Made In Japan - NEC.

The PC Engine is the japanese counterpart of the US-released Turbografx 16. This machine came out in the fourth quarter of 1987, and by then the Sega Master System and the Nintendo Famicom had already established a strong hold onthe console market around the world. The arrival of this dinky 8 bit (andit is small) console transformed the Japanese market in a way, bringing quality games which rivals the 16 bit computers of the 80's and with almost arcade perfect conversions such as R-Type, Galaga '88, it was an instant hit.

The machine performed extremely well in Japan, and with the hype, importers were set up around the UK with places like PC Engine Suppliers, PC Engine Services, Telegames, Mention Technical Services, Raven Games London (although I think they have been there before the PC Engine days) etc selling the machines (mostly SCART modded or NTSC with a PAL booster) to UK gamers with a price range of around the 160 pounds mark.

The machine first came in to the UK with a PAL booster only which was very poor in quality as the colours looked washed out but the SCART euro conversion fixed that problem later on.

Shortly after the PC Engine saw it's debut, Sega released their Model 5 system, the Megadrive. Although it was a 16 bit system with superior graphics chip/sound,it was eventually held to 3rd place in Japan with the PC Engine outperforming it just behind the Nintendo Super Famicom.

Technical Info:

# Released: 1987 ( Japan )
# Main Processor & sound chip: HuC6280 (7.16MHz)
# Video Processor: HuC6270
# Sound: 6 channel stereo (5-bit sampling)
# Color Processor: HuC6260 (odd but true)
# Color Pallet: 512
# On screen: 512 (256 for sprites, 256 for the background.)
# Control of 64 sprites at once (16 colors and 32x64 max size.)
# Ram: 8 Kbyte (64Kbit)
# Video Ram: 64Kbyte " 512 Kbit"
# Cart Size: 256Kbit - 20 Megabit Max. (S.F. 2) Normally 8 Mbits
# JoyPad configuration: 4 buttons [I, II, SELECT & START]

LINK:
Made In Japan - Nintendo.
Made In Japan - Sega.
Made In Japan - Sony.