Messages

[Off-Topic / Re: Can you identify this toy figure?]

It's from the Mini Boglins line:

http://www.littleweirdos.net/2014/05/mini-boglins-revisited.html

http://www.raumhafen.de/galerie/rubber_guys/boglins/

He's called SCOUT STARE, by the way 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: First 3 games you played]

Bomberman, Fantasy Zone and Space Harrier, in that order.

[Off-Topic / Re: Tectoy is trying to bank on the NES Classic craze]

I have a few Brazilian Saturn games, which are in boxes that are somehow worse than the frail plastic cases of the U.S. games.  TecToy still makes me happy for some reason.

Our first batch of Master System and Mega Drive games also came in boxes like that. They are way fragile, but they are very nostalgic to those that were kids in those days - for me at least, I'll complete the full set someday.

[Off-Topic / Re: Tectoy is trying to bank on the NES Classic craze]

Yeah, it will suck a lot  I was hoping they would at least make something that could almost match the original in terms of hardware, like the penultimate or so batch of the original MDIII, that still could handle Sega CD, Power Base Adapter, Virtua Racing and RGB out, despite their innards were heavily modified from early models. I would love a NES Classic-like console with HDMI and even wireless controllers (they even put a cordless pad in one of the ads, turns out it was just bad photoshoping). But like Punch said, the thing is they really got the effortless way in this: just composite out, incompatibilities, a "mystery" hardware that they told several times in the FAQ that will not work like the usual because of parts, a SD card solution for ROMs that will not save games (not talking about savestates, actual game saves, like in the included Sonic 3) and that may not accept all games. All that for a high price (Yuji Naka himself commented that on twitter  ) and on pre-sale for june 2017. I love classic Tec Toy, but this is just another of their crazy stunts that they've doing since the company shrunk in the early 2000's.

note: now that I think about it, the pictures in the product page feel weird, not sure if it's just because of their wrong aspect ratio or something. Imagine if the actual console was like that to save space though 

Take a look on the last photo, the back part of the console: the mockup was so rushed that they forgot to put the square rubber part that holds the power cable inside the console 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Johnny Turbo's daughter contacted me]

It's sitting in my garage right now, the pack-in was "Magical Chase" and the console was renamed "Turbo Gráficos Dezesseis"
$150 CIB want one?

No, the "Turbo Gráficos 16 III" would come with built-in Magical Chase but without CD compatibilty and a redesigned shell, the first version would come with Moto Roader/Ballistix and the second version with Bonk's Adventure, Tec Toy-style 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Johnny Turbo's daughter contacted me]

She wants me to interview her dad. I have no idea what I would ask him. Nor do I have any clue how I could incorporate it into my media offerings. So I never got back to her.

You could ask if he could elaborate on the "100.000 to 200.000" TG16 units that supposedly went to Brazil with the disabled expansion port. That was a weird fact on that old gamasutra article...

[General Gaming / Re: Adapter brings your own wireless gamepads to the NES]

An user at shmups forums already got his and said that he couldn't notice any lag using it with the SNES30 controller, sadly no details about which console or TV he used.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Do you own a turbo-less PCE pad?]

I don't own or have ever used a turbo-less pad, so your response has me wondering - do they have a different type of dpad to the more ubiquitous turbo versions?

I think they're exactly the same in the turbo and non-turbo versions; the fact is that I don't own a turbo version of it  Among all my controllers - I also have a 3-button, 6-button and some Hori, not a single one that originally came with a console - I prefer to use the turboless one because its d-pad feels better, the others are a little "loosier" than it.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Honest question about Rondo of Blood]

I always wanted a TG16/PCE, since they were so scarce here back in the day. From Bonk to Snatcher, every magazine article I read about it was amazing. When I got into emulation, I played some hucard games of the plataform and was hooked; but when I played Rondo on a self-emulated file someone made, way before the launch of the PSP version, I decided to get the real console. I was not disappointed at all with the "rest" of the library, it amazes me all the time because of the huge amount of nice games it has and that I'm discovering and enjoying little by little.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Do you own a turbo-less PCE pad?]

Yeah, came with my white PCE. It's the one I use the most, BTW, really like the d-pad on this one.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Behold! The PC Engine Turbo UNO!]

That's a work of art, that should be the way the console was released back then.

[Off-Topic / Re: Word association thread]

Pisces Iscariot.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: PC Engine 'Jail Bar' Video Noise - repair guide by Tim W]

I keep reading that the white PCE gives jailbar free RGB in the IFU

Sadly that's not always the case, my RGB modded white PCE gives me jailbars on a IFU  They are visible in places like Keith Courage's blue sky and Bomberman/Bonk 3 title screens. Looking forward to do viletim's mod too, saw it on Shmups forums and the results look amazing for a very simple procedure; before that I was wondering if modding the IFU could get me a better image.

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

Congrats! 

[Off-Topic / Re: 80's Christmas]

I had the COBRA Jeep...it had all the kool armored plates covering the cab? It was black? Or maroon + black?

I can't remember.

Dreadnok Thunder Machine   

http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/86/thundermachine/

[Off-Topic / Re: 80's Christmas]

Oh, the one that I got the Atari 2600 was amazing... Our bundles were different from the USA ones, so mine came with Frogger (one of my all-time favorites till this day) and Space Tunnel, which in reality is Spacemaster X-7 - why Polyvox changed the name is anyone's guess, I only discovered the mess when I download the ROM of the real Space Tunnel and found it was another game. Aside from that, GI Joe, my favorite toy series ever; still have every figure up to 89 in storage, just missing the two gliders, Skystriker and Night Raven for the vehicles.

[Off-Topic / Re: Star Wars VII - Spoilers could be within so beware!]

They made a little nod to the now defunct Expanded Universe with the plot, but reversing it a little. Ben was the son of Luke and Mara Jade, but Kylo Ren seems more based on Jacen Solo, one of the twins Leia and Han had in the Thrawn trilogy. He falls to the dark side and ends up killing Mara, before being defeated and killed by his sister Jaina, which kind is like Rey - a great pilot, mechanic and force-sensitive/user. I don't think Ben and Rey are twins, though, he might be at his teens when he became Kylo and Rey was left at Jakku at a younger age. They could still be brothers, but probably they are cousins. Luke might have pulled an Obi-Wan here and left his daughter in a lonely planet to hide her from the enemies. If he brought her with him, they would be easier to be "sensed" and located. Let's see how they resolve that.

And I read somewhere that there's a nod to Jar Jar somewhere in the movie, like a bird eating a gungan skull or something. I do remember a bird in the desert, but couldn't see if it was him 

[Off-Topic / Re: Word association thread]

Pulp.

[Off-Topic / Re: Star Wars VII - Spoilers could be within so beware!]

Chewie got hit didn't he? I mean, of course he got hit, but wasn't it by a storm trooper? I can't recall for certain.

IIRC he was hit still in their ship running from those guys demanding their money.

[Off-Topic / Re: Star Wars VII - Spoilers could be within so beware!]

Loved it too. Of course is a "rereading" of the original movie in its themes, but not forgetting to be a new movie itself (like happened with Superman Returns, so referential that it has no personality) with a lot of nice references and easter eggs. Funny moments, great action sequences and a nice cast, liked a lot the new heroes. I heard some people complaining about Kylo Ren, but I think we'll see what made him that way in the next two movies. About that, I also liked that they let lots of question for VIII and IX, unlike Episode I did in the other trilogy. Things like

[SPOILERS]Rey's heritage, what Luke was doing all this time,how Maz got the lightsaber, how and why Ben was corrupted, who really is Max Von Sydow's character etc.[/SPOILERS]

[General Gaming / Re: Over 7 hours of Arcade Game Music]

Love these videos. Back when the first SMS one was released, that was all I would hear while working.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: RAFFLE for newbs - WINNER!!]

Thanks, guys! 

[General Gaming / Re: Retro VGS Game Console]

I know there have been mods in the past for Atari Flashbacks so you can play ye old carts in em'.

Talking about Flashback mods, has someone developed a mod to use the FB wireless controllers on a real Atari, using the FB bult-in receveirs or something like that?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbob Xpress: Bringing affordable "gamer's" games to the community! Round 2 Go!]

Just got my second batch, thanks to everyone involved for such great work 

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: RAFFLE for newbs - WINNER!!]

Heh, nice!  Thanks for the raffle!

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

My copy of blazing lazers, which was supposed to be "new", had the sleeve all gooey with a heavy "chinese plastic" smell and while the hucard didn't suffer any obvious damage, if you look at it at an angle you can see some spots that have become dull. The sealed bravoman's sleeve was also a little bit off and had a scent, but just some cleaning did the job. The falcon one was just smelling faintly of plastic. Of course I'm not keeping any of those sleeves.

The same thing happened to me some time ago, I found a spare loose copy of Space Harrier almost glued to its sleeve. The thing left behind a lot of goo in the hucard, it was hard to clean it. I thought at first that the culprit was the sleeve, since it was an old one. But looking through the other games, all in their cases and with those newly made sleeves, some were beginning to get notably sticky too. Almost sure it has to do with humidity and temperature around here, had a similar problem with Atari joysticks and PS2/3 analogs before. Decided not to take chances and changed all the sleeves for resealable  bags from the same plastic that comic book ones are made of, found some in the exact size of the hucards.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: RAFFLE for newbs]

Heh, didn't see this topic till today, nice raffle! Here's a picture of the pretty one, complete with the worst Bonk drawing you'll ever see 

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

Who can do that for me?  And then I'd immagine it's a Scart LEad?

Retrorgb sells and installs their own custom RGB amplifier:

http://retrorgb.com/snesminirgb.html

But you can always do the DIY method that they also linked in that article and which uses only three resistors, that's the one I've done. And yes, you can use any multi-av Nintendo SCART cable with it after any of that mods; by default the SNES Mini has no s-video or RGB, but the pins are still there on the connector.

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

Some common stuff I just picked up at a flea market outside of Atlantic City.  Always want a SNES Mini, I know it's inferior to the original units but why not it was super cheap and works fine.  FFIX is four discs so I'll take a while to get through that.

Supposedly an RGB modded Mini is superior to the all but the 1-Chip version of the regular model.

Yeah, that's true. I've modded my Mini (it's very simple) and the image on RGB is a little better/brighter on it than any other first model SNES I have. In addition of getting rid of that weird vertical line that you can see on darker backgrounds on the original model, by the way.

[General Gaming / Re: Want to talk OMG RAR3Z SNES game?]

Amazing, never heard of it - and I'm sure Ernest Cline didn't either, because he would certainly put that in his book "Armada", it sure fits the main conspiracy plot 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Poll- Are you a new or old PC Engine/TurboGrafx gamer?]

New gamer here. I first read about the console in '92, when it was mentioned in some magazines. Most of these mentions, since it was not released here at the time, were just little notes telling about "a japanese console that had little cards as cartridges but also uses CD-ROMs to play games". I vividly remember three articles that were more than that, though. One was a Bonk's Adventure review with pictures, in the lines of "watch out, Sonic and Mario, there's a new mascot in the town for this new console", another was a five or six-page long article about the TG-16 with a couple pictures and two dozen little and rough reviews of some games. The third one was a big note about Snatcher, with a picture and descriptions of how japanese gamers would wait for hours in its launch day, that the story was very complex and the "cd-romantic" joke, with a nice picture of the scene of Mika showing JUNKER around to Gillian.

I only read about the console in those times, however. First time I ever saw one of the consoles was a TurboExpress a guy I met at military service had, around year 2000. Some years latter, when I first heard that the original version of Dracula X that I played on SNES was way better than the port, I played it on an emulator and was hooked. Around four years ago, discovered this forum and sometime later bought a modded PCE and IFU-30 on eBay, a CD-ROM² here and in no time I had a new plataform among my all-time favorites 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Controllers, Favorites?]

The standard ones, got used to its d-pad and I find the ones of Avenue Pad 3/6 a little loose. I like the Hori Commander (not the Figthing Commander, the 2 button one) too; bought a cheap not-working one sometime ago to adapt it for the Master System and do a pause mod, but I ended just fixing the thing - it was just a broken pin on the plug - and put it on PCE use.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbob Xpress: Bringing affordable "gamer's" games to the community!]

Guys, that's amazing! Thanks to BlueBMW, Bernie and everyone involved for this 

[General Gaming / Re: Sega Maser System for Life!]

I'm still hunting for the TGX units that were shipped here according to the interview with Johnny Turbo. No luck so far, which is not surprising at all... it wouldn't have a chance against a market where the Genesis, SNES, NES and Master System were competing simultaneously.

You mean those "100,000 to 200,000 consoles with the expansion ports disabled" from the Gamasutra interview? That's very weird, because there would be some mention of it on the magazines at the time - Videogame would publish notes about everything that was on the market, like the Cougar Boy and that Super Pro-System 16 (a clone of SNES by Chips do Brasil) that was not even released after all. Or even some advertising, I remember newspaper ads of imported units of Amiga CD32 - "exclusive on this store" and such - but never a single one about TG-16. It's a big number of units to go unnoticed, I think.  It would be amazing if we found something about those consoles, maybe they are at a warehouse somewhere until today. But I think that maybe they were sold at some neighbor countries, like Argentina, Uruguai and Bolivia. We know for sure that Tec Toy released different versions of its products in those markets, maybe some great company at the time tried to "unload" it there for some profit. But let's hope we find something about those units someday 

There's another story that I found interesting about TG-16 in Brazil: according to an ex-employee of Gradiente, half of the joint-venture that formed Playtronic (the 1993 official Nintendo licensee), they almost released the OBEY here back in the day. It was almost decided that Sharp would release NES and SNES in South America, but the president of Gradiente went to Japan to try to get the license from Nintendo to his company, which actually happened some time later. But while Gradiente waited for the japaneses' decision, they had some backup plans of releasing another game plataform if they couldn't release Nintendo consoles around here. Among several consoles that were considered (the Neo Geo AES included), they decided to go with the Turbografx-16, but the idea was soon disregarded because Nintendo closed the deal with them.

[General Gaming / Re: Sega Maser System for Life!]

Yeah, the Sega consoles reigned here back at the day. Two reasons for that:

. they were HEAVILY promoted by the company that sold them, Tec Toy. Lots of memorable ads, TV programs, games translated to portuguese (Phantasy Star I-III, Shining in The Darkness etc.), toys and such.

. we only formally got the Nintendo consoles in 1993, not only SNES but also NES and GB. We had several non-licensed clones since 1989, both in 60 and 72 pins, one of them (the Phantom System, an amazing console that was shapped like an Atari 7800) being almost as famous as the Master System - lots of carts were sold as "Phantom System games". Lots of carts by different companies were released here or brought from China; because of it, great Famicom games that never came to NES (Super Mario 2j, Boku Dracula-Kun, Antartic Adventure, Karateka, Yie Ar Kung Fu etc.) were common in the country, as single carts or multicarts. But, overall, the Tec Toy consoles were better known among children and parents in the first years of the decade. Alex Kidd and Sonic were as popular as Mario here. The SNES was a stronger competitor for the Mega Drive, though, it sold a lot during all the 90's thanks also to the bootleg carts.

Saturn and Dreamcast were as not as sucessfull as their older brothers, though. They were VERY expensive when launched, and by the time the PSX was at the top thanks to its cheap bootleg/CD-R market.

It is a shame the PCE didn't become the brazilian mainstay.  imagine all the kickass games we'd have by this point...

OBEYing was/is almost unknown around here. The first time I saw a HuCard I was already an adult, one day I discovered that a friend of mine had a (soundless) Turbo Express and a TG-16 from his childhood. The magazines barely talked about them, most like a curiosity ("A CONSOLE THAT CAN PLAY GAMES USING CDS!" and things like that) than real reviews and hints.  Even today, among my collector friends, just a few have also have PC Engines/TG-16s, mostly the shmups fans. The collectors are more likely to look for SNES, MD, SMS, NES and Atari games.

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

Anyone besides me ever notice that Atari's gun looks suspiciously like Sega's Light Phaser? Anyone have an explanation for this?

Yeah, they look very similar, but the ZX Spectrum one is the king of the Light Phaser clones:



A very famous famiclone in Brazil used the XE light gun mold it for its own, BTW: 



That does not surprise me at all, since our best famiclone had the shape of an Atari 7800 

[Off-Topic / Re: Midwest Gaming Classic 2013]

RetroN 5 they had there was an early prototype, but yeah, like Jeff said they wanted to show off some of the problem games for past after-market consoles so Street Fighter Alpha 2 was on display all show long.  The guys at Hyperkin were even kind enough to let me win both of my matches I played, heh.  Emulation was basically perfect, and they had an SDTV and HDTV side-by-side so people could see that the picture was pretty good between the two sets. 

Overall it was a pretty interesting console.  I'll probably have to pick up one!

yeah, i actually had a bit of a conversation with one of the hyperkin guys.
i will say that i was impressed by the controller, it was a hell of a lot more comfortable and usable than it looked.
it looks like this one will be worth picking up, they had it running Street Fighter Alpha 2, which i know has been one of those "problem" games for clones in the past, thanks to the SDD-1 chip on the inside.

aside from that, i did find one bit of our conversation very interesting.
according to him, the finished product will be able to transfer save files between real carts and emulators via SD and USB.

knowing what i do, i'll probably pick one up when they drop, i might even do a bit of a review for the nice folks around here.

Thanks, guys! 

[Off-Topic / Re: Midwest Gaming Classic 2013]

Did you guys saw the Retron 5 console in action at the MGC? Can't find any gameplay videos of it yet...

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

Nice work! It's amazing how the manuals for vintage systems were visually attractive, it was an experience getting through them even before playing the game. Nowadays, with some notable exceptions, they usually lack that beauty.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Ok to leave interface unit on?]

A little question regarding the IFU... Like I said in other topic, I finally completed my setup with a CD drive. But I tought the drive stays a little "loose" in the interface (unlike the PCE part), is it normal? It works flawlessly, however. Is there something I'm not doing or is there something missing, like an extra part?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Magical Chase soundtrack release]

It was cool to see some OBEY in the news feed today 

http://www.destructoid.com/magical-chase-soundtrack-is-finally-something-you-can-own-249140.phtml

[General Gaming / Re: I'm going to start Wind Waker]

I played and beat it recently for the first time. Had it for some time but never got to play, which now I regret. The game is amazing, it's just not my favorite in the series because LTTP is still the perfect one and WW has some little fails here and there, like the lack of difficult (I managed to beat it without dying even once) and a couple of boring parts. But overall it's very funny, has LOTS of things to do and it's one of the most beautiful games ever.

[General Gaming / Re: Capcom Dungeon and Dragons coming to PS3&360]

That's nice, it's a nice pair of games, the kind of beat 'em ups I like.

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

Just got a PCE CD-ROM² drive from Keith Courage (thanks again, man!) and so I completed my IFU setup. Tested it with Snatcher and I almost cried when I saw it in action, it's a childhood dream to see that working on a real hardware, since when I read about it in a magazine back in 1992. And Keith does an excellent job with the drives, the thing reads discs faster and better than a PS3!

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

Got this last week, it's a special edition that was only released in Latin America called GOW Omega. It has the three PS3 GOW games (Collection, Origins and III) in a nice steelbook case and a bronze-looking statue of Kratos, made by an argentine artist.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Retro Game Cave AC adapters]

I use one of their adapters for my IFU and it works nicely! It's very well constructed and sturdy, and also it's way better than the generic one that came with my PCE.

[Off-Topic / Re: eBay sellers from Japan]

Got one of those green tea packs once, it had a funny smell and the product it came with - PCE version of Street Fighter II' - had the same smell for a few days...  

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Retro Video Game Collecting as an Investment?]

The only future investment I see in my collection is the games I'll be playing in the years to come: the ones I always loved, the ones I couldn't have as a kid and the fascinating ones I'm only discovering now. That's payment enough, buying them already thinking of selling in the future is a little sad, actually. Having them in the shelves is half the fun.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Orange Label TG games]

I like the font in the orange labels more than the later ones, that's more TG16ish to me. One question: are there variants in the labels? Like an orange one re-released as colored or different colored ones for the same game?

[General Gaming / Re: My Sabre Wulf remake is released]

It's beautiful!