TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine

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TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine
[[File:NEC TurboGrafX-16 top front angle with expansion port cover.jpg|230px]]
Manufacturer NEC
Generation Fourth generation
Release date October 30, 1987 (JP)

August 29, 1989 (NA)
1990 (EU)

Media type HuCard, CD
Successor PC-FX

In collaboration with Hudson Soft the launch of the original PC Engine in Japan was followed by the renamed and slightly re-designed TurboGrafX-16 Entertainment SuperSystem which was released in North America on August 29th, 1989 and shortly after in a few European countries. It could be considered as a direct competition with the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Technical specifications

The TurboGrafx-16 has an 8-bit CPU and a dual 16-bit GPU; and is capable of displaying 482 colors simultaneously, out of 512. With dimensions of 14 cm × 14 cm × 3.8 cm (5.5in × 5.5in × 1.5in), the NEC PC Engine holds the record for the world's smallest game console ever made.

Region Lock

Pins of the HuCard for the Japanese and West version differ, which can be seen as a simple regionlock. But can be easily circumvented with adapters which just rearrange the Pins to match again. This only works to play Japanese games on the west TG16 system. The Japanese PC Engine had a deeper hardware check which prevented to start the game. Some exceptions which work and don't work in any direction exist. All CD games had no region lock or even copy protection.

Add-ons

Gallery