22 July 2010
From 1987 through 1993, Hudson Soft created 61 HuCards for the PC Engine (known outside of Japan as the TurboGrafx-16). During this era, it was especially common for console makers to support their own platform with a wealth of titles (i.e. reasons to buy the console), and Hudson Soft was obviously no exception to this rule. However, to my knowledge it was the only game producer to number each of its games in one-up volume fashion. This sort of sequential approach immediately appealed to the collector in me. While I wish I had enough money to acquire all of these games and add them to my physical collection, I've had to settle on obtaining scans of the boxes and assembling them all to make a pretty picture.
What you have is a visual journey through Hudson's software support of the pre-CD-ROM PC-Engine. Imagine living in Japan during an age where looking up game reviews on the Internet wasn't even realistic. You had to pick up the game package, glance at the art, go with your gut feeling, and throw down the cash for a potentially good new game.
Unfortunately, the completist in me is not satisfied. The collection below is has two glaring holes and one pathetically small box scan. I welcome any assistance in filling in the gaps. Please contact me here.
Finally, as you should be able to tell from the list of Japanese/English titles at the very bottom and the numerous links to games that are on the
Greatest PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 Games List, Hudson cranked out a very respectable number of hits. No doubt, Hudson's experience programming games for the MSX came in handy.
