Update [Today 11:15]: Mazamars312 has released the PC Engine CD core for the Analogue Pocket. You can grab it from here.
The core has already had an update and is now on version 0.1.6.
Original Story [Thu 26th Jan, 2023 10:30 GMT]: Ever since Analogue opened up its Pocket handheld to developers, we've seen a flood of new FPGA cores which have enabled support for systems such as the Mega Drive, NES, WonderSwan and more.
PC Engine / TurboGrafix-16 support is also available now, but this is currently limited to HuCard / TurboChip releases – CD-ROM titles are sadly not playable (although you can play games created for NEC's mega-flop, the SuperGrafx).
Thankfully, it looks like that is about to change thanks to the efforts of UltraFP64 and Adam Gastineau, who are currently hard at work enabling PCE CD-ROM support on the Pocket:
When CD support does become available, you'll be able to play some of the best PC Engine games of all time – including the likes of Ys Book I & II, Star Parodier, Seirei Senshi Spriggan and Lords of Thunder – as well as Dracula X: Rondo of Blood, which is widely considered to be one of the best entries in the Castlevania series and was totally exclusive to Japan for quite some time.
A prequel to the legendary Symphony of the Night, Rondo marks the series debut of Richter Belmont and was notable at the time of release for its dramatically branching pathways and hidden secrets, both of which added plenty of replay value.
Rondo of Blood made headlines recently when it was revealed that WATA had incorrectly graded a 2016 reprint of the game, which ended up on eBay for $4,000. The game is also going to be the basis for the next series of Netflix's Castlevania adaptation.