Messages

[PC-FX Discussion / Re: "The PC-FX: A Devotional Film" (Dec, 2009)]

Wow..that is very cool!

[Off-Topic / NEC loyalty?]

Buy an FX, gut it out and use it as a PC case. That's what I plan to do someday (because the PC-FX looks aaawesome!)

Well the only problem with that idea is that I need to find one that isn't working.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

I'm in the process of scanning old magazines that feature the Duo. Rest assured the CD ROM in the Duo is double speed and I will post the relevant clippings when I find them.

When I finally got the Duo I was expecting much faster load times due to the double speed CD ROM, and was pretty surprised not to get them in a terribly pronounced way.

Did you find the relevent ads?

[Off-Topic / NEC loyalty?]

Wouldn't it be really cool if NEC released a PC case that looked exactly like a PC-FX? That would be awesome!! I'd buy the case and load it up with the latest processors and GBs of RAM.

Heck if they made it competely out of aluminum it would be even better? Anyone here know where I can get the blue prints or CAD data for a PC-FX? Maybe if NEC doesn't do it we can get a local machine shop to do a limited run? Do you think NEC will allow us to do this without taking us to court?

I wonder if laser scanning an actual PC-FX is easier?

Arron?

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Interesting little piece of turbo history on ebay]

That's pretty cool.

[Off-Topic / NEC loyalty?]

I have a bunch of stuff from NEC.

Laptop, 2 desktops (one with built-in LCD), FP950 monitor, M500 monitor, cellphone, digital multiplexer chassis. Some people prefer SONY branded stuff, me I prefer NEC. NEC makes all kinds of quality electronics but it's either really hard to find in the US or expensive. I buy a lot of my NEC stuff on ebay and from European market even though I'm from US.

There was this time where a seller in the UK was selling this really cool NEC computer that included an LCD for around $200. She had purchased it in Asia. I came upon the auction late so it was sold to another ebayer.

Anyway NEC sells all of their good stuff in Europe and Asia. Check out this cool watercooled NEC computer.
 
http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=11&id=1730

[Off-Topic / For Robotech fans...Nov 21..Shadow Chronicles DVD release.]

http://www.robotech.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=281

 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Working Replacement CD Laser Assembly by Hitachi?]

Just so you guys know, Sanyo is one of the largest manufacturers of OPUs. They hold a 40% marketshare of OPUs. Don't judge their OPUs on their cheap consumer electronics. In fact the new HD DVD players uses Sanyo OPUs with NEC drive chips.

[Off-Topic / Car thread]

I drive this exact car except my car has the Mazda logo still intact on the front nose area. It's a 96 Mazda Miata. My next car will likely be an RX-8 or RX-9.

Copy and paste this link into a new browser window to see pic of car.


http://uploader.ws/upload/200605/DSC01035.jpg

[Off-Topic / NEC's evil twin]

Actually NEC did rebadge (under license) MP3 players from other manufacturers and sold them in asian markets.

For example this NEC D-Cube player is a rebadged Cowon/iAudio CW200. I have one of these.

http://www.goldenshop.com.hk/AI-trad/portable/dcube.htm

Here's another NEC MP3 player but this model was designed by NEC themselves instead of a rebadge.

http://www.nec-computers.com/News/news.asp?ID_NEWS=84&CNT=113

NEC also has a new HDD based MP3 player that was recently introduced.

http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/6002/nec_votol.html

http://121ware.com/votol/

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / The "HE" symbol]

Hudson also designed the PC-FX.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / The "HE" symbol]

It stands for Hudson Electronics. It has nothing to do with NEC since NEC didn't design the original PC Engine hardware. NEC is just a manufacturing partner. Also NECHE is the abbreviation for NEC Home Electronics and has no relation to HE.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Hucard Sound Output]

Yamaha wasn't even middle-of-the-line in terms of synth quality...they were pretty much bottom-of-the-barrel.

I hope you're not referring to their professional music keyboards, because if you are, you don't even have a clue.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Background on Street Fighter 2]

Mmm, what exactly do you mean by sampled music tracks? I'm under the feeling you're talking about Amiga-like sampled loops. The only HuCard game (TurboChip actually) which uses this technic is Champions Forever Boxing.

SF2 Dash's soundtrack is your usual blend of PSG channels and sample-based drums/instruments, which is a technic used very often in HuCard games (more than people would believe or remember) since 1988 -- Batman, PC Denjin, Gunhed, Jackie Chan, 1943, Gradius, Salamander and a hundred more or so. Technically speaking, the sound output of the PCE is closer to a SCC chip than to a Famicom.

What I mean by sampled music is basically actually sampling a CD music track for example at a low resolution and sampling frequency. For example 4-bit 4kHz mono. You can try this yourself by taking a short loop of a 16-bit 44.1kHz stereo WAV file and convertin it to 4-bit 4kHz mono file.

Hey, NEC Avenue, care to give me your jewel case (instructions too?) of SFII' since I only have a loose HuCard of the game ?

By the way, in the page Steve posted, that proto six button pad seems to have a hole in the center of the d-pad, probably to connect a little joystick to, that would have been nice.

Are you serious? I could send it to you, but you'd better not sell it.

Anyway yeah that metal screw piece on the pad was probably for a screw on thumbstick.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Hucard Sound Output]

The MD/Genesis definitely had better sound capability due to the Yamaha sound chip. That chip had an awesome drum machine that could put out awesome bass notes. The PCE sound generator definitely wins in smoothness/clarity department though. The MD/Genesis sound had audible distortion. The Yamaha chip was basically a musical keyboard soundchip.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Background on Street Fighter 2]

NEC decided against the hucard/cdrom combination because they said they would have too many problems with synching. That was their official statement.

Hmm..that's pretty strange because synching would've been trivial since all you'd be doing is playing a music track for the duration of the stage. At the end of each round you'd just fade the music out and start the track from the beginning again.

I don't recall the PCE even having FM synthesis...afaik, all six channels are dedicated PSG...I could be wrong though, because sound isn't one thing I've dabbled in too much for the PCE (ADPCM only)...someone care to clear this one up?

I think technically they weren't FM channels, but they functioned in the same way ie generate tones. They were sine wave synthesizers. They weren't ADPCM though since only the CD system cards added that channel/feature.

technically speaking, all of the PCE sounds are sampled as each of it's 6 channels have 32 samples used for playing. this game uses a lot more direct PCM tracks than normal games, but it also uses quite a lot of normal ones as well. otherwise the music alone might've taken up all 20Mbits ;) the soundchip was way ahead of it's time, as far as consoles go.

You're probably right, I just don't remember its exact configuration. I just know that 99.9% of the HuCard games used tone generation for the music similar to FM synthesizers. The only HuCards that I know of that used sampled music tracks were SFII CE and AirZonk. I think the reason why SFII CE was 20-mbit was due to a combination of things. It used sampled music tracks, lot's of sampled voice and sound effects, and many stages and animation frames. I think they managed to fit all the sounds in by using very low resolution sound samples as evidenced by the raspy music and sound effects. Not that it was bad or anything, but that's the cheat they used. I think SFII CE was a testament to how great the PCE was for it's time.

Well, I thought you folks might dig this blast from the past...

SFII ' released in June '93 from DuoWorld #1. Dig that prototype of the 6-button controllerr!

Oh man that just brings tears to my eyes.

Anyway I owned SFII CE for for PCE for awhile, but lost the game. I still have the neat double jewel case though.

Oh I also have that NEC Avenue pad 6.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Background on Street Fighter 2]

SFII CE on PCE looked less vibrant than the SNES version because the arcade version looked less vibrant than the SNES version. In fact SFII on SNES looked TOO vibrant. Not only that but the SNES version used a compressed video resolution that made everything look squashed. Also the reason why the HuCard had a raised hump was due to the fact it was a 20 Mbit game the largest PCE HuCard ever. PCE version of SFII CE used sampled music like AirZonk instead of the regular FM synthesizer channels. What many people didn't know was that SFII CE was to have been the first HuCard/SCD combo game ie the CD would've been used for red book music while the HuCard held the game content. Later this idea was transferred to the Arcade Card games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Exactly.

Anyway when you've played as many games as I have and have become as good a game player as I have, you've reached the status of a GAMING GOD and do not have to play a game to know it sucks.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Hey, I see NEC Avenue is up to his old confrontational self again! Dude, you've never even PLAYED the game, so you can just shut your piehole about it, okay?

Emerald Rocker: that would indeed be a great place to live!

You're overly dramatic...  

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

I'd take DMC over God of War anyday. God of War is as generic and cheezy as they come..kinda like comparing Ghost Hunter to RE4.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Same tired hack and slash sh*t that's been done for decades. Shiny graphics doesn't make it great either.    

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Anyone who has played RE4 yet still don't think it's a great game is stupid beyond belief. Side stepping? HTF is sidestepping going to help you in RE4? The only thing it helps is dodging weapons the enemies thow at you which don't happen all that much anyway. There are a lot of moves Capcom could've added to RE4, but at the end of the day you gotta draw the line somewhere. RE4 is almost close to perfect in all categories. If you want to criticize the control then find a valid argument. Making up BS to nitpick just makes you look stupid.

It may be stupid in a game but it's like it is in real life.
In real life you can't just run around, strafe while aiming to shoot like in an fps.
To aim and shoot you always must come to a halt or progress slowly and shoot as you do in games like rainbow six.

So what? You can do a lot of things in real life like spit on the enemies, take off your clothes and run around naked or even take a dump in the bathroom too doesn't mean it needs to be included in the game to make it good.  

I don't have to hit the turn around button, run off a ways, then turn back around and start shooting again everytime I fight a zombie.

Uh..you only have to turn around if you're lame at the game. BTW when a zombie lunges at you you can just shake them off, is this too complex for you?

This is RE man not some stupid@ass Quake. Strafing in a RE game is for stupidass dumbf*ks who can't adapt to different types of control schemes.

See you're exactly the type of Nintendo loving halfwit I'm talking about. You've never even played God of War yet you rag on it for being generic while RE4 is the SAME hackneyed Zombie shit they've been recycling for the last 8 YEARS. Had God of War been on the GC or made by Japanese people I'm sure you'd be slobbing all over it's knob.

Slapping a cheezy stupid@ss name onto a POS like God of War doesn't make it a new game...  

Same tired hack and slash sh*t that's been done for decades. Shiny graphics doesn't make it great either.

Did you try Metroid Prime Echoes? It seemed cool but the menu screen was really bad, I hated rotating the options around so much that I quit after a couple hours. The D-pad was quicker, but confusing as it was too jumpy and you could'nt see the otions very well unless they were rotated. I don't know why the hell they didn't just re-use Prime's menus, those worked fine.

And that right there folks is proof that when you start complaining about how the control scheme sucks because you cannot adapt, it means YOU suck at games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Anyone who has played RE4 yet still don't think it's a great game is stupid beyond belief. Side stepping? HTF is sidestepping going to help you in RE4? The only thing it helps is dodging weapons the enemies thow at you which don't happen all that much anyway. There are a lot of moves Capcom could've added to RE4, but at the end of the day you gotta draw the line somewhere. RE4 is almost close to perfect in all categories. If you want to criticize the control then find a valid argument. Making up BS to nitpick just makes you look stupid.

Oh and God of War looks like one of the most generic POS games I've ever seen. Cheezy@ss game to boot and bordering on stupid just like Ghost Hunter.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Some Turbo Express questions]

I've had mine since launch so I'll give you my experience. First of all you will save a buttload of money by going with NiMH rechargeables. They are so cheap there's really no excuse not to use them and yes they're safe to use witt TE. I recommend Energizer NiMH 2500mAh AAs. You can get a 4pack for like $10 at Best Buy. As to your other questions, you need to buy the TE specific AC adaptor. Other adapters will not work correctly if at all and it might damage your TE too not worth the risk. The LCD screen is about 2.6" which is smaller than the GBA 2.9" screen, but the image quality is similar to the DS.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / SGFX Ghouls and Ghosts: Anyone Beat it?]

I don't know what you mean by getting the cross, because the special weapon in SG GnG is not a cross.

Then what is the special weapon in the SGX version?

Its a cross in Makaimura and whatever it is in Daimakaimura I've gotten it in the arcade, Genesis & SGX versions before, but don't remember what it was exactly.

All I know is that you have to have the Magic Armor on to get it.

*Spoiler*

It's holy water.

 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

What are you talking about? As of right now nobody has evidence for or against 2x CD in DUO. What's up with all the drama anyway?

You told me I was wrong on a subject I am pretty knowledgable about...time to put up or shut up. And all of a sudden you say nobody has any evidence? I thought YOU did? That's what we're all waiting for...

The only evidence you have is a bunch of websites that are parroting the same information..doesnt' make it correct. The evidence that I've shown actually supports my claims like the SCSI adapter announcement. The DUO came out before the adapter anouncment. Now I ask you why the adapter allows you to use your DUO as a 2x CD drive if it wasn't already 2x? Doesn't make any sense at all. No offense, but it seems you are not that familiar with what kind of drive is used in the DUO otherwise you would know it's 2x.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

I'm still waiting on the evidence...

What are you talking about? As of right now nobody has evidence for or against 2x CD in DUO. What's up with all the drama anyway?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

I can't think of any examples off the top of my head but I believe more games use method #2...which further narrows the speed difference and makes your argument even less fathomable.

The thing is most games use red book audio so you cannot be constantly accessing the disc. You have to load big chunks of data.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

The best way to test it is to look at how fast the disc spins.

You also have to keep in mind that we're not just talking about initial load times since games are constantly loading when you change levels etc.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

This memory upgrade does not make it a 2x drive.

Nobody said it did. The point is the more buffer you have to fill the longer it takes. A 2x CDROM can fill a buffer in half the time as a 1x CDROM.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / SGFX Ghouls and Ghosts: Anyone Beat it?]

I don't know what you mean by getting the cross, because the special weapon in SG GnG is not a cross.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

care to elaborate?

Certainly.

A single speed CDROM drive has a read speed of 150 KBps.  That's about 9MB per minute.  A standard 74 minute CDROM is about 650.3 MB in total available data storage capacity.  The speed is relative to music playback time.  At 1x, it will take you about 74 minutes to play the entire audio content of a standard CDROM.

This is what it means to have a "1x" CDROM drive.  A "2x" drive is simply twice that, under optimal conditions.

The TurboGrafx 16 (USA) came with a System 2.0 card.  This is merely a BIOS and scratch space to store data that is cached off of the CDROM drive.  It is possible to achieve the same performance as a DUO system when upgrading to a System 3.0 card.  The DUO system has essentially the same functionality as a System 3.0 card internally.  No additional card or upgrade is needed.

No matter what, in spite of the "memory upgrade" of the System cards in question, you *can not* increase the maximum read speed of the CDROM drive.  It's not designed to operate any faster than it already does.  That said, it's possible to cache more data into a System 3.0 card, requiring less access to the CDROM drive for general game data.

So basically you just proved my point. It's a cache buffer for the CDROM. To fill up the larger memory buffer in the same amount of time requires a faster CDROM. This is exactly why I asked why 256k of RAM was brought up as an argument. Oh btw nobody said more memory from the System 3.0 means it can magically increase the speed of the CD drive. What was said is that if you have more buffer to fillup, it makes more sense to have a faster drive to fill up this larger buffer hence the 2x drive found in DUO. A TG16CD with a System 3.0 card will take twice as long to fill up the memory buffer than the DUO.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / More Xbox 360/Turbo-related Info]

Nintendo is making bundles of cash so they aren't going anywhere. I'm looking forwared to Revolution. Heck the console itself looks friggen sweet.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

System 1.0 wasn't released in the US afaik, we got System 2.0 and then System 3.0 in the Duo. And everyone knows that the original unit had less memory, hence the massive hype when the 3.0 system was being primed for release stateside.

It was a long time ago, but yeah thanks for the correction. Regardless the point still stands->more memory so 2x CD makes more sense.

The read speed of the drive has absolutely nothing to do with the memory in the system card.

care to elaborate?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Namco's 50th Anniversary]

I love IREM games. They had some of the best graphics on TG16. They also made a vertical shooter on supercdrom that I wanted but never got.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Namco's 50th Anniversary]

I got a chance to play Namco's PacPix on DS and it's a damn fun game!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

System 1.0 wasn't released in the US afaik, we got System 2.0 and then System 3.0 in the Duo. And everyone knows that the original unit had less memory, hence the massive hype when the 3.0 system was being primed for release stateside.

It was a long time ago, but yeah thanks for the correction. Regardless the point still stands->more memory so 2x CD makes more sense.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

Yeah but don't you think it's a little odd that you're the only guy on the entire internet who thinks the duo has a 2x cdrom?

I don't think it's odd, I just think people have been believing in urban legends.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

Look guys, the original System 1.0 CD had less memory than System 2.0, did you forget about this? The DUO had the system 2.0 integrated into the console. The system 2.0 had more memory so it makes perfect sense that the newer system 2.0 included a 2x CD drive than the system 1.0's 1x CD.

In fact if you look into the CD window of the DUO while it's playing a game the speed of the CD is faster than the original TG16CD. You can see the CD labels spin faster.

Again 256k thing has nothing to do with not requiring a 2x CD drive. The games took decades to load on the orginial system 1.0 card, but according to your logic since it only has a little amount of RAM you didn't need a faster drive. According to your logic the game should be able to load in 2 seconds at 150kb/s...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

Until somebody has some solid info then I guess we'll never know. I don't think websites posting the same wrong information is proof that it's 1x. BTW I'm not even sure why you keep mention 256K since it has nothing to do with anything.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

Well if NEC themselvs said you can use your DUO as a 2x SCSI CD-ROM drive with the adaptor then it indeed is 2x. Regardless the point is not that you're going to be buying a DUO to function as an external computer CD-ROM. The point is you could use it as an external one if your pc didn't have a CD-ROM by simply buying the adaptor.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / SGFX Ghouls and Ghosts: Anyone Beat it?]

I haven't played the SNES version so I don't know how hard it is. I just know that the SGX version on "normal" difficulty was pretty hard. I always had to play it on easy or very easy whichever one was the lowest can't remember to make it past the first full loop.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

It was stated in a print TTi advertisment I saw in a game magazine. It was a long time ago but the advertisement compared the DUO to a the speed of a car or something. It was along the lines of "turbocharged and double the speed" or something like that then listes the features as 2x CD-ROM speed. If someone else has seen this ad then they can corroberate what I'm saying. I even remember the SCSI addon prototype NEC was working on to allow the DUO to function as an external SCSI 2x CD-ROM drive.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / yellow stained DUO-R]

Excellent work guys. I really do love the this community. Goldmine of information.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Couple of questions regarding NEC and their systems.]

I concur, MegaDrive, Genesis, PC-Engine -- very kool names for consoles.

TurboGrafx-16... besides being a mouthful, this is pure 80's, as Keranu correctly pointed out.  I never really cared for this name back in the day... BUT NOW, 16 years later, I love the cheezy name.  

and it wasn't just the name, the friggin' logo, with flourescent green and orange, is sooooooo 80's.  It's awesome, dude!

Haha my thoughts exactly. Now as for the PC Engine name, here's my 2 cents. As mention earlier PC probably came from the PC-9x series NEC computers that dominated the Japanese desktop market. Engine is simple a loose term used in the computing industry for example graphics engine or math engine etc. PC Engine probably refers to Personal Computing Engine. NEC had a graphics card for highend graphics work that they sold in the US a long time ago called the Multisync Graphics Engine. It was damn expensive too. The 256 color version was $1500!!

http://www.tavi.co.uk/ps2pages/ohland/NEC-MGE.html

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Laseractive PCE and Vajra review]

One of the members here has both LA modules.

https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?msg=1055

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / SGFX Ghouls and Ghosts: Anyone Beat it?]

Haha very good information you guys have here! Anyway I also couldn't beat Granzort. I could always make it to the last level boss but it was so damn hard to get there. I have only played these games on the console itself, not emulators or anything. Maybe when I have more time I'll try the emulators with a nice control pad.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / CD-R's]

The spinup time is faster, giving the appearance of faster initial load times. The old drive doesn't spin up quite as fast. Data transfer is still the same speed.

This is not true. The Turbo DUO uses a 2X CD drive while the older CD attachment used a 1X CD drive.

Anyway just to give my 2 cents, when I purchased my Turbo DUO back in 1992 I noticed that the optical pickup mechanism had difficultly reading the outside tracks of games and even music CDs. I came to this conclusion because the CD drive would skip more often if I tapped the cover of the DUO while it was reading the outer tracks of a disc. When it was reading the inner tracks of the disc, it required a harder tap to force it to skip. Upon closer inspection I noticed that the orange ribbon cable that was connected to the optical pickup mechanism would tension higher when the pickup was reading the outer tracks of the disc. In other words when the pickup is at the farthest point from the spindle, the ribbon cable would have the most amount of tension and hence try to pull the pickup back towards the spindle or center of the disc. I came up with an idea to fix this design flaw and so I glued part of the cable to the pickup so as to minimize the tension. My fix worked for the post part, but later I contemplated writing a letter to TTi to notify them of this problem. In the end I never did write them a letter since I had more important things to do during that time and just forgot about it.

In summary the laser and pickup itself in the DUO was of fair quality. The problem was actually the way the ribbon cable was mounted and the length of the cable. The cable restricted the laser from doing a full inner to outer track stroke without increased cable tension. I don't know if NEC fixed this in later Japanese DUOs or not, but it was indeed a design flaw. The irony in all of this is that NEC now makes one of the top DVD burners on the martket today and command almost 1/3 of the worldwide DVD burner market. In fact the first 16X DVD-RAM burner will be using their 16X microchips. They will also release their own drives using this chip later in the year.

What I would love for NEC to do is release a little PC Engine PCI card with a single controller port that you simply plug into your computer and play all the CD games that were available on your computer CD or DVD drive. It would also be cool if they released all of the HuCard games on CDs too for play on this PC card. They could sell this card at maybe $40 and hardcore oldshcool gamers would buy it in a heartbeat. Anybody want to start a petition?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / SGFX Ghouls and Ghosts: Anyone Beat it?]

I've beaten SG GnG through the first time, but after you beat the last boss, you get a special weapon instead of rescuing the princess. You then have to use this special weapon and beat the game a second time to rescue the princess.

friggin' amazing! has anyone ever completed the second loop and documented it with screenshots?  Perhaps a Japanese PCE fanpage has this?

It's a pretty difficult game. My nephew took his SuperGrafx back so I can't check at the moment, but I remember there was a way you can go into some kind of special screen at the title menu to adjust the difficulty, credits, sound test, etc. I used this to change the credits to 9 and the difficulty to very easy IIRC. It's still a very difficult game though. Also when you play the second loop, you cannot get any other weapons. If you do by accident you lose that special weapon and have to open more treasure chests to get it back in order to rescue the princess. To add to the difficulty the weapon has really weak range, however, I can't remember how powerful it is when you're powered up with the gold knight armor. I won't describe what the weapon is because I don't want to spoil it for those of you who plan on playing it. I will say that it's definitely possible to beat both first and second loops with 9 credits since I made it to the last level of the second loop but I just didn't have enough credits left to survive.