Lol that was awesome.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
PC Engine/TG Appreciation and Collecting Thread, Because who needs a 2nd controller?
- Thread starter gryz
- Start date
Lol that was awesome.
My favorite part about this is the one where they're driving along talking about the game.
It's like, "couldn't you stop?"
This was all I could find in hong kong... Some small shopping centre in an area called Mong Kok. The shopping area was mostly video games particularly current gen stuff but one stall had some 2nd hand/retro stuff including this stack of games.
This one ain't that good, check out Sino Centre on Nathan Road, in the basement there's a small retro shop with a great selection, although prices can be steep. Over on HK island there's also "188" mall on Wanchai rd 188 there's also some retro shops in that complex.
I am certain I went to that mall in Wan Chai but it was on a sunday morning when most of the shops was shut, I think there is a photocopying business on the ground floor of that mall.
Ah well I am back home in the UK now. Hopefully next time I go back there I will have more time and more luck. Will try and remember to check out sino centre. But last time I went back to Hong Kong was in 2000 and a lot has changed since then.
Gentlemen, behold my manifesto. Don't worry, there are pictures.
I love the PC Engine. It’s become my favorite retro console, and my collection has grown exponentially in the two years I’ve been interested in it. I say this as a preface for what I’m going to write here about the Turbo Express; I love the whole PC Engine family far too much to give an unbiased “review” of this particular unit. Think of this more as a series of observations about the Turbo Express, and my viewpoint on modifying what has become a relatively rare piece of gaming history. My unit has clearly undergone modification beyond the standard and at this point entirely necessary replacement of all capacitors; so please keep that in mind.
What IS the Turbo Express / PC Engine GT? On the surface, it looks like a large, black “Me Too” portable clearly designed to steal a bit of Gameboy thunder. The screen is (was, in my case) identical in size, and the layout appears at a glance to wholesale rip off the venerable Nintendo portable that came only a year earlier. But this assessment isn’t entirely fair to the Turbo Express. Let’s take a look around the unit, and see if this 25 year old console is worth your time today.
FRONT AND CONTROLS:
The face greets you with the standard PC Engine / Turbo Grafx layout. The D-Pad is closer in design to the American / European Turbo Grafx; the slight grip ridges that are present on many PC Engine pads are not here. It’s a very snappy D-Pad; my suspicion is that the previous owner of my unit bought it as a portable television and not a games-device. In good condition, it’s the second best D-Pad I’ve ever used on a portable… right behind the Playstation Vita. The action buttons (I and II) are of similar quality and are concave instead of convex; this is a trait common to PC Engine based systems. Start and Run are the sole tradeoff, as they are a little squishy and lack a good tactile “press” feeling present in the rest of the controller. Their rubber and feel is very reminiscent of the Gameboy’s Start and Select. While perfectly usable in most situations, they simply aren’t ideal when playing something like Street Fighter II. Rounding out the control setup is a pair of turbo switches. Love them or hate them, they’re available whenever you like; I simply find Bonk games that much more enjoyable when they’re present, and some shooters are nigh unplayable without them. If nothing else, the Turbo Express offers controls that are wonderfully full sized; they seem to be identical parts to their console pad counterparts.
SIZE
So we’ve established that the buttons do the job and that’s great, but it’s only half of the Turbo Express story. You frequently forget now that devices are designed to be as thin as possible, and even while the 3DS XL is has a lot of empty space within it is relatively flat. The Turbo Express, on the other hand, is thick. After many hours spent clutching the device, it is a welcome design. The rear has wonderful little scalloped grooves for your fingers to rest comfortably; a far cry from the ridged texture of the Gameboy that left my childhood hands indented after only thirty minutes. In fact, there isn’t a sharp edge to catch a finger anywhere on the Turbo Express; each surface has been carefully rounded for maximum comfort. Using the Turbo Express for any extended period of time makes one want to stand up and say “I’m glad technology has advanced to a point where computers are tiny, but can we make actual comfortable things now?”
REAR
The back features a slightly recessed standard HuCard slot. A lovely thumb-nook at the top of the unit allows for easy installation and removal of games… far nicer than the angular HuCard slot on my PC Engine Duo R.
BOTTOM
On a stock unit, the bottom only has one feature: a communications port. The only game I have that claims functionality with this oft-forgotten feature is Bomberman 93. As Bomberman 94 is a million times better and does not have a com-port option (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s not something I was ever going to use. On my unit, the com-port has become an AV Output for Composite. This is a mixed bag, and my greatest letdown with the TE: the AV output to a TV simply isn’t that good. It’ll do the job, but I’d rather bring my Turbo Grafx 16 to someone’s house if I want big-screen fun.
You’ll also notice a little I/O switch to the right of my AV Out. This miraculous switch allows for play of PC Engine HuCards, and is absolutely essential… my PCE library is FAR greater than my TG16 collection, and always will be. In this case, O represents a PCE’s pin configuration, and I is for TG16.
LEFT SIDE
The left side sports two dials, an earphone jack, and an AC input. The volume and brightness dials are fairly self explanatory, and no different than you’d find on an OG Gameboy. The earphone jack seems robust, and I’ll get into sound quality later. I do have an AC power supply, but it is by far the most massive wall wart I’ve EVER come across. Pop it into a surge protector and forget about plugging anything else in.
RIGHT SIDE
The right side on a stock unit is primarily comprised of connectors and sockets to attach and stabilize the TV Tuner. The TV Tuner hooks into a small plastic area at the top just under the wrist strap (covered by a switch on my portable) then both plugs into the TUNER IN port while screwing into the gold connector above it. It is stable, but unwieldy. Some folks have had their TUNER IN port replaced with a PC Engine controller port, but my modder found it to be a bit too destructive and time consuming to be worthwhile. Given the quality of the AV output I can’t help but agree; it’s a cool party trick to have your Turbo Express plugged into the AV of a TV and also a multi-tap, but I just can’t see it happening enough to be worthwhile.
My unit has two fundamental changes when compared to that of a standard Turbo Express: three pushbuttons for screen controls (the brightness wheel no longer does anything) and a small switch to turn off the new screen. It isn’t terribly intrusive to have a switch here, and it’s kind of fun to turn off the screen on games with a sound test to save battery. I might be a sucker, but there’s something super fun about listening to Magical Chase’s soundtrack on real PC Engine hardware.
SCREEN
The 2.5” screen of the Turbo Express / PC Engine GT was at the time a technical miracle. A color LCD of its quality was not something you saw as you do today. NEC was so impressed by their creation that they included a method of using the TE’s screen as a video-camera monitor; usage of the TV Tuner allowed for an AV input. While the TV Tuner is no longer functional today, the AV input remains a curiosity. Go ahead, hook up a Blu Ray player over Composite, it dares you.
But clearly, time has marched on. While I was impressed with the screen’s color and contrast (far better than the Game Gear or Sega Nomad) the ghosting is borderline awful. You just can’t see what you’re doing in fast action games, and keeping track of your ball and targets in Alien Crush is brutal. I played on the small stock screen daily for about a month before sending it in for modification, and found it lacking. The bezel of the screen is absolutely massive, and seems to just scream for something larger. Thanks to the awesome work of dedicated fans, those screams are silenced at last.
My Turbo Express sports a large, bright 3.5” LCD. The three buttons on the side allow me to change the brightness, tint, saturation, contrast, and menu language at any time. The only downside of this screen is that it is running from a composite signal produced by the console; true RGB it ain’t. If you look carefully (I couldn’t capture it here) you can see some of the downside of composite. Comparatively though? It’s spectacular. Text is legible in situations that rendered some text heavy games unplayable (Dungeon Explorer, for example) and the overall picture is sharp and bright. It probably rests comfortably in quality between the old 3DS XL and the N3DS XL with IPS screens; not as good as the latter, better than the former.
BATTERIES
The Turbo Express takes 6 God-Damned AA batteries. The original screen sucked them dry in under 3 hours; my replacement screen sits a little better at just above 4. I suspect this is largely something that can be mitigated by screen brightness though, so tread carefully when you’re playing with the maximum settings. The Eneloop Pros that I use do fare a little better, but I hope in the future a non-destructive process will be found for a true rechargeable solution to be installed. At present, the battery bay has to be effectively dremmeled out to fit something. This DOES appear to have benefits though; I’ve heard talk of 7+ hours of battery life in these cases.
SOUND QUALITY
I, for one, love the ChipTunes that the PC Engine provides. The Magical Chase soundtrack is a frequent go-to on my iPhone, and Dungeon Explorer boasts some of the best music of the era. Even post CD, I think the PC Engine sound chip has some of the greatest stuff going in its bi-generational lifetime.
The Turbo Express, fully re-capped, outputs VERY loud music. Be it internal speaker or headphone jack, the volume dial at half-way is quite sufficient. Despite a minor “hiss” present when no audio is playing (which could be chalked up to my extra sensitive headphones), the sound is quite good: crisp and clear with no distortion. Frankly, I think the sound may be a little more dynamic coming out of the Turbo Express than my Duo R directly.
MY ACCESSORIES
The Turbo Express came with a little wrist-loop, as shown above. It’s nice and has a very stable piece to rest on, but isn’t long enough to truly hold my wrist in a meaningful way. I use it, but doubt that it could do much.
As a photographer, I’ve got a ton of meaningless bags floating around. I’m pretty sure there’s some contract you sign when you begin taking pictures for money that states “I will buy tons of bags for my shit, and none of them will satisfy me.” The little green pouch pictured was at one point part of that “Why did I get this?” family, until the Turbo Express came along. The Billingham Avea 5 is a beautifully made English pouch that snaps awkwardly onto the Billingham Hadley Pro bag that I’ve used for the past five years; I assume it was intended to hold Leica lenses that I cannot afford, because it sure can’t comfortably fit any of my Canon gear save a flash. By some strange coincidence though, it is the EXACT SIZE OF THE TURBO EXPRESS. I’m not even kidding. It is exact. Check out the fully installed unit:
There’s even a perfect little padded slot behind the TE for a HuCard or two. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, this bugger costs $75. I’m sure there are cheaper options, but I’m not sure any of them are quite as perfect.
In summation, the Turbo Express is like no other portable I’ve ever owned or used. I lusted after one as a child, and was exceptionally lucky to get a broken unit that wasn’t very broken for well under the market value. It has worked its way into my daily life in the same way as other PC Engine things have: I’d happily cast the rest of my collection aside before getting rid of my Duo R and games. I use my Turbo Express more than I use my 3DS or PSP. The arcade-like nature of the games and predominance of shoot-em-ups are easier to pick up and play in public transit, or even when I've got a little bit of time in the back yard or the family is watching a show I'm not fully invested in. The TE is a wonderful extension of the PCE library for me: my games can go anywhere, are comfortable to play, and don’t require emulation. With modification, it is the rare example of a portable that has become far more now than it was two and a half decades ago.
I love the PC Engine. It’s become my favorite retro console, and my collection has grown exponentially in the two years I’ve been interested in it. I say this as a preface for what I’m going to write here about the Turbo Express; I love the whole PC Engine family far too much to give an unbiased “review” of this particular unit. Think of this more as a series of observations about the Turbo Express, and my viewpoint on modifying what has become a relatively rare piece of gaming history. My unit has clearly undergone modification beyond the standard and at this point entirely necessary replacement of all capacitors; so please keep that in mind.
What IS the Turbo Express / PC Engine GT? On the surface, it looks like a large, black “Me Too” portable clearly designed to steal a bit of Gameboy thunder. The screen is (was, in my case) identical in size, and the layout appears at a glance to wholesale rip off the venerable Nintendo portable that came only a year earlier. But this assessment isn’t entirely fair to the Turbo Express. Let’s take a look around the unit, and see if this 25 year old console is worth your time today.
FRONT AND CONTROLS:
The face greets you with the standard PC Engine / Turbo Grafx layout. The D-Pad is closer in design to the American / European Turbo Grafx; the slight grip ridges that are present on many PC Engine pads are not here. It’s a very snappy D-Pad; my suspicion is that the previous owner of my unit bought it as a portable television and not a games-device. In good condition, it’s the second best D-Pad I’ve ever used on a portable… right behind the Playstation Vita. The action buttons (I and II) are of similar quality and are concave instead of convex; this is a trait common to PC Engine based systems. Start and Run are the sole tradeoff, as they are a little squishy and lack a good tactile “press” feeling present in the rest of the controller. Their rubber and feel is very reminiscent of the Gameboy’s Start and Select. While perfectly usable in most situations, they simply aren’t ideal when playing something like Street Fighter II. Rounding out the control setup is a pair of turbo switches. Love them or hate them, they’re available whenever you like; I simply find Bonk games that much more enjoyable when they’re present, and some shooters are nigh unplayable without them. If nothing else, the Turbo Express offers controls that are wonderfully full sized; they seem to be identical parts to their console pad counterparts.
SIZE
So we’ve established that the buttons do the job and that’s great, but it’s only half of the Turbo Express story. You frequently forget now that devices are designed to be as thin as possible, and even while the 3DS XL is has a lot of empty space within it is relatively flat. The Turbo Express, on the other hand, is thick. After many hours spent clutching the device, it is a welcome design. The rear has wonderful little scalloped grooves for your fingers to rest comfortably; a far cry from the ridged texture of the Gameboy that left my childhood hands indented after only thirty minutes. In fact, there isn’t a sharp edge to catch a finger anywhere on the Turbo Express; each surface has been carefully rounded for maximum comfort. Using the Turbo Express for any extended period of time makes one want to stand up and say “I’m glad technology has advanced to a point where computers are tiny, but can we make actual comfortable things now?”
REAR
The back features a slightly recessed standard HuCard slot. A lovely thumb-nook at the top of the unit allows for easy installation and removal of games… far nicer than the angular HuCard slot on my PC Engine Duo R.
BOTTOM
On a stock unit, the bottom only has one feature: a communications port. The only game I have that claims functionality with this oft-forgotten feature is Bomberman 93. As Bomberman 94 is a million times better and does not have a com-port option (correct me if I’m wrong) it’s not something I was ever going to use. On my unit, the com-port has become an AV Output for Composite. This is a mixed bag, and my greatest letdown with the TE: the AV output to a TV simply isn’t that good. It’ll do the job, but I’d rather bring my Turbo Grafx 16 to someone’s house if I want big-screen fun.
You’ll also notice a little I/O switch to the right of my AV Out. This miraculous switch allows for play of PC Engine HuCards, and is absolutely essential… my PCE library is FAR greater than my TG16 collection, and always will be. In this case, O represents a PCE’s pin configuration, and I is for TG16.
LEFT SIDE
The left side sports two dials, an earphone jack, and an AC input. The volume and brightness dials are fairly self explanatory, and no different than you’d find on an OG Gameboy. The earphone jack seems robust, and I’ll get into sound quality later. I do have an AC power supply, but it is by far the most massive wall wart I’ve EVER come across. Pop it into a surge protector and forget about plugging anything else in.
RIGHT SIDE
The right side on a stock unit is primarily comprised of connectors and sockets to attach and stabilize the TV Tuner. The TV Tuner hooks into a small plastic area at the top just under the wrist strap (covered by a switch on my portable) then both plugs into the TUNER IN port while screwing into the gold connector above it. It is stable, but unwieldy. Some folks have had their TUNER IN port replaced with a PC Engine controller port, but my modder found it to be a bit too destructive and time consuming to be worthwhile. Given the quality of the AV output I can’t help but agree; it’s a cool party trick to have your Turbo Express plugged into the AV of a TV and also a multi-tap, but I just can’t see it happening enough to be worthwhile.
My unit has two fundamental changes when compared to that of a standard Turbo Express: three pushbuttons for screen controls (the brightness wheel no longer does anything) and a small switch to turn off the new screen. It isn’t terribly intrusive to have a switch here, and it’s kind of fun to turn off the screen on games with a sound test to save battery. I might be a sucker, but there’s something super fun about listening to Magical Chase’s soundtrack on real PC Engine hardware.
SCREEN
The 2.5” screen of the Turbo Express / PC Engine GT was at the time a technical miracle. A color LCD of its quality was not something you saw as you do today. NEC was so impressed by their creation that they included a method of using the TE’s screen as a video-camera monitor; usage of the TV Tuner allowed for an AV input. While the TV Tuner is no longer functional today, the AV input remains a curiosity. Go ahead, hook up a Blu Ray player over Composite, it dares you.
But clearly, time has marched on. While I was impressed with the screen’s color and contrast (far better than the Game Gear or Sega Nomad) the ghosting is borderline awful. You just can’t see what you’re doing in fast action games, and keeping track of your ball and targets in Alien Crush is brutal. I played on the small stock screen daily for about a month before sending it in for modification, and found it lacking. The bezel of the screen is absolutely massive, and seems to just scream for something larger. Thanks to the awesome work of dedicated fans, those screams are silenced at last.
My Turbo Express sports a large, bright 3.5” LCD. The three buttons on the side allow me to change the brightness, tint, saturation, contrast, and menu language at any time. The only downside of this screen is that it is running from a composite signal produced by the console; true RGB it ain’t. If you look carefully (I couldn’t capture it here) you can see some of the downside of composite. Comparatively though? It’s spectacular. Text is legible in situations that rendered some text heavy games unplayable (Dungeon Explorer, for example) and the overall picture is sharp and bright. It probably rests comfortably in quality between the old 3DS XL and the N3DS XL with IPS screens; not as good as the latter, better than the former.
BATTERIES
The Turbo Express takes 6 God-Damned AA batteries. The original screen sucked them dry in under 3 hours; my replacement screen sits a little better at just above 4. I suspect this is largely something that can be mitigated by screen brightness though, so tread carefully when you’re playing with the maximum settings. The Eneloop Pros that I use do fare a little better, but I hope in the future a non-destructive process will be found for a true rechargeable solution to be installed. At present, the battery bay has to be effectively dremmeled out to fit something. This DOES appear to have benefits though; I’ve heard talk of 7+ hours of battery life in these cases.
SOUND QUALITY
I, for one, love the ChipTunes that the PC Engine provides. The Magical Chase soundtrack is a frequent go-to on my iPhone, and Dungeon Explorer boasts some of the best music of the era. Even post CD, I think the PC Engine sound chip has some of the greatest stuff going in its bi-generational lifetime.
The Turbo Express, fully re-capped, outputs VERY loud music. Be it internal speaker or headphone jack, the volume dial at half-way is quite sufficient. Despite a minor “hiss” present when no audio is playing (which could be chalked up to my extra sensitive headphones), the sound is quite good: crisp and clear with no distortion. Frankly, I think the sound may be a little more dynamic coming out of the Turbo Express than my Duo R directly.
MY ACCESSORIES
The Turbo Express came with a little wrist-loop, as shown above. It’s nice and has a very stable piece to rest on, but isn’t long enough to truly hold my wrist in a meaningful way. I use it, but doubt that it could do much.
As a photographer, I’ve got a ton of meaningless bags floating around. I’m pretty sure there’s some contract you sign when you begin taking pictures for money that states “I will buy tons of bags for my shit, and none of them will satisfy me.” The little green pouch pictured was at one point part of that “Why did I get this?” family, until the Turbo Express came along. The Billingham Avea 5 is a beautifully made English pouch that snaps awkwardly onto the Billingham Hadley Pro bag that I’ve used for the past five years; I assume it was intended to hold Leica lenses that I cannot afford, because it sure can’t comfortably fit any of my Canon gear save a flash. By some strange coincidence though, it is the EXACT SIZE OF THE TURBO EXPRESS. I’m not even kidding. It is exact. Check out the fully installed unit:
There’s even a perfect little padded slot behind the TE for a HuCard or two. Unbelievable. Unfortunately, this bugger costs $75. I’m sure there are cheaper options, but I’m not sure any of them are quite as perfect.
In summation, the Turbo Express is like no other portable I’ve ever owned or used. I lusted after one as a child, and was exceptionally lucky to get a broken unit that wasn’t very broken for well under the market value. It has worked its way into my daily life in the same way as other PC Engine things have: I’d happily cast the rest of my collection aside before getting rid of my Duo R and games. I use my Turbo Express more than I use my 3DS or PSP. The arcade-like nature of the games and predominance of shoot-em-ups are easier to pick up and play in public transit, or even when I've got a little bit of time in the back yard or the family is watching a show I'm not fully invested in. The TE is a wonderful extension of the PCE library for me: my games can go anywhere, are comfortable to play, and don’t require emulation. With modification, it is the rare example of a portable that has become far more now than it was two and a half decades ago.
Awesome write up, man!
I've also been enamored with my Turbo Duo and Express since lucking out into them a few years ago. I went from never having heard of most of the games to buying and playing a shitload in those few years (thankfully right before prices skyrocketed) since I was so in love with the hardware.
I'm still on the fence about modding the Express, but I definitely consider it from time to time. Wish the Game Gear was as easy a mod.
I've also been enamored with my Turbo Duo and Express since lucking out into them a few years ago. I went from never having heard of most of the games to buying and playing a shitload in those few years (thankfully right before prices skyrocketed) since I was so in love with the hardware.
I'm still on the fence about modding the Express, but I definitely consider it from time to time. Wish the Game Gear was as easy a mod.
KeithCourage over at the PC Engine forums did mine, and I think he'd argue that the screen is a pretty tricky mod, or at least an arduous one. Filing down the area for the new screen and finding a new screen was definitely something he wasn't a huge fan of. Fortunately, he's found a new stock of screens and they seem to be of higher quality than the older ones; mine was the first to use one from the new batch and it looks great.
I can see you made Keith work hard!!!
and hope you get many years of enjoyment with that Duo-R Rydeen
Seems like they're a good deal rarer and tend to be more expensive. I would wager that the Turbo Express was produced in higher numbers as a gamble on the U.S. Market, where NEC felt it would do best.
Seems like it's $200+ for a unit over there, even without a recap. My TE cost under $100 with the TV tuner and AC brick, even though only the sound was out. The original owner thought it was entirely broken because the "screen only showed static." Well, that's because there aren't analog signals anymore, guy.
sixteen-bit
Member
Sick TE, Merc
Well...guess thats that. Looks like i'll just have to keep an eye out for a TE at some point.
My understanding is that NEC sold the TE first in the USA: they knew the gameboy was a huge hit here and wanted to create the same buzz for an upscale audience. The PCE GT came out the following year. It's the exact same unit though, branding aside. A $60 mod to do a switch is still under the regional price difference.
You can sometimes find completely burnt out units for under $100, but the price of semi working ones (generally screen only) seems to be continually moving north. That's a lot to pay for something that you can't see the inside of.
Is that about the same price to pay for region modding a pc engine duo by the way? I still havent had that done. If Keith Courage does that along with RGB modding, I might just wait and get both done at the same time.
I'm not sure if he does rgb modding. Last I checked he didn't, since he didn't have an xrgb mini. He does do svid though. My PCE got rgb'd by Baphomet, but I don't believe he does the region switch. I have a TG16 now so I don't need to do a switch on a console, fortunately.
Baby steps I guess. First i'd have to find an RGB cable for PC engine with an RCA stereo out as well. Unless the headphone port works similar to the Genesis.
Also at this point, is it better to just buy a TG16 controller + converter, or should I just keep looking for a PC engine controller? I've got my eye on a cheap TG16 controller locally...are converters pretty dependable?
sixteen-bit
Member
Pretty neat launch retrospective on the TG16
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd4wX-05-c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd4wX-05-c
I'm sure the Florida cable builder would have no problem making you one of those. I actually need to get a new cable myself; the one I have now isn't shielded so audio is picking up a little buzz from bright colors.
Totally buy a TG16 controller. The converters are around $10 - $15, and sometimes that brings them in less than importing. I've got a full set of 5 variants on the PC Engine controller:
And the TG16 is my favorite after the Hori PC Commander. Why? It's got the nice smooth d-pad; a lot of the Japanese pads have weird little ribs that irritate my thumb in longer sessions.
Cool, i'll give that route a shot for now.
In other news:
https://youtu.be/yNfQk2HZxYE?t=2m8s
Thats just bad acting direction lol.
In other news:
https://youtu.be/yNfQk2HZxYE?t=2m8s
Thats just bad acting direction lol.
I could watch a loop of those guys "dancing" to the CD for hours.
No no, they're super excited that they don't have to play that horrible game anymore. I'd cheer too.
Ban Puncher
Member
Who's got two thumbs and a copy of Toilet Kids?
This guy.
This guy.
D.Lo
Member
There are more like 30 official controller variants for a 'full set', including colours.
Not counting colour variants, the biggest missing item there is the Duo RX controller.
StevieWhite
Member
What games utilize the 3 button controller (but not the 6-button). I've got an Avenue Pad 3, and I've never encountered a game that utilizes just 1 extra button.
D.Lo
Member
Games that use select or run as an action button (for example, Dracula X uses select for item crush). It allows that to be mapped to the third action button.
There are quite a lot since the PCE had basically a Famicom controller, but once the Super Famicom came out and changed the game, developers wanted more functions, and used what they had, usually mapping an extra action to the 'option' keys select and run.
Eventually NEC and Sega had to catch up by releasing 6-button controllers, eventually even packing these with the consoles.
This happened so many times throughout gaming history. The SG1000 (replacing the joystick with a Famicom style pad - and adding a button) the Mega Drive (6 button pad to match the Super Famicom), the PS1 (analogue controller and later dual shock to match the N64 analogue and rumble), PS3 (adding motion control to the Sixaxis, then later the Move, to match the Wii Remote).
Oh yeah, sorry, I just meant that I had a "full set of 5" as in all I could really use with my PCE at once, since the maximum is 5 from the multi-tap.
I've heard bad stuff about the RX controller, so I went with the other two 6 button options... seemed better.
I was using that one for Dracula X for a bit, but I accidentally reset the game a couple of times... Much easier to hit Run and Select if Run is on button III...
StevieWhite
Member
Thanks man... never knew that third button could be used for item crashing. I've got two 6 buttons, so it's more of a curiosity than anything.
Forgotten Worlds uses it IIRC.
D.Lo
Member
I'm curious about the RX controller. Some say it's good, others say bad. I have an RX console too so I want the matching pad!
Unfortunately the 6 button controllers don't work like the 3 button, so you still need to use run/select for those games that use them.
Yeah, I dunno... I'm curious as to how uncomfortable the D-Pad is on the RX, but I'm not $50+ curious. Some people claim it nearly cuts their fingers! I know I'm sensitive to the grooves on some of the other NEC D-Pads, so I'll probably steer clear.
Love love love the Hori PC Commander though. All the comfort of the SNES controller, and mine was under $40 NIB.
Bar81
Member
Yup, it was the reason it was released - in Japan the game was only sold in a box set with the 3 button controller (resulting in Forgotten Worlds being the only? CD-ROM game to never have been sold with a spinecard).
A Black Falcon
Member
Barunba uses the 3-button controller the same way as Forgotten Worlds, for aiming rotation. Another game it's nice for is World Heroes 2, since it's a 3-button game so with the 3-button pad you get ideal controls without needing a 6-button controller, unlike most of the system's fighting games (though I have 6 button controllers too, as well as 3-button ones).
Really though the 3-button controller will work with any game, since it's not a "real" new button, it's just the Start or Select button (depending on how you have the switch set) copied over to a button next to I or II. It's useful for some games, for easier menu access, etc. This is why I got both 3 and 6 button controllers, because they do different things -- the 6 has no way to act like a 3-button pad.
As for 6-button controllers though, I only have the Avenue 6 pad, so I can't say about the RX controller myself. I've heard it's not as good as the Avenue 6 is, though, for sure.
On a related note, isn't it a bit odd that the TG16/PCE doesn't have a light gun, unlike almost every other console of the time?
Really though the 3-button controller will work with any game, since it's not a "real" new button, it's just the Start or Select button (depending on how you have the switch set) copied over to a button next to I or II. It's useful for some games, for easier menu access, etc. This is why I got both 3 and 6 button controllers, because they do different things -- the 6 has no way to act like a 3-button pad.
As for 6-button controllers though, I only have the Avenue 6 pad, so I can't say about the RX controller myself. I've heard it's not as good as the Avenue 6 is, though, for sure.
This is true, but unlike the Genesis, which has quite a few games with 6-button support (many of them fighting games, but many are in other genres too), on the TG16 it really is only a bare handful of fighting games and next to nothing else. There's also a PCE Mouse that works with only a couple of games, too... and the 3-button controller is nice for a bunch of games, but is only essential in, like, two (Barunba and Forgotten Worlds, because World Heroes 2 also supports the 6-button pad). Lots of minimally supported controller accessories here.
On a related note, isn't it a bit odd that the TG16/PCE doesn't have a light gun, unlike almost every other console of the time?
StevieWhite
Member
I would say that's accurate. I don't find either the Duo RX pad or the Avenue Pad 6 particularly great to use for long periods of time (the d-pads feel like they're made out of old hockey pucks or something), but the Duo RX pad gives me cramps and blisters like nothing else.
I'd imagine light guns became much more of an American thing... I feel like Japanese users sat too close to their TVs for it to really be properly challenging, and subsequent light guns on the SNES and Genesis seem so bulky and dumb that they were clearly designed just for the Western audience.
Oof, I knew it was bad, but didn't realize you could get blisters from it. Do you mind the ribbing on the Ave Pad 6 D-Pad? That's my primary complaint on a lot of NEC controllers...
Just got these 4 games.
Really am liking Legend of Xanadu II. It's on par with the SNES JRPGs. Going to have to hunt the first one down.
Gotzendiener I'm also liking the premise but controls are an annoyance and almost makes using the pce controller unbearable at times. Unfortunately I am not having much time to play or write up stuff for now.
Really am liking Legend of Xanadu II. It's on par with the SNES JRPGs. Going to have to hunt the first one down.
Gotzendiener I'm also liking the premise but controls are an annoyance and almost makes using the pce controller unbearable at times. Unfortunately I am not having much time to play or write up stuff for now.
V Jelly of Xanadu II. I've wanted to try that for ages... is there a fan translation anywhere? Saw one at Romhacking from like, 2012, but it seems to be dead?
A Black Falcon
Member
The games are fantastic, but the first has a MUCH, MUCH higher language barrier than the second. The second game can be figured out if you just talk to everyone and such, but the first game has a time system, so you need to know where to be at specific times in order to advance the plot at times, for example. It's stuff that's very hard to do without knowing the language... and there isn't a competent English-language guide out there for it past the first couple of chapters. It's frustrating, because I really want to play the game! It has much worse graphics than the second game in the overhead parts (much smaller sprites, and just decent graphics instead of the amazing 'some of the best on the system' visuals of LoX II), but does have full (and good-looking) stages of side-scrolling play instead of just bossfights as in the second game, and that's cool. The first game is also apparently about twice as long as the second one.
There are a few people working on it -- presuming you're a PCEFX member, this forum http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?board=13.0 is where to go -- but it's not as easy as it might seem, for several reasons.
First, most games use voice acting for key parts, and doing fan-dubs is HARD and subtitling the text isn't really possible when it's just spoken text over still images. Only one game has a fan dub (Ys IV), while a few more than that have text-only translations.
And second, actually fitting all the English text, which often takes more space than Japanese, into the game has often proven very difficult -- games which use all of the RAM (leaving none for the larger amount they want for English) are a problem that hasn't really been solved yet. Some have talked about making a new system card just to allow for more RAM: http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=18629.0 but requiring people to buy that just to play the translations is an issue...
Perhaps because of these issues, while they've got partway translations for a bunch of games, who knows when or if any will actually finish, while Zeroigar for the PC-FX is about to have a translation from the people who have worked on PCE CD translations because there "all" they needed to do was find a way to subtitle the FMVs.
Anyone need this?
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=381277370199&globalID=EBAY-US
That seems much lower than it normally goes for.
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=381277370199&globalID=EBAY-US
That seems much lower than it normally goes for.
sixteen-bit
Member
dat "untested" discount
Probably because it doesn't have the associated manuals?