PC-Engine Discussion Thread.

I imported Dracula X right when it came out or thereabouts and I loved it. I really thought it pushed the PCE in many different ways and it seemed to me like the developers gave a lot of attention to the small details. Then Bloodlines came out in the US. It was so odd in comparison (don't get me wrong, I still love the game). The graphics were much softer and the walking animations of the characters were just... funny. Especially when going up stairs. Speaking of that, the character's feet aren't even placed properly when going up and down stairs in Bloodlines. It's like the character is stepping on the underside of the steps instead of on them. Very odd and I am surprised nobody ever caught that weirdness before it was released.

Other games that I feel are better on the Turbo/PCE:
-Cadash
-Lords of Thunder
-Double Dragon 2
-Aero Blasters (Air Buster)
-Exile
-Forgotten Worlds
-Valis 1 (I do enjoy Valis 3 more on the Genesis, though)
-Street Fighter 2

Oh well, at least Sherlock Holmes 1&2 on the Sega CD DESTROY the Turbo versions with it's ultra-smooth TruVideo. That's all that matters, really. :)

Oh, and TheEdge. Clearly you don't like Sega-16 or its members. You have made that very obvious. Why you stick around is beyond me. I know I don't go to forums where I dislike the community. Such a forum would be useless to me as it should be to you. So either shape up or GTFO.

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Originally Posted by jesus.arnold

OK I just played a game where I have to take photos of UFO's, people flashing and women when their skirts raise up, then I played a game that was like wonderboy but birds try to poo on me and I keep kicking some nutter who's constantly trying to go to the toilet in public and who keeps jumping into litter bins and emptying them.

How easy are PC Engines to get hold of?

Are the games usually expensive?

Are they region free?

:lol:

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The HuCards are locked out but CDs are region free. Unless you can do mods yourself, it's cheaper just to buy japanese hardware and if you really want to play the handful of original North American games, just buy a separate TG-16.

You can get a HuCard game playing system shipped for $50 or less. A Duo system that will play most CD games can be found fairly regularly on eBay for $100 - $200. Although the hardware isn't as cheap as a loose Genesis at a thrift store, there are tons of great games that can be found on eBay for as little as $1 - $5 and ranging up to $30. Really, at least half of the good games are $20 or less. Shipping from Japan is super cheap since they're all in CD cases and loose HuCards are even smaller. Packages arrive here in Canada usually within 2 - 3 business days.

So even though there is an initial investment, it really is a cheap system to collect for and/or play originals games on.

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Originally Posted by MN12BIRD

I wish. The pinouts on the Hu Cards are swapped up. Dammit.

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:yuck: I can tell already this is going to be a serious pain in the arse.

What the heck is it I've seen in the UK anyway, it's called a Core Grafyx or something, is this a US system, Japanese system or possibly one of the few region modified units that apparently came out in the UK for a short period, and if it is a UK unit then what the heck would it play? US or Japanese games? gah!

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Originally Posted by jesus.arnold

:yuck: I can tell already this is going to be a serious pain in the arse.

What the heck is it I've seen in the UK anyway, it's called a Core Grafyx or something, is this a US system, Japanese system or possibly one of the few region modified units that apparently came out in the UK for a short period, and if it is a UK unit then what the heck would it play? US or Japanese games? gah!

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There are two "Core Grafx" systems. They're the equivalent of the Genesis II.

The only Turbo/PCE hardware officially almost released in Europe is the PAL "TurboGrafx", but it's not worth using to play games on.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

There are two "Core Grafx" systems. They're the equivalent of the Genesis II.

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Is there a noticible difference between the two regions consoles? what I saw was grey.

To be honest it's looking unlikely that I'll bother now anyway, as soon as it was said it's region locked that effectively split in two the amount of games I wanted, I just looked through a region mod explanation and that's not the sort of thing I want to be doing with a console that costs any amount of money, it's a lot more complicated than the sorts of things I'm used to doing.

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Originally Posted by jesus.arnold

Is there a noticible difference between the two regions consoles? what I saw was grey.

To be honest it's looking unlikely that I'll bother now anyway, as soon as it was said it's region locked that effectively split in two the amount of games I wanted, I just looked through a region mod explanation and that's not the sort of thing I want to be doing with a console that costs any amount of money, it's a lot more complicated than the sorts of things I'm used to doing.

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A region mod isn't necessary. Most PCE games, particularly the better ones are CD (region free) and you've likely never heard of the few original english HuCard games (arguably only 1 worth playing) so sticking to japanese hardware will allow you to play 99.9% of the worldwide library.

Only the black TG-16 and TurboDuo were released in North America. If what you saw happened to be the PAL TG-16, it is gray and shaped like a TG-16 (not square). The PAL TG plays games at various speeds. Most Euro PCE fans buy an RGB modded PCE system or do whatever you guys do otherwise to play NTSC consoles.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

A region mod isn't necessary. Most PCE games, particularly the better ones are CD (region free) and you've likely never heard of the few original english HuCard games (arguably only 1 worth playing) so sticking to japanese hardware will allow you to play 99.9% of the worldwide library.

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Yeah but the Hu-cards will be in Japanese, which will cause problems ranging from minor inconvenience (menu screens) to games being completely unplayable (anything where the dialogue is important)

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

Only the black TG-16 and TurboDuo were released in North America. If what you saw happened to be the PAL TG-16, it is gray and shaped like a TG-16 (not square). The PAL TG plays games at various speeds. Most Euro PCE fans buy an RGB modded PCE system or do whatever you guys do otherwise to play NTSC consoles.

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It was grey and square and was around £50 ($70)

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Originally Posted by jesus.arnold

What was the availability of the TG-16 in the US in comparison to say...the Master System or Mega Drive?, I know they were pretty much non-existant in the UK apart from specialist stores and mail order.

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I could only find the Master System and the Turbografx-16 at Montgomery Ward's. I think Toys R Us and K B Toys had SMS games at some point. The SMS was also being sold in a mail order catalog from Fingerhut. Yep that was all I could find back then in the U.S. in my area. I used to live in San Diego, California.

http://www.ilovemeow.com/img/1168382...55537456.b.jpg

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Originally Posted by jesus.arnold

I've heard that the Master System was relatively hard to find in the US too, was it much easier to find a Master System than a PC Engine in America or about the same?

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My experience with the Master System and TG-16 was this:

I played a Master System in 1987 (or abouts that time) at a Montgomery Ward (department store) and I believe the games were shown in a JC Penny or Sears Xmas catalog. The only system I ever saw in box in store was a MS2 in 1993. And that was at a KB Toys on clearance for $20.

TG-16: I only recall seeing them in gaming magazines circa 1992-1993 and they were on closeout for $50. I never saw an actual system until 2003.

I saw Sega Master Systems and TurboGrafx-16s all over the place here in the Denver metro area. I guess Denver is just better than other cities. :p Not only did we have crap like Wards and JC Pennies and all of that nonsense, we had multiple local retailers... dedicated game stores! All of them stocked both the SMS and TG-16. You could rent either system, and that is how I first played the TG-16 in my home. I bought my Sega Master System at Children's Palace, though.

Here in Canada I remember seeing both at one store each and thats it. The SMS they sold and had all the games at Sears. The TG16 they sold and had games at Radio Shack. Nowhere else did I ever see these. So yeah they were both rare compared to say the Sega Genesis.

I think the thread starter should get lost! Stop saying that the Genesis is better than the TG16 because the games released on both consoles play better on a Genesis. The system doesn't suck at all, it was released earlier than the Genesis and has a weaker processor than the Genesis. Sure games cross released will play better on the Genesis but the TG16 had a huge amount of games released specifically for it that take advantage of the hardware and play wonderfully.

Do some research, I have never heard anyone say how much better SFII is on the TG than the Genesis Etc. Hating the TG16 and saying it's a piece of crap because it's not as powerful as the Genesis is a pretty fanboyish excuse to hate the system.

Oh, and PS.

Just because this is a site dedicated to the Genesis doesn't mean that we appreciate Genesis Fanboys like you trolling our site.

Get lost Fanboy!

Now days I see the Master System far more often then the Tg16 in thrift stores. AS I recall from memory the Tg16 was only sold, at least in Tucson, was at Babbages, Software Etc, Toys'R'Us, and Lionel Playworld. The Genesis wasn't much better in its early days before people caught on. the same list applies with the addiction of Target and Kb Toystore. The Master System is a bit to early for me to have a good memory of who was selling it but there always seemed to be one or two kids at school in a class of 25 or 30 who mostly had a NES. Still I would venture to say it sold far more then TG16 in the US. I can't seem to find sales figures for the Master System. they claim 2.5 million for the TG16 which sounds optimistic at best.

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Originally Posted by tomaitheous

I agree quite a few games with chip music do have minimalistic sound engines and output, but a lot of chiptunes sound much more than NES with some additional channels. You just have an untrained ear. Most people that are not fans of FM think it all sounds the same - OPL2 to the YM2612, to the YM2152, etc. But even games with simpler sound engines still sound different than just some two channel square wave duty cycles of the NES. For someone who composes music, I'd figure you could at least hear the difference. It doesn't sound anything like FM, but it's not supposed to. It's mini wavetable synth (each channel holds a small PCM defined sample).

Btw - a stock NES has 5 sound channels. The PCE chiptunes sounds like an NES with one more channel?

But comparing it to Bloodlines, there's not contest. Even Castlevania 3 on the NES is better than Bloodlines. Bloodlines was such a let down (I'm glad my friend bought it instead of me). Considering the roll Sega was on before the game came out, it was an even bigger left down :( CV4 is pretty decent game, but I also disagree that it's better balanced. And gameplay mechanics of Rondo are almost perfect for a CV game pre-metroidvania series of CV (the DS ones are the best CV games to date).

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Well first of all thanks for the big-ass list, there's at least 20 new games to check out in there for me.

There's nothing wrong with my ears, I (obviously) made a broad generalization and I haven't really tried to dig up the best sounding games. "Nes with a few more channels" isn't too far from the truth because the Nes only had 4 voice channels that were set to specific behaviors while the pc-engine had 6 that were also programmable (if I can trust wiki on this) into anything the Nes could do. This turns it into a more flexible Nes. What I didn't know was that it could do more than that, like a good saw and some decent FM instruments. My impression is that most games didn't though.

Having listened to most of those games you posted, I was definitely impressed with Bloody Wolf, Air Zonk, Blood Gear and Dragon slayer 8. The sampled(?) guitar in the last one sounds especially good, but other than that I didn't hear much that couldn't be reproduced on a MD without too much hassle :) And some of the Bomberman music could even be done on a Gameboy.

I don't really see how Bloodlines is worse than Castlevania 3. It certainly looks better, sounds a bit better too (Konami did a pretty bad job with the sound engine though), and it is more fun to play. CV3 had alternate paths and characters, which was awesome, but the level design is way more frustrating than in any of the later games.

They are more balanced compared to RoB in terms of difficulty. I beat RoB on my first try, only having problems with the sudden boss-orgy somewhere around the middle of the game, and the second to last boss until I figured out the pattern (the last boss is a joke). That's not a good difficulty curve. Also, the girl you can rescue makes the game even easier because she is way overpowered.