Pachio-kun spread its wings to other communities lol. One day we will all know and love PC-FX Pachinko.

Looking to buy some sealed PC-FX games? @profbloom.bsky.social brought to our attention that Playasia still has PC-FX stock available to purchase (picture courtesy of Prof. Bloom) You can find the full list of available titles here: www.play-asia.com/games/retro_...

An inspirational message from the ending of Pachio-kun FX.

Your childhood friend in Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari asks you to read PC-FX manual & health information carefully. Sit away from the TV, do not open the disc tray during gameplay, take a 15min break every hour, and consult a doctor about any muscle spasms or loss of consciousness.

I'm not sure if this Tanuki wants to be here or is trapped in a Pachinko prison, forced to consume metal balls.

Ported from the PC FX by Success and published on #Saturn by Human in 1997, Blue Breaker is an RPG that features anime FMV scenes, lots of gorgeous still art, turn-based combat, side-scrolling progression… and love! Set in a world of floating islands, you are 17-year-old Kain. #sega #BestOfSaturn

Zoku Hatsukoi Monogatari: Shūgaku Ryokō is about re-experiencing the feeling of your first love. You can start as an elementary, middle, or high school student, with each story taking place on a school trip. In the final chapter, you're a university student.

One character that I haven't highlighted from Ojousama Sousamou is Narciss, who is a role model/mentor for the main character, providing advice on how to be a thief. We also recently uploaded the character sketch book, which has some art that I'll link below.

I've been playing Pachio-kun recently and while Dream Fantasy is probably the most produced board, a lot of others has some nice art. I wanted to share some of the boards idle animations. This board has you shooting balls in the demon zone to wake up the angel to start scoring.

Originally, these were going to be for a social post about the last year of the system, but I was surprised how much jumped out at me once I laid the entire system library's life out.

New video up! Ben made a calendar of game releases on the PC-FX to better visualize the year-by-year trends of the system. youtu.be/i2tTYYtiYjQ

I was digging around an old Japanese PC-FX fan site and this one has cute little icons to represent the genres of each game. www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/tetuya/FXHP/...

Just realized I didn't really post any of the actual art at a decent size. It's all pretty low resolution, and I'm not sure if any higher quality versions are out there. But here's a look at some of them captured off my PC-FX.

Ojousama Sousamou has a bonus gallery with various pieces of art. The content doesn't relate to the game as much as the OVA released that same year. While no particular piece lines up exactly, each one seems to connect with various scenes, like each girl's introduction below.

The PC-FX port of the PC98 Oh My Goddess! game has some nice full-color art in the manual. I'm not familiar with the show to say if this is all unique art, but it doesn't appear in the PC98 manual. archive.org/details/Ah_M...

I wasn't able to finish my PC-FX social post today, but in the meantime here's a cropped out crying Rolfee that I'm using in it.

Anime Freak's December 1995 volume has trailers for three 1996 PC-FX games by HuneX, the primary dev for the system. Despite the system's video capabilities, the trailers were built in software as almost animated slide shows with digitized art. Below is Fire Woman Matoi-gumi's.

I've always described Battle Heat as "Fist of the North Star-esque" and looking into it, the character designer, Junichi Hayama (羽山淳一) worked on the First of the North Star anime series, and later various games based on it.

Correction from Aaron / PCengineFX on this one. Despite having the original ending in the background, they just made a new FMV with the frames rendered over it: x.com/pcenginefx/s... So it's not a capability of the PC-FX here and more of something that was done just through editing the video.

One interesting use of FMV in Battle Heat is during the hard mode staff roll, which overlays multiple videos played at a lower quality and frame rate. a I'm not sure what technique is being used here, and I'm not sure if I've seen any other PC-FX game try this.

If you want to see the PC-FX's FMV quality and speed, Battle Heat is a great example, quickly updating the screen with a variety of attacks, guards, and counters. If you haven't learned the game, it's a bit of a visual mess. But don't be fooled, there's depth here.

She wants to play a game.

I'm back to reading PC-FX technical documentation and I found some mid-90's Japanese technical terms which seem to be outdated now. I'll start a thread here, and will add to it as more terms come up. Maybe this will help other people, reading other 90's Japanese technical docs.

Following the trend of floral backgrounds with a game's cast of heroines, the cover of the Megami Paradise settings material art book features blue roses. Thanks to @jpengine.bsky.social for donating this! archive.org/details/Mega...

Just wanted to put out there – If you, or someone you know, would want to talk PC-FX on their show, we're definitely open to participating! Feel free to DM us.

The PC-FX's last digital magazine includes a post-credits sequence of a PC-FX flying into space. The artist said they wanted it to represent the start of a new world for the system. Instead, the last game for the PC-FX launched only two months later.

New podcast episode up! We finally talk about Matt's favorite PC-FX game, Welcome to Pia Carrot!! We look at the appeal of exploration and discovery in the gameplay of romantic adventure games, as well as the various character themes and how they resonated with us. youtu.be/BSnGAH_ZC7I

Symphony of the Night has the most iconic computer data warning message, but Blue Breaker might have the most frantic. The entire cast warns you of the impending danger of listening to computer data. After the message ends, you have one and a half seconds to stop the track.

How long have you sat on Welcome to Pia Carrot's title screen? The PC-FX version has five opening videos, each with slight variations on what text is on screen and vocal or instrumental music. The bottom left version later gets replaced with one that includes a special video.

Thanks to Basement Brothers for the shout out in this video! Check out their video on this neat little PC RPG from Square.

The design language of these news letters evolved quite a bit over the 14 issues. Vol. 1-4 volumes seem to focus more on a newspaper-esque design with a focus on voice actors, Vol. 5-7 are a lot more angular and game focused. Vol. 7+ have busy covers with more cartoonish font.

I love the PC-FX because it really feels like something that only could've came out of bizarre 90s Japan. I bought pins of the mascot Rolfe on auction a while back on a whim and always wondered if they were Anime Fan Club items. Need to take better photos of it when I get home...

The Anime Fan Club (which our name comes from) was a quarterly newsletter for the PC-FX that fans could join for 1500 yen a year, providing insight into the future of PC-FX as well as the anime industry talent. Subscribers also received a membership card, stickers, and a CD case.

Figured I'd post the production sketch overlayed with the Anime Freak FX Vol.1 intro here too, so you can see it in full.

New video where Ben looks at production art from the Rolfee Comiket book that @dshadoff.bsky.social donated to us. Ben overlays the sketches to compare them with the final intro in Anime Freak FX Vol. 1. youtu.be/6sAvIsxI3jE

I didn't prepare a Father's Day post, but always love how the main character from Boundary Gate just looks like an awkward dad.

Akazukin Chacha on the PC-FX is a Mario-party-esque RPG similar to Dokapon Kingdom. One cute touch is context-sensitive character animations that change depending on who they share a space with or how their last turn went.

A lot of traits of the PC-FX's library tend to get overemphasized, including 18+ content and visual novels. For PRGE last year, we put together a graph to better visualize the types of games on the system. One aspect we did leave out here is the digital magazines and promotional discs.

Most relationship RPGs let you pick and choose your date, but Sparkling Feather puts your love life in the fate of the roulette. How many dates you go on, and whether you can choose who you go with, depends on what you land on. Random automatically assigns you date partners.

If you're curious about the odd behavior of the PC-FX Mouse in unsupported games, here is some insight from @dshadoff.bsky.social, who is in the PC-FX homebrew scene.

Most of the PC-FX's shoujo representation comes from the Angelique series. But Megami Paradise II's visual guide book also features some parody art, giving its main cast massive sparkling eyes.

What I'd give for a little bird that would recommend mahjong moves for me by hopping over and pecking the next tile I should discard Shanten Sparrow

The award for best mouse cursor of all time might go to Super Real Mahjong FX. You can have a small bird who jumps up and down and turns to face the direction of your last movement. If you idle, they will start wandering off on their own.

Did you know PC-FX has mouse support? While several games officially support it, even games that don't have some really weird behaviors. Ben recently plugged his mouse into every PC-FX game he could and made a video of the results. youtu.be/0Q1LgcUP56Q

Dōkyūsei 2's manual also includes floral patterns for its character profiles. This one feels a little less artistically nuanced than Welcome to Pia Carrot. Very Grandparents' bathroom wallpaper vibe lol. Still very cute though. archive.org/details/Doky...

Been thinkin' about the infinite spin since I posted this video lol.

Angelique manuals on PC-FX typically feature beautiful full page art. However, in the case of the Angelique RPG, Tenkuu no Requiem, instead they use little cute cards to show the main character preparing for and setting off on her journey.

The game is an adaptation of the original on the PC engine, which has raising elements where you also train the girls. The PC-FX focuses more on the scenarios, including adding new ones. However, the PC-FX version features an extended intro movie, which includes some of the training scenes.

Hataraku Shoujo: Tekipaki Working Love FX has you managing the work lives of three girls as you assign them to various odd jobs. Each character has unique outcomes, with tons of full-screen, colorful, and high-quality sprite work with character designs by Izumi Takemoto (竹本 泉).

Boundary Gate: Daughter of Kingdom has a distinct dark fantasy look, which stands out on the PC-FX. Junichi Fujikawa (藤川 純一/NMP) was responsible for not only the world and scenario, but also its distinct visual and character design.