-ROM) : Standard CD-ROM game.
  • Super CD-ROM� : Requires a compatible system or upgrade card.
  • Arcade CD-ROM� : Requires an upgrade card.

While the Super CD-ROM� games only had additional RAM for storage, the Arcade CD-ROM� cards added a number of additional ways the RAM could be accessed (sequential, non-sequential) by the CPU.

For earlier systems, the conventional 64K or 256K RAM was split into 8K banks and mostly used for program storage, transferring it to the 64K of video RAM available was unwieldy.

The Arcade Card upgrade solved this problem by having it’s extra 2048K RAM made indirectly accessible, to easily map to the PC-Engine CPU’s instructions to rapidly copy data from the Arcade Card to the video RAM. The entire RAM could be then accessed as a linear stream of data instead of broken up into segments.

This was primarily used to store and stream large sprites to video RAM; as evidenced by many conversions of the well-animated Neo Geo fighting games to the Arcade CD-ROM� format. Of course for other games, it provided many more frames of animation, reduced load times, and the general convenience of additional storage. Note that this RAM cannot be used for program execution due to the way it is made accessible to the CPU.

One technique that was used by games pre-dating the Arcade Card upgrade was to store graphics data in the 64K audio RAM (used for ADPCM samples) that was present. This RAM could be directly populated by the CD-ROM hardware (it had a direct DMA channel from the CD controller) without CPU intervention, and the memory could be accessed in an indirect format similar to the Arcade Card, allowing data stored in it to appear as a 64K stream of linear data that could be easily transferred to video RAM.

Other facts:

  • NEC manufactured a very large line of personal computers, one of which featured a single-speed CD ROM drive identical to the PC Engine version. They were designed to be interchangeable, which is why the PC Engine’s IFU-30 CD ROM interface could be purchased without a CD ROM drive.
  • NEC developed a prototype adaptor that connected a PC through the HuCard slot, allowing the PC to control the PC Engine’s CD ROM as it would any normal SCSI drive. Due to falling CD drive prices and the increasing undesirability of a single-speed SCSI drive, it was never released. It was however previewed in NEC’s official US TurboDuo magazine.

Despite the system’s initial success, it soon lost ground to the Super Famicom. NEC made one final effort to resuscitate the system with the release of the Arcade Card expansion, bringing the total amount of RAM up to a then-massive 2048K; many Arcade Card games were conversions of popular Neo-Geo titles. The additional memory even allowed the system to display pre-rendered 3D polygon graphics well beyond what the competing Super Famicom and Megadrive/Mega-CD could offer. By this time, however, it was too late — only a relative handful of Arcade Card games were ever produced, and the expansion was never released in the U.S.

In 1994 NEC released a new console, the Japan-only PC-FX , a 32-bit system with a tower-like design; it enjoyed a small but steady stream of games until 1998 , when NEC finally abandoned the video games industry.

The PC Engine GT is a portable version of the PC Engine. It had a very crisp screen and an optional TV tuner was available. It could play all of the PC Engine HuCard games, yet had low battery life.

Another variation of the hardware is the SuperGrafx . This system is very nearly the same as the original PCE, except it has a duplicate set of video chips (and an extra chip to coordinate the two) and four times as much RAM. Since the CPU wasn’t upgraded most developers were unable to utilize the extra graphics capability, the CPU just couldn’t keep up. Only five SuperGrafx games (and one hybrid game – Darius) were released, and the system fell into obscurity.

Other members of the PC Engine family include the Shuttle, the LT (a laptop version similar to the Game Boy Advance SP, but considerably larger), the CoreGrafx I and II, the Duo R and the Duo RX. Contrary to popular belief the CoreGrafx is not a European version of the PC Engine. It is simply a reengineered version of the original (white) PC Engine with an AV output instead of the original model’s RF output. The PC Engine was sold in a limited territory in Europe, under the name TurboGrafx. The console was slightly different from the US TurboGrafx 16, in that it lacked the expansion port, used a slightly different logo, a much different box, and it featured a separate chip to encode the video into the European PAL TV standard. The manuals included were however the exact same ones as the US release. The console was still internally NTSC, and the HuCARD games were the exact same ones released in the US, except there were considerably less of them. Because it saw such a limited (and late) release, many people dispute its existence. It has been seen up for sale on various websites. (This particular editor has seen it on ebay.) It should be noted, however, that the Japanese version of the console was favoured in Europe, due to the increased expandability, and the wider variety of games. The PC Engine and its games had been extensively covered by most major European video game magazines and were surprisingly popular.

External links

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org – the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License .

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