Tips for getting into the Turbografx/Turboduo
So I've decided that the next system I want to add to my collection is the Turbografx. I've been reading up, and it seems there a ton of options to choose from in terms of consoles.
Which model would the fine lads here suggest? The American Turboduo? The original? The Duo-R/RX?
A recapped and output modded (S-Video or whatever your monitor supports) Duo-R is what I'd look for.Originally Posted by Bozle
It apparently isn't difficult to do a region mod for the HuCards, sans that the Japanese library is far more extensive than just the US releases.
The Japanese controller port will also provide a broader selection of peripheral options and probably less costly controllers too.
Last edited by Koa Zo; 10-06-2015 at 11:43 PM.
Don't collect.
Use the ootake emulator and play the games.
First and foremost, it's gonna get expensive, so unless you have a lot of disposable income, beware, as it's super popular these days with collectors. That said, I did a US Turbografx unit for US HuCards and a Japanese Duo-R for import HuCards, and CDs are region free. Just beware, as you're getting into territory with the Neo Geo AES for crazy high prices. Those rare NES and SNES games will start to look reasonable by comparison.
Also, get a time machine and buy this in the late '90s. If I hadn't bought my stuff then, it'd be out of my reach now. I've bought arcade cabinets that cost less than Turbo games. A lot less.
Not the best time to collect for the TG16 period.Few years ago it wasn't to bad but now there's allot of demand for said console and game.Still,if you have the money id suggest importing a duo-r or rx the most reliable model out there.The other being just stick to the japanese release since the american ones are pricey currently.The other advice i can give buy a flash cart such as the turbo everdrive,it will let you play the more expensive games on hucards.
If you have to, go with the Japanese hardware and repair before use by replacing the capacitors. But realistically just don't bother. As others have said it's just too expensive now to really be enjoyable. Scalpers combined with people with more money than common sense have caused it all to shoot up in price to where it's just very unreasonable for most of it and especially anything decent. Maybe it'll drop out eventually when people run out of stuff to get dumb over but right now it'll cost you so much money. You'd be better off getting one of those overseas ROM/ISO playing handheld devices with large storage on them that expands with SD cards of various types and just doing that. If you were to jump in now and it fell off about this time next year you'll feel like a broke idiot blowing so much cash you won't ever see back. It's NEC not Nintendo it hardly has the base Nintendo does and it also has little nostalgia around it, it's a different group of nuts doing it on this one.
Basically echoing what everyone else has said here. Prices are a bit crazy and it's not a great time to start collecting for this system. If you choose to, I'd pick up a Duo-R or Duo-RX, they tend to be more reliable and not have the capacitor issues that plague the black US/JP Duos. A stock R/RX will play CD and SCD games from all regions, but only JP hucards. An Arcade Card Duo adds ACD compatibility, but there aren't many must-own ACD games, IMO.
A region mod will add US hucard compatibility, but a Turbo Everdrive (highly recommended) will work on a JP system and allow you to play US and JP hucard games without a region mod.
Apparently it's getting kind of hard to find PC Engine games in Japan nowadays with all the foreigners going there and buying up every store's stock for resale overseas.
Rakuten is an online Japanese retailer, a bit like Amazon, and they opened themselves up a few years ago for international retail. I went there and bought roughly $50 in PC Engine games with no idea what I was buying, just whether or not they had cool covers and were fairly inexpensive for my first round of purchases from them. Several months later I looked on their site to get more games and they barely had any. Nowadays you can't even find PC Engine games there at all.
Just get yourself a good emulator and a retro styled USB gamepad. If you're going to buy a bunch of Japanese titles, at least you can see which ones are worth the money and (here's my problem with some of the ones I bought) which ones are easy for a non-Japanese gamer to play. Several of the titles I bought were dense in Japanese text, so I didn't have a clue what I was doing or how to proceed. With emulation, you can do the research before spending loads of money on games you might not be able to play.
You can get a flash card for about 70$ to play the hu card games. You can play it on a pc engine core grafx system, which at this point is probably cheaper than the US Turbo Grafx system and has AV output.
Tips? Have alot of money to spend. The caps on American Duos are garbage. Get a jap Duo or a domestic with the capacitors already replaced.
Last edited by FieryReign; 10-07-2015 at 06:00 PM.
It sounds really lame, but this is the route I'd go at this point. You can even buy the CD-based games as you come across them and run them via an emulator.
Not like the CDs are cheap though, but given there's no burned CD lockouts if I recall right it's another way to go.
Way back in the 90s I registered this French guys emulator before I ended up with a Duo called Magic Engine. Believe it or not it's still I believe maintained. It was and always has been excellent in that it runs anything you throw at it, even the Arcade CDs, Super Grafix, and so on. I ended up actually owning the Gate of Thunder disc (which had bonk1+2 and bomberman hiding too on it) and Ys Book 1+2 and used that before the real hardware. It originally was a DOS/Windows 32bit thing but I know it will work under Windows 7 64bit as I've tried it. I lost my key just a few years back and emailed the guy and he was still able to look me up and send me the code again which was surprising. That was done around the time I was considering getting back into it until I saw even 4 years ago the shit hit the fan on TG anything sadly and it has only gotten worse as it has gone up right along side the abuses of the NES and SNES if not worse due to less supply and more psychotics with deep wallets rage for it.
http://magicengine.com/
Magic Engine is excellent, but it hasn't been updated since 2008. It was the first and best PCE emulator, but ootake has long since surpassed it.
If you want a system that plays US stuff its cheaper to get a TG16+CD over a Duo but the duo has advantages, notably 1 power supply. The Duo is expensive and most need(or will soon need) a redoing of many onboard capacitors
Japanese systems I dont know much about but the Duo-R is most recommended. I believe its the cheapest all in one systems. I think a PC Engine+CD is cheaper than a Duo-R.
If you want legal access to every game you need a SuperGrafx+CD(plays the 6-8 Supergrafx) with a region mod.
Theres good flashcarts for playing roms and translations and can save you from having to region mod. All CD systems play burned games but it is not recommended as it will burn out the lazer. If you need RGB(if you use an upscaler) the standard PC engine and Turbografx have external solutions for RGB but the CD+card systems need an internal mod(not too difficult, more info here). Overall as a system I like it a lot but I am a big fan of shmups, and that makes like 30% of the catalog. Theres a lot of junk on the system though.
Last edited by CDiablo; 10-07-2015 at 10:29 PM.
Bury me with my money......*dies*
my only tip is to check dumpsters
that's where I found my TG 16, with a turbo booster even
I believe SuperGrafx was 5 games, though I don't remember if that was counting Darius Alpha/Plus or not (the only dual-compatible PCE game. And of those two one is the normal version and the other is a rare promo version).
I'm not seeing this supposed price barrier to collecting PC-Engine games.
I've noticed maybe a handful of top titles spiike in price lately, but most of the library can still be purchased for between a couple dollars to $20 or $30 each.
PCE isn't so bad unless you want stuff like Sapphire, Fausette Armor, Renny Blaster, etc. It's the US stuff that's bonkers.
Also, read thebrothersduomazov.com. You'll learn a lot about what's out there and see a load of screens.
But the Duo will play SCDs on it's own. The TG+CD combo requires a US Super System card which was going for $100+ last time I checked.
Can anyone tell me if any of the consoles have the battery backup module integrated into the system?
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