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Beginning In 1987, the PC Engine was created in Japan as NEC’s vehicle to bring it into the home console arena. The major contender in that field at that time was Nintendo with its Famicom system. The Famicom really was the system to initiate the explosion of the home video game consoles market in Japan. The Famicom – Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) as it was well known in North America – had brilliant sales, and showed the “other guys” that this particular business venture could be made quite profitable. NEC, a big time electronics manufacturer, decided they wanted a piece of the pie as well. The PC Engine contained technology that blew away the competition: two 8-bit CPU’s which effectively act as a more efficient 16-bit CPU, a 16-bit GPU capable of displaying 512 simultaneous colours on-screen (482 including duplicates) - something which neither Sega’s Genesis nor Nintendo’s SNES never matched, 6KB more RAM, a port on the back of the system which allowed for future upgrades, and 6 layer stereo sound as opposed to the Famicom’s mono. NEC’s first home game system made use of HuCards as game cartridges – small credit card sized devices that could hold an astonishing amount of data. The Sega Master System also had this capability, but games made specifically for it were small in number. The PC Engine only featured one built-in controller port, which allowed for it’s tiny size – the PC Engine wasn’t much larger than 2 of NES’s game cartridges stacked on top of each other. Purchased separately was a five-port multi tap that let five players play at once. The PC Engine was a small system with small cartridges that raked in big sales. NEC’s first system was a great success in Japan – outselling the Famicom in its first year. Because NEC was living large as the top manufacturer of home game consoles in that country (albeit for a short period of time), they decided to bring the system to the biggest potential market on the planet one year later in 1989 – North America, more specifically, the United States. |
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Index: The Competition Gets Stronger |