The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[Lost Monkey]

On 4/28/2022 at 2:04 PM, electricmastro said:

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.

I can still remember the feeling I had the first time I booted up my TG CD with Ys I&II.  I was absolutely floored.   

[Razzie.P]

4 minutes ago, Lost Monkey said:

I can still remember the feeling I had the first time I booted up my TG CD with Ys I&II.  I was absolutely floored.   

Duo for me, but same.  I just sat there and watched that intro, mesmerized. 

[Hwlngmad]

21 hours ago, Lost Monkey said:

I can still remember the feeling I had the first time I booted up my TG CD with Ys I&II.  I was absolutely floored.   

Me too.  My best childhood friend and I were stuneed with Ys I & II and it is still impressive today imo.

[Hwlngmad]

On 4/28/2022 at 1:04 PM, electricmastro said:

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.

The TurboGrafx-CD could really belt-out some banging tunes.  Still holds up well today I think.

[dudeguy]

I just got a Turbo Booster Plus. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I heard someone say that it doesnt actually put a save file onto anything, it just retains the password for games that require a password, and it autofills it? I couldnt find much info on it.

 

I also dont know how the TG-16 CD works with the Turbo Booster Plus. It almost seems like you have to swap them out. But I am wondering how you get composite out when using the CD?

Edited May 12, 2022 by dudeguy

[+jeremiahjt]

1 hour ago, dudeguy said:

I just got a Turbo Booster Plus. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I heard someone say that it doesnt actually put a save file onto anything, it just retains the password for games that require a password, and it autofills it? I couldnt find much info on it.

 

I also dont know how the TG-16 CD works with the Turbo Booster Plus. It almost seems like you have to swap them out. But I am wondering how you get composite out when using the CD?

To use the TurboGrafx-CD you have to take off the TurboBooster-Plus and attach the TurboGrafx-CD dock in its place. The dock/CD player also have composite out and the save feature.

 

As far as the save function, for most games it does just auto fill the last password. There are some exceptions though. In Order of the Griffon for instance, it actually saves your location so you do not have to start in Radlebb Keep every time.

[dudeguy]

On 5/11/2022 at 10:47 PM, jeremiahjt said:

To use the TurboGrafx-CD you have to take off the TurboBooster-Plus and attach the TurboGrafx-CD dock in its place. The dock/CD player also have composite out and the save feature.

 

As far as the save function, for most games it does just auto fill the last password. There are some exceptions though. In Order of the Griffon for instance, it actually saves your location so you do not have to start in Radlebb Keep every time.

Is there actually a save file created somewhere? I know that with the Sega CD, games would save to the console and it was backed up with a battery. Is this similar to the TG16 Turbo Booster Plus/TG16 CD hardware?

[Steven Pendleton]

Has anyone ever seen PC Engine software sales numbers? I've heard Tengai Makyou II is either the best-selling game on the system or the best-selling CD game on the system, but I've never actually seen any actual lists of best-selling PC Engine games.

[dudeguy]

6 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Has anyone ever seen PC Engine software sales numbers? I've heard Tengai Makyou II is either the best-selling game on the system or the best-selling CD game on the system, but I've never actually seen any actual lists of best-selling PC Engine games.

No I havent. Years ago I tried tracking down sales numbers for various systems' games and could never find anything outside of the "best selling"/"best renting" lists

[turboxray]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:03 PM, dudeguy said:

I just got a Turbo Booster Plus. I'm not exactly sure how it works. I heard someone say that it doesnt actually put a save file onto anything, it just retains the password for games that require a password, and it autofills it? I couldnt find much info on it.

 

I also dont know how the TG-16 CD works with the Turbo Booster Plus. It almost seems like you have to swap them out. But I am wondering how you get composite out when using the CD?

I mean if it retains something when power is off, then it has to have some sort of save mechanism, right? But as far as what is it; it's low power 2k ram referred to as 'BRAM'. It also has a locking/unlocking mechanism so games can't accidentally overwrite it during a crash or power off (ala NES 'hold in power reset'). There's a capacitor, that acts like a battery. A simple power on every 3-6 months keeps it charged. The save ram is just like that of the Sega CD, and same as save ram on carts for these consoles too. As far as "autofill", that's a strange way of thinking about it haha. Why have it go through that part of the code when it could simple bypass the conversion to/from password syntax, and have it directly apply to variables in the game. There's nothing to say a developer couldn't do that, but from what I've seen (stepping through code) is that BRAM and password are different functions. And because they're different functions, it's as simple as calling the password function to show the password (regardless of "BRAM" functions), and same for calling the BRAM function to compress the vars and save to BRAM entry - since what's in variables (ram) is the "system of truth".

Edited May 15, 2022 by turboxray

[+jgkspsx]

On 5/15/2022 at 1:20 PM, turboxray said:

As far as "autofill", that's a strange way of thinking about it haha. Why have it go through that part of the code when it could simple bypass the conversion to/from password syntax, and have it directly apply to variables in the game. 

It may be silly, but a LOT of HuCARD games seem to do that. Tricky Kick, Chew Man Fu, Neutopia, and so on. Or are you saying that it really is restoring the variables in memory and then the password screen just reflects that? I guess that’s plausible.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 5/9/2022 at 4:21 PM, jeremiahjt said:

It was priced at $139.99 for a loose TurboChip.

Well I did it. I went in and they asked if I was going to get it and I said no. I said it was too expensive, but they knocked off $20 and I bit the bullet. Any game but Cadash and Neutopia would have been an easy no, but it had to be Cadash. It is in very nice condition.

[electricmastro]

Nice quirky platformer by Taito for the TG16:

 

 

[Elvis]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:53 PM, jgkspsx said:

It may be silly, but a LOT of HuCARD games seem to do that. Tricky Kick, Chew Man Fu, Neutopia, and so on. Or are you saying that it really is restoring the variables in memory and then the password screen just reflects that? I guess that’s plausible.

I have the Turbo and the CD unit. It has to have a built in small hard drive to save games. Because it saves them.  

[+jgkspsx]

3 hours ago, Elvis said:

I have the Turbo and the CD unit. It has to have a built in small hard drive to save games. Because it saves them.  

No, it’s battery backed up ram…

[Steven Pendleton]

40 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

No, it’s battery backed up ram…

I thought save data is stored in the IFU save capacitors.

[+jgkspsx]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I thought save data is stored in the IFU save capacitors.

You’re right. Here’s a breakdown: https://blackfalcongames.net/?p=190

[DragonGrafx-16]

Technically the capacitors don't save the data... the RAM does... the capacitors just keep the RAM stored.

[Elvis]

3 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

No, it’s battery backed up ram…

 

2 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I thought save data is stored in the IFU save capacitors.

 

29 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

You’re right. Here’s a breakdown: https://blackfalcongames.net/?p=190

 

10 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Technically the capacitors don't save the data... the RAM does... the capacitors just keep the RAM stored.

Thanks I thought it had a built in min hard drive all these years. ????

[turboxray]

On 5/16/2022 at 4:53 PM, jgkspsx said:

It may be silly, but a LOT of HuCARD games seem to do that. Tricky Kick, Chew Man Fu, Neutopia, and so on. Or are you saying that it really is restoring the variables in memory and then the password screen just reflects that? I guess that’s plausible.

Yes. The "system of truth" are the variables in ram, used by the game. The password screen is just a translation function of that (whether bit packed or not), in an encoded format that represented by some limited character set. The inverse is also true. BRAM routine would use the same "source of truth" - write to it or read from it. So, use the password input to get the vars into the game itself. Want to save them, call the BRAM routine on those same vars. I mean if the variable set is small, it could be a 1:1 mapping with no bitpacking... but they shouldn't be stored as actual text chars - but you never know with some devs hahah. Not saying you couldn't make the BRAM function dependent on the password system, which in turn is dependent on the game vars - but that just makes extra work and is convoluted.

[+jeremiahjt]

I played a fair amount of Cadash, and while the gameplay does not make the game worth what I paid for it, it is pretty fun.  I made it to the lava area with all the zombies and skeletons running around the ruined town.  I found out early that the game is not exactly linear.  I skipped the Kraken and saving the old lady's daughter by going through the water, and taking a lot of damage, and made it to the gnome village area.  I even managed to kill the worm and got the thread, but the lack of mermaid scales meant I could not make it back through the water and to safety.

 

I have only played as the fighter so far, I might try the ninja next.  The magic system seems like it will be hard to use in the heat of battle, so I am not too keen on the mage or priest.

[electricmastro]

Nice enough sound design for Klax.

 

 

[turboxray]

Bump.

 

 PCE emulator got a new feature for showing sprite boxes in game. I ran some quick analysis on some PCE games:

 

And some investigation into how one might optimize for a beat'em up on the PCE:

 

[Tanooki]

Is this some PC emulator you're working on?

[picklechips]

 

Did anyone ever get around to opening their copy of the Street Fighter 2' hucard?  I was always curious to see exactly what is or isn't under that bump with some visual proof.  Thanks.