What's the best PC Engine to buy?

[Pedro Lambrini]

I keep looking at PC Engines on the 'net but there are just too many iterations and I can't really see any difference between most of them! What do you guys recommend? I have seen Coregrafx units going pretty cheap...

[Ganelon]

For max compatbility, you should get a Duo. Cores and CDs are much cheaper but Duos have no hassle with their built-in System 3 card and no incompability problems.

No clue about Euro Duos but Duos only play same-region hu cards (unless you buy a fairly expensive converter for a US Duo and both mod your system and get the converter for a JP Duo). There's a minimal library of US games but the shooters there are generally cheaper than the JP variants.

Arcade Card works directly only with a JP PCE system (converter needed for US systems). Only matters if you plan on getting Sapphire and don't have the means to play the Neo Geo fighters that require the card on a NG or supergun/cab.

Duo-R loses the headphone jack. Duo-RX just has the 6-button controller over the Duo-R, which is only handful with some fighters.

[GaijinPunch]

No clue about Euro Duos

They don't exist.

[SheSaidDutch]

Whats the difference between the Core and the PCE Original? only cosmetic?

Pedro Lambrini have you tried out any games for the PCE?

[Pedro Lambrini]

I've had a quick blast through emulation on my PC and I really liked Gunhed (I think!) and the Star Soldier games. It's really on ly for the shmups that I want one for.

[GaijinPunch]

Well, if you're not into collecting them, just get one of the 3 Duos (Duo, Duo-R, or Duo-RX) and buy Japanese games. For the few oddball US Hucards you want to play use Magic Engine.

You know, I've never known the diff between an original PC-E and Core Grafx. I don't think anything at all other than appearance.

[iatneH]

I think the CoreGrafx physical dimensions are a bit smaller although I'm not positive on this (I just bought my CoreGrafx a week and a half ago and I've never seen the original PCE)

There is an important difference though.
The original PCE only outputs RF video/audio (not counting through the expansion port) whereas the CoreGrafx has a DIN-5 AV port with composite video and stereo sound. Mine only came with a mono AV cable, but since it was a standard 180 degrees DIN-5, it was super easy for me to build my own stereo AV cable.

At the same time I also bought a US TurboGrafx-16 to play those oddball US HuCards, but the TG-16 only outputs RF. I'm waiting for some gamebits to arrive in the mail (hopefully they'll arrive tomorrow!) so I can add my own RCA jacks to it.

[Ghegs]

Aye, the Duo is a fine purchase, indeed. Also remember that all PC Engines can be modded to output RGB, something you might want to look into.

The original PCE is damn sexy, though. I have both the original and the Duo-R and while only the latter is hooked up at the moment, just looking at the original makes me all giddy. And my favourite games are mostly hu-cards, anyway.

Oh, and if you want to play absolutely every game ever released for the PCE, you'll need to go the rather expensive SuperGrafx + CD-Rom2 + Arcade Card Pro -combo route. Not really worth it as far as I'm concerned, only a handful of SGX games were released.

[Specineff]

^^^ A Duo with Arcade Card would be a better option, in that case.

[Ghegs]

^^^ A Duo with Arcade Card would be a better option, in that case.

Exactly. Which is what I said, only in a roundabout way.

Even the Arcade Card Duo isn't really necessary. Pretty much only games using it are fighters and Sapphire. Of course if you enjoy fighters and/or are willing to pay insane prices for Sapphire (none of you are using a burned copy, right? ) then it might be worth it. It's not terribly expensive.

[SheSaidDutch]

Go for a Core/PCE and a Duo like everyone else has said,

Some of my fav games are on HU-Card also

Sapphire I didn't enjoy it myself, The mix of 3D and 2D and the whole package bah!


Aldynes is a SGX game, I rank this game with R-Type and Gradius but as Gregs said not many games for the SGX

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I have the following NEC consoles:

Turbografx-16 with Turbo Booster

Turbo Duo with Hu-Card Convertor and Arcade Card Duo Upgrade + Tennoekoe Bank RAM-Rom Hu-Card (is a memory card for PCE consoles)

Turbo Express with Turbo Vision TV Turner Adapter

It is known that if you don't refresh your PCE Duo/Turbo Duo by powering it up every couple of months, your internal Duo "Backup RAM Saves" will be lost forever due to it's internal capacitor losing it's "charge". The only surefire method of preserving your precious PCE game saves is to transfer to a NEC Tennoekoe Bank RAM-Rom Hu-Card for posterity. The same thing applies to the Turbografx-16 console when using a Turbo Booster Plus as that has the built-in game save feature but requires that you power-up the TG-16/TB+ setup every so often as so not to lose those precious TG-16 game memory saves. Again, a NEC Tennoekoe Bank Hu-Card along with a Hu-Card convetor is a must to save those TG-16 game saves when using a Turbografx-16 console setup.

A solid PCE joystick for playing with shmups is the Hori PC Fighting Stick...is an all-metal based Japanese style short-throw ball type arcade stick with 6-button layout (perfect for those PCE fighting games) and even has built-in slow motion capabilities along with the essential variable auto-fire adjustable rates (a definite need for shmups...no need for sore fingers here!). I bought one brand new off of eBay back in 2000 for a mere $20.00 U.S. dollars but had to pay the extra $35.00 for EMS shipping to the USA from Japan. The original Japanese retail price for a brand new Hori PC Fighting Stick joystick controller was at 7,800 yen and that was back in 1994.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[OmegaFlareX]

A solid PCE joystick for playing with shmups is the Hori PC Fighting Stick.

The price has gone up a bit since you got one. 16-bit has one on his ebay store for $65. But it's also boxed/mint. LINK

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy the first-generation white PCE joystick. It says "Turbo Stick" down near the bottom. I dunno if it's just mine, but it's absolute fucking shit for diagonals. They're completely un-responsive and no good at all for shmups.

[Ghegs]

I actually use an adapter to hook up my PS2 controllers to the PCE. Works great, especially as the adapter maps Select and Start also to the shoulder buttons, meaning I have the commonly used speed control button (Select) at my fingertips. No need to move my thumb from the buttons or the d-pad to hit it.