UpperGrafx/UperGrafx vs. Super SD System 3

[CZroe]

A couple months ago I traded my Turbo EverDrive for a TurboGrafx-CD dock. It was WAY past time for me to get a CD drive for my TG16. The thing is, I'm the type who prefers to buy broken crap and fix it, like I recently did for a "junk" Neo Geo AES a few months back (trace repair; adapt a PSU, rewire Neo-Geo X USB sticks, and a new voltage regulator). I've been playing the waiting game, looking for a good deal on a junk drive.

I neglected to pick up a CD-ROM^2 unit when I was in Japan several months ago purely because I didn't have the luggage space, so I recently ordered a "junk" PC Engine CD-ROM^2 drive and a new TurboED (need it as a System Card). I'd like to reduce wear and tear, so I've also had my ear to the ground for any optical drive emulator options. I know that the guy who makes the Rhea and Phoebe ODEs for Sega Saturn mentioned his interest in making one back in 2015 but he hadn't really said anything since.

Out of the blue, we get Terra Onion's Super SD System 2 adapter that runs HuCard/TurboChip, CD, Super CD, and Arcade CD games from SD card. I kinda wish it had a USB port and could play or dump original CDs from a USB disc drive, but Open PS2 Loader (OPL) never even got that functionality despite all the malfunctioning DRE PS2s out there.

Knowing that this would preclude the use of UperGrafx/UpperGrafx for digital video, I went back to the English section of the UperGrafx site to see if they had ever made an internal or Duo version (I've installed a ton of UltraHDMI and Hi-Def NES, so I'd be up for it). While I didn't find that, I did find a note saying that it has all the hardware needed to run CD games... and it's already built in even though they aren't sure if they will release the functionality. Well, I couldn't help but notice a section about "CD-ROM2" in the Japanese part. Sure enough, it was about adapting CD images for a "memory card." I wasn't even aware of the UpperGrafx having a card slot!

Obviously, their English-language section is lacking, so I thought I'd come here to see if I could learn anything else about this device. No, I'm not looking at it as an alternative to real games (I LOVES me some real games). I'm looking at it as a way to preserve the original hardware and add digital video. Being in the USA with no good way to use RGB, the UpperGrafx's DVI/HDMI is a bit more important to me than the SSDSys3's RGB.

I did try searching for an existing topic about this but Tapatalk search isn't working and all I get from my PC are SuperGrafx threads.

[Phase]

Upergrafx thread
https://www.pcengine-fx.com/forums/index.php?topic=20882.0