Help picking a PCE/SuperGrafx?

[zionfarm]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Kelly and I am an Army soldier stationed at Fort Riley KS.  I was pointed to this site for help with getting into the TurboGrafx-16/PCE realm.  Growing up in the Virgin Islands I was a big gamer mostly on the Nintendo side of the house.  As an adult with the ability to buy my own systems and games, I want to play all the games I never got to play as a kid.  I remember back in 1990 my older brothers friend had a TurboGrafx-16.  He had Keith Courage and Military Madness. This was the first time I saw anything other than a NES.  I remember Military Madness was my favorite for some reason.  As we got older, the TurboGrafx-16 faded away as the arcade scene hyped up along with Nintendo & Sega taking over the home market.  Fast forward to 2018 with 4 years left in the Army and doing some time over in South Korea, I got the itch to get into the Turbo/PCE scene.  My question for you all is where do you guys suggest I start off?


* I will be going the scart route as I own a OSSC.
* I like owning physical copies of my games but very interested in a PC Engine Core Grafx/Super SD System 3 combo  .
* I have already downloaded the best games suggested by My Life In Gaming located at https://youtu.be/o9DvJdTDfRU.
* I have 2 Sony PVM's in my collection.

Thanks in advance to all of your input.

[CrackTiger]

You should stick with an unmodied CoreGrafx 1 with Super SD System 3. Make sure that you only buy a Coregrafx with the original power supply.

It will be the most convenient and accurate setup and should run you no more than a CD setup with RGB mod and Turbo Everdrive. You should order a packapunch RGB cable from retrogamingcables to have the best picture and sound.

After playing 99.9% of the library you can decide whether it's worth getting a large bulky SuperGrafx to play a few more worthwhile games (Daimakaimura, 1941 CA and Aldynes).

[zionfarm]

You should stick with an unmodied CoreGrafx 1 with Super SD System 3. Make sure that you only buy a Coregrafx with the original power supply.

It will be the most convenient and accurate setup and should run you no more than a CD setup with RGB mod and Turbo Everdrive. You should order a packapunch RGB cable from retrogamingcables to have the best picture and sound.

After playing 99.9% of the library you can decide whether it's worth getting a large bulky SuperGrafx to play a few more worthwhile games (Daimakaimura, 1941 CA and Aldynes).

Thanks for the advice CrackTiger

[zionfarm]

Was there a issue with folks selling after market power supplies?

[CrackTiger]

Black Tiger,

Was there a issue with folks selling after market power supplies?

I've had video and sound issues with my SMS and Mark III systems using them and using one with my white PC Engine with SSS3 produced a lot of lines and dots with loud buzzing. I just got a CoreGrafx with original psu and the picture is now basically perfect and the buzzing is so quiet that I have to crank the volume to really notice it with CD games. It's not much differebt from the kind of buzz that crts tend to make with static graphics on screen. People with packapunch cables say that there is no buzz and the picture is perfect. My MD2 scart cable has audio breakout and all of the cables I've tried with breakout audio produce that kind of buzz.

The original CoreGrafx and SuperGrafx have an updated soundchip which fixes a bug in sample playback. In theory it may reduce or eliminate a popping sound when samples are played at certain times in games. That updated chip also allows much greater sample playback ability and shifting like SNES in demos and future homebrews.

[PukeSter]

What kind of genres do you like OP? Any classic series?

The PCE library is smaller than the other 16-bit systems but it's really surprising what kind of games you can find on it sometimes.

[zionfarm]

What kind of genres do you like OP? Any classic series?

The PCE library is smaller than the other 16-bit systems but it's really surprising what kind of games you can find on it sometimes.

Since I don't read Japanese. I will be going after the non heavy Japanese text games. Shooters, some action platformers. I will be picking up US games as well.

[seieienbu]

What kind of genres do you like OP? Any classic series?

The PCE library is smaller than the other 16-bit systems but it's really surprising what kind of games you can find on it sometimes.

Since I don't read Japanese. I will be going after the non heavy Japanese text games. Shooters, some action platformers. I will be picking up US games as well.

PCE is a good system for those types of games (shooters in particular).  I'd second getting an everdrive rather than actually going for the US games.  You won't have to worry about a region mod if you use an everdrive and lately the prices on US games has gone absolutely crazy. 

As for aftermarket power supplies, I've had bad luck with a couple of them on a Duo.  Both of them had a bit of snow in the picture.  After I picked up an original power supply however, the picture is crystal clear and beautiful.

[NecroPhile]

You should stick with an unmodied CoreGrafx 1 with Super SD System 3. Make sure that you only buy a Coregrafx with the original power supply.

+1.  Though not perfect (what is?), this'll be cheaper than an RGB modded Duo, Everdrive, and Arcade Card Duo.

Your second option is to scrounge up a sweet Vistar while you're in South Korea. 

[TheClash603]

You should stick with an unmodied CoreGrafx 1 with Super SD System 3. Make sure that you only buy a Coregrafx with the original power supply.

It will be the most convenient and accurate setup and should run you no more than a CD setup with RGB mod and Turbo Everdrive. You should order a packapunch RGB cable from retrogamingcables to have the best picture and sound.

After playing 99.9% of the library you can decide whether it's worth getting a large bulky SuperGrafx to play a few more worthwhile games (Daimakaimura, 1941 CA and Aldynes).

Thanks for the advice CrackTiger

Granzort says hello.

[CrackTiger]

Granzort looks sounds and plays like one of those farmed out western developed TG-16 exclusives. Except it isn't as enjoyable as some and doesn't look or sound as good as others.

Night Creatures is much better all round and I can always keep going back to it. Every so often I give Granzort another chance and every time it seems even worse than last time.

I'd rather play Battle Ace.

[TheClash603]

Granzort looks sounds and plays like one of those farmed out western developed TG-16 exclusives. Except it isn't as enjoyable as some and doesn't look or sound as good as others.

Night Creatures is much better all round and I can always keep going back to it. Every so often I give Granzort another chance and every time it seems even worse than last time.

I'd rather play Battle Ace.

For some reason it reminds me more of an Apogee side scrolled than something you'd find on a console.  This makes no sense of course, since it is nothing like those Apogee games, but that's the strange feeling I get.

[esteban]

Granzort looks sounds and plays like one of those farmed out western developed TG-16 exclusives. Except it isn't as enjoyable as some and doesn't look or sound as good as others.

Night Creatures is much better all round and I can always keep going back to it. Every so often I give Granzort another chance and every time it seems even worse than last time.

I'd rather play Battle Ace.

For some reason it reminds me more of an Apogee side scrolled than something you'd find on a console.  This makes no sense of course, since it is nothing like those Apogee games, but that's the strange feeling I get.

I love CrackTiger, but I would play Granzort over Battle Act in 8 out of 10 trials.

And I spent way too much time playing Top Gun on NES back in the day.