This is a pretty basic question, but I'll ask anyway. What is the difference between the PC Engine's System Cards 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0? Do they allow you to play different games, or do they simply have a different interface or something? Somehow I entirely missed that. 3.0 seems to be in higher demand, though I don't know why.
yup, you guessed it, earlier system cards won't play everything. Acrtually, the 3.0 isn't even the best (well, it is in america) The Arcade Card Pro is the best, and then after that is the arcade card duo, THEN the 3.0 card.
System Card 1.0 lacks CD+G support, but is the only card that will allow the CD game "Altered Beast" to play. Not worth it. System Card 2.x adds CD+G support, but... System Card 3.x adds support for Super CD games (almost all 1991 and later games.) Arcade Card plays the handful of Arcade CD releases (Strider, Neo-Geo conversions, Sapphire, etc).
I see, so is the Arcade Card backwards compatible with all the previous cards? I thought it was completely separate. Also, I was just reading that the Arcade Card gave the PC Engine 3D capabilities. Were there any games for the PC Engine that actually had polygons? Also, "Super CD" doesn't have anything to do with the SuperGrafx, does it?
Arcade Card is backwards compatible although some games have specific system card dependancies (as ccovell said with Altered Beast.) Having all cards allows you to access all the material in all games though; this is fun because there is often fanservice in the form of system card errors. Arcade Card doesn't add 3D capabilities, just more WRAM. Currently no PCE games have polygons, only faked ones (Sapphire.)
Arcade Card Pro = System Card 3.0 + RAM Arcade Card Duo = RAM Super System Card = System Card 3.0 (plays Super CDs) System Card 2.0 = Debut card in the US System Card 1.0 = Debut card in Japan Also, Japan cards are technically X.00 whereas US cards are X.01. This causes a handful of games to not work on the US versions of cards. -hl718
yes, as you can see a lot of them on the following page http://superpcenginegrafx.com/system_card_warning_warehouse.html
