Like the RetroDuo, should there be a TurboGrafx clone?

[Manhattan Sports Club]

Since we have higher quality Genesis, NES, and SNES clones coming out on the market more frequently, why not Turbografx-16/PC Engine clones? Has one been released already without my knowledge?

If not, I would be looking for the following features in a TG16/PCE clone if such a thing were to be produced:
-It MUST be region-free to work with both JP and US games, so say goodbye to expensive and scarce converters!
-It MUST have solid compatibility, of course! The Turbografx/PCE is one of the most well emulated consoles at the moment, so this shouldn't be hard to accomplish, or else they would fail at life.
-It should support both S-Video and RCA.
-It should be interchangeable with the original controllers.
-It should resemble the original japanese PCE in shape, and in turn would be smaller and more compact than the US version. It could possibly be even more lightweight than the JP console!
-Relatively inexpensive sale price.

So what are your thoughts?

[MrSparkle]

They dont have the mass market appeal to sell in the us. In japan i could see a pc-engine clone doing well. Trying it in the us would be like building bootleg mini disc players, youd get alot of blank stares and a warehouse full of inventory to sit on forever. Though i would personally love to see a turboduo clone come out ;).

[Manhattan Sports Club]

They dont have the mass market appeal to sell in the us. In japan i could see a pc-engine clone doing well. Trying it in the us would be like building bootleg mini disc players, youd get alot of blank stares and a warehouse full of inventory to sit on forever. Though i would personally love to see a turboduo clone come out ;).

That's actually what I was thinking too. :|
Same reason why an SMS clone would probably be unmarketable as well, even moreso than the TG16 clone.

[Mason P.]

what is funny is I was wanting this too. I was wondering how long it would take them to make one. I want a tg-16 and a PCE but i cant find a Duo at a reasonable price. I don't really care about the cd games.

[CosmicMonkey]

I've seen a couple of PC Engine clones. One was a clone of the Shuttle and the other was a Core.

There's also the Korean version of the Turbo 16, the Vistar, which is pretty nifty looking.

[Jorpho]

I suppose you'd want SuperGrafx, SuperCD, and System Card 3 compatibility, too.

There seem to be so many different peripherals and variants for the PC Engine. It's a good thing NEC didn't try to release them all in the US; it makes the whole Genesis thing seem simple.

[Sabz5150]

Doesn't the PCE/TG16 compatibility issue deal with card pins being physically swapped? How would you get around this without switches?

[dao2]

dunno, but it always pissed me off that the geni duo clones came with an nes slot not a sms slot :|

[c0ldb33r]

Doesn't the PCE/TG16 compatibility issue deal with card pins being physically swapped? How would you get around this without switches?
Just get a converter from ebay.

Seriously though, this would be a great idea. Make duo's more afforable :)

[TwinChargers]

Out of sheer curiosity, has there been anything that has cloned more than 2 systems at once? I think that would increase sales of these clone systems more than anything else. Maybe one that clones NES, SNES and Genesis. Or one that covers all the most common bases and include a 2600. Call it the Retro-Quad. Would that get more peoples interest here?

[jb143]

Doesn't the PCE/TG16 compatibility issue deal with card pins being physically swapped? How would you get around this without switches?

Nowadays they could probally have auto-sensing internal digital switches take care of that automatically. Implementing that, though, is just slightly less likely to happen than them making the clone to begin with.

[MrSparkle]

Just get a converter from ebay.

Seriously though, this would be a great idea. Make duo's more afforable :)

hell even those converters are expensive, they seem to go for around 80-120. And without inciting a sms riot, it would have almost no appeal in the us, kind of like it didnt have much appeal in the us when it was current ;). Nes is a better choice for a dualy system mainly because it was popular and had a huge library of readily available games. Furthermore master system games can be legitimately played on like 5 platforms as it is. master system, powerbase converter, gamegear.

[MrSparkle]

Out of sheer curiosity, has there been anything that has cloned more than 2 systems at once? I think that would increase sales of these clone systems more than anything else. Maybe one that clones NES, SNES and Genesis. Or one that covers all the most common bases and include a 2600. Call it the Retro-Quad. Would that get more peoples interest here?

haha funny you should mention that as i brought the idea up the other day in this thread for a TurboQuadro
http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=122049
I would personally go crazy over a quad system just for the obscurity value. I have never personally seen anything along these lines. Though if you took a super nintendo and jammed a few third party accessories into it you should be able to get it playing a variety of games for other nintendo systems specifically nes and gameboy, Not exactly the same though.

[MrSparkle]

biggest problem here is that the nes can be very easily cloned as it was mostly off the shelf or slightly modified parts i believe the turbografx and duo had a decent ammount of custom hardware inside considering they were made by nec who had the resources sitting around to design and build custom hardware. Thus the reason it was initially so scary for nintendo, and even more so for sega. Luckily for them nec didn't seem to understand that software sells the system and that packaging in a crappy pack-in would hurt them so badly.

[RadiantSvgun]

See, the whole problem behind this is lack of available games. NES, SNES, and Genesis stuff is still on the shelves of places like Replay's and such stores. Turbo Grafx? Zilch. You'd need a nice stock of available games before you could even try to market a clone console for a more obscure system like the turbo.

[Tupin]

I couldn't see a Turbographx clone doing that well because they aren't easy to find.

A Sega Master System/NES clone would be cool, though.

What exactly was that crappy pack-in that NEC had?

[Manhattan Sports Club]

I couldn't see a Turbographx clone doing that well because they aren't easy to find.

A Sega Master System/NES clone would be cool, though.

What exactly was that crappy pack-in that NEC had?

You guys mean Keith Courage in Alpha Zones? I didn't think it was that bad, but Bonk would've been a better choice, but I thought Bonk did also came with the TG16 at one point, though I may be wrong.

[tomaitheous]

biggest problem here is that the nes can be very easily cloned as it was mostly off the shelf or slightly modified parts i believe the turbografx and duo had a decent ammount of custom hardware inside considering they were made by nec who had the resources sitting around to design and build custom hardware. Thus the reason it was initially so scary for nintendo, and even more so for sega. Luckily for them nec didn't seem to understand that software sells the system and that packaging in a crappy pack-in would hurt them so badly.

Actually all the hardware in the PC-Engine was designed by Hudson. All the processors and such as Hudsons. They just licensed the system to NEC. The only hardware part that I know of that was designed by NEC was the CD addon, but Hudson still took care of the BIOS and software libs.


How many games are actually on the NES clones? There's more than enough US Hucard titles to justify releasing a clone system with an all in one cartridge. Plus, there are Japanense games that have very little kana/kanji and would be ripe for the multicart. The TG16 has gained some notability with the releases of VC titles. So it's a feasible idea for hucard games/roms, but I doubt there would be any 'Duo' or CD base features or clones.

[CosmicMonkey]

When you start wanting a multi-clone system, surely a modded Xbox with the appropriate emulators is the best answer?

I'm not suggesting that you get rid of your SNES/NES/PCE/whatever collections, but when it comes down to space and convenience surely this is a good argument for emulation. And you won't feel bad if you only acquire games you actually own hard copies of..

[Jorpho]

Out of sheer curiosity, has there been anything that has cloned more than 2 systems at once? I think that would increase sales of these clone systems more than anything else. Maybe one that clones NES, SNES and Genesis. Or one that covers all the most common bases and include a 2600. Call it the Retro-Quad. Would that get more peoples interest here?

Ever heard of the Pioneer LaserActive?

[CosmicMonkey]

I'm sure it must be possible to make a homebrew Super NES pac for the LaserActive? Surely it'd be a case of working out which pins on the universal connector are for power and A/V and modding a SNES2 as the PCB is nice and small.

[tomaitheous]

Ever heard of the Pioneer LaserActive?

You mean the laserdisc player that took *official* PC-Engine and Megadrive slide in modules?

[Kitsune Sniper]

I find it funny that people are asking for SMS clones, considering the system is still being manufactured and sold... in Brazil. And aren't there several SMS clone systems sold in the US? I remember seeing a few that had built-in SMS games.

I don't think we'll ever see a TG16 clone system because the companies most likely still have a patent over the hardware components, not to mention the BIOS itself...

[Steve W]

The thing is, SMS consoles still work nowadays. NES units rarely do. So, there's a good reason for Famicom/NES clones to exist nowadays, because of all those people pulling their games out of their attics and closets but not having a working machine to play them on. It's not all that difficult to locate SMS consoles and games, and they're usually functional. To get a working NES in the wild, you have to track down a top loader.

[PixelSmasher]

"Like the RetroDuo, should there be a TurboGrafx clone?"

No. Absolutely not. Nobody has the right to play god like that STAY AWAY FROM MY SYSTEMS GODDAMNIT.


*cough*

[ice1605]

The thing is, SMS consoles still work nowadays. NES units rarely do. So, there's a good reason for Famicom/NES clones to exist nowadays, because of all those people pulling their games out of their attics and closets but not having a working machine to play them on. It's not all that difficult to locate SMS consoles and games, and they're usually functional. To get a working NES in the wild, you have to track down a top loader.

I don't think that you have to get a Top Loader. Most of the time, a toaster only needs a new 72-pin connector. Using the original hardware beats any clones.

[boatofcar]

I don't think these are clones, but I saw them in Akihabara for under $20.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3163/2861988109_0f95c0d960.jpg

[PixelSmasher]

wow, those are pretty nice for $20. are finds like that common?

[Blur2040]

It's Japan, the native land of PC Engine, where they were pretty damn popular. Not so much of a find, but a relatively common occurrence.

[boatofcar]

Yeah, there were stacks and stacks of them. If I was coming back to the US, I would have loaded up on them and resold them.

[MrSparkle]

The thing is, SMS consoles still work nowadays. NES units rarely do. So, there's a good reason for Famicom/NES clones to exist nowadays, because of all those people pulling their games out of their attics and closets but not having a working machine to play them on. It's not all that difficult to locate SMS consoles and games, and they're usually functional. To get a working NES in the wild, you have to track down a top loader.

I've never found an nes that i HAVEN'T been able to get working. most people just dont have the balls to deal with a blinking screen so they toss it out assuming its broken. Just like people toss out their computers once a year when they get filled up with malware. To be fair i did get rid of a car once because it ran out of gas lol.