4 October 2008
Ferry

NEC SuperGrafx to be added to Japanese Wii Virtual Console in October 2008

It was revealed the other day that NEC SuperGrafx games will be offered on the Japanese Virtual Console starting in October 2008, with no announcement yet for release in other territories. The first game that will be released is the near arcade-perfect port of Capcom’s Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (AKA Dai Makaimura).

The SuperGrafx joins the earlier this year released Sega Master System (worldwide) and Commodore 64 (Europe-only) emulations of classic games on the Wii Virtual Console. Other available systems are: NES (Famicom), TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) including TurboGrafx-CD, Sega Genesis (Mega Drive), SNES (Super Famicom), Nintendo 64, NEOGEO, MSX (Japan-only), and WiiWare (PC and other new games).

The SuperGrafx console is an upgraded version of NEC’s popular TurboGrafx-16 (AKA PC Engine) and was supposed to be the first true 16-bit system with improved graphics and audio capabilities thanks to more RAM on the CPU and second video chip, but it ended up not having a 16-bit CPU (still 8-bit instead) and the same audio as the TurboGrafx-16 when it was released in late 1989.

Only seven games were ever released for the system. The five dedicated SuperGrafx games are: 1941: Counter Attack, Aldynes, Battle Ace, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, and Madouou Granzort. The two hybrid games that play on both TurboGrafx-16 and with improved graphics on the SuperGrafx are: Darius Alpha and Darius Plus. Additionally two unreleased SuperGrafx game prototypes rumored to exist are: Galaxy Force II and Strider.

Watch a NEC Supergrafx system being tested live.

Watch video of all seven Supergrafx games.

Note: Turn off the sound if the cracking annoys you.

Video via neobrico, additional info via VCreviews