I always assumed NEC designed this CPU, but it turns out Hudson Soft really did create it.

Hudson was apparently a legendary company. If you look at their Japanese Wikipedia page, it’s filled with "heroic tales" that almost sound like jokes.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC%E3%82%A8%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B8%...

The CPU was conceived by Hudson engineers who, despite their success in the NES business, felt they had hit the hardware's limits. Interestingly, they initially had no business plan. They were simply "chasing a dream" and supposedly had "no real intention of selling it," which led most semiconductor manufacturers to reject their pitch.

They managed to scrape together a few thousand samples, and by pure chance, NEC—a dominant PC manufacturer in Japan at the time—was looking to enter the console market. This lucky alignment of interests is what gave birth to the PC Engine.

While this story sounds reckless, it was only possible because Japan was in the midst of the real estate bubble, and capital was overflowing.

Once the bubble burst in the 90s, Japan entered a long recession. After a few major bank failures, Hudson’s funding dried up. They were eventually absorbed by Konami, and today, even the Hudson name is gone. It’s a real shame.