Rumoured to be a follow up to the PC Engine, the Super Grafx turned out to be merely an update. It was released without any warning by NEC and never found a place in the marketplace because earlier PCE consoles were still being manufactured at the same time.
Despite having four times the RAM, it featured the same 8 bit processor and sound capabilities as the PC Engine, although it now had an extra GPU. Having two GPUs meant the Super Grafx could display two background layers and allowed more depth and colour, but they were limited by the processor and didn't really give the system much of a performance boost.
The console didn't sell well and games were expensive at around $110. Only six games were specifically released for the Super Grafx, the most notable being Capcom's 1941 which is not available for any other console, and today reaches very high prices, especially when in complete condition, as it had a rather fragile cardboard box that easily gets ruined.
Fortunately the Super Grafx was compatible with all the PC Engine's HuCard and CD games. In fact, it is the only machine that can play all the games released for the PCE series of consoles. Although it was designed to be used with the newer Super CD-ROM² drive, which was released at around the same time, it can also be used with the old CD-ROM² drive by using the RAU-30 adapter.
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Text co-written by *_Ste_* and Taneli Lukka
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NAME
PC Engine Super Grafx
MANUFACTURER
NEC
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
1989
END OF PRODUCTION
Unknown
BUILT IN SOFTWARE / GAMES
None
CONTROLLERS
8-way d-pad, 2 buttons + Run + Select
CPU
8 bit HuC6280A
SPEED
7.16 MHz (Switchable by software to 1.79 MHz)
CO-PROCESSOR
16 bit HuC6260 Video Color Encoder, 2x 16 bit HuC6270A Video Display Controllers, HuC6202 Video Priority Controller
RAM
32 KB
VRAM
128 KB
ROM
Unknown
GRAPHIC MODES
usually 256x240
COLORS
512 palette, 482 on screen (241 background & 241 sprite)
SOUND
6 PSG channels
SIZE / WEIGHT
Unknown
I/O PORTS
HuCard slot, EXT-BUS connector, AV out, power adapter, I/O port, gamepad port
MEDIA
HuCard
NUMBER OF GAMES
6
POWER SUPPLY
9v DC
PERIPHERALS
PC Engine CD-ROM², Super System Card, Arcade Card Pro...
