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Angelique (1994)

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The PC-FX (ピーシー エフエックス Pī Shī Efu Ekkusu?) is a 32-bit home video game console made by NEC Home Electronics. It was released in Japan on December 23, 1994, just weeks after Sony's PlayStation and a month after the Sega Saturn. It is the successor to the PC Engine (and its many add-ons), known as TurboGrafx-16 in North America.

Unlike its predecessors the PC-FX was only released in Japan. The console is shaped like a tower PC and was meant to be similarly upgradeable. However the PC-FX lacked a 3D polygon-based graphics chip that rendered the system underpowered in comparison to its competitors. It was also expensive and lacked developer support, and as a result it was unable to compete effectively with its fifth generation peers. The PC-FX was NEC's last home video game console, and was discontinued in February 1998.

NEC launched the PC-FX's predecessor, the PC Engine in 1987, which although warmly accepted in Japan, was unable to match the technical specifications put forward by Nintendo and Sega with their consoles, the Super Famicom and the Sega Mega Drive. Plans were therefore drawn up by NEC for a successor in order to reclaim lost ground.

The PC-FX was based on a 32-bit system architecture named "Tetsujin" or "Iron Man", developed in-house by NEC. NEC demonstrated Iron Man at a number of trade shows and events during 1992, and by the middle of the year were discussing an imminent release of an Iron Man-based video game system with many third party developers.

At the time, the earlier PC Engine was still quite popular in Japan, and opinions on the Iron Man technology were mixed. Many were uninterested in switching to more powerful hardware while the PC Engine market was still growing, and as a result NEC halted work on the Iron Man project, instead opting for more modifications to the PC Engine technology.

When NEC decided to release the PC-FX, the specs were relatively unchanged from the originally unveiled Iron Man architecture. The most significant difference was the addition of a new 32-bit V-810 RISC CPU.

The console was announced in late 1993. In a special Game Machine Cross Review in May 1995, Famicom Tsūshin would score the PC-FX console an 18 out of 40.

Unusual for a fifth generation console, the PC-FX does not have a polygon graphics processor. NEC's reasoning for this was that polygon processors of the time were relatively low-powered, resulting in figures having a blocky appearance, and that it would be better for games to use pre-rendered polygon graphics instead.

The shining quality of the PC-FX was the ability to decompress 30 JPEG pictures per second while playing digitally recorded audio (essentially a form of Motion JPEG). This resulted in the PC-FX having superior full motion video quality over all other fifth generation consoles.

The system's target audience was roughly five years older than that of the PC Engine, in hopes that PC Engine fans would be brought over to the successor console. In an interview roughly a year before the system launch, a representative stated that though NEC had not entirely ruled out the possibility of a release outside Japan, they had concluded that unless additional non-gaming uses were developed for the PC-FX, it would sell poorly in the USA due to its high price.

NEC directed Hudson Soft, with whom they continued their partnership over the PC Engine, to develop only games based on popular anime franchises and using prerendered animated footage. Though this policy played to the hardware's strengths, it barred Hudson Soft from bringing successful PC Engine series such as Bomberman and Bonk to the PC-FX.

Unlike nearly any other console (except for the 3DO and CD-i), the PC-FX was also available as an internal PC card for NEC PC-98 and AT/IBM PC compatibles. This PC card came with two CDs of software to help the user program games for the PC-FX. However, compatibility issues prevented games developed with this software from actually running on the console.

The PC-FX was discontinued in early 1998. It sold only 400,000 units over its lifetime.