Hudson Soft HuC6270
{{notability|Products|date=March 2012}}
HuC6270 is a video display controller (VDC) developed by Hudson Soft and manufactured for Hudson Soft by Seiko Epson.{{Cite web |last=日経クロステック（xTECH） |title=PCエンジンで動くソフトを自作しよう、SDKの関数を使いこなす |url=https://xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/column/18/02206/092600004/ |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=日経クロステック（xTECH） |date=20 October 2022 |language=ja}}{{Cite web |last=Copetti |first=Rodrigo |date=June 29, 2024 |title=PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Architecture {{!}} A Practical Analysis |url=https://classic.copetti.org/writings/consoles/pc-engine/ |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=The Copetti site - Technical writings for hungry readers |language=en}} This VDC was used in the PC Engine game console series produced by NEC Corporation, and the upgraded PC Engine SuperGrafx.{{Cite journal |last1=Aycock |first1=John |last2=Reinhard |first2=Andrew |last3=Therrien |first3=Carl |date=2019-01-01 |title=A Tale of Two CDs: Archaeological Analysis of Full-Motion Video Formats in Two PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Games |journal=Open Archaeology |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=350–364 |doi=10.1515/opar-2019-0022 |issn=2300-6560|doi-access=free }}{{Cite book |url=https://cdn.hackaday.io/files/1649347056536256/History%20of%20Video%20Games-Four%20Decades%20of%20Video%20Entertainment.pdf |title=History of Video Games - Four Decades of Video Entertainment |pages=14}}
Technical specification
The HuC6270 generates a display signal composed a 9-bit stream pixel data with a color and palette indexes,{{Cite web |last=Pol |first=Wilbert |title=NEC HuC6270 Video Display Controller |url=https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/devices/video/huc6270.cpp |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=GitHub |language=en}} and indication of whether the pixel corresponds to background (with x y scrolling) or sprites. This data can be used by a colour encoder to output graphics.
It uses external VRAM via a 16-bit address bus. It can display up to 64 sprites on screen, with a maximum of 16 sprites per horizontal scan line.{{Cite web |title=HuC6270 CMOS Video Display Controller MANUAL |url=http://www.blockos.org/releases/pcengine/documentation/HuC6270%20-%20CMOS%20Video%20Display%20Controller%20Manual.pdf}}
The minimum resolution is 256 × 224 pixels, with resolutions up to 512 × 240 being possible.
Uses
The HuC6270 was used in consoles of the PC Engine, SuperGrafx and TurboGrafx-16 ranges.
Additionally, the VDC was used in arcade games:{{Cite web |title=Machine: Hudson HuC6270 VDC (huc6270) |url=https://arcade.vastheman.com/minimaws/machine/huc6270 |access-date=2022-12-09 |website=Vas the Man’s Arcade}}
- Alien Crush
- Blazing Lazers
- Bloody Wolf
- Fishing Master
- Go! Go! Connie chan Jaka Jaka Janken
- Keith Courage In Alpha Zones
- Pac-Land
- Paranoia
- Super Medal Fighters
- TourVisión
The arcade version of Bloody Wolf ran on a custom version of the PC Engine. The arcade hardware is missing the second 16-bit graphic chip, the HuC6260 (鉄観音 - "TETSU") video color encoder,{{Cite web |title=HuC6260 CMOS MANUAL |url=http://www.blockos.org/releases/pcengine/documentation/HuC6260%20-%20CMOS%20Video%20Color%20Encoder%20Manual.pdf}}{{Cite web |date=2018-09-07 |title=HuC6260 |url=http://www.archaicpixels.com/HuC6260 |access-date=2024-11-04 |website=Archaic Pixels|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907102451/http://www.archaicpixels.com/HuC6260 |archive-date=2018-09-07 }} that is in the PC Engine.{{cite web |url=http://archaicpixels.com/ |title=TurboGrafx-16 technical information |publisher=Archaic Pixels |access-date=2014-05-02 |archive-date=2005-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050204060538/http://archaicpixels.com/ |url-status=dead }} This means the VDC directly accesses palette RAM and builds out the display signals/timing. A rare Capcom quiz-type arcade game also ran on a modified version of the SuperGrafx hardware, which used two VDCs.
References
{{reflist}}
{{NEC video game consoles}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hudson Soft Huc6270}}