SPECIFICATIONS

THE NUMBERS

Keeping in mind that the SuperGrafx was released a decade ago, it could do some pretty amazing things. This chart shows its benchmarks in several areas.

RELEASE DATE 1990
ORIGINAL PRICE 39,800 Yen
MAIN PROCESSORS 65618 & 6280 (a clone of the65c02)
CLOCK SPEED 7 Mhz
GRAPHICS BANDWIDTH 16-bit
VIDEO RAM 128 KB
MAMIMUM RESOLUTION 320x224
MAXIMUM COLORS 256 on screen out of 4096 total
MAXIMUM SPRITES 128
SOUND CHANNELS 6

HARDWARE FUNCTIONS

The SuperGrafx has several slots and ports that perform various functions. The following images explain where they are and what they do.

THE TOP OF THE SUPERGRAFX
SuperGrafx Top View
When viewing the top of the SuperGrafx, there are three major
features that are visible. First is the card slot, right above the
logo. This is where the PC Engine and SuperGrafx HuCards are
inserted. Next is the power switch. It is the green object to
the left of the card slot. Finally, notice the heat vents on
either side of the console. They keep the SuperGrafx from
overheating.

THE FRONT OF THE SUPERGRAFX
SuperGrafx Front View
If you look at the SuperGrafx from the front, there are two
obvious items on the right hand side. The one to the left is
the S Expport. As it turns out, this port never had a use.
The planned uses for it remain unknown. To the right of
the S Exp is the controller port. This is where the
SuperGrafx controller plugs into the system. For
multiplayer games, the multiplayer adaptors would plug in
here as well.

THE BACK VIEW OF THE SUPERGRAFX
SuperGrafx Back View
Taking a look at the back of the SuperGrafx, two things are
visible. To the left, in shadow in this picture, is the mode
switch. This switch determines whether the SuperGrafx is
in SuperGrafx or PC Engine mode. This makes a difference
when playing games like Darius Alpha and Darius Plus.
The second feature is the external bus. This port was
designed to allow the SuperGrafx to accept add-ons, such
as the Super CD-ROM2.