Quote from: lukester on February 23, 2016, 04:35:59 AMWhat was the scene like back then? Was pce mildly popular? Which games did you guys own, or your friends? Any stories to tell?It was very exciting times. More people had JPN white PC Engines in my year and in the year above than anyone had UK PAL Sega Master Systems and Nintendo Entertainment Systems, and that's honestly true. And it didn't seem that expensive either especially compared to the price of an Atari ST computer and its games. Every schoolboy around my age in my town with half an interest in 'computer games' knew what one was thanks mainly due to word of mouth coupled with the really good magazines we had. R-Type pt.1 definitely was the game that made people really really care about the console. However, R-Type pt.2 was bloody difficult to find for a long time right into the early 90s for some odd reason. At my school, Splatterhouse (also initially very expensive and difficult to get) was the game that everyone wanted, or at least wanted to play. I remember when my best mate whipped out his GT and started playing this game in registration, even the girls (not being sexist) where crowded around watching him play it. Also older kids from the neighbouring form came in to see what all the fuss was about. Then came over our form tutor, wanting to confiscate the lot but then didn't as my mate told him how much it all cost (nearly 300 quid's worth Sir), and he wouldn't 'let' him, so he crumbled and didn't! It was like a small, rare victory. I just wished I had taken photographs of the PC Engine gear in Shekhana's 221 TCR shop in their earliest PC Engine days. Everything was running on RGB Philips CM8833 monitors, and the hardware and software was displayed behind glass counter top cabinets. It was more akin to a a branch of Tiffany & Co.. And they were literally selling like hot cakes in front of ones eyes. Harrods and Hamley's also had PC Engines in stock a while later I remember seeing. But I'm sure that Shekhana was the first high-street shop to sell PC Engine in the British Isles? They were already selling US NES games so the PC Engine seemed like a natural progression from that. And Rhine Games (long forgotten) quite a while later up the road had stock of the PC Engine LT when it first game out. It was 550 quid. I was tempted, but the screen was utter shite even then.I bought my PC Engine for Son Son II as I was a huge Monkey Magic fan and it just looked like the dog's bollock's in TGM's review. And it was. And it is. And the best thing was, the PC Engine was obviously never released in the UK really, and even then we knew, as children, that this made the whole experience even radder.
What was the scene like back then? Was pce mildly popular? Which games did you guys own, or your friends? Any stories to tell?
