@GTV reviews the Cosmic Fantasy 1-2 Switch collection by Edia, provides examples of the poor English editing/localization work. It's much worse for CF1. Rated "D" for disappointment, finding that TurboGrafx CF2 is better & while CF1's the real draw, Edia screwed it up...
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Messages - ddoubledee

#1
Nothing to do with the OP... I just wanted to say thanks to wolfman. I fixed up another CD-ROM2, and I used It Came From the Desert to adjust the pots. Worked a treat, faster than the way I've been doing it. :)
#2
Yikes, yeah... Must be a memory issue.
#3
I'd sell it, then use that money to buy games and a recapped TurboDuo. Buy everything you want to play. Lol :)
#4
Probably only manageable with a walkthrough... people do tell you which paths to take and where you should go next.
#5
Haha, yeah... It's only worth about $80 retail, if I recall correctly. ;)
#6
Valis III-- Haven't played that in awhile. :)
#7
Do any of your favorite games have frustrating quirks? Cheap deaths, impossible challenges, game breaking glitches... Write about them in this thread!

I'll start with a simple example from Ys Book 1&2...

- "You can save anywhere!" is both a feature and a bug... The game will allow you to save on an enemy's spawn point, which can sometimes result in instant-death when you reload-- a useless save. It's more of a quirk because we've all played it before, so we expect it... But for a new player, it's a great surprise. ;)

- Nearly killing a boss and accidentally exiting the room.
#8
I almost forgot about this... OMG!! I played this in Japanese back in the day with a translation-guide... Then again with the text translation patch... and now... I have to play this yet again! :O
#9
Just an educated guess... But there could be a damaged trace(s) on the board from capacitors leaking in the past. It's been known to happen on traces going to the ADPCM stuff. Could have been overlooked when the capacitors were replaced.

Another good one to try would be Monster Lair. It's a regular 'ol CD-ROM2 game, so it only uses the 'stock' 64KB RAM... Except for one interesting thing... It uses the ADPCM memory for extra graphic storage...
#10
Wow, talk about exploiting the game's faults! :O
#11
Irrational fear of tennokoe bank cards...? What caused that? Did one rape your save games? :P I have one and I like it for transferring data between my systems.
#12
It's too bad you guys can't get ahold of an original CD game... any abundant / common game like Cosmic Fantasy 2, or something to test... For kicks, if anything. ;)
#13
It's possible you could have a different problem than the OP (Everblue), bigbacon. I'm assuming you haven't been able to get any CD-R game to work properly...? (While Everblue has had the odd one work).

Keith Courage, thesteve and Debvgger_ also had some good observations / ideas.
#14
This is pretty rare to see, but I had something similar happen to me once. I burned a copy of Ys 4 translated onto a cheap Maxell CD-R... Loading was SO SLOW and often it would load corrupt data-- small graphics were garbled and text boxes would be filled with gibberish *#($&$@! stuff... You could really hear the drive struggling to read the disc, too.

I would guess that you're having a similar issue and it has something to do with the CD-Rs... Reading a CD-R in one of these old CDROM2 drives is like reading a badly scratched up original... The pits in the disc of a CD-R aren't so perfectly defined like in a factory-pressed disc... So you could say they appear 'blurrier' to the laser pickup and it has a harder time distinguishing the 1s and 0s.

Your drive might benefit from a pot tuneup. That might help the drive read a bigger variety of discs. I usually start off with a factory pressed disc, like a music CD, and adjust the pots until it reads perfectly and skip recovery works good. Then I will change to a good quality CD-R and adjust again. Then I will change to a crappy quality CD-R and adjust one more time.  But be warned... THIS CAN BE A VERY FRUSTRATING EXPERIENCE TO DO BY 'EAR' (without an oscilliscope). You could spend hours or even days adjusting the pots and still end up making it worse.  But if you get it tuned just right-- It should be somewhat tough to get an original factory-pressed disc to skip by tapping on the drive... While CD-Rs will skip much easier, the skip recovery should work most of the time.

Also some drives just plain work better than others with CD-Rs. Newer drives especially have better tolerance when reading CD-R. **On a side note... Great idea using an old CD burner to burn the discs. I've noticed my older burner seems to do a better job for these picky consoles, too.**
#15
I received the replacement TG-16 today, and all is well. It works flawlessly with the CD-ROM2 attachment. Very happy. :)
#16
Great news! Very happy to hear we have another TG-16+CD system up and running. :)
#17
If it's any consolation... You can simulate the original CDROM2 system card (1.0 JP or 2.0 US) with the EverDrive and play older games like Cosmic Fantasy 2 or Ys I&2 + 3. The original system cards contained no RAM... just a ROM BIOS (the dock has a whopping 64KB RAM built in).
#18
Yeah, actually... I haven't seen a US super system card for sale on eBay in a long, long time... I wish I could get my hands on one. I use Arcade Card Pro + Kisado Connector, myself.
#19
It's ugly looking to me. Looks like a clone from Hong Kong... I do like the standard A/V out, but too bad it's 50hz.  :roll: But, I love white CD-ROM2s... So much easier to find a white one in good condition.

Color of the console-pieces aside... I hate the design of the TG-16+CD. It's really ugly, and fat. It's even shaped like an anchor! (Hehe!) TurboDuo is teh sex, asthetically. I still love the TG-16+CD, though... We grew up together. ;)
#20
Twice!? Yeesh... Welcome. :)
#21
Yep. ^ What he said...

Dungeon Explorer II is a SuperCD game, so it needs additional RAM to run. Everdrive can only simulate the ROM of a HuCard, it has no RAM. So you need a Super System Card (System Card 3.0) or better. A Japanese Arcade Card would also work... But you would need a modded console or a pincoverter to run a Japanese HuCard.
#22
Haha funny :)
#23
So much minty sealed goodness :o
#24
I nearly forgot about this... But yes, I remember (attempting) to rent this title as a young'in and being told it needs the TurboBooster or it would run slow(?). lol I will confirm that it worked flawlessly on the TurboExpress, though.
#25
I finally took the plunge and created an account on this forum. I've lurked around Aaron Nanto's website here waaaay back when... Waaaay back when Ys Eternal was still new in Japan (2000, 2001?)... But for some reason, I never really explored the forums. I guess I still had 'Turbo-friends' in real life back then... (Lol!) So better late than ever... Here is my personal history with the Turbo...

My experience with the Turbo began in 1990, when I received a TurboGrafx-16 for my birthday. I only owned a handful of games for the system in my youth, but I played the $#*@ out of them... Keith Courage, Military Madness, Dungeon Explorer, Final Lap Twin, Dragon's Curse and Cadash were my original 6... A couple of years later I got a TurboExpress... Which I loved! I took those games with me everywhere...

But I still lusted for the CD-ROM system... Luckily, a local video store had a lot of TurboGrafx stuff available to rent-- Including the CD-Attachment! They got a TurboDuo later on, too. I would rent that CD-Attachment every weekend I could. So often that the owner started letting me rent the thing for $6 for the whole weekend. Hands down, the game I played the most was Ys Book 1&2. It was the first game I ever saw with animated cutscenes and real voice acting. I'll never forget playing it for the first time and having that holy $#*@ moment-- "OH MY GOD IT'S ACTUALLY TALKING!!!!" (Haha!) Eventually, I discovered other great games through trial and error with renting... Cosmic Fantasy 2, Dragon Slayer, Dungeon Explorer II, Loom, Lords of Thunder, Cotton... I played them all when they were fresh and new...!!  8)

Eventually, of course, that store closed down... All the games and systems were sold off behind closed doors... Once again, as luck would have it, the TurboGrafx-CD system and all the games ended up in the hands of a family friend. So for many more years, I would borrow and play with it... Until one day, the family moved away... You'd think that would be the end of the story... But no, not quite...

Years later, I finally got my hands on my own CD system-- A TurboDuo!! I bought it used for $120 at the time (What a steal, eh? Haha!)... But I had no CD games for it, so I just played CD-Rs in it...

More years passed... Adult responsibilities came along... And at one point, I was badly in need of cash... I sold nearly my entire video game collection... Not just the Turbo systems-- also my NES, Genesis/SegaCD, SNES, Playstation... Everything!! I'm still sick with regret over it... and I'm fighting hard to rebuild what I had...

The good news is, I'm doing pretty well with the Turbo consoles again... I might not have a Duo or an Express anymore... But I do have two fully functional TurboGrafx-CD systems, which is still pretty damn sweet. :) I also don't have a ton of games compared to some of you, but the ones I do have are pure gold! I'll post a picture of my stuff one of these days.

My Current HuCard Collection (May 1st, 2015)
  • Dungeon Explorer
  • Military Madness
  • Final Lap Twin
  • Dragon's Curse
  • Cadash
  • Bomberman '93
  • Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure
  • Arcade Card Pro (JP)
  • System Card 2.0
  • Tennokoe Bank (JP)

My CD-ROM Collection (May 1st, 2015)
  • Dungeon Explorer II
  • Ys Book 1 & 2
  • Ys III
  • Gate of Thunder 3-in-1
  • Cosmic Fantasy 2
  • Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes

All games are USA region unless specified as Japan region with (JP).


Well, that's my whole story... As you can see, I really need a Keith Courage and some shoot-em-ups (Hehe!).
#26
OMG, WANT! :O
#27
A quick google search found this...
#29
Ok, then you'll have to get that gear changed before we can check anything else. But hopefully that'll be the only problem.

You can find replacement gears online, or maybe even from a forum member here... Just be very, very careful not to loose the tiny tiny TINY little O clip that holds the gear on the shaft if you take the gear off yourself. Or one of us could do it for you if you ask nicely and cover shipping. :3
#30
Thanks for your help, everyone-- thesteve, Keith Courage, wilykat, esteban... But I'm throwing in the towel with this one. I suspect there is a bad IC. I've got another TG-16 coming to use with this CD system.
#31
Lots of folks on this forum can help. Good people here. :) So it's a TurboGrafx-CD (not Duo) drive, correct? (Must be to have the PC display)

What position is the laser in right now? Did you try this...? Move the laser manually outward-- away from the centre... Then insert a disc and try to play it... Does the laser move back to the centre position?
#32
Success!! We have a working AC Adapter! What do ya know... Breathing solder fumes really does give you super powers. Thank you for helping, thesteve! I'm well on my way to getting another system going! Wheeee! :D

It was just a couple of solder joints that had let go... Presumably from a shock (drop)... One where the secondary coil joins the PCB, and another on one leg of the large capacitor.

I guess I have just one other question... I'd like to post an introduction somewhere, and some pictures of my games. Should I bump up that pictures thread, maybe?
#33
If it hasn't shorted out yet, you might be able to save your existing adapter by cutting the bad section out of the cable and splicing it together.
#34
I did measure the output of the coil in AC... Nada. Also, it seems the primary coil is still intact... I was expecting there to be a burnt out thermal fuse on the primary side, but I guess not... I have continuity through it with about 30 ohms of resistance. However, I have an open in the secondary side-- No continuity through the secondary coil...
#35
Hmmm... Seems like this one is really broken (Lol). It's not the fuse at the endstage. There is no voltage coming out of the transformer coil...
#36
Yes. Ys III on the TurboCD is great, too. These versions of the games will always be the definitive versions of Ys for me.
#37
I'll crack it open and take a look.
#38
Yeah, I might have to come up with something else... They used to be super common when Turbo Zone Direct was around... *sigh*  Wish I had the foresight to stock up on stuff back then. *sadface*

Or, perhaps... I have a dead TG-CD AC adapter-- outputs no voltage... maybe it could be fixed...
#39
Wow... Killer cardboard collection, Miracle Warrior. :O
#40
Lots of people playing Exile, eh? That's one game I've held in my hands many times in the rental store as a child, but never actually took home. I'll have to try it sometime. Heard good things about it.
#41
Revisiting some of my favourite CD classics... Ys Book 1&2, Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, Cosmic Fantasy 2...

For HuCard games, currently playing... Dungeon Explorer, Dragon's Curse, Bomberman '93...
#42
Trying to get a second system going... Looking for the TurboGrafx-CD AC Adapter. Anyone have one for sale?
#43
Re-flowed solder joints on all the chips, the card slot, and the expansion port... No change (Not that I expected this to work... but it was worth a try ;) )


EDIT: I agree, wilykat. The controller port is the only thing on that side of the board. Very strange.
#44
IMG

IMG

I don't think this system has been opened before... I don't see any obvious tampering... But what I do see is some corrosion on the right side of the system... So, perhaps something has been spilled into the system...

I guess, for a start, I'm going to scrub the whole board with alcohol... Then maybe I'll try re-tinning some of the solder joints...
#45
I tried your suggestion of leaving the HuCard just a little bit out of the slot. Doesn't seem to make a difference. But, thanks. :)
#46
Thanks for answering, Keith. All suggestions are appreciated. :) I had the same thought-- perhaps some sort of connection issue in the card slot or in the expansion port... So I did give it a good cleaning. The expansion port pins look good, and they feel like they make a tight connection in the dock.

It's a strange one, eh? I just got the right bit to open the system up and have a look inside. I'm desoldering the shielding right now.

If I can just get this TG-16 to play nicely... I'll have two complete TG-CD machines. Muwhahaha :)
#47
As the title says, I have a TurboGrafx-16 system with a strange problem. It seems to play HuCard games fine, but when I try to use it with the TurboGrafx-CD attachment... I notice two strange things...

#1. On the BIOS screen (using an arcade card with a kisado adapter)... where it should say Super CD-ROM2 System... The word 'Super' is missing...

#2. When you press the RUN button, the CD drive doesn't spin. Infact, the CD drive doesn't even power on... The system just hangs at "Just a moment..."

If I swap out the TurboGrafx-16 console with another one... Everything works great! The word SUPER appears on the BIOS screen, and when you press RUN... the CD-ROM drive powers on and displays 'PC'... and the game loads!

What could be wrong with this TurboGrafx-16 system?