The “What-Did-You-Buy-Today?” Thread

[BlueBMW]

Where did you end up finding it kamiboy?

[kamiboy]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/190670541774?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_934wt_922

In a hidden nook of eBay, where else?

This one is coming home after a long trip to Germany.

The auction description mentions nothing of any games being included, si I guess the pack-ins were swiped somewhere along the way.

[NecroPhile]

~$500 shipped, eh?  Did it come with a reach around?

[SMF]

Congrats on the minty Duo, Didn't know they was going for so much nowadays.

[Samurai Ghost]

Nice Duo you got there!

[kamiboy]

After two years of waiting I had almost given up on it, so when one fair auction showed up I decided I would be willing to go as high as 600, which was what I paid for the PS3 back in the day.

This should be my last decadently expensive hardware purchase unless I suddenly grow fond of the Neo Geo library, which is not likely.

[cyloaiza]

After two years of waiting I had almost given up on it, so when one fair auction showed up I decided I would be willing to go as high as 600, which was what I paid for the PS3 back in the day.

This should be my last decadently expensive hardware purchase unless I suddenly grow fond of the Neo Geo library, which is not likely.

$600?, no offense dude but that's $300 more than what I would have spent, especially since it didn't come with the original power supply and given the propensity of the capacitors going bad. Nice lookin system though..

[PunkCryborg]

Congrats on your duo!

[BlueBMW]

Goods from Japan are flowing in 

i905.photobucket.com/albums/ac253/bmcdanold/x68k/CompactGET.jpg

[Opethian]

wau nice hauly shore!!

[PunkCryborg]

I've been looking for a badass 80s boom box forever and I finally found one I like! It's pretty dirty and needs some TLC but I think I can clean it really nice!

[Lilgrafx]

I've been looking for a badass 80s boom box forever and I finally found one I like! It's pretty dirty and needs some TLC but I think I can clean it really nice!

Please put it on your shoulder and run around your neighborhood.

[Tatsujin]

WOW BENBY, congrats, so you got that houly bunch

[BlueBMW]

WOW BENBY, congrats, so you got that houly bunch

Yep.  Left a few of the most language intensive games in Japan with Kobos for testing future 68k machines.

I was amazed whats in some of these games!

/x68k/ys3_68k.jpg

[roflmao]

I was amazed whats in some of these games!

Wow, that's awesome!

[Joe Redifer]

Oh man that's sweet.

[JapanTokei]

Ys on 5 1/4 floppies..  Absolutely beautiful

WOW BENBY, congrats, so you got that houly bunch

Yep.  Left a few of the most language intensive games in Japan with Kobos for testing future 68k machines.

I was amazed whats in some of these games!

/x68k/ys3_68k.jpg

[Colossus1574]

Finally, after years of biding my time.


Got my minty Duo!

Congrats Kamiboy, i can smell the mintiness from here! 

[Nando]

Those postcard prints are freaking awesome! Is there artwork inside the manuals?

[SuperDeadite]

Than manual is huge and in full color.  1/3 story book, 1/3 actual manual, 1/3 sheet music.

[kamiboy]

$600?, no offense dude but that's $300 more than what I would have spent, especially since it didn't come with the original power supply and given the propensity of the capacitors going bad. Nice lookin system though..

It does come with the original power supply, that brick you see next to it is a voltage converter to use by the German gent who owned this specimen and apparently never played it.

Having been following the Duo scene on and off since 2009 I can safely say that 300 will definitely not net you a mint Turbo Duo. It might net you a banged up boxed unit if you find the right seller. I don't know about the going rate of mint Japanese PC Engine Duos as I've never seen one in mint condition for sale anywhere. But even then I doubt 300 will cut it.

I was hoping against hope that the auction would settle around 400 but based on previous mint auctions I was fully expecting it to go above 500. I think it being a German listing thinned out competition a bit. I've definitely seen boxed Turbo Duos go for more. Last mint I saw sold for over 600 I think.

I recently sold a dup game in my collection for 150 which means this thing only cost me 350 cash, so no big deal.

But on another subject, while I've often heard of the Sharp 68000 this is the first time I've actually seen a picture of one. I am very surprised to see how well designed it is. The mental image I had of it was a typical mid 90's ugly beige PC box. I forget that Japan was once a leader in the field of elegant consumer design.

By the way, do those floppies still work? I remember 1.44 floppies, they were one of the worst unreliable rubbish ever designed for computing use.

[BlueBMW]

I bought that x68000 system as "junk"  it was 10000 yen with the keyboard, mouse, system disks and manuals.  While I plan to fully refurbish it, I did power it on and can confirm that both floppy drives work perfectly!  Just has low audio which I already know is capacitors like Duos.

Also, that is a compact model and isnt as elegant as the twin tower units.  Those use 5.25" floppies whereas the compact uses 3.5".  Most original software is on 5.25" disks so you typically have to write your own floppues for the compact units.

Think of the x68000 as a super powerful 16 bit gaming system.  Ill pick the x68k version over the console version of any game I can.  There are a few exceptions of course but generally the x68k version is way better.  Cotton is a great example of this.

[Opethian]

Gradius II is near arcade perfect and the soundtracks are amazing!

[jeffhlewis]

I bought that x68000 system as "junk"  it was 10000 yen with the keyboard, mouse, system disks and manuals.  While I plan to fully refurbish it, I did power it on and can confirm that both floppy drives work perfectly!  Just has low audio which I already know is capacitors like Duos.

Also, that is a compact model and isnt as elegant as the twin tower units.  Those use 5.25" floppies whereas the compact uses 3.5".  Most original software is on 5.25" disks so you typically have to write your own floppues for the compact units.

Think of the x68000 as a super powerful 16 bit gaming system.  Ill pick the x68k version over the console version of any game I can.  There are a few exceptions of course but generally the x68k version is way better.  Cotton is a great example of this.

I bought that x68000 system as "junk"  it was 10000 yen with the keyboard, mouse, system disks and manuals.  While I plan to fully refurbish it, I did power it on and can confirm that both floppy drives work perfectly!  Just has low audio which I already know is capacitors like Duos.

Also, that is a compact model and isnt as elegant as the twin tower units.  Those use 5.25" floppies whereas the compact uses 3.5".  Most original software is on 5.25" disks so you typically have to write your own floppues for the compact units.

Think of the x68000 as a super powerful 16 bit gaming system.  Ill pick the x68k version over the console version of any game I can.  There are a few exceptions of course but generally the x68k version is way better.  Cotton is a great example of this.

Byron - I know we talked at MGC about getting an X68k over here. I might have to throw gigantic sums of money your way to make this happen

Awesome haul on those games for the Sharp!

[kamiboy]

What are considered the killer apps for the x68000? I have very limited knowledge of computer/Game Console hybrids like this, especially the Japanese ones.

Did they come with matching controllers?

[liquitek]

I've been looking for a badass 80s boom box forever and I finally found one I like! It's pretty dirty and needs some TLC but I think I can clean it really nice!

That is a thing of proper 80's beauty.  Nice one mate!

[Mathius]

What are considered the killer apps for the x68000? I have very limited knowledge of computer/Game Console hybrids like this, especially the Japanese ones.

Did they come with matching controllers?

A remake of the first Castlevania which has some of the most beautiful parallax scrolling in the entire series. The computer was also used by Capcom as a development unit for their CPS-1 arcade boards. Needless to say you can find lots of arcade perfect translations of popular Capcom arcade games.

[Opethian]

dont forget ChoRenSha68k

[SuperDeadite]

What are considered the killer apps for the x68000? I have very limited knowledge of computer/Game Console hybrids like this, especially the Japanese ones.

Did they come with matching controllers ?

Hybrid?  It's a computer lol.  Just had very advanced graphic chips for it's time.  It's built more like an arcade machine then a conventional computer.  The game list is quite huge, the majority are arcade ports which are often better then the originals due to lots of extra features like MIDI sound module support.  Being a computer there are things you have to learn to use one properly.  And the floppies can die, but the 5.25 disks are generally very durable.  Out of my stack I have one dead doujin, and one game with a few glitches.  Here's my current stockpile:


_{https://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r260/SuperDeadite/PICT1199.jpg}

[SuperDeadite]

dont forget ChoRenSha68k

It's ok but severally overrated.

[Mathius]

dont forget ChoRenSha68k

It's ok but severally overrated.

I played it at MGC and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Samurai Ghost]

Ah, the x68... It's like the forbidden fruit for me. I know I want it, but once I try it I know it will begin a very dangerous addiction...

[SuperDeadite]

Ah, the x68... It's like the forbidden fruit for me. I know I want it, but once I try it I know it will begin a very dangerous addiction...

Well the games are actually very cheap here in Japan.  Though they could in theory die on you at any time.  The hardware can be pricey, but once you get the setup, games don't cost much at all except for a few notables.

[Samurai Ghost]

Ah, the x68... It's like the forbidden fruit for me. I know I want it, but once I try it I know it will begin a very dangerous addiction...

Well the games are actually very cheap here in Japan.  Though they could in theory die on you at any time.  The hardware can be pricey, but once you get the setup, games don't cost much at all except for a few notables.

Yeah if I ever move back I'd probably get a set up going. There are just too many awesome games for it! Would love a nice MSX setup as well. But I have a lifetime of collecting ahead of me, and I think I'm going to concentrate on my US Master System collection while I'm living in the US.

[kamiboy]

Hybrid?  It's a computer lol.

Hybrid is my name for those computer systems that had special game development friendly hardware built in. Think something like the Amiga. If the graphics hardware has support for hardware sprites, scrolling etc. I think of it as a hybrid because it was obviously designed with game development as a priority unlike the early days of the PC which just gave developers a frame buffer to write pixels into and a palette to manipulate.

According to Wiki the later models of the system came with support for SCSI hard drives. Can you backup games to the drive and run them from there?

I am guessing not without some hacking, right?

[BlueBMW]

Games can be installed and run from hard drives.  There are also ways to use a scsi to ide to compact flash setup though ive never messed with any of that stuff.  Deadite would know more as I beleive he said his system has a 40mb hard drive in it.

[Opethian]

you need over 4MB of RAM on a system to run games of the HDD (6MB for those games that require 4MB on disk) Id love the SCSI > CF or SD solution as finding a reliable drive that old is a gamble at best.

[kamiboy]

I've been watching X68000 videos all day, I dont like the prospects of this...

[nectarsis]

I got my baby back from the chophospital (plus teh MLB goodness & chopsados of course)   

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[BlueBMW]

I've been watching X68000 videos all day, I dont like the prospects of this...

If you're hardcore about the 8/16bit gaming generation and have already delved into all the mainstream stuff, the x68000 is a nice new avenue to go down.

[kamiboy]

Yeah, it certainly looks like it. In many ways the X68000 is like having a versatile arcade board, and one that comes in one of the sexiest computer cases this side of Apple.

But those prices make the Duo I bought look like a bargain. I may pick one up if I get to go to Japan next year. Those monitors are very sexy as well but given weight/bulk they are out of the question.

What resolution does the X put out when running most games? VGA? 240p?

[BlueBMW]

Games typically run in either low resolution (15khz) or high resolution (31khz)   so it can be a little tricky funding a good display for the system.  Older vga monitors will accept the 31khz signal (640x480 iirc)  but likely wont accept the low resolution signal.  You can use an expensive scaler unit or find an original sharp monitor that accepts all three resolutions (15k, 24k and 31k).  Few games use mid res 24k.  If you just stick to 31k games, you can still have a lot of fun.

[Opethian]

IIRC Capcom games pretty much all default to 15k so you have to blindly navigate to the options menu to change to 31k

[SuperDeadite]

After Burner is probably the worst offender, as it defaults to 15khz and has to be changed via menus.  The issue is it only supports analog control via mouse or cyberstick.  Good luck doing that blindly.

[kamiboy]

Well, good thing I have NEC 29" multisync CRT monitor then. That thing is a miracle, it accepts anything you throw at it, even above SVGA resolutions and the picture quality is a dream.

For now I am going to put the x68000 in the "would be nice if" pile along with the NEO GEO and Amiga 500. But given how attractive the library looks I'll prolly end up getting it some time in the future.

[Opethian]

I wish I had an XM29 myself. You iwll have to find someone to make cables for you to use that with the system.

[ApolloBoy]

For now I am going to put the x68000 in the "would be nice if" pile along with the NEO GEO and Amiga 500.

Funny you bring those up as I managed to acquire both an Amiga 500 and an AES within the past few months. I'm still hoping to pick up an X68k sometime this year as I already have a game for it (Geograph Seal) but I'm still a long way off from affording one.

[Bernie]

Got this yesterday.  It is on it's way to my place. 
/548553_3117059801807_1123836233_32264629_1449637950_n.jpg

[SMF]

Got this yesterday.  It is on it's way to my place. 
/548553_3117059801807_1123836233_32264629_1449637950_n.jpg

looks Awesome Bernie, Is it modded or anything extra?

[chany60126]

Didn't get a chance to post this earlier in the week, but here are some pics of my monty haul from last Sunday.