THE LEGEND OF HUDSON #3

Jan 3
2 min read

HIGH RISK REVOLUTION

A deep dive into the early development history of the PC Engine. Based on direct interviews with people involved at the time, it reconstructs the story as close to the facts as possible—how NEC and Hudson Soft first connected, how Hudson developed key chips, and how the development environment was built.

It also covers staff credits and development history for ten games—from the launch titles Shanghai and Bikkuriman World through Power League (late June 1988)—and includes Darwin 4078 as it relates to a prototype PC Engine version. Additional “etc.” sections include anecdotes such as PC Engine chip codenames and a story about a cannonball.

Table of Contents

The Birth of the PC Engine

History of PC Engine Development

1985: NEC Home Electronics
1985: Start of Video Chip Development
Early 1986: Toward Chip Development
Various Stories About the Rumors

Development of the Development Environment

Developing for the PC Engine’s ROM
Development of Development Software
Building the Development Environment

Games from 1987–88 (First Half)

1987

Shanghai (87/10/30)
Victory Run (87/10/30)
The Kung Fu (87/11/21)
Kato-chan & Ken-chan (87/11/30)
Victory Run (87/12/28)

1988

The Legendary Axe (88/01/22)
R-TYPE I & II (88/03/25 & 06/03)
China Warrior (88/04/22)
Power League (88/06/24)

Extra

Various Episodes

Necromancer and The Legend of Xanadu
The Story Behind the PC Engine Codename
The Unreleased Darwin 4078
The Untold Story of Cannonball

Introduction of Main Contributors
Afterword

PUBLICATION DETAILS

LANGUAGE	BINDING	EDITION	ISBN	YEAR	PAGES
Japanese	Paperback		N/A	2021	98

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