Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Atomic Robo Kid Special (secret glitch?)]

I beat Atomic Robo-Kid Special today after working on it for a couple days, and I also noticed that Act 21 seemed to change up between playthroughs. Since one or two of the earlier Acts have multiple exits, I'm guessing it may have something to do with that.

BTW I also like this game a lot, though the final boss is aggravating and a couple stage enemies are too.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: PC Engine Hucard sport games (a list and hopefully some discussion)]

Tennis games: World Court Tennis is quite good, even if the English localization is a hilarious disaster -- among the worst I've seen. The underlying engine is excellent, though, as it's basically a carbon copy of the terrific Famicom release Family Tennis. It'd be nice if the original Japanese release, Pro Tennis: World Court, got a fresh fan translation.

I've heard great things about Final Match Tennis but have only played it briefly. Davis Cup Tennis wasn't released in Japan, and anyway it's much better on the Genesis/Mega Drive -- the TG-16 version is stiff and controls poorly. Not sure if I've played Power Tennis.

Hit the Ice may be the best version of the three home console ports; it's certainly better than the horrible SNES port, but the Genesis version has some nice perks like a password system (the TG-16 game goes on far too long).

I found Sonic Spike Volleyball (aka World Beach Volley) very frustrating.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Collection storage/display advice. Mold?]

Does the mold seem more attracted to dark-colored manuals?

In my old house (which was very close to a body of water), we had severe problems with some kind of light-colored mold/mildew that was preferentially attracted to dark colors. Fortunately it only seemed to grow on the surface of objects, and didn't seem to take root or bloom/flower, so it was easy to wipe it off with a paper towel that'd been dampened with a mild cleaning solution.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Will there ever be a TG16 price crash?]

Most 3DO long boxes were their own thing. Kinda a mesh between "true" PS1 longboxes and early two-piece cardboard PC boxes. Other one-piece 3DO boxes resembled those of early music CD packaging and were far less durable. Both were way too tall.

I think there were something like 4-5 different styles. One FAQ-type document lists them as:

 1 = Snap Case boxes
 2 = Clam style boxes
 3 = Long Box w/ Jewel case and inserts
 4 = Long Box w/ JC or CB holders and 1 or NO inserts
 6 = Pull off top box style

5 = Jewel cases, BTW. Also, all of the 3DO longboxes I've seen -- regardless of type -- are substantially thicker than music CD longboxes were.

Also, I like my 3DO! -- but then again, I'm fond of early 3D gaming in general. (Not the N64 so much, though, since it gives me motion sickness/simulation sickness.)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: List of all PCE translation projects.]

Cool! I'll check out Gai Flame for sure when the translaton patch becomes available.

Meanwhile I found a playthrough of Gaia no Monshou on Niconico, so I'll just write down the points that the player has at the start of each level and post it here when I've made the list (Niconico doesn't let you skip around in videos...). I figure if his/her playthrough is successful, then those are good benchmark numbers.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: List of all PCE translation projects.]

I've been playing the translated ROM of Gaia no Monshou lately. There's a lot about the game I like, and I had fun with it at first, but the stringent time requirements and cumulative points thing make it into such a chore. I don't mind replaying scenarios to see if I can do better, but having those replays be essentially mandatory and dependent on a RNG is rough.

I guess there's no FAQ out there telling me the approximate minimum number of points I should have at the start of each battle -- is there? I've managed to complete the first couple scenarios without losing any men & in the allotted time or less, but I'm not sure if I need to do even better than that to have a realistic chance in later levels.

[Localizations, Games, Apps, Docs / Re: Energy translation patch]

Beat this today. It's surprisingly fun, considering its reputation!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: List of all PCE translation projects.]

Just played through the translation of Energy that came out today (available at ROMHacking.net and at the link MNKyDeth posted above). It translates the game and also fixes several of its most glaring issues, and that makes a huge difference -- it turns into a flawed but quirky little game I enjoyed enough to spend a couple hours beating.

EDIT: Aw, shucks, I totally missed this thread. Carry on, then...

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (109/135)]

I'm still planning to take another shot at Hit the Ice. Last time I got all the way to the final match and had winning chances.

BTW I like the Hit the Ice "series", such as it is, since different systems got very different ports. The Genesis and TurboGrafx versions of this game both have merit -- the Genesis version looks fancier but adopts a long, eight-match structure with passwords; the Turbo version has simpler graphics but is closer to the arcade game in many ways, with fun little bells & whistles like the octopus. But the SNES version is a disaster -- it looks like a slideshow!

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Can a region mod keep an Arcade Card Pro from working?]

To give closure on this, the issue did indeed turn out to be my CoreGrafx II's region mod. Apparently it was an older mod that didn't supply quite enough voltage for the Arcade Card Pro to work properly.

Keith Courage was kind enough to fix the issue, and now I'm in business! Had a fun session of Art of Fighting, and am looking forward to checking out more CD-ROM² goodness.

[Buy/Sell/Trade / Re: Is there a very cost-efficient way to get a basic PCE system, so-so condition?]

It was yamatoku-classic that sent me a Tennokoe 2...complete with batteries that had to have exploded at least a decade before the sale. The battery compartment was badly damaged, and I suspect the unit itself needs repair as there's a burn mark on the PCB at the power input.

Would it have killed them to open the battery compartment before selling it? Or maybe they did, and figured "UNTESTED" could mean "TOTALLY AND OBVIOUSLY HOSED BUT SCREW YOU LOL". At least I got a full refund.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Can a region mod keep an Arcade Card Pro from working?]

Thanks for the replies, all. Keith, I'm definitely going to take you up on that offer -- PM incoming.

I don't have another JP system, unfortunately, but if the culprit does turn out to be the region mod, perhaps I'll have one soon.

Agreed that there are a lot of variables going on. I don't know who originally performed the region mod or when, though it's cosmetically well done. It uses a flat black switch on the right side of the CoreGrafx II, similar to the kind you find on a power strip, if that helps identify the likely modder.

Does anyone have a suggestion of a HuCard game I might try on the EverDrive to "torture-test" this region mod? I've tried at least 20-25 different games without issue, but maybe I've just been lucky so far and haven't picked a game that's used the same address lines that the Arcade Card Pro uses (?).

BTW my Turbo ED is version 1.1, for the record.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Can a region mod keep an Arcade Card Pro from working?]

have you had any issues loading up any games with the  turboeverdrive? Typically the old version number one like you have would have some trouble with certain region mods. If that seems to work without any problems then most likely the region mod is okay for your arcade card Pro. But I cannot say for sure.

Version 1, version 2, and version 2.1 CD system cards do not actually have any RAM on them at all.

Thanks for this. I haven't had issues with any of the games I've tried (probably around 20-30 different titles). Is there any particular game I should try that's more likely to cause problems?

I did most of my HuCard gaming with the Turbo ED and console set to the US region, though I don't know if that makes a difference. (Obviously the console is set to JP mode when I'm using the Arcade Card Pro.)

I thought I remembered reading that it was the newer versions of the Turbo ED that had trouble with region mods -- am I wrong about that? I thought the 1.x versions were pretty free of issues.

Yeah, I was looking at an old post by Breetai (RIP) that said the system cards had the RAM. He must have just gotten things mixed up, and was thinking of the RAM built in to the console hardware itself.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Re: Can a region mod keep an Arcade Card Pro from working?]

Unfortunately, I don't have one (just a broken Tennokoe 2 ). I'll try backing out the card to see if it helps, though so far all my HuCards have worked (I have 7-8 originals plus the Turbo ED).

Does Wonder Boy III copy any data to the System Card? Is it possible that one of the address lines was improperly connected in the region mod, or has some other issue that's somehow corrupting data transfers from the CD to Arcade Card Pro? (But then, why would the EverDrive be working?)

EDIT: My mistake on the previous paragraph, I'd found a reference that claimed the System Cards 1.0 through 2.1 had 64K RAM, but that seems to be 100% false.

[Console Repair/Mod Center / Can a region mod keep an Arcade Card Pro from working?]

I have the following:

• region-modded CoreGrafx II
• Turbo EverDrive 1.x
• Arcade Card Pro (got a few months ago)
• Art of Fighting original CD (got a few months ago)
• burned copy of Wonder Boy III (Taiyo Yuden media burned at low speed)
• CD-ROM² with IFU, recapped and regeared (got two days ago)

If I load the Turbo EverDrive with the BIOS for System 1.x or 2.x, I'm able to play Wonder Boy III with no problems, and to see the little cutscene that tells me the Arcade Card is required for Art of Fighting. The CD-ROM² seems to be working perfectly, as far as I can tell.

However, if I use the Arcade Card Pro, it boots with the Super System screen and plays audio CDs, but both WBIII and Art of Fighting fail with a "LOAD ERROR". Art of Fighting usually fails after 5-10 sec., but once it tried to work for a while (30-45 sec.) before failing.

I cleaned the contacts and it made no difference; the Art of Fighting disc itself is immaculate, so I doubt that's the issue. Meanwhile, Wonder Boy III fails immediately (after 2-3 sec. of loading) with the Arcade Card Pro inserted.

Clearly the CD-ROM itself works, so does this suggest that the region mod is interfering with the Arcade Card Pro's operation? Is that even possible/likely? If so, is this a known issue?

I guess I may need to get another, unmodified CoreGrafx unit.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (109/135)]

Agreed, let's finish the library! Then we can try to beat the whole enchilada in 2018. 

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (109/135)]

At Sega-16 we just kept going when we didn't finish the library in a single year. (We still haven't, but it's the journey that counts, ma-a-a-an.)

Continuing into 2017 with this year's unbeaten games as the top priority, rather than restarting from scratch, would be great -- but I'm down for whatever. (And still intend to beat that $#$%@ Hit the Ice...)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (103/135)]

All the HuCards will be tough, but y'all are very close to at least knocking out all the CD games. Could someone just coast through the two Sherlocks with a walkthrough? (I'd do it but I don't have a CD unit yet)

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

Are there manual scans for Gunboat, Hit the Ice, Impossamole, and/or Yo Bro floating around anywhere?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Thoughts on good "quick pick up" games?]

Not everyone likes Atomic Robo-kid Special, but I'm rather fond of it, and it's certainly a good game for a sub-60-minute session.

That said, I really find that longer games with save function are often ideal for short sessions, whereas it's the "short" action games that make me feel like I'm trapped into longer gameplay sessions. So the premise of this thread is a bit paradoxical (to me).

Beating Hit the Ice, for example, would take well over an hour of continuous, intense play. OTOH I can play World Court Tennis for 10 minutes or 3 hours, as I see fit, since it uses passwords.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (94/135)]

I tried to take down Hit the Ice the other day, but lost to the Blacks in the last round. 

I'll try again! I figured out a lot of things about the game in the course of my 2-3 attempts, including one of the positions where you can score pretty reliably.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: List of all PCE translation projects.]

That list is very incomplete, but I don't have time to make one myself.

Are there any HuCard translations not listed? There are some CD games here:

http://www.romhacking.net/?page=translations&genre=&platform=5&status=&languageid=12&perpage=20&title=&author=&transsearch=Go

I can see a couple are missing, like Startling Odyssey II. I think work on Snatcher was started but didn't get very far, IIRC.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

goldenband: I accept MotoRoader, even if it technically isn't 100% complete. I'm sure some other folks (myself included) could beat the other races if we really wanted to be "thorough" ;)

Cool. I'm definitely going to beat the other races on my own, of course, but usually in these sorts of projects if you get the same credits for every game mode, you only have to do one. I figured it'd be more help to this project if I could move on to a different game.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo/PCE vs Genesis/MD: RPG library]

Looking at the Rennovation wiki, it looks like they only localized and published pre-existing games. That begs the question. Why would they publish a crappy game? I guess there is more too it than that.

Yeah, a lot of what we attribute to Renovation is really Wolf Team. The Renovation "style", such as it is, is largely made up of their games. But I also like several of the non-Wolf Team games like Gain Ground and even Todd's Adventures in Slime World (which with all its flaws was still super-addictive for me).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo/PCE vs Genesis/MD: RPG library]

Renovation have been on my radar for quite a while. The thing about their games is that they're usually at least interesting. Some of them are among my favorites on the system (e.g. Gain Ground, Granada), and even the unfortunate misfires still are worth experiencing.

The bottom of their barrel got pretty bad, but whose doesn't?

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Is the Tennokoe 2 (+region-modded CoreGrafx II) compatible w/ US HuCard library?]

Awesome, thanks. I sort of figured as much, but wanted to make sure.

I'll probably give away the first Tennokoe 2 I bought. Maybe someone can fix it up and use it to output RGB, whether or not the save memory still works.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Is the Tennokoe 2 (+region-modded CoreGrafx II) compatible w/ US HuCard library?]

I have a region-modded CoreGrafx II, plus a Turbo EverDrive 1.x (which works flawlessly with it) and a handful of HuCards from both US and Japan.

If I buy a Tennokoe 2, will all the US games that use save memory work correctly with it? For example, will I be able to save my game to the Tennokoe 2 in the US versions of Davis Cup Tennis, or Neutopia?

(And -- bonus question -- will the fan-translated version of Lady Sword save on a Tennokoe 2?)

I actually already have a Tennokoe 2 that I bought from yamatoku-classic on Ebay, but it arrived with severely corroded batteries in the compartment. One of the battery terminals was corroded so badly it fell off, and there are also burn marks on the PCB, so I don't trust it -- and when I tried using it with my PCE + Turbo ED, I started seeing glitchy behavior, so I stopped right away.

Eventually I'll get one of the CD systems, either a recapped Duo or a briefcase system, which I suppose will make this irrelevant. But I've sort of promised myself that I'll beat 20 HuCard games before I expand into the CD library.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo/PCE vs Genesis/MD: RPG library]

I found Traysia disappointing, sloppy, and dull. I didn't hate it, but I was glad I didn't spend big bucks to get a copy and just played it on my EverDrive instead. It's full of bugs and typos, the character motion feels like something is wrong with the game, and it occasionally gets spectacularly aggravating when you're trying to make progress.

Too bad, because the script has a couple flashes of better-than-average RPG writing -- it could've been a nice game. That little "hitch" every few steps you take is ridiculous, though.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

In Davis Cup Tennis, I won the "Great Britain" tournament (a clear stand-in for Wimbledon) in Tournament mode and got a credits roll. Is this sufficient to call the game beaten for our purposes?

/14wxe8x.jpg


If not, I can take on the Championship mode (which may well give the exact same credits roll!), but I'll need to buy some sort of save backup unit -- I only have a CoreGrafx II -- and may not get to it this year. (I bought a Tennokoe 2 on Ebay but it arrived with severe battery corrosion...)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

Win the championship in first place.

Well, sure! But the problem with Moto Roader is, there are seven different courses (each of which has eight different tracks, though the game calls them "heats" for some reason), and they're completely self-contained: /30j2t6v.jpg

That said, the usual standard I've seen with games with multiple self-contained things -- e.g. the different campaigns in a wargame -- is that if you get a victory screen + credits with any of the individual scenarios, you've beaten the game. And I figure the credits are likely to be identical for every course (if not, someone let me know).

So behold, my victory on the Normal course! -- which, again, is really a set of eight different "heats" or tracks:

/98dq8w.jpg
/1z4d0dy.jpg

This next one is very blurry (cheap cell phone camera) but the image at top shows my racer popping champagne with a stupid grin on his face, while the bottom is the credits starting to roll:

/ng9fev.jpg

So, is Moto Roader done now? (Or do I need to get seven identical credit sequences? )

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

What's the win condition for Moto Roader -- is it "get 1st place in one course and get the credits", or "get 1st place in all courses (and get the credits each time)"? It seems like each course (and all its heats) is self-contained.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

Only three months left...

...is this doable?

I don't know if any of the games left are insanely hard, have never been beaten by any known player, or have some other obscure barrier to victory. At Sega-16 -- where we're also trying to beat the full Genesis library, albeit not in a single year anymore -- there was one game that required that you watch a TV broadcast on a specific date (!!!) to get the final password, and no one had ever sussed that out until we had some help from an expert ROM hacker.

That said, quite a few games on that list are easy wins or popular games. Both Sherlock Holmes games are trivial with a walkthrough, and everyone raves about Cosmic Fantasy 2 and Nectaris/Military Madness. (Then again everyone raves about Master of Monsters, and we still haven't found someone to beat that at Sega-16.)

Sports games are tough; most people aren't willing to play those. I've tried out Davis Cup Tennis and Sonic Spike Volleyball over the weekend, but the former game is pretty rough and the latter infuriating.

But is it doable? Absolutely, with enough help. I'll do what I can, but I'm a newbie to the system so I can't promise much!

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

OK, here's the screenshot for World Court Tennis:

/2r29oqq.jpg

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Can Pcenginefx beat all of the licensed TurboGrafx-16 games in 2016? (85/135)]

Oh, shoot, I didn't know y'all were doing this! I love these kinds of projects.

I beat World Court Tennis a few weeks ago legitimately, but I didn't take a picture of the victory screen and I'm not sure how close my last password is to the final match (probably pretty close, though). If it's close, I can replay that match to get the ending again.

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

Right now, Double Dungeons! Eight down, 14 to go (though I know they're about to start getting much, much bigger).

Before that it was World Court Tennis, which I beat a few weeks ago, making it the first Turbo/PCE game I've ever beaten.