PAL TurboGrafx + NTSC CD unit = ?

[kamiboy]

A while back I bought one of those NIB PAL Turbos you see for sale on eBay because I love to buy old systems new, I had PAL capable televisions and I didn't mind the 60->50hz slow down. Love the little thing by the way.

Today I am looking at a deal for buying a Turbo CD unit for around 125-150 and before I settle on it for good I got to thinking that since the PAL Turbo is a strange beast it might not work with the NTSC CD unit. Or at the very least I remember reading a casual forum comment stating flat out that it wont work.

So, does anyone know for sure?

[cookie monster]

If it doesn't work with the pal turbo just grab a ntsc tg16 the cd unit is a great add on and the price sounds good just make sure the power cord is with it and see which version card it has in it 2.0 or 3.0 .

[kamiboy]

Is the price really good though? I think it is about fair.

As for system card, chances are it is 2.0 as they are the most common. NTSC TG16 usually go for a lot more than I am willing to pay and they always come in a god awful state. I have never seen one that could be mine for under 50 shipped.

For a total cost of 200 I think I would rather double it and aim for a mint Duo.

[ApolloBoy]

I believe it does but the CD audio will be out of sync since the PAL TurboGrafx runs slower.

[kamiboy]

Yeah, I've heard that mentioned somewhere else and it makes a lot of sense. But since I'll be getting this mostly for Rondo of Blood and Gates/Lords of thunder I doubt it will affect me much if at all.

Later on I'll get a Duo anyway. This is just to hold me over.

[theclaw]

I wouldn't go for it. US CD units are unreliable. By the time you bought that and the overpriced US Super System Card 3.0 (or JPN version + converter) to run later CD games... One could be looking at near the price of a whole Japanese Duo (larger hucard library and standard controller port for all the nice input variety TurboGrafx cut off), only to risk having the US CD unit die.

BTW Rondo of Blood and Gate of Thunder are both super CD games. They won't even play if you buy the CD unit alone.

[kamiboy]

The deuce you say. Super CD games the both of them. Well, that should teach me to research these things a bit better. Thanks lad, you saved me a lot of trouble it seems.

I'll pass on the CD unit and put that money towards something else.

Alas is for some crazy irreconcilable reason I insist on buying a mint Turbo Duo, not the Japanese PC Engine Duo R, or RX even if that would make a lot more sense. Since that craving will set me back about 4-500 it is put on the back burner for now.

Hell, it has been on the back burner for a few years now.

[theclaw]

If you say so. Smaller library and again less reliable.

I guess we could rank PAL TurboGrafx software wise among THE most failed consoles of all time. AFAIK zero games specifically developed for it. I could be wrong...

[kamiboy]

Who says the Turbo Duo is less reliable than a PC Engine Duo?

I know the addon CD units are pretty fault prone but this is the first I've heard of the Duo of one region being more prone to breaking.

The lesser library is not an issue either, I'll only lose out on Japanese Turbo Chip games and so far I have not seen any exclusive titles for it that I would want to own. In fact I already have most of the Turbo Chips that I want. Same goes for Arcade card CD games.

As for the PAL TG, well it was designed to run all NA Turbo Chips just at a lower refresh. That is basically how a great deal many 8-16 bit games were treated unless they needed translation work done. If I disable the region lock chip on my NTSC NES I can stick any old PAL cart in there and it will work. In most cases the roms housed inside are binary identical too.

In those days localization from NA to PAL region was mostly a matter of translating the manual and updating the box artwork. No modification to the game code itself was necessary.

[Breetai]

The deuce you say. Super CD games the both of them. Well, that should teach me to research these things a bit better. Thanks lad, you saved me a lot of trouble it seems.

I'll pass on the CD unit and put that money towards something else.

Alas is for some crazy irreconcilable reason I insist on buying a mint Turbo Duo, not the Japanese PC Engine Duo R, or RX even if that would make a lot more sense. Since that craving will set me back about 4-500 it is put on the back burner for now.

Hell, it has been on the back burner for a few years now.

Yeah, those are all Super CD games that need the 3.0 card. Just get a Duo.

Why the F--- do you insist on a US Duo? It makes no sense at all. They are literally 3-5 times the price are are prone to failure. You can't even play Arcade CD games on one without a region-mod.

Get a region-modded PC Engine Duo for less than half the price that you could get a US Duo for. Half the price and you get it in box!

Who says the Turbo Duo is less reliable than a PC Engine Duo?

I know the addon CD units are pretty fault prone but this is the first I've heard of the Duo of one region being more prone to breaking.

Well, now you know. I'm the (at least one of the) local PC Engine/TG-16 guys here. The US Duo is definitely prone to failure, as is the original model JP Duo and Super CD add-on. Yes, the original CD-ROM units are worse, but with any original Duo model you WILL need to fix it down the line if you want it working properly. The capacitors in the MO, especially the audio ones, are prone to leakage over time. 20 years is a lot of time since they were released. Even the Super CD-ROM2 consoles are starting to go now.

The only reliable HU-CD systems are the Duo-R and Duo-RX. If you get any other model, I hope you are comfortable soldering capacitors on a MO or at least don't mind paying the extra money to have someone do it for you.

Duo-R & RX>Laseractive>Super CD-ROM2>Duo>CD-ROM2 & TG-CD

The lesser library is not an issue either, I'll only lose out on Japanese Turbo Chip games and so far I have not seen any exclusive titles for it that I would want to own. In fact I already have most of the Turbo Chips that I want. Same goes for Arcade card CD games.

I'm guessing you haven't fully looked into the PCE HuCard library. Do you not like shoot 'em ups or something? Same with Sapphire on the Arcade CD (in addition to Strider and a bunch of NG ports). Wouldn't you at least like the option available to you?