Messages

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Hey Keith,

Thank you very much for all of the guidance and help with this problem and thank you too for suggesting the magnet being used to hold down the disc. That was driving me a little crazy for while when the disc would spin and sometimes it would be read and other times it wouldn't even when I wouldn't touch anything.

So the new laser arrived and it defintiely was the culprit like you said. As soon as I put it in I started having more success with the cd spinning and attempting to be read. It still wasn't reading anything at first so I started adjusting the potentiometers starting v102 and sure enough, I was able to start reading the pressed cd-rom of FX Unit Yuki. I don't know what it is about FX-Unit Yuki, maybe the fact that the cd was newer but I have not had really issues getting the game to at least start up, even if some of the music tracks were a bit off and in need of further calibrations. Thankfully that cd also has a soundtest which really helped me with adjusting v105 and v103 to get all the tracks to play across the span of the disc.

At first I encountered issues getting other pressed cds to work, both US and Japan regions but eventually I got the pots positioned using that guide by BlueBMW (by ear guide) and eventually all pressed or official cds worked just fine. CD-Rs were another story altogether as my cd-r of FX Unit Yuki Demo and my CD-Rs of Dawn of Ys Translated with the English Dub that used to work before were not working initially. Using that guide and understanding the pots and what they do, I was able to kind of tweak one by one until I could eventually cut the system on, start the disc and not have to wait much time for it load to the black screen and then ultimately the title screen.

So hopefully, with any luck, those settings will stay that way and I'll close everything up in the case again soon and start playing some PCE again!



I'm also looking forward to any good games have been released since FX-Unit Yuki that I should check out or any new noteworthy translation projects that have come out since then as I've not really been paying attention to the scene, for example did the Kaze no Xanadu I&II trans/english dub ever come out?

Anyhow, thank you for your help and it's good to get this working again!

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: REPAIR GUIDE - PCE|TurboDuo/R/RX: CD Laser Swap & Adjustment Guide]

Thanks so much for this guide and especially the potentiometers and what each of them do. Knowing what each of them is actually doing really helps isolate some of the issues I was facing when I installed a new laser. I believe I have everything working or close to working now, including CDRs and all audio tracks, though I've really only experimented with one game for a Sound Test so far (FX Unit Yuki's Audition mode). Anyhow, I know this thread is many years old now but it's very useful today!

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Oh I see, gotcha, yeah in my case maybe mine had been opened before because I only have regular screws. I've got a couple of security bits for opening up the NES/ AV Famicom, but yeah I guess I won't need that then. Thanks!

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Thanks Keith, I found one for around $15 bucks so I'm going to take a shot with that one and we'll see what happens when it arrives! Might be awhile before I post again as I'm sure it will take some time to come from China. Plenty of time to read up and familiarize myself with the process or any other tools I may need. Looks like one guide said I'll need some kind of smaller sized security bit, so I'll see about getting one of those as well.

Thanks again for your help and advice!

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Great! Thanks for the information, Keith. I'll definitely try to order a new lens soon and consider giving the install a try. If it looks like too much I'll send you a direct message and maybe we can work something out. I'm curious though what you would consider a good price. I see that they are kind of all over the place. Some places have them for under $20 including shipping, but some have them go all the way to $45. Then there are some that have full replacement enclosures that looks pretty much plug and play for about $50 to $65. For a few bucks more.... maybe that's the way to go? Hmm.

I can usually handle soldering well enough as far caps and the like, but SMDs are a little troublesome for me and certainly I'm not familiar with CD-Roms. I have a non-working CD-Rom in my FM Towns II MA model with no idea how to really fix it, so I've never seen the system it in action before sadly even though it turns on and displays a picture...

Thanks for your help.

-SkyeWelse 

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Thanks Keith! I appreciate the advice. I took a look at the two black 16v 1000uf caps that are closest to the regulators and I'm getting roughly 12.45v in both of them so yeah, I think you're right in those caps seem like they are operating fine. I'm still puzzled a bit with the guide I linked to above suggesting the the read outs of the pots ABC measurements for the RX aren't anywhere close voltage-wise to what I'm seeing when I test, so I'm wondering how I would best calibrate all the pots if the voltages aren't matching up.

I have checked the continuity of the wires going to the lens and can confirm that both connectors seem to show good connectivity for the red and white wires and there isn't a short from what I can tell, at least not from those wired connections at least.

I guess that would just leave the lens replacement as the next logical step. I'll check the guides here to see which lens is recommended for replacement, but if there is one more recently available that is easy to install I'd love to know about it! I took a look at the lens that is there and it looks like I can mess it up if I don't know what I'm doing, so definitely want to follow a guide there if possible.

By the way, if for some reason I can't get this repaired myself, who all do you recommend to fix these up? Is someone offering that as as a service these days who is pretty well known and trusted?

Thanks again for your reply!

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Thanks NW! I appreciate that. A lot of great guides here, just mainly wanted to see if I'm on the right path with reading those pot voltages. I did take the board out of the case and at least I don't see any leaking caps. Just trying to figure out if it's worth recapping as a first step or if there's more diagnosis I can try before I go that route. I've certiainly recapped boards before, but I wouldn't say I'm great at it and SMDs give me some troubles.

-SkyeWelse

[Console Repair/Mod Center / PC-Engine Duo-RX CD-Rom Issues (Looking for Advice on how to repair)]

Hi everyone!

Glad to see that this forum is still alive and kicking! It's been awhile and I finally had some time in the last few weeks to start really making some progress on hooking up some of my older consoles. I had been using a Duo RX for years without any issues and all of sudden I'm getting that "Set Disc Error", that from what I'm reading seems to be like a general hardware error for pretty much anything having to do with the CD-Rom.

I've seen some other posts here with similar issues and one member (Joe) said he was able to fix his after his PC-Engine had been recapped. From what I've been reading, a recap can sometimes result in needing to adjust the potentiometers a bit with VR102 usually being the main culprit in most cases.

That's kind of what I wanted to try to play around with first before I start taking things apart from the actual cd-rom/laser assembly. I'm a novice when it come to electronics and a bit worse when it comes to the mechanical stuff... ended up breaking the plastic gears in my famicom disk system for instance, so would prefer to stay in my beginner wheelhouse first.

So the symptoms I've been getting outside of the Set Disc error is that the laser will recalibrate and move to the left to attempt to read the inner data layer of the CD. It will spin the disc for a second, then stop and the laser will move up and down (not left or right) just a bit in an attempt to read the disc. When it gives up the process, it will spin the disc one more time for about a second and then stop.



What I thought I might try first was adjusting the pots, and saw a great guide on the forums here that I was attempting to follow:

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=8926.0

Specifically, I was hoping to try reading the voltage (starting with VR102) of A to B and B to C and C to A, like this guide says:

vr101:AB=12.33 AC=10.65 BC=19.55
vr102:AB=7.89 AC=8.11 BC=11.28
vr103:AB=7.25 AC=7.14 BC=18.46
vr105:AB=0.38 AC=0.00 BC=0.38

But in my case, I'm not getting any where near a DC voltage reading of 7v to 11v, I'm getting like a 2.22v or maybe 2.03v when I adjust the pot a bit. If those values from that guide are showing that they should be much higher voltages, then that makes me think that somewhere along the lines, perhaps a capacitor or two are no longer working as they should and not outputting the proper voltage. The caps at a glance look fine... the PSU is an original one, rated for 9v, but is actually outputting around 13v when I tested it. After it runs through the voltage regulators on the board, I think it goes to around 4v?

I guess I'm just wondering if I'm reading that guide correctly and I in fact should be seeing higher voltages there. I was surprised a bit because it seems like with vr103, the B to C test should be something around 18v and that seemed a bit high considering the PSU being uses is around 9v to 13v.

I was wondering if you did a voltage test on your pots and if you saw something different than what I'm seeing currently. I'm trying to figure out if I should just get a cap kit from Console 5 and just work on replacing all the caps first and maybe that might solve the problem or get me closer?

If you or anyone else has any advice for me or confirmations on what my next steps should be, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

-SkyeWelse

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Discord server]

I think the idea behind tcaud's original post wasn't that the Discord server needs to "represent" this forum, but rather offer a nice startup Discord community tailored around discussion of the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx.

That's cool if there is another Discord server already setup for this and if it is thriving, then perhaps that's the way to go. We couldn't find one which is why we made our own. This is mainly in response to how well the PC-98 Discord Server has taken off with gathering a large following of interesting members with many available skillsets.

In any case, that was the point of this was to try and gather members who might be interested in chatting over Discord. Not all of us have the time for forums anymore, but find it easier to just hop over to see what's cooking on the Discord server.

If anyone happens to be a member of the other Discord server for PCE-FX, please let us know the link to that communtiy so that we can check it out.

Thanks,

-Thomas

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: The "PCE CDROM Emulator" anticipation thread.]

I would gladly pay for one that could be implemented in a DUO!

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Henshin Engine Game for TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine]

Just wanted to drop in and say good luck with the game! I just backed it for a physical Turbo disc. Just in time too seeing as it's in the final hours of the Kickstarter.

I really like the concept of the game having the main protagonist represent NEC and the antagonist / rival represent Sega. That will be a lot of fun to see how that story plays out.

I came up with a similar concept for a game I wanted to work on for MSX one day, but life got in the way. It was going to be a Mega Man style game for MSX 2+ called naturally, MSX Man. But instead of robot masters, they would be Computer Masters and it was MSX Man's mission after being created by a "pair" of doctors, Dr. Nishi and Dr. Gates, to show them all who was boss. He was going to fight against Atari Man, Commodore Man, NEC (PC-88) Man, Spectrum Man, BBC Man, and others ultimately getting upgrades to make the MSX Man the most powerful 8-bit machine ever built. This would of course parody the actual MSX history some having Dr. Gates go on to "Do his own thing" and you'd have to fight him and his computer robot armies in a Windows fortress before he could give full power and support to... dun dun dun, the International Business Machine, which would be MSX Man's final boss. MSX Man ultimately cannot win against IBM's power, but MSX Man is later found years later and resurrected to live on and fight for "Great Justice!"

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Ys Special Edition - 2001 -> 2016 version plans.]

I really like this project and I'm happy it's getting a revival. I had not seen it before and I'm looking forward to playing the game again with an all new arranged soundtrack. We've decided to do a similar process of providing an optional patch for Ys Celceta PC (originally in Chinese) which would offer alternate soundtracks and possibly include additional Ys IV related music queues since there were not too many tracks in the game and a lot of repeats. Also, there is TONS of Ys IV music spanning 4 different versions of the game, SFC, DUO, PS2, VITA.

Just to clarify since I don't think there is much news about it elsewhere on the net other than our forum, but there is an English translation project for the game in the works, but we preferred to try and see if we can insert a brand new translation instead of the XSEED version if we can find a willing Chinese to English translator. The entire game is pretty much already hacked, a debug mode has been found, and we're currently working on a 60 FPS tweak as well. It'll be without a doubt the definitive version of Ys IV Celceta by far, much nicer than the Vita version.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu I and II - General Translation Project(s) Thread]

Congratulations Elmer and SamIAm! Looks like the project is coming along very well and I'm happy to hear that the first draft of the script it finished.

Is an English dub project already open for this?

-Thomas

[General Gaming / Re: Xenoblade Chronicles X]

I'm also playing Xenoblade Chronicles X and I'm loving it so far. I just wish I had more time to play it! That and my wife tends to hog the Wii U for to participate in squad-based Splatoon battles daily. I've never seen such an addition to a video game before! Oh wait, that was me with Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II...

I just watched that video explaining how large the world of Mira is in comparison to Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Witcher. That's a really impressive size! 4 times the size of San Francisco!

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Xanadu I and II - General Translation Project(s) Thread]

Just checking it to see the progress and it really looks like it is coming along nicely! Looking forward to finally being able to understand and enjoy these titles. I'm a huge Xanadu series fan.

Btw, if you do happen to do a dub for the games, I'd be interested in auditioning for a part, though I am afraid I don't know the characters well enough yet. I did Lefance in the Ys IV dub.

-Thomas

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Saber Riders Kickstarter]

It looks amazing! I'll have to think about backing it before the Kickstarter ends. Hope it reaches that stretch goal of $210,000 for the PCE version. : )

-Thomas

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Xanadu I disc owners: Please help!]

That's good that you were able to find out what the issue was, but that sucks about your Dracula X 100% save.

But it could be that not being turned on for ages caused the super-capacitor to get so low that it caused trouble. I might try leaving the system on overnight to give it a good charge.

I see. So the problem might be that the system wasn't Obeyed often enough? 

-Thomas

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Xanadu I disc owners: Please help!]

Also, have you tried saving with this game yet? What hardware are you using?

Thank you! 

I currently only have a Duo RX to test this on, but I can confirm that it saves and loads from this my system at least.

-Thomas

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Xanadu I disc owners: Please help!]

Hi Sam, not sure if my version will help, but I checked it and it's FFLTF HE60916-1 TCW1 which may be an earlier batch from your serial number.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Going rate for PC-FX?]

Normally my PC-98 wouldn't have a processor powerful enough to support it, but I upgraded it to 83 mHz using an overdrive chip. I believe the specs on a PC-FX GA call for a 100 mHz, so I'm hoping to scrape by and still be able to use this thing. However, in the event that it doesn't work out, I don't want to be above the $100 range for a loss.

The specs on the ISA card require a 486SX33, but recommend a 486DX100.

If you've got enough RAM in the system to use Fez's PC-FXGA CD cache program, then I suspect that you'll be fine.

Thanks for explaining the recommended specs. Well, natively the Ce2 has a 486SX chip running 25 mHz. But with this adapter/overdrive CPU I'm able to overclock it to 83mHz, so hopefully that should be enough.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Going rate for PC-FX?]

Thanks Elmer,

In checking eBay it looks like the auctions that previously sold were for complete sets anywhere from $60 to $90 not including shipping. So that'll be my target range to aim for I think. It's not that I absolutely gotta have one of these babies, but I really would like to see how it performs on my PC-98 as a hobbyist type of project. Normally my PC-98 wouldn't have a processor powerful enough to support it, but I upgraded it to 83 mHz using an overdrive chip. I believe the specs on a PC-FX GA call for a 100 mHz, so I'm hoping to scrape by and still be able to use this thing. However, in the event that it doesn't work out, I don't want to be above the $100 range for a loss.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: Any Ys Collectors here?]

You guys have some nice Ys collections! I don't have the X68000 releases yet, but maybe one day when there aren't other financial priorities.

I'm an Ys / Falcom collector too. I'd love to show all the Ys stuff, but it would take me so long to pull it all out and put it all back... Maybe one day I can show it. For now I'll just show the main shelf. There's plenty of books, other figures, games a clock and even jigsaw puzzles for Ys behind a lot of this stuff. I've taken a bit of a hiatus on collecting though.

New setup:
https://retro-type.com/skyewelse/gameroom/falcom_shelf_new.jpg
Old setup:
https://retro-type.com/skyewelse/gameroom/falcom_shelf.jpg



-Thomas

[General Gaming / Re: Retro VGS Game Console]

I'm looking forward to the Kickstarter to see what they show then and what the price will be. I hope it does well, regardless on whether or not I buy one. But it does seem like it has some very nice potential. Seriously thinking about it at least. But I guess it just depends on the price.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: ZEROIGAR RELEASE!]

Awesome! Looking forward to playing this when I can either get a PC-FX or a PC-FX GA for my 98 machine. Thank you for working on it. It looks great!

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Going rate for PC-FX?]

For personal reasons, I'm more interested in getting a PC-FX GA card for my NEC PC-9821 Ce2. I'm not really sure what the actual going rate is for one of these though as both eBay and Yahoo Actions Japan seem marked up very high. Surely these can be cheaper? I don't even need the full complete box, disk or demos even.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

Sent a tweet that I hope will be effective. A few RTs might help get it started if you are a Twitter user.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

Wow, I can't believe they made an energy drink to enjoy while they laugh at Konami and all the collector's who pay top dollar for their warez in pretty packaging.

Well, your move Konami. But I guess I'll start something on Twitter to see where it goes.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

Wow Professor! I guess that's why they call you... "Professor" as you really dished out a valuable lesson here... "Tobias, open your book to 'Chapter 11'. "

I hope anyway!

I was wondering though, after reading the comments about whether Konami will do anything and I was thinking, why stop there? Create a situation where Konami can't ignore it because it's gone viral and out in the public. Right now Konami is trending pretty low, and they are an easy target to make fun of for their recent business decisions. I can't imagine they wouldn't react or try to do something if word got out that "Look how stupid they are! Konami doesn't even care about copyright issues for their own past works! Free Konami games for everyone!"

This could also be re-enforced by sending a letter to the copyright holders for all of the software titles that Tobias as released. Every last one of them. And the same letter too, which states that Tobias is profiteering off of the copyrighted works from this company, this company, this company, this one, this one too" and have that be in the same letter that you send out to each copyright holder. It might take some work tracking all that information down, but I think it would be worth it in the end.

If not only the public knows, but other companies as well, it should create an appropriate shut down hammer with Konami leading the charge.

Not sure if many of you knew this, but in the MSX communities, there was a place called Konamito, which was cited by Konami for having copyrighted material and they decided to shut down and reopen under a slightly different name and different content. There was a whole forum discussion about it here.

And then there is this too:

Metal Gear Remake gets the okay from Konami... Not!

So I think they will react accordingly, especially if there is some fuel to add to the fire. As this been sent through Twitter? I know myself and Nightwolve are on Twitter and I'd be happy to send a tweet about this. I just need to lock and load. It would be more effective if we had an official tweet setup that we could copy and paste with who we want to send it to, i.e. @konami #KonamiCopyrights, et cetera.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: Kickstarting translation projects?]

Yeah, pretty much the only person I know who has done "legit repros" was Brandon over at Super Fighter Team. He got the rights for several titles from the original developers and translated, romhacked and then released the games. 

He's got a bit of a mixed track record as to release times, but I give him props for pulling off a release that keeps the original rights holders/developers in mind as well.

That's really very cool that he was able to accomplish that. As a collector myself, I've also thought about how nice it would be to own some nice pretty reproductions to sit on a shelf and occasionally glance at, but I've never taken a bite out of that sandwich for the reason that I'd be purchasing something that wasn't legitimate and therefore only contain the value of the beholder and how much it was worth to them personally (or subsequently how much it was worth to the Repro shop to sell it by creating a demand for it). I just see it as overpaying for something that isn't real and doesn't support the original copyright holders and/or the translation teams that worked on it.

But in a case like what xcrement5x describes above with Brandon from Super Fighter Team, I think i would be totally behind an operation like this.

True Puffer, I'm not sure if you are trolling or not as it does seem like you haven't made too many friends here with your posts so far, but I'll assume that you are being serious about finding a real solution for collectors, translators and copyright holders alike. Reading on what you've stated so far, to really do this correctly so that all parties involved are happy and compensated, an entity "We are the next Working Designs" publisher would need to be established.

This of course would be of no small feat to accomplish, because even if you were to have all the crowdfunding money in the world, there is no guarantee that that money will A) allow you to purchase a legal license to sell the game B) bind you to any actual release schedule or contract for releasing the game (a.k.a. they might take the money and run and call it a failed project, just like so many other Kickstarter projects that fail after they get funded).

To become such an entity, you would first need your own money and influence and probably a track history of being a successful publisher yourself, or at the very least a person with a lot of connections who knows who to contact to make things happen. I would wager that most Japanese businesses would not care to deal with an entity that has no proven track record or relies on crowdfunding as the only means of funding a localization project, even if it is for old / dead software. They would probably just not even be interested in appeasing a handful of collectors.

But, all negativity aside, I would honestly love to see something like this happen actually, if it really could be done correctly. A rise of a new publishing entity geared toward releasing physical retro-games and unreleased localizations of software, perhaps only in limited quantity. With the publisher's blessing as well as the team working on bringing the translation forward being able to work with this entity to secure the rights and release their projects as new official releases. This could actually be a positive news story for the developer as well: "Developer's game gets new release in the United States after 20 years!" and other developers / copyright holders might want a piece of that action once it became popular / trendy enough.

I guess I would kind of envision it as a similar concept to how IndieBox does it for indie games today.

But if you ask me, I don't think we are quite there yet. There still needs to be a successful publishing entity out there willing to make that kind of bold move first, and that all takes capital and likely a huge loss, before any real profit or breaking even is met. Ultimately it is a bit of a gamble. It may even be more of a risk than releasing the RetroVGS in this day and age.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Shada translation: beta testers wanted]

Now that I've got a Turbo ED, I'd be interested in testing this if there is an availability for another tester.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! ORDERED!]

In case it helps anyone with setting it up, I learned that there can only be a maximum of 25 pages in each folder directory, so at least in my case I was able to split up a GoodPCE archive as follows:

A-E
F-N
O-S
T-Z

Having a lot of fun with this so far. Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of fan-translated HuCard projects available anywhere?

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! ORDERED!]

Hi jtucci31,

I got in the mail today. Thanks very much! It's been fun testing it so far. Started a game in Neutopia II and was able to reload a save game off the card. Next I guess I'll see what this expensive game, Magical Chase is all about.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! ORDERED!]

It won't cost any of you extra, I know that. I'm sorry for this mess-up. I feel very guilty, I thought this could be done smoothly. I sadly won't be getting much help from krikzz on any of this, so matters are in my own hands. I assumed responsibility for this sort of thing when I said that I'd do this group buy, so it's no issue to me. I just know that it sucks that you guys have to wait a little longer to get them.

Accidents happen and while in hindsight it would have made more sense to have done this in two orders perhaps, I don't think you should feel guilty about it. You were trying to do us all a favor. We recently had an order where someone like you who was trying to do a favor for the MSX community was trying to work with a shop to create new keyboard membranes for Panasonic MSX machines. He worked so hard to try and get the orders processed and get everyone a fully working membrane, but there were issues and now pretty much the cost of all of the membranes will need to be refunded to those who paid for them (or partial amounts if the shop honors a lower price for a non-perfect one) and it's a huge hassle for him to now have to deal with. So I definitely want to tell you that I really appreciate what you are trying to do here very much.

While I would prefer if it didn't cost me more to get it, if it helps things out I don't mind paying a little more for my order if need be to offset the extra shipping expense that will have to be paid.  Consider it a handling fee. There may be others here who feel the same way. Please let me know if you think this offer would help the situation.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! ORDERED!]

Thanks for the updates everyone. I'm sure it will all get straightened out in the end and I don't mind waiting a bit longer for it to arrive. I appreciate you all working together to get it all sorted out.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! PM's are out!]

Payment sent! Thanks again for organizing this. : )

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: TED Group Buy Round 2! (Not accepting anymore people. Sorry!)]

Thank you very much for organizing this jtucci. : )

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WAIT! Don't buy an everdrive on your own just yet! TED Group Buy Round 2!]

Count me in for one too if there is still room for another order.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: What do you depise AT THIS MOMENT : XSEED Games...]

SkyWelse or anyone that speaks to these people, I need your help to get this confirmation... Before I make a speech on my site, I wanna have my facts before opening my mouth.

Hi Nightwolve, I asked Tom for you and he said that they hired a different third-party contractor and retranslated the game from scratch. They didn't use Deuce as a translator for this.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: CD Stupid Card 4.0]

I kind of have the same question as ParanoiaDragon. I'm not a PCE developer, or a PCE Romhacker, but if I did decide to work on a project one day with a group here, would it benefit me to have this and would it generally have a benefit for the non-developer at this stage in the development process?

Also, would you plan to produce more batches in the future if it made more sense for non-developers to take a pass on it currently so that it can be used by developers as a priority?

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

Comrade, I'm sorry. When I re-read my post, it sounded pretty abrasive. Sorry. I was really just venting, I did not mean to direct it at you (100%). Maybe 30% was intended for you, ha!!!

Hey no issues here, I didn't take offense or anything like that, I just wanted to make sure I was clear about what I said since it looked like I might have thrown some people off. I just wanted to explain that I'm a pretty serious Xak fan and collector, and I do not see value in what Tobias has because it's fake. For something like a pressing of Xak III to have real value to me as a hardcore collector, it needs to be from a project that has the original team's blessing...

Hmm, that could make a funny "Obey"picture actually. A Pope or Archbishop giving a pressed PC-Engine disk a sign of benediction / blessing it...

Edit: It shall be done!



-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Elusive Ys IV Debug Mode - Now Accessible with New Mednafen Cheat Code!!!!]

Looks great, can't wait to mess around with this. : )

I have an end game save via emulator on my Xbox using MednafenX, I'll have to check this out. I've actually never been to the Developer's room before, only heard about it.

-Thomas

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Neutopia Manual]

OPTIONAL: Show me a picture of your flooring (carpet preferred) with something interesting on it so that we may compare carpet/flooring diversity on PCEFX and you can get 2 more entries (for a total of three) to leverage your odds!

And I modified the option part for extra entries.  It can be any flooring, I didn't want to a flooring discriminant. 

I love this. I just wanted to say that. I'm not entering or anything, (not that I can anyway) but I do have an extra Ys III Japanese version that I might put up for raffle with some rules just like this one. Maybe extra points if you happen to take a PCE related photo with a cat or dog...

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

1. So Tobias is planning to press Ys IV and has possibly already started? And he's going to give them away for free just like he said he would do with Xak III? I wish that were true and not being sold for profit, but I guess we'll just have to see if these popup for sale. There's also the risk that some people might jump at an opportunity to get the pressed discs for free and resell them anyway, which would be difficult to tell if it is truly Tobias / PCE Memories' operation.
-Thomas

Tobias is a douchebag profiteer. Don't support him. He is not a friend of this community 

BurntLasagna is someone who didn't want folks to make a profit by selling reproductions (in other words, Tobias). He said: PCE fans, make your own personal copies, enjoy the English-language dub!

I support BurntLasagna's wishes.

I will always support the folks who hack/modify/translate/dub/create games.  These folks, and the fruits of their labor, are far more important than some collectard fetish for a fucking mass-produced reproduction.

LightScribe your own disc and print your own manual/insert. It really isn't that difficult.

www.tg-16.com/print_your_own_stuff.htm

Oh I definitely want to make it clear that I do not personally want Tobia's pressed discs. I wasn't suggesting that. I have just about every Xak series release out there, but I don't want what Tobias is pushing. It has no value from a collector's standpoint, only a functional one of being a pressed disc. I was simply stating that I hope that Tobias keeps his word about not selling these. But I have my doubts, just as I have my doubts that some other person who gets one of these discs for free would be decent enough to not turn around and try to make a profit on it. It's just a bad situation no matter how you view it, with the only positive being that if Tobias did keep his word, at least he discs he's pressing for these would end after all the free copies are distributed.

I've made a lightscribe disc before for personal use for Ys IV shortly after the English Dub project was completed. But having learned that playing cd-rs on the actual system can damage the laser much quicker and that a laser for a Turbo Duo RX machine may be rare/expensive to replace, I've been reluctant to play too many cd-rs lately until I can figure out a plan B of how to replace that laser.

So if NightWolve were to make a pressed disc, I'd be all over that, for one because it would be a pressed disc, and second because it would be something of value to me from a collector's standpoint because in my eyes, it came from an original source that made the translation possible and a friend. Kind of hard to put a price on that.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

1. So Tobias is planning to press Ys IV and has possibly already started? And he's going to give them away for free just like he said he would do with Xak III? I wish that were true and not being sold for profit, but I guess we'll just have to see if these popup for sale. There's also the risk that some people might jump at an opportunity to get the pressed discs for free and resell them anyway, which would be difficult to tell if it is truly Tobias / PCE Memories' operation.

2. I got pretty excited when you said that you planned to make your own pressing of Ys IV. If you ended up doing that, I'd definitely want to buy it from you directly.

3. I guess by from what I read by Bernie's post, Burnt Lasagna isn't liked by everyone here. He seemed like a pretty cool guy to me at least when I was working on the Ys IV Dub project with him.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Elusive Ys IV Debug Mode - May need a programmer to make it accessible.]

Very cool, I had not heard about this before. I have the Ys IV Dawn of Ys Guidebook and I checked that to see if there was any information in there about this, but doesn't look like it. It does however have some nice chapters about the "Making of the Game" and the intended Ys IV anime though.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Lucretia - Demon Princess (鬼姫の呪い in Japan) NOW IN BETA TESTING]

Looks really nice Old Rover. Looking forward to seeing a video of it soon. : )

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Neutopia III Homebrew?]

@Old Rover, that is wonderful news that you all will be continuing the Neutopia 3 project under a new name. I can't wait to hear more on the progress of this and I hope you all will consider releasing some tasty screenshots of the new project soon.

Action RPGs that are in the vein of Zelda / Neutopia with secrets to discover tend to be my favorite types. I still love faster paced action RPGs like the Ys series, but the hunting for secrets / passages, etc part is what I enjoy the most I think. Probably why I enjoy the Brandish series so much actually for the same reasons. So much to discover!

Not sure if you all have heard of a game called Wander Wander from Compile, but I've been wanting to be a part of a translation project for that game for awhile, and now it looks like that might actually get started up sooner than later. I think that Neutopia fans would really like that game a lot.

-Thomas

[Off-Topic / Re: That Tobias f--k went after Xak III and SO II as pressed CD-ROM releases!]

Or everyone could snub his useless effort at "good will".  I'm too cool to take Tobias's ratty boots, even for free.

That's how I feel about it too. While he offering it for free, if it isn't something that Nightwolve was a part of, then it doesn't belong in the Xak collection because to me, that's a fake unauthorized bootleg, no matter how good the quality may actually seem on the surface. There is an actual Xak series bootleg that I would love to have in my collection, but the difference is, it was a big-boxed MSX style bootleg of Xak I sold at a few dutch MSX fairs by the actual romhackers and translators that worked on it to bring it to the fans. Now something like that... that is treasure worth having, not this stuff that Tobias is pushing.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: CD Stupid Card 4.0]

Thank you for clarifying that Elmer. That makes sense to me. It would likely have to be in the hands of developers for awhile before any real decisions or processes would be made as to whether the card would be required or not.

And if that's the case, perhaps there would be enough support at that time for TailChao to make another batch. I'm definitely considering getting a Turbo EverDrive 2.0 at the very least. I'm trying to follow along with what SamIAm mentioned in the post directly after yours about the Stupid Card 4.0 and EverDrive 2.0 being compatible, but I'm a bit lost on that since you could only have one card inserted in the HuCard bay at one time right? Unless there is a slot expander hardware that I don't know about. I may be over thinking things here... but it I'm trying to get on the same page as the rest of you.

-Thomas

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: CD Stupid Card 4.0]

This sounds like a great project, and it's nice to see new PCE hardware being created. If developers were to use this card to enhance PCE translations, then it would require this card to play the patched game correct?

I'm not a PCE developer... (yet), but if that is the case, then as a regular player it would benefit anyone interested who wanted to play these new enhanced translations to have this card. If that's a correct understanding of how this card would work, I'd definitely like to order one when they become available. 

Would this card also be available eventually as a system card that could be used with emulation as well?

-Thomas