Can we fix a rare Japanese Games Console? The NEC PCFX
Thank you to FanHome for supporting this episode with their Street Fighter 2 collection
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NEC's PC-FX was the successor to it's popular PC Engine, taking on the Sega Saturn, Atari Jaguar, Sony PlayStation and 3DO video game consoles. Commercially the PC-FX flopped, never selling outside of Japan. Today we fix and restore a celebrity console sent in by a very special game dev after he had a barbeque with it. Can we fix the PC-FX, and if we can, are the games worth it? Let's find out.
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00:00:00 Intro and how the NEC PC-FX came to RMC.
00:01:01 Unboxing the PC-FX.
00:02:37 A brief history of the NEC PC-FX console.
00:04:38 Thanks to this episodes sponsor - FANHOME.
00:05:29 Disassembling the NEC FC-FX to find that smell!
00:06:21 Interview with Mike Dailly - Creator of Lemmings, GTA and donator of the PC-FX.
00:11:42 Repairing the NEC PC-FX
00:16:47 Looking at the PC-FX FX-BMP Backup Memory Pack.
00:18:43 Testing the PC-FX and Gameplay.
00:21:52 Our conclusions on the PC-FX PSU repair and thoughts about the games we played.
00:24:27 Patreon Thanks and Credits
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Thanks for watching! Sorry the lapel mic is a bit janky, this is the very last video we've recorded using them and have now upgraded the kit, so expect better audio on cam in future. Huge thanks to Mike Dailly for sending us this in! Neil
I was just going to ask what the f is wrong with the sound?
So your a dumpster diver
If Mike Dailly sees this thanks for creating Lemmings, you gave me countless hours of fun when I was a kid
Currently in the process of unofficially archiving it, so does not disappear. Adding levels to the ISO also...
The only game I paid more time to than lemmings and GTA was settlers. Thanks Mike.
I played lemmings on my A500
@@jason_a_smith_gb archiving what?
An engineer at APC: "I loved my PC-FX. I think I'll give it credit by making it the most popular UPS unit ever made."
“I loved my PC-FX. I think I’ll give it credit by making it the most popular UPS unit ever made for industrial use. And then I think I’ll design its batteries to fail…. Oh let’s call it ~every six months, then emitting the most consistent and annoying ‘BEEP’ ever known to man, forever drawing the ears and eyes of all human beings in the vicinity towards the (hated) object” -fixed
Well, that game "without gameplay" where you clicked hundreds of times and never got to a game is probably whats called a visual novel, quite prevalent in japan. It really is just that, basically a book with pictures and music (sometimes voice acting) you experience on your tv or monitor. Lots of them around even nowadays and in english.
unfortunately.
@@staticfanatic while there are a huge amounts of trashy ones given how cheap and easy they are to produce; there are also a lot of hidden gems, many of which can be very thought-provoking. Such as ones which take advantage of the CYOA type ability with diverging stories, the best ones will usually have stories that build with epilogues to the originally-available options. Some even play with the form or break the fourth wall, pointing out the player trying all the options just because they can and exploring what that means philosophically (this took the gaming world by storm when Undertale took inspiration from that, but the innovation itself was started in VNs).
Nay. I have the game. You have to hit buttons at the right times to either throw an attack or block. The portraits on the top of the screen show you how close you are from your opponent. If you're further away you can't do just normal punches and kicks and stuff. It plays like a fighting game complete with a character select screen. Another thing is there's switches on the controller. If they're set in the wrong spot it might make the game behave differently.
@@staticfanatic Terrible take. Just, absolutely god-awful. Steins;Gate, Chaos;Head, Clannad, Kanon, Tokimeki Memorial, the Zero Time Dilemma series, Somnium Files, Snatcher, are just a few VN with more than enough gameplay to keep you engaged and deliver top-shelf stories. I could keep going on and on.
These repair and restore videos are my favorite on the channel. They are an instant watch whenever they pop up in my feed.
Thank you I'm glad you're enjoying them
same. i love seeing this stuff please dont stop anytime soon. you two are an awesome team!
when they were pressing that button 100 times a second i almost died. im a huge pc engine fan and had never seen pcfx games in motion. it was pretty much like i imagined it would be. great vid guys thx
The batteries do indeed say "Beaver Aircon", a brand of air conditioner sold by Mitsubishi Electric. The batteries probably came out of the remote control for an air conditioner. I recommend you try more games, maybe with a tablet with google translate running pointed at the screen at all times. The PC-FX's library was very plot-heavy and thus difficult for people without Japanese skills, but many of the games were great. A lot of people are put off by the FMV gimmick, but if the game is still good the cutscenes add to the experience rather than detract. Most of the library are NOT "FMV games", but rather games with FMV added. The PC-FX was a 2D powerhouse, one of the best ever made. It never had time to develop so we never got to see how far it could go. I think the main reason for this -- in addition to the lack of 3D -- is that it was up against the Sega Saturn, which was even BETTER at 2D, and could still do 3D thanks to its advanced sprite warping doubling as a 3D rasterizer. It's important to remember that 2D games were big in Japan in the mid 90's, and that the Sega Saturn outsold the Sony Playstation in Japan by a fair margin until the release of Final Fantasy 7. I think the main reason for this is that Japan was big on 2D animated artwork in a way that the US wasn't, and the not-very-good 3D on the Saturn and Playstation just couldn't copy that aesthetic very well until the late 90's when programmers learned how to make 3D models prettier (this was fixed on the PS2 when they really learned how to make 3D models look good). Even then, 2D games remained solid sellers in Japan to this very day. Basically the PC-FX could've been the standard-bearer of 2D gaming in Japan for years, but the Saturn could do it even better with more flexibility.
The batteries still helped things to smell then... sort of?
I really like the design aesthetic of the PC-FX itself.
Looks a lot like a UPS. Not necessarily a bad thing.
@@gleggett3817 Thought the same ^^
@@gleggett3817 That was my first thought "Butchered APC case"
APC really, REALLY liked it
As a PC-FX owner myself, I have to mention that the shooter you played (Chōshin Heiki Zeroigar) has a full English translation patch that adds subtitles even to all the FMVs. Game's bog standard, but it actually has a pretty dope storyline and a leveling system that makes no sense in Japanese. It takes place right after World War II, and apparently aliens attack so they turn a WWII fighter jet into a giant robot that flies out into space to shoot stuff. (it transforms at the stage 1 boss and stays a giant robot for the rest of the game) It's wild. I don't care for stories for shmups but I actually enjoyed it when I could understand it. Also try S-Video with it. The S-Video is surprisingly clean. Probably the best I've seen on a console. It might make Zork playable.
Thanks, I think I need to try out some translations as it's so easy to just burn them off and try them. Thanks for the tip
Tip for anyone dealing with NTSC signals: try using the inputs on a more modern VCR. We have a VCR + DVD combo unit, which can play NTSC VHS tapes and also accepts NTSC AV inputs. Very handy indeed.
If using an HDMI compatible screen, a RetroTink can be very handy. They accept PAL&NTSC and generally handle noisy signals rather well. It’s somewhat common to see people beginning to use them on either side of the pond for older micros and consoles without having to worry too much about signal conversion. All that being said, your solution is absolutely one of the best ones for hooking up to a CRT, especially for also gaining DVD and VHS. I loved my dad’s one for giving two SCART and two composite in Europe, which made his good quality but single SCART 24” TV way more easily usable with consoles (this was back in the day, not more recently).
There are TVs (beginning in the nineties I think) that could handle 2 or 3 types of signals, no adapter needed. Not sure if those were available worldwide, but here in Brazil they are more or less standard.
@@magoid True, and that's basically what Neil's looking around for, but people may already have a suitable VCR lying around in their shed somewhere, or be able to pick up a suitable model very cheaply. The VCR mechanism doesn't even need to work anymore, so you might even be doing someone a favour by grabbing one for free. Our two VCR + DVD combo machines are from LG if anyone's looking for something similar.
Whenever I see a game that is heavy on cutscenes and/or dialog, I'm reminded of a statement Adam Sessler said in a game review on X-Play years ago; "this game is in love with it's own story."
Most of my favourite games are story/cutscene/dialogue heavy, games come is so many different shapes and guises, I'll happily sit through a 30-minute-long cutscene if it's done well and adds to the overall experience, which it often does. I remember Max Payne 1&2 dialogue being so good that I would often stop and stay hidden before I entered the room or wherever to listen to them speaking, those games had such good atmospheres and incredible writing by Sam Lake and Co.
"It's a beaver" "I've never seen one of those in real life" Spoken like a true nerd! lol
🤣
As a Canadian Nerd, I've only ever seen one (which ironically was on a motherfugging Canada day, which surprised me since it was swimming in a brook in a Greater Toronto Area city)
Looks like a UPS. Haha
It actually does.
Perfect description
The bit with you talking about long cut scenes would make a great gif of "old people try to play video games." Standing at a weird angle, holding the controller wrong, jabbing at a button with a pecker finger. Good stuff
Mr Bean helping to play 'Chariots Of Fire', 2012 Olympics video. Constantly having to play just one button/key. Seemed familiar to me there, with Neil having to do much the same thing. LOL.
Love the late 80s and 90s PC consoles from Japan, they have so much character, even the beige plastic ones. Easy to emulate now & enjoy what there was of the library. Cheers, love these vids.
I hope you still read comments on your older videos. Anyways: I have now had the chance to restore two PC-FX consoles, with both of them having leaky caps in the PSU. Especially the blue ones (Marcon EFM series). And the leakage had already started attacking a diode that is wedged between 2 of the caps. You should really check this in your PC-FX.
20:46 Mom enters the room: Hey dear what are you playing?
And why does it smell like a barbecue in here?
My only comment would be with no copy protection its a nifty platform for homebrew software + hardware additions to extend it.
The problem is that there's not a working SDK or toolchain for PC-FX compared to say, something like HuC for the PC Engine. This makes developing homebrew very difficult, especially since there isn't very much documentation around the PC-FX hardware/software in general.
@@jakek.8530 I found a toolchain for this one and enough goods to get started.
I really appreciate the episodes together with Mark. The chemistry between you two really makes for excellent content!
Mark Fixes Neil's Stuff
I think so too when the guys are together on camera, but i'm cringing a bit at the scripted overdubbed narration, which seems to lack all chemisty.
Return to Zork looks like one of those early mass market DVDs that were not transfers from film, but a straight up VHS to digital conversion.
A little whiff of extra nostalgia with the tango man at 16:50
I had one a few years ago. And while I love the design and the controller, it's more of a curiosity rather than something worth getting
I Kid you not , while you both were talking about bbq smells coming off the power supply, my neighbour was burning some rubbish in his back garden so i got the full effect lol, good job guys!
'Smellovision!'
@@plan7a You remember that ? Those scratch and sniff cards 😂
@@Ori-Retro-Gamer Thank you for the reply, yep I remember them. Some of them smelled like they ought, others perhaps not so. You still get such scratch and sniff things in make-up catalogues on the perfume pages. I'd say they work better today though.
1:16 *APC Battery Backup*
I absolutely love those batteries design. Makes me wanna buy a pack.
That was a lucky fix for the PSU on this device. Got to say that Japanese Electronics were designed to survive back then.
Strong barbecue smell out of any electronic usually means someone plugged a 100-127v device to 220-240v
I really like the look of this console. Has an early 90s Apple look.
Loved this episode, I really forget I’m watching KZhead with your videos, such is the high quality editing and brilliant format - this stuff should be on actual TV!!
Very kind thank you
Battle Heat is actually incredibly playable, the movements you can do are very reactive just like a "genuine" fighting game. If I remember you tap up twice to get up clsoe and down twice to go away (the portraits will move also to show this), you can dodge and block the attacks and perform special moves. Me and my friend were playing it in versus to understand it more and after quite a session we came to appreciate it a quite a bit.
Another great episode. I like the look of this console and am glad you got it working.
Not sure why NEC didn't at least add a slot for PC Engine Hu-Cards to the machine, or an adaptor
PC Engine has an 8bit 6502-clone CPU. PC-FX has a 32bit RISC CPU, so that wouldn't work without extra hardware.
Mike Dailly! Glad to see you there on his video!!
Mike Dailly, what a legend!
That new set looks amazing.
The PC Engine deserved a better followup. Good video though - I see Mike Dailly was as disappointed as I was with the PCFX
Yep, it's a beaver, it's written in katakana above it: Beaver Aircon.
19:55 That's a blast from the past. I've fond memories of the Zork Nemesis follow up.
I worry that Neil is wearing a shumper and not a shirt and jumper.
Don't make me strip for you Dave
lol :D
@@RMCRetro That's only for the top tier patreon supporters
I installed the PC-FX emulator on my RetroPie build and didn't find any games worth keeping it installed. It was kinda cool to see them but that was all I got out of it.
This is the first time that I've noticed the shelf of LucasArts adventure games in the background. That brings back so many great memories.
Love these obscure consoles, well done on the repair.
Amazing channel so glad I found it.
25:21 Hammer Time!
'Can't touch this'.
I wanted a PC-FX ever since seeing DieHard GameFan magazine review Team Innocent, a 1994 space adventure/horror game with some action, that used rendered backgrounds like the early Resident Evil games. It showcased the machine's colour palette quite well, and was certainly atmospheric. Characters were straight out of '90s anime, but mostly existed as blocky scaling sprites. I believe it is just about possible to blunder through it without knowing Japanese. But it's very rough around the edges in terms of pacing, movement, visual consistency and puzzles. If acquired cheaply it might be worth running around the first space station for a bit though. I mean, in its time, those magazine screenshots looked like the best thing ever!
I enjoyed watching this. Great video!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
snatcher would be nice on this
Doesn't look like a PC to me, it looks more like a UPS.
i thought it was a ups at first lol
Truth is that UPS-es look like the PC-FX
Yup APC BackUPS 650... Haha
With that top loading tray I got the distinct impression of a GameCube... Just saying!
More like a IPS in this case :) Interrupted Power Suplly...
Great vid! FYI, Return to Zork actually clears right up after the intro scenes... buut it's fully in Japanese, audio and text.
When will we see a review of the ultra-rare Okama Gamesphere?
Mike Daily deserves an OBE.
I spot an Iron Lord poster in Mike's background, I still have mine that came free with Crash magazine back in the 80's 🤓😁 I also want his Ridge Racer machine 🤣
I really like the design of the PCFX. It looks as if someone tried to casemod an original PlayStation into a Mini PC case.
It looks like a UPS :D
Another victim of Sony's sudden entry into the console space, completely changing what was thought possible for the price. Hardware engineers in the established Japanese console labs must have been pulling their hair out in frustration 😁
yeah... having to compete suddenly with a company that could sell their consoles with loss to gain a playerbase to profit only on licenses or take in the losses from other divisions basically put a nail in the coffin on every smaller manufacturers that were console specialized, making for a end of the era. (Nintendo had the handheld market all alone so they survived, and can in a way thank Sony for killing off any other competitors)
@@brrebrresen1367 it is all Nintendo's fault anyway. Google Nintendo Playstation prototype to see what Sony was developing for them.
@@MrDuncl i know the history behind the PlayStation and Nintendo too had some questionable ethics back then, problem was they pissed of someone with equally if not more questionable ethics but also way more money... aka Sony.
Great vid as always question would u have a link for the solder mark is using fixing the psu ? thanks
It's Weller Radiolot. amzn.to/34JMEQ5
@@MarkFixesStuff fair play to ya man thanks 😊
Der Langrisser at 22:35 is fun and with a little bit of work you can figure out the menus. But it's available on other platforms with fan translations and there's a remaster on Steam as well.
Computer nerd stating he's never seen a beaver in real life = me spraying my tea over my keyboard. That was hilarious xD
From what I understand there is only a handful of games playable for native English speakers. Battle heat, Chip-chan kick, Shanghai, Super power league FX, Tokimeki Card Paradise, Tengai Makyou, Zen nihon joshi pro wres. Plus a couple of fan translations available like Farland story fx, Ruruli Ra Rura, welcome to pie carrot, God-Fighter Zeroigar which I believe can also be played on real hardware. If anyone knows of any others it would be great to hear, but fairly sure that list is it.
Something seemed off about the video on the TV, like every other column was swapped or something. Like it was interlaced, but vertically.
We had some issues very much like that when we tried to capture footage as well.
Great vid
Neil is right that it is a beaver on the batteries, the batteries are branded "Beaver Air Con" which is a long running line of air conditioners from Mitsubishi... I think those batteries probably were pack in for the remote control that came with air conditioning unit
@13:20 it didn't fail, it did it's job! You should commemorate these 'lil caps that gave their lives to protect these vintage machines :(
I had a lot of fun with my PC-FX! If you don't read any Japanese then Battle Heat, Tengai Makyou, Zenki, Zeroigar and Chip Chan Kick are probably the ones worth playing. I'd also recommend checking out Team Innocent and Nirgends just to see examples of how the system worked around the lack of 3D acceleration (some Japanese knowledge required, especially with Nirgends). Langrisser, Boundary Gate, Blue Breaker are fun RPGs, Comic Road and Fire Woman Matoigumi are quirky and fun simulation games (Requires intermediate Japanese knowledge). Personally I love FMV-stuff like Dragon's Lair, that's what dragged me into it in the first place. If you don't like that sort of thing then there's probably not much fun to be had. When playing Battle Heat, make sure to pay attentions to the bars above and below the screen. These will tell whenever an attack is incoming and if its high or low, high=up low=down. Block the opponents attack while holding either up or down while pressing block ("II" I believe). Hopefully that will make things more enjoyable lol.
I remember jokingly commenting on Game Sack’s video of the PC-FX, calling this system the “Hentai Engine”. Part of the reason is because most of its software library is dating sims, visual novels and Eroge-type games. While impressive in their 2D capabilities, when not talking about graphics, they are the continuation of the typical library you’d expect from previous NEC PC systems in the Japanese market. Knowledge of the Japanese language is mandatory to even get to enjoy some of these games. Also, some releases were later on ported to Windows and PlayStation or Saturn, so not all games are exclusives (though they remain Japanese-region exclusive).
I worked with Mike at RTW, nice chap
Potentially the first video on the PC-FX that doesn’t spend all its time discussing its infamy as a platform for hentai! Bravo. Also just wanted to say that I love this format and it’s appearance on Tuesdays!
I'm not sure if there was one for the PC-FX, but the FM Towns PC had a copy of Cyan's The Manhole. (Yes, the same producers behind Myst.)
It wasn't on the PC-FX, but there *was* a port for the PC Engine CD! Courtesy of Sunsoft. :)
Ah, the Two Ronnies of the retro computer world - intended as a complement. Mmm, the PC-FX. Quite a cool machine today but as this pony's one trick was FMV we all know why it failed so horribly.
It's goodnight from him...
@@RMCRetro Only us old folk will get the joke haha
This PC-FX reminds me those NEC PC-9800 Series PC Desktop with floppy discs back in late 80s or early 90s. One of my friends play RPG JP games on these PC rather than Nitendo consoles.
So the dude that created gta seems way nicer than a lot of people would probably think.
I think I have been watching too many episodes of Retro Recipes, because when Neil chucked that Zork CD away, I was expecting the sound of breaking glass! 🤣
looks more like a UPS to me
It looks like a UPS 😂
Seems like a fair trade
Let's just take a moment to mourn that MOV.
We take it for granted that modern hardware (pretty much all modern hardware, PC, consoles, whatever) have world compatible power supply boards that can work with anything. I live in the US, but after I ugpraded I sent my old computer to a friend in Australia, she was able to plug it right in and use it.
I really love this two host format.
Me too --- are RMC and MFS officially co-habiting now?
@@hjalfi That would be an awesome way to utilise the yet walled off space ;)
I was sadder about NEC leaving the console market than I was when Sega left. The turbografx16 holds a special place in my heart.
I wasn't really. The western releases really, really, really lacked compared to the japanese releases. And the turbo 16 was really hard to find stateside, let alone the CD system. While sega genesis and cd were everywhere. Around here at least.
I like it. Almost indescribably delectable.
Hmm. I remember when I replaced my 386 PC with VGA with a Mac LCIII back in the day and being disappointed with the Mac games. Why? Didn’t it have the games I wanted to play? (no, that wasn’t it - sure, it didn’t have as many games, but it had all the games I wanted to play) Did the games play badly? (No - they all ran fast enough on a 33MHz 030 - although I did have to knock Doom down to a mini window). Simply it was that I’d grown used to the cartoony, blocky, 320x200 res VGA games. My brain rebelled at the crisp, colourful, full 640x480 (and more for some games like Sim City and Civilization) that the Mac churned out. I liked the blocky effect!
16:50 - Strewth! Morph has let himself go.
RMC can you put the link of the step down transforme you use for the testing
I've had it for some years but this looks pretty much the same amzn.to/3yOcr7P
It's almost a shame that it's in such good condition. The exotic hardware is really the most interesting part of the NEC PC-FX so a tear-down and restoration video would've probably been very interesting.
Congrats, your video is in the chrome web store in securly's marketing material
It is!???
What's that song that starts playing around the 16 minute mark, it’s delightful
What desoldering tool are you using? Theres a Hakko 301 that I like, but can't afford. Im just curious because yours looks extremely effective.
There are a few fan translations, you should give them a try. Especially for Zenki, it's a good game. And when you understand them, the cut scenes don't feel that long.
A quick dusting with hair lacquer should lock in the smelly molecules embedded in the plastic of the transformer. Just a quick tip.
it has an accelerator port I hope analog makes a fpga 3d card 4 it the pcfx or indy games
This console is another example of how two years' time matter in terms of technology. Maybe NEC would still have made a killing by releasing it in '93 when the PCE was losing steam, and let Hudson develop whatever they wanted for it. Another thing everyone can notice is this gamepad screams Street Fighter II, it was probably planned but nothing of the sort was released.
Cutscene Simulator 😂
This was NEC's sequel to the PC-Engine, it meant well but didn't have the popularity or software to be as big as the little console.
I wish Rubycon would make caps in the sky blue colour again
I vaguely remember this, it looks like an UPS though.
lol neil sniggering at the beaver comment..
It's strange to see someone so prolific in the Antique Tech Scene afraid to open a power supply. I don't understand why people think they need to be experts, there is no such thing as "Power Supply Expert" My equipment may have been more expensive than yours but I can tell you are far more experienced in soldering than I am. Even with my fancier equipment and more buttons, your plug and play equipment did the job faster and you did the job better than most of my soldering jobs!
Awesome looking machine! So did you manage to get rid of the bbq smell? :)
Thankfully yes! Now it just smells of disappointment
When the batteries die in the memory expansion, do the game saves go with it? Great video!
That sounds very likely. Why else would there be batteries in there?
@@haraldhimmel5687 Agreed, but it if that was the case, you wouldn't be able to change the batteries without losing your saves? Which basically means the saves on there are time-limited automatically. Sounds like an insane design, but then again, maybe the batteries are supposed to last for years and not surprising for the era
interesting consul i had never heard of