ATTN: PC Engine Fan X!

[sumdumgoy]

x

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I keep seeing your name pop around, and I just wanted to say that, even though I don't have much TurboGrafx16 experience, one game that caught hold of me back in the Virtual Console days and had a profound effect, was Military Madness.

Something about the mood that game casts; none of the remakes or follow-ups can touch it in any aspect. It has an irreplaceable charm that gives me the same serious late-night vibes I got playing the first Diablo on PC and Super Metroid on SNES.

That game alone gives me such respect for the console. So, it saddens me to see the problems of the mini version that released years ago. And buying an Analogue one might be financially fine right now, but those games! Military Madness alone, without the big box, is over $100 USD!

I wish I could deep-dive into the TG16's library without breaking the bank.

Yes, an Analogue Duo console + a Krikzz Turbo Everdrive v2.5 flashcart to play the Military Madness rom or get the Krikzz Turbo Everdrive Pro and be able play all TG-16 & PC Engine game cart roms + all CD based games via a microSDHC memory card.

Stoneage Gamer sells both Turbo Everdrive and Turbo Everdrive Pro flashcarts (I own both myself and they allow you to play any TurboGrafx-16 or PC Engine game to your heart's desire including the uber-rare TTI produced Magical Chase stg that fetches some serious $$$ nowadays without breaking the bank indeed).

https://stoneagegamer.com/turbo-everdri ... shell.html

https://stoneagegamer.com/turbo-everdri ... black.html

You can buy a white colored PC Engine console, the Core Grafx or even the Core Grafx II console for about $100-$150 usd + db GrafxBooster add-on + either Krikzz TE or TE-Pro flashcart and you're all set.

The Castlemania/Rondo Products sites sell the aforementioned "db GrafxBooster" add-on that allows any PCE/Core Grafx 1 & 2/Super Grafx/TurboGrafx-16 gaming consoles to output the following: RCA Composite Video, S-Video, Left & Right RCA Phono jacks for stereo sound and a 9-pin RGBs output for use with a Sega Genesis 2 Scart cable.

The original NEC Turbo Booster add-on for the TG-16 console only added RCA composite video + L & R stereo phono jack outputs at best (whereas with the rarer NEC Turbo Booster Plus add-on, it adds what the regular TB already outputs + built-in memory saving functionality for certain TG-16 Turbo Chip games and PCE Hu-Card games -- both the JPN & USA versions of Hudson Soft/Compile's classic stg of Soldier Blade's high scores & high score initials are saved for posterity upon being powered down for the night and will re-appear intact if booted up the next day). How cool is that?

https://castlemaniagames.com/products/d ... ooster-ttp

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[sumdumgoy]

x

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The Top 10 must own/play TurboGrafx-16 games in my opinion are (these games listed below are all TG-16 cart based games):

1.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Blazing Lazers stg circa 1989 with a whopping 9 stages altogether (is better known as Gunhed in Japan for the PCE version -- there is a PCE variant of "Gunhed - Special Version" which is a Caravan timed version of Gunhed worth checking out).

2.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Soldier Blade stg circa 1992 -- is a sequel to the 1990 released TG-16 stg of Super Star Soldier. Has the cool 2 minute & 5 minute Caravan modes as well.

3.) Hudson Soft/Red/Compile's Air Zonk stg circa 1992 -- features the famous Bonk character/official mascot of the NEC manufactured TG-16 console as a cool powered-up robot out to fight against King Drool and his minions/cohorts -- features plenty of awesome layers of parallax scrolling effects galore!

4.) Hudson Soft's Bomberman '93 circa 1992 -- features up to 5 players or a combination of players & CPU controlled opponents duking it out until one person left wins the round with up to 5 rounds to win the overall match -- does require a Turbo Tap add-on or PCE Multi-Tap add-on & up to five Turbo Pad controllers or PCE gamepad controllers. The even better PCE sequel of Bomberman '94 with the cool Kangaroo ride-on animals is recommended as a great party game for both kids and adults alike -- you never know whose gonna win the current round until it's all over or die by being hit on the head with a pressure cooker if the 3 minute countdown timer reaches the 1 minute mark, then it's "Sudden Death" mode.

5.) Interstate/Kaneko's Aero Blasters stg circa 1990 -- features simultaneously co-op two player stg action with a Turbo Tap add-on and two Turbo Pads for some serious arcade stg action.

6.) Hudson Soft/Naxat's Alien Crush -- stellar pinball game circa 1989 that's strongly reminiscent of H.R. Giger's classic Alien creature design/mythos.

7.) Hudson Soft/Naxat's Devil Crush -- sequel to Alien Crush that was released in 1990 and features even better pinball gameplay.

8.) Hudson Soft/Face Co. Ltd.'s Time Cruise -- another slick pinball game circa 1992 with some cool mini games thrown in to spice things up.

9.) Magical Chase stg circa 1993 -- is regarded as the very last official TG-16 game to be released from TTI (Turbo Technologies Incorporated) themselves on December 31, 1993 along with the TG-16 game of Legend of Hero Tonma on same date as well.

10.) King of Casino circa 1990 -- fun game with the usual games found in casinos worlwide including my favorite, the one armed bandit type of slot machines where you just might "break the bank and win big." This particular TG-16 game features a password setup so you can continue where you left off last time.

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Bonus TG-16 game listing: Hudson Soft/Red's Bonk 3: Bonk's Big Adventure circa 1993 -- this is an action platformer based game with Bonk in his 3rd and final outing on the venerable TG-16 console with simultaneously two-player co-op action at it's best if you've got a Turbo Tap on hand + two Turbo Pads. TTI released a Super CD-Rom2 based Bonk 3 variant that is an USA TG-16 exclusive in 1994 -- you can play it with a Turbo Everdrive Pro setup.
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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[sumdumgoy]

x

[PC Engine Fan X!]

It's well known that the PC Engine gaming platform has 113 different stg titles including a near-perfect port of Irem's R-Type (that was originally released as two separate 2-megabit sized Hu-Cards in Japan whereas with it being released in the USA as a single 4-megabit Turbo Chip cart on the TurboGrafx-16 console).

The Top 10 PC Engine/TG-16 CD-based games worth checking out are:

1.) Hudson Soft/Red's 1991 released Gate of Thunder stg -- is a Super CD-Rom2 based stg that was one of three games as pack-in games when TTI sold the Turbo Duo console in the USA in October of 1992 with an MSRP of $299.99 usd.

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As a bonus, you can listen to any PCE/TG-16 based CD game title with the in-game music tracks as they're presented in glorious 44.1kHz Redbook audio format that is playable on a regular CD music player (just skip the first two tracks as they contain data for said game itself). How cool is that?

It's awesome that all PCE/TG-16 CD games double as OST game music CDs as well -- you have to give proper credit/kudos to both NEC and Hudson Soft with their collaborative effort with early CD-Rom technology in it's infancy in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s -- truly groundbreaking for it's time.
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2.) Hudson Soft/Red's 1993 Winds of Thunder stg -- a fantasy-medieval based stg that really shows what the PCE Duo can do in the hands of a talented game developer. Was renamed as Lords of Thunder for the USA TG-16 gaming market.

3.) Hudson Soft's Neo Nectaris circa 1991 -- is a Super CD-Rom2 based RTS game that has two games of Nectaris & Neo Nectaris (the American version of Nectaris is Military Madness, of course). Expect the usual slick anime-stylized cutscenes in this official sequel to the original Nectaris RTS game.

4.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Spriggan stg circa 1990 -- is another slick fantasy-medieval based stg that was released as a CD-Rom2 based game title. Has a cool Caravan mode worth checking out.

5.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Star Parodier stg circa 1992 -- is a Super CD-Rom2 based stg that parodies the classic Star Soldier stg series. It doesn't take itself too seriously which is a good thing these days.

6.) Hudson Soft's Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (aka Galaxy Space Woman Sapphire) stg circa 1995 -- is Hudson Soft's only Arcade CD-Rom2 based stg title and is a true showcase of using CG rendered sprites shown throughout the entire six stages that truly takes advantage of the whopping 16 megabits of RAM afforded of both the NEC Arcade Pro and the NEC Arcade Duo System Card upgrades themselves.

7.) Hudson Soft's 1994 Bomberman Panic -- a Super CD-Rom2 based puzzler that supports up to 5 players max or with a combination of CPU controlled opponents for some really heated competitive arcade puzzler bouts. May the last remaining Bomberman win the match!

8.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Summer Carnival '92 Alzadick stg -- is a Super CD-Rom2 based caravan stg title that Hudson Soft held during it's Summer of 1992 competition events.

9.) Hudson Soft/Compile's Summer Carnival '93 Nexzr stg -- is another Super CD-Rom2 based caravan based stg that Hudson Soft held during it's Summer of 1993 competition events. The regular Super CD-Rom2 stg of Nexzr has the cool anime cutscenes whereas the caravan version of Nexzr doesn't.

10.) Telenet/Alfa Systems/Riot's Kiadan 00 stg circa 1992 -- the opening intro (accompanied by lush vocals & a cool BGM that's evocative of those cool 1970s-1980s super robot anime shows shown on the Japanese TV airwaves at the time) is played out in real time and is quite something special to watch/behold indeed. You battle evil forces with your trusty Kiadan 00 mecha robot suit character in this Super CD-Rom2 based yoko stg title.

All of the above listed PCE/TG-16 CD-based game titles can be played with a Krikzz Turbo Everdrive Pro flashcart setup.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Austin]

Yes, an Analogue Duo console + a Krikzz Turbo Everdrive v2.5 flashcart to play the Military Madness rom or get the Krikzz Turbo Everdrive Pro and be able play all TG-16 & PC Engine game cart roms + all CD based games via a microSDHC memory card.

No need for that--the DUO by itself now has a jailbreak update so you can load ROMs and disc images off the SD card. Basically, he'd just need the console itself.

Or, he could go the clone MiSTer route, get a great PCE core with it (along with many others), or could do an even cheaper Raspberry Pi setup (PCE is excellent via that).

Lots of options these days!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For sumdumgoy,

Have you played/tried out the Neo-Geo MVS stg of Blazing Star?

Since you mentioned that you like RTS games, there's a cool sci-fi RTS game called "Power Dolls" for the 32-bit powered NEC PC-FX console (that has some anime cutscenes taken from the Power Dolls OVA itself) -- it does have built-in support for the optional PC-FX mouse setup in addition to using a PC-FX gamepad as well. Unfortunately, it's all presented in Japanese -- it'd be nice if there was a "fan-translated" all-English text version patch of Power Dolls to play on a real PC-FX console setup.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[sumdumgoy]

x

[sumdumgoy]

x

[guigui]

(dont mean to derail this thread, just want to send more kudo to shmup's forum one and only PC Engine Fan X!, who gets a topic with his very own name in the title, not created by himself, writes in it with his so usual verbose wordings and no sign of fancy proudness at all, and still handwrites his sig at the end of each of every posts. Congrats buddy ^_~)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For sumdumgoy,

If you do end up going with the Analogue Duo setup or with a real PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 console setup, I'd suggest picking up an 8bitdo manufactured wireless PC Engine controller gamepad -- they're 2.4gHz wireless format and quite responsive. Of course, the Analogue Duo does support the classic old-school wired NEC produced PC Engine based gamepads and arcade sticks as well. This particular site sells the proper necessary controller adapter to use an 8bitdo PCE wireless gamepad with dedicated PCE and TurboGrafx-16 consoles: https://controlleradapter.com/products/usb-2-pce NEC did sell such an official wireless gamepad + RF-based wireless receiver but they required that each wireless gamepad be pointed directly at the reciever's "line of sight" in order to work properly -- the 8bitdo based PCE & TG-16 wireless gamepads don't require "direct line of sight" and can be held at any angle (even backwards also). I like the convienence and wireless capability afforded with the 8bitdo PCE wireless gamepads -- means not having to deal with a pesky wired controller setup nowadays (a modern-day "Quality of Life" upgrade). https://www.amazon.com/8Bitdo-Wireless- ... r=8-1&th=1

The optional NEC Avenue Pad 6 gamepad is awesome in that it offers the best of both worlds of both 2-button & 6-button support via a switch setting + built-in slow-motion capability via a switch setting & built-in auto-fire capability for buttons 1 & 2 as well. NEC also released an Avenue Pad 3 gamepad with buttons I, II and III for use with certain PCE game titles that do include 3-button support from the get-go (including the 1991 released Super CD-Rom2 based Forgotten Worlds stg from game developer & publisher, Capcom).

The two best PC Engine based arcade sticks are the Hori Fighting Stick PC and the Micomsoft XE-1 HE Pro that money can buy, especially nowadays in the 21st century era.

The Hori Fighting PC Stick uses an "out of production" Seimitsu manufactured LS-33 based arcade joystick with a square gate that's perfect for stg-based games (and other genre-based games in general) + has a six button layout & auto-fire for all six buttons if it needed be. Using this particular Hori manufactured arcade stick is a truly a high-grade and world-class arcade stick, the best that money can buy -- I'd suggest getting one brand new if possible for "peace of mind". The arcade stick base itself is constructed of two metal halves and won't budge during heated gaming excursions due to it's overall heftyness and weight -- how cool is that? Slo-mo functionality is also included.

The Micomsoft XE-1 HE Pro is an arcade stick with some very interesting attributes including an elaborate built-in mechanism to convert it from an 8-way based joystick to a 4-way joystick (for those old-school games that had that type of setup from the get-go -- i.e. Atari's 1989 Klax arcade game cab sported two 4-way digital arcade sticks setup so by configuring the Micomsoft PCE arcade stick to 4-way layout, you'd be properly playing the PCE Hu-Card based Klax puzzler game correctly as intended), adjustable auto-fire via sliding switches for both buttons I and II (including an option to have hands-free auto-firing functionality if so desired), a cool LED-based visual bank to see the rate of auto-fire, the ability to adjust the angle of the two buttons from an 45 degree angle to a higher angle for better hand/finger ergonomics if so desired and lastly, a group of four more controller ports on the right side of the arcade stick base itself effectively making it double as a cool and handy PCE-based multi-tap accessory built-in as well (just plug in up to four more PCE based gamepads or arcade sticks and you're good to go with a group of friends included with the multi-player based PCE games). Micomsoft went all-out with it's PCE based arcade stick with the above listed attributes indeed. Slo-mo functionality is included as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Austin]

(arcade stick stuff)

For me, I prefer to use a nice modern stick paired with a Brook adapter. And that adapter in question will also let the player use the stick on a Megadrive, so win-win.

[sumdumgoy]

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