Messages

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

Now: Tricky Kick!
Soon: Prince of Persia!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Windy's big TG16 Sale]

Got everything today, in tip-top condition!  Thanks very much!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo-Inspired Cartoon would you wish for?]

I thought about it, and I think I see what people are saying.

I've been a fan of Japanese pop culture for some time now, and I feel like, living in North America, you kinda just have to take the American appropriation & maltreatment in stride; I was just trying to take a lighter view of it, to counterbalance my usual too-academic comments & questions.  However, I can see now how my question could come off sounding negative.

My bad!  I'll try to think more carefully before posting a topic or response next time.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo-Inspired Cartoon would you wish for?]

Awesome, I've never been called a hipster before.  I must be branching out!  ^_-

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo-Inspired Cartoon would you wish for?]

Awesome selections.  For me, I was actually counting on them being messed up in the adaptation. While I enjoy the american Mega Man for what it is, I honestly think it's pretty awful on a story & technical level.  I just think it's funny.  ^__^  Still, all of these shows do have their high points....

If Adventure Island counts I think that'd be an excellent choice, but in that case I would have to vote for New Zealand Story instead.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / What Turbo-Inspired Cartoon would you wish for?]

Okay, so we got the Zelda cartoon, we got the Mega Man cartoon, we got several Sonic cartoons, and we got quite a few versions of Mario in cartoon form.  But as far as I can recall, and as far as a quick internet search would reveal, I don't think there were any western cartoons of Turbo/PC Engine franchises.  (I do seem to recall seeing a Bonk comic, but it's been a long time so maybe I'm imagining it.)  If I am wrong, please correct me!

If I am right, this suggests the question: what Japanese-origin Turbo title ought to have had a terrible western cartoon rendition?

Keith Courage & Bonk both seem like a natural choice to me, but I think a Ruby-Spears take on Monster Lair would have been funnier!

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

Curses, I've been doing math all day.  I'll have to obey tomorrow to make up for it.  Maybe Tricky Kick will be here by then!  ^_^

I chose to bring obeybrew.com to life in honor of OBEYDAY.

Sweet!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: New guy here.]

Hey, welcome!  I have a modded Japanese Duo-R which has served me well so far.  ^__^  I have no experience with SCART, but I do have mine hooked up to a modern TV via the older RCA cables and have had no complaints.  If the guy doing the SCART conversion gets good reviews/feedback, then I'd say go for it!

[General Gaming / Re: New ezine - ZX Spectrum gamer]

From what I've been told, people with Commodore 64s, etc. around here weren't impressed with Zelda when it came out, because there were better options out already for the computers. :-/

  I can see it being amazing if you didn't already play stuff like the Apshai games, Questron or Ultima.

I would also put the first Zelda in a "good but not great category".  Yet, I feel compelled to point out that Times of Lore came out a year later (at least in the USA) and I would argue that Ultima is a really different kind of game.  I have never played Apshai, but if it is this game (www.mobygames.com/game/dunjonquest-temple-of-apshai) then that seems like a significantly different type of game, too.

  Admittedly I did not play many C=64 games (we only had a ViC-20), but I played a fair amount of MS-DOS and Mac titles only a few years later, and I still feel like most of the computers-vs-consoles comparisons from that era are pretty apples-to-oranges.  Was Ultima better than Zelda?  Arguably.  But I think they were trying to accomplish different things.  I'm not sure if I'd feel comfortable comparing Zelda 2 to Zelda 1 for exactly the same reason.  Still, I do think Zelda 3 >> Zelda 1.

  To me, the bigger question is, which is better: Zelda 2, Castlevania 2, or Faxandu??  ^_^

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

The second boxed duo was a "broken" one from ebay.. ended up being a bad video cable...

Ha, that's kinda funny!  And, that is one impressive photo.  ^__^b

[General Gaming / Re: New ezine - ZX Spectrum gamer]

The original LOZ just pushes my "this isn't as good as everyone says".

I get bored by the 3rd dungeon and just walk around aimlessly until I turn it off.

It helped to be eight years old at the time. There was just nothing else on consoles quite like it.

I'll go further than that and say "there was nothing else on any platform quite like it".  But I think you are both right: it's one of those games that you kinda had to be in just exactly the right age/historical moment to get why it was such a big deal.  (Sort of like FF7 in that respect.)  I recall there was one summer that I evenly divided between playing NES and wandering around the woods in my hometown and for me whenever I see/play tLoZ nowadays I feel like I'm back in those woods; similarly, the few times I've been back to my old town even though almost everything else has changed those woods still feel like Hyrule to me.  It helped that I grew up in New Mexico where we have lots of dry tan dust and small, round bushes.  ^_-

  Gameplay may not be all that hot these days, but I still do appreciate the icon-like art style: it's not so much showing you a picture of one particular tree as it is suggesting that there is some tree in this place, inviting you to imagine it for yourself.

Yeah, that's the weird thing when I play games like Starglider. They look so basic, but somewhere in my head I am seeing a cool sci-fi world.

For me, some Atari games have that quality to them, too, but the next best example I can think of is the 8-bit Dragon Quest titles.  Whenever I play those I don't see the boxy grey mountains or identically tiled castles.  Something in my mind fills in valleys & rivers, the feel of the wind, the sounds of the grass crunching under the travellers' feet, all sorts of small organic details that aren't there in the picture.  Few newer games have ever done that for me.

  Maybe I'm a little crazy for getting that carried away by it, but reading the reviews in the ezine for games like Trashman or Olli & Lissa I can see myself having the same sort of experience.  Although, maybe a bit less poetic in the case of Trashman.  ^m^

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Introducing myself - Robknoxious1]

Well, I can't say I exactly regret going with the SNES.  I certainly managed to fill my hours with it as a kid, and I have a lot of good memories.  It's just that I think I went with it mostly because I was so emotionally invested in my NES at that age, rather than because of its own merits.  I'm just happy I can play on the other systems now!  ^__^

I think the game club sounds like a really fun idea, but I'm not sure if I have enough time for it presently.  I'll have to think it over....

[General Gaming / Re: Favourite Game Name]

Excellent choice.  ^^

[General Gaming / Re: New ezine - ZX Spectrum gamer]

Just read through the whole thing -- very entertaining!  Some of those games look quite cool.  I also absolutely loved the sentiments in the introduction, especially about how better graphics & sound can mean less imaginative engagement: "With today's games we are spoonfed with complete, realistic worlds. There is no room for the imagination any more".  Almost as if the publishing world had refused to sell novels that don't have illustrations on every page.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Choose Your Own Adventure - It's over! We have a winner!]

PM sent.  In case anyone was wondering, I went with "Tricky Kick".  I was strongly tempted by Blazing Lasers, but I don't have any Turbo puzzle games yet and TK sounded like just my type of title.  Thanks once again Allyourblood!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Hooked on HuCards]

CD games are alright but there is just something about the HuCard games when it comes to the lack of loading times, chip-tune audio, and genres of games featured on them. I'm crazy about them!

First, I want to say I totally understand how you feel on this one.  Back in the day it was the CD games that got me hooked, but now the HuCards seem so much cooler to me.

Having said that, I think that if you are feeling good on your HuCard collection (it certainly sounds good), then you might want to load up on a few choice CD games and, as RR1980 says, hardware.  Those are also going to be harder to get a hold of once you leave, and you may get into them someday.  If not, you can always sell them to the rest of us!  ^_-

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Introducing myself - Robknoxious1]

Cool intro, welcome aboard.  My first console was also the 2600, and my second was also the NES!  Alas, I went the way of the SNES after that, but I played a lot of Turbo at a friend's house.  That videogame club sounds cool.  I wonder if it would be practical to start something like that here?

And yeah, I'd love to get Dracula X one day....  ^^

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Choose Your Own Adventure - It's over! We have a winner!]

And the winner is, as randomly chosen by my lovely assistant (my beautiful wife):

thrush

/rafflechoice00tn.jpg

Congratulations, and thanks so much to everyone who entered or commented!  thrush, please PM me your mailing info as well as your choice, and I'll get it out in the mail to you right away!

Oh my gosh!!  I can't believe it!  Wow, I'm really excited!
Thank you so much!
Okay, now I have to put on my thinking cap and decide on a game....

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: MONOLITH Voice Talent Needed]

What kind of game is this going to be? Another RPG?

ARPG/Platformer

Cool!  That's the best kind of game there is, in my opinion!  ^_^v

[General Gaming / Re: Your favorite non PCE Hudson game]

Put me down for Adventure Island II on the NES.

I also really like that one.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Windy's big TG16 Sale]

Payment sent.  ^^v

I will get that tonight after work for you thrush. I normally ship on Thursdays but will make an exception here.

Wow, that's so cool of you!  Thanks!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine as the successor to the NES/Famicom: Where are all the sequels?]

I vote for Crystalis, one of my favourite RPGs ever.  Faxanadu is also a favourite of mine (anything RPG + platformer is, really), but it has descendants in other forms & I've never seen another game quite like Crystalis.  Basically the same thing again but with better graphics, slightly longer quest, & more character interaction.

I'm not sure how I would feel about a Mega Man on the PCE, because I really haven't cared for any of the nextgen graphics Capcom's come up with for the series.  But Contra would have rocked (would have been a perfect fit, I think) and I would totally love a Dragon Quest title with just slightly more detailed graphics.  That, to my mind, would be perfect.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: My Custom Richter Belmont Figure]

That's amazing!  I really like the details in the outfit.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: My Custom "Chibi" Richter Belmont Figure]

That is super amazingly cool!  Great job on the face especially.  What's it made from?

[Off-Topic / Re: Look at my new pet!]

Awesome!  He's a good looking one, too, by the picture.

[Off-Topic / Re: What are you currently listening too?]

That Quartet song rocks!!  Downloading now....


Recently I got a bunch of Japanese darkwave/E.B.M./electro and have been listening to that.  I especially am loving Blood's last album, Lost Sky, the latest album from GPKism, along with the several-years-old debut from Sawdust in Me.  Here are samples:

Blood - "Lost Sky [Marlee Remix]"

GPKism - "Desiderium"

Sawdust in Me - "Tiny"

(can't find any good videos with their newer stuff, but this gives the idea)

I also put Final Fantasy 6 & Final Fantasy Mystic Quest on in the background while doing my hardware design homework earlier.

FF USA - "Mountain Range"

(Been one of my favourites since I was a kid.)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine City old episodes available]

All the "noobs" ought to download and listen to the episodes. Lots of great music here.

Will do!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Windy's big TG16 Sale]

Payment sent.  ^^v

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Possibly creating a Blazing Lazers T-shirt...]

Even a black and white design would be great.

Agreed!
It'd be neat to have a white/grey Zonk with a yellow lightning-bolt, if you wanted to get fancy.

added in edit:  I'd also prefer a slim fit shirt if possible.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Possibly creating a Blazing Lazers T-shirt...]

I might go for a shirt like this at that sort of price, depending on my financial status when the time comes.  If you could figure out an RPGish design I would be even happier: something Neutopia, Cosmic Fantasy 2, or Ys maybe?  I don't know if an Adol sprite would work monochrome, but that would be super cool if it did!  (Bonk & Keith are good choices, too, says I.)

The duck is amazing.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Ultimate Freebie: US Turbo Duo + F' Ebay club bonus - ends December 16th]

Freaking cool raffle; good for you!  (Cannot enter, but wanted to show my appreciation nonetheless.)

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

So I recently took my Duo-R and assorted games up to the local anime con's game room.  Much to my delight it was a big hit.  There were players glued to it every time I had it out, from age 7 up to 50ish.  I don't have the largest library of titles but I did bring quite a few to choose from and much to my surprise by far the most popular was Pac Land.  On Saturday there was a large group of teens who couldn't get enough of it; they were texting their friends to describe "this weird game like Pac Man meets Mario", haha.  Bonk's Adventure, Ninja Spirit, R-Type, and Monster Lair were also big hits.  The 7-12 year old crowd seemed to prefer Monster Lair, and this one kid was much better at it than me.  I did get further than I had previously on R-Type, though!

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Windy's big TG16 Sale]

PM sent!

Looks like I picked the wrong week to be MIA, but at least I didn't miss everything.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: PCEFXBOMB - Bomberman battle game]

This looks so cool, downloading now.  ^_^

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Choose Your Own Adventure (multiple choices, TG16 & PCE)]

I am totally in for this one, thanks!  ^__^

[General Gaming / Re: Your favorite non PCE Hudson game]

My choice is not really in the running as Hudson has many objectively better games, but for purely personal-taste reasons I still really love Milon's Secret Castle.

[General Gaming / Re: Zelda 25 anniversary animation]

Whoa, that was quite cool!  ^__^  I will share the link with my NES-playing friends.

[General Gaming / Re: New ezine - ZX Spectrum gamer]

I have no real Spectrum experience, so I am psyched to check out this magazine & begin the quest.  ^_^  Thanks!

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Example Platform Engine]

Cool, thanks a lot for the info & recommendations guys.  Sorry it took me like a week to read this.

Bonknuts -- thanks much for the offer!  I have seen your posts as Tomaitheous all over the place on various forums, cool!  I believe I did use the most recent release of PCEAS when I compiled; I'll check later.

I should have more time once November rolls around, so maybe I'll be able to get started on something then & have some real questions for people.  ^_^

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: MSR is finished!]

...and tharr be more... arr...

Sweet.  I know I'm late to the party, but it's starting to look like I showed up just in time!  ^^b

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Example Platform Engine]

I'm going to describe the way I do things, and I'll also explain why I deviate from the "normal" way it's done.  [...]

Thanks very much!

I decided last month to start doing some PCE development.  I am a fairly competent programmer as hobbyists go, but this is my first foray into anything retro, console, or undocumented.  As a result, I am a bit confused about the work flow.

I have deliberately not mentioned my interest in joining the ranks of the scene so far because I know that a lot of people show up, say they're going to contribute, then vanish.  Since I am stupidly busy IRL I may not have much to show for my efforts for some time, so I figured it would be best to wait till I had done more reading/messing about.  However, since this is post is so close to what I've been looking for, I decided to fess up.

Now that my cover is blown, here's my question: would it be a bother to explain these steps again from an Assembly standpoint?  I am particularly interested in the ASM side of things, but as I am perversely coding on my Mac so far I've done little more than compile PCEAS, Mednafen, and so forth.

Also, if you don't mind shepherding a noob, are there any tutorials on getting a finished .pce image onto a flash cart and into my system, or advice about what card to purchase?

Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks again!

[General Gaming / Re: Favourite Game Name]

My favorite game name is Faxanadu because I like saying it and typing it.  My least favorite game name is Halo because that game sucks.

I agree wholeheartedly!  But, I am biased on this one; I fell in love with that game when I was like 10 and still haven't gotten over it.  =^^=

King of the Monsters 2: The Next Thing is my favorite title for a sequel ever.

just picked this up on SNES a few weeks ago.

I guess the title is somewhat clever, at least it has that going for it.

Agreed, that is pretty clever.

[General Gaming / Re: Your Daily Dose of Gaming.]

Still grinding my way through Fire Emblem; it is a lot of fun, but so far much easier than expected.  Kinda wondering if I should start over on the harder difficulty setting....  The units are all very distinct, which I like.  Makes it easier for mere mortals such as myself to form coherent strategies.

Been having a hankering for some Mickey's Mousecapade...especially since I hear there may be a new one coming after almost a couple of decades.

Still my favourite Disney game, although clearly for nostalgic reasons as there are a lot of better ones.  There's something about those bizarre, seemingly story-free old platformers that I love.

I downloaded that from GOG a while back. Great game, and to make things even better it's a free download!

Yea, it's really killer so far.  It plays like Loom and feels like the original Fallout.  I've heard of ScummVM a while back and never really thought too much of it.  That was until I tried it.  Just amazing!  Access to a crapload of great oldschool point and click adventure games!!

Brilliant!

I really miss old-school PnC adventures; of the few new ones I've tried none had the same feel.  But I still haven't played BtSS; maybe I need to download ScummVM myself.

[General Gaming / Re: Favourite Game Name]

Wow, NecroPhile, I have never heard of any of those!

[Off-Topic / Re: TG16/PCE a gateway to Anime/Manga?]

Very true!  I don't watch much anime myself any more, but I probably would if I had more free time.  What little time I have nowadays I'd usually rather spend playing games anyway, heh.

[General Gaming / Re: Favourite Game Name]

Awesome, this is great list.  I especially concur with "Shatterhand" & "Ninja Gaiden".  "Rush N' Attack" is awesome on multiple levels, as well as, after a fashion... "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties".  (Hey, it definitely is suggestive of the theme!  >_(\  )  And I completely agree that "fill-in-the-blank 64" is at the very bottom of the barrel.  Some other good-ish ones I thought of:

Trinity
Pipe Dream
Grim Fandango

In the ironically humorous department, "Hotel Mario" conjures up all sorts of incongruous images.  Not sure how I feel about "Doom" or "Contra".  Both are evocative, but also somewhat vague.  "Touhou Koumakyou: the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil" seems a little redundant, but you could argue that the Japanese & English play off one another, and the English subtitle is certainly a vivid image.  (I am unqualified to judge the Japanese side of it.)  I rather like "Doki Doki Panic" but the name doesn't really connect to anything in the game that I'm aware of.  For whatever reason, "Hot Dog Storm" makes me think of "Day of the Tentacle".  I am unfamiliar with Firebird, but I see it has a super-cool titlescreen.  ^^

[General Gaming / Favourite Game Name]

Okay, silly question #2 for me tonight, but another one I've been thinking about for a long time.

What is your favourite video game name?

I ask this because a lot of my favourite games have not-so-memorable names like "Such and Such 3" or "Mega Super Something Or Other".  It's a silly question so I expect at least a few silly answers.  ^_-  But, I'm a language-geek at heart so I think about these things.  I'll throw out my two top choices:

Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland  -  This one is totally cliche, I know, but for me it works well precisely and solely because the titular Nightmare is a person, not an event or analogy for the state of things in Dreamland.  I don't know if I can defend it better than that, but the name has stuck in my head for years, despite the fact that I actually like the original Kirby's Adventure about a million times more than this remake.

Riven  -  Okay, okay, it has the very unsexy "the Sequel to Myst" tagline, but the title itself is, I think, a real highlight in the gaming world: it's evocative, unusual, euphonic, suggestive of the play mechanics (to an extent), & encapsulates the game's theme on multiple levels.

Beyond these two stand-outs for me it gets difficult to separate my like/dislike of the game itself from the title specifically, but maybe I'd suggest Pac-Mac as well for creatively saying a lot in a little.  Any thoughts?

[Off-Topic / TG16/PCE a gateway to Anime/Manga?]

I was reading through these threads: https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=5946.0 & https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=10062.0 (how did I miss this one??) and it brought to mind a question I'd been thinking about a month or so ago.  I was wondering how many people here became interested in anime partly due to Turbo/PCE (or other) games?

I think the first anime I ever saw was Robotech during the original TV run (when I was in approximately 2nd grade), and I caught glimpses of several others off & on in years after, but it wasn't until highschool that I finally "got it".  For me, it was seeing Akira & Bubble Gum Crisis in quick succession that made a fan of me.  But, I probably would never have taken the time to rent & watch those if I hadn't been intrigued by bits & pieces I caught from Japanese video games, particularly of the Turbo variety.  And I know that for two of my friends at the time it was Duo cutscenes that were entirely responsible.

Maybe this is partly an age thing.  We were young enough to have mostly missed the big Robotech craze, but old enough to also mostly miss Dragon Ball & Sailormoon becoming huge in the states.  It ended up having quite an unexpected impact on my life, as I now spend a significant amount of time & energy helping to put together my local anime con... which is only local because I relocated to be closer to it.  (Well, there was no question about me not being a nerd anyway, haha....)

Anyone else?

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

Got Pacland from Terry.  Gonna fire it up!

Yay, I like that game more every time I play!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: TurboGrafx-16 Game Box for iPhone]

Get some strange looks when you are playing with a Wii remote on your cell phone.  That is until you whip so more controllers out and start some multiplayer PCE!   

I know it wasn't too long ago that I was expressing my dissatisfaction with emulation in general, but I have to admit: that sounds pretty darn cool!  d^__^b