# PC Engine

13 Hacker News commenters recommended PC Engine and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its fast 8-bit CPU, good graphics and well-made hardware that gives a stable picture. Critics point to a weaker colour palette than the Super Famicom and mistakes on the business side.

## Why people recommend it

- Fast 8-bit CPU suits its games (3 comments): "proved that outside of games that relied on high processing speed, 8-bit CPUs could give every bit as compelling an experience" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48072415)) "Going with a really fast 8-bit CPU makes much more sense than Nintendo's choice of going with a slow 16-bit CPU" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064481)) "The PC Engine CPU is highly underrated." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064073))
- Good graphics and hardware sprites (3 comments): "a lot of them were actually very well made; decent graphics, tight controls, and fun gameplay" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48065509)) "The hardware sprites/scrolling is what makes it feel more arcadey a lot of the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48064529)) "It definitely did have good graphics." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48070124))
- Well-engineered, attractive hardware design (3 comments): "gushed over the console’s engineering and its releases quite frequently" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48070762)) "NEC made some great looking consoles, in Japan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48065092)) "such a beautiful little console" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48067160))

## What people warn about

- Weaker colour palette than SFC (1 comments): "could theoretically do more colours on screen, but only had 9-bit wide palette entries compared to the SFC's 15-bit colour depth" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48065233))
- Mistakes on the business side (1 comments): "due to mistakes on the business side of things" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48067887))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Valve Steam Machine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam-machine.md): 326 recommend
- [PlayStation 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/playstation-5.md): 121 recommend
- [Xbox console](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xbox.md): 62 recommend
- [Xbox 360](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xbox-360.md): 41 recommend
- [PlayStation 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/playstation-2.md): 40 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=NEC+PC+Engine+console+TurboGrafx-16&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "PC Engine", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pc-engine/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).