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Next Generation
March 1995 - Issue 3, Volume 1
*This was a section taken from the Hudson Soft alphas section.
Hudson's link with NEC, which began with the PC Engine, has continued to flourish, and has just blossomed in the form of a new machine, the PC-FX, which is aimed at recapturing NEC's former, and more prominent, position in the competitive Japanese videogame industry.
Games like Hi-Ten Bomberman won't be appearing on the PC-FX, though, because of NEC directives on software development. Apparently, the company's intention is to concentrate solely on software which is based on popular various anime series, so although it is claimed that the system is able to handle both sprite and polygon-based titles, the range of software will be heavily biased toward pregenerated animated footage. this marketing strategy is perfectly illustrated by Battle Heat, a Fist of the North Star- Inspired fighting game which is scheduled for release at the same time as the machine. Battle Heat only conforms to the estabilished beat 'em up formula at the beginning, in as much as each player gets to choose their fighter from a selection of eight. From then on, the action is turn-based. When a player has gained the initiative, he or she is free to unleash an attack from their character's repertoire of moves - rather like a traditional Japanese roleplaying game. the resulting animation - be it a successful fit, block or whatever - is immediately kicked in from the CD, after which the recipent is able to return in kind.
The game's theme, plot and characters were all designed by members of of Hudson Soft's in-house team and then relayed to an external animation studio where the anime footage was created. This is fantastical action-crazed stuff featuring typical Japanese camera angles, furious speed lines and dramatic pans.
The other project from Hudson Soft's PC-FX development arm is Team Innocent. Although it too comes armed with a gazillion megabytes' worth of prerenderd stills as well as footage, it also features traditional sprites, blending the two to create a space adventure with a very unusual and distinctive flavor.
With backgrounds rendered using Alias software on Silicon Graphics machines, Team Innocent is similar in style to Infogames' Alone In The Dark series. The PC-FX holds several views of each location in RAM and flips between them as the player moves around. Certainly the most impressive aspect of the title, though, is its stunning, full-screen digital playback drive, courtesy of Hudson Soft's own specially customized hardware.
But, perhaps wisely, Hudson is not depending entirely on the PC-FX for its future. With various projects for the newly released PlayStation and Saturn and for the 3DO currently in development, it looks as if the company will also have a strong presence in the next-generation mainstream.
1995 - Premiere Issue
NEC, a company whose games division is aimed almost exclusively at the Japanese market, also showed up. Playable demos on finished PC-FX units included the same selection of (it has to be said, very Japanese) software seen at the Tokyo Toy Show, although the majority are nearing completion.
Also circulating on the NEC stand were rumors of the company's future plans: Several sources claim that NEC is already working on the successor to the upcoming PC-FX system.
Finally, the "ambitious shoot 'em up" (their words, not ours) in development for the PC-FX is to be a 3D remake of Space Invaders. Very ambitious.
Not.
1995 - Premiere Issue
*This was taken from the Hardware section.
NEC FX
The PC Engine outsold Sega's Genesis in Japan, but now NEC looks for a more global platform.
The FX, a curious looking machine resembling a PC tower, is NEC's latest attempt to muscle into the global games market. The 32-Bit CD machine has been in development for more than four years now and is an ambitious replacement for the PC Engine which made little headway outside of Japan.
Released in the US under the name of TurboGrafx, the PC Engine maintained a small cult following of gamers reliant on whatever software was imported from across the Pacific. In all honesty, it's unlikely that the FX will ever manage much greater penetration into the mainstream, but as long as the machine sells well enough in NEC's homeland to warrant developers' attention, then you can be sure of a constant trickle of games - just enough to keep small pockets of diehard US gamers happy.
Those gamers already bitten by the NEC bug will be disappointed to learn that CD PC Engine software will not run on the new offering. It is, however, compatible with NEC's PC-98 and can be used as a CD drive for the machine.
FX was due to hit the Japanese market in November, but NEC has not made any decision yet about launching in either the US or Europe. The unit is priced at the yen equivalent of around $400, but NEC believes it has to bring the price down considerably when it decides to attack the US market.
So far, there are only a handful of third party publishers, all of which are Japanese companies. In fact, very little is known about the initial software support. NEC claims that around 15 titles are in development, but is giving away very few details about individual games. Four or five should be available before the holidays.
NEC's forecasts for FX sales are not too ambitious. It expects to sell 50,000 units in Japan its first year: No the kind of numbers to set Sony, Nintendo and Sega running to the corporate privy in terror.
So while the NEC FX may well prove to be a competent gaming platform, modest ambition, a strange design and a lack of software support do, however, seem to limit its chances of being the first machine to bring NEC any real games market success beyond the limits of its home country.
NEXT Generation will continue to cover products for the FX until it is possible to determine if anyone really cares.
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