Turbo Grafx16

[peace4myheart]

I have a couple questions. I have a friend that goes to china quite often, and she was going to pick up a Turbo-Duo next time becasue they are really cheap there. I know the US system is region free, and i heard you can just flip the japanese huCard over to play them, is that true? Can you play US huCards on Japanese systems? I'm pretty sure the cd's are region free, is that correct? Any compatability issues for CD's of Super CD's? Thanks man.

As far as I know, hucard are region locked. You need a hu-card converter like the kisado to play JPN hu card games on all US system. I don't think you can play US hu card games on the JPN system without a region mod because there is no known converter. As for CD games, they are all region free and can be played on any system of any region. They can also play CD-R if you burn the games on it.

[timewarpgamer]

ott0bot,

The Duo CD-ROM drives are definitely region-free, so you'll be able to play CD-ROM and Super CD-ROM games without a problem. However, you'll need an arcade card to play Arcade-CDs, such as Strider and World Heroes 2. (Yes the TG-16 has the most ridiculous range of game mediums ever).

As for HuCards, they are region locked due to the orientation of the contact points on the cards and the shape of the cards as well. You'd need to use a HuCard converter (incredibly rare and expensive) or mod your Duo in order to switch from one region to the other.

However, if the Chinese Duo is configured for Japanese Hu-Cards, then there's really no point in going through the trouble to play American ones. The Japanese hucard library is way bigger than the American one, and there are few American games that are too text-intensive to play in Japanese.

One of these days, I'm going to add a section explaining all this and the different TG-16 configurations on http://www.timewarpgamer.com/. One of these days...

[timewarpgamer]

Whoops, forgot to include this in my previous post. Military Madness is definitely one of the best TG-16 games ever. In fact, it's one of my all-time favorite strategy games, period. Why? Well, the simplicity is brilliant. You don't get bogged down in micromanaging resources and figuring out what sort of units to build/upgrade, like in most modern-era military strategy games. In Military Madness you can focus strictly on deploying your army in the most advantageous way possible and picking the right fights. Check out my review of the game here: http://www.timewarpgamer.com/pages/revi ... dness.html.

I also recommend checking out the TG-CD import Neo Nectaris. Sure, it's in Japanese, but it plays so much like the original that you'll be just fine.

[opticledilusi0n]

i'm still kicking myself for not buying one at toys r us when they were on clearance

the TG-16CD was 20 F'in dollars

20$

TWENTY DOLLARS

i mean .. man .. i forget which genesis game i bought instead .. still upset about that 20$ deal though

[marurun]

Here's the lowdown on region protections... And below, info on how to get a cheap CD-capable rig.

The CD games have no region lock whatsoever, however, the system cards (3.0, arcade card) are another story.

TurboChip/Hucard games are region protected. Here's how: US and Japanese games have some pins swapped. US chip games also have region detection code that looks for a special hardware flag in US systems. Japanese games do not look for this hardware flag. The various system cards behave similarly to regular chip games and there was no Arcade Card released in the US. The system cards will boot any appropriate CD game, however, regardless of region.

Defeating the swapped pins isn't too hard. You can get an adapter like the Barney, diving board, or Kisado that sticks out of the front of the system or you can install a hardware mod. There's a circuit based mod and a physical 8pd switch. If you are modding a Japanese system so it can use US TurboChips you also need to ground a pin to get around the region check. There are supposedly a couple games that don't like this arrangement, however.

Probably the cheapest way to get access to the Turbo/PCE library is to buy a Japanese PC Engine/Core/Core II unit and either a SuperCD attachment or a regular CD-ROM briefcase unit and a super system card. Then either perform the region mod yourself or get someone to do it for you. The original CD units have a poor quality gear that can sometimes give out but are otherwise quite solid. Certain Duo models shipped with cheap capacitors that sometimes blow and need replacement and the laser unit isn't as durable, though it can be replaced.

Whew! Done! ;)

[jwc]

good system can be pricey just buy it

[mrtie]

Just chiming In, I have a PC-Engine Duo R, I'm stuck with J only hu-cards but I can play what i want in the cd player, I was also lucky enough to get the arcade ram card with the system so basically I can play anything(outside of us hu-cards) I currently own Street Fighter II, and fatal fury 2. I have a raft of back ups as well as the system is basically open as at the time the idea of a user having the ability to produce cd's of there own was near impossible. I would also add like others the way to go is a J system, the majority of Hu-card games, are from an era when language was really that much of barrier and of course the cd unit will play both American and J games. Also the largest majority of good games were J only, even in the Hu-cards, as the system actually had market dominance in japan for a year or two, were it was utter failure in the states. The system itself is shmup players retro wetdream, tons of late 80's early 90's shmups that preforms better then what was generally available on the SNES and Genesis. It also has the first modern Castlevania in rondo of blood but be prepared to layout some serious cash for it if you want it. As far as which one to buy, as there are like 15 different versions of the system, I'd say go as new as you can afford Duo-r if you can't swing for a Duo-RX, or a simple Duo if either of those too options are too pricey.

Great guide in explaining the painfully over complicated compatibility of the numerous systems.
http://pcenginefx.com/main/nec_compatibility_guide.html

[Drakon]

my concensus on the turbografx 16......castlevania chi no rondo.......and that's it

[indecks]

I haven't read all 4 pages in this thread, but if it hasn't been mentioned yet....


NINJA SPIRIT

[D.D.D.]

my concensus on the turbografx 16......castlevania chi no rondo.......and that's it

If you're implying that DracX is the only good game, then you're missing out.
If meant that it's the best title, well, that's up for debate but it is a damn fine title.