Turbografx 16 Love

[opt2not]

There's a guy on BYOAC that built his own little TG16 games shelf, with lighting, t-molding and everything!:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.p ... msg1463168


Figured this is relevant information...

[d0s]

Kanye West and Keith Courage have a lot in common I think

they're both cool & hated by nerds on the internet

[DQ187]

Kanye West and Keith Courage have a lot in common I think

they're both cool & hated by nerds on the internet

[mvsfan]

I just bought a turbografx. Never had one before. i also got victory run and Rtype.

I got a fair deal on it because the rf box is broken and works intermittenly.

It doesnt matter though because i want to RGB it. But it kinda sucks because i want to play it now.

[MR_Soren]

Only played a TG-16 briefly with a friend who owned one in high school. Over the past year or two, I've wanted to get one.

Unfortunately, I've never see the console anywhere beyond that one experience in high school. I recently found a few TG-16 games in a small mom and pop shop about 100 miles from where I live. They didn't have the console, but I bought Alien Crush anyway. They also had Legendary Axe 1&2, some Dungeon games and others that looked interesting, but I was short on cash. No shmups except maybe R-Type. Still, looks like a fun console.

I've heard they are much easier to find in the Chicago area. Might check out some retro shops if I ever get down there again.

[szycag]

Kanye West and Keith Courage have a lot in common I think

they're both cool & hated by nerds on the internet

Brilliant

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Ah yes, ye olde TurboGrafx-16 console...it was priced at $29.99 at the local Toys-R-Us back in December of 1993 (so I snagged one at that attractive pricepoint). In the videogame aisle, there were some budget TG-16 games priced at $19.99 & under (I grabbed some of those games as well). It wasn't until January of 1994 that I got word that TTI wasn't going to release any more new gaming hardware (with the NEC 32-bit powered PC-FX console) stateside -- so that meant for American retailers to start heavily discounting their remaining TG-16 & Turbo Duo hardware/software on the cheap/mere pennies on the dollar from that particular date moving forward.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[DQ187]

Just an FYI for anyone interested I posted 2 of my sealed turbo games in the for sale section here. Selling Turrican and Deep Blue.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I had the rare opportunity to try out the Turbo Express handheld at an NEC sponsored Halloween event at the local Good Guys! store back in October of 1990 (it didn't actually go on sale until early January of 1991). One of the NEC reps from IL was playing with a TE with a Turbo Chip cart of Devil"s Crush installed and asked me if I'd be interested in trying it out. I said sure. I was in for a special treat as it hadn't been released at retail at that particular point in time.

With a state-of-the-art TFT active matrix LCD screen made by Epson of Japan, the TE is regarded as the "Rolls Royce" of gaming handhelds. I inquired as to the price of it and when it would be available to purchase. The answer: slated for an official December 1990 release with a MSRP of $249.99 USD. Went back to the GG! store during Dec. of '90 and there was no sign of it for sale period.

So fast forward to January of 1991, it finally was available to purchase but the MSRP was jacked up to an unheard of $299.99 USD (and not to mention it was limited in production, hence the higher-than-expected initial MSRP offering for prospective TE buyers). The optional TE TurboVision TV tuner adapter wasn't even around during the TE's stateside launch (which was released later on at the original MSRP of $99.99 USD). I'm surprised that with a TE + TV adapter, you can still get some off-the-air UHF channels (although it's mostly hit-and-miss nowadays) but it still works like a charm nevertheless.

The real reason why the TG-16 console is bigger than it's PCE console counterpart, was back in 1989, the perceived notion was that Americans wanted a bigger gaming console (hence the extra real estate afforded with the excess plastic) compared to the smaller and cute original white colored PCE console of lore. The PCE was offered in two different flavors of the Core Grafx and Core Grafx II console iterations as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[d0s]

Only played a TG-16 briefly with a friend who owned one in high school. Over the past year or two, I've wanted to get one.

Unfortunately, I've never see the console anywhere beyond that one experience in high school. I recently found a few TG-16 games in a small mom and pop shop about 100 miles from where I live. They didn't have the console, but I bought Alien Crush anyway. They also had Legendary Axe 1&2, some Dungeon games and others that looked interesting, but I was short on cash. No shmups except maybe R-Type. Still, looks like a fun console.

I've heard they are much easier to find in the Chicago area. Might check out some retro shops if I ever get down there again.

Buy a cheap PC Engine online and don't worry about the Turbo. There's seriously no benefit to having a US TG16 over a JP PCE:

- TG16s are harder to find
- TG16s are more expensive
- TG16s only support RF natively, PCEs do composite
- TG16 games are as a whole much rarer and much more expensive
- TG16 games have ugly cover art
- TG16 had far fewer games than PCE, many of the classic games for this system are PCE only
- PCE games rarely require Japanese knowledge (unless you're into RPGs or something, there are not many for this system, most of the good games are action/arcade games that require absolutely no Japanese)

[louisg]

The real reason why the TG-16 console is bigger than it's PCE console counterpart, was back in 1989, the perceived notion was that Americans wanted a bigger gaming console (hence the extra real estate afforded with the excess plastic) compared to the smaller and cute original white colored PCE console of lore. The PCE was offered in two different flavors of the Core Grafx and Core Grafx II console iterations as well.

Yeah I think that bit the Lynx too. I remember reading it could've been much smaller, but they did some test marketing and it they came away with the impression that it needed to be BIG so people were feeling like they were getting they're money's worth or some bunk. Honestly, I wonder if it's even true that Americans like big electronics or we'd be walking around with carphone-sized things strapped to our belts.

[MR_Soren]

Only played a TG-16 briefly with a friend who owned one in high school. Over the past year or two, I've wanted to get one.

Unfortunately, I've never see the console anywhere beyond that one experience in high school. I recently found a few TG-16 games in a small mom and pop shop about 100 miles from where I live. They didn't have the console, but I bought Alien Crush anyway. They also had Legendary Axe 1&2, some Dungeon games and others that looked interesting, but I was short on cash. No shmups except maybe R-Type. Still, looks like a fun console.

I've heard they are much easier to find in the Chicago area. Might check out some retro shops if I ever get down there again.

Buy a cheap PC Engine online and don't worry about the Turbo. There's seriously no benefit to having a US TG16 over a JP PCE:

- TG16s are harder to find
- TG16s are more expensive
- TG16s only support RF natively, PCEs do composite
- TG16 games are as a whole much rarer and much more expensive
- TG16 games have ugly cover art
- TG16 had far fewer games than PCE, many of the classic games for this system are PCE only
- PCE games rarely require Japanese knowledge (unless you're into RPGs or something, there are not many for this system, most of the good games are action/arcade games that require absolutely no Japanese)

Is there region locking?

[cicada88]

What's crazy is the TG16 design is that NEC literally retooled a factory to make different shells that are 3x the size of the already existing PCE. Then obviously the packaging had to be bigger, and all of this was produced in Japan and thus had to shipped across the world to the USA.

All for a perceived notion that bigger is better. Have to love the early 90s...


That said I think the TG16 looks pretty interesting with the CD-ROM attached. It can't touch an OG white PCE briefcase setup or even a black/lavendar Duo though.

[BrianC]

That "bigger is better" assumption reminds me of the Atari 5200. Everything about that system is bigger than it needs to be. Even the trackball is as big as a SNES. Not to mention that the Atari 5200 is based off a computer that uses much smaller cartridges. A good chunk of the system itself is empty space. At least the TG-16 isn't nearly as over-sized as the 5200.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Well then - if these days a next-gen PCE-(or at least PS2 Silm)-sized console saw daylight, who would take it seriously at first glance? (And there's never a second chance to make the first impression.) Any more seriously than Wii Mini or Ouya, that is.
Many people must buy a new system quick, or it's a failure, I'm afraid.

[d0s]

Only played a TG-16 briefly with a friend who owned one in high school. Over the past year or two, I've wanted to get one.

Unfortunately, I've never see the console anywhere beyond that one experience in high school. I recently found a few TG-16 games in a small mom and pop shop about 100 miles from where I live. They didn't have the console, but I bought Alien Crush anyway. They also had Legendary Axe 1&2, some Dungeon games and others that looked interesting, but I was short on cash. No shmups except maybe R-Type. Still, looks like a fun console.

I've heard they are much easier to find in the Chicago area. Might check out some retro shops if I ever get down there again.

Buy a cheap PC Engine online and don't worry about the Turbo. There's seriously no benefit to having a US TG16 over a JP PCE:

- TG16s are harder to find
- TG16s are more expensive
- TG16s only support RF natively, PCEs do composite
- TG16 games are as a whole much rarer and much more expensive
- TG16 games have ugly cover art
- TG16 had far fewer games than PCE, many of the classic games for this system are PCE only
- PCE games rarely require Japanese knowledge (unless you're into RPGs or something, there are not many for this system, most of the good games are action/arcade games that require absolutely no Japanese)

Is there region locking?

Yes but there's really no need to ever have US region games unless you want to play the few mediocre RPGs on the system, everything else is 100% playable with no Japanese knowledge. Buy a Japanese console and Japanese games and forget the TG16 exists

[BrianC]

Turbo CD games aren't region locked, so those can be played on a JP Turbo Duo. A good chunk of RPGs are on CD only.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yep, it's nice/lil' perk to to have the ability to play 'em TurboGrafx CD titles on a PC Engine Duo/Duo-R/Duo-RX console setup.

Plus it's doable to use either an Turbo Pad or Turbo Stick on a PCE/Duo setup with the appropriate TG-16 to PCE/Duo controller cord adapter for greater versatility from the get-go. Or use a reverse PCE to TG-16 controller cord adapter works wonders as well to use the some of the more robust PCE gaming controllers such as the NEC Avenue 3, NEC Avenue 6 or even the legendary "Hori Fighting PC" arcade joystick (that sports a hefty all-metal joystick shell/base + 6-buttons layout for 'em Arcade CD-Rom2 titles +both slow-motion & auto-fire functionality for all buttons also).

NEC also released the optional Turbo Booster & Turbo Booster Plus add-on accessories that gave the lowly TG-16 console a pre-amp + RCA Composite Video output + L&R stereo outputs (plus back-up memory saving functionality with the TB+ setup with 2,000kb worth of BRAM). To find a complete & factory boxed NEC Turbo Booster Plus add-on easily fetches over $100.00+ on the secondary gaming collector's market nowadays. It's a given in this day of age. Back in mid-1994, the American based speciality video game retailer, Babbage's, was selling brand new boxed Turbo Booster add-ons for a mere $17.50 each when the original MSRP was listed at $34.99 USD (I snatched one at that attractive $17.50 pricepoint giving my TG-16 console a bit more flexibility with RCA composite video as opposed to just using the supplied RF switch box). I notice a bit of extra detail when using Monster branded RCA composite video cable with the Turbo Booster setup + Sony Trinitron CRT monitor.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[d0s]

Monster cables are snake oil, the detail you're noticing from using it is a placebo. Monster cables are used as an upsell item in retail stores because the profit margin is huge on them, it's nothing but a scam.

e: if you actually want to increase video quality perform a RGB mod or get someone to do it for you

[mvsfan]

I just bought a turbografx and i already rgb modded it but i dont have any controllers.

theyre kinda expensive. Ill probably end up paying more for a controller than i did the console.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For mvsfan,

Or you could pick up an NEC Turbo Stick setup and make use of the cool adjustable on-the-fly auto fire for buttons I & II. Even has built-in slow-mo functionality as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~