NEC SuperGrafx

The (short) History of SuperGrafx

A fourth-generation home video game console manufactured by NEC Home Electronics, also known as the SuperGrafx, is the PC Engine SuperGrafx. It was released in Japan in 1989. It succeeded the PC Engine, which was released two years earlier. While still in production, it was called the PC Engine 2, claiming to be a true 16-bit gaming console with improved graphics and audio capabilities.

Despite the console's rapid release several months ahead of its initial intended release date in 1990, its hardware only received modest updates. Since only six retail games benefited from the SuperGrafx's hardware upgrades, the console was a failure commercially, selling only 75,000 units; none of its hardware enhancements were carried over to later PC Engine models.

Aspects

• Media : HuCard, CD-ROM

• CPU: Hudson Soft HuC6280A @ 1.79 or 7.16 MHz

• Memory: 32 KB + 128 KB

• Display: 512 colors; 282 x 242, 377 x 242, 565 x 242

• Graphics: 2x HuC6270A VDC, HuC6202 VPC, HuC6260 VCE

• Sound: HuC6280A; 6 PSG channels, 5-bit depth; 6.99 kHz sample rate

Peripherals of SuperGrafx

PC Engine input devices such as the TurboPad and the Multitap are compatible with the SuperGrafx.
The ROM² Adaptor (RAU-30) was an adapter released in Japan on 20 April 1990 that allows the SuperGrafx unit to be connected into the CD-ROM² System Interface Unit; this was not required for the later Super CD-ROM² System add-on.

In addition to the expansion port on the front side of the unit, Power Console (PI-PD7) is an unreleased cockpit-sized controller. Control options would have been enhanced by the peripheral, which included eight-way joysticks, four action buttons, two flight yoke triggers (one on each handle), throttle levers, jog dials, three mode switches, LCD panels, LED indicators, four additional controller ports, and a numerical keypad. As a result of the high production costs and poor sales of the SuperGrafx, the Power Console was never released in Spring 1990.