PC-FX

Specifications
Complete Game List
Videos
Links

The PC-FX was a 32-bit games console released in Japan by NEC in December 1994. It is the successor to the popular PC Engine. Being released after the 3DO, Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation; the PC-FX struggled to gain a share of the market as the system was technically inferior to the other consoles on the market.

This was NECs fault. The PC-FX was shown to developers in the middle of 1992 however they were not keen on developing games for a new system as the PC Engine was growing in popularity at the time. So the system, dubbed ‘Iron Man’ was shelved. Later on NEC realised they would have to release a more powerful games console to compete but by the time they realised this it was too late so they made the decision to release the PC-FX anyway, even though it was technically poorer than all of it’s rivals.

The PC-FX was much larger than the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, both of which were released shortly before it. The console resembled a tower PC and came in a dull grey colour. In addition to playing PC-FX games, the console could also play audio CDs, CD+Gs (Graphics CD ROMs) and Kodak Photo CDs. PC owners could also play PC-FX games by purchasing a PC-FX internal PC card

Although the console had a lower spec than most of it’s rivals, it did boast fast JPEG compression speeds, which resulted it the console having the best full motion video on any 32-bit console.

The included controller was almost identical to the 6 button controller which NEC released for the PC Engine Duo RX. Users could also purchase a mouse, which was needed to play certain games.

Since the console didn’t sell very well in Japan, it was never released in North America or Europe.

The system boasted some interesting RPG games but there were also some interesting sports games like Super Power League FX and the strangely titled All Japan Womens Pro Wrestling: Queen of Queens.

If you fancy playing some PC-FX games, there are two good emulators available: MagicEngine and Mednafen.

Specifications

The console used the NEC V810 RISC 32-bit CPU, which was clocked at 21.5 MHz. The CD ROM had a read speed of 300 kb a second (2xCD ROM) and had a buffer of 256 kb.

The main system had 2 megabytes of main RAM, 1 mb of shared RAM, 1 mb of Operating System RAM, 256 kb of VRAM and 32 kb of back up RAM.

It also boasted 16-bit stereo sound and could display 16.7 million colours on a resolution of 341x240p or 256x240p.

The PC-FX also had 3 expansion ports. The expansion port at the front allowed a memory module to be inserted (known as the FX-BMP), which allowed games to be saved there instead of the internal memory.

To the rear was a SCSI IO expansion slot, which allowed the PC-FX to be used as a SCSI CD ROM. Finally, at the bottom was the 3D VPU expansion slot.

Complete Game List

Between 1994 and 1998 62 games were released for the PC-FX.

Title – Developer

Ah! My Goddess – NEC Home Electronics
All Japan Womens Pro Wrestling: Queen of Queens – NEC Home Electronics
Angelique In Wonderland – Koei
Angelique Special – Koei
Angelique Special 2 – Koei
Angelique Tenkuu no Requiem – Koei
Anime Freak FX Vol. 1 – NEC Home Electronics
Anime Freak FX Vol. 2 – NEC Home Electronics
Anime Freak FX Vol. 3 – NEC Home Electronics
Anime Freak FX Vol. 4 – NEC Home Electronics
Anime Freak FX Vol. 5 – NEC Home Electronics
Anime Freak FX Vol. 6 – NEC Home Electronics
Arubarea’s Maiden – NEC Home Electronics
Battle Heat – Hudson Soft
Blue Breaker – Hunex
Blue Chicago Blues – Riverhill Soft
Boundary Gate: Daughter of Kingdom – Pack-In-Video
Can Can Bunny Extra DX – Cocktail Soft
Chip Chan Kick! – NEC Home Electronics
Classmates 2 – ELF Corporation
Cocktail Pack – Cocktail Soft
Comic Road – Cocktail Soft
Cutey Honey FX – Datawest
Deep Blue Fleet – Micro Cabin
Der Langrisser FX – NCS
Detective Ladies – Head Room
Dragon Knight IV – NEC Avenue
Farland Story FX – NEC Home Electronics
Fire Woman Matoi-gumi – Tokume Shoten
First Kiss Story – Hunex
Galaxy Fraulein Yuna FX – Hudson Soft
Graduation 2: Neo Generation FX – Riverhill Soft
Graduation Real – NEC Interchannel
Kokū Hyouryo Nirgends – Micro Cabin
Kishin Doji Zenki: Vajura Fight – Hudson Soft
Last Imperial Prince – Nihon Application
Lil’ Red Riding Hood Cha-Cha – NEC Home Electronics
Lunatic Dawn FX – Artdink
Mahjong Goku Tenjiku – Chat Noir
Makeruna! Makendou Z – Fill In Cafe
Megami Paradise II – NEC Home Electronics
Minimum Nanonic – NEC Home Electronics
Miraculum: The Last Revelation – RayForce
Pachio-kun FX – Coconuts Japan
Welcome To Pia Carrot – Cocktail Soft
Power Dolls FX – Kodado Studio
Return to Zork – Datawest
Ruruli Ra Rura – NEC Home Electronics
Shanghai: The Great Wall – Activision
Sparkling Feather – NEC Home Electronics
Super God Trooper Zeroigar – NEC Home Electronics
Super Power League FX – Hudson Soft
Super Real Majhong PV FX – Naxat Soft
Team Innocent – Hudson Soft
Tekipaki Working Love FX – NEC Home Electronics
Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki FX – Micro Cabin
Tengai Makyo Karakuri Kakutoden – Hudson Soft
Tokimeki Card Paradise – Sonnet
Tonari no Princess Rolfee! – NEC Home Electronics
Voice Paradise – Ask Koudansha
Wakusei-Kōgekitai Little Cats – NEC Home Electronics
Zoku Hatukoi Monogatari – Tokume Shoten