History of the Amazing PC ENGINE! [Book I] 

Thanks! I'm already deep into part 2 and can't wait to get that finished as well. Only problem is now that I've established the level of quality I gotta keep it going. 💪 Only the best for the pc engine.

I watch it time and time again.

One of my favorite vids so far buddy! I have you to thank for my PCE love, always interested and wondered what this pretty little machine was all about and you pushed me to finally checkit out! Crazy how many dope games for this thing. 8bit glory!

Pin this comment dude

Dude I’m so glad you caught it and got to enjoy it. I really tried to make it a love letter to us fans. I’ll be sure to make the Turbo segment in part 2 the real deal 🤘

Awww shit Jessie is here! You guys should do a collab 😉 Just sayin.

@@jszekerj Smoking, Swearing, and Shmups!

this video was released just in time for bithead's glass pc engine masterpiece, what a weekend.

Hey, shout-out from Bithead1000 stopping by, awesome! :)

Thanks! And I'm stoked you found it and liked it so much. Part 2 is out tomorrow/Sunday so the cliffhanger continues and the saga ends. It's light hearted and comedic and I had lots of fun making it.

Hey dude, sorry I am responding so late. Just barely catching up on comments. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. I really thought this one was my best one yet. Gonna be hard to top, but part two is out tomorrow morning. Hoping people enjoy it as much too.

Hahaha, it wasn't actually intended to be Part 1. Until I ran up against the time and realized there was no way I could do the full video in time so had to cut it. I am regularly jealous of what it was like growing up then in Japan. Imagine those caravan contests and going there at a young age. Would've been in heaven.

Ugh, man I miss Japan. I can't wait to go back one day soon after this covid mess. I didn't get to spend nearly enough time where I wanted on the last trip.

Thanks and I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I wanted to capture the essence of the system versus trying to go through every little historical detail and console they released, which I'll address in fun ways in the next videos. This one was lean and mean and I'm stoked with how it came out. I hope it does well as making the next one will be fun.

I actually don’t think the PC Engine ever really was THAT dominant in Japan. It’s true that it held record “new console” sales after it came out, but that’s probably only because most people already had the famicom. Japan had a weird bubble economy in the 80s where people were spending money in Japan at record highs. I think the story of the success of the PC Engine was inflated for those two reasons.....it was unopposed at the time of its release, and it came at a time when Japanese people were more readily making superfluous purchases on credit. I think if it were really the case that the PC Engine was so treasured by Japanese gamers that the SuperGrafx, its successor wouldn’t have been such a monumental failure.....one of the worst in gaming history. Not even the failure of the 32X or Saturn compares to that thing. That’s my 2-cents

Well, the expansion potential is there and was reasonaby well exploited by CD addon, but.. There are many SNES cards with extra processors. Sega CD adds new CPU, graphics and audio, 32x adds two powerful CPUs, more colors and new audio, though its design is kinda stupid and haphazard. PCE didn’t do that. Its expansions only added RAM. The abundant parallax scrolling of later titles is just a programming trickery done by more experienced developers on the same old hardware. Just as on Megadrive where experienced devs learned to produce effects like those in Toy Story or Batman and Robin or Panorama Cotton. One of the problems is that hucards are just too small, physically. It is easy to shove more and bigger chips into Famicom or SFC cart. Not so easy with PCE, even game ROM sizes were limited. remember what happened to R-Type. This was always a limitation for the graphics fidelity of PCE games. Imagine if PCE was actually expanded with more powerful CPU and graphics hardware.. On can’t deny though that the devs supported SuperCD addon so much better than Sega CD addon despite more power added by Sega CD.

That intro was definitely made for fans. Nothing gives the goosebumps like the Ys I intro. I definitely tried to do the crazy library of shooters justice in this one.

@@ShmupJunkie - DUUUUUUUDE! You’ve gone above and WAY beyond. This is the balls my brother! If only I knew what was available in Japan for my TG-16 back in the day!!! I was the only person I knew that owned one and I’m embarrassed to admit I only had a few of the amazing shmups that were available to me. The reason I bought it in the first place was for Galaga 89/90 whichever it was here in the states. These day’s I can’t get enough of this system. I will always love the 16bit style shmups the best. Thanks so much for such amazing content my friend. If ever you want to come to Boston area you’ve not only got a house to stay in but we can go searching high and low for some amazing games!!

​@reagandow850 you are super g.y talk8ng about nads and balls, weirdo chomo

​@@reagandow850 clown

​@@reagandow850 100+ comments on a small channel? You're DEFINITELY a creep stalker. First 2 comments I seen from you, you have talked about male organs in each, you're Def on this dudes nuts

Thanks dude! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I sincerely hope the segment doesn't have you going to look for Darius Alpha, just don't do it haha. With only 800 copies you can imagine it's going price now. I couldn't possibly mention every single PC Engine without bogging the video down, so I thought the credits was a fun way to show the major releases, though there were so many I couldn't do them all. I will still go back and talk about more important releases like the Express portable and other systems.

My experience was not too dissimilar in that we all started with the Turbo and hucards, but as NEC didn’t do well and fewer games started trickling in I got itchy and there was a lack of content. Then the moment I discovered the import store where I could rent the games I immediately got a SuperCD card and it was like a new world of incredible games. Even friends were loving Rondo and all the arcade card SNK fighting games we’d play on weekends. There is a lot of nostalgia for the hucards but the CD library is that blew it open for me, to where I never regretted my choice going with the Turbo. Had it not been for that I would’ve certainly run out of content and wanted to move into something else.

Thanks! I'm enjoying the process and improving each week. Part two is out tomorrow morning.

Thanks! I decided early on to make it lean and mean, not try to squeeze every tiny thing into it. There will be time for that. I wanted to do a good intro that captured the essence of it.

Thank you man. I like hearing first games from those who owneed it elsewhere, as in the US our first games were always the same thing. We never even got Shinobi which was a shame. Part two is out tomorrow morning!

I knew early on I wanted to do an homage to the Ys intro for fans, so it was the very first thing I put together for the video and went from there. I really like how this video came out it may be my favorite so far. Of course that's also likely since it's about the pc engine haha.

Thanks! I wanted to make the best PC Engine series out there and I think this was a good, fast start that doesn't get too long or complicated. The next one will be fun too getting to the Turbo and the US.

And that's excatly what I was going for. I felt a burden of this needing to live up to it and doing the console justice. We need an awesome set of pc engine videos and if it's going to be me, I better step it up. Pressure. 😅

NEC was riding so high in Japan with their success, they thought they had it in the bag in the US and it would be easy. Big mistake. I think you'll enjoy my perspective on it in part 2.

Thanks! This video is kicking butt and best performing so far, the 8k subs was inevitable. I loved making it and hard at work on part 2. I’m really hoping to reach 9k subs just for the memes alone! 😂

Thank you for this as I didn't notice. I just fixed it in my top pinned comment which is what people see most, and I will change it in the actual description for the time code in another day or two. It could screw up the youtube algo if I mess with the copy while it's still pushing it out most to recommendations, but once a day or two pass it's usually safe. I don't know how that happened.

Thanks man I appreciate that. The video is doing as good as I hoped so I’m stoked. The channel doing well means shmups are doing well and growing a bit due to my work, making it worth the effort.

Thanks buddy! I'm so glad you liked it as much as I did making it. I have to keep the quality up and do something special for part 2.

Thanks man and sorry for the late reply. I am just catching up on all the comments I got a lot of them for this video. There was a pretty long laundry list of mistakes made by NEC of America especially, they had no idea what they were doing and Sega's top tier marketing staff and CEO mopped the floor with them. Which is too bad as they certainly could've done far better with the right people in place as the hardware was on point. They failed long before Nintendo had anything to do with it, it was mostly Sega overtaking the market with their blitz along with NEC doing themselves no favors with their ill informed moves in NA. The new video is out tomorrow so you'll get the gist of it. Luckily it was still popular and well supported at home, so we had lots of good games to enjoy. Via import stores and they grey market of couse, which is how Europe had access to it too.

Thank you my friend and sorry for the late reply. I am just catching up. It's good to see you here and enjoying the videos. I hope your project is still going well and you are making some progress.

Thanks! I get taken back to childhood any time I see or hear that Ys intro music, as I bet any of us growing up at the time feel the same. I did my best to put together a love letter for fans and something I'd enjoy watching in the future too for a hit of nostalgia.

Thanks. It is my favorite console so I would know a good bit about it. Lots to come in part 2 this coming weekend. Doing my best to live up to this original.

Haha thanks man. And for being a good sport about that ending. I think you may really enjoy how I play that whole ending. Part two is out tomorrow and I hit the right note at the very end... at least I like how it came out.

I actually made a mistake on my script and didn't notice before it was too late, the PCE had just a one year jump on the MD not two. Still a significant head start though so it doesn't take away from your point at all. Losing that lead was huge, as it would have really helped, though it wouldn't have been insurmountable had they done other things right. The SNES released well after the MD but they jumped right in and took their cut of the market. But given NEC wasn't a household name in the US like Nintendo, that year would have made a much bigger difference, no doubt about it. Although had they continued to make all the other mistakes they did, most notably not securing a single third party US publisher from the start and going it alone, they were doomed sooner or later. Not having companies like EA Sports in your corner in the US market is a loss before it even got started.

Thanks for the props I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I've only been doing this a year so the editing improved as I learned and got more practice. Go back and far enough and it's much more raw, and I spoke a bit too fast at times, but they were all made with a love for the content and thought through so hopefully you enjoy those too. I really tried to step it up for this one as it's kind of my one year anniversary in May of the channel, aside from being a huge fan of the pc engine of course. Glad you found me and I look forward to you enjoying part two once it's ready in the coming week or two.

The whole SSS OST is just bad ass, one of my favs along with soldier blade. I never get tired of those classic tunes.

Thank you. I really did think this one came out the best of what I’ve done so far.

That's very cool of you to say and I'm honored to get this kind of feedback for a lot of people. I'm just an amateur without any experience in actual editing, but just keep practicing and learning new things and slowly improving the content. It would honestly be so much easier to just sit in front of the camera and talk about stuff, and some of those channels that do with minimal editing are massive. Apparently they're doing it right lol. But I want to inspire people with my vids and this is the best way I know how to do it, even if it's so much more work. It was channels like MLiG that initially inspired me to try and make high quality content with more time put into editing.

@@ShmupJunkie The best times on youtube and the best gaming content was produced when people had little experience in editing and the like. Overproduced/TV quality stuff is what ruined youtube IMO You're doing exactly what we need, videos about gaming in their purest form. They're fun, informative, not over the top, just the way it should be.

Yes, pretty much how the mega drive was a niche and mostly ignored in Japan is how it went with the Turbo in the US. It will be fun to get into the actual reasons it didn't do well versus a lot of the rubbish I see and read online. NEC really had little clue what they were doing in the US and if it wasn't for Hudson and the great games they unilaterally released, it would've been far more of a disaster.

Thanks I'm really glad you enjoyed it that much. I did my best to make it lean and mean without getting bogged down in every little hardware release and detail which I can save for later. There is honestly always a lot of things in every video I wish I could go back and fix, update or change, things I miss or mistake etc. With only a week or two to produce something like this it's inevitable things get missed. Like I accidentally noted the mega drive release in 89 when it was actually 88, stuff like that. I had so many little tech details originally scripted, some of which you mention, but it all gets edited out as it drags the pacing down and is better suited for written articles. I think I will always feel the PCE had the best expansion design, as limiting your upgrades to a cart slot really limits the options. Inserting all kinds of chips into cartridges added expense and meant you needed to do it on a per game basis. They could have technically done something like a 32X on top, but don't think they cared too. The bus on the PCE actually did have the ability to add additional processing power if they were so inclined. The Supergrafx could have (and should have) been done as an accessory like the booster, and could've interfaced with the base unit. They wanted to sell new hardware and do those fancy flight stick add ons that never released, but they could have done it via the ext bus. I was just thinking the other day, that aside from the expense which is likely why they didn't, if they had made their CD attachment like the MegaCD, where it had it's own processor and added functionality, it could have been even more of a beast. Like a Supergrafx add on and CD player in one. I just think cost more than anything was a limiting factor at some point. I have read that Gamasutra article way back and it had some really good interviews and perspective, one of the few good sources out there on what went down with NEC. I will definitely hit the major points in part 2. But it also only sees it from one perspective which is, we failed because NEC x, y,z etc. Being there from day one as an owner until 94 when it ended, I have some unique things to add to what went down. It was more than just NEC. Had they done things right, they could have sold much better and captured more market share, but they never would have rivaled Sega in the US. What went wrong is as much about what Sega did, as opposed to what NEC didn't, and why they even outsold Nintendo in the end in NA. NEC was always destined for third place, but to your point had they not been so inept in their strategy, they certainly would have been far more significant than they ended up being. I'm going to enjoy making part 2. ; )

@@ShmupJunkie Oh, definitely. One account is never enough. You need several perspectives to get the whole picture. I was there, too. The TG-16 was the first system I bought with my own money. I was a regular on the Turbo List and have my own history with the Little Engine that Could. I think it's telling that even in its prime market, Japan, the SNES still unseated it handily. I really think NEC and Hudson were coming from different places. Hudson continued to develop and publish for the NES, and later the SNES, even as their own little creation persisted in the market. I'm not sure Hudson ever really cared whether the Engine was number one as long as it was a big enough market to justify their time. As to the expansion port., I was under the understanding it didn't have the same kind of CPU and bus access the NES and SNES cart slots did, but I've been known to be wrong. Besides, I don't think either of the pedantry I raised really hurts your overall video in the least. It's an excellent production either way.

I'm really glad you enjoyed it. I was super happy with how it all came out. Part 2 is mostly focused on the US market and saga, thought it doesn't end that way. Part two is out tomorrow and I think you'll like how I end things.

It was unknown in many countries which is too bad, as in some markets it would have done well. I was born in Russia but my family left when I was 3. I often wonder how different my life would have been including with games and what I grew up playing if we hadn’t left.

Absolutely. I wanted to make a point of its expansion bus as it’s not often discussed and how important it was to its longevity. They just kept upgrading it to keep up with everyone else.

Thanks! This and part two are really special videos for me. Someday I may remaster them together into a single video

thank you my friend. And sorry for the very late reply, I am just catching up on many of the comments I missed. In europe you had the system through import stores and the grey market I am guessing. But not many knew about it. Hope you enjoy part two also coming tomorrow!

I was hoping I could find time to do something like that, where I feature various shooters from systems, or shorter videos of one each. Especially the more obscure ones on pc engine that many don't know about. Bullet Heaven did a good job with that having reviewed so many different games, he is almost to 300 now. It will be a long while before I get that far, but I am slowly working on it. I think one I did do was for Nexzr a while back. Really cool video too it came out well.

Yes, I am just now still catching up on old comments and sorry I missed yours. And now you are already about to start playing some PCE games and I'm looking forward to your thoughts. I did lose my mind on some of these games haha. Couldn't believe what people were missing.

Easy to do with the pc engine. I never run out of killer tunes with this baby it’s endless.

I'm doing my best to help spread the love for this console, as I really feel those that never gave it a chance really missed out.

Thanks man! I've been so stoked that lots more people who didn't even know or think about it's games are trying them out and enjoying them. It was the main reason I started my channel a year ago. So it was only fitting for a one year anniversary I did something like this to pay tribute.

Well I don’t have Final 2 yet I’m not getting it early so I guess I keep plugging away at this series unless something changes. I’d like to finish it anyway if I can. I just hope a week is enough time to pull it off. Or I’ll get behind with Final 2 afterward.

@@ShmupJunkie ic! hrmm little bit torn here, while i think this vid was amazing, i think i like your deep dives into shmups even more, i guess because i know less about most shmups where i was relatively well versed in the stuff you told here. Anyways book 2 or rtf 2, i think that is a win win in my err book.

Hey man, sorry for the slow reply. I had a mountain of comments I'm working through answering for this and fell behind working on part 2 (which comes out tomorrow). I'm always up for various collabs and doing something with others, I'm sure it can be figured out. My biggest problem is always just time. The editing does take a while, and I am barely now about to start playing Final 2 when everyone else has already released their review. What kind of youtuber am I? haha. Sometimes a collab is as simple as just having me contribute to your video or vice versa. So it doesn't get too complex. I think you'll like the video tomorrow it has a really cool segment on Sega's marketing campaign for the Genesis that turned out really well. I even recreated the first half of the Genesis Does ad only with cleaner recorded game footage.

Thank you for the awesome comment and really glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. I completely agree collecting PC Engine stuff these days can get pretty cost prohibitive. On the plus side Turbografx was far more rare, thus even more expensive by quite a bit. So going the PC Engine route is far more cost effective and you get the full library of games, though still not cheap. It really makes sense to just use a Mister if you are looking to play on a CRT and get the full experience of all the games, as it's core is phenomenal. Either that or buy an inexpensive Coregrafx along with an SSDS3, and get the original hardware experience and all the games via rom. Not as cool as owning an arcade card with a full CD setup, but given the cost of the rare shooters on the system, it makes sense. Burning the CD games properly can be hit and miss and wears the lens on your hardware more, so an add on flash cart like an SSDS3 that does CD games too makes sense.

Yeah it was actually named after NEC’s computer system like the PC88. A lot of people have been discovering it because of the recent mini release too. It was its large color palette and ability to put over 400 on screen at once similar to the SNES that gave it the potential to look so nice. It was pretty ahead of its time and a good video on it that gets more people interested in playing it is something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

That music is from a Supergrafx game, Aldynes. Don't blame you for missing the system, it was only well known in the US in major cities and larger markets. They didn't put enough into or do a great job marketing it. However, it was always in the big game magazines like EGM etc. So I'm surprised you missed it completely and didn't at least hear of it. Though most of those Japan centric games didn't release in the US, you would have to get them at import stores.

@@ShmupJunkie Yeah maybe I must had slipped it from my mind since I was so focused on those four consoles that I had mentioned.

@@ShmupJunkie Awesome and the game OST is from Stage 3. i can't stop jamming to it.

Yeah, it's too bad, late to the party despite being the first to bring CD console gaming to the home... I'm only a Turbo fan by random events, I used to buy the Chicago Sun Times Sunday paper which in August 1990 offered a contest to win a free TurboGrafx-16 with Bloody Wolf and Keith Courage. You had to answer 5 NES questions, I knew the answers to all, had to verify something for CastleVania II I think, I sent it in, I WON! Then I used rentals mostly to go further in the library. Come 1993 or 94, TTi is running a clearance sale, get your TurboDuos for $99 with Ys Book I & II, Ninja Spirit, Gate of Thunder, Bonk 1&2, etc. It was the deal of a lifetime... I never would've paid no $399 for the CD add-on, and I'm only in the situation of caring because I won a TG-16, I was ready to just go from NES and SNES, which was fine, I had a great time with both systems! Were it not for a random lucky contest, or a clearance sale because TTi failed and was shutting down, I wouldn't care!

I think you'll enjoy my take and how I break it down in the next segment, as I was of course there too. An early adopter of the Turbo upon release and it being my only console. I went through it from day one until the end in 94 and loved it as much as I did at the end because I had the import stores to bypass what was happening in the US. And enjoy the library to it's fullest. It's not that adults didn't buy the systems for kids, but it was still us kids that drove what they bought for us. We made sure mom and dad knew exactly which console we wanted. Of course we didn't all get what we want, but as a general rule, our desire and vehement requests for a specific console is what drove what they bought us. Our parents didn't know squat about which one to get, so given they could afford what we asked for, the decision of which console to buy was driven by us. I had the many friends that all owned a Genesis and specifically remember why. It wasn't because their parents decided it's what they will buy because it was cheaper, it was because it's what they begged them for. Just like I begged to have the Turbo. I don't doubt the common talking points like most of what you mentioned aren't true, they are, but there was more to it than that. NEC's complete lack of understanding the US market was of course a big part and I don't plan to downplay it. It should be discussed. There was a good Gamasutra article a while back with some solid interviews from the ex-employees with NEC at the time and corroborated the facts on the ground. But no matter what NEC did, and even if they ran a brilliant campaign instead of a train wreck, they would have had more market share, but still crushed by Sega in the end. It was as much about what Sega did, than it was about what NEC didn't. Nobody was outselling them in the US. Nintendo did most everything right with the SNES and had the huge first party IPs, their exclusivity deals, and still managed to come in second to Sega in North American units sold by the end (according to the vgsales db anyway). You may end up agreeing or disagreeing with my take, but I think at a minimum you'll find it interesting.

@@NightWolve75 you got a TG 16 the same way Pat the NES punk did! That’s pretty amazing. My wife won a freaking game boy when she was a kid....all I ever won was a spiderman hat....and it sucked 😆

@@ShmupJunkie I’m aware of the gamasutra article and those interviews but I think the whole “bad marketing, they didn’t understand America” thing was just a convenient excuse. A lot of the claims they made didn’t hold up to further scrutiny in my own research. For instance it is widely believed that NEC simply didn’t bring over enough games from Japan, but I went through the complete game library chronologically and found that’s not true for the consoles first critical year or so. Ultimately they stopped doing that, but only after NEC /Hudson abandoned the US market. Perhaps marketing? But that’s very difficult to actually prove. How special was Nintendo’s marketing, really? They copied Nintendo’s strategy with soft launches in big cities, goofy ads with radical youth....though they aimed at teens. I guess they thought by aiming at teens they’d have their own niche or something? It makes sense, and aiming at teens would have just made them cooler in 1989. I think the simple explanation is the best explanation and it’s the same explanation that pretty much always gave ANY console the edge in the market. The price. I know some people were able to buy any videogame machine they wanted, but not most households. In my blue collar hometown In Texas, there was a tiny minority who had stuff like the Sega cd or turbografx, but even those people had an NES like the rest of us. It’s not that we didn’t want to those things, it’s just no one would buy them. A lot of people got a Genesis or Super Nintendo down the road, but those were pretty cheap compared to everything else. I’m for sure going to watch the next video though! Because talking about this stuff is really fun. You did have our video in mind when you mentioned the theory about confused parents though, right? I like to think we have a monopoly on the funny confused parent hypothesis. Im not sure it’s trash though....parents were really confused about videogames in 1989 😆

@@creativecatproductions Yep, I told Pat NES Punk about it, showed him the clipping from the newspaper contest because many years ago he wrote the story about how he won it also! It turns out he's also been trying to find evidence from newspaper archives to share the full contest details, the 5 NES questions, as I was... But it's been lost to time; when I searched in Chicago Sun Times archives online, they only store articles which were actually text scanned in by OSR... The newspapers weren't photocopied in. I'm sure those old weird projector machines in public libraries had newspaper rolls, but they were all thrown away...

haha, you called it dude. I was trying to come up with a good way to end this one when I had to cut it short, and it's the best I came up with. But yeah, I'm so stoked how good this one came out and now I have to keep up the high standard for part 2. More late nights incoming 😅 I just hope one day you get to enjoy more of the killer CD library too since it was such a big part of it's library. I'm sure you will when the time is right.

@@ShmupJunkie if only Analogue would get their shit together and not let scalpers buy every available stock 😅 We'll see 😅

Thanks. I guess better to be underrated than overrated haha

Appreciate that. I am having a really fun time making them.

It's a shame more developers didn't take advantage, as those that did created some gorgeous games like Spriggan. I always loved the PCE color palette.

Lol sorry for that cliffhanger! But part 2 is almost done and will be out this coming Sunday morning as usual. It focuses on the US release and those times so you’ll get exactly what you’re waiting for. And no more cliffhanger at the end of this one... not yet anyway the night is young 😅

For modern shooters, there is an indie game I reviewed called Raging Blasters that feels similar to playing Soldier games on PC Engine. The graphics are not fancy but it's got really fun gameplay on Hard mode and above. I am just about to start playing Final 2 myself. Finally haha

Completely correct, it was a mistake in my script I didn't catch before it was too late to change everything. It didn't really change the narrative so I left it alone, but 100% correct, it came out in 88 one year after the PC Engine, not two years.

In this case that definitely wasn't the intention, just a miss on my part in the script in the rush to finish the video on time. It was too late to go back and change it in time once I noticed it too, so I am just going to mention it in my description later as a correction. It didn't change the narrative at all, whether it came out a year or two earlier, so I didn't fuss over it, but it's definitely wrong so I want to correct it. The downside with videos versus articles where you can't go back and change it afterward very easily

@@ShmupJunkie It takes nothing away from a great video 👍🏻

I was lucky enough to grow up in a big city (LA) and it was one of the first two test markets for the turbografx, so I had the benefit of getting in there and enjoying the games many never got to see. Had I not owned one, I didn't know anyone else and would've missed out too so I'm glad I did. I got to play all the genesis and snes games with friends anyway. I guess youtube is kind of that playground now, where anyone can make passion videos and hope that people find and enjoy them. I feel lucky to have been noticed and am trying to make the best of it.

I doubt he has anything to worry about with me 😂. He’s a fellow fan in fact he just did a video dedicated to the Ys series today! I’m going to check it out later tonight when I have some free time. Edit: Not like I don’t have a wall of shooters behind me too 😂

I'm glad you enjoyed it and part 2 is coming very soon this Sunday!

@@ConfusionDistortion thank you. This video is still very dear to me. Someday I’d like to find time to combine this properly with part two, remaster and update it all and rerelease it as a single complete work. As I adore the console as well.

Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's a ton of work but it's worth it in the end if it gets new people interested and excited for the console and games. There really is no "right" way to pronounce Darius in English, I am only pronouncing it the way they say it in Japanese, from commercials I see and hear. So I'm saying with their inflection but that's not necessarily the right way in English either.

Haha, that’s a straight rip from the intro to Ys Book I and II. The whole section is an homage so I’m using the exact wording from the game. Definitely wasn’t meant to be taken literally. But now that you’ve seen it, if you look up ys book 1 intro on RU-vid you’ll see what I was going for, it’ll make more sense. As the intro begins with Ys the ideal utopia. It was a fan service but I can totally see how anyone not familiar would be thinking, what?

I set out to do this awesome console justice and am really happy with how it all turned out, so thank you. Now I have to keep up the quality for part 2 and do the US Turbo justice as well, without the overwhelming doom and gloom most tend to focus on because it sold poorly.

That’s awesome and I hope your kid is enjoying them with you too. I always say play it any way you can, long as you play it.

That’s awesome. I wish the US had more events like that for the system. I was lucky enough to win the CD add on that way at a local event. It’s been over several years since I’ve been to Japan and I can’t wait to go back. I hit super potato when I was there last but was with a group and didn’t have enough time to really explore. I have a long list now of everything I want to see when I’m back someday. Hopefully sooner than later.

@@ShmupJunkie mmm..i love super potato. It's quite hard to find a pce there now. You can still find quite a few core grafx 1-2 and the occasional duo there still.

Thanks my friend and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I had to squeeze in some Splatterhouse for you and our friend Rob, but I wil give it's US release some more screen time as it was a big to do here in the US when it released. I know the grey market was big in the UK for the pc engine but also meant heftier prices and fees. Now you finally have one if you could only figure out this problem with the damn sewers! 😂

@@ShmupJunkie Appreciated mate, gotta have some Splatterhouse! Ill get through that sewer if it kills me!

The UK really got the short end of the stick on that. Many of my UK friends were the most excited for the mini that came out for that reason. It's really a great way to experience some of these games. I only wish someone would make progress on the hack to open it up to load even more games on there.

That's awesome dude I'm so glad you had fun watching this. I honestly felt it was my best one so far too just from an editing and flow perspective. I no longer include scanlines in my game footage as it seems to be hit or miss if youtube ruins them with compression and it looks ugly versus it looking beautiful. But crank it up on the big TV to enjoy that killer music that the PCE did so well. I swear I could do an episode on how great the chip tunes were.

@@ShmupJunkie hey maybe you have a subject for a future video there 👏😂.

Thank you! I’m glad you really enjoyed it and I have the final part 2 coming this Sunday. I just finished it.

Thanks. The good news is a basic PC Engine is cheap, and an everdrive is reasonable too. Because that rear expansion port is so cool, the SSDS3 is a flash cart that will even play all the CD games and function as the extra RAM and cards. So to simply just a base pc engine which is pretty cheap and a good flash cart solution is all you need.

Sorry! I know it was really jarring and unfair, I didn't plan it. But it did it's job I guess of anticipating the next one, which I am hard at work on.

In the end, it's all about the games right. 8/16 or 32. The PCE had great games and it's what I remember most.

Ha, yes. I pretty much modeled the entire intro monologue from the actual Ys Book I and II intro. The music you are asking about is from Ys 3, called Valestein Castle. The entire soundtrack to the game is bangin', well honestly the OST to every single Ys game on PC Engine CD from Part 1-4 are all amazing. The OSTs make the games what they are.

@@ShmupJunkie ahhh interesting. thanks for that info. i think that game might my first PC engine game beside touhou

You and me both haha, lots of early mornings and late nights. And now catching up on comments which I do appreciate very much. Part two is now done and out tomorrow morning! This Sunday and I hope you enjoy it.

Oh man, you're going to wonder what the heck is going on with Recca. I always joke they called it that because you'll be getting wrecked playing it. It's super cool but super crazy. I actually played a lot of PC games back then too, but shooters mostly on console. NES at first and later PC Engine. I was mostly into platformers until the PCE got me playing more shooters instead since there was just so many. I'm just glad you're digging it now and enjoying some good ones you missed. Play some of the Soldier games on the pc engine, they are a more measured and realistic game but in the same style. Not that Recca isn't cool but it's a handful and almost overwhelming, like how many hours can you stay at a club with the music pounding into your head.

​@@ShmupJunkie For sure, Recca is a bit much for just sitting down and playing for more than a quick burst. I'll take a look at Soldier, along with the other great games you've highlighted for this system. I got Retroarch all queued up with PCEEngine cores and dusted off my arcade stick.

Thanks man. I'm stepping up my editing game slowly. Really glad how this came out though.

I'm stuck on it forever, I will still be enjoying it in 2031, and then in 3031... well, my brain in a jar might me if that happens in our lifetime. Why do you want immortality? Because I have yet to learn japanese and finish all the cool RPGs on the system. 😅

If I recall the Mega Drive did quite well in Europe too right. They also had a lot of arcade ports and likely more than PCE if you take shooters out of the equation. They certainly could've done better in Europe than in the US, but by then NEC had cold feet from doing poorly out west and were not in expansion mode. I remember lots of europe was big on Sega, moreso than Japan or the US prior to the 16bit days.

@@ShmupJunkie I should probably say UK rather than Europe as I'm less sure about the continent as a whole, but yes, the Megadrive was the best selling 16 bit console here, although that was probably also helped a lot by Sonic (and that it was the only 16 bit console available here for almost 2 years!). Who knows what might've happened if the PC Engine had got in there first!

同意しました。 IREMは私のお気に入りの開発者の1人であり、彼らがPCエンジン用にリリースしたゲームの数が大好きでした。

Thanks man. I tried to make it a good introduction and it went over really well so far.

Glad you enjoyed it and thank you. It was a pet project for me.

Wow that is so cool! I'm really excited for you. Never having been able to play one or try Rondo, you're going to have a blast. It's simply just a killer game and the music is unbelievable. Sorry it took so long I am catching up on my comments tonight as I had so many all at once. I'd love to hear back how it went and how you're liking Rondo. Finding all the extra stages and branching paths is a lot of fun. Edit: BTW part 2 is out tomorrow morning, Sunday, so you'll get to see it all end really soon.

@@ShmupJunkie thank you so much! I will watch part 2 today! Still waiting on my console.. tomorrow was supposed to be the latest it arrived, but there hasn't been an update on the post tracker since it made it to Chicago on the 2nd! I am told that patience is a virtue :) I will let you know how I get on with Rondo for sure!

You're the first person I've seen comment that finally mentioned what I also believe is the most critical reason they failed in the US. NEC's incompetence and mistakes are well documented and all contributed, yet they could have run a stellar marketing campaign and still lost. It was as much about what Sega did right, and not what NEC did wrong. Even Nintendo didn't end up outselling Sega in NA, despite their name, insanely popular first party titles and exclusivity deals. Nintendo even came in second in units sold vs SOA, NEC had no chance. They simply could have done much better and made a showing of it, but they would always have come in third in the US. You hit the nail on the head. By the way, I'm not as familiar with Sega's history SOA vs Sega of Japan. I don't know the back story of Sega of Japan trying to sabotage SOA and I'd love to learn more about it. If there are any articles you know of or read on it, please do share.

@@ShmupJunkie Have you seen Console Wars? Great documentary that goes into how inept SOJ was. They were envious of SOA's success. Tom Kalinske was sent to SOJ and they told him he could do anything he wanted, but his ideas pissed of SOJ. They HATED his ideas, but still allowed him to do them - and they worked.