Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can anybody with an original copy of Neo Nectaris check something for me?]

I'm using a Turboripped copy of Neo Nectaris. When I use the ingame sound menu, cd track 25 is a much lower volume than the rest of the tracks, and track 26 and up do not play. Is this the same on an original copy or do I  have a bad rip? Thanks!

I tried a real CD and I can't get anything past 25 as well.. maybe 25 is simply the last track?  As far as volume it doesn't sound a whole lot lower to me aside from the natural recording of it. Then again I only tried it on a low grade CRT with a single mono speaker.

On another note.. are you able to get past the intro animation on your ripped copy? On my ripped copies I have to use a password to play stage 1 else it freezes on the intro movie. It plays 100% fine otherwise. Only on the real disc am I able to start the game from stage 1 naturally through the intro movie.

Oh and this is on a real Duo..  on emulator all discs (burned and original) play fine.

[General Gaming / Re: I think I may have just ruined my authentic turbografx experience.]

My Xbox is loaded up, The Wii is loaded up, my PC is loaded up, and the Turbo Duo is loaded up with an Everdrive. No point in artificially limiting yourself really when the other stuff is relatively free. :p 

And yeah while I'm a fan of shoving in a hucard.. I've been doing that for decades and now some of them are getting flaky. I'm fine leaving in the ED. 

[Off-Topic / Re: Donald Trump Thread aka End of Days]

I think his current goal is to make "Obamacare" bad enough to where it collapses, blame the mess on Obama, and come through and be the hero that saved America after Obama tried (but failed because of people like Trump) to destroy this great nation of ours.

Nothing else makes sense.

Lol that's like 100% opposite of the story during the initial implementation.. i.e. that the long term strategy was the ACA was specifically designed by the Democrats (who were of course, solely responsible for it) to fail over time so that they could then eventually come through to save the day by saying that the only answer was Single Payer.

e.g. http://www.weeklystandard.com/harry-reid-and-tom-coburn-agree-obamacare-was-designed-to-fail-pave-way-for-single-payer/article/745908

'Course this was all way before Trump came onto the scene. I'm not saying it's true or not (who the heck knows) but if it is,  then his election and the Dems falling out of power would be a complete disruption of it.

[General Gaming / Re: Long lost Donkey Kong game found]

Nice.. I'm content watching the vid of it being played vs. needing to play it myself. I'm not sure what that says about me these days lol 

[Off-Topic / Re: Donald Trump Thread aka End of Days]

lol @ health insurance costs.. I had an awesome PPO plan at my work for over a decade that covered stuff like our kid being in the Nic-U (which cost thousands of dollars) with zero hassle and a small copay. However as most know, today the PPO plans are almost extinct and most workplaces have elected to go with high-deductible health plans (HDHP) being the de-facto standard.  Whether this was due to the passive aggressive regulations from the ACA is debatable, but that's not the point. The point is you still pay the same annual premiums.. actually higher, but you have to pay all your healthcare costs Out of Pocket for most families up to around 6-9 grand, after which you're covered 80% until year end.  i.e. you're covered for catastrophe, but that's about it. So in other words if you just have a standard year and go to the doc now and then it's like having no insurance at all, while still paying the same premiums. Great!

So yeah.. warning about "big increases in health insurance costs"  its not like we haven't already gotten much higher healthcare costs during the previous administration. It's happened already man and we've been dealing with it for some time.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Is the PCE craze over yet?]

There was a craze? I dunno..  I come from the ancient land of being the only person I knew who bought TG16 games, so maybe my perspective is a little skewed 

[Off-Topic / Re: Donald Trump Thread aka End of Days]

Perhaps hyperbole but Trump takes care of his own at the expense of the common man.  But don't worry, we'll get that $700 tax rebate

I don't know what rebate you're talking about but for this common man, the feds are taking less tax out of my paycheck now that's for sure,   And it's not an insignificant amount totaling several thousand in a year.  As a brown minority who's never voted in his life (I never really cared tbh).. I'm considering registering finally and rocking the GOP vote this year. 

[General Gaming / Re: Super Nt]

It's definitely a nice improvement over a Retron, but for $200+ it's really high. Then again the NT Mini was $450.

I dunno... unless you got it 2nd-hand, $200 is pretty much what we all payed for a SNES in the first place isn't it.

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

Yep..  I remember I ordered at the beginning of Black Friday in 2016 and inquired about the status two weeks later. They emailed me back saying they had received thousands of orders and that caused delays, but ours would be shipped very soon since we had ordered earlier than the others..  So I guess it's first come first served? As it turns out, they ended up shipping it mid-December.

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

Yeah man.. I had a white screen too at first, but flicking the switch did the trick.

[General Gaming / Re: NES classic]

"Why buy games at all when you can watch someone else play them on Youtube and save you the hassle of playing them yourself ;-)"

I am totally guilty of that in real life..  like, I've beaten Legendary Axe 2 many many times in the past. However it's been decades at this point so I don't really remember most of it. When I got a hankering to see it again I COULD HAVE played it again on my Turbo.. but as I'm just sitting at the computer by default I just start up a youtube longplay video for it, and it kind of satisfies that itch without me having to relearn the game again. lol   

Yeah it's kinda sad.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which is your favorite retro gaming era?]

I'm a child of the 70's.. had a Coleco Telstar console, and then was fully and absolutely immersed in the 2600/5200 era. I had also had a Famicom before the NES was all that huge in the states and totally loved that era. However my "favorite" has to be the 16 bit era..  that was truly a golden age imho.

[General Gaming / Re: The Gaming Adventures of Ed Semrad (Japanese Game Expo Videos)]

Nice!  I was a big EGM fan back in the day.. since Ed Semrad was supposedly (probably not) the Sega Master System guy. 

The 16-bit days was when the Japan market was really coming to be a lot more known to people in the west (whereas in the NES days it was still relatively "mysterious") and EGM was one of the sole places to bring you info about it while other mags pretended things didn't exist until it hit the US market.  I loved that time man.

[Off-Topic / Re: Post YouTube links only, no description.]

[General Gaming / Re: NES classic]

ok I'm giving in.. I want the Famicom one too. What're they going for on ebay.. time to see :p

[Off-Topic / Re: Tits or Ass?]

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Neo Nectaris EGM² scan]

Since you have the real deal in hand, try ripping and burning it.  Maybe all three you found online are bad rips?

heh I never even considered that... duh. That's a great idea!  Is there a consensus on what's the best program to rip Turbo cd's? Or would most any do..

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Neo Nectaris EGM² scan]

YES if you played Military Madness, then picking up Neo Nectaris is a pretty easy since it really uses the same menu system.  You might want to check out some online resources.. e.g. This page in particular is a great resource for the translations:  http://nectaris.tg-16.com/quick-neo_nectaris-FAQ-duo-hudson.html#navigate  and here's the new units in the game: http://nectaris.tg-16.com/translate-neo_nectaris-FAQ-duo-hudson.html

On a separate note.. anyone ever tried playing a burned copy of Neo Nectaris on an actual Duo? I found 3 different ISO's of it floating on the internet and all exhibit this strange problem where you can't start the game from the beginning (it just kinda freezes before it plays the intro movie), but you can enter in the code for stage 1 or any other stage and it plays just fine that way.  I'm just wondering if it's just me.   These iso's play fine on emulators by the way.

And yes before anyone jumps on me for playing burned ISOs, I do have the real game and it starts fine. That's not the point.   (...proactively inserting picture to head off such comments  https://i.imgur.com/bKaolhC.jpg )

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

[General Gaming / Re: NES classic]

At the end of the day it's pretty subjective I think how it affects you..  but I can try to go to Mr. Dream (ugh) on a real NES on a CRT tv and dodge punches.. then try the same thing on the Classic running on an hdtv.  Why not. Will report back later

[General Gaming / Re: NES classic]

I was able to pick up an NES classic earlier this month (2/9/17).. they are getting stocked once or twice a week at local Targets. You just have to watch brickseek.com and be at the store maybe 30 minutes before they open. You no longer have to line up at 6am I don't think. :p It is what it is at this point.

Regarding retropie, I love it but I have to say it was hard for me to set up.. I won't bother going into details (e.g. trying to connect to wireless threw me for a loop for days until I realized it was defaulted to a UK keyboard layout  ) Also the pure finickiness of FBA as to what roms would work with it.. I had to find a near complete set and then fix with clrmamepro, which was a real pain.  But yeah it's great.  I wouldn't put it anywhere near the NES Classic though unless the only thing you're looking forward to is "playing games".. because the NES Classic's draw to me is that it's 1) mfg by Nintendo 2) boxed and 3) looks like a mini NES.

[General Gaming / Re: NES classic]

I'm happy with my regular NES with an Everdrive with composite to a CRT (i.e. the way it's always been) but that doesn't stop me from wanting the Classic as well. I would be glad to spend the $60 (heck I'd buy two at this point).. if only we could find it in stores.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Did Pcenginefx beat all licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016...? NO (113/135)]

I can beat King of Casino in an emulator with savestates.. would that be fine. :p  Because screw playing through that normally 

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

Playing on the 3DS

[Off-Topic / Re: Happy holidays!]

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

A little unfair since Blazing Lazers predates it as far as I could remember... and we know the shmup genre usually evolved from itself.

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

G&W Donkey Kong anyone ?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (99/135)]

I would like to announce that the evil Axis Empire is no longer. I have put an end to their Military Madness.
As a side note, I had forgotten how some of the later maps end up being grueling wars of attrition. Set up a wall, let the computer take all the factories it wants, and stick to your position no matter what.

cool deal man.. I'm on level 16 (NECTOR) right now playing on my Turbo Duo.. having a blast again.   It's been decades at this point since I played every level sequentially.. but I just remember how much of a disappointment level 32 was, I was hoping for an epic battle vs. the sparse one they gave. lol

I'm getting so much into it again I think I'm going to give the PSX version and the new 32 levels in there a spin again and see how I like it. I recall I gave up after only a few levels and never gave it another chance.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Black Friday Turbo Everdrive v2.5]

Unfortunately (ok, not unfortunately.. I still <3 it) I bought the 2.5 TED a month or two ago already at full price.   But  this Krikzz sale definitely put the hit on the pocketbook as I snaked a handful more flashcarts for various systems that I was on the fence about before. Guess if there was a time to bite, that was it.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Turbo Duo will not power on]

I was going to say.. I thought my Turbo Duo was not powering up.. started semi-panicking, etc.

Then on an off chance my hand jiggled the AV cable, and a picture flickered on the screen. Turns out that's all it was.. a little jiggle on the AV cable and a picture showed up (albeit unstable). I'll have to get a new one but was thankful that's all it was. 

[Off-Topic / Re: Random Pictures Thread]

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pat & Ian video on TurboGrafx-16 Failure - What Could Have Saved It?]

Why'd they waste time on either when the SNES was clearly superior? EGM even told us so each month.

In the US the TG16 & Genny were released together in one summer.. but the SNES didn't come out until like two years later... which felt like an eternity. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Ys I is seriously frustrating near the end]

Yeah man.. Ys is all about the grind. Grind it up

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pat & Ian video on TurboGrafx-16 Failure - What Could Have Saved It?]

Wow.. yeah that is annoying when you're trying to give them money to buy their product, and it simply isn't available.

And you're right.. it was exactly fun "lost".. I didn't really mention the point of my SF2 story but I was really disappointed and wondered why they had to make the controller ports incompatible. After all if you bought a import Super Famicom pad, you could use it on your SNES, but not so for the PC Engine.. They did everything in their power to basically separate the successful PC Engine world from the Turbografx (why??), down to the hardware compatibility.. and imho they were successful to their own detriment.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (90/135)]

King of Casino outta be given a pass to use save states. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pat & Ian video on TurboGrafx-16 Failure - What Could Have Saved It?]

I didn't know of such a thing at the time or rather, I simply never came across one in the early 90s

Anyway it's all water under the bridge.. as of a few weeks ago I now have a region hacked Turbo Duo (thanks mickcris) with an Everdrive. Everdrive allows me to play games easily, while Region Hack allows me to shove in any of my old games (I still have all of them) if I ever felt like it.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pat & Ian video on TurboGrafx-16 Failure - What Could Have Saved It?]

I don't know much about NEC history, but I do know my experience as a consumer. I was a junior in college during the launch of the TG16 & Genesis, and ended up with both consoles. That was an awesome time as the SNES didn't come out until over a year later and it was friggin great going into the store when the TG16/Genny had such unique libraries, each with their "best" games.. and feeling I could take my pick of any of them.

I think it was obvious that the Turbografx started out really strong.. with great titles like Blazing Lazers and Legendary Axe. But that feeling very gradually started going away as my impression was it seemed they started getting less "aggressive" as the years went on..  You know how you get familiar with the local scene at the stores? Sometimes I felt like I was the only person checking out Turbo games at the local Electronics Boutique and Software Etc.  And while the Genesis library seemed to EVOLVE, with games that seemed to push the system more and more, the Turbografx seemed to fall in a rut of shovel titles like Boxyboy (which is a game I like today btw), and just more shmups.

Also it seemed to me to lose focus.. I was like "why are they putting out things like this Turboexpress???".. which I felt was way too expensive, just to play the same games I already played to death on the TV.  And when the Turbo CD came out, I had the same feeling.. that it was just way too pricey. I never fell out of love with the Turbografx.. I just packed it up under the bed and moved on as newer consoles came out. I would get the flyers from Johnny Turbo advertising the new Turbo Duo, etc. But by that point I had been there, done that. There didn't seem to be any new games.. so I pretty much ignored it.

Anyway the good news is I'm back into it again. 


As a side note.. this kind of shows how clueless I was.  I would go to Japan often in the 80's, and of course HAD to pick up Street Fighter 2 for the PC Engine since I had a converter for my TG16. I figured I would also pick up a 6 button controller, so I snagged a Hori controller. I happily flew home later, and popped my hucard  and the game started up great. I broke out the 6 button controller.. and realized it wouldn't plug into my Turbografx.. lol! That kind of information just wasn't available to me back then, that the controllers would have different inputs.. who knew. Anyway from that point, I never touched the game again, nor the 6 button controller for decades, to this day I've never played a good game of SF2 on a NEC console despite buying it at launch.. I pretty much have all of them pretty much NIB still. ah well, what a waste. ;p

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What PC-Engine Stuff did you get today?]

Not today but just recently (finally) got a Turbo-Duo (thanks mickcris ) after ignoring it after my TG16 days. Also got the obligatory Turbo Everdrive from Stonagegamer.. so now I totally got the NEC thing going once again.. woot

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Splatterhouse PCE - The Cleaver]

I came across it infrequently. One was back home in Guam (in a bootleg cabinet I'm sure).. and the other was when I was in college in the Bay Area, in an arcade in Santa Clara, CA.. somewhere down Saratoga Ave.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Splatterhouse PCE - The Cleaver]

It's not censorship or a hardware limitation, it's just the standard simplifications made to fit a project within the budgeted schedule and rom size.

This. And there's a lot less gory background detail. And a bird enemy is missing.

Still a great port though. And Captain Mozarella <3

I'll probably get boo'd for saying this, but I was relatively disappointed with TG16 Splatterhouse back in the day for exactly for that reason. I remember being excited bringing the port home, only to find it was much plainer than the arcade without details like the body parts in the foreground.. which to me kind of sucked the spirit of the game away. Because let's face it, the huge part of this game's uniqueness was the horror atmosphere and gory "splatter" graphics..

The gameplay was all there though, that is for sure.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: At what moment did you realize the PCE was magical and/or awesome?]

Easy.. around Sept. or Oct 1989. The Turbografx was released some time earlier over the summer, and I had just gotten back to my junior year of college. The NES was king up to that time, but I couldn't pass up on this new tech.. so I remember getting the TG16 and Blazing Lazers along with it, coming back to my apartment with all 6 of my roommates, and starting it up. We were BLOWN AWAY by Blazing Lazers.. it was like suddenly the future had arrived  Anyway yeah that's when I knew it was going to be awesome. For the record, we also got a Sega Genesis and the combination of those two next-gen consoles along with the aging NES made for pure video game goodness all that year.

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

I'm actually starting on Ys and Rondo.. basically I ignored turbo cd games 3 decades ago despite being a TG16 fan... Ys especially since I finished it on the SMS and had no interest starting it again, better graphics or not.  But anyway now I'm making up for it.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

I'm new here... I just want to say, I did beat King of Casino via an emulator by cheating using save states earlier this year.. I don't know if that counts     Probably not of course.

But hey it was kind of a lifelong curiosity at this point to see the ending since after almost 30 years I don't think I would have ever beaten it normally on a regular console.