The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[INTVCruise]

3 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Here is mine:

 

 

Thanks brother appreciate the additional confirmation! 

[CloakeD]

Remember me?I offered to reverse engineer Joust but another person jumped in,anyway pc engine https://easyupload.io/iu9bkd

[HoshiChiri]

My copy of Cosmic Fantasy 2 (my only truly complete Turbo CD game!)

 

For what it's worth- it does look a little like the residue from my old bottle of Gamestop Disc Skip Fix. If it was, it would wipe off with a mild cleaner (I use furniture polish.) If it's not coming off though- definitely a concern!

[electricmastro]

One of the best songs the system has to offer:

 

 

[Lost Monkey]

Received my Super HD System3 PRO today- haven't had a chance to fire it up yet. 

[Lost Monkey]

Ok - didn't have a lot of time and will be out of town for the next 4 days, but I was able to try out the Super HD System3 PRO briefly this evening.

 

A couple of points:

 

1. I ended up bending several pins on the first TG16 I tried to attach it too.  I'll have to spend some time straightening those out.  Not sure how it happened because it is a tight fit with NO wiggle room. Either way - beware.

 

2. I needed a plastic spudger to push the MicroSD card in far enough for it to stay in the slot.  Couldn't do it with my finger or the edge of a Hucard.

 

3. I cannot get original Hucards to work while the SHDS3P is attached - not sure if this is normal?

 

4. I haven't spent too much time with it, but I have not noticed any input lag.  I am also using an old plasma tv, so that may be moot.  I'll have to test this more.

 

5. SuperGrafx!

 

6.  So far the games look great on the HD TV.

 

Overall - I am happy with this device, but I have not spent a lot of time with it.  It does appear so far to be a viable replacement for a Duo or TG16 setup. 

[cybercylon]

Like its predecessor, I don't think the Super HD System3 is officially supported for the TG16. With the original, I had to remove the board from the plastic and place it on the back of my TG16 and then put the shell back on around the board to avoid bending any pins. I had to leave the screws a little loose.

 

I think the expansion area is a different size between the TG16 vs the PC engine variants, though I don't have a PC engine to measure both to make a comparison.

Edited August 7, 2021 by cybercylon

[turboxray]

4 hours ago, cybercylon said:

Like its predecessor, I don't think the Super HD System3 is officially supported for the TG16. With the original, I had to remove the board from the plastic and place it on the back of my TG16 and then put the shell back on around the board to avoid bending any pins. I had to leave the screws a little loose.

 

I think the expansion area is a different size between the TG16 vs the PC engine variants, though I don't have a PC engine to measure both to make a comparison.

Huh??? I have the original and it connects to my TG16 just fine.

[+jgkspsx]

Yeah, huh???

 

I think what happened was that your pins weren’t perfectly straight to start with. They have to be perfectly rectilinear. (As with any attachment to that crazy port.)

 

Super weird that Hucards don’t work. They are region-appropriate Hucards? It won’t magically make PCE games play on a TG16 through the card slot.

 

Is the hucard dumper turned on by any chance? What do you see when you put a hucard in?

[Steven Pendleton]

7 hours ago, turboxray said:

Huh??? I have the original and it connects to my TG16 just fine.

I do believe that this was mentioned over on Terraonion's forum before they closed it. Todd or someone mentioned something about the system not being supported officially as the SSDS3 was designed specifically for the PC Engine and not the TurboGrafx-16. I don't know the specifics, though, and I don't have a TurboGrafx, so I can't say.

[Lost Monkey]

51 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Yeah, huh???

 

I think what happened was that your pins weren’t perfectly straight to start with. They have to be perfectly rectilinear. (As with any attachment to that crazy port.)

 

Super weird that Hucards don’t work. They are region-appropriate Hucards? It won’t magically make PCE games play on a TG16 through the card slot.

 

Is the hucard dumper turned on by any chance? What do you see when you put a hucard in?

I tried both USA and Japanese HuCards - just to be sure.  Just a blank black screen.  Also tried the CD Stupid Card and same blank screen.

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I do believe that this was mentioned over on Terraonion's forum before they closed it. Todd or someone mentioned something about the system not being supported officially as the SSDS3 was designed specifically for the PC Engine and not the TurboGrafx-16. I don't know the specifics, though, and I don't have a TurboGrafx, so I can't say.

I forgot something: yes, it does fit on the TurboGrafx supposedly (again, I don't have one, so I can't say), but I'm pretty sure there was a mention by Todd or neodev or someone at Terraonion regarding using the thing on the Turbo. Forum's been deleted now, so I can't go check, so...

[Steven Pendleton]

Look what showed up on Game Sack today:

 

It seems that this thing has some weird stuff going on with the SuperGrafx games on a SuperGrafx, but I kind of expected this would happen. What's more interesting is that the SuperGrafx+Darius Alpha confusion becomes even more confusing.

[cybercylon]

11 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Yeah, huh???

 

I think what happened was that your pins weren’t perfectly straight to start with. They have to be perfectly rectilinear. (As with any attachment to that crazy port.)

 

Super weird that Hucards don’t work. They are region-appropriate Hucards? It won’t magically make PCE games play on a TG16 through the card slot.

 

Is the hucard dumper turned on by any chance? What do you see when you put a hucard in?

The general advice was to loosen the screws before attaching it to a TG16. I am pretty sure Stoneagegamer advised that, though they no longer have the original one on their product page, so I can't prove it one way or another.

 

Anyway, maybe I should have been clear that it was some speculation on my part and the reason why I thought it wasn't officially supported... perhaps some difference in the plastic molding between the TG16 and the PC engine.

 

Perhaps there were more initial reports of bent pins in the TG16. When TO's forums existed, there was quite the heated exchange from an individual if I recall.

[Steven Pendleton]

1 hour ago, cybercylon said:

The general advice was to loosen the screws before attaching it to a TG16. I am pretty sure Stoneagegamer advised that, though they no longer have the original one on their product page, so I can't prove it one way or another.

Behold the power of the Wayback Machine

https://web.archive.org/web/20210225134652/https://stoneagegamer.com/super-sd-system-3.html

 

Doesn't seem to be there in the official text and warnings and stuff, but one of the reviews mentions it.

 

Anyway, yes, they did specifically state that it's not officially supported on the forums several times and I do remember that one dude freaking out over his bent pins.

Edited August 8, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[Tanooki]

I remember it wayback or not.  I was in support of that kit until the designers showed their true colors and went aggro on anyone who complained about their shit build quality, and especially those who did nothing but be nice and design repairs FOR THEM to get them attacked and banned.  That's why I don't own any of their stuff, they're horrible, and unaccountable after they moved to a country for production/shipping where they don't have to honor repairs/returns.  If you must but they're crap, SAG, they have a 1yr warranty at least.

[+jgkspsx]

My feeling is that there is no alternative. If there were I would consider it. I am not rushing to upgrade, that’s for sure.

[Tanooki]

No alternative?
- How about UperGrafx from Japan?  HDMI quality output, runs both ISOs of optical, and strong HuCard support, sadly, not cheap.  http://www.upergrafx.com/home_en

- Analogue DUO -- when it appears, it'll get jailbroken like all their stuff, it can legit run cards and optical from any region/type.

- (Krikzz) PC Everdrive PRO(or whatever it's named) -- He's re-doing the everdrive, more memory, will allow for ISOs of optical through the HuCard slot! and I think Arcade Card too.

 

That's three good ways to do better while giving those charlatans the middle finger at TO.

[DragonGrafx-16]

It was actually easier and not much more for me to just get a Duo RX. I don't mind having to burn discs.

[Tanooki]

I can see that, if you want to stay more original with pre-HD level output either living in the past on an old CRT or having a good flat panel LCD that tolerates it well.  The stuff I listed, they're more or less HD upgrades other than the last.

[newtmonkey]

I bought the original SSDS3, and the device I received was in the "middle" batch where the most heinous issues had been resolved but it still suffered from some problems both minor and major—most notably, horrible CD audio, which made it sound like absolute garbage on my somewhat high end speakers.  They added a band-aid, allowing you to reduce the CD audio volume so that it wouldn't distort, but then you end up having really quiet CD audio compared with the rest of the audio.

 

I then got the Upergrafx, which is VERY expensive and also EXTREMELY quirky, but I'm pretty much happy with it.  The CD audio is distortion-free, the audio balance is okay, it supports HDMI (via DVI) but you can still use the original video output from the system, and it has much more accurate seek time emulation for CD games than the SSDS3 had (though I understand accurate seek time was added to the SSDS3 in a recent firmware update).  Having said that, I watched the recent Game Sack review of the Super HD System3 PRO, and I guess we are back to inaccurate seek times?

 

There was a lot of discussion about using the SSDS3 with a TG16 even outside of the Terraonion forums.  I can't remember which, but the tight TG16 fit is mentioned either in the My Life In Gaming or Game Sack video covering the original SSDS3—even going so far as to show how the SSDS3 dug into the plastic of the TG16 they were using.

Edited August 9, 2021 by newtmonkey

[evilevoix]

Turbo was amazing.  Punched so far above it's weight.  I love my Turbo Duo and with the Arcade card that thing ruled.

[Steven Pendleton]

RetroRGBob's review thing of the SHDS3 Pro: https://www.retrorgb.com/super-hd-system3-pro-livestream-demo-and-testing.html

 

As I see more and more about this thing, it increasingly seems that keeping the SSDS3 + SuperGrafx + HD Retrovision + OSSC is the best option for me at this point. I have the latest/best revision of it, so I don't have any real complaints, especially after they added seek time emulation to the thing. Not sure if it's worth spending that much money just to get a slightly improved color palette and then lose the seek time. I'm sure they'll add the seek time option to it, but for now, I don't really see a reason to spend that much cash to get a better color palette, worse CD audio, and run the SuperGrafx stuff with the FPGA, which seemingly has problems on the actual SuperGrafx unless you put the switch in the non-SuperGrafx position, when I can just use my real SuperGrafx.

 

It would be kind of nice to stop using the SuperGrafx just because the thing is freaking huge, though, so I suppose there is that aspect.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[+jgkspsx]

On 8/8/2021 at 9:40 PM, Tanooki said:

No alternative?
- How about UperGrafx from Japan?  HDMI quality output, runs both ISOs of optical, and strong HuCard support, sadly, not cheap.  http://www.upergrafx.com/home_en

- Analogue DUO -- when it appears, it'll get jailbroken like all their stuff, it can legit run cards and optical from any region/type.

- (Krikzz) PC Everdrive PRO(or whatever it's named) -- He's re-doing the everdrive, more memory, will allow for ISOs of optical through the HuCard slot! and I think Arcade Card too.

 

That's three good ways to do better while giving those charlatans the middle finger at TO.

- UperGrafx has been out of stock for almost a year

- Analogue Duo doesn’t exist yet

- PC Everdrive Pro doesn’t exist yet

 

There are no alternatives. Even Japanese Duos aren’t an option for me because I don’t have a TG16 to PCE hucard adapter, just the other way around.

[Dopy25]

8 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Even Japanese Duos aren’t an option for me because I don’t have a TG16 to PCE hucard adapter, just the other way around.

I'm still new to all things TG16 but if you have the converter, wouldn't it work on both? I thought the only difference was the order of some of the middle pins being swapped.