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“PC Engine World” promotion video. This ten-minute long video features footage of games we know and/or love like China Warrior, Kato-chan Ken-chan (released here as JJ & Jeff, and I still love it), and Jaseiken Necromancer — along with images of accessories you may not know about like the PC Engine Print Booster and Illust Booster.

See also: More PC Engine stuff

tags / pc engine / print booster / illust booster / jc

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

PC Engine commercials. The nerdy NEC guy in those Duo-R ads keeps getting befuddled by the jump cuts to a girl in a club saying things like “I love to play!” That’s… that’s the gag. Buy a Duo.

Check out the 3D modeling on that Winds of Thunder ad! Wowwwww.

See also: More commercials

tags / pc engine / commercials / jc / pc engine duo r

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

Horror RPG Jaseiken Necromancer: Nightmare Reborn announced for DSiWare

Hudson announced Jaseiken Necromancer: Nightmare Reborn, a fantasy/horror RPG coming to Japan’s DSiWare service next month, in the latest issue of Famitsu with this weird, Giger-esque artwork.

The downloadable game is a follow-up to Jaseiken Necromancer, a Japan-only PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 title released in 1988. That probably doesn’t mean much to the 95 percent of you who’ve never heard of the RPG, so here’s a super creepy commercial that will get you up to speed:

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

NitroGrafx: TG-16/PCE emulation on DS →

Nitrografx, a a DS-based port of the Game Boy Advance PCEAdvance emulator, is the work of Fredrik “Flubba” Olsson, whose website proudly displays the use of his PocketNES emulator in official GBA collections by Hudson, Jaleco, and Atlus. First released on March 19, The latest version of the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 emulator even adds support for CD-ROM games!

Between this and the breakthrough of GBA emulation on a DS flashcart, the DS has become way more awesome for people who like old games. Sorry, people who live in places where it’s a crime to own a flash cart. :(

Speaking of crimes, while this is super cool on a technical and conceptual level, I’m way too nervous and law-abiding to actually look for PC Engine ROMs to run on this thing. I’ll just appreciate it from a distance. Or maybe play these public domain ROMs.

[Via GBATemp]

tags / pc engine / turbografx-16 / emulation / flashcart / homebrew / jc

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

“Wonder Momo-i” by Haruko Momoi. Inspired by Kevin Gifford’s wonderful writeup of the PC Engine version of Wonder Momo, I went looking for Momo-related stuff to post, and found this shrill song, based on the game’s music and performed in a Momo-esque outfit.

Momoi’s presence at many Western anime festivals and the sheer number of Momoi-based AMVs suggests you guys totally know about her already, but the fact that somebody has built a successful career on an imitation of Wonder Momo is news to me! The song itself is pretty annoying, but I can’t help but admire how much effort Momoi puts into it.

Oh, and as for the game (from the Magweasel article):

There’s a real game here, though, and it’s classic Namco — simple mechanics that require robotic hand-eye coordination to master. Wonder Momo, like the better Game & Watch titles, is all about time management. You have to carefully observe how each enemy moves and attacks, figure out how to dispatch them all as efficiently as possible, and keep a cool head as the monster waves accelerate in speed. Your “Wonder” gauge, the bar that governs how long sweet, innocent Momo can become arse-kicking dervish Wonder Momo, becomes both your best friend and bitterest enemy. Learning the exact right moment to transform (too soon and you’ll run out of Wonder and be a sitting duck; too late and you’ll die from massive, overwhelming enemy attack before you have a chance to pull off the transformation) becomes key from the second half on.

tags / wonder momo / wonder momo-i / namco / pc engine / j-pop / haruko momoi / jc

/ permalink / / 1 year ago / Comments (View)

“‘Now I’m the king. This country is mine. Wa ha ha ha…!’

His journey ended, the hero gave up the search for the Ora Stone and took the king’s place on the throne. That night, Cornelia launched a nationwide festival…but by the time the night began to break, no man could be found in the castle.

Bathed in the morning light, the fallen hero saw an abandoned, ruined city…”

Dungeon Explorer’s secret ending, translated from Japanese by Kevin Gifford. I’d seen the US version’s secret ending, in which the player, using a cheat code to walk through walls, sits down on the king’s throne mid-game and decides to take over, but this more serious version is new to me.

The US ending text:

“HA HA HA. The chair is mine now, all mine. I shall never give it up. I will dominate!
Go for it Natas. Take that lousy stone. You can have it! I want the king’s throne. This
is where the real power is. I’ll have all the girls, booze and fast cars I want. It’s going to be a nice life for me from now on. So let’s round up the village woman and party, cause this king is one wild and crazy guy!!!”

Yes, the antagonist was really named “Natas.” And yes, a warrior in a fantasy game referred not only to cars, but to vintage Saturday Night Live.

I remembered writing a VC Advantage column on Wii Fanboy about the code needed to access this secret ending. I was not prepared to find out that I did that two years ago.

tags / turbografx-16 / pc engine / dungeon explorer / jc

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

Let's Multitap →

As part of the wonderful “I ♥ The PC Engine” series, Magweasel has been posting about accessories for the console, including, recently, various multitap accessories. The “default” multitap for the single-port PC Engine was the official 5-port Multitap from NEC, but Hudson and Dempa (to name two companies) marketed a 3-port version and a 2-port version, respectively, as lower-priced alternatives.

All these multitaps brought up a question in my mind: why is it that having four controller ports seems natural, but three or five is weird? Is it just because we’re used to four, or is there something inherently nonsensical about five people sitting down to play a game?

tags / pc engine / multitap / jc

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

I also heart these games →

To my delight, two of the latest posts in Magweasel’s “I ♥ the PC Engine” series highlight games that I love, but which seem to be almost universally reviled: Kato-chan Ken-chan (localized as J.J. and Jeff) and The Kung Fu (China Warrior). I admit I totally understand why people hate China Warrior, but I still enjoy it, and now I don’t have to feel so ashamed, because another person with a website said he likes it. Another person with what is rapidly becoming my favorite website.

Magweasel’s Kevin Gifford on Kato-chan Ken-chan:

Unlike Hudson’s Adventure Island (which came out on the Famicom less than a year before this), Kato-chan Ken-chan has a wealth of complexity to its stage design. You can jump on, kick, or fart/spray-can enemies, and stages can take place across multiple fields and even connect back and forth with each other. There are official Mario-style warp zones, tons of secret doors and such, keys to find, and so on and so forth. This takes a game that’s built to be hard from the start and makes it positively fiendish at the end.

China Warrior:

I don’t care how finicky the controls are, or how boring the game is, or anything. As long as I know I’m The Dragon, it doesn’t matter. People need to stop thinking about the game and start feeling it instead. Even if most of the minions you fight don’t actually attack you at all, even if the bosses are half palette-switched “twins,” even if The Dragon is completely unable to execute a low kick for some reason, even if simply grabbing a box of oolong tea is enough to replenish his energy, even if I can’t stop thinking about that bastard who’s always just offscreen throwing all these plates and nunchucks and crap at me! It doesn’t matter anymore! All right, maybe a little! But being The Dragon lets you enjoy it all the same! Don’t think, feel!!!

It’s basically impossible even to defend China Warrior without mentioning how bad it is. It is, however, possible to totally enjoy the music even if you don’t like the game. Both posts feature fantastic music samples.

tags / pc engine / china warrior / jj & jeff

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

PC Engine Salamander, currently available for $33.90 at NCSX. I know I post way too much about NCSX sale of the day offers, but come on guys look at that. It’s a new, shrinkwrapped PC Engine game. And not just any PC Engine game, but a fucking awesome vintage shmup (with a fucking awesome cover). Like most people, I just had the NES version, but I played a ton of it.

If you buy one of these and can somehow bring yourself to open it, you could play it with a brand new PC Engine controller, also thanks to NCSX!

[Via @retronauts]

tags / salamander / life force / pc engine / ncsx

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

PC Engine sale at Rising Stuff →

Eric linked me to this ten-day sale on PC Engine hardware and software at fellow 4cr affiliate Rising Stuff, and I basically freaked out. You can get a Duo system for $129, or, if that’s too pretty for you, a “briefcase unit” for $145, consisting of a PC Engine, a CD-ROM drive, and the ridiculous “interface unit” that connects them. There’s even a PC-FX if you want one for whatever reason!

The sale is limited to items in stock (apparently as few as one of some of the items) and ends April 13. I quickly checked eBay for Duos and the price seems quite good, but you should probably do your own research before you listen to me and blow a bunch of cash!

tags / pc engine / rising stuff / sale / jc

/ permalink / / 2 years ago / Comments (View)

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