M64p

PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16)

Above: The PC Engine. Below: The SuperGrafx.
Developer	NEC Home Electronics, Hudson Soft
Type	Home video game console
Generation	Fourth generation
Release date	1987
Discontinued	1994
Successor	SuperGrafx, PC-FX
Emulated	✓

The PC Engine (PCE) was an 8-bit system released jointly by NEC and Hudson Soft in Japan on October 30, 1987 and in the US on August 29, 1989. It was retailed for $399.99. It had a Hudson Soft HuC6280 8-bit CPU at 7.16 MHz and 1.79 MHz with 8KB of RAM and 64KB of VRAM. The CPU was teamed up with a 16-bit graphics processor and 16-bit video color encoder chip, both built by Hudson Soft. When it came time to seek other potential markets, the two companies eventually caved to a limited American release in 1989 under a completely different model and name: the TurboGrafx-16. The European versions varied throughout the countries, being the western version in Spain and United Kingdom and Japanese models in Benelux regions.

The joint venture, formed in North America as TTI, made an add-on called the PC Engine CD (PCE-CD) / TurboGrafx-CD (TG-CD) that loaded games from discs instead, much like the Sega CD but better supported. The PC Engine Duo / Turbo-Duo combined the add-on into the unit with more RAM as yet another failed attempt to relaunch the failing console in the West.

When it first launched in North America, the TurboGrafx-16 was largely seen as a failure blamed on poor marketing by the manufacturers. The PC Engine, on the other hand, was a whole different story, beating out the Famicom when it first came out long enough to compete against its rival's own successor and gave little focus for the Mega Drive who was instead posing more of a threat to Nintendo in North America.

NEC planned to enhance the system further, announcing the "PC Engine 2" that would later become the PC Engine SuperGrafx. However, it was rushed to a 1989 market in Japan lacking much of its promised features with only seven titles exclusively made for it, ending up a commercial failure to be binned and discontinued not long after. The PC Engine GT / Turbo-Express was a very rare handheld model of the original hardware, in the same vein as the Sega Nomad (a portable Sega Genesis / Mega Drive). It did include some exclusive features like the TurboLink multiplayer feature (used in games such as the flight sim called Falcon and Bomberman 93) but wasn't widely supported.

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	PCE-CD (TG-CD)	PCE2 (SG)	Libretro Core	Accuracy	FLOSS	Active	Recommended
PC / x86
Mednafen (PCE-Accurate)		1.32.1	✓	✓	✓	High	✓	✓	✓
MAME		0.264	✓	✓	✓	High	✓	✓	✓
Mednafen (PCE-Fast)		1.32.1	✓	✓	✓	Mid	✓	✓	✓
BizHawk		2.9.1	✓	✓	✗	High	✓	✓	✓
higan		v110	~	✓	✓	?	✓	✓	~
Turbo Engine		0.32	✓	✓	✗	High	?	✗	✗
MagicEngine		1.1.3	✓	✓	✗	Mid	✗	✗	✗
Ootake		3.04	✓	✓	✗	Mid	?	✓	✗
pcejin (Mednafen 0.8.x)		Git	✓	✓	✗	Mid	?	✗	✗
DarcNES		9b0401/9b0313	~	✗	✗	Low	?	✗	✗
Neco		0.11	✗	✗	✗	Low	?	✗	✗
ePCEngine		8/12/2017	✓	✓	✗	?	?	✓	✗
FinalBurn Alpha		0.2.97.43	✓	✓	✓	?	✗	✓	✗
Hu-Go!		2.12	✓	?	✗	?	?	✗	✗
Mobile / ARM
Mednafen (PCE-Fast)		1.32.1	✓	✓	✓	Mid	✓	✓	✓
PCE.emu		1.5.43	✓	?	✗	?	?	✓	✗
Console
Virtual Console		N/A	✓	✗	✗	High	✗	✓	✓
Mednafen (PCE-Fast)		1.32.1	✓	✓	✓	Mid	✓	✓	✓
Hu-Go! GX		2.12	✓	✓	✗	Mid	?	✗	✓
HuCast		06/01/07	✓	?	✗	Mid	?	✗	✓
HuE		0.70	✓	~	✗	Mid	?	✗	✓
NitroGrafx		0.7	✓	✗	✗	?	?	✗	~

Comparisons

Mednafen

Much like its other original cores, it does very well, even having two profiles: PCE-Accurate and PCE-Fast. Despite being CLI-based, a fork of an older version that has a GUI has emerged called pcejin. RetroArch uses the PCE-Fast core for its beetle fork.

Ootake

It's okay for general purposes.

MAME

Has a pce driver (and a child driver called tg16). In all revisions it emulates, MAME reports it as working and the graphics as okay, but the sound is imperfect.

MagicEngine

Unfortunately trialware that costs €15 euro. There are better options available for free.

NitroGrafx

is a DS TurboGrafx emulator for Nintendo DS. It is included with TWiLight Menu++