What the hell happened to NEC?

[Anthony1]

What the heck happened to NEC anyways. I mean, they came out with the PC Engine in October of 1987, and they did so well in Japan with the PC Engine, they brought the TurboGrafx-16 out here in August of 1989, then they bring out all kinds of different CD add ons, and the SuperGrafx and everything.

Then comes the PC-FX.

Just what the heck was the PC-FX anyways? I mean, did this thing play any actual "video games"? It seems like all it plays are digital comics and dating sims and weird crap like that.

What happened to all the shooters and action games?

Why did they make the thing look like a freaking computer tower?

The PC Engine and the CD's and everything is incredible, but then they follow it up with the PC-FX? What exactly were they thinking? Has there ever been an interview with the people responsible that asked them exactly what the heck they were thinking when they brought out the PC-FX?

[InsaneDavid]

I'd check out http://www.PCEngineFX.com if I were you, that's the best database on the planet for NEC consoles and has lots of multimedia features.

The only "what happened to NEC" stuff I know about is how bad they did in the US. For the most part it had to do with game content, most of the suff made in Japan was anime heavy before anime was mainstream over here so the games really didn't have a solid user base at the time.

As for the PC-FX there was a good shooting game for it if I remember correctly. And don't knock dating sims, there were TONS of them on the PCEngine and PCEngineDuo in Japan. Again, some of those may have made it over to the US had the gaming base been ready for them. It was just a matter of timing that killed NEC.


What happened to all the shooters and action games?

I think they only released a total of six games for it before it's untimely death.


Why did they make the thing look like a freaking computer tower?

Why did Nintendo make the GameCube look like a purse? The world may never know. Personally I like the design of the PC-FX since it stands out.

NEC flooding the market with the two zillion PCEngine redesigns (most that wouldn't support the CD expansions) that cost more than the normal PCEngine which was still being sold didn't help either - it was like they shot themselves in the foot over and over again.

[CRV]

Do you mean what happened to NEC, the company, or what happened to NEC that led them to do the PC-FX? At any rate, NEC is a major electronics company and is definitely still around. NEC had a video game division called NEC Interchannel, making stuff for the more recent consoles. According to this article (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/strategy/culdcept/news_6092468.html), they sold most of it off to Index Corporation.

[InsaneDavid]

Do you mean what happened to NEC, the company, or what happened to NEC that led them to do the PC-FX? At any rate, NEC is a major electronics company and is definitely still around. NEC had a video game division called NEC Interchannel, making stuff for the more recent consoles. According to this article (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/strategy/culdcept/news_6092468.html), they sold most of it off to Index Corporation.

I think he meant it like "what the hell happened to their focus when they released the PC-FX"

[Anthony1]

Do you mean what happened to NEC, the company, or what happened to NEC that led them to do the PC-FX? At any rate, NEC is a major electronics company and is definitely still around. NEC had a video game division called NEC Interchannel, making stuff for the more recent consoles. According to this article (http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/strategy/culdcept/news_6092468.html), they sold most of it off to Index Corporation.


Basically, I meant what the hell happened to NEC in terms of being a player in the video game world. To me, the PC Engine, and especially the Super CD roms were absolutely amazing. They did quite well in Japan with the PC Engine, and it just seems like they didn't even try to compete with the Saturns and Playstations of the world.

The PC-FX appears like it was never meant to really compete in the video game area, and that it was more of a niche product for those that can't get enough digital comics and dating sims. Like they said, go ahead Sega and Sony and Nintendo, you guys can have all the market except for this tiny 2 percent sliver that loves dating sims.

I can understand that they decided to focus on a niche market, but I can't understand why they didn't try to compete for the whole market, at least in Japan.

Also, I think making the thing look like a PC tower was a big mistake, especially since it was called PC-FX. At least for gamers in the U.S., I know when I first saw a pic of the PC-FX in an issue of Next-Generation, I thought, hmm, Why is NEC coming out with a PC instead of a video game system.

I now know that it was called PC-FX, in relation to "PC Engine", which also was kinda confusing to U.S. gamers. At the time though, I actually thought it was a computer, not a video game machine.

[swlovinist]

Nec made some great games

Thier Hardware was always to me "so so" to just strange

Marketing, espically in the US, just plain sucked. I dont know if you could be any worse than NEC when it came to marketing a system...the only company I can think of currently would be SEGA LOL

[swlovinist]

Nec made some great games

Thier Hardware was always to me "so so" to just strange

Marketing, espically in the US, just plain sucked. I dont know if you could be any worse than NEC when it came to marketing a system...the only company I can think of currently would be SEGA LOL

[Richter Belmount]

damn I remember seeing to many t16 ads in the day , but never a tv ad or full coverage of their systems.

[Snapple]

NEC still makes a damned fine monitor at least.

[Richter Belmount]

^
damn straight I can stare at em for hours.

*note to self might be good for porn*

[Anthony1]

damn I remember seeing to many t16 ads in the day , but never a tv ad or full coverage of their systems.


No question that the U.S. marketing sucked, but in Japan I thought that the PC Engine was a huge success, so I'm not really talking about the U.S. market when I'm talking about NEC basically dissapearing from the video game landscape. I'm just wondering why the powers that be at NEC in Japan decided, "Let's followup one of the coolest systems ever, the PC Engine, with something that looks like a average computer tower that is totally devoted to digital comics and dating sims".

That's the hard thing for me to understand. I mean, if they were so successful in Japan with the PC Engine, why did they just give up, when it came to making action games and real video games?

Part of the reason might have been the fact that they saw the Playstation and knew that they couldn't possibly compete with that head to head, so they decided that Sony and Sega and Nintendo could split up the action type game segment, and that they would corner the dating sim market.

That's the only thing that makes sense to me, and I'm sure that's why they never even considered bringing the PC-FX over here.




Now, getting back to the markeing of the TurboGrafx-16 and the TurboDuo, man what a freaking joke that was. I never saw a single TV ad. The only thing that I saw where some magazine ads that were pretty damn lame if you ask me. And then to top it all off the whole orange and black color scheme was just a really bad idea. The boxes for TG-16 games looked really corny with that orange and black color scheme, and the cover art was pretty laughable as well.

The fact that none of the great NES ports could come here because of the licensing agreements was a huge factor as well. That really hurt them bad. The comparisons that would have been made in magazines would have given them alot of good press and awareness.

Speaking of the gaming press, they are partly to blame for NEC's videogame demise as well. Here in the U.S. none of the magazines really covered the TG-16 or Duo very well. Games like Blazing Lasers and Aeroblasters and Military Madness and Dungeon Explorer should have gotten much, much more run then they did.

Of course it was the whole chicken and egg thing with the magazine coverage. Very few people owned TG-16's so they didn't want to waste their precious magazine space preaching to such a small audience, and because there wasn't much coverage of the TG-16 in the U.S. gaming press, very few gamers new much about the TG-16 to pique their interest enough into buying a unit.

I wonder if Die Hard GameFan had a magazine going in 1989 if things might have been different. They didn't start up until like 1993 when the TG-16 was already starting to die in the U.S. I'm guessing that they would have given the TG-16 games some really good coverage, and games like Blazing Lasers and Aeroblasters and Dungeon Explorer would have gotten the kind of review scores that they deserved.

[it290]

Well, I believe the PC Engine was originally devised by Hudson Soft, and NEC financed the distribution and marketing. I don't know that NEC ever had a long term strategy as a console manufacturer.... the PC Engine was never more than a small part of their business.

[InsaneDavid]

Speaking of the gaming press, they are partly to blame for NEC's videogame demise as well. Here in the U.S. none of the magazines really covered the TG-16 or Duo very well. Games like Blazing Lasers and Aeroblasters and Military Madness and Dungeon Explorer should have gotten much, much more run then they did.

Of course it was the whole chicken and egg thing with the magazine coverage. Very few people owned TG-16's so they didn't want to waste their precious magazine space preaching to such a small audience, and because there wasn't much coverage of the TG-16 in the U.S. gaming press, very few gamers new much about the TG-16 to pique their interest enough into buying a unit.

I wonder if Die Hard GameFan had a magazine going in 1989 if things might have been different. They didn't start up until like 1993 when the TG-16 was already starting to die in the U.S. I'm guessing that they would have given the TG-16 games some really good coverage, and games like Blazing Lasers and Aeroblasters and Dungeon Explorer would have gotten the kind of review scores that they deserved.

That's why we had our own magazine. :D Or have you *gasp* forgotten about TurboForce that became DuoForce after TTi released the TurboDuo?

And it's Blazing Lazers - with a Z .. just makes a better looking game title, far better than GunHed - although the GunHed commercial is halarious "For the most excitement you must play the PCEngine!"

[GaijinPunch]

Basically, I meant what the hell happened to NEC in terms of being a player in the video game world.

Unfortunately this question can be asked of a ton of small to medium sized game development houses of the 16-bit generation. Yeah, NEC was a major player in terms of hardware, but it was a 'success' in one country. Everyone was ready to jump on the PSX bandwagon by the next gen, and even Nintendo took a beating. I'm surprised they stuck around in the form of NEC Interchannel.

[Graham Mitchell]

Basically, I meant what the hell happened to NEC in terms of being a player in the video game world.

Unfortunately this question can be asked of a ton of small to medium sized game development houses of the 16-bit generation. Yeah, NEC was a major player in terms of hardware, but it was a 'success' in one country. Everyone was ready to jump on the PSX bandwagon by the next gen, and even Nintendo took a beating. I'm surprised they stuck around in the form of NEC Interchannel.


From everything I've read, this is what I've gathered as well. The PC-FX probably could have been a cool system, and the first few games looked really cool (Far East of Eden or whatever looked especially cool), but it didn't sell well. PSX anticipation was probably the reason for this. What I understand is that they started making a lot of hentai games for it. Then people considered it a joke and it just sort of died.

[SoulBlazer]

NEC makes some wonderfull products.

They never should have tried the video game market, though.

[InsaneDavid]

NEC makes some wonderfull products.

They never should have tried the video game market, though.

I agree if you meant Microsoft instead of NEC. LOL NEC and Hudson did some great things in Japan with the PCEngine line, and there were tons of great games that simply didn't arrive on these shores. However with no CD region lock we're able to enjoy those games on our US TurboDuo consoles (or TG-16 CD). This is why the NEC consoles remain extremely collectable to this day.

And all this talk about dating sims being a joke and so forth. This is one of the most popular genres of games in Japan since the Tokemeki Memorial series was released. Yet most of the time people that say how stupid this or that genre is are the first ones to cry when a certian game doesn't get localized. This is the perfect example of the close-minded gamers that seem to be dominating the mainstream outside of Japan. Let's be open to new (old) ideas and give all genres a chance. :) If you don't like them, then don't buy them, no big deal.

Really a more popular genre of game on the PCEngine CD were digital comics and digital comic versions of popular anime series - they play out like choose your own adventure games. Not exactly my cup of meat but I do have a few of them and they aren't bad games, just again something that wouldn't go over well stateside because the mainstream very much controls the market. Which makes me give even more props to the Fresh Games series (good forum topic about them going around right now) for bringing over non mainstream titles - and thank the gaming gods that we got a handfull of the SegaAges remakes in Sega Classics Collection.

Games that NEC allowed the world to enjoy as only they could: Lords of Thunder, Gate of Thunder, Dracula-X, Devil's Crash, Cadash, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Bonk series, Ys Book I & II... anyone is welcome to continue. :D

[Richter Belmount]

i would take blazing lazers over that digital comic crap anyday.

[InsaneDavid]

i would take blazing lazers over that digital comic crap anyday.

As would I, but it would still be played on an NEC console. :)

[esquire]

Well NEC is still making games. They of course released Culdcept for the PS2 and Tube Slider for the Gamecube. They also released about a dozen games each for the Dreamcast and PS2 over in Japan.


NEC flooding the market with the two zillion PCEngine redesigns (most that wouldn't support the CD expansions) that cost more than the normal PCEngine which was still being sold didn't help either - it was like they shot themselves in the foot over and over again.

Other than the Shuttle, what are you specifically referring to? I have both the PC-Engine and Core Grafx and they are both (as is their later models) compatible with the CD-ROM2 and Super-CDROM2 expansions. The Super Grafx is compatible with them as well. The Shuttle is the only model I know that is not compatible with them. All of the 5 other models (PC-Engine, PC-Engine II, Core Grafx, Core Grafx II and Super Grafx) are compatible with them.

[InsaneDavid]

Well NEC is still making games. They of course released Culdcept for the PS2 and Tube Slider for the Gamecube. They also released about a dozen games each for the Dreamcast and PS2 over in Japan.


NEC flooding the market with the two zillion PCEngine redesigns (most that wouldn't support the CD expansions) that cost more than the normal PCEngine which was still being sold didn't help either - it was like they shot themselves in the foot over and over again.

Other than the Shuttle, what are you specifically referring to? I have both the PC-Engine and Core Grafx and they are both (as is their later models) compatible with the CD-ROM2 and Super-CDROM2 expansions. The Super Grafx is compatible with them as well. The Shuttle is the only model I know that is not compatible with them. All of the 5 other models (PC-Engine, PC-Engine II, Core Grafx, Core Grafx II and Super Grafx) are compatible with them.

They had another release that was basically a PCEngine with a fold up LCD display on the back, it looked like a little laptop, pretty sure it didn't support the CD expansion. Also if I remember correctly the Shuttle, Core Grafx and Core Grafx II came out at a higher price point than the original PCEngine which was still being sold at the time. Who would buy a new console that is internally identical to the older model that costs considerably less?

They seemed to miss the point of redesigns, either add some features (Lynx II) or release it at the same price (PSTwo) or lower (Genesis 3).

[esquire]

Well NEC is still making games. They of course released Culdcept for the PS2 and Tube Slider for the Gamecube. They also released about a dozen games each for the Dreamcast and PS2 over in Japan.


NEC flooding the market with the two zillion PCEngine redesigns (most that wouldn't support the CD expansions) that cost more than the normal PCEngine which was still being sold didn't help either - it was like they shot themselves in the foot over and over again.

Other than the Shuttle, what are you specifically referring to? I have both the PC-Engine and Core Grafx and they are both (as is their later models) compatible with the CD-ROM2 and Super-CDROM2 expansions. The Super Grafx is compatible with them as well. The Shuttle is the only model I know that is not compatible with them. All of the 5 other models (PC-Engine, PC-Engine II, Core Grafx, Core Grafx II and Super Grafx) are compatible with them.

They had another release that was basically a PCEngine with a fold up LCD display on the back, it looked like a little laptop, pretty sure it didn't support the CD expansion. Also if I remember correctly the Shuttle, Core Grafx and Core Grafx II came out at a higher price point than the original PCEngine which was still being sold at the time. Who would buy a new console that is internally identical to the older model that costs considerably less?

They seemed to miss the point of redesigns, either add some features (Lynx II) or release it at the same price (PSTwo) or lower (Genesis 3).

The CoreGrafx and CoreGrafx II came out with Stereo A/V output, whereas the PC-Engine used a RF adapter. Basically, the reason it cost more was you didn't need the Booster Add-On that you could buy for the PC-Engine to get the same audio/video.

[Graham Mitchell]

And all this talk about dating sims being a joke and so forth. This is one of the most popular genres of games in Japan since the Tokemeki Memorial series was released. Yet most of the time people that say how stupid this or that genre is are the first ones to cry when a certian game doesn't get localized. This is the perfect example of the close-minded gamers that seem to be dominating the mainstream outside of Japan. Let's be open to new (old) ideas and give all genres a chance. If you don't like them, then don't buy them, no big deal.


Maybe I misspoke. When I said "Hentai" games were being released on the PC-FX, I meant full on Bukkake Porn was being released on the PC-FX. From my understanding, there wasn't much in the way of actual games on it. Just a lot of Porn. I remember in EGM, when, they did a little feature on it, they had no game photos to show, so they showed just a girl's face from one of the porn games as a demo. LOL

[rbudrick]

NEC should try to make the Turbografx 128 or something. LOL

Ahem....gotta go. :D

-Rob

[Graham Mitchell]

NEC should try to make the Turbografx 128 or something. LOL

Ahem....gotta go. :D

-Rob

I can hear it now: "Whatever. The TG-128 only has 2 64-bit processors in it. It's not a REAL next-generation system. God. Who wants to play Virtual Bomberman, anyway? That game's for pussies. Hudson Sucks."