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PC Engine SuperGrafx

Supergrafx icon Supergrafx logo

Overview

The PC Engine SuperGrafx dominates the PC Engine line with dual HuC6270 chips, extra sprites, and rare HuCard exclusives. REG-Linux keeps this hardware under the supergrafx metadata set so the corresponding artwork appears distinctly from standard PC Engine entries.

Technical specifications

  • CPU: Hudson HuC6280 8-bit microprocessor clocked at 7.16 MHz with integrated mapper and DMA.
  • Memory: 8 KB work RAM plus 64 KB VRAM split between dual HuC6270 video controllers.
  • Display: Dual HuC6270 VDCs offering 32,768 colors, 256 sprites, and resolutions up to 512×242.
  • Sound: HuC6230 PSG with six channels plus PCM support.

Quick reference

  • ROM folder: /userdata/roms/supergrafx
  • Accepted formats: .pce, .sgx, .cue, .ccd, .chd, .zip, .7z
  • Emulator: libretro: mednafen_supergrafx
  • System group: supergrafx, pcengine

BIOS

SuperGrafx retains the same Super CD-ROM² BIOS set as the PC Engine CD system. Copy bios/syscard3.pce (plus syscard2.pce, syscard1.pce, gexpress.pce if needed) into /userdata/bios/.

MD5 checksum Filename Description
38179df8f4ac870017db21ebcbf53114 bios/syscard3.pce Super CD-ROM² BIOS

ROMs

Store HuCard images (.pce, .sgx) and CD-based releases (.chd, .cue) under /userdata/roms/supergrafx. Keep the .cue beside the .bin when not using CHD so the emulator can read track data. Compressing images into .zip/.7z is acceptable if the archive only contains the ROM/CD files.

Emulator settings

RetroArch hosts libretro: mednafen_supergrafx. The core uses supergrafx.* options such as videomode, ratio, shaders, and backend selectors (supergrafx.gfxbackend, supergrafx.audio_latency, supergrafx.video_threaded). Fast GUI tweaks accessible via [HOTKEY] + south face button help preserve per-game overrides.

Additional toggles:

  • global.sgx_nospritelimit: remove the hardware sprite cap when extra artistry causes flickers.

Controls

Use the PC Engine overlay at ../images/controller-overlays/pcengine-1.png. It covers the six-button pad plus optional peripherals.

Troubleshooting

  • Confirm the BIOS files exist before launching a CD-based title.
  • Switch from .cue to .chd if a disc fails to load.
  • Turn off global.sgx_nospritelimit if graphically intensive scenes glitch.

See the generic support pages for more help.