PC-FX

The PC-FX is a 32-bit home console made by NEC as the successor to the PC Engine. It was released in Japan in December 1994, at the same time as the Sega Saturn and the PlayStation, and was never sold in other countries.

Unlike most consoles of the time, the PC-FX was shaped like a tower PC and could be stacked with it. It used an NEC V810 RISC processor and had no dedicated 3D hardware. Instead its video chips were designed to play full screen, full motion video and to layer it with 2D graphics.

This made it strong at video based and anime style games, but it could not match the 3D games on the Saturn and PlayStation. Most of its library of around 60 games are visual novels, dating games and interactive anime, and many of them used the console’s video playback heavily.

The PC-FX sold poorly and was discontinued in early 1998. It was NEC’s last home console.

Mednafen is the main emulator for the PC-FX today. It needs the PC-FX BIOS and runs the whole library well.