PC Engine

The PC Engine was created as a collaborative effort between Hudson Soft, who created video game software, and NEC, a company which was dominant in the Japanese personal computer market with their PC-88 and PC-98 platforms. NEC lacked the vital experience in the video gaming industry and approached numerous video game studios for support. By pure coincidence, NEC’s interest in entering the lucrative video game market coincided with Hudson’s failed attempt to sell designs for then-advanced graphics chips to Nintendo. The two companies successfully joined together to then develop the new system. The PC Engine made its debut in the Japanese market on October 30, 1987, and it was a tremendous success. The PC Engine had an elegant, “eye-catching” design, and it was very small compared to its rivals. This, coupled with a strong software lineup and third-party support from high-profile developers such as Namco and Konami gave NEC a temporary lead in the Japanese market. The PC Engine sold 500,000 units in its first week of release.