PC Engine/TurboGrafX 16

The PC Engine, or TurboGrafX 16 as it was known in America, was quite a powerful little console with similar capabilities to the SNES or Megadrive. For some reason it never really took off in Europe, but was particularly popular in Japan and America. It was basically an 8 bit CPU with a lot of 16 bit support chips to supply it with the power, and with a large array of games available for it, the PC Engine was a great console. Reknowned for its vast number of shoot 'em ups the PC Engine also had the best version of Bomberman ever produced (bomberman 94) and several other top titles to keep its users happy. There was also a portable version of the PC Engine, which ran exactly the same games and was one of the most powerful portable consoles produced. A peripheral CD-ROM drive became available for the PC Engine, making it the first console to make use of a CD drive, allowing access to enormous games beyond anything other consoles could offer.

PC Engine

Having previously ported VPCE to the Acorn, Paul Clifford set about trying to improve the speed of the multi-platform emulator by replacing critical parts of the C source with ARM code to make the emulator usable. This lead him to develop upto v0.20d (never released) but rather than continue to modify the C source, Paul decided to write his own emulator from scratch, using some of the ARM code routines he had added to VPCE, resulting in the 100% ARM code PC Engine. Previously PCE was to be released commercially, but when the publisher dropped out, Paul released it as freeware.

The emulator has near perfect palette and sound and is a superb example of quality emulation. You will need to have 16bit sound support however to hear the sound from the emulator, unfortunately this is the price you pay for quality. Compatibility is very good also, however some large ROMs, such as Street Fighter 2 have been known to cause problems. The PC Engine is quite a complex machine with several different chips to be emulated, and this emulator runs at between 70 and 80 fps on a StrongARM, with the real thing running at 60fps. Different international versions of the PC Engine were produced, and the emulator can be adjusted to emulate the U.S. or Japanese version, in order to run several Japanese-only games.

Coming Soon: Paul is hoping to continue development, and maybe even rewrite large sections of the code to get round some problems discovered during development. A WIMP multitasking version is planned eventually once compatibility is improved. Paul wants to add CD-ROM emulation, which is a fairly recent addition to even the best PCE emulators on the PC. Unfortunately Paul has recently suffered from a bout of R.S.I. and so has been delayed in all computer activity.

PC Engine v0.21 (24/7/98)
Speed Rating: ARM 2 ARM 250 ARM 3 ARM 6 ARM 7 StrongARM

PC Engine Emulator page

Virtual PC Engine

Previously Paul had ported Jens Restemeier's multi-platform Virtual PC Engine emulator (VPCE), since Paul had to sever links with the VPCE port, due to legal conflicts with his PCEngine emulator (had it been released commercially), there are to be no more updates to VPCE. There would be little point in Paul porting it, since he would only have to take the routines from his PC Engine emulator, and put them back into VPCE. As a result of this, version 0.30 which is now out on other platforms has not been ported! The C source code is available, but some rewrite is needed of the speed critical parts before it will work at a reasonable speed on any Acorn. Perhaps an interested C and ARM coder out there who would like to take over the reins?

VPCE itself, although quite a good quality emulator, is even slow on a StrongARM, and I recommend you only try it if you have compatibility problems with PC Engine.

VPCE v0.20b (6/7/97)
Speed Rating: ARM 2 ARM 250 ARM 3 ARM 6 ARM 7 StrongARM

Acorn VPCE page
Jens Restemeier's generic VPCE page

Magic Kit

Paul Clifford has also ported Magic Kit, the PC Engine Development kit by David Michel, author of the superb Magic Engine PC Engine emulator for the PC. This development kit allows you to create your own programs (particularly demos and games) for the PC Engine on your Acorn. It contains an example demo and source code, as well as the Hu65C02 cross-assembler.

MagicKit v1.2 (22/4/98)
Acorn Magic Kit (63Kb ZIP file)
Magic Engine (and kit) for the PC

Technical Information
CPU - HuC6280 (a customised 65C02) running at selectable 3.58MHz or 7.16MHz
Display - 512x256 pixels, 64 sprites at once (16 per scanline), 481 from a palette of 512 colours
Sound - 6 channels
RAM - 8Kb
VRAM - 64Kb
ROM - upto 2Mb (with the exception of the 2.5Mb Street Fighter 2 which has extra hardware in the cartridge)
reference - Paul Clifford (author of PC Engine)

ROMs:
PC Engine images
Underground Cities ROMs
http://www.ilf.net/cfmf/
TG-16 ROMs at HapEQB
The Dump
PC Engine Gamez
Dave's Classics ROMs A-M, N-Z

Recommended ROMs:
Bomberman 94, Afterburner, R-Type 1 & 2, 1943, Parodius, Battle loderunner, Wonderboy III Dragons curse, Operation Wolf, PC Kid 2, Coryoon, Thunderblade, Soldier Blade, Raiden, Street Fighter 2 Championship edition, Ballistix, Final Soldier.