Available for purchase at Japanese newstands on December 26, 1992, the very first issue of Dengeki PC Engine entered an already crowded market of magazines catering to NEC's PCE (and later PC-FX) consoles. Two mascots adorned the cover: Monsieur Verrat (Mr. Boar) and Mademoiselle Mouton (Ms. Sheep)…
ANTHROPOMORPHIC: Monsieur Verrat (Mr. Boar) and Mademoiselle Mouton (Ms. Sheep), our prototypical mascots…
As mascots, Monsieur Verrat (Mr. Boar) and Mademoiselle Mouton (Ms. Sheep) would slowly evolve and change. Mlle Mouton is dropped after five issues in favor of the more sensual Ms. Bunny (who debuts on the July 1993 cover). At the same time, M. Boar morphs into a more stylized warthog/boar-beast and gains two muscle-bound companions: Stoic Ox and Smiling Gorilla.
Continued below…
Table of Contents for Dengeki PC Engine #02 (February 1993)▲
01 Cover: Belle of the Ball. Artist: ?- 02 Advertisement: Inoue Mami (SCD).
- 03 Advertisement: Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (SCD). The Secret of Blue Water. (Digital Comic)
- 04 Advertisement: Gunbuster Vol. 2. (Digital Comic) 04 05
- 06 ???: ???. 06 07
- 08 Advertisement: Virtual Cushion + Accessories. 08 09
- Virtual Cushion, PCE Mouse, Wireless Controllers, MB128, DUO, GT, CoreGrafx II + accessories (pens, calendars, phone cards, keychains, bookmarks, playing cards, etc.)
- 10 Table of Contents. 10 11
- 08 …
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- 67 …
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- HELP: If you can translate the Table of Contents (or any other part of the magazine) into english, please contact us! Your efforts benefit all TG-16/PCE fans. Thank you!
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MB128, VIRTUAL CUSHION & OTHER ODDITIES…▲
Not surprisingly, the longevity of the PCE console provided ample opportunity for a wide variety of peripherals to be released. The wireless base station supported up to five controllers (replicating all the features of a wired port + five controllers), but, as can be expected from the infrared technology of this vintage, a player had to be careful not to break the beam, lest the base station not register some button presses. By many contemporary accounts, these wireless controllers continue to perform acceptably, caveats about the infrared beam and battery maintenance notwithstanding.
PERIPHERALS: PCE Mouse, Infrared Cordless Controller, MB128, Virtual Cushion.
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Before you get too excited about the Virtual Cushion, let me assure you that it was simply a low-power subwoofer/speaker system married to a pillow. Leaning back (or, I suppose, sitting) on the PCE Pillow Speaker (Virtual Cushion) would expose a person to the intimate vibrations generated from a game's sound effects/soundtrack, thereby creating a "more immersive experience" of dubious quality. Surely, some perverts straddled the Virtual Cushion whilst playing games, but it remains doubtful that even this crotch-centric method for using the Virtual Cushion would justify its actual cost.
The PCE Mouse was compatible with a handful of games, such as 1552 Tenka Tairan (1993) and Power Golf 2 (1994). Sadly, because the mouse was released towards the end of PCE's lifespan, many earlier software titles that would have benefitted from mouse support lack the feature and are stuck with a cumbersome direction pad for input. From Populous (1991) to Baby Jo (1992), PCE software would have benefitted from earlier mouse support. OR WOULD IT? Console gaming is not necessarily conducive to using a mouse, especially a wired one—perhaps the PCE Mouse was always destined to be a niche product. Developers knew that most folks, most of the time, would be using a traditional controller. Still, I can dream of an alternate timestream where Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest supports a mouse…
The MB128 was a device for managing game saves and was especially useful for strategy/simulation games, such as Vasteel 2 (1994) that generated large save files.
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