Slikatel Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 (edited) So, I finally got my PC Engine mini in the mail. I skipped the initial release due to covid and not wanting to order through the mail at the time. anyways, I'm not real familiar with these games, or this mini system. Any game recommendations? I've been playing Galaga '88 and CastleVania. Thank you. Edited April 13, 2022 by Slikatel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 2 hours ago, Slikatel said: So, I finally got my PC Engine mini in the mail. I skipped the initial release due to covid and not wanting to order through the mail at the time. anyways, I'm not real familiar with these games, or this mini system. Any game recommendations? I've been playing Galaga '88 and CastleVania. Thank you. Dracula X, Dungeon Explorer, Gradius II, Aldynes, Soldier Blade, Valkyrie no Densetsu, Ys, Daimakaimura, Neutopia and its sequel, and if you know Japanese, TokiMemo and Snatcher. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 US side I'd look into Bonk (and the other bonk JP side), Neutopia 1 and 2(kind of like Zelda), Ys Book 1+2, Alien Crush, R-Type, Ninja SPirit, Military Madness, Cadash, New Adv Island, Air Zonk, Soldier Blade, Lords of Thunder, and Bomberman 93, and Parasol Stars. JP side: Dracula X, Gradius 1 and 2, Dragon Spirit, Fantasy Zone, Super Darius, Splatterhouse, Super Star Soldier, Daimakaimura(Super ghouls n ghosts), legend of valkyrie, ninja gaiden, cho aniki, bomberman94, panic bomber, and sapphire. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
str0m Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 I was on mine last night playing Soldier Blade, had a weird issue which I expect is nothing to do with the device/emulation. The 4th boss, ~4:25 in this vid, I had blown off his right hand side but his left hand side was remaining but it moved and stayed on the left side of the screen just moving up and down with the 6 missle launcher bits hidden off screen so there was no way for me to hit the hit area! Even suicided and flew into it but no go, rather annoying! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, str0m said: I was on mine last night playing Soldier Blade, had a weird issue which I expect is nothing to do with the device/emulation. The 4th boss, ~4:25 in this vid, I had blown off his right hand side but his left hand side was remaining but it moved and stayed on the left side of the screen just moving up and down with the 6 missle launcher bits hidden off screen so there was no way for me to hit the hit area! Even suicided and flew into it but no go, rather annoying! That happens every so often... it will eventually move. I have the actual Hucard and this sometimes happens. Edited April 14, 2022 by DragonGrafx-16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
str0m Posted April 19, 2022 Share Posted April 19, 2022 On 4/14/2022 at 5:33 PM, DragonGrafx-16 said: That happens every so often... it will eventually move. I have the actual Hucard and this sometimes happens. ah right thanks, will wait next time 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted April 19, 2022 Share Posted April 19, 2022 I finally tried PC Engine Zero Wing for the first time yesterday. Uh... yeah. I think they might have rushed this one. It's still a decent game if you enjoy Zero Wing, but it's easily the worst version of the game in pretty much all aspects, unfortunately. Very disappointing, especially considering that the game is on a CD, but the music is still much weaker than it could have been, especially after the legendary soundtrack on the Mega Drive version, which is one of the best soundtracks on the system. Imagine how awesome it would have been if Toaplan had gotten those guys that did Lords of Thunder (Zero Wing released first, but you know what I mean) to do a CD arrange version of the Zero Wing soundtrack for the PC Engine version. That's the type of quality I was hoping for, but... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 I really really REALLY need to stop drinking entire liters of caffeinated stuff at 0200 when I have work on the same day. Too late now... Anyway, I have now discovered who did the music in PC Engine Zero Wing. It was Uemura Tatsuya. God damn do I feel really bad now. He put so much love and care into everything he did at Toaplan and it's extremely obvious when you play any of his games or read any of his interviews. Not sure what's up with the PC Engine Zero Wing music, and it's not bad, but it's just not doing anything for me at all after the incredible Mega Drive version. Anyway, I think it's finally time to try PC Engine Hellfire (after I am able to sleep). I'm still not sure how I feel about Hellfire in general. I tried both the 1P and 2P arcade versions a bit recently and they're okay, I guess, and the Genesis/MD version has a ton of cool extra stuff that is not in the arcade version like a shield, the Hellfire weapon, and a little satellite ship that attacks enemies for you, but I've never tried the PC Engine version, but I've heard it's not quite as good as the MD version. Uemura mentioned on Twitter just a few days ago that it's been 30 years since the release of the PC Engine version, and that it has way better music than the arcade version, so I'm looking forward to trying it. Hellfire is one of my least favourite Toaplan shooters along with Tiger-Heli, though playing it again a few hours ago on my Mega Drive gave me a new appreciation for it, so hopefully the PC Engine version is good. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said: I really really REALLY need to stop drinking entire liters of caffeinated stuff at 0200 when I have work on the same day. Too late now... Anyway, I have now discovered who did the music in PC Engine Zero Wing. It was Uemura Tatsuya. God damn do I feel really bad now. He put so much love and care into everything he did at Toaplan and it's extremely obvious when you play any of his games or read any of his interviews. Not sure what's up with the PC Engine Zero Wing music, and it's not bad, but it's just not doing anything for me at all after the incredible Mega Drive version. Anyway, I think it's finally time to try PC Engine Hellfire (after I am able to sleep). I'm still not sure how I feel about Hellfire in general. I tried both the 1P and 2P arcade versions a bit recently and they're okay, I guess, and the Genesis/MD version has a ton of cool extra stuff that is not in the arcade version like a shield, the Hellfire weapon, and a little satellite ship that attacks enemies for you, but I've never tried the PC Engine version, but I've heard it's not quite as good as the MD version. Uemura mentioned on Twitter just a few days ago that it's been 30 years since the release of the PC Engine version, and that it has way better music than the arcade version, so I'm looking forward to trying it. Hellfire is one of my least favourite Toaplan shooters along with Tiger-Heli, though playing it again a few hours ago on my Mega Drive gave me a new appreciation for it, so hopefully the PC Engine version is good. I've played PC Engine Hellfire... the music is pretty great. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 20, 2022 Share Posted April 20, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said: I've played PC Engine Hellfire... the music is pretty great. I went back and listened to it and it was not as good as I thought. It's not bad... but maybe a bit too General MIDI for my tastes. It's still really good though. Edited April 20, 2022 by DragonGrafx-16 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 8 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said: I've played PC Engine Hellfire... the music is pretty great. I just played it... I almost 1CCed it on my first time playing it, but I game overed on the final stage after a horrible chain death on stage 4 due to those things that pop out of nowhere, where I lost 5 of my extends to those things killing me, and I lost the rest on the final stage. This version is way too easy. The bosses die in literally about 3 hits. The music is pretty decent, I guess, but yeah, it's a bit too General MIDI for sure. I think I'll continue to play the other versions instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electricmastro Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 Cool TurboGrafx song: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 Due to the obscure genesis games thread it had me edit a post a moment ago because it was only centered on Devils Crush (aka Dragon's Fury there) and it got me thinking, just how many TG (or PCE) games got Genesis releases? It seems like a decent little amount of them did, blatantly more so than SFC/SNES did (not that they got nothing...but err Valis 4...MEH.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electricmastro Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 5 hours ago, Tanooki said: Due to the obscure genesis games thread it had me edit a post a moment ago because it was only centered on Devils Crush (aka Dragon's Fury there) and it got me thinking, just how many TG (or PCE) games got Genesis releases? It seems like a decent little amount of them did, blatantly more so than SFC/SNES did (not that they got nothing...but err Valis 4...MEH.) Games released on both Genesis and TurboGrafx that I could find include: After Burner II Air Buster Altered Beast Atomic Robo-Kid Cadash Columns F1 Circus '91 F1 Triple Battle Heavy Unit Klax Nastar Warrior The New Zealand Story OutRun Populous Raiden Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Super Volleyball Truxton Turrican Twin Cobra Twin Hawk Volfied 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 22, 2022 Share Posted April 22, 2022 43 minutes ago, electricmastro said: Games released on both Genesis and TurboGrafx that I could find include: After Burner II Air Buster Altered Beast Atomic Robo-Kid Cadash Columns F1 Circus '91 F1 Triple Battle Heavy Unit Klax Nastar Warrior The New Zealand Story OutRun Populous Raiden Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Super Volleyball Truxton Turrican Twin Cobra Twin Hawk Volfied Mega Bomberman is a port of sorts of Bomberman '94 on PC Engine. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Pendleton Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 (edited) There are a few Toaplan games that are on both: Daisenpuu (got both HuCARD and CD releases on the PC Engine), Kyuukyoku Tiger, Tatsujin, Hellfire, and Zero Wing. The Sega Hellfire and Zero Wing releases are the ones you want, and they are better than the original arcade versions. Tatsujin is a tossup, but Toaplan messed up the Sega version; it was their first time developing for the system and they rushed the port out from start to release in only 1 month, so they didn't really know what they were doing, so everything is too fast, including the music. It runs at the intended speed on a PAL Mega Drive, so force your Mega Sg to PAL mode and disable the auto region change if you want to play it at the same speed as the arcade and PC Engine versions and also fix the music. It's still fine at the faster speed, but the music sounds really weird like that. PC Engine version has the best music by far, though. Never knew Daisenpuu had a PC Engine release until just now, so I haven't tried it. We already talked about Kyuukyoku Tiger recently... yeah, that Sega version will crush your soul and make you feel insignificant and helpless. PC Engine version is much more approachable, but neither come anywhere close to the awesomeness of the arcade version. There's also Gain Ground, which has awesome music on PC Engine. PC Engine also has Golden Axe, but I don't think you will want to play this version. SuperGrafx has Daimakaimura, and that's marginally more accurate to the arcade version than the Sega version from what I've heard, as I've not spent much time with any version of it. I suppose there is also Snatcher, if you want to count the US Sega CD release that Japan didn't get. They actually made the Sega CD version specifically because they didn't want to release the PC Engine version in the USA because the Turbo failed so badly from what I understand. PC Engine version is supposedly the best version of the game, but I have not played it yet. More on Mega-CD: Shin Megami Tensei, Popful Mail (although I think it's a pretty different game on both systems, as this game tends to be that way on everything it was released on), and Winds/Lords of Thunder, which generally is considered better on the PC Engine. Edited April 23, 2022 by Steven Pendleton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted April 23, 2022 Share Posted April 23, 2022 Not bad, though I was thinking largely the US market because the Japanese MD prices are utterly awful, much like anything Sega optical is like crack habit funding priced too. I also was just thinking carts, I'm aware of Snatcher. That one long list is fairly accurate, leaving out the few I pointed out with Wonderboy, Ys3, Dragon's Fury(Devils Crush.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electricmastro Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 (edited) Didn't know that Buster Bros. made it onto TurboGrafx-CD. Music is top notch: Edited April 28, 2022 by electricmastro 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 Speaking of CD games... I like it when they go the extra mile and use real instruments or at least quality samplers and synths and not just General MIDI presets. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electricmastro Posted April 28, 2022 Share Posted April 28, 2022 56 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said: Speaking of CD games... I like it when they go the extra mile and use real instruments or at least quality samplers and synths and not just General MIDI presets. Yeah, it does feel uniquely special hearing radio-quality music playing over pixelated games. I suppose these days devs creating retro-games tend to go for retro 8bit/16-bit music, which makes the TurboGrafx-CD stand out more in that respect. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlidellMan Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 Here's quite a few English translations for various HuCard games: https://pce.cabbage.cx/ I'm glad that there are people translating these games, and the TG-16/PC-E has no shortage of translation hacking material. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jeremiahjt Posted May 9, 2022 Share Posted May 9, 2022 I walked in to my local game store yesterday and they had exactly one new TurboGrafx-16 TurboChip in. It happened to be my most wanted game, Cadash. It was priced at $139.99 for a loose TurboChip. Unfortunately I had to say no. I could not justify spending that much right now, although I really want to get that game. Maybe I can find a cheaper copy on eBay soon. I asked them how it came in and they said a guy came in with a briefcase and opened it up. Inside was a TurboGrafx-16 in nice condition with the back cover still in place, one controller, and one game, Cadash. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanooki Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 That's just depressing, so sick things have degraded to where they are now. Better off getting bootlegs and flash kits at this rate to not further feed the greedy beast. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonGrafx-16 Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 I really should get a Turbo Everdrive... anyone have any luck with the Chinese clone? The real thing is not available right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlidellMan Posted May 10, 2022 Share Posted May 10, 2022 I will say this about the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 version of Shadow of the Beast: It was the best version of that game as far as gameplay and fun are concerned. I also agree with what @electricmastro has said about the music. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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