Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: How often do you find TG-16 and TG-CD in the wild?]

Surprisingly, just once. One of the stores nearby has an American Turbografx-16 with Blazing Lazers on attract mode available for a quick run. To my knowledge, it has never been for sale and it has been there for years.

I have never found anything else that's either Turbo for PC Engine related in stores, which is unsurprising since this is the Netherlands. You're lucky to find anything older than Playstation around here, and when it's there the prices are through the roof.

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

Dungeon Explorer is very high up for me, and the great sequel even remixed a lot of the original's tracks with Redbook quality.

Example:

(at 4m11s)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: AVGN goes Turbo]

It was bound to happen anyway, I'm surprised it took him this long.
Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get my PC Engine lifeboat ready for a potential full AVGN episode on Turbo hardware...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: can somebody educate me on the story behind magical chase?]

Same goes for Dracula X that game is not rare at all but still fetches high amounts.

Dracula X is kind of a special case. It's one of those games that did reasonably well at the time of release and even got a few people importing, but (justified)hype, a high profile direct sequel released worldwide and no ports for almost 15 years turned it into the single most demanded game on the system. Ask any newcomers why they got into OBEY, and 80% of the time Dracula X is going to be one of the reasons.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

The baffling thing is, they kept talking about how the PC-FX was going to rule the "storage-type" side because it had the best FMV streaming technology. It's hard to say whether they were in denial or simply didn't do their homework, but it should have been apparent that the Playstation had a competitive enough MPEG processor, and the Saturn enough raw CPU power, to erase any kind of technological gap. AFAIK, there is literally no game concept that could be done on the PC-FX but not the Playstation or Saturn.

The Saturn also eventually got the Movie Card expansion in Japan which could play MPEG-1 VCDs, plus some very impressive FMVs in certain games,(i.e. Lunar SSS MPEG-ban) which definitely outclasses the PC-FX in FMV quality. VCD never caught on though, and neither did the Movie Card.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Fixing a CoreGrafx]

Welcome! That's a very nice bundle for 50€!

As for the CD-ROM2 unit, you will need an Interface Unit(IFU-30) to hook them up. Loose ones aren't too expensive. If you cannot get your AV issue fixed, the Interface Unit can temporarily substitute the DIN-5 as it has generic RCA outputs. If you want to run CD games on it in the future, get yourself a Japanese Super System Card, or Arcade Card Pro if you want to access the 12 Arcade CD games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

By the way, one of the more enjoyable links I've found, again in Japanese, is a list of people talking about their five favorite PCE games, regrouped according to game:

http://www.openspc2.org/~bgm/CON/PCTL.html

I'm surprised to see Fuun Kabuki Den only get 1 vote! Tengai Makyou II crushes the competition as usual though.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

On the other hand, the Arcade Card was probably not the best idea in the world. It's just that it wound up not mattering much anyway.

From what I've heard, the Arcade Cards were originally scheduled to be released in December 1993, but due to a fire in a resin plant in Taiwan and subsequent severe shortage of RAM chips worldwide it's release was delayed to March 1994 along with Fatal Fury 2.

If it was released a little earlier, it might have done better, although 4 months probably doesn't matter much. Tengai Makyou III was also originally planned for the ACD format, but that got shifted to the PC-FX.(which got cancelled later)

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: WTB: Madou Monogatari]

is the game that rare in japan? how expensive is it over there?
i will be in japan next year again in august.

Madou Monogatari was released in December 1996, as the last ACD game and one of the last PCE games overall. I wouldn't be surprised if it had a lower print run than Sapphire did.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

according to this site there is a internal battery inside popolus

http://nfggames.com/games/pce/

http://www.videogameden.com/article.htm?hu

It's a common misconception due to the HuCARD being called a "ROMRAM" HuCARD like the Tennokoe Bank card. It just has more RAM and the bump was used for labeling reasons rather than protecting a battery.(SFII', Super System Card and the Arcade Card Pro were like this as well, although the Arcade Card Duo used a stick-on label instead.)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

But yes, in the 4th generation, ultimately I think Nintendo did the right thing in not releasing the SNES CD.  And Sega shouldn't have released the 32X, and NEC... I don't know about NEC, they made such a mess of things with so much hardware it's hard to decide what was reasonable and what wasn't. :p

In NEC's case, they pretty much designed the PC Engine with CD expansion in mind. I'd say it was worth it, not only for the great library it eventually got but also for treading new grounds with the CD medium. All the different CD expansions, accesories and Duo systems also meant everyone with any of the PC Engine models could access the CD library.(except for the unfortunate Shuttle, which was just badly designed and deserves no excuse)

The Supergrafx was admittedly a bad idea, but 4 out of 5 of the SGX library are great games, and it was backwards compatible with HuCARDs and supported the CD add-ons in one way or another.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What were the life time sales for the PCE/PCEDuo]

Given the switch over from hueys to CDs, that number of total CD units doesn't seem to jive. I'd say 2mil for all CD addons (original, bundled original, Super CDROM). I'd say the Duo numbers aren't figured into that, especially considering they did another redesign (Duo-R/RX). Not to mention the release of the Arcade Cards (both version). I mean, cost of Heuys went down and if it WAS a larger consumer base - why didn't the hucard format expand over CD games from there? Size wasn't a limitation, and costs of roms came down. Plus, other form factors were possible (extended bumps and such, upgraded hardware on hucard, etc). Nintendo did this with the famicom. Was the sole fact that they could produce a higher profit margin with CD games, be enough to negate hucard consumer base? I mean, it's not like the Duo and CD consumers didn't have hucard support on their setups.

The 8kB Work RAM limitation on HuCARD games was getting very limiting in the PC Engine's later years. It was possible to include more RAM on the HuCARD(Populous is, as far as I know, the only game that did this) but that would have driven up manufacturing costs significantly for something most consumers still playing PC Engine after 1993 could already use without any additional hardware upgrades.

Street Fighter II' with it's 20Mb HuCARD retailed for ¥9800, which was ¥3000 more than a normal HuCARD game and ¥2000 more than a SCD game like Tengai Makyou II or Dracula X. SFII could do this because it was an extremely popular game, but lesser known games would have priced themselves out of the market. They would likely be able to lower this to ¥7800 but that would also make the profit margin significantly lower and the larger audience would not be enough to compensate at that time.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Raffle: Far East of Eden, Ziria]

Congrats! 1 more to go!

Interestingly, I just a read a random review that Kabuki Den has some of the best music that the PC Engine has to offer (the guy thought better than Ys ??), so I'll have to check that out, see if there's something worth adding to my MP3 Jukebox player.

Kabuki Den does have a sweet soundtrack. I especially like the ending theme.

Also, the overworld theme in Manjimaru was composed by Joe Hisaishi, who also composed many of the Studio Ghibli films. Just goes to show how huge of a project these games were at the time.

Here it is:

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Game save utilities]

I should probably just get into the whole Hex thing sooner or later. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Game save utilities]

The old Turbo List has a FAQ with many, many titles and their respective file size for save data. I can't recall if it is 100% complete, but it is a great resource.

Of course, you would have to calculate things manually...

Nonetheless, I think you will find the FAQ somewhat useful/amusing (certain titles require a ridiculous amount of space).

Ah yes, Nulltard showed me this FAQ earlier. It's extremely helpful, but doesn't list many Japan-only games apart from a few popular ones. For the US titles it's about complete though.

Here is the link for those who need it: http://turbo.mindrec.com/files/gamesave.faq

Doesn't Chris Covell's bram editor tool show file sizes?  It's available as iso and rom.

I have used this tool before, but if I recall correctly the file sizes are shown in hex, which I'm not well versed at. It's definitely great for backups or unlocking the minigames in Tokimeki Memorial though.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Game save utilities]

One thing I have always hated about the CD BIOS is the inability to view the sizes of your game saves, and how much space you have left. Fortunately, some CD games have tools for this. I use the tool in 3x3 Eyes to view my save files, but unfortunately 3x3 Eyes takes quite a while to get through the intro logos and requires a 410B save file to avoid a long cutscene before you can get to it.

Does anyone know of any better memory tools in a game?

This also includes MB128 games. For that I use Emerald Dragon, which works quite well, but is also a bit basic. Apparently Private Eye Doll has a better tool, but I haven't been able to try that one yet.

[Fighting Street / Re: Cosmic Fantasy 1 is a terrible game]

The reason it needs to load in and out of battles is because it features battle background art, which was still something special at the time. Even many Super CD RPGs (like Dragon Slayers, TMII and Neo Metal Fantasy) don't use battle background art and also cart games, like Phantasy Star II, which came out within a few months of CF1.

The load times in CF1 are actually very good. It's only when exiting a battle that there is a noticeable delay and the laser can sometimes gets lost, but as with Mysterious Song, you encounter it more frequently than other games simply because there is much more frequent loading than something like a side scroller.

Oooh, so THAT's why they removed these in CF2 and Manjimaru! I guess that makes a lot more sense.

I've always found The Legend of Xanadu to be really impressive as far as loading time goes. That game stores an entire multiple-hour-long chapter onto the RAM and doesn't request a disc read until the sidescrolling stages.

[Fighting Street / Re: Cosmic Fantasy 1 is a terrible game]

I honestly can't think of any 1984-1989 RPGs that had much better tilework than CF1, apart from maybe Phantasy Star II and Tengai Makyou Ziria. It was pretty much industry standard for Japanese RPGs back then.

As for load times, keep in mind this was the very early years of CD games, they were still working out the kinks and had far less memory to work with compared to later SCD RPGs. In hindsight, it would have been better to use PSG audio for battles, but CD audio was one of the biggest selling points in early CD games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Now here is something you don't run into much anymore]

Nice! I always wondered how these boxes even got into the second-hand market, you'd think stores would put extra stock into the bargain bin or something.

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

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rockman-Rock-Man-MegaMan-PC-Engine-Super-CD-DUO-RX-Unreleased-NEW-SEALED-/310851208110?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item48602d03ae

Not exactly gouging, but this still brings my blood to a boil. Is it even legal to pass this off as "Unreleased"?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Pc engine converter]

Are you using it with the Arcade Card Duo or the Arcade Card Pro? For the TG16/TGCD setup you will need to use the Pro version, as the Duo version does not include the BIOS and extra 1,5 Mb of RAM(which were built in to the Duo systems/Super CD-Rom2 attachment)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Legend of Xanadu I's Soundtrack]

Does anyone have the PSG tunes for this game? I already got the Redbook tracks from my CD but all the PSG tracks on YouTube(or anywhere else) seem to have been taken down.

EDIT: Nevermind, I just wasn't looking hard enough. If anybody else was looking for them, they are here:

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Arcade Card - Game enhancement?]

I seem to recall reading something a long while ago about Princess Maker 2 actually being slower loading with Arcade Card than with a Super System Card.

Is this for cinematics or regular gameplay? If it's for cinematics, it's most likely to add CD quality music along with voices. Usually, a PC Engine game is unable to have both CD voices and music at the same time unless you merge them together(which means you wouldn't be able to use that music track for other situations) but the Arcade Card's huge amount of RAM allows a bi-compatible game to store the voices on there and stream the music. This does add longer loading times though.

When ever talk of bi compatable games come up, im always made sad that the fact Macross 2036 is only a 64k regular cd game, even with a puny 64k memory, its able to put out levels with 3 or 4 distinct BGs, 4 huge beautifully animated bosses, player ship with 2 distinctive sprites each one very well animated, a large number of distinct and impressive ADPCM sndfx, and ingame cutscenes, where the cartoon is pasted on top of the action.....that's only one meg of memory, think if you had 5 megs of fu##ing memory, kinda gets me thinking, I cant think of a single optimized cdrom side scrolling action game, like rondo of blood,(2 load times per level) so I wonder what a optimized cdrom rondo of blood would be like.

Macross 2036 is kind of a strange case. It was technically a 64k CD game, but why slap the Super CD logo on there? Is it a CD/SCD bi-compatible game? If it isn't, it's up there along with Spriggan as the most impressive 64k CD games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Arcade Card - Game enhancement?]

Usually it just decreases loading times. In the case of 3 x 3 Eyes however the cinematics are at a higher quality with added CD music, but with pretty long loading times.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Where to start]

The thing that gets me is, the other two gears seem to made from a different material than the middle one. Curious why they would do that, but seeing as how it has lasted better than 20 years with no trouble at all I guess I can't complain too much.

The middle gear is the PC Engine CD's achilles heel; at this point almost all of them turned to swiss cheese or don't have much time left.

As for why they would do that, as far as I know it was pretty normal to use different types of plastic for gears, as the lower-quality plastic was likely the only type available or it was just cheaper. Systems with similair problems are the Famicom Disk System with it's fragile drive belt and the US SNES with some of it's exterior yellowing.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: (3/26/2014 - 4/1/2014) Game of the Week: Air Zonk]

Good god, phase. What's the secret? I've not noticed any way to boost the score like in sapphire with the combo attacks. Did you just not miss a single bad guy or what?

IIRC, you can get a maximum of about 1,000,000 points doing level 1-4 and 9,000,000 doing level 5, with a further 10,000,000(US)/90,000,000(JP) given by the final boss.

Here is the picture I took about a year back when I first 1CC'd this game:
/2ni5qwz.jpg

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Score saving on both HuCARD/CD games]

http://turbo.mindrec.com/files/gamesave.faq

Wow, never knew about this FAQ! Thanks a lot!
Looks like this thread won't be necessary then.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Score saving on both HuCARD/CD games]

I'll be making a list of PCE games with scoreboards or single scores, and whether they actually save said scores if you use a Duo, Tennokoe Bank 2 or IFU. Of course you could always write them down to compete with others, but being able to save them is a huge convenience.

Scoreboard/save feature:
Hu: Devil Crash/Devil's Crush
CD: Gate of Thunder
CD: Nexzr/Nexzr Special
CD: Sapphire
CD: Pyramid Plunder

Scoreboard but no save feature:
Hu: Space Harrier
Hu: Galaga 88/90
Hu: Alien Crush
CD: Gradius II (Konami really dropped the ball on this one )

Single score/save feature:
CD: Spriggan

Know any others?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: (3/26/2014 - 4/1/2014) Game of the Week: Air Zonk]

The first 4 stages are relatively easy, but the 5th level throws a curveball especially with a pretty tough final boss. Definitely one of my favourite shooties!

Oh, and the highest score I managed to get is 9782,8970 on Spicy mode, 1CC. This was on the Japanese version and if I remember correctly the final boss gives 90.000.000 score in that version and 10.000.000 score in the US version.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What happened to hit-japan?]

Couple years ago Yamatoku EMS'd a 30 lb. box of systems and games to me in 3 days. Insane!

Shipping overall is incredibly fast in Japan. Even from Hokkaido it only usually only takes 2 days for a package to leave the country, yet when it gets here it stays in customs for a week, with a chance of up to €40 in customs charges. Thankfully most of the sellers I deal with mark packages as gifts, but I did get unlucky a few times.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / PCE games with huge supply but low demand]

If you look on the Internet or in video game stores in Japan, there are tons of sealed Fatal Fury 2's everywhere, dirt cheap. Why are there so many of them? Did they overestimate demand?

Then of course you have the usual super-cheap and popular RPG like any Far East of Eden/Tengai Makyou game, but at least these have usually been played to death when they originally got released.(and subsequently got sold/bought about 10 times each )

What are some other games like this?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Was it nostalgia or curiousity]

Around here in Europe the TG/PCE wasn't mentioned much apart from some magazines and some people in highschool like with the X68000 and Neo-Geo. I did try it out a few years back and it was like a revelation, so many criminally underrated games on an underrated system. I got myself a Duo and never looked back.

[General Gaming / Re: Any hidden gems for the Game Boy?]

Trip World is a pretty damn good platformer for the Game Boy made by Sunsoft. It has only been released in Japan and Europe though, and is quite hard to find.

[General Gaming / Re: Best animations in 8bit and 16bit games]

Seiken Densetsu 3 on the Super Famicom(Secret of Mana's Japan only successor) has some of the most amazing 2D graphics/animation on the system, with barely any slowdown. Unfortunately it's also riddled with bugs, but what Square game isn't?

Seiken Densetsu 3(Action RPG, Super Famicom)
For some reason, this game never had any form of re-release, even on the Japanese Virtual Console.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Different Hucard case spines]

Did you know the spine design on Hucard cases depend on the publisher?

Hudson Soft(Old case): Dark blue Hucard logo with Hudson volume number
Hudson Soft(New case): Blue Hucard logo with Hudson volume number
NEC Avenue: Purple Hucard logo with AV logo
Konami: Red Hucard logo with Konami logo
Namcot: Namcot logo with "PC Engine" in katakana
Masaya: Pink Hucard logo with Masaya volume number
Sunsoft: Dark purple Hucard logo with Sunsoft volume number

Know any others?

This was a pretty cool idea, however some companies just had to ruin it by replacing the Hucard logo with their own for some added inconsistency. Looks like all CD, SCD and ACD cases didn't have any variations though.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which games came in/with something else other than just a regular jewel case?]

Cosmic Fantasy 3 included a map and an "Official Guide Book"(Which isn't really a guide book. It contains artwork and concept art from the first 3 games, information about the voice actors/developers and even a music sheet. Really interesting if you can read Japanese.) along with a normal manual. This is the reason why it's in a dual-case rather than the single case Cosmic Fantasy 1, 2, 4-1 and 4-2 came in.

Gulliver Boy includes a map.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which games came in/with something else other than just a regular jewel case?]

Which one(s) of the Pachio Kun series came with the pachinko controller?

Maboroshi no Densetsu came with the controller. Both games were sold separately as well.

Also, from the games you have listed, these came in double jewel cases:
Legend of Xanadu
Populous
Snatcher
Street Fighter II
Kabuki Den

Only rarely do these cases contain a second CD. Usually, they were meant to support larger manuals for RPGs or complicated games like Populous, but sometimes add in extras like posters or maps.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Which games came in/with something else other than just a regular jewel case?]

Tengai Makyou Kabuki-Den and The Legend of Xanadu came with free posters.
Also, Snatcher came with 2 booklets; The first contains biographies and lore while the second contains the controls and a manga.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Dengeki PC-Engine Tokubetsu-ban - Scan]

¥9,800/~$92(06/1993 rates) for Street Fighter II'! Was that high price(for a huey) because of it's popularity or because it used a mapper?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Race is on B1tches! - How many have you cleared?]

Phenomenal game. Probably going for PC Genjin/Bonk 1/2 next.

/2j4ubee.jpg