TurboGrafx-16
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The TurboGrafx-16 (known in Japan as PC Engine, sometimes called TG-16, PCE, Turbo or just TurboGrafx) is a fourth-generation video game console made by Hudson Soft and released in 1987 by NEC. It was originally conceived as an upgrade add-on for the Family Computer, but Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, rejected this project. Its success managed to surpass the popularity of Sega consoles in Japan (primarily, the Sega Master System and later, Sega Mega Drive), but failed against consumers in the American market. It also had minor success in certain countries inside Europe through gray markets.
For Japan, Hudson Soft and NEC created an ecosystem for their hardware, named HE System. This was featured in every hardware licensed by NEC, including their respective LaserActive PAC.
Currently, most of the trademarks related to the hardware are co-owned by Konami (inherited from Hudson Soft since March 2012) and BIGLOBE (previously owned by NEC until the foundation of BIGLOBE), while some trademarks such as the TurboGrafx-16 word being solely owned by Konami themselves.
Sega support[edit]
While having business hardware on their own, Sega followed the same route applied for the Famicom and allowed NEC Avenue and other companies to port their Arcade games for the HE System family. Despite this, Sega canceled these plans by 1992, when the Mega Drive was started to get some support from consumers in Japan.
In 2020, Sega allowed both PC Engine versions of Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier to be available in Konami's TurboGrafx-16 mini. Hiroyuki Miyazaki and Yosuke Okunari were involved and appeared in the menu's staff roll.
List of Sega games featured on HE System family[edit]
The HE System ecosystem consists of:
- TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine)
- PC Engine SuperGrafx (Japan only)
- TurboGrafx-CD (CD-ROM² format)
- TurboDuo (Super CD-ROM² format)
- Arcade CD-ROM² format (Japan only)
- LD-ROM² format (for LaserActive only through the PAC-N1 and PAC-N10 modules)
- TurboGrafx-16 mini (PC Engine mini)
Sega IPs[edit]
Publishing rights of games published by NEC Avenue and NEC Interchannel on the HE System family of systems were bought by M2 in July 2023.
Publishing rights of games from the Telenet Japan estate are owned by Edia since 2020.
Games with source code ownership from Westone and publishing rights from Hudson Soft are not included (owned by both LAT and Konami), as Sega was not credited for those games.
- Fantasy Zone (1988, published by NEC Avenue in Japan and NEC Home Electronics in the US)
- Space Harrier (1988, published by NEC Avenue in Japan and NEC Home Electronics in the US)
- Juuouki (1989, published by NEC Avenue in Japan for both PC Engine and CD-ROM² systems)
- Shinobi (1989, published by Asmik in Japan)
- Power Drift (1990, published by Asmik in Japan)
- After Burner II (1990, published by NEC Avenue in Japan)
- Golden Axe (1990, published by Reno for the CD-ROM² system)
- Thunder Blade (1990, published by NEC Avenue in Japan)
- OutRun (1990, published by NEC Avenue in Japan)
- Columns (1990, published by Laser Soft in Japan)
- Bonanza Bros. (1992, published by NEC Avenue in Japan for the Super CD-ROM² system)
- Gain Ground SX (1992, published by NEC Avenue in Japan for the Super CD-ROM² system)
- Puyo Puyo CD (1994, published by NEC Avenue in Japan for the Super CD-ROM² system, characters owned by Sega)
- Puyo Puyo CD Tsuu (1996, published by NEC Interchannel in Japan for the Super CD-ROM² system, characters owned by Sega)
- Madou Monogatari I: Honou no Sotsuenji (1996, published by NEC Avenue in Japan for the Super CD-ROM² system, characters owned by Sega, source code owned by D4 Enterprise)
- Fantasy Zone nearArcade (2020, published by Konami for the TurboGrafx-16 mini)
- Galaxy Force II (Canceled, meant to be released on the PC Engine SuperGrafx system)
- Space Fantasy Zone (Canceled, meant to be published by NEC Avenue in Japan for the CD-ROM² system)
Atlus IPs[edit]
The following Atlus IPs have been confirmed to be co-owned with Sega:
- Somer Assault (1991)
- Shin Megami Tensei (1993, Super CD-ROM² title)
[edit]
- Arcade Stick (controller)
- Big boy (controller)
- City boy (controller)
- Fighting Stick Multi (controller)
Name in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | PCエンジン PCエンジンスーパーグラフィックス PCエンジンDuo Pii Shii Enjin Pii Shii Enjin Suupaa Gurafikkusu Pii Shii Enjin Deeyoo |
PC Engine; Japanese version of TurboGrafx-16 PC Engine SuperGrafx PC Engine Duo; Japanese version of TurboDuo |
