For those who grew up with imported pce in Europe

[Necromancer]

£310 in 1990 was a lot of money.

Indeed.  Googlerins says that would've been about $550 US monies.

[esteban]

£310 in 1990 was a lot of money.

Indeed.  Googlerins says that would've been about $550 US monies.

Elmer played BATTLE ACE for the next 6 months.

Best £310 ever spent.

[elmer]

Is that supposed to be P-47 (the game) or is that something to do with the SCART mod?

You're right, it's the P-47 game. It's just a typo by the guy at the shop.

IIRC, the SuperGrafx came with Battle Ace ... I can't think of any other reason that I have the game.

£310 in 1990 was a lot of money.

IIRC, the Genesis launch bundle was £129, or £149 at the time.

Elmer played BATTLE ACE for the next 6 months.

Best £310 ever spent.

Yes to the 1st part, but let's just politely say that I wouldn't quite agree with the 2nd part, at least not when it comes to Battle Ace! 

It is still (again, IMHO) the most powerful of the 4th-generation consoles, only beaten by the X68000 Home Computer (I don't count the Neo Geo there, because it was an Arcade Machine, and not a real Home Console theoretically aimed at the mass market).

But power isn't the same as well-marketed, or well-targeted, and definitely not well-supported.

[imparanoic]

does anyone remember microbytes in the old bull ring in birmingham, first time i have ever seen a pc engine, super star soldier was the game being played during 1990, my eyes dropped on the arcade quality visuals and awesome gameplay, it was expensive but an awesome machine ( until super famicom came out)

[elmer]

does anyone remember microbytes in the old bull ring in birmingham, first time i have ever seen a pc engine, super star soldier was the game being played during 1990, my eyes dropped on the arcade quality visuals and awesome gameplay, it was expensive but an awesome machine ( until super famicom came out)

I used to shop in the Bull Ring nearly every weekend ... but that was in the early 1980s.

My memory of the time was more influenced by the RPG/minatures store in the Birmingham New Street shopping center (original D&D, RuneQuest and Traveller), wonderful concerts (Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Judie Tzuke), and getting searched whenever I went into a pub for a pint of Banks' Mild because of the IRA bombings ...

http://alphahistory.com/northernireland/ira-mainland-campaign/

[imparanoic]

does anyone remember microbytes in the old bull ring in birmingham, first time i have ever seen a pc engine, super star soldier was the game being played during 1990, my eyes dropped on the arcade quality visuals and awesome gameplay, it was expensive but an awesome machine ( until super famicom came out)

I used to shop in the Bull Ring nearly every weekend ... but that was in the early 1980s.

My memory of the time was more influenced by the RPG/minatures store in the Birmingham New Street shopping center (original D&D, RuneQuest and Traveller), wonderful concerts (Supertramp, Jethro Tull, Judie Tzuke), and getting searched whenever I went into a pub for a pint of Banks' Mild because of the IRA bombings ...

http://alphahistory.com/northernireland/ira-mainland-campaign/

small world

i noted that occasionally, Mr Disk also had a few imported consoles as well

[Ex_Mosquito]

Wow this is a great thread! Interesting read!

I have been aware of the PC Engine since it was first featured in an old C&VG, and later the famous picture of the IFU with a packet of skips resting on it to give the scale of the unit Unfortunately my local import shops didn't carry PCE stuff back in the day, we only had SFC and Japanese MD stuff, I went that route. I grew up in Newport - South Wales, so Cardiff was only 20mins down the road from me and there was a killer import shop there. They mainly focuses on American import like NEO AES / TG16 and the usual other suspects,  but they did have a handful of the more popular Japanese imports. I was always avidly reading the CVG and the legendary 'Complete Guide To Consoles' mags back in the day following the PCE, the 'scanlined RGB'd off the screen screenshots' blew my mind back then! They looked SO good. It wasn't until Christmas 93' that I finally got my first PCE. I mainly got my games from KT Konsoles (Keith and Bob were great at recommending games) in Thurso by mail order and the usual famous UK imports like Raven, Console Concepts and Dream Machines 2.

Looking through this thread I saw some mention the PCE guide book, I actually had this back in the day, great book! Like the loser I was I even laminated the book to prevent damage :/ I also highlighted the games I had in the cheats section and wrote down the games that I wanted/own in the notes section







Ah Classic CEX, when it was good! In their smaller shop down the end in the early 90's. I used to frequent London's TCR import shops in the early 90's like Shekahna etc, it was such an exciting and magical time for gaming back then. Ah Advanced console entertainment.... My mate bought a PCE Briefcase in CEX in the late 90's and we went there before our bus home back to Wales to get it RGB modded. We went back in 2hours, which to be fair was a pretty quick turnaround, but when we arrived home the RGB amped and he wired the sound from the PCE bus and not the RCA jacks resulting in no CD music. Shoddy.

Here are a few bargains I got from CEX in 2002. It was pretty much dead on its arse back then unfortunately.

[esteban]

^ Hany in the Sky!

[shubibiman]

Man ! Back in 1998, CEX would sell Shubibinman at a bargain price of... 30 quids !

[Otaking]

Great story Ex_Mosquito.
Those CEX PC Engine prices seem pretty good for a retail store, but as you say was near the end so they were just clearing the retro stick.
BTW in the past I've watched on YouTube a few of your arcade play through and 1CCs, enjoyed them, good stuff.

[Ex_Mosquito]

Cheers. I've since sold all my Engine stuff in 2003 to fund my arcade cab :/ I recently got back into in with a briefcase unit + Everdrive, I regret selling all my originals now! I went to Tokyo in 09' and I'm kicking myself for not getting a shedload of cheap Engine games back then when I had the chance, but at the time I wasn't really playing that many videogames aside from a bit of Super SF2 Turbo (X) online.

Btw. Are you the author of Hyper Play? I listened to an interview on RGDS podcast about that fanzine.

[Otaking]

I've since sold all my Engine stuff in 2003 to fund my arcade cab :/ I recently got back into in with a briefcase unit + Everdrive, I regret selling all my originals now!

Yeah know the feeling, I sold most of my games collection a few years back and regret it now, mine was from pressure from my wife due to the limited space in our house.

I went to Tokyo in 09' and I'm kicking myself for not getting a shedload of cheap Engine games back then when I had the chance

I went to Japan a few times years back and it was like going to Mecca, it was mind blowing, unlimited games all dirt cheap and all mint. Apparently those days a now long, long gone and most of Japan's retro game stocks have been bled dry and left the country via gaijin and resellers.

Btw. Are you the author of Hyper Play? I listened to an interview on RGDS podcast about that fanzine.

It's not my zine. I've always been a massive fan of printed fanzines and a massive fan of Super Play, the magazine that inspired this fanzine. So when I first heard about Hyper Play it was right up my street and hoped it would be a success, which it looks like it has been.
I'm hoping it would lead the way and be the start of a revival of printed fanzines in general, be awesome to see ones about shoot 'm ups or fighting games etc.. or platform specific like Neo Geo or PC Engine etc..

[brightmidnight]

Any other Euro users in here?

Well, as a Northern lad, my "local" PCE shop was in Nottingham.

That was one heck of a long distance shopping trip (by British standards) from Manchester.

Had my very first car accident on one of the trips (trying to take a semi-hidden sharp corner way too fast).  :oops:

I was going to pick up the SCART-modded SuperGrafx that I'd pre-ordered from the shop as soon as the SuperGrafx was announced. 

I bought a white PAL modded PC Engine from the SUPERVISION guys back in 1990 at the September ECES (European Computer Entertainment Show) at Earls Court. Those guys were great, they definitely offered the best PAL modded systems at the time that actually output a decent picture and didn't require one of those god awful great big ugly colour boosters. I actually still have mine and I even still had the hand written receipt until recently, but it seems to have vanished. I believe they also had a sister company called SUPERGRAPHICS. They were from Hong Kong as I recall and were definitely one of the better import dealers on the scene in those early days. I mostly used PC Engine Supplies though, but I don't think they had a booth at that show. Or if they did, I couldn't find it. I don't remember seeing Raven Games there either, but I'm sure they must have had a booth. The show was massive and quite overwhelming. My head was spinning by the time I left!

Did anybody else go to those ECES shows back then? They were beyond amazing, literally stuffed with booths representing most of the grey import mail order companies in the UK of the era, selling all of the latest Japanese consoles and games. There were lots of live entertainment events going on, but I skipped all of that stuff and headed straight to the vendor area. I was 14 at the time, so it was a golden age for me gaming wise and I was already an absolutely hardcore Japanese import gamer by that point. My brother and I went there with my dad and our tiny minds were utterly blown by what was on display. Everywhere you looked there were Mega Drives, Neo Geos and PC Engines running the best new games that were available. It was an audio visual overload. I remember it was the first time I ever saw a SuperGrafx or Neo Geo in person and also the first time I laid eyes on a Game Boy (also Japanese import) right before they got released in the UK. I clearly recall agonising over whether to buy a SuperGrafx or an original white Engine, but the SuperGrafx was quite a bit more expensive. I bought a copy of Splatterhouse with my PC Engine and the total was around £250 - £275, so definitely not cheap. Import gaming was definitely not for the faint hearted or gamers on a budget. I remember Splatterhouse had just been released and was a red hot title. I was so excited to get home and fire it up and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Great memories of an absolutely golden bygone era!

[esteban]

...
Everywhere you looked there were Mega Drives, Neo Geos and PC Engines running the best new games that were available. It was an audio visual overload. I remember it was the first time I ever saw a SuperGrafx or Neo Geo in person and also the first time I laid eyes on a Game Boy (also Japanese import) right before they got released in the UK. I clearly recall agonising over whether to buy a SuperGrafx or an original white Engine, but the SuperGrafx was quite a bit more expensive. I bought a copy of Splatterhouse with my PC Engine and the total was around £250 - £275, so definitely not cheap. Import gaming was definitely not for the faint hearted or gamers on a budget. I remember Splatterhouse had just been released and was a red hot title. I was so excited to get home and fire it up and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Great memories of an absolutely golden bygone era!

Amazing. To my knowledge, we had no equivalent in the States. No import "scene" per se, just a few scattered shops that might carry some import games.

As stated earlier in the thread, even folks outside of England/UK love reading about this piece of PCE history because *we don't know about it*.

I just want to REQUEST... if you folks have *any* zines, ads, documents, flyers from any of these shops, I would love to include them here:

http://archives.tg-16.com/magazine_database.htm?col=region&val=uk

It is shameful that there are only two entries for U.K. 

I NEED TO FIX THAT.

[imparanoic]

Wow this is a great thread! Interesting read!

I have been aware of the PC Engine since it was first featured in an old C&VG, and later the famous picture of the IFU with a packet of skips resting on it to give the scale of the unit Unfortunately my local import shops didn't carry PCE stuff back in the day, we only had SFC and Japanese MD stuff, I went that route. I grew up in Newport - South Wales, so Cardiff was only 20mins down the road from me and there was a killer import shop there. They mainly focuses on American import like NEO AES / TG16 and the usual other suspects,  but they did have a handful of the more popular Japanese imports. I was always avidly reading the CVG and the legendary 'Complete Guide To Consoles' mags back in the day following the PCE, the 'scanlined RGB'd off the screen screenshots' blew my mind back then! They looked SO good. It wasn't until Christmas 93' that I finally got my first PCE. I mainly got my games from KT Konsoles (Keith and Bob were great at recommending games) in Thurso by mail order and the usual famous UK imports like Raven, Console Concepts and Dream Machines 2.

Looking through this thread I saw some mention the PCE guide book, I actually had this back in the day, great book! Like the loser I was I even laminated the book to prevent damage :/ I also highlighted the games I had in the cheats section and wrote down the games that I wanted/own in the notes section







Ah Classic CEX, when it was good! In their smaller shop down the end in the early 90's. I used to frequent London's TCR import shops in the early 90's like Shekahna etc, it was such an exciting and magical time for gaming back then. Ah Advanced console entertainment.... My mate bought a PCE Briefcase in CEX in the late 90's and we went there before our bus home back to Wales to get it RGB modded. We went back in 2hours, which to be fair was a pretty quick turnaround, but when we arrived home the RGB amped and he wired the sound from the PCE bus and not the RCA jacks resulting in no CD music. Shoddy.

Here are a few bargains I got from CEX in 2002. It was pretty much dead on its arse back then unfortunately.

i had that home made magazine as well