PC Engine

[RygarR]

Traumatised by this morning's trip to the supermarket (still no tube socks!), I decided to detox with a session on my PC Engine. I never had one of these bitd, but thanks to the magic that is the Turbo Everdrive, I now have access to the full back-catalogue of hu-cards. Without the rose tinted spectacles of nostalgia, it's plain to see that there was a lot of guff on the system. But there are also plenty of games that must have been astounding when they come out. 'Gradius' isn't just arcade perfect, it's better than the arcade, with a beefed up sound track and the ability to pause. R-Type is pretty impressive too, as are Parasol Stars and Pac-Land. The range and quality of arcade shooters in particular is very good indeed. What's less than impressive, imho, is the D-Pad. Gotta say it chaps, but I really can't stand console D-Pads. Coming from the arcade world of joysticks and buttons, they've always struck me an aberration. As good as the PC Engine port of Raiden might be, it's ruined by the D-Pad :-(

But that got me thinking about the systems I did have. I suppose the Amiga would be about the closest in terms of release date and 'floruit' (!). The Amiga-era Zip-Sticks and Competition Pro 5000s may have looked the part, but the truth is they were very pale immitations of the arcade control panels. And the more you dig, the worse it gets. The Amiga itself might have knocked spots off the C64. But compared to the PC Engine, it was... weak. OK, so it could play sampled sounds, but so what? Did they ever *really* add that much to the gameplay? The things that counted, like screen size, game resolution, the number of colours and sprites on-screen just couldn't complete. The thing is, though, that the Amiga wasn't cheap. My 'what if' question is, what if the team behind the Amiga had just dumped the gimmicks (who really cared about HAM graphics?), and basically stuck a disk drive and a keyboard on a PC Engine? AmIright?

The more I think about it, the more the business geniuses behind home computers messed it up. They treated the concept of the video game as a dirty word. Imagine they hadn't, and had gone for an amiga-priced games machine optimised to play arcade games rather than multi-task spreadsheets with juggling ball-men. I reckon they would have shifted a lot more units and kept their companies going at least a few year longer...

What do you guys think?

 

[Vinegar Joe]

First off...I agree with the pad sentiment. Action games really need a good stick. To that end I'd recommend one of these: https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/

Then you can use a PC/PS4 stick with sanwa parts or whatever. I've got several of these convertors for my old consoles so I never have to put up with the crappy default controllers ever again. It makes playing shmups so much easier

As for the PCE Vs Amiga...considering the price difference it's hard to argue. I'd say the PCE was a good deal more capable than the NES or Master System and it's a shame they botched the US release so badly and got cold feet about Europe. It was a really impressive piece of hardware that kept pace with the pack long past its sell by date thanks to the CD add-on and arcade cards.

The Amiga was and always will be more capable, but the cost was ridiculous looking back. £500 in old money. Nuts.

 

[Brettster]

I remember being in high school when the Amiga came out, I sold my C64 collection and my mountain bike to rush into "The Computer Store" to buy my A500 for £500

I got some copied games from my Neighbour and booted up the Amiga with Bubble Bobble.

It looked the part. but it just didn't play anywhere near as good as the C64 version.

Time after time I was just disappointed with the Amiga and its "arcade conversions" the stereo sound was nice, and the Cinemaware games looked amazing but the music had no soul unlike the C64 music.

Not that long after the Amiga was released I was seeing Magazine hype about the PC Engine and Sega Megadrive coming out in Japan. As soon as I got to see Golden Axe running in Microbyte I had to have one. The Amiga for me was history and I never looked back. some time Later I Saw the PC engine with the CD ROM2 in the briefcase and heard the amazing music for Wonderboy 3. at that point it had to be mine and as I was working now I could afford to have both the MD and the PCE and then the Super Famicom those times were great , late 80s early 90s.

But all that time, there was a machine that was a computer, that blew the socks off all of the other machines I knew about and I guess was priced the same as an Amiga with the same CPU. the Sharp X68000. just imagine if we had of had that in the West!! Japan got all the best stuff.

I'm still a big fan of the PC engine and considering it's small size and weedy cpu, it held it's own against lots of other contenders, even had a hand held version that played the same carts. What a wonderful system it is.

 

[RygarR]

Thanks for the adaptor link, Joe. The kids already have a fight stick for the PS4 which I can 'borrow'. So I'm half way there. I'll check it out.

[/QUOTE]The Amiga was and always will be more capable, but the cost was ridiculous looking back. £500 in old money. Nuts.[/QUOTE]

Now, you say this. I would have said it myself. And looking at various, cherry-picked specs, side-by-side, most folks would probably agree. However, from a purely arcade-style, games-playing perspective c.1988, the evidence just doesn't stack up.

Sure, the Amiga can do lots of fancy tricks, but just how many of them translate into a better games-playing experience?

The most glaring example of this is the visuals...

1 or 2 later Amiga games used over-scan mode to fill the entire screen, but the majority not only had a border, but a hideous black band across the bottom. The PC Engine has proper overscan on everything, just like the arcades. Also, in terms of colours on screen and colours in sprites, the Amiga had a 'painting' mode with 4096 colours, but that could only be used with huge difficulty in games, and other things had to give to fit it in. Most games used only 16 colours, although a few managed 32, and the sprites rarely had more than 4 or 5. Compare with the PC Engine with its dozens of hundreds of colours on-screen in fast-moving games, and proper, colourful sprites.

I was a big Amiga fan boy bitd, but looking back, it was mostly style over substance.

If only the business types had been able to embrace the gaming scene, and focused on that, we could have had something great.

 

[RygarR]

Yeah, Brettster, the X68000.

Imagine that, but earlier, with a BASIC ROM built in, so the, 'it's so I can do my homework' box could be ticked.

It would have been amazing.

And as for the Amiga music, I second that entirely. The 4 channels and samples were, technically, very impressive, but compared to simpler, and less capable systems, there was definitely something missing. If you had musical inclinations, the C64 was on a pinnacle. But even less sophisticated chips often had an edge. Maybe it was just because the programmers had to work harder to squeeze out what they needed? I feel the same way about a lot of SNES audio. It's very, very clever, but really lacks soul.RygarR2020-07-14 09:49:40

 

[big10p]

I'd take the PC Engine sound over any system of the day. There's something very distinctive about it.

 

[RygarR]

Vigilante.

Not the best of games for game play, admittedly. But it is absolutely gorgeous. Huge, beautifully coloured sprites, and lots of them. I don't remember anything like that on the Amiga.

 

[RygarR]

First off...I agree with the pad sentiment. Action games really need a good stick. To that end I'd recommend one of these: https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/

Unfortunately, that PC Engine adaptor seems to be out of stock pretty much everywhere, worldwide. Don't suppose you've got any sure-fire stockist tips?

 

[Adamski]

PC Engine was awesome.I had one back in the day.I agree to a certain extent re D-Pad but it WAS good for non shooters such as Chan&Chan (JJ&Jeff) and Super Wonderboy.God I miss those days

 

[Brettster]

Just the other day, I ran though Rondo of blood again, that game is so nice and the CD audio is amazing.

Jackie Chan, action kung fu was a really impressive game at the time. And most of the Sega games were better than the MD versions.

Quality machine the PCE

 

[Vinegar Joe]

First off...I agree with the pad sentiment. Action games really need a good stick. To that end I'd recommend one of these: https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/

Unfortunately, that PC Engine adaptor seems to be out of stock pretty much everywhere, worldwide. Don't suppose you've got any sure-fire stockist tips?

Sorry nope, I got mine from eBay and it wasn't cheap.

I have previously bought a Brook NeoGeo adapter from Arcade World but they don't seem to have any of the PCE/MD ones in stock sadly: https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/categories/brook-adapters.html

 

[penrhos]

I've got a couple of pc engine fight sticks - they're great, so much better than struggling with a pad.

Think I have a spare I'd be willing to part with...

 

[RygarR]

Cheers Dude,

I noticed that. I used to live a few miles up the road from them, but didn't find out until after I'd moved away. The money I could have saved on PNP!

First off...I agree with the pad sentiment. Action games really need a good stick. To that end I'd recommend one of these: https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/

Unfortunately, that PC Engine adaptor seems to be out of stock pretty much everywhere, worldwide. Don't suppose you've got any sure-fire stockist tips?

Sorry nope, I got mine from eBay and it wasn't cheap.

I have previously bought a Brook NeoGeo adapter from Arcade World but they don't seem to have any of the PCE/MD ones in stock sadly: https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/categories/brook-adapters.html

 

[RygarR]

My quest for a PC-Engine joystick is now over.

I finally found the Brook dongle on Amazon.co.uk. I've 'borrowed' a cheap fightstick from the kids to use with it. The difference from the stock D-pad IMHO is night and day.

Games like Raiden now play like a dream, instead of a frustrating, RSI inducing nightmare.

Joysticks FTW!

 

[Vinegar Joe]

Hooray, glad you found one! Yeah a decent stick makes such a massive difference.

Those Brook adapters are great because you can buy more and use the same stick across all systems. So far I have the NeoGeo and PCE/MD ones but they work perfectly and are cheaper than buying a different stick per system (which can be varying quality, not to mention they take up more room).

Actually I wonder if the MD connection will work with the Master System?

 

[kingtreelo]

I was only introduced to the PCE about 18 months ago, its a fantastic system with some amazing games(some of which have already been mentioned) as is one of my favourite consoles now.

I havent ever really thought about the joystick situation..i dont mind playing with the controller and love the autofire option.

But....i do like my joysticks...i have a couple, can anyone confirm whether the Brook accepts any USB joystick, or may i have to fork out again for another?(i have a HORI RAP 5 and a TE2)

 

[Vinegar Joe]

It should work with almost any PS4 stick. I have a Hori Rap N Hayabusa and it works perfectly.

There's a compatibility list on their site of you're unsure: https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/

 

[RygarR]

Yeah, best to check the compatibility list! The good news is that if it is compatible, it's just play and play.