Bought my very first PC Engine system

[tbone3969]

Games are better than gold. LOCK IN YOUR RETURNS NOW FOLKS.

Hell yeah.  I recently bought a nasty looking PS2 for $3.  Cloroxed the shit out of it, blew out the dust, cleaned the lense, lubed th gears, and now it runs perfectly.  Plays any and all CDs, DVDs and PS1/PS2 games I throw at it.  I even installed an HDD and I have been playing games right from the HDD.  So cool.

I also picked up Shenmue 2 for XBOX CIB for less than $2.

God bless America!

[tbone3969]

Hey OP,

You should get this.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-and-ENGLISH-Xak-III-The-Eternal-Recurrence-Deluxe-Ed-PC-Engine-Turbografx/182299420957?hash=item2a71e4691d:g:hnoAAOSwOyJX7~Y1

What a deal.

[turboswimbz]

Games are better than gold. LOCK IN YOUR RETURNS NOW FOLKS.

Hell yeah.  I recently bought a nasty looking PS2 for $3.  Cloroxed the shit out of it, blew out the dust, cleaned the lense, lubed th gears, and now it runs perfectly.  Plays any and all CDs, DVDs and PS1/PS2 games I throw at it.  I even installed an HDD and I have been playing games right from the HDD.  So cool.

I also picked up Shenmue 2 for XBOX CIB for less than $2.

God bless America!

I assume you are trying to "troll" the people here are on the other side of things but i would argue:

this is different than "investing".  Investing in the since most people refer to requires speculation.  and therefor a great risk in losses. Speculation on used goods in general means you have a volatile market that could lead you to owning an item which is worth less than you put into it. Your minimal investing in used goods is not sustainable or long term and in general and does not carry a high level of risk since you are putting out minimal resources.  What your trying to do is tell everyone that the Exception is the rule.  The exception is never the rule. 

Spending thousands or more on used video games ans sitting on them is a stupid if your reasoning is to make money.  It's what people tell themselves to justify buying them because they spend so much in money and time on them.  When instead they should just say, Hey I have fun with this, I like seeing this game and touching it and it makes me happy.  That's why I have all my physical games and systems they make me happy.

I don't care about your "scores".  or if you've made money.  IF your enjoying games and want to share the passion, that's awesome.  If you want me to be impressed by your cheap shenmue, I won't be. I don't keep scores that way.  To me the collector with 3 games and plays emulators and tries to learn about development and the games and has a ton of fun going to arcades and meet ups is way above the "look at my score guy" or "here is a video full of mis-information, but look I'm an expert" youtube guys .

With Love ,
Swimby     

[tbone3969]

Well said.  I would say I'm a hybrid as I love finding "scores", as you put it, and I play the shit out of my systems, well that is I used to before my daughter was born two years ago.  Now I squeeze in some play time here and there.  My family is my number one priority right now.  I would say I play my Switch the most, currently, as I commute on the subway about two hours each work day.  I was planning on beating Neutopia on my Express during my subway rides but then a good friend of mine bought me a Switch out of nowhere and that was it.  I was hooked.  I refuse to buy any current gen systems but getting one as a gift is something I will allow.

[turboswimbz]

Well said.  I would say I'm a hybrid as I love finding "scores",

Finding A game I love for reasonable price is awesome. don't get me wrong.  Getting Nexzr at a good price made my day.  but I'm talking about people who thrive on this alone. I'm glad you have found a way to play games and are happy.  I wish you many more great  days of gaming.

[Winniez]

I think the OP makes a valid point but used controversial wording. Investment is a triggering word here,  and I can see why. It implies market speculation and profiting.
I think the point that the OP tried to make is that its not the same to buy the latest FIFA/NHL/Madden for $60 than buying lets say Soldier Blade for $100, in 3 years that FIFA will be worth $5 but Soldier Blade will be worth atleast the $100.
I don't see anything wrong with thinking about it that way, you never know what life throws at you and if you need to convert your games to cash its comforting to know that the option is there. 
It goes without saying that the main point should be buying games to play them.

[cireza]

Coming back on the forum after a few days... and WTF happened here ? You guys are crazy... 

I was just saying that if I buy a game 100$ and like it, then that's great. If I don't like it, I can sell it and get back my 100$.

That's it... 

I don't "make money" on selling retro games. I have a job, that's how I make money 
I simply like to have the games I like "real", and not only a rom or a burned CD. Is this a bad thing ?

By the way, English is not my native language. Investment looked like the correct word but maybe I was wrong... I wanted to say that these games don't lose value. Sorry if I offended you. But again, this came as a surprise.

[Gypsy]

Coming back on the forum after a few days... and WTF happened here ? You guys are crazy... 

I was just saying that if I buy a game 100$ and like it, then that's great. If I don't like it, I can sell it and get back my 100$.

Not always but generally this is the case.

I simply like to have the games I like "real", and not only a rom or a burned CD. Is this a bad thing ?

You can play games however you want, obviously. I play both ways. I like to buy games generally but sometimes the game is just too damn much or like recently I wanted to play Neutopia in English and had been spending a bit much lately on other non-gaming stuff so I just fired up Ootake.

By the way, English is not my native language. Investment looked like the correct word but maybe I was wrong... I wanted to say that these games don't lose value. Sorry if I offended you. But again, this came as a surprise.

Investment means buying with the intention of making money, to clear that up for you.

[NecroPhile]

I think most of us understood that you meant you could buy, play for a while, and later resell pricey games and not lose much money.  It's obvious you didn't mean that your goal was to flip games for max profits.

[cireza]

Investment means buying with the intention of making money, to clear that up for you.

Well this is not what I meant... I am a guy that plays games, nothing more.

I can't wait to receive my first games by the way. I will post impressions when I finally get the chance to play them.

[tbone3969]

And you can sell them in a few months or years for a profit.   

[NecroPhile]

The troll strikes again!

[tbone3969]

Troll or not it is true.  I have sold numerous retro games for profit over the years.  TurboGrafx specifically has been good to me.  It seems the price for Turbo stuff has exploded over the past few years and I have been in the game since the beginning.  I had the original TurboGrafx when it came out.  I remember going into Toys R Us and buying Super Star Soldier.  Remember they had that ticket system back them.  You had to bring the ticket to the game counter to get the game after you purchased it.  Good times.

[NecroPhile]

There's no question that you're trolling, and yet you wonder why everyone hates you. 

[Gypsy]

Investment means buying with the intention of making money, to clear that up for you.

Well this is not what I meant... I am a guy that plays games, nothing more.

I can't wait to receive my first games by the way. I will post impressions when I finally get the chance to play them.

That's what I figured, just the wrong choice of a word. English can be a pretty confusing language.

[turboswimbz]

And you can LOVE them in a few months, years, for a LIFETIME.   

FIXED

[cireza]

The key missing part arrived yesterday : the controller. After more than 3 weeks I finally got a chance to play the console, and I have been very impressed by what I have seen ! Emulators running on your computer never really come close to the real experience on the console, in RGB, with a good CRT TV.

I discovered that I had to boot the CD-ROM Bios 1.00 to make Altered Beast work. Glad that I picked up a Turbo Everdrive v2. By the way this Everdrive looks like it has a better build quality than my other Everdrives.

Altered Beast is a pretty great port seeing that it was released in 1989. Big sprites, good colors, good music and voices. The game runs fine, but it is very difficult. I could not get past the second boss, I find it a lot harder than on MegaDrive.

Then I played some Gotzendeiner, really liked what I played of the game. Scrolling is a bit choppy. I think that the game won't be a good contender at the most replayable game however. I got stuck in some sort of caves, I will have to give it another try.

I started Anearth Fantasy Stories just to see how it was, and I get the feeling that this will be a fantastic game. I simply need to get in the mood of playing a Japanese game. I will probably be printing an edited version of the guide that you linked me earlier in the thread, it will be much more comfortable playing it this way.

Finally, I spent a maybe an hour on Spriggan Mark 2, and loved the game instantly. I find the visuals absolutely fantastic. Several parallaxes, a lot of sprites, a great sense of depth. The game was crafted with a lot of passion. I played until stage 8 (game was not very difficult on Normal) and had a blast. I stopped because it was getting late.

I also booted my Turbo Everdrive and two or three roms to see if everything was working properly.

On the technical aspect of the machine, I am really blown away by how capable the console is, considering that it was released in 1987. The console simply blows away the MegaDrive in terms of colors, this is absolutely stunning. Emulators and youtube videos never do colors justice, you have to see if on the your TV to understand it.

It seems to me that the PCE is a lot less constraining. You can display almost all colors of the palette, and the Genesis has a big constraint because the 64 colors are divided in 4 palettes, and every tile or sprite can only use one palette at once. When I see how the colors are divided around the screen on PCE, it seems to me that you don't really have this kind of constraint. I am not an expert, but it seems obvious when you see the games.

The quantity of stuff that moves around the screen with no or minimal slowdown is also a pretty impressive thing. It can manage a big number of sprites at once, while even maintaining impressive parallaxes (which are also made with sprites). This is a very interesting approach and I can't wait to see other games.

I will definitely be buying some other games in the future ! 

[TheClash603]

You finally get to play and you start with Altered Beast!?!?  I love this game to death, much more than I should, but pretty much only the arcade game is at all playable.

Glad you enjoyed the system and posted some good comments.  I'll keep checking in to view your reactions and to make fun of you for bad life choices (i.e. - Altered Beast).

[cireza]

Played some Neutopia today. I completed the first two dungeons. I did not expect the game to be so linear, but it was otherwise pretty fun.

And Altered Beast is indeed a strange beast. Always had a soft spot for this game, such a unique experience and game-design in the end. I wanted to see how this port would run, and the game was not expensive at all.

[PukeSter]

Lol altered beast...it's beatable on hucard but it takes all your continues. The lack of I-frames is killer. Once you get to the later bosses they each take several minutes to kill. You can't cheese the 3rd or final bosses.

The colors are nice on pce but I have found the palette still makes things limited compared to the Snes. Flicker is annoying at times and hucards tend to have small romsizes.

Make sure you get to try all the taito, irem and namco games. There's a ton of them.

Dawn of ys is probably the best overhead adventure game on the system except for the Xanadus

[cireza]

Dawn of ys is probably the best overhead adventure game on the system except for the Xanadus

Is this the game that was translated to English ? I will try burning an ISO of it one of these days. But I would really like to get my hands on Ys I & II first, if possible.

[PukeSter]

Dawn of ys is probably the best overhead adventure game on the system except for the Xanadus

Is this the game that was translated to English ? I will try burning an ISO of it one of these days. But I would really like to get my hands on Ys I & II first, if possible.

Yeah it was translated into english. I personally like it more than Ys I and II.

If you're gonna play Ys I and II, I would highly recommend the steam version. It's based on a pc remake from the late 90s, and the sprite work is stunning. You also get multiple soundtracks, though not the pce version

[cireza]

Thanks for the advice but I am the kind of person who loves having fewer pixels and playing on a CRT TV 

[Gypsy]

Dawn of Ys is an excellent game. Ys I & II is a bit more dated but worth a play through. It's certainly better than some of the other early versions like the NES version.

I'm waiting for the Xanadu translation so it might be awhile.

Emulators running on your computer never really come close to the real experience on the console, in RGB, with a good CRT TV.

I strongly disagree but I won't spend time trying to convince anyone otherwise, that would be a fool's errand. You can even get emulators going out to a crt, though it's even more work if you want to get it to a tv or pvm instead of just a vga crt monitor

[Winniez]

Never really cared for Altered Beast, be it the arcade, Megadrive, PC-Engine or any other version. The game just is not that fun for me. Not that its terrible but the gameplay just feels very mediocre. Maybe I don't have enough nostalgia for it.

Certainly agree about CRTs, original hardware+CRT is always great. There is pretty much no lag at all, everything feels so immediate. The change is really noticeable whenever coming from a modern computer/console environment. There are way more pieces in the lag chain than just the display, in a way its a current topic considering the virtual reality experiences.

Besides the speed CRT just looks right to me. I'm not a big fan of the LCD+framemeister+RGB look for retro games, the image and pixels are so sharp that it looks like a modern retro inspired indy game.

RBG definitely looks great but for me the general CRT feel is way more important than hunting down console variations with supposedly slightly better video signals. Also depends on the system, with Megadrive there is a huge difference between RGB and composite, with N64 everything is blurry no matter the connection (although not seen RGB in real life). I have Famicom/NES and PC-Engine hooked up via composite, N64 S-Video and everything else RGB. Thats good enough for me. Although PC-Engine might get a RGB upgrade in the future.

[Gypsy]

I am pretty pro CRT too, I like the look, but a monitor is totally fine and emulation looks just as good. Honestly some systems are, imo, better via emulation. Newer ones though of course, not stuff like PCE, GEN, SNES etc...

[Winniez]

Yeah, Dolphin would be a good example of that, or maybe N64 emulation.

[PukeSter]

Gotta love 4K resolution and texture filtering on dolphin.

Shame the GameCube didn't get more games. Ps2 emulation is iffy and Xbox emulation is in the fetus stage

[cireza]

For 3D games, you can get significant upgrades through emulators, like a better internal resolution, texture packs etc... Of course it is better, but it requires quite a lot of tweaking.

It is also better than playing on CRT in 480i. Interlaced is very aggressive, with a lof of "blinking" (not sure if this is the correct word). But 240p is just perfect for our old consoles.

I know that you can output to RGB Scart through VGA adapter. You can build a setup with emulators this way. Might do this one day

[cireza]

I have been playing on a regular basis and really enjoy the console.

Recently I spent quite a lot of time on the excellent Devil's Crash. I also played a lot of Dragon's Fury on MegaDrive, for the sake of comparing both versions, and because both are great.

It is pretty great to be able to use directly headphones with the console (same on MegaDrive). However even on the minimum setting the sound is pretty loud. Still a good thing though.

Also tried some other games. I played Chase HQ. on PCE it is a fine version. Very fast scrolling. Also played Chase HQ II on MegaDrive, pretty good game for the console.

After Burner II and Street Fighter 2 are very impressive ports. SFII displays some great palettes and plays just fine.

[Gypsy]

Devil's Crash is awesome it is one of my top 3 pinball video games.

[cireza]

Devil's Crash is awesome it is one of my top 3 pinball video games.

Agreed. My favorite pinball games are Last Gladiators and Necronomicon on Sega Saturn.

Definitely check them out !

[Gypsy]

Devil's Crash is awesome it is one of my top 3 pinball video games.

Agreed. My favorite pinball games are Last Gladiators and Necronomicon on Sega Saturn.

Definitely check them out !

Funny you mention them, as those are the other two in my top 3.

I even own a copy of Last Gladiators 9.7.

[Gypsy]

I almost forgot, there is a hidden table on Last Gladiators. It's really just credits but they are delivered game style as you play pinball. Something worth seeing once for sure. xyzxyzcba↑↑start at the start menu.