A look at a PC Engine LT | Ashens

hello it was the early 90s and the British computer magazines would occasionally show you the PC engine a very impressive console for the time kind of vaguely got something like a very tiny release over here maybe depending on your definition of such things was released in America is the turbo graphics 16 and in Japan of course the BC engine where it was quite popular 8 bits video game devices but I tell you what massively impressive for the time due to clever custom chips and all that kind of gubbins now you would see this thing that you plugged into you tell you looked very impressive and you never saw in real life then they had a handheld version a massive chunky thing I do have one I can't show it to because brilliantly I've lent it to a friend of the moment timing and I did a review 8 years ago I'll link here the end of this massive chunky battery eating monster but my god so impressive for the time but then I saw a photo in one of these magazines which has stayed with me over the years the most bizarre form factor I could remember and it was the PC engine LT hmm with 4 inch color LCD screen built in in a weird clamshell folding way and my goodness I've never quite seen anything like it since maybe the handheld CDI is come in a bit close but I mean they're super rare were only sold to shops as point-of-sale machines as was at least a sole to people at home and it's become something of an oddity and a rarity over the years NEC did produce various weird novelty PC engine systems listened by far the most interesting of them it was released December 1991 right at the end of the year in Japan only sold in Japan and it's sold frankly bugger all because it was frightening ly expensive the screen was fantastic for the time and you know the whole militarization of it blah blah blah meant the cost was through the roof it went for the equivalent of about six hundred and thirty pounds which if you sort of inflation out today's prices is something like 1300 pounds or something it was just totally unaffordable which is why they still go for a pretty penny these days I don't own one the lovely Kwang haslund to me who you may know of if you hang around the retro scene in the UK he's a very nice man and doesn't know that I've hit this with a hammer yet only joking Quang so yeah it comes in a pleasing box with just the art really and not like a shitload of text or anything that's what you're getting in here guys why don't you open up and have a look well I've already opened up and remove dings I thought that'd be quicker win it and here's when I prepared earlier not really it's gonna have the box as you can see it is a grey quite square beasty with an Ariel on top for yes it has a built-in TV tuner which is now of course completely useless because everything's on digital and it was obviously tuned to Japanese stations anyway but the principle was there it's an interesting design this actually it almost feels like the to the sort of TV part in the gamepad's written mostly separate you can actually plug power directly into this side it just kind of powers the TV part and not the entire system it all feels a bit sir interestly separate internally anyway let us have a look round and see what we've got in it headphone jack that's important and the power LED got your volume you got your brightness for the screen you can plug in an external pad and play on if you so wish or for some two-player malarkey I've got taking that off hang on there we are it's back on now you've got your power in for the side there if the TV as we say between game and TV you've got AV in so you can plug in external devices and watch on the screen there is however no external out if I remember you can plug an external antenna into it and have a big ole TV erial and pick up everything that no longer transmits because yes you've got on the back preset on all channels which is the television thing you have a mighty bus expansion you can plug the cd-rom add-on for the PC engine straight into this blighter but you need an adapter if you're using the super cd-rom I believe it's not something I've done myself and they don't just get it back and carefully there we are powering the other side on the bottom not a whole lot going on on the top not a whole lot going on so you may have noticed something no batteries and indeed there are no batteries in this plight because it has to be plugged in at all times what the unit is portable you can't actually play it portably so if you're on the train with it you'd better hope you were on one of those trains in the 90s that had powers sockets you know that kind of didn't exist or in this country at least and here we are we open it up to reveal me wearing a hat hello but also the controls get your power you've got your selector for you and that's it for auto forever remembers and it's Huy tint you got your color so you can now fiddle the settings of the screen which is quite nice select run one two button and a nice d-pad which does feel very good actually but you would hope because you know if anything happens that isn't very good you ain't gonna be replacing it that's where the games go in the games come on who cards work it so so on the back which is a remarkably sort of honey Tech feeling thing for the early 90s this is a not very good game that's more of a tech demo than anything frankly I show off in the air video I did before if I recall games in guys right let us plug in the power and feel the power of the PC engine just kidding look everything's fine whew the old camera isn't picking us up too great but for the time this screen was absolutely astonishing I really cannot you know explain the sort of weird high-tech feel you got from seeing one of these in the flesh most thing is I never saw one in the flesh and time and I got that information secondhand I only saw a picture in a magazine right I'm gonna turn the brightness up and see if that helps your end does actually it's far too bright for me to see normally this is gonna be difficult go on believe a quick look at it as I say is not a great game if a Bruce Lee ripoff type thing going on screw you monkey man but which I mean you're a monk not an actual animal like a monkey that was confusing right you get the idea here it's a little bit kung fu master with giant sprites and it's not very good but there are some wonderful games with a PC engine you are probably already aware of this we are just here to bask in the form factor that is wherever the heck this is a Tony walk I'm actually going to plug this into the other side I think the television does work if you plug it into the left hand side but we'll do this properly and we'll switch it to TV and power that's good there's better picture than I got from channel 4 in the 80s well hey nostalgic satire yeah there we are my face is a ghost oh I am the new villain by this concept Blum house and yeah you're not gonna get a hold on this these days I was going to plug in an external area and stuff and see what I could do but frankly this thing is so bloody expensive and I'm so scared of breaking it that I didn't really want to get into doing weird stuff like that come to me game you are finished now that's going back in before I lose it yeah so there you be that is the PC engine LT a really quite beautiful bit of gaming history and one of those things because of the oddity of it as time has gone on people have wanted it more and more but of course the rarity of it and the scarcity of it means well mostly the same thing but it is a beautiful folly a thing of weirdness and joy all at once and will we see the lack of it again maybe I mean these days you could make one of these super cheap like a replica think and they like they keep doing these mini consoles and there's a mini PC engine coming out next year actually could they do one with a built-in screen that eighths this form factor you see be an interesting thing for the collectors and it would cost bugger all these days because small you know screens like that only far better and be extremely cheap these days hmm that's a thought isn't it call me up any see we'll get this thing running and actually don't call me up I've got nothing to do with in I couldn't offer anything useful frankly other than to say you should do it but hey it's the principle in it but if you really desperately do want one of these well good luck checking out the Japanese of auctions and stuff there's famously one in Akihabara for 200,000 yen which seems a little bit overpriced doesn't it worked 1,400 pounds but I think they kind of keep that more as a status symbol or something to you know show people are going into the shops but they're not impossible to find but my goodness you're gonna need to be selling one of your room be encrusted yachts in order to easily pay for it I suggest you just borrow off something like I did I would treat this thing like I would treat a giraffe beautiful to look at but he's not sensible to have one actually in your house [Music] subscribe for more [Music] you

Channel: ashens

Views: 207,168

Keywords: pc engine, turbografx-16 (video game platform), nec pc engine lt, PC Engine LT, ashens, review, funny, turbo grafx 16, turbo express, the kung fu, china warrior, hucard, retro, retro games

Id: QMOx6fFqJBc

Length: 9min 28sec (568 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 09 2019