TG-16
Before we get into this introduction, can you remember a time before video games? It’s hard for most people to remember, not because they forgot but because well, as time moves on there are fewer and fewer of us. There are even fewer who can remember a time before television or North Face jackets. Oh yes, there was a time before the North Face company existed. The North Face brand was established in 1968. For a time the North Face land based store offered only highly selected merchandise targeted to climbers and backpackers. By the 1980s, skiwear was added, followed by camping equipment. It actually wasn’t until the late 1990’s and early 2000 that North Face became a well-known brand and its popularity increased substantially with the rise of wilderness chic. So people, you really show your youth if you think North Face has been around for ages. It is a relatively young company when compared to the time before television!
You might ask, well what did you do to fill your spare time? go for walks? Or get ice cream and walk to the movies. Polish your grandparents silver jewelry and dinnerware? That reminds me of all the time we spent doing just that, since grandpa had small gift shop and was very much into appearances and prices. He also carried these exceptional champagne baskets. At least I thought they were. The baskets were woven from some type of grass or reeds and all had these big satin ribbon bows. There were birthday, get well, thank you, sympathy, and special holiday gift baskets. You could buy just the gift basket with the bow and fill it with whatever you wanted or you could buy a number of items from the gift shop and my grandfather would have his clerk wrap them up in tissue paper with little bows and pack them into the basket. The whole basket would be wrapped in cellophane with a little card clipped on addressed to the recipient. Occasionally my Gramma would bake lots of cookies, tarts, and cupcakes, cover them with a napkin, put in a small tin of tea, pick some flowers and tuck them into one side of the basket and take it to a new neighbor as a “welcome” gift basket. But the best gift baskets were the ones we would receive at Christmas. They were filled with all sorts of sweet treats and fruits from California I had never tasted before. Those gift baskets were decidedly quite exceptional! Anyway, enough with reminiscing. Let’s now move onto those mind altering, addictive and totally fun video and computer games. Nerds back then were techy, engineer, book smart and ultimately those who became successful with their careers and interests, now we have a new breed of nerd- the video game nerd. And although there is an industry for those who play competitively, it is not an obsession that equals a career path! Never the less its hard to say no to an engaging video game.
Introduction
In Japan, shortly after the introduction of Nintendo’s Famicom (NES), the electronics giant NEC entered into the video game market with the introduction of their “next generation” system, known as the PC Engine. Boasting a 16-bit graphics chip capable of displaying up to 256 colors on screen at once, at a number of resolutions. Although its CPU wasn’t much more powerful that of the NES, its spectacular graphics chip and six-channel sound bettered the Famicom in every way. It utilized a sleek new card format (HuCards, Turbochips) to hold its software, rather than bulky cartridges. It was also the first console to boast a CD-ROM drive, for full orchestral soundtracks and even (gasp!) full motion video. The PC Engine was immensely popular in Japan, outselling the Famicom by a significant margin. (Excerpt from TG-16 Museum)
News
6/24/00
• Thanks to “David Eagle”, the previous page maintainer.
• I also did a re-design of this page, with a new logo, and buttons. Hopefully it looks pretty good. I also added and updated emulators, utilities, technical info, and more… which was pretty much didn’t exist before. I think it looks better than it did before. No more of this old mad grampa stuff. All relevant info, and trying to keep is simple and edgey. You know how we do.