next »

[meppi]

In the process of buying this beauty:



I've been wanting one of these for sooooooooo long, but never thought I'd have one.
Been told in the past that it was impossible to get it RGB modded due to the briefcase setup, but in capable hands it is indeed possible.
So this one is RGB modded and all, giving it a pin sharp image even on a Panasonic Plasma.

Can't wait till this arrives next week.
It looks so futuristic in an 80's sort of way. I love it! 

[triverse]

Wow!  That does look pretty cool.  When does it arrive?

[meppi]

Sometime next week.
The person selling it to be bought the complete PC-Engine collection off another collector and is selling the doubles, so I'm very lucky to be able to pick this one up of him.

It'll be posted by the end of the week, so I'm guessing I should have it by wednesday of next week.

Here's another picture from a better viewing angle:

[nickerous]

Cool!  I have never played any of those games.

[meppi]

Cool!  I have never played any of those games.

You never played PC-Engine games?

There are lots of incredible games for the system!
I would describe it's library as a cross between the NES and the MegaDrive and a little bit of Snes.
Lots of great shooters on there as well and lots of them are available on the Virtual Console at a  very honest price.

one of my all-time favourites if Goloma Speed.
Best I can describe it is a cross between Gauntlet and NiGHTS, although that's a lousy description.

Here's a review I did many years ago: http://users.telenet.be/twin-dreams/PC-Engine/Gomola_Speed.html
Don't mind the broken grammar. 

[Nreive]

That's a great little site there, meppi.  You may want to update the "So you can find me here:  " link though.

[meppi]

That's a great little site there, meppi.  You may want to update the "So you can find me here:  " link though.

I didn't know what you were talking about at first, but I quickly realized it was about the weblog thing.
That's probably the last time I actually updated the site, and even then it was over a year already since the last update.
Guess all my time was dedicated to the scans once I started doing those.

I've actually been thinking about re-writing those reviews and moving them onto Out-of-print, perhaps in a magazine scan format or something, but I don't want it to take away too much time from the scans.
Still it would be nice to have reviews of games that never got coverage in western magazines, like most of the obscure magazines on my old site.

[meppi]

I thought I'm in love, now I know I am. 

Somehow the system looks even better in real life. It's so tiny too!
Can't put into words how happy I am to finally have one of these beauties. 

[triverse]

Too bad the homebrew community for the PC Engine is no where near the level of the Dreamcast or other newer consoles, could you imagine some of the great games that might have been coded for it?

[meppi]

With the Arcade card in there this little console sure does pack a big punch.
I've been playing Sapphire a bit, which I got with the system along with several other games and I'm speechless. How they were able to pump out those graphics and effects is mind blowing.

[triverse]

The heart of the PC Engine is an 8-bit processor right?  Running at something around 7 mhz, I believe.  Didn't it have a 16-bit blitter or something that allowed for better graphics than normal?  I know they had a better color pallette (capabilities to not only show all 512 colors at once onscreen but also the ability to actually "mix" colors and make a whole new pallette).

[meppi]

I believe it was a 16-bit graphics processor and an 8-bit CPU, but I have to look it up myself to be sure.
It's been a while since I've done some PC-Engine research.
But looking at how I got drawn into the games this afternoon, that won't be the way much longer.

Been playing SonSon 2 and New Adventure Island for the most part as well as Ninja Spirit.
Loving every second of it.
I've said it before and I'll probably say it many times again in the future, but it's these kinds of games which always draw me back in when I'm starting to become bored with the current gen stuff. And which remind me of why I love videogames in the first place.

Good thing I missed out on the PC-Engine the first time around as now I have so many years to catch up on.

[triverse]

There are a ton of great PC Engine games that you can now nab and enjoy.  Of course, a great many were never released in America so all of us in this side of the pond missed out on them too.  There were a surprising number of cross platform editions of titles from companies like Sega (which was weird since this kind of dilluted the availability of their titles, meaning, you didn't necessarily have to HAVE a Sega console to play most of them).  Also, many titles that were Nintendo NES only in America have PC Engine releases, like Gradius, Salamander, and many others (Castlevania and Batman before it was cool to be multiplatform are available as well).

[meppi]

Another funny fact is that NEC were responsible for a huge amount of software, in the same way Sega programmed games for the Master System and MegaDrive since publishers like Capcom for instance were somewhat locked into the production of NES games.

To get back to the technical abilities and Sapphire, take a look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0eXCeGGmDc

Although the video doesn't do the game justice since the framerate is too low making it look like things disappear all the time and certain effects don't show up as they should.

This one is a lot better, although it takes ages to load:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9po29_sapphire-longplay-pcengine-part-i_videogames

[Bablefish]

actually 2 8bit CPUs, but that is a beautiful console. I just wished the T16 and CD looked half that good. Congrats on such a find.

[meppi]

Oh a bit like the Sega Saturn then with the dual processor?
I had no idea.

Thanks btw. I still can't believe that it's sitting right here in front of me.
I've seen only about 3 people who had this setup and I was lucky enough to buy it from one of them who bought another collector's whole setup and sold on the duplicate hardware and software.

The only thing I wish I had now is an arcade cabinet.

I always dreamt of getting a PC-Engine and a NeoGeo and I have been able to get both in the past coupe of years, but an arcade cabinet is the one dream I've never been able to realize.
But I'm going to start saving up a bit and keep an eye out on grabbing a nice Sega New Astro City when one becomes available in or around my area.
The things I've been through this year teach me that you only live once and you never know when your time might be up, so I don't feel like postponing this into infinity, realizing that I'll probably never going to get one that way.