Messages

[Off-Topic / Re: What are YOU watching on YouTube.com?]

News: Dracula X [PC Engine CD] gets a little review from James Rolfe / Angry Video Game Nerd this time (he laments not taking the opportunity in the past). So he's trying to decide if Super Castlevania IV [SNES] is still his all-time favorite though mostly against Symphony of the Night [PS1] by the end. Anyway, pretty good 25-minute retrospective of Castlevania legacy.

On the other hand, the opening vampire skit REALLY sucks... I wanted some kind of joke out of this like "AVGN 2024 version updated for modern audiences..." It validates typical trends that everything sucks nowadays (mediocrity is the default), haha. Funny enough, I didn't realize the obvious vampire/sucks pun in my first post draft, had to edit it in, *I* suck!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Pc-Engine DUO - White Screen - No sound, No Boot, No Bios loaded]

Ah, too bad!

My advice:
1) Ask/PM @Keith Courage while he's around. He was just here by request.
2) Use the forum Search function for "white screen" - I'm sure I've seen old posts/threads about this problem in my years viewing this forum. There may be some lost clues somewhere in old posts.

Example: Here's a case that @thesteve (a pro EE & Turbo Expert) fixed with explanations of what was investigated/probed/etc. (he's retired though, you can't hire him).

EDIT: 3) To help out somewhat further, I reached thesteve on Facebook and asked for general advice on no boot/white screen states, he said to check the reset pin and address lines!

Best of luck.

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

Hahahahaha!!! Does this remind you of anyone ??

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Repair people in the US]

Hi Ben, wow, you go way back to the early years of PCEFX in 2006! I thought you were a new registration for a minute there. Welcome back then, yeah, this is a rebooted PCEFX forum with some upgrades here and there. Thousands of images that were watermarked or lost are now recovered /cached /protected which has been my primary focus hence why the theme is still ugly/unfinished. Images are lost every other month until action is taken so that's more important.

Alright, so @Keith Courage (Chris Computers) from Indiana is active and recently visited. Just PM him or reach him with the Facebook link like I do. You literally just missed him when I asked for tech help for @elartur77's problem, he's you're best bet!

The others I know are retired and the rest are in Canada (Jodi Whetham @ Turbo Reproductions) so shipping costs are higher.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Pc-Engine DUO - White Screen - No sound, No Boot, No Bios loaded]

Ah, definitely you should've changed all/100% capacitors when you started changing any - they are ALL leaking/failed/out-of-spec by now! You always want 100% new capacitors for NEC hardware to rule out any other problems! Before you continue, finish that job first.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Patched PC Engine CD BIOS files by Elmer for use in the Turbo Everdrive?]

Do you know if you would get CDDA out of the Express when using a TED Pro?  Thanks.

Just in mono. That's the audio limitation (loss of genuine stereo). Unless you were using headphones you were always getting a mono mix anyway from the single speaker in that case [portable].

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Patched PC Engine CD BIOS files by Elmer for use in the Turbo Everdrive?]

It's a "hybrid" 50/50 solution mixing a FGPA add-on with real NEC hardware. So imagine playing Dracula X PCECD for the first time on your Turbo Express / PCEGT or gaining quasi "ODE" support for base PCE consoles (anything with the expansion bus)!

This would've been very cool to me 20 years ago but I already played Dracula X too many times to care, heh. However I try to think/promote in terms of uninitiated gamers/newcomers having all these new options/ways available to enjoy Hudson/NEC gaming legacy for the very first time.

Oh right, a Y-YYUGE missed opportunity that krikzz should've really implemented to make the Turbo Everdrive Pro the absolute best/ultimate PCE product was a micro-HDMI output near the SD/USB slot! It'd eliminate the competition of UperGrafx or crazy Alex's TerraOnion "thingamajig" (the Super SSD3) that have HDMI output ports for modern/4K TVs and solve the CDDA stereo output problem! So unfortunately if you want pure digital/HDMI video you still need one of those "Turbo Booster" add-on products or to just go all FPGA with the Analogue Duo.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Patched PC Engine CD BIOS files by Elmer for use in the Turbo Everdrive?]

Ah, yeah, I sorta thought it was a missed opportunity that the early Turbo Everdrive couldn't act as an Arcade Card Duo/Pro as I own Strider and a black US Turbo Duo but never got around to buying both a region adapter and an Arcade Card.

I don't care now since I finished my PCE ACD Strider 20 years ago when I got the Magic Engine emulator running. I guess it finally happened though with the new TE Pro as well as offering CD emulation so you could play CD games on a portable Turbo Express but it's expensive and I already spent that money on the Analogue Duo clone.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Patched PC Engine CD BIOS files by Elmer for use in the Turbo Everdrive?]

Anyway, I guess the alternative OS you want is TEOS (maybe Krikzz already patched his, but no idea):
https://github.com/jbrandwood/teos

It avoids the potentially damaging memory bus-fighting that occurs with Krikzz's OS when running the PC Engine (or TurboGrafx) Super System Card HuCARD on the Turbo Everdrive.

Yeah, Tak-MK provided the link you're looking for. I don't really know how useful that is nor why you're that "excited" for it seeing as you say you don't even own a Turbo Everdrive yet, but there you go...

I hope to just move on to the Analogue Duo when the jailbreak firmware improves for modern 4K TVs, I'll only keep my real Turbo Duo around for testing/debugging localization projects.

There were other far more interesting ideas for custom/hacked system ROM firmware, like @dshadoff's "PC Engine System Card Translation Font Extension" which implements easy 8x12 English/ASCII font support. But the problem is if you tie your localization patch to depend on this, you'll need users to own a Turbo Everdrive in order to play it. Still, it's a more interesting/useful idea than what elmer did.

https://github.com/dshadoff/SYSCARD_Translatefont

Code Select Expand

In this modification, the goal was to implement an extension which would cause
the least amount of disruption to the calling function, and yet satisfy the
translator's other requirements:
- use of ASCII for 1-byte character text
- font is included in the system card, not the game
- as little as possible adjustment to the print function

3) Set $FF in ZP to one of:
   0 = 16x16 font (SJIS only)
   1 = 12x12 font (SJIS only)
   2 =  8x16 font (ASCII only)  (**NEW**)
   3 =  8x12 font (ASCII only)  (**NEW**)
Many more PCECD RPG games could be localized without someone as talented as Supper[tails] or EsperKnight, but yeah, there's a catch: if you want to play it on real NEC hardware you'd need a Turbo Everdrive booted with this system firmware. I'm not a fan of creating more hardware dependencies, but I am a fan of seeing more localization projects and if it can help someone when all other options are exhausted, so be it I guess.

There's actually ONE example that made use of it for the Magic and Magic localization, so you can already test it out:

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1725600399116095680

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: (Homebrew/NSFW 18+) Kidnapped Innocence]

So @gameblabla went all in with his PC-FX homebrew game: ports to GBA and N64 being worked on and actually pursuing physical copies. I didn't expect you'd go that far!

[General Gaming / Re: VG Box Art Dejavus]

Bloody Wolf was more "inspired" (AKA ripped-off) from Arnold's 1985 Commando. I honestly didn't make this exact connection all this time, I figured general 80's action muscle-bound movie star influence, sure, but that they literally stole the EXACT pose/copycat from a movie poster/promo I really didn't expect!



I made this one for fun, sized-up side by side after reviewing these threads some more and patching a few lost images. I'm not sure there was a fuller poster of Arnold where his arm isn't clipped off or I would've used that instead.

A more extensive collection happened in another thread by @Tatsujin:
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=8501.0

And HG101 has the most here:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/tracing/tracing.htm

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: question, how can you extract the video from battleheat game]

@EsperKnight's email is the same ID, just add/append '@yahoo.com' - if you mouse over his email icon you can see it, or if you PM him here he should get an email notification. There's also a Reply-To-Email option on an account.

For Aaron, like I said, you can just reply to the YouTube video right there and ask (he ignores/abandoned his email); it seems he's already been doing exactly what you're asking about.

Good luck.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: question, how can you extract the video from battleheat game]

Welcome ?? So I'd say your best bet is to contact some of the localizers who worked on PC-FX projects like @EsperKnight. He's somewhat active on Twitter https://twitter.com/esperknight and responds to emails.

Ooohh, does this maybe have something to do with these recent video HD restoration projects on YouTube ?

Well, there you go, you can try asking Aaron himself in his video I guess!

I wasn't sure at first, but he states right at the start of the video he extracted the raw data file from the disc, so it's confirmed: he already knows how to do what you're asking for. At first I thought he might've taken an easy approach of recording the videos for conversion, but no, it appears he learned how to extract the raw video file using a hex editor and info which isn't for the novice.

A PC-FX CD, like PCECD, has no ISO file system, it's a compiled binary of code, assets (text/images/audio/data), etc. so you need to become handy with a hex editor and even a debugger for more advanced goals/searches.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

I'm with Tengai Makyou, using v1.2 translation now that I know it exists... Before that I abandoned the game a week before because of the v1.0 issues with loading from real hardware 

I was actually looking forward to break in my new Analogue Turbo Duo clone using Supper's localization patch for Ziria, but it's on the backburner after being very disillusioned with the buggy state of the firmware/product... Hopefully the jailbreak redeems it.

Incidentally, Analogue released a new firmware v1.2 [2024-03-15] today actually. But this presents a hard choice to the user: get the bug fixes, but go back to being a normal Duo again, so no CD/ROM image support from the SD card, resume using CD-Rs for localizations... Just gotta wait some more until the jailbreak firmware is synced.
https://www.analogue.co/support/duo

If an updated/synced JailBreak is published soon this is the link to keep watch of:
https://github.com/analoguejb/Analogue-Duo-JB

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

CD never spin.
I am desperate, long time spends and I begin to think I cant repair...
Someone can give some advice?
If I watch lens, I can see the red light of laser without CD.
Motor works, if I connect 3V to the motor, motor spins.
Thanks a lot.

Hola m78, sorry to hear. So, one of the last active NEC console repair guys is @Keith Courage (Chris Brown). If you click his profile link you can PM (assuming he didn't turn off email notify) or reach him on Facebook where he's most active/available. I'll go ahead and inline his contact info, try:
1) https://www.facebook.com/chrisrocknrollbrown
2) chriscomputers @ hotmail.com

Since you're in Spain, I don't know anybody in Europe who you could cheaply ship it to for repairs. I know Jodi in Canada, or Chris in US/Indiana, and a few handful of others on Twitter that are US or Canada based, so shipping would be terrible. Sorry.

Also, if you do register on Facebook, try asking @thesteve:
3) https://www.facebook.com/steven.hanely

If you still think you can fix it yourself, he may be able to guide you, give you the right tips. But given your language barrier and his sparse communication style, it'll be tough.

[General Gaming / Re: Retro VGS Game Console]

While patching some images, clicking around, eventually being led to AtariAge, I realized our PCEFX thread on this "RetroVGS Coleco Chameleon" scam/fool's-dream never really got official closure, like where is Mike NOT-THAT-Kennedy nowadays, and did he ever apologize, acknowledge/face the debacle he led, level with the public or just disappear as I had thought ??

So yeah, as far as I knew, Kennedy had just disappeared, went dark and wasn't seen/heard from again, if at all. That's how I thought the story had ended, but having wandered over at AtariAge today, I learned that he showed up there with a "Parrothead" account which is STILL active today and addressed the issue in some detail after heated confrontation...

Let's take a look at these posts so this thread/chapter finally gets closure here, shall we ?? 

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/274244-pac-man-suit-kohls-25-clearance/
I know you all hate my guts but I cant help but share this. $25 Clearance Pac-Man Suits at Kohls. Normally $120. Find one if you can! I found one tonight. Google Pac-Man Oppo Suits to see what it looks like. Includes Sport Coat, Slacks and Tie. Super high quality. Good luck!

Some were willing to forgive/forget and participated in his thread as if Mike was an average/regular member. Others not-so-much.

I know you all hate my guts

Mike, this is the first time in many years I've seen you speak about gamey things in a way that wasn't trying to sell something. It's a good look for you, please keep it up.

Welcome back to the human race.

I think you will find forgiveness in the community if you can demonstrate that you've given up the get-rich-quick schemes, and always speak the truth. If you don't know something, say so or STFU. No one wants to hear any more lies.

	I'm not buying that tickytack suit, because I'm not The Riddler, nor am I Billy Mitchell. But seriously, it's nice to see you above ground again.

You have a lot to answer for, Mike. If you're going to want to join the social circles of the hobby, you'll need to answer a lot of questions you don't really want to answer.

I appreciate the comments and don't take them for granted. Believe me, no one wants to forget the past more than I. And you can be assured I won't be attempting any more gaming ventures. I woefully mismanaged things the past few years and paid the price, in more ways I can count. And, it will take a few more years for me to recover from that debacle financially. It's true that turning your hobby into even a part-time profession is a sure-fire way to enjoy your hobby less and stress yourself half to death. Especially, when you make the mistakes I did. I nearly lost all my love for gaming and regrettably did lose a handful of great friends in the hobby.

Over the past year, I have played more video games than I have played probably in the past 9 years. I've rebuilt a small collection of consoles that are all out and playable including an Atari 2600, 7800, PS1, Timex Sinclair 1000, Apple IIc and Commodore 64 -- oh, and my original Sega Genesis I had growing up and all my original games (I gave it to my cousin way back when, he kept it and recently found it and shipped it back to me).

In any event, I'll take what I can get but don't expect anything when it comes to being completely forgiven for what I put everyone through the past few years.

I can't speak for everyone, but I do think getting some full and honest answers to what happened might go a long way toward bringing your credibility out of the negative range. Over the past few years, you've been characterized as ducking any question you don't feel like answering. Now that you're not selling anything, you don't owe anyone any answers... but if you're wanting to be on good terms with the community, you will need to offer SOMETHING up. The truth, and I mean the ACTUAL truth, not the "Whatever makes me look better" spin, would be something of value you could extend.

I don't hate you, Mike. But you've hurt a lot of my friends, and I do not take that lightly. Some of these people I know by reputation only, some I have literally broken bread with. Your lies and screwups affected them, and so I'm going to suggest the truth would go a long way toward building that bridge.

I sincerely DO regret how things were handled by me. One thing I'd like to explain is that I ended friendships with some great people in the hobby. I really did this as I didn't want their friendship with me to jeopardize their friendship with others and their reputations. I was (maybe still am) toxic and wanted to remove myself from their equations for that reason. Maybe it came across as I didn't like them anymore, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I really miss the gaming friends I had prior to that mess. Had some of my best times with them -- they all know who they are And, I will say again, I will not be starting any more gaming businesses personally.

I will not overstay my welcome here but might post occasionally if I come across something cool in the hobby to share.

And now we get to the juicy stuff, @famicommander is not have ANY of it!

What a cop out.

You're a scam artist, no better than a common thief, and you deserve to be treated as such. And worse than that, you still won't even own up to what you did.

Others here may be willing to mince words but I'll call a spade a spade. Or a lying, thieving, scamming scumbag as the case may be.

I can't say the man isn't trying. If you don't have something nice to say...

I can say he isn't trying. It's obvious he isn't, because he's still not admitting what he did. He just tried to slink back into this community as if he didn't attempt to swindle thousands of dollars out of it, all the while lying through his teeth and refusing to accept responsibility for his actions.

I don't have anything nice to say about him because there is nothing nice to be said. He's a scammer. Actually, he's worse. He's a failure at scamming. He's morally bankrupt AND incompetent.

Among a laundry list of other things, he tried to pass off a Super Nintendo crammed into a Jaguar case as a working prototype. And later an off the shelf PC capture card crammed into a Jaguar case.

He tried to get 2 million dollars, and may indeed have if not for the diligent detective work of other members of this forum and the community at large. He raised over $80,000 via crowdfunding. He said he would offer refunds, and may indeed have (I haven't heard either way). But the issue is he accepted people's money after knowingly deceiving them in the first place. Whether he refunded them or not, he knew he was lying to people when he started taking the money. And he has still not admitted this. He lied in his crowd funding pitches and when they failed he started trotting out fake protos.

with all due respect, this is not the time nor place to discuss your grievances with Mike Kennedy. He needs encouragement right now more than anything. You are providing the exact opposite right now.

Why would I care what he needs? He tried to rob us blind and you're telling me to consider his needs?

He did something wrong and has made no effort to correct it. He hasn't even admitted it. He doesn't deserve encouragement.

The "retro Chameleon" provided me with hilarious entertainment for several months. It was always pretty clear that they lacked the competence to deliver on their poorly-conceived dream. It was always fun to watch. No one did it better (worse) than Mike, and we've seen several people try.

He didn't say it in the most articulate way, but it's true that Mike himself was hurt a lot more than anyone else, except perhaps the Coleco brand. He lost money, friends, reputation, and dignity. What did we lose? Time spent on a message board? Speaking for myself, that was mine to waste, and a moment enjoyed is not wasted.

I believe in forgiveness. Why should he serve a life sentence for attempted tomfoolery? It's been two years. His reputation is in the toilet and no one with two brain cells to rub together would give him any money. I'd love to see him back in the community so long as he gives up any ideas about trying to make money from us.

We don't need a confession. We all know what he did. Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Then again, maybe he should be forced to wear that ridiculous Pac-Man suit, all the time, wherever he goes, as long as he lives, forever walking the earth as a Shatnerian parody of himself, cornering the market on retro gaming.

Amen brother. Well said. Take away the "businessman" nonsense and he's just another game dork like us. Well, maybe he talks a lot more than some of us, but it takes all kinds.

How many other people on this forum tried to steal from the rest of us and then lied about it and continues to lie about it? I'll wait.

I was refunded by the campaign. Aside from kicking me to the curb, its all water under the bridge now. He did a lot of good before the CC situation. He was not always like he was during the CC situation. I agree with Pipercub, I welcome him back but in a guarded fashion I miss talking with him on our latest retro finds and talking about things like friends did back before the CC situation.

By all accounts, OJ Simpson was a nice guy before he killed those people. And no, I am absolutely not saying that what Mike did was anywhere near as bad as what OJ did. But the point is, the bad things you do in life can't always be eclipsed by whatever nice things you did beforehand. OJ was a great football player and he was in some awesome movies, but so what? All that good will is gone forever.

I think a punishment should fit the crime. Does him losing GameGavel, Retro Magazine, the Jag shells, etc. along with our trust with future attempts at similar things fit? Yes. Does him getting a life sentence away from the hobby and community to an extent that he isn't even welcome to discuss a Pac-Man suit fit? No.

He lost all of his businesses because he is incompetent. That wasn't a punishment for his attempted thievery.

Once you try to steal from me or my community, that's it. You only get one chance. I don't care where else he goes or what else he does but if he is going to show his face around here, especially without admitting what he did and sincerely apologizing rather than deflecting blame and changing the subject, then he is going to hear about it. I'm not suggesting we cut the man's hand off or lock him up for the rest of his life. But he doesn't deserve to interact on level ground with members who didn't try to run a million dollar scam.

From my understanding Vaporware is something of a problem here. Not too mention certain modders here who takes people's money and systems. None have been bashed as hard as Mike.

I see way more hate towards someone who wanted to make something happen but could not, then he tried to save face but that was a mistake. At the end of the day it appears he did not actually take anyone's money. However other people on this forum have been promising certain items for years and HAVE taken people's money, yet they don't get hammered nearly as much as Mike.

Nobody gets bashed as hard as Mike because nobody else tried to scam people on one tenth this scale.

He knew when he started his crowdfunding that he was lying. He didn't over promise and then, in good faith, fail to deliver. He made an active effort to deceive people from the outset and then repeatedly lied directly to our faces about. Over and over again for a period of months, until he disappeared entirely because he's a coward.

He knowingly tried to defraud people for large sums of money and to the only reason he didn't suceed is because he was exposed before his scam was complete. And then he continued trying to steal and scam for months after the fact.

Mike DID run a scam. He just failed at it because people on this very forum pointed out what a fraud he was.

And nowhere did I say anyone else should get a free pass for the same behavior.

Some of you really want your pound of flesh out of Mike. He tried to do something, it didn't work, he admits that he made mistakes that he regrets, he is paying a personal and financial price for those mistakes. What more needs to happen? Frankly, the worst thing that he could do is to start trying to explain anything, which by the way none of you are owed unless you were PERSONALLY affected by the CC debacle. Those of you who have already gotten your torches and pitchforks back out of the closet obviously have too much time on your hands.

OK, that's a good enough quote collection to give you an idea, the thread was subsequently locked after @CGQuarterly's chastising of Mike's critics by the admin/owner Albert.

So I'll wind down to my final thoughts. I'll close by listing my favorite quote from Mike which is "And you can be assured I won't be attempting any more gaming ventures." or "And, I will say again, I will not be starting any more gaming businesses personally." I hadn't seen that before. So the experience and community extracted a "promise" by him to never again engage in gaming-related businesses, haha! That's good to know I guess.

Now we'll see if Tommy Tallarico has a similar come-to-Jesus moment with the Incellivision Amico scam which has also cost him his reputation, and now home! Incidentally, there IS a connection between the two situations few would know: Mike Kennedy once launched a reasonable Kickstarter idea to buy the Intellivision IP and port all the games to Windows PC AND Tommy Tallarico actually backed the project! It failed to reach the funding goal, BUT Tommy effectively stole the idea years later, bought the IP himself, and then proceeded to try another RetroVGS console idea (The Amico) only this time JUST with that limited IP of retro games!! CRAZY!!!

Anyway, if Mike's truly sorry/repentant for this disaster, and keeps his vow to never again try to sell gamers on boneheaded "retroland" projects/ideas, then that is a good ending to the saga I guess, haha. Everyone knows not to give him a single penny again, so no worries on that front.

Poor Million Dollar Mike, he had a dream...a dream to scheme...

And with that, one last bit of nostalgia I once named "The Winning Team" to truly say good-bye to this thread. They had such promise, such potential, such...passion, but alas, it ended in miserable failure... Au revoir boys.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: (PC-FX Homebrew) Anarch]

PC-FX running a Doom clone, now THAT'S power!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Some important NEWS about the PC Engine!]

Thread image patch/recovery: 90% of the lost Image Shack images have been restored! This thread was especially worth the time/effort to preserve, and later submit to WayBack. I also made it sticky/pinned. Not sure if it was or not before.

Appending worthy additions while I'm at it:

It's all about the gaming experience! Truly hating a system only limits your own gaming experience...and usually bores the hell out of everyone else.

That being said...

Thank you so much!

https://technoviking.ytmnd.com/

https://www.gamerz.be/t/prosternez-vous-devant-le-techno-viking.73391/
I will be looking into this game seems like a fun time, thanks!

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

NO TV SPORTS HOCKEY THOUGH??? FOR SHAME!

This one comes from @csgx1 via the sega-16 forums:

wth?   First of all, probably not too many Subaru owners that also share a passion for the PC Engine.  I love the PCE and Subaru (I own a Impreza) but what kind of Frankenstein idea are you thinking of?  You planning on modding your Forester to look like a PCE?  Instead of the PC Engine Shuttle may be create PC Engine Subaru Grafx where the hucard slot is where the hood scoop is?  lol...

Notes: sega-16 forums is being upgraded; it's been in a state of disrepair for some months, and its gallery attachment image links are broken! They require the domain to be replaced with an IP to retrieve them, others are missing. So the car/pce meme came from csgx1's profile gallery, but you can't use www.sega-16.com to get it, replace it with the IP 169.45.167.69:

https://www.sega-16.com/forum/member.php?27336-csgx1
https://169.45.167.69/forum/member.php?27336-csgx1

Eventually if you browse his profile you can find it:
http://169.45.167.69/forum/album.php?albumid=183&attachmentid=5424
https://169.45.167.69/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=5424&d=1348955442

csgx1 shared direct attachment links such as these from that neo-geo.com hellhole too, which was also VBulletin, but after it was upgraded to XenForo, all of them were broken & lost unless Wayback captured some. Also, it's very much possible his meme came from here/PCEFX, but if it was hosted with Image Shack it was long gone. I only ran into from sega-16.


UPDATE: So in thinking about this impending image loss, I searched the forum for "attachmentid" to preserve other images and voila, I found that csgx1 had shared it here right after posting it on sega-16!!! I'll attach the recovered photo in place / overwrite the bad link!

Funny enough, I thought I had seen this meme before, felt a vague memory of it, turns out I HAD: I'm in that thread and reacted when csgx1 posted it! It technically just needs "OBEY" slapped somewhere on it to truly fit in this thread's gallery/purpose.

I was just reading Melf - the sega16 owner/admin - to learn what's going on exactly with their forums and it seems he was ready to close down, but settled on archiving/preserving the forum for memory browsing/nostalgia. That's sort of the position I found myself in, was really saddened how it all worked out with Aaron and then his official closure. I felt PCEFX deserved a lot better, it could've been a small-scale Atari/NintedoAge with enough money/management for PCE fans, right place/right time, but the resources/time/money wasn't there; it's not just about bitter/raging psychos/saboteurs, a vulture/parasite faction, that tore the place apart for their own pre-planned agendas (i.e. revenge and for their own PCE groups)!

Be that as it may, I've accepted/realized that the best days of PCEFX are behind it (I enjoy Discord/Twitter a lot more nowadays myself which Melf acknowledges have taken over), and about all I can do is maximize image/photo preservation/archiving since every other case I've seen it's been the most neglected/lost aspect. So, eventually I intend to install a grand marquee, what I'd call the 20-YEAR PCEFX HISTORY randomizer/gallery at the top of forum, after the news block. But first I have to finish recovering as much as I can, a random/ongoing on/off process in the last 2 years, and once I'm satisfied begin working on that feature to showcase it all. Wayback is doing exactly this actually: scrolling a random photo list of captured websites to browse as you would a museum! You gotta show off your best assets, what's left!

I've added an example/demo to show what I want exactly:

That's from macross.fandom.com. So imagine the 20-year PCEFX history of 20,000+ images being displayed/filtered like that at the top of the forum, randomized order every time you refresh, and if you click on one it takes you to the thread/post, etc. It'd be a 20-year walk down memory lane for random OG veterans/visitors. That's what we can do to celebrate/preserve!

But yeah, first I need to finish disabling broken/lost images where there's no hope, and finish repairing the ones that are recoverable, mostly thanks to WayBack, or manual detective work like you saw in this example with expiring Sega-16 links. Melf lost his webmaster and that's part of why he's ready to say good-bye and go archive mode, but I can do my own IT from 25 years ago, so I don't have to pay anyone else, I just need hosting/domain costs, then time/motivation.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine Pixelization]

Saw these on Reset Era.

Legend of Xanadu


Sol Moonarge


Cotton

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

Made me laugh. I didn't get the joke at first, other than Gandalf the Grey/Pimp likes Asian ladies ? Or watch this magic trick as he empties out an ATM to spend on hookers ?? 

Now that the forces of evil had been conquered, the war had been won, Gandalf returned home to retire to a life of leisure, cruising the neighborhoods, occasionally using his magic tricks to empty out ATMs to spend on hookers ?? Pretty good meme, I like it!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: (Homebrew/NSFW 18+) Kidnapped Innocence]

Definitely having more homebrew into the PC-FX is nice! I'm not into +18 games but I guess I'll have to try anyway

Well, um, this was certainly quite a curveball today...

But hey, gameblabla still cares about the PC-FX IN 2024 to provide new content, so kudos on effort!

Technically this game is "on brand" for the system ? Sorta, kinda ??


2/18/2024: I looked at gameblabla's PC-FX game just now, played the 3 wave files out of morbid curiosity and found this nice/upbeat song actually, but I'm still not sure I want to ever boot the game, haha.

_{► /audio/KI-Track-01.mp3}

Seems you found something that fits the "theme."

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

L-DIS and Gradius 2

The last of the higher rated shooters I've played for the system. A delight to play. I haven't beaten it either but I'm working on it.

I bought L-DIS new in the 90's because it was so cheap (for an import!) in the back of gaming magazines (I think $15??)! Not bad for a cute'em up shooter I guess, but Star Parodier is best in that area. Its cover was so unusual!

https://catalog.pcengine-fx.com/#cd1970


I was meaning to buy a real copy of Gradius II too when they were going for $20-ish on eBay (I loved that Konami shooter era and I finished the Gradius/Lifeforce ports on NES), but I think I'm too late and no biggie, I'll eventually load it on my Analogue Duo (or one of the Konami PCE minis!) some day when the mood strikes to finally take it off the backlog.

P. S. Thanks for remembering the forum, haha! Needs to earn back membership every little bit!

While I'm at it, I was reminded before Aaron closed OG PCEFX I was working on my catalog jukebox player as a replacement for PCEFX Radio, and I had encoded the 2 best tracks from L-DIS to MP3 though I never uploaded them anywhere until...today!

_{► /audio/L-Dis-13-Stage-3.mp3}

_{► /audio/L-Dis-37-Stage-6.mp3}

They can randomly be played 24/7 either at:
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/main/radio.html
https://catalog.pcengine-fx.com/

[News / 2024 PCEFX Newsletter (WIP)]

1/15/2024 - PC Engine Localization for The Tower of Druaga is released! This patch is by a better team and complete unlike the previous one.
https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2024/01/tower-of-druaga-pc-engine-translation/
https://twitter.com/ElCaminoOscuro/status/1746962560207761801

1/20/2024 - PC Engine Localization for Chouzetsu Rinjin Bravoman is released!
https://www.gamingalexandria.com/wp/2024/01/bravoman-pc-engine-english-translation/
https://twitter.com/ElCaminoOscuro/status/1748804843324518512

[News / Re: 2023 PCEFX Newsletter Archive]

The 2023 newsletter has been mailed out and the system worked a lot better than last time I tried using it to report the Analogue Duo pre-orders, reaching more emails/members and avoiding my host from disabling the PHP sendmail function by slowing it down to where it takes over 7 days to email ~5000 accounts!

I don't think it'll generate much new activity but it at least is a way for PCEFX to maintain some usefulness even in 2024 and on. Thanks to everyone for their support!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Dead of the Brain I & II]

David Shadoff/@dshadoff pulled off an English patch for Dead of the Brain 1 after all, and not just French First which was done by @shubibiman! Just in time for Halloween to boot!

romhacking.net/translations/7087/
github.com/dshadoff/PCE_xlate_DeadoftheBrain

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1719407856221311240

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Dead Of The Brain released in America?]

romhacking.net/translations/7087/

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1719407856221311240

[News / Re: PCEFX Reviews (Join the Staff!) and Some Preservation of Brothers DuoMazov.]

Ah, I see... Thanks for stopping by and clearing it up.

It reminds me about a discussion @Voultar started some time back how those who migrated to video/YouTube thrived (think TurboViews, GameSack, Happy Console Gamer) but all those [sites/people] who stuck with text/image reviews/guides/content faded or continue to fade into irrelevancy, obscurity, were left behind... In my pursuits I always wanted to improve my writing for post history at least but I see I missed the boat when I should've been honing video editing skills. Just a little food for thought.

Anyway, hope you're doing well and thanks again for dropping by. I think it was also a mistake for Nanto to close PCEFX the way he did but I'll pay for it now as long as I'm still breathing for history/archive's sake and continue to research better display/showcasing ideas for our 20 years of PC Engine/TurboGrafx history.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Brothers DuoMazov (thebrothersduomazov.com) Domain Expired 6/4/2018 - The End ??]

Hi @nat, wow! I never thought we'd see you again...

Thanks for the info about Brothers Duomazov! I still wanted to automate a full download of the site from Wayback to rehost it here but rebuilding PCEFX was tough enough, and I see even less interest now. Sadly, if you didn't migrate to a YouTube channel like GameSack, Turbo Views, HCG, you have a way of fading to irrelevancy...

While we weren't friends here, and didn't interact much when you were active eons ago, I remember you and appreciate your contributions to PCE fandom. If I don't see you again, best wishes for wherever life has taken you now.

P. S. Wish you had thrown out some of the toxic turbo trolls in these forums years ago before you left and before I eventually had the displeasure/nightmare of dealing with them, but oh well... It's all better left buried in the past but part of me wonders if we could've been a small scale AtariAge AKA PCEngineAge with better management and still hold some relevancy/goodwill...

P. S. (x 2) I left a fan tribute so to speak in your profile, feel free to edit/change if you wish. It's a best-of highlight reel to remember the person by I sometimes do for special cases.

[Off-Topic / Re: Game Sack]

GameSack decided to cover every PC Engine CD game that supports/relies on the Arcade Card enhancement memory, including games where it's uncertain/unadvertised like Emerald Dragon which doesn't indicate in any way there are benefits.

I always wanted one for my Turbo Duo given the used/cheap Strider ACD that I bought for $15 but I never got around to it. Plus, I'd have to also buy a region adapter to make it work on a US Duo! So it wouldn't be until the Magic Engine emulator when I finally got to play that ACD port to see just how awful it was!

I was also interested in Fatal Fury Special (not to mention SFII for my 6-button pad), Sapphire, a SuperGrafx itself, but gaming habits were dying off as I started my university studies, so didn't happen. But yeah, eventually when I discovered the world of emulation in late 2001-02, I got to download/play some of the missed opportunities from back when real hardware was the only game in town!

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1673042573731004416

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PCE, SNES and Genesis Screen Comparison.]

I don't have anything credible to add. Just wanted to say this thread is amazing. ..lol.

I do find the difference between the TG16/TGCD and some other systems to be less muted colors than many other systems but..what do I know?

Glad you appreciate it!

I did a lot of grunt work to bring it into the modern era:
1) Built custom post buttons to speed up the process of adding "width=49%" dynamic image resizing for the 2 side-by-side image shots that awack did, I did EVERY post here!
2) awack used Photobucket which watermarks their shared images, but I made a special script to counter that, download/show a clean image AND then I returned for another idea to simply cache ALL Photobucket images shared on PCEFX so they're never lost! Over 11,000 Photobucket images are now permanently hosted here https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/cache/ and will never be lost or watermarked now!

It's looking a lot better and the new theme already handles mobile adjustments for viewing on a phone. Still, this forum software is outdated, but I'm here, paid for the web space for 10 years, might as well research improvements to carry PCEFX legacy on as best I can.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Analogue Turbo Duo FPGA clone - preorders began May 19, thousands of units left!]

https://www.analogue.co/duo
https://store.analogue.co/#duo
Introducing Duo.
The Higher Energy Analogue System.
You've always known what to expect from a video game system. Until now. Duo is an all-in-one reimagining of perhaps the most underappreciated video game systems of all time. Analogue Duo is compatible with nearly every NEC system and game format ever made. TurboGrafx-16. PC Engine. SuperGrafx. TurboGrafx CD. PC Engine CD-ROM². Super Arcade CD-ROM². 1080p. Zero lag. Bluetooth. 2.4g. Because the last thing a video game system should be is predictable.
Completely engineered in FPGA.
Analogue OS.⁷

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1663666835915456512

8553 units left as I wrote this (5/31/2023) with white duos closer to selling out (1593 left) being the more popular choice. But anyone can monitor the remaining stock in realtime with this special link:
store.analogue.co/./checkout/./stock_problems

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Picked up Legendary Axe II a little while ago and decided to give it a go lately, pretty darn fun and I dig the more sinister look of the game. Looks freaking great too IMO.

Glad you randomly brought up Legendary Axe II, I rediscovered what my favorite track was on the game so perfect opportunity to log some tweets forum-style that I made about it a while back!

The best chiptune of Legendary Axe II (1990) (TurboGrafx-16) I identified awhile back: Stage 3, wait about ~56 seconds for that sweet hook to kick in (though it's much too short)! ❤️

https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/legendary-axe-ii-ost-1990-nec-turbografx-16
Direct Download: 06 Stage 03.mp3 (Sometimes direct link breaks, but page link above should work)
Or better yet, I'll add it to the PC Engine Greatest Hits audio folder:

_{► /audio/Legendary-Axe-II-06-Stage-3.mp3}

I still remember actually getting to rent it as a kid via 1 of 2 video rental stores (Ken's World of Video & Bogarts) that actually stocked TurboGrafx-16 HuCards (never CDs though), was blown away! I owned an original TurboGrafx-16 model at that point which I had won with Bloody Wolf included, but I upgraded to a Turbo Duo after it broke...

Anyway, just wanted to preserve some of my history/share the soundtrack/add content in longer form given the context/your post.

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1146027444857724928

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Super Air Zonk 2 Manuals?]

The 2nd English manual might be a PCE Works bootleg copy, if not, the seller somehow separated the official manual from the US product and just threw it in with what was sold. Best guess, yeah. Maybe share a photo so it can be compared to an original.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: FMV's on Turbo CD games are slow/freeze]

Hi @shaggy, good to have ya stop by.

One of the few active repair people left is @Keith Courage - check his profile for contact on YouTube, Facebook, etc. I linked him your question since I can usually reach him on FB.

[News / 2023 PCEFX Newsletter Archive]

I plan to try doing yearly newsletters to email PCEFX members, a year-end/retro roundup review of anything newsworthy that occurs in PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 fandom. Some news from 2022-2021 will be appended and more rushed as I didn't get a chance to collect much while thinking about this idea. The hope is to keep in touch with our retro fanbase, provide relevance, see if PCEFX legacy can carry on. Wish me luck!

So the idea is this: Collect/record relevant PCE/TG-16 news as it occurs throughout the year, append it to this post, and run the email newsletter system on New Years day sending it out to existing PCEFX membership. It accomplishes 2 things: lets people know we're still alive'n'kicking and will help keep 'em informed.

P. S. Feel free to contact me for anything that can be included I may have missed to make it the most thorough PCE newsletter possible. It'd be greatly appreciated!

1/1/2023 - "Billy's Bad Day" is released, a PCE homebrew fighting game that's an homage/tribute to Michael Douglas' 1993 movie "Falling Down."
https://vintagearcadeworks.com/shop/
https://youtu.be/BrsFzD-ZW94

2/4/2023 - The PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Community mourns the loss of BT Garner @ MindRec.com who passed away due to health problems... He was a top PCE homebrew developer and founder of the OG Turbo List. Condolences to family and friends. Thanks to Nathan McLain for info. A nice tribute by esteban: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1360287888149555 (https://www.pcengine-fx.com/images/BTRIP.jpg)

3/4/2023 - krikzz began sales of Turbo Everdrive PRO which uses FPGA to let you play CD images on any base or portable NEC consoles making it the ultimate PCE flashcart on the market to date!!
https://twitter.com/krikzz/status/1632048223228510208
https://krikzz.com/our-products/cartridges/turbo-everdrive-pro.html

3/13/2023 - The SuperGrafx: That time when NEC made an amazing console with no games... (by Sharopolis)
https://youtu.be/tzreF97_tNI

4/05/2023 - PC Engine Localization for Bravoman is released by Pennywise.
https://twitter.com/ElCaminoOscuro/status/1643685579912093707

9/18/2023 - PC Engine Localization for Might and Magic is released! However, it's a machine-translation and uses David Shadoff's enhanced System Card 3 patch for 8x12/16 font support, so you'd need a CD-R AND flashcart to play on real NEC consoles!
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7052/
https://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1725600399116095680

10/31/2023 - PC Engine Localization for Dead of the Brain 1 is released by David Shadoff in time for Halloween! I helped edit/betatest and it also counts as a game I actually finished for 2023, yaaaay! Shubibiman also did a French localization for its fans.
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/7087/

12/6/2023 - OH. MY. GAWWWD! INCREDIBLE NEWS: PC Engine Localization for Tengai Makyou/Far East of Eden: Ziria dropped by "Supper the Subtitler," one of the best we've ever seen, so expect all audio to be subtitled and great English fonts! 34 years later folks! No one saw this coming, no one!!!
http://stargood.org/trans/tenma.php
https://twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1732609464241471694

12/8/2023 - "Strife Sisters" began to ship, a Strategy RPG PCE homebrew by a new developer branded "Laconic Software."
https://shop.strifesisters.com/products/strife-sisters
https://strifesisters.com/about/

12/11/2023 - The much-anticipated Analogue Turbo Duo clone finally began shipping! While I've soured on the experience given the trouble to buy one and its launch bugs, I never expected new console hardware to arrive IN 2023 to keep the Hudson/NEC legacy alive! The Konami PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 minis were also a pleasant surprise I could never imagine happening. There are thousands of units left, you can still order from Analogue themselves (don't pay a scalper on eBay):
https://www.analogue.co/duo

2024 Update:The newsletter was processed and is being slowly mailed out across 7+ days to avoid my host from disabling sendmail for spamming. I've heard back from people and discern that it's working! So I'll try to do another one for 2025.

Well, I've done all I can to try recovering PCEFX from the 2019 sabotage/Catastrophy by the psycho "DuoPhile" gang... But it looks like we'll have to earn every new member from scratch who likely is perfectly content with Facebook, Discord and Twitter, so I guess this PCEFX clone will mostly be relegated to a more-accessible 20-year archive of PC Engine history/legacy. PCEFX deserved better but we must carry on...

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Dead CD Spindle Motor? How to Replace?]

Hey Great Hierophant

I made a special blast-from-the-past screenshot in honor of your visit! ; )



Look familiar ? It's my/our old PC Engine RIGG (Retro ISO Gaming Guild) forum running locally, ~20 years to the day, wow! Some day soon I hope to export/upgrade it to SMF and publish it here as read-only to make more PCE/Ys history available: pcengine-fx.com/rigg/. So that's how I remembered your old Mario avatar and just patched it in. If you use another, feel free to update. : )

As for your problem, I've forwarded it both to thesteve and Downtown Chris Brown (AKA Keith Courage)! I'll let you know if I hear anything back. We might even get a visit from Steve, just got his account working (he was our top EE, Voultar-level).

[Off-Topic / Re: What's up ya'll!]

Hey MG!

Guess I've had a setback rebooting with the SMF 2.1 core, I have to redo the theme and add the basic chatbox again, so less to see here now...

Pretty much looks like the nfg forums. On the plus side, lots of Photobucket images have been permanently cached (11k+) without the watermark AND will NEVER be lost should Photobucket delete them, plus more avatars, so image recovery behind the scenes has been my focus.

See for Avatar Image Recovery: pcengine-fx.com/forums/fixavatars.php

I'm OK I guess if I can only manage to archive the good threads, PCEFX history, for random google searches. Judging by NFG and the 2018 disaster, I can't expect to recover the activity we once had, have to be realistic about the goals here.

Anyway, I keep active mostly on Twitter (/NightWolve75) if anyone wants to reach me or follow/catch-up.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: TurboGrafx 16 Employee Scans & items (Archive.org)]

Hey, so your thread doesn't have to be lonely, continuing on the WayBack/Archive.org theme: GamingAlexandria (with help/contributors) scanned/preserved EVERY PC Engine Fan issue this year for upload to WayBack!!!

You already knew I'm sure, but it's relevant PCE content that should be shared. Plus I added more embed power (to Wayback links & my auto Twitter embeds), looking much better!

Loading: twitter.com/GamingAlexandri/status/1522236188215631873

PC Engine Fan issue #1 began in December 1988:

...And ran till October 1996:

Random Highlight: Page 57 of issue #1 was a Studio Ghibli ad for their My Neighbor Totoro anime movie which was also released that year.

[General Gaming / Re: I’m back!]

Hey Chris, haha, good to have ya stop by! I didn't think you would as I know you're friends with certain mutuals I'm at odds with, but cool to see you can cast that aside.

I wish I had made a lot more progress with the forum mods and rebuilding, but still a long way to go to make the place more presentable and then fire off a newsletter to all existing accounts.

The longer I wait, the worse the odds are I can get more regulars to return, so I may just have to bite the bullet and do it end of summer regardless of whatever progress I can make as it'll be a year since I first decided to upload PCEFX from the 2019 backup after seeing Aaron was giving it all up...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Introducing myself and Turbo Views......]

Wowser, @Odonadon, been a llllllooooooong time! Mister OG Turbo2K (gone, but not forgotten) himself!

Guess I need to hurry up, get the chatbox back up again for quick hellos/catchups; I surely didn't expect to see you again, but trust you're doing well. If you're on Facebook, Twitter, or Discord BTW, add it to your profile; makes it easier for someone to catch up when old members/veterans randomly wander back.

I think that's your correct avatar, I know I embedded/saved it, but I wondered if that was a placeholder from the host, if not, feel free to patch it before you disappear. (It's all part of my image recovery scripts, so threads/posts are less broken from lost images to better archive ~20 years of PCE history/legacy with some Wayback aid).

I'm still not very happy with the state of the forum/software; the SMF 2.1 core was only a mild catch-up/improvement, but it's still way behind XenForo and even ProBoards where you don't have to deal with maintenance yourself (compelling reason to switch).

Anyway, given the bump to this thread, might as well share details on Chris Bucci's new Turbo Views channel update I noticed just now via Facebook! Ah, you noticed it also; I didn't read your whole post, I was still shocked at the "hi all" and that it was you, heh.

facebook.com/groups/65214321555/posts/10158349665281556


Nice DVD collector's box being readied.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine: Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire Stage 1 on guitar!]

Here I am performing the PC Engine game Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire's Stage 1 music.  Much like my other Sapphire video.  This one was actually harder, but it's still fun.  Sorry about the intro being off camera, but who cares about that part anyway, right?

Random Retro WayBack: Awesome to find an old, genuine PCE Turbro [from 2007] that knows how to jam out some of the greatest tunes from the NEC/PCE library!

Feels like he gets most of this Sapphire track [stage 1 BGD] right with only a few misses. So overall, well played.


Addendum/Tangent: I was globally patching certain YouTube links (about 2,570) for better embedded appearance, found this, so I also patched his account with external social media links/info off his YouTube. Anyone randomly browsing here someday via Google can find more on what he's been up to; it's a nice tidy feeling to see more complete profiles with present-day social media connection. Really makes you think: kinda sad Aaron was eventually willing to give up on so much work, info, history, resources, legacy, knowledge-sharing/etc. of PCE fandom spanning ~20 years... I paid hosting for the next 10 years (while domain is yearly auto-renew), it's pretty affordable nowadays, don't see why it shouldn't continue to serve pages sharing PCE legacy/history/archives. pcengine-fx.com is here to stay AFAIAC.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Scan: TurboExpress in Playboy magazine]

Once I got past the side boobage, something else caught my eye...

You can't create a more captivating reason to play KLAX than this. Seriously.

https://twitter.com/Playboy/status/1435665707962880008


Upon patching/embedding lost Image Shack images (thanks to esteban for preserving the PDF!) with some liberties for Klax/TG-gloves and sharing this retro thread, someone questioned if this Playboy issue was for the UK-market. Most any searches for "Playboy April 1991" continue to confirm it's US - Dixon/Deletion who scanned it was a US resident, plus you got interviews with famous US entertainers: Steve Martin, Martin Scorsese, and boxer George Foreman. Those interview choices were for an American/US market.

	And for those of you curious about this particular model that made the cover, another "detective" on Facebook discovered her name/info, etc. Julie Ann Clarke from Arizona, she was the March 1991 Playmate.

So this chick is what now?  50 years old?  *Shudder*

She's 46 years old now and she still remembers the TurboExpress fondly.

FiftyQuid was a tad off in 2012 (DOB: 8/11/1969), so she would actually be 52 now and looking back on the Turbo Express fondly, haha!
Addendum #1: During my typical perusing on Twitter, I came across the April 1990 PC Engine Fan cover which gave me a fun idea for an interestin' comparison to append here! Turns out the editors of PlayBoy magazine were a tad more conservative on how much female skin to show for the front cover versus our PC Engine pals/brethren in Japan, ha! Let's take a look!



So special thanks to Gaming Alexandria for this extra, unexpected PCE excursion who is on a sacred mission to scan all PC Engine Fan covers for preservation on WayBack!

Loading: twitter.com/GamingAlexandri/status/1515746955695116294

Addendum #2: This thread/forum was private to the vast majority of the public, a consequence of which is lost images (Wayback couldn't scan them) and less visibility/fondness of its legacy/history, etc. So to undo some of the past, I'll occasionally share the "best of" threads (like this one) on other platforms where PCE people might congregate. I'd say it was a success judging by the fun replies I got on Facebook and Twitter.

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1514389145925337096

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Super SD system 3 choppy scrolling]

Howdy copados33, welcome! I see you go way back to 2009, 13 years, but not many posts. Regardless, happy to have ya stop by as we hopefully rebuild this forum to a more friendlier place that lives up to retro ideals!

So, it's VERY interesting you brought up Terra Onion, whoo boy, there is a lot to say/unpack now, quite the coincidence!

1) I was first going to suggest contacting Todd Gill on Twitter to forward your video to the TO team, they may some day work on the bug and release a patched firmware (but someone must make an effort to report it). However, Todd left Terra Onion last year, he no longer works with Alex'n'crew and, ugh, recent events may explain why...

Loading: twitter.com/ToddsNerdCave/status/1503793764384583683

2) Next I was gonna mention I only know 2 people that own it and direct you to them, but, something happened in between that time... It's no longer a company I can excuse/support/help, it's a much more significant matter than all the bugs in their products...

You see, Alex, the owner of Terra Onion, has had a real problem with competitors over the years... He's cutthroat, bitter, jealous, I've seen it for myself and he's a toxic Neo-Geo.com turbo troll; he fits that angry mold and operated on that horrible doxxing forum for a while when xRotx (and Psycho Wasabi) was running it who was later chased off himself by his own fellow psycho gang members (his account was shutdown in a special way, IDK exact details but: 1 crazy person, Sylvie, got 2 crazy mods/admins, xRotx/Evil Wasabi, to break into accounts to spy for dox data on the target for extortion... I don't understand how this verbally-abusive Sylvie nutjob isn't permabanned, but Wasabi & xRotx fled for the exits... At any rate, Neo-Geo.com is imploding, Shawn should finally do the right thing by pulling the plug, it's a vile stain on the Internet with dual KKKFarms . net membership e.g. Psycho Dox Shroom, FilthyRear, and XSEEDGames' very own Deuce/Jeff Nussbaum marking other NeoGeo fans/members for death (Shroom too!) and pulling his pants down for them, etc.)!

Unfortunately (or, fortunately, if you already knew he was an a$$hole) this callous mindset got Alex into Y-YYUGE public-relations trouble by going after krikzz/Igor [again], the best of the best in the flashcart business with what I coin "The Everdrive Empire," which was put at serious risk with the invasion of Ukraine by Russian war criminals/imperialists/etc... Imagine if we actually lost all of that due to war, really makes you think!

I've collected a series of tweets you can examine yourself and see how this mess blew up. Alex eventually deleted his horrible, petty tweets, but the damage was already done. Todd even distanced himself further from the company as he was receiving DMs about the matter.

Loading: twitter.com/Voultar/status/1503903826184740874

Loading: twitter.com/Voultar/status/1503780552222167044

Loading: twitter.com/Voultar/status/1503785596757716996

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1503946994959671297

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1503939894414036994

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So to wrap this up, I will never touch Terra Onion products either... Alex had an opportunity to be magnanimous, and instead revealed he kinda hoped krikzz was KIA in Ukraine so he could take his business/sales...

I was mildly thinking about buying the PCE Super SD System 3 PRO add-on, even got a real Coregrafx II model off eBay:

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1456474430176210948

But I'll just stick to my original plan of the Analogue Duo which might be my last console purchase after the MiSTer. I don't game much, not getting any younger, and anything else I can emulate on the ole PC.

Loading: twitter.com/Voultar/status/1503782767162712064

Loading: twitter.com/Voultar/status/1505604593979375618

Anyway, that's the recent story/drama with Alex/Terra Onion. People destroying/self-sabotaging themselves for free with Twitter or Discord by opening their mouths too much when they should've kept their real thoughts private...

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

Hey fsa, I don't remember if we ever talked before and I noticed you logging in a few times over the last few months. I dunno how you learned of my relaunched forum, but it hasn't really happened yet and most don't know about it so just FYI, only a few of us are around so far...



So looking at current trading prices on eBay, Jackie Chan sells for $15-$20 more. I think more replay value is in the racing game (I played Chase H.Q. at the arcades), but not sure if you're asking in terms of game quality and/or money. Looks like they're both cheap enough to buy CIC if you're serious...

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine GT recapped question about capacitors]

Well hello! Wow, I didn't expect to find new posts today AND by two different people in the same topic (still haven't tried relaunching the forum via a newsletter to registered accounts, plus now I have less time to work/fix existing data/content), haha! Thanks for stopping by!

OK, so like Chase said, it's always better to meet or exceed the max breakdown voltage rating of a capacitor (the higher/bigger, the better, just means more money/space), while keeping the capacitance the same. But in this case you went lower from 50V to 35V which I think should be fine, maybe... Even 16 VDC caps are safe for the most part on 5V PCBs, triple or more is preferable than the operating voltage and to handle ripple current/heat.

These motherboards in general operate at 5 VDC after the regulator, more true for portables (the batteries total 9 VDC), and I can't imagine some kind of inversion situation that'd ever lead to that area running near 35 VDC (the backlight lamp at best?)! I vaguely remember having this conversation with Steven Hanley though regarding higher "power inversion," the top PCEFX electrical engineer, so I'm gonna ask him just to be thorough/safe about this.

This is your first post/question EVER after 6 years of registration, so I'll do my best to help out! ; )


UPDATE: Yep, according to TheSteve, there is a power inversion circuit running at 24 Volts and a 22μF cap is involved if he remembers correctly. So still safe with a 35VDC cap!

I was waiting on an answer from Steven Hanley as I vaguely remember him mentioning something about power inversion years ago. He thinks one of the 22μF capacitors is involved with a 24-Volt power inversion circuit (best guess: for the backlight lamp?). So, 35VDC caps are safe. pic.twitter.com/NpzARQvPDY

— Nicolas Λειβαδίτης (@NightWolve75) February 23, 2022

Keep tabs on that tweet as Voultar or leonk may provide further answers/info.

32v I think. It's used on the LCD as bias voltage for contrast and on the TV tuner to power the RF amp stage. GAME GEAR also uses that voltage for the same purposes apparently.

— Leo Oliveira (@leo__oliveira) February 23, 2022

The plot thickens! So it's the CC502 spot, a 4.7μF capacitor to watch out for where up to a 32-Volt power inversion is possible. So your 35V model is barely safe I guess ? More peace of mind if it was 50V, but yeah, there you go, it mattered here!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: My progress on PC-FX homebrew development]

I figured out how to play a CD-DA track and loop it.
It turns out the PC-FX was not fully compliant with the SCSI-2 standard !
This is apparently because it was based upon an earlier (free) draft of the standard.
Instead, if you want to have a CD-DA track looping, you have to use the vendor-specific 0xD8 and 0xD9 modes.

That's interesting, I had some experience/difficulties in this area when I was developing TurboRip!

The 0xD8 read CD-DA/raw command is a very old fallback on some early NEC (and Toshiba?) PC CDROM drives that were made before SCSI-3 AKA "MMC [1] (Multi-Media Commands)" was drafted/adopted which also dealt with DVD commands!

Ultimately they decided on the 0xBE command to read data sectors raw or for CD-DA extraction/reads, etc. Unfortunately it created an incompatibility with drives produced with the 0xD8 command unless the CD ripping software accounted for it. So all the manufacturers that took early initiative to produce such CDROM drives with 0xD8 kinda got egg on their face and had to rework the designs.

Exact Audio Copy is pretty good about this; it has a specific Drive Option to detect the correct command (just in case), but yeah, pretty much MMC1/0xBE became universal and it's those really rare cases it might be a problem. That's what David Michel had told me years ago when I first started working on TurboRip, to just deal with understanding 0xBE.



Starting with Windows NT, you still had the option to build your own SCSI command packet and send it to the drive direct, but also the prescribed NT SPTI method. In Windows 7 they forced you to do this for MODE1 data sectors which broke TurboRip and I'm assuming other CD ripping software because Microsoft removed this "security" requirement in Windows 8/10+. So I tried to use this exclusively, only to discover from Chris Covell's feedback/tests that it was extremely slow! Part of the reason is if you looked at the API, you can find it checks for old [NEC] drives that need the 0xD8 command, so I liked the idea of more guaranteed compatibility which is why I tried to make it default! In the end, I did a balance: defaulted to my own SCSI command packets with 0xBE, then the SPTI method upon failure detection (which IS hard in SCSI!!). I kept the speed, and still gained some extra compatibility (possibly)!

Anyway, I'm afraid I can't help add much else to your research it being the PC-FX and all, but yeah, I do have some experience with general SCSI-3/MMC commands/programming under a Win32 environment so I share when I can.

[PC/Console/Mobile Ports / Re: "Lords of Thunder: PC" (Updated 1/23/2022 - v.3 released)]

Back in the day I worked on a PC port of Lords of Thunder - recently I've had the desire to revisit it again with modern day tools. If you'd like to try out how far I got, link provided (no install needed). Screenshot of said build. pic.twitter.com/9yjwxrND2V

— Aaron Nanto (@pcenginefx) January 24, 2022

Looks like Aaron has not quite "retired" yet, apparently he's resumed work on his old Lords of Thunder Windows PC port! I'll update the OP thread with download links/shots accordingly when available. The files linked are the same from 2007 so far.

https://youtu.be/YBXYdvG0YIM

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Marshall's PC Engine emulator for the PC-FX]

Hey gameblabla, thanks for stopping by and contributing with this news/work!

I was confused what you meant at first, but I understand now: So this is a PC Engine emulation layer (albeit WIP, very slow, unfinished) whereby the user can take PC Engine ROMs, burn a CD-R with it, and actually load it on their NEC PC-FX console for play! I'm imagining Bonk's Revenge loading on a PC-FX, and other games people would actually wanna play on it, haha!

A fellow PCE turbro of many turbo names -- Tom/Malducci/Tomaitheous/Bonknuts and now Super TurboXray -- actually did something similar: a NES "hackulation/emulation" layer that allowed running games like MegaMan, Contra, Jackal, Dragon Warrior on PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. It was actually very cool to load Contra or MegaMan on my TurboExpress portable with an Everdrive flashcart, so it was kind of useful beyond a novelty experiment to "see what's possible."



Anyway, I spread the word as you know, your tweet got a little bit boosted after David noticed me/it.

And FYI, I patched the thread with YouTube embedding and attached the ZIP download, looking better! It's been a tiring uphill battle to restore this forum, perhaps I've concentrated too much on image/photo retrieval/retention/preservation... I should've relaunched it by now, but things have taken longer than I had hoped.

EDIT: Oh, I'll just embed your tweet, that'll look cool/better too instead of pasting a link here!

[Feature/News Archive / Re: The Retro "PC Engine Offline Catalog" Returns Online!]

SMF AutoEmbedAV v1.00 (new) Test

(The old Aeva plugin was buggy/huge/too-complex, caused problems like ruining consistent formatting of quoted text, so I decided it'd be fun to delete/uninstall it, take a stab at writing my own [in PHP] for auto Audio/YouTube embed that's fast/compact)

_{► /audio/Ys3PC2-03-Wings-of-Love.mp3}

_{► /audio/20-Lords-of-Thunder.mp3}

_{► /audio/18-Lords-of-Thunder.mp3}

_{► /audio/07-Gate-of-Thunder.mp3}

YouTube embedding advancements:

-uses latest 2021 iframe embed code from YouTube.
-"lazy" loading, only fires http requests when iframe object is visible, so our big YouTube collection thread is less of a pain when browsing.
-16/9 aspect ratio with 100% width (aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;), mobile-friendly for the first time! I use the new 2020 aspect-ratio CSS4 draft attribute (support is not universal yet, Chrome/Firefox, not Safari), but also the old padding hack for old browsers.
-pre-loads the best thumbnail first (I didn't wanna rely on JavaScript, but it's the best way).
-playlist links with index work.
-time start honored (either in seconds or min syntax, e.g, ?v=xxxxxx&t=5m23s)
-trimming of breaks/spaces before/after, same formatting/placement every time and within 1 paragraph break (<p></p>).
-using lack of thumbnail as condition of a deleted/expired video, a red unavailable link is replaced instead of a big empty video container. Sometimes you can discover what the video was with WayBack or google searches with the video ID.

I think I did a better job than most SMF plugins now.

And reference link: our > YouTube viewing collection history <.

[Off-Topic / The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread]

Special PC Engine mini sale on Amazon Japan, 25% off!!!



Scored it for $77 total with today's USD/YEN exchange rate! They're limiting orders to 1 per person as well to fight scalpers/resellers also.

Loading: twitter.com/NightWolve75/status/1456015963137220617

Update: It was a clearance sale, the price fell to like $50 USD for a short time!!!!

Loading: twitter.com/Shhiin/status/1457002113095987210