Jump to content
IGNORED

The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!


Recommended Posts

I would like to get SSD3 eventually. Currently I have Duo-R that I bought about 5 years ago very cheap (seller said CD games didn't work right), checked it, found only games requiring System 3 ROM had corrupt graphic, bad trace from CD controller chip to one of the 64k RAM chip, 4 inches of wire it's been working 100%. I also replaced the original 2K BRAM with 32K and added in circuit to switch the 2k blocks so I don't need Tennoko Bank card to shuffle same games. I just press button to change the bank and play a lot of games. 32k BRAM is like having 4x Tennokoe Bank cards at once.

 

If I got SSD3 I wouldn't need to hunt down rare CD games or grab cheap repro CD when it pops up and I wouldn't need to burn a CD-R for games that are obscenely expensive or unreleased, and not available as repro. CD-R are hit or miss depending on quality of disc and how the CD burner can handle slow burns. Plus CD-R aren't good for really old CD system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is 720p video recorded from the RGB ouput of my Super SD System 3. It's hooked up to a CoreGrafx without any mods and I haven't cleaned the expansion port pins. I used an official power supply that has been repaired and a retrogamingcables MD2 scart cable. I'm not 100% sure if this is one of my packapunch cables or a regular one, as there is no disctinction of the label, but I'm pretty sure that it is a packapunch.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are still legitimate circuit issues in the v2 board. Voultar identified that there are issues and even commented that there are issues. The audio issues are not corrected with the firmware but part of them are masked. TO has done a pretty good job of being hostile and ignoring issues because "RGB was a bonus" which was definitely not the statement when it was introduced. Anyone that buys one of these is going to have to plan on shelling out additional money to have the composite video fixed, RGB fixed, and likely the audio circuit changed too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I'm holding off on that thing as as is, I'm fine with a Duo and an Everdrive or playing CD's, onto a CRT.. the way it's always been, for now. :P And if I wanted to play a single game like Sapphire that badly, there's always emulators.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They appear to have let their forum back patting and endless nob slobbing over their well made NeoSD go to their heads. They jumped in, bit off too much, and then like a caged cat started to growl, lash out, and cut anything or anyone that raised a complaint directly and with the help of that forum they had been stuck using. Too used to being endlessly talked nice to and loved over, the shell shock set in when complaints popped up repeatedly over shoddy work and we saw what happened there. Finally they issue a v2 of the board and try to act apologetic about it so they can drum up more sales, and yet again broken, now with sandbagging and denial.

 

Just be patient and don't buy their NEC stuff, they obviously are incapable of doing the job right or just don't give enough of a crap. There are a few products in the works that do what they offer with the optical side being taken care of too, so wait it out and find someone who is competent to get the job done right. The money they're asking which is roughly converted $300USB is too much for broken goods.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pcb inside has a large url printed on it. The recalled model says www.neosdstore.com and the current model says www.terraonion.com

 

Some things which have made a dramatic difference for some people:

 

Clean the PC Engine exoansion port pins and make sure that none are bent.

 

Use the official power supply. Cheap modern substitutes definitely ruin the picture quality and add audio noise.

 

Packapunch scart cables from retrogamingcables made the final difference for some. Once I narrowed down my problems, I found that there was not a noticeable diffrrence between packapunch and a regular RGC MD2 cable.

 

I checked my device over the weekend and it's the v2 board. Honestly, the video issue doesn't bother me much at all as the PCE has problematic video output anyway (jailbars, etc.). The diagonal noise across large areas of solid color are only really noticeable if I am sitting right in front of my TV.

 

What bothers me is the clipped/distorted audio. The beta firmware apparently "solves" this by allowing you to set the mixing volume of CD audio, but I'm not convinced that Terra Onion really cares to truly fix this $300 product, and the mixing level setting seems like a band-aid to me. People testing the FW have mentioned that it makes a difference, but doesn't completely eliminate the problem.

 

Unfortunately, this is really the only product available that does what it does (there is a Japanese product that also emulates a CD drive, but it only offers HDMI out, is finicky to use, and costs ever more ($450 USD). I've seen WIP shots of a hucard-based CD emulator, but all we have are some screenshots of CD games running on a Turbo Express, which could definitely be faked due to the device having a video input.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are definitely less than 100 v1's in the wild. You had to be a day 1 or maybe even day 2/3 purchaser to have gotten a v1. Aside from having jailbars, the PC Engine is actually known for having some of the best composite video quality out of any console. Not sure where this rumor that they had poor stock video quality came from. Until this device and it's issues, I had not once heard of anyone saying the stock video was poor quality. Also the jailbar fix is incredibly easy and even novice solderers are usually able to do it.

 

I agree though that the TO team seems to have just thrown their hands in the air and given up on trying to fix the issues. They really just want the community to solve the issues and let them move on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds about par for the course. Shame though because they do have a strong Neo Geo product and used to show nothing but openness and integrity, but once the stuff hit the fan their true colors have shown. I would bet their Neo SD Pro won't have the problem because again it's just a flash kit and not something that's over their heads but I bet it does impact a few sales perhaps given they ask top dollar for their work which is a shame.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It might not be an ideal solution, and the company might be being turdly about it, but I hope that it doesn't discourage other companies from trying to give something like this a go. I've been down on the PC Engine in this thread, but I've been poking around at the system again in emulation and it's starting to grow on me. Unfortunately actual system prices keep going up and up. I'm thinking about grabbing a Core Grafx again before the price jumps too high.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey everyone. I just wanted to share my tale of good fortune with the community. I recently won a component modded Turbgrafx 16 from the Turbo Reproductions Facebook group! Basically, they held a contest right before Christmas. Anyone who made a purchase by Jan 1st was entered to win. The winner got their choice between a modded TG-16 or a modded PC Engine. The machine that I won is absolutely incredible! Games look amazing on my HD TV.

 

post-27032-0-44318200-1527717768.jpg

 

The logo actually lights up when you turn on the machine.

 

post-27032-0-08046600-1527717773.jpg

 

Here's the component mod. I also had a region mod switch installed so I no longer have to use an adapter to play my PC Engine games.

 

post-27032-0-12300900-1527717815.jpg

 

I also purchased a couple of repros. This Batman cart looks absolutely stunning! It's also a great game!

 

Thanks for letting me share my tale of good fortune!

 

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's pretty sweet! Did it really take five months to arrive?

 

I'm starting to not feel so bad about not yet receiving the PC Engine Core Grafx I ordered from a US seller on eBay on 5/18. Your wait makes mine feel tiny. LOL

 

Going back to the Super SD System 3: someone on Terraonion's forums apparently received a unit that has the reversed capacitor installed correctly. https://forums.terraonion.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=91

 

Maybe they're fixing stuff? I dunno. The firmware that supposedly fixes CD audio distortion is still a work in progress.

Edited by derFunkenstein
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's pretty sweet! Did it really take five months to arrive?

 

No. It's arrived right away. Only rook a couple of weeks. Unfortunately I was in the process of moving from one state to another, and that kinda delayed my posting. The machine arrived at my new home long before I got there.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I'm holding off on that thing as as is, I'm fine with a Duo and an Everdrive or playing CD's, onto a CRT.. the way it's always been, for now. :P And if I wanted to play a single game like Sapphire that badly, there's always emulators.

 

Yep, I'm in the same boat. I saw the issues, saw TO's poor handling of them, and it was enough to put me off. Shame really as had it delivered on the premise of it, it would have been a really neat solution. My duo performs really solidly, so I'm happy to stick with the ED and CDs also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well just make sure that you don't post anything negative about the product on their forum. Apparently it upsets them. Can't wait to hear the update from Alex. I expect it to be another golden quote like "Quality can't be measured."

 

Oddly frank discussion of the SD card noise problem.

 

https://forums.terraonion.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18&start=110#p1093

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Hey everyone. I just wanted to share my tale of good fortune with the community. I recently won a component modded Turbgrafx 16 from the Turbo Reproductions Facebook group! Basically, they held a contest right before Christmas. Anyone who made a purchase by Jan 1st was entered to win. The winner got their choice between a modded TG-16 or a modded PC Engine. The machine that I won is absolutely incredible! Games look amazing on my HD TV.

 

attachicon.gifTurbo Prize + Swag (2).JPG

 

The logo actually lights up when you turn on the machine.

 

attachicon.gifTurbo Prize + Swag (3).JPG

 

Here's the component mod. I also had a region mod switch installed so I no longer have to use an adapter to play my PC Engine games.

 

attachicon.gifTurbo Prize + Swag (7).JPG

 

I also purchased a couple of repros. This Batman cart looks absolutely stunning! It's also a great game!

 

Thanks for letting me share my tale of good fortune!

 

Looks awesome. I had fun doing the logo backlight mod. There is pics of it buried somewhere deep in this thread.

 

Edit: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237235-the-official-turbografx-16-thread/?p=3528406

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks awesome. I had fun doing the logo backlight mod. There is pics of it buried somewhere deep in this thread.

 

Edit: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/237235-the-official-turbografx-16-thread/?p=3528406

 

That's awesome! It's very cool to see the actual process of making the back light mod. It's one of the best features of the console and it's a really nice touch. Everyone notices it.

 

And just for the record, I have been playing this console NON STOP since I got it hooked up to my TV. It truly is amazing! Thanks again!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Thought this thread might be the best place to post this.

 

Anyone modded a Tennokoe 2, with a RGB to Component v2 board ?

 

Here is the mod

 

http://www.tg16pcemods.com/rgb-to-component-converter-v-20.html

 

I've followed the instructions exactly as they say. But component gives me no picture, so I assume my 20" LCD cannot do 240p over component. But more importantly, composite gives me a black and white picture. I tried composite on all my CRTs, with the same result.

There are adjustable pots on the board, 2 I believe would possibly be for component, but one looks like it could be for composite.

 

Here is my attempt.

 

domPWa.jpg
bJR6gn.jpg
vqwX89.jpg
I can't see where I might have gone wrong.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I uploaded a read-through of TurboPlay #1, complete with lots of gameplay footage of the featured games, to my YouTube channel last night. Figured some of the peeps in this thread might find it interesting.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqFdrqhbcrg

Always look forward to your new videos man :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thought this thread might be the best place to post this.

 

Anyone modded a Tennokoe 2, with a RGB to Component v2 board ?

 

Here is the mod

 

http://www.tg16pcemods.com/rgb-to-component-converter-v-20.html

 

I've followed the instructions exactly as they say. But component gives me no picture, so I assume my 20" LCD cannot do 240p over component. But more importantly, composite gives me a black and white picture. I tried composite on all my CRTs, with the same result.

There are adjustable pots on the board, 2 I believe would possibly be for component, but one looks like it could be for composite.

 

Here is my attempt.

 

domPWa.jpg

bJR6gn.jpg

vqwX89.jpg

 

I can't see where I might have gone wrong.

Couple things. First, how are you getting composite video? That board only produces component video, so you would need to pull composite video from the expansion connector and I would recommend building the proper circuit for it. Second, check for cold or broken solder joints on the board itself. They make those by hand and I have seen that on 2 boards in the past. Part of the reason I won't use them. Lastly, double check all of your connections. Make sure you are tapping the correct lines from the expansion bus.

 

The pots on that board are brightness, blue, and red. Green is created by the difference between blue and red and luma on that board, if I recall correctly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...