This EMBARRASSING Game Console Launched 30 Years Ago

[@-Eclipse14-]

I just got word of Team Innocent's translation coming out as I post this. Definitely made my fan-translation comment age like milk. There's an addendum video briefly talking about it in the description. That's what happens when you finish stuff weeks in advance lmao.

[@subtledemisefox]

I've actually been hoping for a fan translation of that particular game ever since Game Sack covered the game and console.

[@TheBlackSeraph]

Team Innocent looked interenting, so I'll be keeping an eye out. Hope Miraculum gets a translation in time, too.

[@jaysherman2615]

I have a funny story about how I snagged one in high school around 2006 or 7. I was notorious for collecting obscure video game consoles before it got popular. My friends were browsing Wikipedia and discovered the PC-FX and said, "Now this is one Jay Sherman doesn't have." Indeed they were right. I didn't have one. So out of spite I bought one for $50 and a copy of Der Langrisser. Two weeks later I unloaded the thing on them from my backpack and we snuck off to the library to play it. Foolish me we ended up wasting the entire period with some goddess jawing away in Japanese and never got to play the actual game.

[@drakarthus]

Nintendo consoles: "we got RPGs and adventure games in general" Sega consoles: "we got arcade ports and cool challenging games" NEC consoles (and PCs): "we got hentai"

[@PKSuperStar256]

I mean, it worked for the PC Engine because it sold really well. The PC-FX didn't really because it was much more restricted than is predecessor with NEC instructing Hudson to only make games based on popular anime and use FMVs. FMV "games" are commonly poorly received.

[@adriancantrill8956]

You ever see what was released for various other consoles in Japan? As the PC-FX stayed in home territory only, its fair to say was a cultural thing, not just an NEC thing! And lets not forget, NEC destroyed the NES and Megadrive in Jaoan with the PC Engine, which was a truly groundbreaking console. On the arrival of the SNES knicjed it of the top sales wisd.

[@subtledemisefox]

Based NEC

[@StriderVM]

@11:24 Considering the PC98 was very (infamous?) popular because of it. But the PC98 was in use by as early as the early 1990, and its primary purpose was general computing. With bonus (ecchi) gaming. Trying to penetrate that 5 years too late is a bad idea.

[@adamsfusion]

I came down here to comment this as well. 18+ content was one of the pillars of the PC-98's continued success far into the 90's and the want for FMV to be possible in order to enhance that genre was obvious and well requested. Alas, too little too late. Windows 95 was around the corner and it brought the multimedia capabilities that were needed.

[@lpfan4491]

It is slightly hilarious how the PC98 is largely known for two things these days: -Sailor moon yuri henti and -Touhou

[@TastySnackies]

Now THIS is the retro gaming history that needs to be looked at more. Good video!

[@KiraSlith]

It's a shame companies at the time didn't understand Dragon's Lair (and other FMV games of the time) were only appealing as a tech demo, a glimpse into the future 3D graphics and 32-bit 2D art promised, but lacked the "play" in "gameplay" that made videogames appealing in the first place.

[@hugo_s]

This is the kind of nerd history that keeps me fueled. Keep up the good work.

[@autobotjazz1972]

Clear case of what happens when you sit on things too long and someone shows up eats your lunch.

[@adriancantrill8956]

Worthy mention for this system, well, a derivative, consisting of two PC Engines and an extra board that was to become effectively the Tetsujin board, is where 10 player Bomberman first ever existed. Hi-Ten Bomberman was only ever used, and possibly only intended, for Hudson Caravan comps, yet surely would of been easy to commercially release for the FX! Obviously, the fly in the ointment was undoubtedly NEC top brass, just like their total interference and incompetence with the TG-16 release and titles approved for release in the states! If they'd got this thing out when first possible, it would of been years ahead of the competition, a true 2D power house, with a huge player in Hudson ready to bring big names straight to it, but alas, wasn't to be. Still, a fascinating piece in the jigsaw of gaming history.

[@SarcasticPossum]

Why does it look like an old PC in a public library?

[@itwassomeforeigner1111]

ultima 1-3 also had remakes for this thing apparently

[@belstar1128]

The Japanese cdi

[@MarioLuigi0404]

If you haven’t, you should make sure your mic audio is set to downmix to dual-mono. I’m noticing some slight panning in the voice over to one side or the other in different cuts.

[@-Eclipse14-]

This one was done before my previous video (covering Dragonstomper), and I noticed a few cuts that sounded off ahead of time. I didn't want to be constantly fighting with re-recording my lines, so I just had to manage things the best I could.

[@KiraSlith]

The PC-FX had a smart formfactor for the typical American living room, but not for a standard Japanese entertainment center (where it only ever sold, oops).

[@lurkerrekrul]

I knew of the PC-FX system, but have never tried it. The author of the Turbografx emulator, Magic Engine also made an emulator for the PC-FX. I never bothered to try it because it seemed that the vast majority of games were either RPGs, or visual novels, all in Japanese, which I can't read.

[@Sauceyjames]

This seemed like a pretty cool machine, but then again I was hyped on it while reading video game magazines when I was a kid. Anything sounded amazing when I was still playing on a Sega Genesis. Later on I would come across and NEC monitor from my e-waste job, and I still hold it today. It has some weird little problem, but for a very long time that thing kicked butt. The Japan hardware / software industry is interesting, I would say NEC is like IBM in a sense, they made their own processors and had their own systems like if they were Apple, but they built intricate and sexy devices like if it was a Sony machine. Then again a lot of Japanese tech in the '90s and 2000s were pretty cool compared to USA stuff, but not all lol

[@SunnyE_Mechwarrior]

I was in Japan in 1995 ands was a huge PC-Engine fan and so I bought the PC-FX on day 1m I also had a Playstation and Saturn but within month I knew the PC-FX was a dub as the lack of action or 3D games was pain fully obvious and the FM video games all were poorly designed. It became a system of anime ands simulation games.

[@wirlogx]

So... the console could not render 3D but al it wasn't capable of drawing sprites like the previous console did? Let's talk about people disconnected from reality...

[@-Eclipse14-]

Yeah, words cannot describe how...unfathomably incompetent NEC was when it came to their home consoles.

[@dreamcastninja88]

I remember about this console when I was in middle School, after seeing the game's for it, I just flocked to the Saturn for my Japanese imports back in high school. I did kinda liked the way it looked. I was a fan of the PC engine duo and it's games. If I come across a one for a reasonable price I wouldn't mind picking one up and give it a shot. Great video on this console.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

They launched a 32-bit system with NO 3D capability at all, alongside the Saturn and Playstation, that cost more than either of them, and were banking on 2D games and FMV to make it succeed. I have no idea what they were thinking, maybe they thought the primitive 3D polygon graphics of the Saturn and Playstation were a fad that would quickly pass. It obviously didn't. A side note, the reason the Turbografx didn't do so well in the US was mostly because it launched so late. In Japan it was the first competitor to the Famicom, and it destroyed it in technical capability. But it was delayed 2 years in the US, and the Genesis was already out. I also wonder if the incredibly generic name had something to do with the failure. PC Engine is a much better, much more unique name, while Turbografx sounds like something an edgy teenager would come up with.

[@-Eclipse14-]

Yeah, the timing of release was definitely poor, and Sega torpedoed it on the regular during its test market phase. However, I think the REAL main problem was (put in as a text splash) their absolute ineptitude when it came to localization. A report of the CEO's own daughter, who had no clue what she was looking at, was picking the games to go out of Japan, and they had a chance to make Mortal Kombat a Turbografx exclusive, but passed on it because "we think people are tired of fighting games". Neither of those are made up. It's inconceivable just how badly they screwed it up in the US.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@-Eclipse14- Oh yeah, localization was HORRIBLE on that system. The vast majority of the great games were Japan only. Sort of foreshadowed what happened to the Saturn in the US as well.

[@chucklesdeclown8819]

The pcfx computer extention sounds actually really cool, it reminds me of that recent video that this guy found some cut down ps5 cards that were basically tiny pc's but can be plugged into a big thing full of them for bigger computing tasks. I think it would be very cool if we could have something like that today. basically a dvd drive that connected to pcie so you can play old xbox/ps1 games or something like that.

[@-Eclipse14-]

NEC could have gotten away with this one better than others, since their main focus then was their PC-88/98 series. Microsoft is pretty much the closest to doing that now, since they're in the same boat (main product is the Window OS, on top of whatever is going on with them now).

[@Lewiiugamepad]

Indeed, in brief, NEC and Hudson just bet on the wrong technology and demographic. The quality of the video is impressive and the closest comparison I would do is that technically it is more closer to a Philips CD-I (for the video playback) and just like you mentioned, the Atari Jaguar for commercial and mistakes-ise. It sucks that they didn’t try to use their main IPs for new games. Power League and Far East Eden are the only licenses that returned for the next gen.

[@-Eclipse14-]

That's what happens when a company places some rather outrageous guidelines for development, especially considering how long animation in general took to make back then. Speaking of Tengai Makyou, I've had Ziria on the docket to do for a bit. I'll probably start on that sometime next month.

[@Lewiiugamepad]

@ Yeah, mandatory high quality animation or real footage (like the "All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling: Queen of Queens") for every game is so outrageous. The time and cost for game publishers was to high, they locked themselves from possible opportunities. At last, we can appreciate the quality of the games that did came out nowadays.

[@CranberryFo]

I've never heard of this console before this video. Had no idea it existed. I literally had to pause the video when you said they turned to hentai to get sales. I was like "Whaaaaaaaaat?" It is just so hard to imagine, especially back in the early to mid 90s, a game console sporting full on hentai. I have an intest in old obscure games that don't get talked about a lot. I'd be curious in trying some of the console's titles. The "hentai" aspect depends on how far it goes. Any time I want to see a naked topless woman, I can just look in a mirror, so showing some breasts doesn't bother me. But if the games are going to more having the characters violated and taken advantage of, I don't really want to play things like that.

[@drakarthus]

Pia Carrot (one of the games that has been translated) is actually pretty tame as far as the hentai aspects go, there are a few sex scenes throughout the game, but they don't have characters being violated or anything similar, they kinda "happen naturally" as the protagonist's relationship with the characters evolves if you know Japanese you could also try the Saturn version of the game, they apparently added some extra stuff in that version

[@AlexRoivas]

PC FX wouldn't have been that bad if they actually release more 2d games like in the PC engine and just use anime cutscenes in them instead of making most of the games as anime FMV games. Battle Heat should have played like Street Fighter 2 and used anime cutscenes before and after fights. Wtf NEC

[@zaberfang]

The fact that NEC made such tough PCs and laptops, such an unlucky company

[@PixelSubstream]

Ive been wanting to learn 3d printing to make a ITX case that looks like a PC-FX

[@tsiefhtes]

94 to 96 was a magic time in the video game industry.

[@emilianosainz6315]

Ngl, the idea of a fighting game being 100% hand-drawn anime sounds both really weird and really cool at the same time. But I imagine it'd get repetitive after the 2nd fight from how little combos it must have had xd In any case, at least now we know the truth... Roflee is the OG Video game waifu. [As if XD]

[@goranisacson2502]

What a fascinating story. I can see some threads of logic here, see why they'd want games released for their console to prominetly feature the movie cutscenes they did better than the competition... but demanding it of all games released on the machine? And here I thought Nintendos "you gotta pay for cartridge orders if you release games on N64!" nonsense was as bad as it'd get, but NEC has impressed me. And the prominent games used to advertize it had one be nothing but bullshots and the other end up canceled... this machine could not lose the fraud allegations, even if it hadn't pivoted to hentai later on.

[@LeonmitchelliGalette]

PC-FX/GA had prototype 3D hardware onboard that supposed to be in expansion card for PC-FX.

[@rch5395]

Finally a person said jaguar instead of jagwire

[@lemiru]

Out of curiosity, what's the game at 5:16?

[@-Eclipse14-]

Slayers for the PC-98. If you have real interest, it got a translation published a couple months ago.

[@Djep1taph]

The man with the machine gun!

[@Spolupyo]

This "embarrassing" console was designed to have an upgradable VPU for 3d graphics......JFYI.

[@Mrshoujo]

The Atari Jaguar wasn't a "dumpster fire." It has untapped potential & failed by the Tramiels who hated to advertise. The chipset was even used in coin op games.

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

I like how the Jaguar only wasted minimal money on FMV (no special chip), but could play them once Atari was finally supplied the CD drive (Tramiels fault?).

[@MrAlan1828]

I only hear alot of Ranting and hate towards this PCFX but that normal as many don't like it, the PCFX wasn't intended to be for outside of Japan, it had its niche of audience and that was what led to its failure BUT at the time the Japanese didn't care about it being used outside of Japan. Japan has a lot of funky wierld tech and they don't expect you to understand why. Till to this day the Japnese still print color magazines and books while the rest if the world has gone to ebooks. You also didn't cover the peripherals; it had a 6 button game pad, a mouse and a memory card hidden behind a cover, they also made 2x PC interfaces one for the PC/AT (PCI card) and one for the PC98 both to play games using the CDROM but output to TV (now thats wierd) Although it flopped but its still somewhat to people who what to collect. Side note; all PCFX games have no protection like the SegaCD, PC-Engine CD etc, CD Protection came out when PSX.Saturn 32bits starting to make waves

[@TheAtariSan]

What's the zelda clone at the beginning of the video ?

[@-Eclipse14-]

Neutopia for the Turbografx.

[@owomushi_vr]

I'm sold when you said hentai. I want this console

[@unosturgis]

had to thumbs down for the audio clipping from the yelling. Besides that, good video.

[@mramisuzuki6962]

It has a cool name.

[@SNKev411]

I think zenki was an awesome game

[@pixel1374]

Let's gooo a new video

[@lrd233]

Ths console was good , they just did not beleive in 3d and they paidi the price . Also most of the games were heavy in japanese niche stuff . The same thing to a lesser deegre happened with Saturn

[@-Eclipse14-]

I remember seeing an analogy a ways ago that the Saturn would have met the same fate as the PC-FX had it stayed as the 2D machine it was meant to be. Sony really cast an earthquake on the entire industry.

[@LordTeaboBaggins]

If Nintendo actually bothered to take time to finish their console, they might not be in second place

[@ShinzouKatsune]

That's always the cycle of nintendo systems. They've never been #1 between guns sequentially without caveats (not #1 in mainline, but are in mobile for example)

[@BurritoKingdom]

​@@ShinzouKatsunethat isn't true. NES/Famicom #1, SNES/Super Famicom #1, N64 #2, GameCube #3, Wii #1, Wii U #3. If you look at the sales trend of Nintendo home consoles, it goes downward except the blip that was the Wii. But in general that was the sales trend of home consoles in Japan. It's why Sony basically abandoned all Japanese game development by the time of the PS5 except for Gran Turismo and Astrobot. Switch is more of a handheld and that's where Nintendo has always been #1. It's also where Japanese gamers have been heading towards. Mobile and portable game sales far exceed home console game sales. Probably because they don't have enough time to play at home with their busy work schedules.

[@NottNott]

The background music is insane in this vid, it'd be cool if you labelled the background tracks. What's the first background track :D

[@Edward-bm7vw]

Well the first background track I am certain is the "Laguna" battle music from Final Fantasy 8.

[@Djep1taph]

It's called "The Man With the Machine Gun"

[@NottNott]

@@Djep1taph Ty!

[@NottNott]

@@Edward-bm7vw Ty!

[@bryandavidasuncion9515]

Yeah that would be nice. I'm trying to remember where the track starting from 1:46 is from. I feel this is from a megadrive game or a PS1 game. Just can't remember which one.

[@gejamugamlatsoomanam7716]

Still a better console than xbox series x

[@-Eclipse14-]

It's kinda funny, NEC (main focus being PCs) gets a new console and does everything it can to screw it up. Microsoft (main focus being Windows) is now doing the same thing (and was definitely true for the One). Some things just never change, lmao.