What is the SuperGrafx and why did it fail? - NEC's Unloved Console from 1989

by 1989 the gaming landscape was about to change dramatically the decade had seen the demise of Atari as the king of the consoles the rise of Nintendo at home in Japan with its famicom and abroad with their repackaged Nintendo Entertainment System and the evolution of sega's Hardware culminating in the Master System in Japan NEC were a big player too their diminutive PC engine arrived in 1987 4 years after the NES and 2 years after the Master System its ability for large colorful Sprites awesome sound with plenty of channels and some cracking arcade ports put the system in a class of its own the PC engine ushered in the fourth generation of video games consoles but being first makes you a target of course Sega and Nintendo were going to follow up the success of their earlier consoles with new hardware and of course they would have to rise above the bar set by the PC engine to be contenders the question was what would NEC do to keep the PC engine relevant when the competition turned up the heat the answer would arrive in 1989 the answer as anyc saw it was the Super Graphics hello cave dwellers we are putting ourselves in 1989 today think back if you were alive at the time and you will remember that Sega brought out the Mega Drive at least in Japan we got it a little bit late here in the UK Nintendo bought out the Super Nintendo in Japan at the back end of 1990 so they weren't far behind and what ensued is what we know as the console Wars The Almighty fourth generation battle between Sega and Nintendo Sonic and Mario but it wasn't quite the same in Japan the PC engine was the second biggest selling console over there it was the first to Market in the fourth generation and it beat down sega's Mega Drive with only the Super Nintendo above it however the PC engine is not the topic of our discussion today it's nec's other console or one of their other consoles right here the super Graphics now this also came out in 1989 so it begs the question what is it what part did it play in those console Wars and what on Earth happened to it because it's not a console you hear very much about like so many interesting Oddities that we meet on this channel It was a commercial failure but unlike others it wasn't a bad system there are some cracking games in its library of five yes just five dedicated games were ever released for this console over a period of just over 3 years and I've read that some of these games cost over £80 that's €90 or1 for one game add inflation to that and that would cost you £245 for a game in today's money they'd better be damn good for that price so my objective today is to look at those games of course we're going to look at all five of them we're going to open up the system and find out what it's all about and we're going to try and figure out why it was a commercial failure but first of all let's put it in some context let's look at the timeline of NEC console releases and see just where this fits [Music] in we'd like to thank pcb.com for supporting our episode today they aren't just about pcbs although they do do a tremendous job of that they also offer CNC Machining sheet metal fabrication 3D printing and injection molding if you're creating then pcb.com can help you bring your project to life get an instant quote now over at pcb.com and we thank them for their support NC bursts onto the scene in 1987 with the PC engine a collaboration with Hudson soft to create the c62 system that was the code name for what would become the PC engine a powerful console in a tiny package it and its derivatives would enjoy a game catalog of nearly 700 titles released over a 10year period in 1988 NEC released the first commercially available CD ROM add-on for a console the CD ROM ROM vastly improving the system's capacity for games and of course karaoke don't worry I'm not going to inflict that on you today so far so good we've got a successful little console and a CD ROM add-on outside of Japan the PC engine made its way to North America in 1989 but it was repackaged and renamed the turbor graphics 16 with cool guy spelling of graphics gfx it didn't really work out for NC in the US as sales were nothing like they were back home in Japan and this put the brakes also on a European release instead of NEC forging ahead in Europe they simply sold their stock of consoles to a third party seller so in the UK for example there was a company called teley games who was selling it via mail order so we could buy them just not direct from NEC and for some reason 16 was dropped from the name it was just known as the turbo Graphics here in Europe Europe I had one once this is a very very old video from around 2010 2011 of a turbo Graphics that I used to have all boxed and lovely and then sold wish I still had that from the US back over to Japan now in December 1989 came the core Graphics this was basically identical to the original PC engine it had a new color scheme white is out gray is in with blue writing and the RF video output on this model was replaced with a composite well which is a nice change but it's not really reason enough to swap out your existing PC engine for this new model if you really wanted composite out from your PC engine there were add-ons you could buy such as this one the AV booster which slots onto the back there of a PC engine the core Graphics also had a new revision of the CPU the hu c6280 a the a appended to the end there to signify that it's a new revision and we'll talk about that in just a moment because it will appear again and we're also seeing a naming convention appear core Graphics the core system the Baseline system uh and then we'll come on to the super Graphics in just a moment also in 1989 they released the PC engine shuttle which obviously didn't get the memo about that naming convention uh this was a super lowcost version of the PC engine £89 is about what it cost but it had a slightly quirky look to it it might have appealed to certain types of Gamers and if they wanted to find a cheap way into the PC engine game library then this was it so it's all happening in 1989 just 2 years after the PC engines release you can now get into the PC engines game Library by buying a PC engine a shuttle a core graphics and also in 1989 the super Graphics appears the super Graphics like the others can play PC engine games on their standard Hue card format and now the super Graphics also introduces its own new games Library which is only compatible with its improved Hardware you can't help but think that NEC could have saved a lot of money if they just said we've got our core system and we've got our super system quite why they spent so much money on research and development and marketing to bring all the other systems to Market I I can't explain it just seems like Madness to me but here we are and the super Graphics is now the flagship of the range so we're just going to pause the timeline there we will come back and see what happened next but I'd like to see what Hardware is in this and what it's capable of so let's focus in on the super graphics [Music] cosmetically the superg graphics is twice the size of the PC engine more akin to the footprint of their competitors's offerings with a look that I describe as car engine cover it lacks the cuteness of the PC engine and it cuts a much more aggressive shape it follows the darker color scheme of the core graphics and has a vibrant blue stencil font logo I don't hate the look of this thing I think competitors like the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo are certainly better looking consoles than super Graphics but uh you know it's certainly distinctive it's thundertank I think I would describe it as it's thundertank stylings Joy pads are exactly the same as those you got with the core graphics with the Auto fire switches above the fire buttons nothing new there games came on hu cards just like the standard PC engine and you can see the super Graphics logo on the back of this one this is Ghouls and ghosts we'll have a look at it in just a moment and you slot a super CD ROM which we'll see on the timeline later onto the back of this system because obviously it wouldn't fit in the suitcase to go with the CD ROM ROM of the standard PC engine and even though it had a CD ROM add-on no CD ROM based games were ever released in its lifetime that took advantage of the super graphics's additional Hardware there was a game I think it's called super Ava or super AA 2011 um which works from cdrom and takes advantage of the enhancements but it was released in 2021 so we can't really take that into account in any kind of historical context only highlight that you might want to check that out and yes one game does exist on CD ROM for the super Graphics in the modern day I mentioned a few times that the super Graphics offers enhancements above and beyond the standard PC engine so what are they let's open it up and take a look and compare it to a PC engine this may or may not surprise you given the physical size difference of the two machines but there's not a huge difference between them what there was though when I opened up the super graphics for the first time which is on loan to me this doesn't belong to me was some kind of crazy mod tucked under the white paper here what on Earth is this Wagon Wheel of components well it's wired up to the video soet it looks like some kind of video amplifier I think just to boost the signal coming out with the machine and the Machine Works so I'm not going to touch this thing like I said it's not mine to play with I'm just going to cover that back up when I'm finished with it and I hope it still works so that aside here's our super graphics and you'll notice there's a lot of board and very few chips on it the Huard slot is in the middle the voltage regulator is kept cool by that big L-shaped chunk of metal on the left and to make sense of what we're looking at in here we'll jump now over to the PC engine and we'll start there the PC engine in all its tiny finesse now the PC engine comprises of three primary chips and two RAM chips in the middle we've got the hu 627 video display controller that's got 64k of video RAM to play with so that's our video chip to the left of that the hu 6260 video color encoder working alongside it and then at the top nearest the gray cable is the CPU an H 6280 that's a supercharged version of the Moss technology 6502 CPU that you would find in systems such as the commodor 64 there's also a six Channel sound generator built into that chip 2 on audio Duty and then 8K of working Ram the PC engine has always impressed me in its neatness and its compactness it's it's the perfect little console package for me I think it's brilliant but how does it compare to the super Graphics well what we see in this console is a lot of the same the reality is that the super Graphics is basically a standard PC Engine with the addition of more RAM it's got 64 instead of 8K of ram as standard and it's got a second video chip the hu 6270 video controller it's got two of them and the additional RAM to support that second chip the additional video RAM so two video chips and 128k of video RAM 64k of system Ram as standard and that's about it the CPU is a different revision that I mentioned earlier so it's the huc 628a rather than the one without the a at the end which is exactly the same CPU is apparently it's just got some minor audio issues fixed on the chip no performance increase over the standard PC engine is it an upgrade well yes it's got the additional video chip and it's got more RAM it is an upgrade but it's hardly a new console and with an established PC engine user base it created the usual chicken and egg scenario that follows any console add-on Gamers need a killer game to be persuaded to buy the system developers need Gamers to own the system to be persuaded to write the Killer game for the system in the first place it's just a vicious cycle chicken and egg scenario that we've seen a million times whether it's this or it's the Sega 32x or the mega CD or any number of add-ons but obviously NEC needed to learn that lesson the hard way anyway five games five dedicated games did come out for this system so let's take a look at every single one of them and see what it has to offer we'll start with the biggest selling and most well-known game for the super Graphics It's the Hard As Nails Ghouls and ghosts from Capcom and it's the difficulty level that means you won't see me getting very far in it as I demonstrate here but it is a great looking game which as far as I can tell is pretty much arcade perfect and if I could get anywhere in it I'd show you that it has huge end of level enemy Sprites which make it all the more impressive I'd argue that this looks better than the Mega Drive version of the game if you've ever played that it's got a much nicer color palette there seems to be a little bit more detail but it isn't a huge Improvement on what a stock PC engine can do if it's platforming and big Sprites that you're after then this is Bonk 3 on the PC engine just the standard PC engine showing off its capabilities very well there's no need for a super Graphics to achieve this look of big chunky Sprites and I'm sure if we look closely enough we might spot that there is for example only one instead of two scrolling backgrounds on the stock Hardware without the super Graphics enhancements but I'd argue that it gets close enough to make a potential super Graphics customer have to think really hard if they really do want to spend the extra money on the more expensive console [Music] back to the super Graphics library now and it's 1989's battle Ace from Hudson soft now this is their answer I think to After Burner it's a futuristic shooter viewed from the cockpit you take on various enemies with your guns or your missiles and you've got this x and y axis that you can move on the Crosshair to shoot enemies down it's presented with a Sprite scaling effect of the type you would normally find from Sega in afterburner or outrun or space Harrier and it's used to good effect it perhaps lacks the coolness of afterburner and that's a problem because we can jump now to a stock PC engine or of course we can just play the PC engine Hue card on the super graphics and we can play one of sega's Flagship arcade games of the time you can pretend you're Tom Cruz perhaps you're playing this after a trip to the cinema to see Top Gun and you've got uh what is it berlins take my breath away playing in the [Music] background [Music] our third game I don't have a hope in Hell of trying to pronounce so here it is this game with this name here I really don't want to Massacre the language it's based on a Japanese animated series about giant robots and I have to say playing this one it reminded me of another video game about another animated series it reminded me of the terrible Thundercats game I used to play on my Amiga for some reason probably a little bit unfair of me this one does move smoother uh despite looking quite clunky it does move quite freely but nothing about it really screamed PC engine killer trundling along as a big robot flacking things in the head with your big robot sword fighting a manmade of rocks it was all very average nothing about it really did anything to promote the super Graphics capabilities I would say it's probably the weakest of the five that we try today fair and far better than thankfully was 1941 Counterattack this is another game by Capcom and the super Graphics got an exclusive Home Port of it it was just on the arcade and on the super Graphics until many years later when it became available on the PS2 and Xbox in a compilation it was about 14 years later you could get that for those consoles the game was well received it seems to be a very faithful Recreation of the arcade but if top down shooter Ms are your thing then you're really not short of them with a standard PC engine you've got the choice of space Shooters like 1992 Soldier [Music] blade and this is 1943 an earlier game in the same series as 1941 this too was an arcade game but because it was earlier well the PC engine can only Port what it was working with from the arcade so yes it looks like an earlier game because it was an earlier game not necessarily because it's not capable of producing the looks of 1941 on the super Graphics 1941 it's a really nice game to play on the super Graphics it's just not the Killer game that the system needed it's not the system seller and it's worth pointing out that 1941 came out over two years after the console originally came out of the five games it took over three years for all those five games to come out it felt like NEC had completely washed their hands of the system I don't think they even made a second batch they must have just made the first batch of super graphics and just let them dribble out over the years until they'd got rid of them all and it was just a bonus that some companies happen to make some games that made use of the system um all in all you were probably using it as a very expensive PC engine this next game is called oines or Alin which sounds a bit like a cold medication I'll take some of that please and it has the subtitle the mission code for rage crisis this is our last of the five games and it represents Sid scrolling Shooters it's bort Parallax scrolling and it's got a thumping soundtrack it's a fun blast even if the colors are a little bit muted or at least on the first level they are and it also Sports gigantic end of level bosses like this [Music] one now just like top down Shooters the PC engine is also known for its sides scrolling Shooters too a faithful Port probably the most fam port on the PC engine of course is R type now this already delivers a great game and you also get the smug satisfaction that you have an awesome version of an arcade that you may be familiar with that your friends may go into town and play with you you've got a really good version of that at home without the expense of the super Graphics so those are our five games for the super Graphics if I had to pick one I think it would be Ghouls and ghosts for me not really because of Any technical achievement just because it's the game that I personally enjoy the most most I like the presentation of it I like how close it is to the arcade version and I like how challenging it is those are the five dedicated games but there were also two other games which ran on the PC engine and if they detected that you were on a super Graphics they would offer some enhancements so we'll have a quick look at those two just for completeness this first one is Darius plus it's a goodlook port of the arcade game which famously had triple screens in the arcades for super widescreen gaming now I've played this both all the PC engine and on the super graphics with the supposed enhancements and I have to say I've been unable to spot those enhancements whatever they are they're either very subtle or I'm just such a bad player I haven't made it far enough into the game to experience them and I wouldn't put that past myself the other enhanced game is Darius Alpha so it's probably running on exactly the same engine therefore I'm having exactly the same problem seeing the enhancements that it may or may not have for the super Graphics this is a weird game because it was released as part of a sweep Stakes competition only 800 copies were ever made of this game so it's a very collectible item to have and all it is is Darius with the game removed you just fight the bosses it's just boss battle after boss battle um I guess it's fun for practice and and I must say having played this and then going back to Darius plus when I got to the end of the first and second level I found it really easy to beat the boss because I'd been constantly practicing on Darius Alpha so it's a fun training game I guess uh but did I see any super Graphics enhancements on it no absolutely [Music] none so that's the essence of the super Graphics the machine that NEC wanted to put up against seya and Nintendo in that Battle Royale of the fourth generation of consoles alongside the core Graphics hedging their Bets with a cheaper console as well but no doubt willing and hoping that this would take off and really show its competitors how much better it could be than them of course it didn't take off but that's not to say isn't a good console in its own right it's nothing like let's say commodor offering with the c64 GS taking a 10-year-old 8bit micro and fudging it into a console or amstrad's gx4000 taking the CPC range and fudging it into a console where it was too little too late this was a very capable and Powerful console at that moment until time and at the Forefront of its generation there was nothing wrong with it despite the anticipation and excitement for the machine it quickly faded away and let's carry on with the NEC timeline to see what they did next with the PC engine range and with the super [Music] Graphics after 1989 superg Graphics release NC decided to take on the mighty Nintendo Game Boy in the handheld sector with the PC engine GT branded the turbo Express handheld entertainment system in North America it was a full-blown PC engine in a handheld package and just like pretty much anything that went up against the Game Boy it got trounced for many reasons um primarily battery life the batteries just got killed on things like the turbo Express and the links and The Game Gear and anything else that didn't try to be uh as simple as the Game Boy so um no surprises there that same year the turbo Graphics CD was released this was just a CD drive to accommodate the different shape of the turbo Graphics console the turbo Graphics shaped a bit more like the super Graphics in its overall footprint but the sum of its parts remained a stock PC engine with a CD ROM ROM added to it in 1991 the super CD ROM ROM was released this looks like it's gobbling up your PC engine it's quite an interesting design but there's a reason for that it removed the need for the suitcase style interface it integrated the system card that's a hue card which had the BIOS on to support the CD ROM ROM drive which you would put in your PC engine when using it with the earlier style setup and the new super CD ROM ROM rum ROM ROM was compatible with the super Graphics it style allowed it to slot onto the back of the super Graphics tacking onto that bulbous rear Port of the system and given you CD ROM drive access but as I mentioned earlier there were no super CD ROM games released for the super Graphics specifically to take advantage of his enhancements during its lifetime in 1991 the PC engine Duo landed this was a PC engine and CD ROM ROM ROM integrated into one unit very smart it was too 92 gave us the core Graphics 2 this is identical to the core Graphics from 1989 except they reverted the CPU back to the original huc 6280 as the a revision was no longer being produced why not because the super Graphics was no longer being produced The Nail had quietly gone into the cofin for the super Graphics 1992 also saw the release of the turbo Duo that's the North American version of the PC engine Duo and in '93 the PC engine Duo are arrived in Japan that's the cost reduced version of The Duo finally followed in '94 by the PC engine Duo RX and a six Button joyad as standard because everybody had to keep up with those six button Fighters all of these different versions of the PC engine surely served only to confuse the market but the PC engine was still an overwhelming success it's just the super Graphics that wasn't at least in Japan the PC engine was an overwhelming success so it's a really interesting story I think there are some important lessons to be learned and thank goodness for 1994 when the pcfx arrived now there is a whole video about this on my channel you can watch if you want to learn about it the key thing is it was not backwards compatible it did not carry the Baton for the PC engine forward it was an entirely new system which hedged its bets on FMV based games when the rest of the world were looking for 3D games and therefore it failed miserably but it's well worth watching that video to learn about it and I say thank goodness just because thank goodness there wasn't another PC engine variant to take account of it's not too difficult to figure out why the uh super Graphics failed then is it from its lack of games to the Ever Changing PC engine lineup there just simply wasn't a reason to buy it and I think there's only two ways it could have ever been a success uh option one for NEC would have been to um really take the risk at making this their default console drop the PC engine make this the standard new pc engine it would have been risky just two years into the life of the PC engine to have done that it would have annoyed a lot of people but it retained its backwards compatibility for the PC engine so there could have been an overlap where games were still made for the older platform and then premium games were made for the super Graphics but anyone coming into the PC engine ecosystem had to buy a super Graphics that would have hopefully made the market for the developers to support it hard to say if that would have worked out option two well simply have a killer game easier said than done if it had its Street Fighter 2 or whatever game it might have been that it needed in 1989 to really drive the customers towards it maybe it would have had a chance um but pure speculation it's very hard to say and it's very easy to pick F in Old systems with so much hindsight and history of course has taught us all along that the base model will always have the largest support even something like the um famicom the original famicom disc system that's the most successful console add-on of all time it had 4 million sales but that was still only a tenth of the user base so developers of course wanted to appeal to the larger user base it feels odd talking about the super Graphics like an add-on but it does kind of fall into the same category bearing in mind it's basically two PC engines salot tape together however that's not to say it isn't worth trying I would encourage you to fire up an emulator and try Ghouls and ghosts and see what you make of the super Graphics if you haven't already done so if you're lucky enough to be in a position where you might come and visit me at the cave please do book a ticket you can head to retrocollect live.co.uk see when we're open come and try it out for yourself um while it's on loan here as well as everything else that we have here on offer thank you so much for taking the time to watch I hope you enjoyed it and if you enjoy the videos and want to support the channel head over to patreon.com slrmc Retro and I see you next time take care [Music] bye-bye [Music]

Channel: RMC - The Cave

Views: 278,879

Keywords: nostalgia, computer history, tech history

Id: oT9cwQM5_8w

Length: 28min 7sec (1687 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 23 2023