The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[+Black_Tiger]

9 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Does anyone know what resolution this game runs at? It actually looks like it uses the same resolution as R-Type, but I'm not sure.

The PC Engine has 96 resolutions when you start from what is generally considered the lowest, up to the highest. But some games like the Legend of Xanadus actually run in an even lower resolution.

 

It is difficult to narrow down exact resolutions, as emulators are inconsistent. I believe that all of ICOM Simulations games run at 336 pixels wide, except the Sherlock games which run at 512 pixels wide. I forget the horizontal resolutions, but most PCE games seem to use 224 or 240 pixels (the other is 232).

 

R-Type I and II for PC Engine runs at 352 pixels wide. Without getting into the details, the TG-16 and PCE CD versions of R-Type run at 320(?) pixels wide and feature more flicker.

[Gentlegamer]

Another reminder I need to play Shape Shifter.

[Steven Pendleton]

10 hours ago, Black_Tiger said:

The PC Engine has 96 resolutions when you start from what is generally considered the lowest, up to the highest. But some games like the Legend of Xanadus actually run in an even lower resolution.

 

It is difficult to narrow down exact resolutions, as emulators are inconsistent. I believe that all of ICOM Simulations games run at 336 pixels wide, except the Sherlock games which run at 512 pixels wide. I forget the horizontal resolutions, but most PCE games seem to use 224 or 240 pixels (the other is 232).

 

R-Type I and II for PC Engine runs at 352 pixels wide. Without getting into the details, the TG-16 and PCE CD versions of R-Type run at 320(?) pixels wide and feature more flicker.

I forgot Complete CD exists because I purged it from my brain because of its terrible music. HuCARD R-Type 1 and 2 are good enough for PC Engine, so I play those instead. Or the original arcade version on Switch/PS3/PSP.

Edited March 24, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[negative1]

eta prime review:

 

 

later

-1

[Steven Pendleton]

Official PC Engine, CoreGrafx, and TurboGrafx-16 shirts to celebrate the PC Engine mini have shipped. They were originally delayed until the 30th of April, but somehow they will arrive tomorrow. I hope they are nice since they were expensive as hell.

[Steven Pendleton]

So today I found one of these in its box over at Surugaya

 

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~tetuya/FXHP/pcengine/hard/anp.html

 

https://moonknight16.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/romromに歌えば/

 

The ROM2 Amp! I didn't know this existed! I guess it's for some PC Engine karaoke thing. It looks like you could use it as a sound system for your PC Engine or just about anything else that you can manage to plug into it, though.

[Steven Pendleton]

I got my PC Engine/CoreGrafx/TurboGrafx-16 shirts today. They are made with thick material and seem to be slightly larger than typical Japanese shirt sizes, but still not quite as big as US sizes. I'm wearing the TurboGrafx shirt right now because why not, and it's pretty nice and the logo is huge! The logo seems to be made with that thick rubberized stuff and I don't think it will wear off any time soon. Each shirt also came with a PC Engine/CoreGrafx/TurboGrafx logo sticker (like the shirts, they have the original logos from the 80s, not the new mini logos, even though these were done to commemorate the mini consoles) which I have no idea what to do with, so I will just keep them for now.

 

These seem to be more or less sold out, but there are still a very small amount left over, mostly TurboGrafx, so if you want one, don't wait (provided they ship to your country).

[Eltigro]

I saw a tweet from someone that said that the TG mini systems have a bit of sound lag...  only like five frames but still... has anyone heard of any lag type issues with them?

[Tanooki]

I think it's a possible M2 issue and not global but between certain games.  M2 was also the one who was paid to do the Sega Genesis/MD Mini and Mega Man has that many frames of lag and someone clocked it to embarrass them showing it frame by frame with pictures. They clearly have done something wrong, and I also wonder if the hardware is very similar between the two AND/OR M2 was lazy and just took their existing emulator bones and re-coded what was needed to be done to pick up the PCE style of game/code to work.  It's just very suspect to me.

[Steven Pendleton]

3 hours ago, Eltigro said:

I saw a tweet from someone that said that the TG mini systems have a bit of sound lag...  only like five frames but still... has anyone heard of any lag type issues with them?

Game Sack.

 

And I have not had any major issues with it, unlike the Mega Drive Mini. I did notice what might be some very tiny sound delay on close inspection in Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire's main menu. The sound it plays when you select start or config (and I mean when you select with the d-pad, not actually pressing the I button) seems to be slightly off compared to my real PC Engine running the game from the SSDS3. Have not tested everything yet and there are lots of games I have not played, so maybe that's why I haven't encountered it. Input lag might explain why I felt Ninja Ryuukenden isn't very responsive, though. I might have to try that on my real PC Engine to see what it's like there.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[+Black_Tiger]

4 hours ago, Eltigro said:

I saw a tweet from someone that said that the TG mini systems have a bit of sound lag...  only like five frames but still... has anyone heard of any lag type issues with them?

Isn't that like an 8% delay?

 

 

 

Input lag might explain why I felt Ninja Ryuukenden isn't very responsive, though. I might have to try that on my real PC Engine to see what it's like there.

 

If you're used to Ninja Gaiden on NES, it's probably not the PC Engine version's issue. Ninja Gaiden gets a free pass because it's considered a classic, but you literally can't damage enemies with your sword. Instead they hurt you.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Black_Tiger

[Steven Pendleton]

15 minutes ago, Black_Tiger said:

Isn't that like an 8% delay?

 

 

 

 

 

If you're used to Ninja Gaiden on NES, it's probably not the PC Engine version's issue. Ninja Gaiden gets a free pass because it's considered a classic, but you literally can't damage enemies with your sword. Instead they hurt you.

I'm not used to Ninja Ryuukenden at all as I've never played an NES/Famicom, just the Famicom Mini. I did play Ninja Ryuukenden for a few seconds on the Famicom Mini, but I stopped since those tiny controllers are terrible. Seemed more responsive there from what I remember compared to the PC Engine mini.

Edited March 27, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[turboxray]

On 3/22/2020 at 2:30 AM, CPUWIZ said:

Ah, cool, was just curious.  I spent 18 months programming that game and maxed out the CD standard (RED Book anyway).

 

Cool, someone preserved it properly.

Ahh a dev! I've always had this question, but why didn't you guys use the PCE's bit planes to have the animated tiles for parallax.. avoid hard 8x8 edges? Basically like was Ninja Spirit did in the first tree/forest stage? I.e. write to the lower 2 bits planes of a tileset for the animated tiles, and have the palette setup so that each bit plane had its own set of colors..

[CZroe]

Ahh a dev! I've always had this question, but why didn't you guys use the PCE's bit planes to have the animated tiles for parallax.. avoid hard 8x8 edges? Basically like was Ninja Spirit did in the first tree/forest stage? I.e. write to the lower 2 bits planes of a tileset for the animated tiles, and have the palette setup so that each bit plane had its own set of colors..

Well, his "Shape Shifter" game has some amazing sprite and tile-based multi-layer scrolling.

[Steven Pendleton]

It seems that we do not have to play Tokimeki Memorial to play Force Gear or Twinbee Returns

 

I have yet to see anything about intentionally loading the wrong system cards, by the way.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[+Intellivision Master]

4 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

It seems that we do not have to play Tokimeki Memorial to play Force Gear or Twinbee Returns

 

 

I found this out from a youtuber today.  It was interesting.

[Steven Pendleton]

Seems there WILL be Salamander near Arcade as well

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

5 minutes ago, Atari_Master said:

I found this out from a youtuber today.  It was interesting.

Yeah, it's been a few days since I checked the official PC Engine mini Twitter. Normally you have to play Tokimeki Memorial and unlock these two games, but not on the mini. I'm really interested to see this new Salamander near Arcade. PC Engine Salamander is already really good, so I hope this is a good sound/graphics conversion.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[+Black_Tiger]

12 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

It seems that we do not have to play Tokimeki Memorial to play Force Gear or Twinbee Returns

 

I have yet to see anything about intentionally loading the wrong system cards, by the way.

Hold Select while starting a CD game.

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, Black_Tiger said:

Hold Select while starting a CD game.

Interesting. That was one of the first things I tried and it didn't do anything. Turns out I wasn't pushing the button enough and it works fine now. I'm not sure if it's just my controller, but I really have to push the button hard to actually get it to register. On my real controllers I don't have this problem at all.

[Eltigro]

Sad news, somewhat PCE/TG related...

 

[Tanooki]

I saw that earlier ago, he was already suffering from some advanced breathing issues from smoking, so this virus was the nail in the actual coffin in his case.  It's a shame, but you chain smoke for decades you're asking for it.

[CZroe]

Unless Japan's numbers are way off, the infection rate is so low there (so far) that his chances of even getting it this early were remote.

[Steven Pendleton]

So it's been a while since I've said anything in here, but I found some more news on the PC Engine mini. I mentioned before that if you restart Gradius near Arcade, you go to the countdown timer thing. Turns out that you don't need to hold select for the entire duration of the HuCARD loading animation, and you can let it go as soon as it starts and the near Arcade version will run, starting with the countdown from the Konami Bubble System.

 

Anyway, I checked the official PC Engine mini Twitter thing just now, and they retweeted a thing from M2 that says that something will happen if you use the Konami code during the countdown. I did, and it takes you to the Gradius near Arcade sound test!

 

@Intellivision Master has also made me aware that the CGX mini and TG-16 mini DO have both Force Gear and TwinBee Returns, in addition to Salamander near Arcade.

 

Also, My Life in Gaming has posted a video on the PC Engine mini, and it seems that most of what they found is what I found: variable input lag, variable sound delay, not great video options, etc.. I've gotten around to testing some more games, and the amount of audio/input lag does in fact vary with the game, and I was originally using Rondo of Blood to test as I know that game well, and it turns out that one's one of the better ones on the system for both sound and input lag.

 

My final (and I do mean final this time) thoughts are this: Good substitute for a real PC Engine if you do not have one but want to see what some of the games are like? Sure, why not. It even considers the fact that only 138 games got released outside Japan while Japan got almost 700 games total, so that part of the PC Engine experience is there as well, so you still need Japanese to fully enjoy the system's library, just like in real life. The overall design of it and the presentation in the menu is my favourite out of the 3 mini consoles that I have, and there are some really good games on here, like Dracula X, which I have mentioned a few times already.

 

Is this a good substitute for your real PC Engine/TurboGrafx and real HuCARDs and real CDs, preferably with SSDS3 + OSSC if needed/desired or UperGrafx? Of course not. Still, I think it's good enough to recommend to most people that are interested in it and don't have the cash for a real PC Engine or TurboGrafx and the games for it but still want to do it at least somewhat legit. The game selection is still somewhat questionable in a few places, but there are good games here and if the variable input lag and the variable sound delay don't bother you, go for it.

 

Also, a note on using the controller on the MiSTer: I have recently discovered that my MiSTer is no longer accepting ANY controller inputs at all from any controller, so it may actually work with the MiSTer and I just can't verify that right now.

[NE146]

So I haven't really been paying a huge amount of attention... but is there both a PC-Engine Mini and a Coregrafx Mini? And am I understanding that there's some "hidden" games in them not advertised on the games list? Or am I misunderstanding.  And if there's hidden games, are there hidden games in the TG16 Mini?