I'm so used to seeing the American (TurboGrafx) version of the PC-E & CD-ROM that it's odd to see the side-by-side-mounted JP version.
But glad you got it working! ^^ To it's credit that NEC hardware seems very sturdy (to me as a layperson.) I've had that CD-ROM for years and even used it during university as a CD player (by removing it from the vertical housing and plugging in headphones) LOL. Still works to this day with no troubles. :p
Well, this particular unit was manufactured in 1988 and really I was not it's first owner. The plastic on that particular gear have this tendency to rot regardless of how well or bad the owner of the unit handles it.
Schizm linked the bit I had replaced to make it work again.
And finally, let's play some
Edit:
Schzim, I have two CD-ROM2 (people liked to call those ROM-ROM too) the other set has a white PC-Engine in it... hehe