Description
The TurboGrafx-CD (also known as the PC Engine CD-ROM² System in Japan) was a CD-ROM peripheral for the TurboGrafx-16 console, released by NEC and Hudson Soft. It was the first CD-ROM peripheral for any video game console, launching in Japan in late 1988 (as the PC Engine CD-ROM²) and in North America in 1990.
It was significant for introducing the console gaming world to the benefits of the CD format, primarily:
- Massive Storage Capacity: It offered significantly more storage than HuCard cartridges, allowing for larger games, full-motion video (FMV), and higher quality assets.
- Red Book Audio: It enabled games to feature high-quality, continuous, CD-based background music and digitized speech, which was a huge leap over the synthesized sound of cartridges at the time.
The TurboGrafx-CD platform was the first competitor to Nintendo and Sega to utilize CD technology, predating the Sega CD and Philips CD-i. It was the precursor to the later, more powerful TurboDuo console, which integrated the CD-ROM player and the console into a single unit.
