Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Brand New Dragon Slayer Sealed Mint ... What's it worth?]

If someone on NintendoAge offered you $300, you should probably take that.  Beamer is closer with his $150 estimate than you are with your $350 estimate. 

Agreed! I don't watch ebay prices incredibly closely, but, I've never seen Dragon Slayer sell for $300 or more (CIB seems to be selling for ~$100 recently).

I just don't think that there is enough popularity for the series (or even perceived rarity) to drive that price that high).  Plus, the game really isn't that rare.  E.g., I bought a shrink wrapped copy just a couple of years ago for about $40.  Prices seem more inflated now, but I would think that $150 would be the high end for a shrink wrapped copy (unless you find someone crazy enough to pay more... such as $300).  I really doubt that a no reserve ebay auction would go that high.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: (CLOSED) Turbo Everdrive Group Buy UPDATE]

Payment and PM sent.

Thanks again!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Turbo Everdrive Group Buy]

I'd like to be included too.

Thanks for organizing this!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: TurboDuo Intelligent Link]

Dude, that's awesome.  Haven't seen such clear pics of one of these before.

It would be interesting to hook this up to a Quadra or an early PowerMac running MacOS 7.5.5 to see if this actually works    It even has an ID selector on the side... old SCSI memories (managing IDs and termination...)

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: mysterious song]

Sign me up, please!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

Not the sellers fault, but WOW, I really didn't expect this...
Call me ignorant, but I thought it would stay under 600.  Somebody must have just thrown in an outrageous number to win it.  Must be nice to be able to throw this kind of money around.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/280927151077?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

$900 for 2 TG16s, some turbo taps, and 37 games seems to be too much.  If someone is buying this to resell, I don't see much room for profit.  Some of the games in the lot are nice, but nothing there is extremely special or in pristine collector quality condition.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

Just wondering on this game I have not seen it around to often. But would this be a good price from Ebay? Or are they asking way to much?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/John-Madden-Duo-CD-Football-100-COMPLETE-IN-CASE-Turbo-Duo-TurboGrafx-16-cd-/320937681159?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item4ab9606107

$60 for Madden
Way too much!
This game can be found relatively easily for $20-$30 sealed.
Used, I wouldn't pay more than about $10-15.

IMHO, it is a good game, but nothing rare about it and most turbo players don't get too excited about it...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: How about a Top 30 Turbografx games?]

30 is too many to rank 

My top 5 for US HuCards is as follows (only including my favorite entries from each series to spread things around):

1. Air Zonk
2. Bonk's Revenge
3. Bomberman 93
4. Bloody Wolf
5. Military Madness

Honorable Mentions to Magical Chase, Blazing Lazers, and Legendary Axe II

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

He mentions ProPay for method of payment for the Beyond Shadowgate game.  Never heard of this method of shipping before.....has anyone used it? 

Also, I know ebay has that buyer protection plan deal where if you are unhappy with the item, you can return it back to the seller.  Does this work even if the seller specifically states no refunds?  From selling stuff in the past, I've been burned by someone who wanted to return an item back to me for no reason other than the same exact item sold for significantly less.

From reading his listing description, he sounds like a complete douche with some sort of personality disorder... I would stay far away!!!... even if he was listing it for $80, I'd think twice about bidding

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: 'pcengine-fx.com market value' Price List]

Yeah the only way you'd get it cheap would be if someone had it at a garage sale and didn't know how much it was worth.

Then, you'd probably snag it for $5-$10, but that's a pipedream.

$400 is a very unrealistic price because:
* Those who know what Magical Chase is, will try to get >$1K or whatever the current Ebay price is for it.
* Those who have no idea what it is, will probably part with it for a few bucks (unfortunately, not too many people like this exist as the game did not have large sales numbers)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: 'pcengine-fx.com market value' Price List]

200         250     400        Magical Chase
       17           25      35         Shockman
       30          40      60          Soldier Blade

I'll take one of each please, CIB of course!
Those prices are unfortunately way too low.

Yeah, no kidding... I'll take two of each.

Realistically, the volume of sales for a lot of these items is pretty low, so it's hard to really estimate prices... however, I truly doubt that anyone would realistically be able to find a complete Magical Chase for $400.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Grafx later releases TTI]

Yeah, it was probably a storage locker that he bought like on those tv shows (Storage Wars) and didn't want to be bothered to look up individual buyers--just wanted to move the inventory.

Well, he should have taken the Pawn Stars approach and called his buddy who specializes in vintage video games 

It's hard to find deals like this nowadays cuz it's so easy for people to look on ebay, etc. and to come up with an inflated asking price...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Grafx later releases TTI]

I wonder where the seller found all these sealed games... not too many 19 year olds even know what the turbo is... judging from the deal that was made, this guy didn't either... he probably acquired or was given the lot very cheap and was happy to get the BB gift card...

Did TTI/TZD stash a bunch of leftover games in North County??? ;-)

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Sadler's Summer of Raffles: Super System 3.0 Card case!]

Please sign me up.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Grafx later releases TTI]

Always fun to play this stuff, but I have to agree with SamIAm, sell anything you want to open for 5X what it is worth unsealed, buy the unsealed version and PLAY IT!  Then, take the money you made and buy more TG16 stuff!  I always sell to buy more, not to make money, and it is more fun buying stuff with "free money"!  Super Congrats on an awesome find!

What to do with this collection is a personal decision.

From a purely financial standpoint, keeping the games sealed would make the most sense and either selling them now,when the market seems pretty hot or waiting to see what happens over the next few years... keeping in mind that the price may go up, may go down, or may even crash.  If you really want to play them, you can find cheaper open games, while making a profit selling them.

For some people, it would be worth the money just to open Magical Chase... a pleasure that will likely cost you several hundred to a couple thousand dollars.

For others, just knowing that they are one of the few ppl to have a sealed Magical Chase is worth it.

For some, getting the money would be nice... essentially, you can flip some plastic, silicon, and cardboard into a few thousand dollars... not bad...

Others just want to play the game... MC is not terribly easy to find in general, so opening the box is one way to do it... of course, there are other more economical ways to play the games: e.g., emulators and flash carts like neoflash...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Final Lap Twin]

I was pretty surprised by the quality of the RPG mode when I played it in the 90s.  I assumed that it would suck, so I didn't play that mode until I had the game for a while... when I did play it, it was quite fun.  Some of the later races were pretty challenging and unlike any RPG or racing game I had played before... it felt pretty satisfying to win the final race!

Overall, Final Lap Twin provided a lot of bang for the buck... either racing that evil Benson  , racing a friend, and playing the RPG mode.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Duo...What went wrong?]

and yes, the Atari 2600 version of Pac Man was a goddamn mess.   It's not like Defender where its like "ok, this isn't as good as the arcade but it's still pretty good."

If you guys haven't already, you should really read the book "Racing the Beam" - it's a history and in-depth study of the VCS/2600 platform. They use popular games like Combat, Pac-Man and Pitfall as case studies, including studying the assembly code used in the games and the creative thinking that had to be used to make the 2600 do anything beyond very basic Combat-type games.

I knew very little about the 2600 going into the book (I was born in 81 so I missed most of the Atari age) but I found the talks about the architecture really interesting - basically the 2600 hardware was specifically designed to run a series of VERY basic games like Pong, combat and a BASIC editor, and that was it. Atari had planned to have that hardware around for a year or two. The guys who designed it never dreamed of being able to do anything approaching games like Pitfall and others - those games were really the product of a lot of creative thinking by the programmers and the fact that the 2600 didn't have a screen buffer, so game logic had to be performed while the screen was being redrawn (hence the book title). Programmers had to be fully aware of the registers keeping track of the current scanline and how many CPU clock cycles they had to run code between scanlines. really interesting stuff.

The book also goes over the absolute corporate insanity that brought about Pac-Man - the suits basically gave the programmer like 5 weeks to create the game. It's kind of amazing he was able to do it at all.

Link to the book:
http://www.amazon.com/Racing-Beam-Computer-Platform-Studies/dp/026201257X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334075025&sr=8-1

Thanks for the recommendation.  That sounds like a book right up my alley... sadly, my programming and hacking days are likely behind me as real life and a job in a totally unrelated field takes up 99% of my time, but I always enjoy reading about clever approaches to hardware limitations...  As I was born in '81, the next generation of systems was more familiar to me... I wonder if there are any books like this pertaining to the 8/16 bit generations...

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Another Raffle: SAPPHIRE BOOT!]

Please add me , too... I've never had the original or a bootleg version...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Duo...What went wrong?]

... by the time the Duo came out, they should have bundled the rest of their Turbo CD inventory with system 3 cards and GOT and sold them from ~$99-$149 to provide a nice upgrade path to current TG16 users

This is an interesting idea. In this case as well, I think rather than $99-149, $199+ would have been a more realistic retail price for this imaginary set, given the pricing of other consoles at the time. But you are right, they had Turbo CD's just sitting on the shelves which were still way overpriced, and didn't even come packaged with the latest system card. It would have been a nice idea to do something constructive with these, rather than just jumping ship completely to focus on the Duo, and releasing the Super System Card as a mail order-only upgrade.

Overall, I see what you guys are saying, that they should have followed the philosophy of "Lose money on the hardware, make money on the software" which is common practice with consoles today. At the time, this was not necessarily the most accepted strategy, though I can't say for sure it wouldn't have helped if TTi had tried this with the Duo. It just wasn't common practice at the time, and also I imagine that they might have been actually losing at least a bit of money on the hardware because, again, CD drives were still pretty expensive at the time. Sure, TTi could have chosen to undercut all their competitors on hardware pricing and thus stood a chance of convincing kids to buy Duos instead of the other systems, and then reaping the rewards of the software market through a large user base. But there was no guarantee this would have proven successful. The competition would have likely also lowered their prices in response. The bottom line is that there is no way that TTi would have attempted this in 1992. No way in hell. They stood to lose a sh*tload if this strategy failed, and they were in no position to risk that.

Does anyone have an idea of what the manufacturing cost was of the Turbo Duo?

The system board seems like it would be pretty inexpensive.  They were using the same basic design as from 1987.  I doubt that the HuC6280 was very expensive... heck, 65c02 chips were pretty cheap back then.  Memory was also not that expensive in 1992.  Especially, since the Duo probably uses pretty slow ram and only has 256k main cd ram + 8k work ram + 64k VRAM + 64k adpcm buffer + 256k bios rom...  the cd-rom drive is the wild card... I have no idea what the oem cost was for a drive back then... retail prices were high, but that doesn't always indicate production costs... nec did produce them in house and the PC-engine duo was released 1 year prior to the Turbo Duo, while the original CD attachment was released a few years prior to that, so I'd assume they would have reduced production costs over 4+ years since the original PC engine CD drive was released.  All the main R&D was done years prior!

The SegaCD seems like a different story... they added a bunch of custom hardware for graphics and sound (which were sorely underutilized and limited by the poor color palette of the Genesis) and added a redundant (albeit faster) 68k processor (68k series was significantly more expensive than the old Mostek/WDC 65c02 chips... also, it did have quite a bit more ram... so I could totally see it being more expensive to develop and manufacture than the Turbo Duo.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Duo...What went wrong?]

I'll toss in a couple points from my perspective.
For the majority of gamers in the US (and, let's face it, the parents that funded them) a $300 console crossed the line.

From my point of view as someone who grew up at this time and loved video games, I agree. $200 was absolutely the upper limit for a video game system then, as a Christmas present (my ONLY Christmas present, mind you) so anything priced higher than that was out of reach. It didn't matter that the Duo packed in a bunch of awesome games, and to buy a SNES and the equivalent games would have cost more than $300. It didn't matter that the Duo was a complete system for the same price as the Sega CD add on. It also didn't matter that it had a CD Rom drive, and thus was a great deal for the money considering PC CD drives were often $300 by themselves. I knew all of this, but it didn't matter since it was simply too expensive for my parents to buy.

It was mentioned that the Playstation came out a few years later at $299.99, that was also out of reach and I think it was $149.99 before I got one for Christmas. This didn't really bother me, as a friend that was a few years older than me purchased a Saturn and we rented games for it every weekend.

I agree.  I'm not 100% sure what the logic was behind the Turbo Duo marketing strategy.  Though, judging by the ads, they seemed to position themselves against the Sega CD.

To get more developer support, they needed more market penetration.  I still think that price would have been the only way to do that.  The Duo was based on a mature design that used an in-house processor, relatively little RAM/ROM, and an in-house CD-ROM.  It was not as overly-complex and costly as the Sega CD design.  I don't think that they would have lost much money pricing the Duo at $199 or $249 (max).  By that time, I assume that they had pretty good yields on their chips and had cranked up CD-ROM production.  Of course, ideally, they would have also been more aggressive with pricing of the TurboCD earlier, to get some reasonable sales... by the time the Duo came out, they should have bundled the rest of their Turbo CD inventory with system 3 cards and GOT and sold them from ~$99-$149 to provide a nice upgrade path to current TG16 users.  Time and time again it has been proven that the way to make money on consoles is via software sales.

I grew up in a large market in the LA area and a lot of my friends had TG16s.  There were some early adopters like me and some other picked up TG16s when their price went down to ~$69 or so... however, I didn't know anyone who bought the CD attachment and only one person who got a duo as they cost too much for our middle class families to justify buying them for their young kids... I tried with my parents and failed miserably...  Most of us ended up getting an SNES instead.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Duo...What went wrong?]

To expand upon the "too late" and "too expensive" thoughts, we can also look at it this way: The Duo took one product that nobody was buying (TG16) and combined it with another product nobody was buying (TGCD) and expected people to buy it...for a premium. Yes, it was "only" $100 more than the SNES (at least for a time), but it's still $100 more than the "it" item.

I think we already established this. By the time the Duo came out, the SNES was 99.99 for a core model. And at most 150.00 for a model bundled with two controllers and Super Mario World. So it was 2 to 3 times as expensive depending on which bundle you bought.

Yeah, and that was a huge difference at that time.  I was in my early teens and chose to get an SNES because:
* It was a much easier sell to the parents at that price.
* The SNES had SF2 and Mario as well as various EA sports titles... if figured that if I got a Duo, I would be missing out on a large segment of games.
* I already had a TG16, but could never afford the CD attachment... I think that by the time the Duo came out, the war was over... realistically, NEC should have been much more aggressive with pricing from the start.

When the Duo came out, they had no position of power... so their only small chance would have been to compete aggressively on price... $199 would have been doable and then they could have hoped that the games caught on so that they could make it up on software sales... Bringing over SF2 and Dracula X would have helped as well... also, if they wanted to brand it as a more mature system, more sports games would have been nice (i.e., a deal with EA - John Madden Duo Football showed that the system could handle these quite well!)...

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Super Star Soldier!]

Count me in, too.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: switching ac adapter for Turboexpress]

6 1.5V AA batteries in series would give you about 9 volts.  However, you can't necessarily compare the two because there's likely some voltage regulating circuitry involved.

Using an adjustable AC adapter that supports a 7.5V setting (close enough), has a matching connector with correct polarity (the TE is center positive), and can provide at least 700 mA would be fine.

This is one that claims to work with the TE
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Adapter-Power-Plug-Turbo-Express-Turbografx-/290496668275

I cannot vouch for any of these.  As you can tell from the reviews of the Amazon adapters, a lot of them are poorly/cheaply designed.

I, personally, would wait for retrogamecave's TE adapter; they tend to sell good products.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: switching ac adapter for Turboexpress]

Your links aren't working.

The current is OK as long as it is >0.7 amps.  Remember that the AC adapter does not force its rated current into the device; rather, the device draws a specific amount of current (so the current rating is the maximum that is supported)!

I'd be more concerned about matching the output voltage (7 volts DC).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: switching ac adapter for Turboexpress]

Oh, and I looked at your link:
That switching adapter is rated for 2 Amps at 9 VDC.

The turbo express adapter is rated for 700 mAmps at 7 VDC
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv33/royvegas/TurboExpressACAdapter.jpg?t=1270447722

I'm not intimately familiar with the internals of the TE's power circuitry, but the mismatch in voltage may certainly cause a problem.  For regulated switching power supplies, you generally want to match voltage and have an adapter that is able to, at minimum, support the device's current draw (i.e., don't have to match current exactly, but for the TE, would need at least 700 mAmps at 7 VDC).

And, if I didn't emphasize it enough in my first post... well made switching power supplies/adapters are much superior to the old linear regulated or unregulated supplies!  Much less heat and power draw.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: switching ac adapter for Turboexpress]

Linear or switching AC adapters would be fine; the terminology refers to the the internal electronics (in brief, switching power supplies are more efficient, but also have more complicated circuitry, so theoretically there are more parts that can fail).  From the machine's standpoint, as long as it can draw an adequate current at a specified voltage, it will be happy...

The following company sells switched mode power supplies for the turbo-grafx/pc-engine series:
http://www.retrogamecave.com/ac-adapters.html

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: If you had worked at NEC/Hudson or T.T.I. back in the day...]

Alright, now that the cover art is set, someone needs to remake Mortal Kombat I or II for the TG16... 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Anyone remember the U.S. Legendary Axe commercial?]

It's on Gametrailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/turbo-grafx-16-commercial/289575


Ahhh thank you so much!   How did you find it?

Well, first I tried to search google for various combinations of turbo grafx commercial and legendary axe...
Eventually, I decided to keep it simple and searched for "turbo grafx commercial dog"

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Cheap priced BONK 3 HuCard !!! Not Mine !]

Bonk III was a lot of fun... especially with co-op, which was quite exciting back in the day.

Bonk's Revenge is probably still my favorite game in the Bonk series for single player; but overall, the inclusion of co-op makes Bonk III a great entry into the series!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Anyone remember the U.S. Legendary Axe commercial?]

It's on Gametrailers:
http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/turbo-grafx-16-commercial/289575

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: New here, looking for RPG recommendations]

Thanks for the additional suggestions! I did play Phantasy Star 2/3/4 on the Genesis, so Cosmic Fantasy 2 sounds like it'd be something I'd be into. Just have to find a way to play those CD/Super CD games without spending $450+ on a Duo.

A little off topic... am I correct in thinking a PC Engine Duo will play both US and Japanese CDs/Super CDs? I know it won't play the US HuCards (but I can use my original TG16 for that), but if the above is true, I can pick up a Japanese Duo for half the price of the american version. Doing so will not only save me a bunch of money, but then I can play the full lineup of US and import games, correct?

I eventually purchased a modded PC Engine Duo that serves as my main machine.  There's a guy on Ebay, doujindance, who puts them up for sale:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/doujindance/m.html?hash=item2ebc2d976c&item=200725600108&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

These are region modded, so you can play US Turbochips and Japanese Hucards with the flip of the switch.  They are also equipped with a new lens and an RGB mod (albeit European SCART style).

At times, when I'm away from the PC engine, I do rely on emulators, such as Magic Engine...

Do you have a TV that accepts RGB or do you convert it to component? I bought a fully modded Duo R from doujindance and it doesn't work with my RGB-to-component transcoder (un-modded RGB outputting consoles do though). So it just collects dust instead.

I still use it to play on a CRT using composite outputs... I've been too busy to try to figure out the SCART conversion...

I know that the purists will yell at me... but I simply use Magic Engine on my HTPC and LCD monitor... I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: New here, looking for RPG recommendations]

Thanks for the additional suggestions! I did play Phantasy Star 2/3/4 on the Genesis, so Cosmic Fantasy 2 sounds like it'd be something I'd be into. Just have to find a way to play those CD/Super CD games without spending $450+ on a Duo.

A little off topic... am I correct in thinking a PC Engine Duo will play both US and Japanese CDs/Super CDs? I know it won't play the US HuCards (but I can use my original TG16 for that), but if the above is true, I can pick up a Japanese Duo for half the price of the american version. Doing so will not only save me a bunch of money, but then I can play the full lineup of US and import games, correct?

I eventually purchased a modded PC Engine Duo that serves as my main machine.  There's a guy on Ebay, doujindance, who puts them up for sale:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/doujindance/m.html?hash=item2ebc2d976c&item=200725600108&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

These are region modded, so you can play US Turbochips and Japanese Hucards with the flip of the switch.  They are also equipped with a new lens and an RGB mod (albeit European SCART style).

At times, when I'm away from the PC engine, I do rely on emulators, such as Magic Engine...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Best Co-op games for Turbo/PCE?]

Splash Lake and Parasol Stars are fun co-op... Bonk III is also not bad... I had some fun with it co-op back in the day.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

check out this amazing deal!!! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Keith-Courage-Alpha-Zones-TurboGrafx-16-Kiosk-Version-Store-9209-/220952075566?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item3371c51d2e

Part of me wants to say, FAKE!  First, by the time TTI came around were they (would they) still using Keith Courage as a Demo game for the system?  I could understand if the store just opened a new system box and just used the game in there, but we have to believe TTI, said hmm... what game should we send out to show off the system, and then they SPECIFICALLY chose and labeled Keith Courage cards?  That late in the game? 

2nd, the receipt.  Why no date?  Why is it cut off?  Why a receipt at all?  Has anyone had one of these thermal printed receipts even for 5 years?  They are usually unreadable in my experience.


Not that it matters I guess, it's a Keith Courage cart with a sticker.  If it was some sort of actual special demo chip that would be different. 

I agree with your analysis... this has a pretty reasonable chance of being fake and the receipt is pretty useless in providing proof of authenticity... we would need someone from that era who worked at TTI or Toys R Us to authenticate it.

But, overall, it's a moot point... even if it were authentic, I'd pay $5 max for the curiosity factor...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Well, it almost worked]

You'd have to test how the cable is wired.

Here are the large and mini-din pinouts:
http://www.gamesx.com/controldata/turbocont.htm

You can test continuity with a simple continuity tester or a multimeter.

If the connectors are molded, rewiring may be a bit of a pain; it may be easier to hack together a M-F adapter (or in your case the F-F gender changer) to fix the pinout.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

check out this amazing deal!!! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Keith-Courage-Alpha-Zones-TurboGrafx-16-Kiosk-Version-Store-9209-/220952075566?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item3371c51d2e

So, if I print out a generic label with an address, slap it onto a Keith Courage Hucard and then scribble something using a sharpie on the back... I can get $260?

My offer for that item would be $2.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

Those prices are not even in the ballpark or reality...

I still think that percentage-wise, Keith Courage is the worst deal... he's trying to sell a $1 game for $110... plus, the market for Keith Courage amongst Turbo collectors is so booming 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

Is this considered price gouging? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Keith-Courage-Alpha-Zones-TurboGrafx-16-Turbo-Grafx-DUO-NEW-RARE-/320845452561?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item4ab3e11511

But it includes "a 4 Mil Poly Bag for Collectors"! 

VGQ has had some pretty shitty deals... but this one takes the cake!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: If you had worked at NEC/Hudson or T.T.I. back in the day...]

From a commercial standpoint, Dracula X and Street Fighter II CE would be the best choices.

Snatcher might also have worked with reasonable marketing (not like the SegaCD release)

I would personally also like the rest of the Cosmic Fantasy Series.

Also, more good sports game could have helped the duo compete with the Genesis and SNES... a deal with EA would have been nice... John Madden Duo Football was actually a pretty good port, but too little too late... getting an NHL game would be a good thing...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Gouging on Ebay ( r.i.p. - gouging much )]

$4900 ...... Shipping is only $3.49 though ;0)

Shipping kills the deal 

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Ultimate Freebie: US Turbo Duo - ends December 16th -RULES UPDATED / RELAXED]

Please include me in the raffle.

I've never owned a Turbo Duo... always wanted one as a little kid... it would be sweet to finally play games on the original system rather than Magic Engine!

Thanks!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turrican... a thorough beating was delivered]

The primary reason I don't like Turrican has to do with the damage/hit mechanic. You don't have any period of invincibility after taking damage, no physical reaction like being bumped or displaced, and even the sound effects provided for feedback are very light. You almost can't tell you got hit except by watching a sprite interpose yours and watching your life bar RAPIDLY deplete. This situation alone is enough to doom the game for me. If that were changed I think I could actually like the game.

Agreed, that part is annoying... but overall, Turrican is still a great classic!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Rondo of Blood PSP dub for PC-Engine.]

This is certainly an unexpected but welcomed surprise!

Thanks a bunch!  Can't wait to play this game in English... I haven't played the PSP version yet!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Prototype HuCard Contest #1:]

China Warrior brings back memories... it was quite an achievement for me when I beat it back in the 1990s... took a lot of trial and error and repetition... and it was fun... but I haven't played it for over a decade!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Anyone remember this show?]

I definitely remember GamePro TV, but not the other show...
...boy, that was a different time... 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Hate last minute bidders on ebay.]

I think the advantage to bidding right near the end of an auction leaves little time for an incremental bidder to react.  If everyone just put one max bid in, it wouldn't matter when the bids came in.  But since there are many reactionary bidders out there, sniping works.

Exactly.  I'm kind of surprised that Nat, Zeta, and others don't think sniping is effective.  Dorky?  Yes.  Waste of time?  Maybe, but it certainly saves money.

I can't count the number of times I've seen fairly valuable items sitting in auctions for low amounts.  If there aren't many early bidders and the price remains unusually low, people begin to underestimate the item's value and don't expect sudden bid increases.  Every time I bid early and lose an auction, I look at the history and, sure enough, there was some reactionary idiot bidding away in the last two minutes: "$25? Nope...hmmm...$28.99?  Nope.  Golly, let's see here, $31.28??"
 

You people are fucking stupid.

Oh wow.  I think I'm in the wrong forums.

Don't take it personally.  Zeta's a stand-up guy, but he doesn't mince words.  I got into it with him once, but I've since realized he's always right.  This little discussion about hovering over our computers to snipe kids toys on ebay was due for a reality check.

Agreed.  Logically, one has a higher probability of winning an auction if he places his max bid in the final seconds.  This helps to avoid bidding wars, and more importantly, does not reveal any information to the opposition... so they cannot react... some people just want to win the auction, so instead of thinking rationally, they tend to bid and bid simply in order to out-compete the other person... last second bidding helps to avoid that...  If there is an item I really want, I simply place my desired price at the last second... if someone wants to pay more, they will have likely already bid higher and they will win... but, on the other hand, I may get an item for a price that I am comfortable with (or lower) and without participating in a bidding war.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: New Duo Owner: Drop Your Knowledge On Me!]

Saturn pads with an adapter work well.  For many years, I have been partial to Thrustmaster Firestorm Dual Power controllers (the old ones with a good D-pad)... you can still find some for cheap on Amazon ~$10, albeit without force feedback or analog sticks.

Logitech makes some decent gamepads as well and, in a pinch, the wired xbox 360 controller is very easy to hook up and works reasonably well.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Hate last minute bidders on ebay.]

It's annoying, but that's how ebay works...  I don't really get angry at it anymore, cuz I just assume there's a high likelihood that it will happen...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: 1up.com: Saving the System - TurboGrafx-16]

I bought one of the PAL systems as a curiosity... it has legit and official looking packaging.  Certainly seems like a limited official release.  The actual console has a nice gray finish.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: 1up.com: Saving the System - TurboGrafx-16]

That's an interesting article.

I agree that it would have been hard for NEC to take the #1 spot in the US, but #2 or at least a large profitable niche were attainable.

Here are my initial thoughts:

* In terms of controllers, a pack-in (or built in TurboTap) would have been nice... a pack in would have helped with a couple problems, i.e., only one port and short cable length.  Also, a 3-button controller would have been nice around the time of launch (many games use run for this function anyways, and as silly as it seems, I recall my friends pointing out how superior the Genesis was because of an extra action button)... two buttons, just made it seem NES-like.

* They should have focused on the CD aspect of the system earlier on.  E.g., include a pack-in game and lower the price... or just market an integrated system from the start (CD plus core system portion side by side would be about the same size as the turbografx-16)... they did not abide by the current concept that you sometimes have to take an initial loss on hardware and then make it up on software sales)... making it an expensive add-on made the installed CD-rom base ridiculously small.  In 1989, they might have been able to get away with charging $149 for the base system initially with $249 for the CD with a bundle discount of $349 for both... with then price drops to $99, $199, and ~$249-279 when possible... that could have made things more palatable.

* In the end, more games and third parties would have helped as well... as soon as Bonk came out, that should have been added permanently as a pack-in along side Keith Courage.  Getting EA on board earlier would have helped... John Madden Duo showed that the system could handle those games... NHL was a huge reason I ever even touched a genesis... the TV Sports series (aside from TV Sports Basketball, with which I have a strange fascination, just did not compare).  Of course, the issue of actually localizing more games has been beat to death before.