to catch on—only six titles were released that took advantage of the added power and it was quickly discontinued. The final model was discontinued in 1994. It was succeeded by the PC-FX, which was released only in Japan and was not successful. History The PC Engine was created as a collaborative effort between Hudson Soft, who created video game software, and NEC, a company which was dominant in the Japanese personal computer market with their PC-88 and PC-98 platforms. NEC lacked the vital experience in the video gaming industry and approached numerous video game studios for support. By pure coincidence, NEC's interest in entering the lucrative video game market coincided with Hudson's failed attempt to sell designs for then-advanced graphics chips to Nintendo. The two companies successfully joined to then develop the new system. The PC Engine made its debut in the Japanese market on October 30, 1987, and it was a tremendous success. The PC Engine had an elegant, "eye-catching" design, and it was very small compared to its rivals. This, coupled with a strong software lineup and third-party support from high-profile developers such as Namco and Konami gave NEC a temporary lead in the Japanese market. The PC Engine sold 500,000 units in its first week of release. The CD-ROM expansion was a major success for the CD-ROM format, selling 60,000 units in its first five months of release in Japan. By 1989, NEC had sold over consoles and more than 80,000 CD-ROM units in Japan. In 1988, NEC decided to expand to the American market and directed its U.S. operations to develop the system for the new audience. NEC Technologies boss Keith Schaefer formed a team to test the system. They found out that there was a lack of enthusiasm in its name "PC Engine" and also felt its small size was not very suitable to American consumers who would generally prefer a larger and "futuristic" design. They decided to call the system the "TurboGrafx-16", a name representing its graphical speed and strength and its 16-bit GPU. They also completely redesigned the hardware into a large, black casing. This lengthy redesign process and NEC's questions about the system's viability in the United States delayed the TurboGrafx-16's debut. The TurboGrafx-16 was eventually released in the New York City and Los Angeles test markets in late August 1989. However, this was two weeks after Sega of America released the