TurboGrafx 16 questions

[ckrtech]

Alright! As somewhat of a follow-up to my Neo Geo questions thread, here is my TurboGrafx thread.

 

1: I suppose the first question to ask - What is the best version of the system to pick up for collecting/playing games? There are several different versions - those with HuCards only, CD Add-ons, Duos, various Japanese versions - PCE stuff, etc.

2: What video output options are there? Can you do S-Video or component through modding? What is the native video output quality like for the system? What video chip did it use (curious about modding possibilities)?

3: How much does the system typically run (related to #1)? What is a fair price?

4: Does anything tend to break on it? How durable is it?

5: What are the must own games?

6: What about the must own accessories? Are there any extra add-ons that should be purchased?

 

That was a lot of questions. Are there many Turbo fans around here? I don't honestly know much about the system except for memories of the commercials back in the day as well as some wikipedia browsing here and there.

 

Thanks!

CK

Edited December 11, 2007 by ckrtech

[bust3dstr8]

Use the search function a bit...there's a lot of knowledge here.

 

This is less than a month old http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=116596

[8th lutz]

6. I recommend Bomberman ' 93, Blazing Lasers, Devil's Crush, and Neutopia 1 & 2.

 

7. You will need a turbo booster plus if you didn't get a turbo cd or a Turbo duo. I do recomend a Turbo booster at least. A turbo booster is av's used to connect them to your tv,

 

I recommend turbo tap if you want to play a tg-16 game with 2 players.

[+Psionic]

That's a tall order...I'll try to help with some basic info...

 

1: I suppose the first question to ask - What is the best version of the system to pick up for collecting/playing games? There are several different versions - those with HuCards only, CD Add-ons, Duos, various Japanese versions - PCE stuff, etc.

Hu Cards are region specific, the CDs are not. There are SO many options:

 

- get a U.S. TurboGrafx (plays U.S. Hu Cards) and a Japanese Duo (plays Japanese Hu Cards and all CDs)

- get a U.S. TurboDuo (for U.S. Hu Cards and all CDs) and either a Kisado converter or a Japanese PC Engine ( to play Japanese Hu Cards)

- get a Japanese PC Engine Duo R and have it modded so you can play everything (probably the best option)

- the SuperGrafx and TurboExpress/PC Engine GT (portables) are also options

 

2: What video output options are there? Can you do S-Video or component through modding? What is the native video output quality like for the system? What video chip did it use (curious about modding possibilities)?

All systems (minus the U.S. TurboGrafx and original white PC Engine) have composite A/V built in...the output is very good. Not sure about modding.

 

3: How much does the system typically run (related to #1)? What is a fair price?

Depends what you want to buy. American TurboDuo units are the most expensive.

 

4: What are the must have games for it?

6: What are the must own games?

Tons...there's 50-100 that are great.

 

 

5: Does anything tend to break on it? How durable is it?

The PC Engine is quite durable...some of the Duo stuff can have problems.

 

This thread may help a bit:

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=116596

 

I'd definitely suggest you check out the PC Engine forums as well.

[DragonmasterDan]

Alright! As somewhat of a follow-up to my Neo Geo questions thread, here is my TurboGrafx thread.

 

1: I suppose the first question to ask - What is the best version of the system to pick up for collecting/playing games? There are several different versions - those with HuCards only, CD Add-ons, Duos, various Japanese versions - PCE stuff, etc.

 

The US TurboDuo is capable of playing all US games and all Japanese CDs (except for arcade CDs which require the arcade card). If US HuCards aren't a necessity a Japanese Duo is fine.

2: What video output options are there? Can you do S-Video or component through modding? What is the native video output quality like for the system? What video chip did it use (curious about modding possibilities)?

 

Yeah, there's a guy named D-Lite famous in the Neo-Geo community who used to do s-video mods for the Duo, by default it's composite out which isn't bad. a regular TurboGrafx uses RF out by default and requires a TurboBooster Plus to do composite. I think there are several pages on modding around the net about it as well.

3: How much does the system typically run (related to #1)? What is a fair price?

It depends on the system, US Duo's are expensive, imported PCE duos run quite a bit less. TurboGrafx 16s (HuCard only) are cheap. You're looking at 200.000 + for a US Duo.

4: What are the must have games for it?

 

It depends what you like some of my favorites are Ys book I and II, Gate of Thunder (now on virtual console), Blazing Lazers, there's a lot of great stuff but it depends on your tastes. It has an especially deep lineup of import CD games.

5: Does anything tend to break on it? How durable is it?

 

US Duo's are known to have bad capicitors for sound, this can be repaired, the laser lenses do die as well, this can also be repaired but compatible lenses are hard to find. The systems do not read CDRs very well at all. The PCE Duo-RX supposedly is better as far as the Laser goes.

6: What are the must own games?

I already named some

7: What about the must own accessories? Are there any extra add-ons that should be purchased?

 

You absolutely need a TurboTap or Duo tap, it only has one controller port. If you buy a US duo a HuCard convertor isn't a bad purchase either if you want to play PCE HuCards.

That was a lot of questions. Are there many Turbo fans around here? I don't honestly know much about the system except for memories of the commercials back in the day as well as some wikipedia browsing here and there.

 

If you're looking for NEC console fans the boards at PCEngineFX.com are the best community in English. I'm also DragonmasterDan on those forums.

[jboypacman]

Get a PC-Engine Duo-R and there are tons of Import games you could get for it on Hu-Card and CD.

[so_tough!]

www.pcenginefx.com

 

check this site!

 

oops I didn't know Dragonmaster posted a link too!!! Anyway, I post a little at pcenginefx aswell.

Edited December 11, 2007 by so_tough!

[ckrtech]

Ack - sorry I asked the same question twice. I had to take care of something in the middle of my post. That's what happens when you leave and come back. Sorry about that, DragonmasterDan. I've corrected the issue.

 

Thanks for the information, guys.

 

I've actually seen D-Lite around the A/V mod scene before. Good to know he is in on TG16.

[ApolloBoy]

I've actually seen D-Lite around the A/V mod scene before. Good to know he is in on TG16.

 

I second D-Lite, he's a really nice guy to deal with. I bought my region modded PCE Duo from him a few months ago and everything was great.

Edited December 11, 2007 by ApolloBoy

[+Psionic]

You absolutely need a TurboTap or Duo tap, it only has one controller port. If you buy a US duo a HuCard convertor isn't a bad purchase either if you want to play PCE HuCards.

The best option is to just get a modded Japanese Duo, or a U.S. Duo and either a Kisado converter or PC Engine CoreGrafx for the Japanese Hu Cards.

These systems all use the same controllers and can also use the Duo Tap (a must). This is very important.

 

The U.S. TurboGrafx-16 is cheap and easy to acquire, but it should probably be avoided. It's RF-only without the Turbo Booster, and it also uses different controllers than all other variants of the system (and also has its own multi-tap, the Turbo Tap)...which is a major pain in the ass.

 

If you're looking for NEC console fans the boards at PCEngineFX.com are the best community in English.

Without a doubt.

[Ze_ro]

1: I suppose the first question to ask - What is the best version of the system to pick up for collecting/playing games? There are several different versions - those with HuCards only, CD Add-ons, Duos, various Japanese versions - PCE stuff, etc.

It really depends on what games you want to play. The North American side of things is somewhat straight forward, but the PC-Engine side is really complicated. In total, there are seven different types of media, and it's impossible to find one setup that will play all of them. Here's a good list of what plays what.

 

Before you buy anything, I'd recommend looking through what's available and what compatibility you're going to need. If you're just a casual fan, I'd recommend just getting a normal TurboGrafx-16... they're cheap, and most of the best games are on HuCard anyways. The CD add-on is pricey though, so if you REALLY want to get into things, I'd recommend looking on eBay for a modded Japanese Duo-R or Duo-RX... these would let you play everything except the SuperGrafx and laserdisc games (no big loss). Keep in mind that you don't need to be able to read Japanese to play most of the Japanese games out there (except RPG's of course).

 

Oh, by the way, the Duo-R and Duo-RX are the same system... the RX was just sold with a 6-button pad.

 

2: What video output options are there? Can you do S-Video or component through modding? What is the native video output quality like for the system? What video chip did it use (curious about modding possibilities)?

It uses a custom video chip made by Hudson. There's plenty of information about video mods on the net. The regular TG-16 only has RF output, but you can get the TurboBooster to get composite output. The CD add-on also provides composite output I think.

 

3: How much does the system typically run (related to #1)? What is a fair price?

Regular US TurboGrafx-16's can probably be found for $20-30.

US TurboDuo's can go for around $250-300.

Japanese Duo's seem to go for around $180-220.

TurboExpress systems are pretty expensive too, probably around $150-200.

 

4: Does anything tend to break on it? How durable is it?

YES! Most of the systems suffer from bad capacitors that have dried out over the years, which usually results in extremely quiet sound output. This problem is especially common in the Duo systems and the TurboExpress/PC-Engine GT. The problem is almost unheard of in the basic cartridge systems, but I think it's still a possibility. This problem is fixable though, as long as you're handy with a soldering iron. Read this thread for more info.

 

There are also some people who have problems with the lasers on the CD systems... this replacement laser should solve that problem though. I bought two of them just in case, since I know that when my Duo's laser dies, the product probably won't be available anymore.

 

5: What are the must own games?

Too many to list. Lots of great shooters and platform games though. Some good RPG's and adventure games, though in most cases the SNES has it beat in that area.

 

6: What about the must own accessories? Are there any extra add-ons that should be purchased?

As mentioned, you need a TurboTap or DuoTap to play multiplayer, since they only put one controller port on the thing. Make sure you don't mix up Duo and TG-16 stuff though, as the two have different controller ports. The North American Duo has the same controller port as all the Japanese PC-Engine systems (the TG-16 was the only one with the odd port), so feel free to buy Japanese accessories if you go the Duo route.

 

If you get a CD add-on, you'll need the Super System Card in order to play Super CD-ROM2 games. Pretty much all the worthwhile CD games require this. If you get a system capable of using Japanese HuCards, you can use the Arcade Card instead, as it provides all the same functionality as the Super System Card as well as the addition 2MB of RAM. The Arcade Card is somewhat easier to find and cheaper than the Super System card, but there are two versions of the card, the Pro and Duo models... the Duo one will only work on Duo systems, so if you got a CoreGrafx with the white "briefcase" CD-ROM, you'd need the Pro version (Like I said, the Japanese side of things gets rough).

 

All the CD systems (even the add-ons) had built-in memory for saving games. Many HuCard games support this memory, so if you end up going the TG-16 route, you might want to look into getting a TurboBooster+, as it has the built-in memory (Be careful, there are two different TurboBoosters, and only the + model has the memory!). Most games that can save to this memory also have the option of showing passwords though, so this isn't a big deal.

 

There were a bunch of games released in Japan that support the 6-button pad (especially helpful for the fighting games), but to my knowledge, none of the North American games use it. It's up to you to decide if that's important or not.

 

--Zero

[ckrtech]

Thanks once again for the responses.

 

I have "regular old" TG16 on the way along with a few games. I am actually going to look into an S-Video mod for this guy. If my library of games begins to grow to the point where I need to "move on" - I'll probably look into the CD side of things. I'd love to have a Turbo Duo, but those things are a bit too expensive for someone like me that has zero experience in the TG16 area.

 

Based on what everyone has said, it looks like my TG16 setup will evolve quite quickly.

 

And thank you for your extended response, Ze_ro. I appreciate it.

[EricDeLee]

Hey... it looks like you got a TG16 on the way. I started off with an Express... then got the TG16 with a turbo booster plus. After that, I decided that I would dive into the PC Engine side of the house because I had collected the majority of the US HU Cards at that point, and I really like those Hu Cards.

 

So I contacted D-Lite and he hooxed me up. In fact I just got a box from him YESTERDAY with 61 games in it!!

 

If you like the US games... it is worth grabbing a PC DUO-R and checking out the games. Now... you could get a PCE Flash Cart.... and you can convert the PC Engine HU cards to where they play on your turbografx without a convertor. That'll let you know if you want to continue with that option or not.

 

I'm close to 200 hu cards now. The majority of them all have there jewel cases and whatnot. I don't get to play it as much as I used to (once I discovered Call of Duty 4 online) but it is still a blast for me!

[ckrtech]

Ahh dude! How....what's the grand total cost of your ~200 hu cards (dare I ask)?

 

TG16 collecting seems like a fairly niche thing. It's like...ebay or bust. Heh. The irony here is that my first four games were purchased directly from an atariage user....but you know what I mean! You can walk into various stores and pick up NES, SNES, PSX and even Atari 2600 games. TG16? Looks like you need a tricorder and a phaser if you want to get one outside of ebay.