@>Okay, In HK, there were only original NTSC Japanese PC Engines and
@>very small number of PAL (RF out via booster) ones.
@>Reason being that 99% of TVs sold there are World Multi and can take NTSC
@>signals so there is no need to convert to PAL (which is what HK uses).
@>After all, why bother spending extras to convert the PC Engine when
@>original signal will do?
This is basically true, although I seem to recall 1989 (around the time of
the release) was a slightly different story.
I found the NTSC models to be the most common in places like Nathan Road
and other "tourist" areas, with the reason being that tourists would buy
them for use in NTSC-based areas, or to be used together with world-multi
TV sets. This was still several months before the North American release,
so the PC-Engine was clearly an exportable item.
However, world multi TV sets were not cheap in 1989 - they were several
hundred dollars more than PAL, and NTSC signals weren't commonplace in HK.
So one could not expect that local people would own one. Thus, the PAL
mods. It wasn't until a couple of years later that world-multi became
common for locals. Perhaps 1989 was the start of commonplace world-multi
ownership for emigrants however.
The PAL versions of the PC-Engine were a little less than 50-50 with NTSC
in places like Golden Shopping Centre and other game shops, and seemed to
be a bit of a custom thing - although still quite common. I got the
feeling that it was a just-in-time thing where they didn't want to carry
any inventory that was committed for a particular market.
In "local" places where a blond guy like me would cause a lot of
open-mouthed gaping - like Mongkok or Tsing Yi - they would almost always
be PAL; although they weren't common in these areas at all.
By 1992, you're right - almost nobody sold PAL versions. But the PC-Engine
was losing popularity fast to the SuperFamicom by that time anyway.
I don't have any specific knowledge of the PC-Engine in HK between these
two time points however (summer 1989 and beginning of 1992).
- Dave
--- Turbo List Information ---------------------------------------------
The Turbo List File server is now completely available on the World Wide
Web. Access http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~bt/turbo/turbo.cgi for the
complete listing of files (your browser must be able to support tables).
------------------------------------------------------------------------