How big do you think the active PC Engine fanbase is?

[sunteam_paul]

I had this random thought today, but how big do you think the PC Engine/TG-16 fanbase is - discounting those that purely buy and sell for profit?

It always seems that there are really not that many 'active' PCE fans - there are a handful of regular members here, ME and Rising Stuff (PCE section) forums are always very quiet. Are we a dying breed perhaps, or are they just all hanging out somewhere else? I guess that the PCE/TG-16 will always be the underdog when compared to Nintendo or Sega, but it would be interesting to wave a magic wand and know just how many interested people there still are.

[Otaking]

I think sadly the PC-Engine Fanbase is surprisingly very small, I would of guessed it was alot larger but as you say most forum sites are pretty dead revealing just how small and specialized it is.
Saying that though the TG-16 Fanbase appears to be growing at the moment, how long for and how much bigger it will get, who knows...

 

[Tatsujin]

it is still bigger as it seems to be. some also hanging in the assembler forums or can't speak nuff english to hang around on english boards anyway (what i'm doin' here?). f.e. lot of french, spain, italian, portuguese, germans etc.

i know at least 10 to 15 other swiss peeps which are pce fans and not on this or any other english boards. and everyone knows of how small the lil swiss is.

then also don't forget about the even huger japanese fanbase.

[nectarsis]

There seems to be a fair amount of peeps on a few boards (CAG, DP), and like tats said... french, and spanish sites.  If those peeps on the other boards are here, they aren't "active" here, or have different names, but I see more than a few enter into various conversations about TG/PCE.

[Necromancer]

I'd say it's a relatively small number of active fans when compared to some other systems, but it's a rather large number of fans when compared to original sales (outside of Japan, of course).

[ParanoiaDragon]

There are deffinitly more then it seems.  There are some that post only at the Magic Engine boards, some at the Ancient Land of Ys boards, some that don't even post anything anywhere, but still buy the games & look forward to homebrew's.  I know one personally whose a huge Turbo fan, but, doesn't go to forums or anything.  Some people just don't have the time.  I can understand that, as I've had to limit my forum surfing so that I can live a semi normal life outside the internet, & *gasp* actually play the games once in awhile.  I seriously was just surfing too many boards, I had to do some pick & choosing.

[Arkhan]

I think the fanbase overall is still small even if there are fans lurking off the internets.


The local game show I ran the Insanity booth at, alot of people saw the PCE/TG and were like "Oh that thing" or "i played it some once".  Not alot of dedicated fans.  Kinda depressing.

[esteban]

Excellent question, sunteam_paul.

I've wondered this myself.

Here are a bunch of factors to consider:

1. Some folks have an exceedingly narrow interest in PCE  (i.e. their favorite franchise).  Akumajyou Dracula X Chi no Rondo, anyone?
2. In that vein, old-skool shoot-em-up fans eventually familiarize themselves with PCE. At least these folks are interested in exploring an entire genre in the PCE library. I'm sure this applies to other genres as well... to a lesser extent.
3. Some folks have a fleeting interest in PCE. They don't stick around for long.
4. Some folks love PCE, but don't find the forums sufficiently endearing and/or engaging.

E. I thought Wii's Virtual Console would really "popularize" TG-16/PCE... and it has, to an extent, but the stagnant VC has silenced our best "promotional too".
F. The Swiss love PCE.
G. .....

[Arkhan]

I think all the VC did was spread the word to people who are either severely misinformed, or want to use TG/PCE gameplay footage as more pro-SNES / pro-Genesis propaganda.

[sunteam_paul]

I had the bright idea of actually checking the Analytics data for my site. It reckons there have been nearly 49,000 unique visitors which seems to me extremely unlikely, even though spiders and bots are not counted in the data. But even if you drop that to a quarter to discount those that have stumbled upon it by accident, that's still an awful lot of people. Perhaps it's not such a small fanbase after all.

[Necromancer]

Where's Joe?  I wonder how the stats for Sega-16 look in comparison.

[exodus]

probably like 12 dudes

[WoodyXP]

It's hard to tell how big it is.  One thing I do know is there is a lot of interest/curiosity out there.
I visit alot of different videogame/computer related forums and there is always at
least one thread about the NEC systems.

[sunteam_paul]

Perhaps we should start an awareness campaign, as obviously not enough people have learned to OBEY PC ENGINE.

[Necromancer]

Perhaps we should start an awareness campaign, as obviously not enough people have learned to OBEY PC ENGINE.

There's no such thing as 'enough'.  It's like having 'too much' money; can't be done.