PC Engine CD on TubroGrafx 16?

[Devalis]

Does anyone know if a PC Engine CD unit will dock and work with a TurboGrafx 16? (assuming I have the TG16 dock)

[famicommander]

Nope. You would need the HuCard for the Japanese unit which would not fit in an NTSC console.

[gorfcadet]

However you should be able to play import cds on the US system. I do not believe the discs are region coded.

HuCards actually "fit" fine but the cards are region locked so you would need a region modded system. The cards are the same size for both territories

[Devalis]

having a hard time finding an NTSC CD unit for reasonable is why I'm asking.

[famicommander]

However you should be able to play import cds on the US system. I do not believe the discs are region coded.

HuCards actually "fit" fine but the cards are region locked so you would need a region modded system. The cards are the same size for both territories

The NTSC Turbografx-16 cards have a different pin configuration and the playing of Japanese games requires a physical adapter to go between the system and the card. The American and Japanese games are physically the same size but the pin connectors do not match up.

 

Beyond that no modding is necessary to play Japanese games on a US system because the US system does not do a region check on software before playing. The PC Engine does, however, and so it requires additional region modding in addition to a physical pin adapter to play US games.

[gorfcadet]

Ummm. I think you're just wrong about the need for an adapter due to the pinouts. I have a modded ntsc T16 and all I have to do to play import HuCards is flip the installed switch. I was playing PC Engine AfterBurner on my T16 this morning.

[Rex Dart]

Ummm. I think you're just wrong about the need for an adapter due to the pinouts. I have a modded ntsc T16 and all I have to do to play import HuCards is flip the installed switch. I was playing PC Engine AfterBurner on my T16 this morning.

 

Heh, you didn't install the switch, did you? That's what it's doing; switching between pinouts.

[gorfcadet]

I just misunderstood what he was saying because he said it wouldn't "fit." I always imagined the "region mod" on the T16 was like the simple jumper mod on the Saturn. Learn something new everyday.

I never thought about a PC Engine cdrom drive fitting in a T16 drive cradle though. That would be a freaky looking thing. It does appear the pins match up, but there is a minor physical difference that would keep the pc engine cdrom from mounting properly even if your system was region modded and you had the proper driver card. The resources I checked indicate that the pins on the back of the systems are the same though they won't fit due to the plastic molding around it.

It sounds like a lot of work for a maybe.

[Devalis]

that's why I'm checking in on it before spending hundreds and it not work. Thanks for the info!

[twoquickcapri]

Maybe

 

 

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=27920&start=0

[gorfcadet]

 

So you'd need a US interface for the T16, but you could use a PC Engine cdrom in it according to this. The other pic I just thought was funny. So in the end you're buying both, but maybe you could save buying a for parts T16 setup just for the interface?

[Austin]

Or just buy an import Turbo DUO. Keep the TG-16 on the side. The price is probably comparable to a US Turbo CD.

[CZroe]

On 7/22/2013 at 9:37 AM, gorfcadet said:

 

So you'd need a US interface for the T16, but you could use a PC Engine cdrom in it according to this. The other pic I just thought was funny. So in the end you're buying both, but maybe you could save buying a for parts T16 setup just for the interface?

Bumping this old thread because it still comes up on Google when you search for this kind of thing. Anyway, you can use a North American TurboGrafx-16 with a Japanese dock (IFU-30 / IFU-30A "briefcase" Interface Unit) and drive (CDR-30 / CDR-30A CD-ROM² drive) with very minimal effort, though there are a few caveats.

 

No, it will not fit directly, but that's not as big a deal as it seems because, well, neither would the Japanese-only SuperGrafx (SGX) console and yet that can be used officially. How? With the NEC RAU-30 "ROM Adapter." Yes, it's an additional expense but I got one for under $10 earlier this year and just got a boxed one for under $56 shipped. It's an additional expense, sure, but not to bad if you ignore the overpriced ones from the people who thing SGX-anything is valuable... not this because the later Super CD-ROM² unit dilutes demand (fits directly). It requires a bit of trimming to fit a US model TurboGrafx-16 but not much more than the PC Engine Ten No Koe 2 that everyone keeps using for external RGB/component/AV mods. The pins all line up but the connector inside the RAU-30 has some little wings you need to trim off. Even then, it will not quite reach unless you trim the fingers that slot on the back of the console. I did mine super-clean with only a few minutes of effort... just snips and a file. You don't even need to touch a soldering iron. The last caveat is that you cannot get AV from the IFU-30 briefcase Interface Unit. The original SGX had built-in AV so the RAU-30 expects you to get it from there, but the TG16 only has RF. RF works fine but looks like crap. If you haven't modded it for composite AV or better already then you still can... or, better yet, mod the RAU-30 with a DIN-5 or DIN-8 multi-out (Duo-style, often upgraded to DIN-8 with RGB).

 

So, yes, you can do this to save money. It works:

 

Now, the Turbo Everdrive 2.x is WAY cheaper than a North American Super System Card 3.0 (HUNDRED$) but you might prefer a Japanese version with an adapter. I recently got the SuperSysCard for under $25 but the adapters aren't too cheap. You get a lot more functionality from the TurboED2.x so I feel most people would prefer that.