The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[SlidellMan]

Tronics Fix has something for Turbo Express owners:

 

[SlidellMan]

Aldynes:

One of the only games that was designed with the Super Grafx in mind.

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

I finished the first game last year and didn't love it (it's a massive grind during the first couple of chapters), but also didn't hate it enough to not finish it.  So now it's on to the second game.

 

This one starts off with a great first impression.  You play as the son of the hero of the first game, so the game takes place in the same world and reuses many of the maps.  Your first goal is to travel all over the world visiting each town delivering letters from your father to the other rulers of each land.  It's actually a lot of fun seeing what has been happening with all the characters and locations from the first game.

 

This also adds each area you enter (including dungeons) to your "warp wing," which is an unlimited use item that lets you warp to any area you've already visited.  You get outfitted with a full suit of legendary armor, so you are basically unstoppable.  By the time you finish this chapter, you'll have visited nearly every location in the world, so there's basically no need to trek around anywhere.

 

The biggest change in this game, though, is how magic is handled.  Each character has seven slots, and you can fill each slot with any spell you want.  You learn spells by buying them, and once you have bought a spell you can "use" it as many times as you want to fill the slots up.  Each slot can be cast only once, but a spent slot will slowly regenerate as you walk around.

 

Four hours in, I found myself really enjoying this one!

 

And then began Chapter 1, which is when the game actually starts.  The game strips you of all your legendary equipment, so it's back to struggling to kill even the most basic of enemies.  The game is also ridiculously stingy with experience and gold.  Your typical battle is against 3-4 enemies, each of which takes 3-4 hits to kill, and awards you with a paltry 2-3 experience points and a handful of gold.  Once you reach level 5 or so, you are looking at having to fight 50+ encounters just to gain a single level.  Even the cheapest equipment costs around 50 gold, which can take 10+ battles to earn.  It's absolutely insane, and you will never be powerful enough to advance just by playing the game normally.

 

It's also similar to the Ys games, in that your level determines everything.  You are either at the minimum required level to be in an area, or you are below that level and reduced to doing 1 point of damage (!) each attack, against groups of enemies with 30+ HPs each.  In other words, the game is telling you to go back to the previous area and grind some more.  Every chapter ends with a boss fight that's a hard check against your level; you are either at the required level and can defeat it, or you aren't and it will be completely impossible.  There's no room for tactics or anything.

 

At this point I've completed dozens of RPGs, both on the computer and consoles, and I can count on one hand the games that actually required me to go around grinding to progress: Dragon Warrior (NES) and Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu (PCE).  I can now add DS: EDII to the list, and it is by far the absolute WORST example of forced grinding I've yet encountered.

 

I finally completed Chapter 1 today (roughly 8 hours into the game, with probably 6 hours of that spent grinding), and I've read that it becomes less annoying at this point.  I sure hope so!

Edited August 9 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

I completed Chapter 2 tonight, and I'm pleased to report that the game has taken a massive turn for the better!

 

Once you get done exploring the rest of the world, you get sent underground, only to find that there's some kind of Zork-esque underground empire.  This is a massive cave complex including several towns to explore, and the exp/gold pacing is perfect.  If you take the time to explore everything, you'll be more than powerful enough to beat the boss and finish the chapter.

 

Now that I like this game again, in reflection, there are actually many clever things about this game.

 

Enemy encounters are always visible roaming on the maps, and you have a 100% chance of running from every battle, so it's easy to avoid encounters if you want (though you shouldn't avoid too many of them).  You can really pick and choose your battles.  Enemies are also impressively unique, with their own abilities and quirks, and these unique abilities even have little animations.  It's always fun running into a new enemy, because you never know what it will do, and a key part of the game is learning what all the enemies do.

 

You have the option of setting the battle music to either CD or PSG.  The benefit of the latter is that it doesn't cause the exploration music to restart every time you finish a battle.  This is such a great option!  It's also really good PSG music, so I definitely recommend enabling it.

 

I thought that the magic system, based on slowly regenerating spell slots, would be a bit of a gimmick, but it's actually amazing.  You can purchase and carry around whatever spellbooks you want, and can reassign each character's slots at any time.  You can really go wild with this, optimizing your spells for each situation, but I went a more general-purpose selection that (so far) covers random battles and bosses alike.  Your spell slots regenerate somewhat slowly, but quick enough in between battles that you really can use spells pretty often.

 

When you first enter the underground empire, there are no random battles, so you're free to explore and map without any pressure.  However, after a certain event, the caves become flooded with monsters, and unlike previously in the game, these encounters give you tons of EXP and gold, and your party quickly levels up.

 

Hopefully, the game will keep playing like this!  An amazing turnaround for a game I figured was going to end up down in the pit with broken, unfun garbage like Tenkai Makyo: ZIRIA and Cosmic Fantasy.

Edited August 10 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

Chapter 3 down!  Another good chapter with great pacing.  Why on earth did Falcom make Chapter 1 such a horrible grind, when the rest of the game (so far) is quite awesome?  A very bizarre decision indeed.

 

One thing that I really like about this one is that the scenario is pretty varied and interesting, and not just the typical JRPG loop of arriving at town, buying all the upgrades, going to the nearby cave/tower/castle and beating the boss, then heading off to the next town to do it all over again.  You spend a lot of your time just gathering information and exploring (though the game is extremely linear).  Another great thing the game does is reward exploration with chests that actually contain useful stuff; there's nothing worse than heading down some winding corridor fighting a dozen battles to reach a chest, only for it to contain a few gold pieces or an herb or something, and this game is largely free of that.

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

Argh!  Disaster.  At around 23 hours in, I tried saving the game and the Super SD System 3 froze.  Restarting the console and game, I was met with the nightmare of nightmares: all my saves were gone.  I turned the console off, ejected the SD card, and checked it out in my PC, and the DS: EDII save file is just gone.  Completely bizarre.  The SSDS3 is supposed to keep a backup .bup file for cases like this, but for some reason it removed both the save .bup and backup .bup.  Even stranger, I tried starting a new game just to see what would happen, and the SSDS3 refused to create new save files for the game!

 

It's impossible to tell if the issue is with my console, the SSDS3, or the SD card, so this is going to be very annoying to troubleshoot.  I've had enough issues with TerraOnion products, though, that I decided to cut my losses and order a Turbo Everdrive Pro.

 

Having said that, I'm not looking forward to replaying those 23 hours, so this game goes on the backburner for now.

Edited August 12 by newtmonkey

[newtmonkey]

Two updates today!

 

---

 

I received my Turbo Everdrive Pro the other day, got it all set up, and am loving it!  It's very compact and easy to setup; it's quite cool to be running CD games from what is basically a HuCard.  However, if you want stereo CD audio you need to either mod the console yourself or use an aftermarket A/V adapter designed with the TED Pro in mind.  I went with the TED Pro + EDFX bundle from the manufacturer, and it works great.  The EDFX uses standard MD/Genesis 2 cables, and the composite video it puts out is of remarkable quality.  The TED Pro itself is fine-tuned for the proper audio balance, and it sounds glorious.  It also implements accurate CD seek times, so audio stays synchronized with what you see on the screen... even those FMV Sherlock Holmes games stay synchronized.

 

---

 

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

I've been plugging away at this here and there since my TED Pro arrived.  I had to start over from the beginning because the Super SD System 3 I was previously using crashed during a save and somehow wiped its own save files.  Anyway, I finally reached and surpassed the point I had got to before.  It went by a lot quicker this time since I knew exactly what to do... but that also presented a problem because it meant that I had to grind even more this time around, since I didn't need to really explore and gain levels that way.  This made the first chapter (already a tedious grindfest) nearly unbearable, but I pressed on.  Once you reach Chapter II the game decides to throw you a bone and give you EXP/gold rewards that actually make sense and making progress becomes a lot smoother.

There's a fun twist to the story that's revealed during the cinema scene prior to the last chapter, which brought to mind Might & Magic and Phantasy Star III.  It feels like the game is coming to a close, so I'll hopefully be able to get this one done within the next week or so.

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: Eiyuu Densetsu II (aka The Legend of Heroes II)

The final chapter is a lot longer than I expected!  You get sent to a castle you've already explored minus a couple of locked doors, and I sort of expected to just run into the last boss behind one of them.  Instead, it turns out that one of the locked rooms just has a key in it for the other room, which leads to a massive dungeon.  After two hours of exploring and drawing maps, I had to save and put the game down because it was obvious that I was not gonna finish the game tonight.

 

The game does a funny thing during the final chapter as it hands you the "ultimate" equipment for free at one point... but actually, if you remember a hint from earlier in the game, there is a store selling even better stuff for really not a lot of money.  So, you end up pawning off the legendary hero equipment to help pay for the actually good stuff.  The game also throws you a bone and fills the final chapter with comparatively easy enemies that give out tons of EXP and gold, so you are constantly leveling up, and it doesn't take long at all to be able to afford a full set of the best equipment for each character.

 

Although I wasn't able to get through this one tonight, I don't think there's much left.

[newtmonkey]

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II

I finished the game earlier today.  The final chapter takes place in a massive dungeon you partially explore during an earlier chapter.  I had to break out pencil and paper and draw some maps, because the layout is quite confusing.  It's also absolutely full of monsters who rush after you the minute they appear on screen.  The enemies have devastating magic attacks, so the "strategy" is to cast the Silence spell and then just attack over and over; due to the number of encounters this gets pretty tedious, but at least you are leveling up frequently as you make your way through the castle.

 

The last boss was surprisingly easy.  I went in completely unprepared, but managed to easily defeat him on my first try.  You get a pretty cool slideshow ending once you beat the game.

 

Outside of the brutal grindfest that is the first chapter, I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.  It's definitely a step up from the previous game in the series, which is similarly grindy at the beginning but never rises above mediocrity.  DS:TLoHII has some excellent dungeons full of cool stuff to find, some fun characters, and some cool twists in the story toward the end.

[newtmonkey]

Tengai Makyo II: Manji Maru

I've been looking forward to this one for some time.  I finally forced myself to complete the borderline awful Tengai Makyo ZIRIA last year (my thoughts posted here on AA for anyone interested), and it was so bad that it left me suspicious of the entire series.  I'm happy to report, however, that Manji Maru is a major improvement in every way and pretty awesome so far.

 

The first thing I noticed is how good the game looks compared with the first game.  Whereas ZIRIA looks like a pirate Famicom game, Manji Maru looks like it could have been an early SFC title.  It also sounds better, with more use of CD audio; even the PSG music in Manji Maru is of higher quality.

 

I'm only three hours in, but in those three hours I experienced more variety than in the tedious entirety of ZIRIA.  The towns, castles, and dungeons are all very memorable with their own little quirks.

 

I only have a couple of issues so far.  First, talking to the townspeople is a total waste of time, because, much like in ZIRIA, nearly every single person in a given town says basically the same thing.  Second, the game sticks you with just a single character for too long (also much like ZIRIA).  Otherwise, I'm really liking this one so far!

[newtmonkey]

Tengai Makyo II: Manji Maru

Now at around 4.5 hours in, maybe I spoke too soon in praising this one...

The game is still a massive improvement over the first one, but the structure is extremely repetitive so far, just like the first game.

 

You spend the first few hours trying to find a way to destroy these giant evil plants that have sprouted all over the place, conveniently preventing you from leaving the area.  It's a cool setup, and it's pretty exciting when you finally accomplish this and can move on to the next area, where you finally get your second party member.

 

And then in the next area, your goal is to destroy more giant evil plants that have sprouted all over the place, conveniently preventing you from leaving the area. Maybe it's just two evil plants you have to kill, so I skimmed through a walkthrough to check... and this is all you do the entire game.  What a letdown after such a promising start!

 

I have to admit, when I reached the second area and saw that I was just gonna do the same exact thing and walk from town to nearly identical town fighting the same 2-3 enemies along the way, I completely lost any motivation to play this one.  I'll have to take a break and revisit this one later.  Maybe if I space it out, it won't seem so tedious.

[newtmonkey]

Since I decided to put Tengai Makyo II: Manji Maru on the backburner for now, I tried out some games to find something else to play:

 

Momotaru Densetsu Turbo

This is a remake of a Famicom RPG, though from what I've read it's actually a very decent remake in that it doesn't really change too much other than the graphics, etc.  It was apparently the fifth best selling HuCard on the system.

Anyway, this is basically Clone #174 of the first Dragon Quest.  You just have a single character with turn-based combat, so I expect it to be about as shallow as its inspiration.  The "twist" here is that the game takes place in a world of Japanese fairytales, and it's cute/goofy.  I found the graphics to be pretty charming, but was in the mood for something a bit more interesting, so back on the shelf it went.

 

Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu

This is said to be Falcom's first console-exclusive game, though I didn't care enough to actually research whether this is true or not.  Much like Falcom's PC games, it comes in a surprisingly nice package... although it's just your standard double jewel case, you get a very thick, full-color manual (complete with a sealed mini hintbook at the end that needs to be opened with scissors), and a fold-out map of the final dungeon (!), which is hilariously massive and mazelike.

As for how it plays, imagine a version of Ys where you have a party of characters, and that plays a bit more like an RPG and less like an action game with RPG aspects.  The game also has a day/night cycle, which automatically makes it feel more complex and cool.  Finally, and bizarrely, there are side-scrolling platforming section at the end of each chapter.

This game is damned intriguing, but the bump combat reminded me that I never completed Ys IV, so...

 

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys

I ended up playing it for 1.5 hours straight, and it's quite an experience.  I forgot how impressive this game is!  The backgrounds are all detailed and colorful, the character portraits are animated and actually lip-synched quite accurately to the dialog, and there's lots of little animations that are only used once to give the game some variety and charm.  So far, the mazes are a lot easier to figure out than in Ys I/II, and you're pretty safe just picking a wall and sticking with it to the end.

Very good so far!  I hope it stays interesting until the end, as I found Ys I/II (especially Ys II) to be bit tedious toward the end.

 

[newtmonkey]

Turbo Everdrive Pro

I have noticed some really awful audio synchronization issues with Ys IV.  I had noticed some very minor audio synchronization issues here and there (certainly better than the SSDS3, though)... but overall it was nearly perfect.  Until I started playing Ys IV!

 

The issue seems to be with conversation scenes, where a portrait of the character is animated synchronized with speech.  I've noticed the SD card being accessed every 5-6 seconds during these scenes, with a slight pause during access, with causes the audio and video to go increasingly out of synchronization.  My theory is that the audio is either several tracks stitched together, or maybe samples being loaded from the CD, rather than just a single long track playing while the scene is animated.  I've noticed no problems in other games where cinemas scenes are simply animated while a single long audio track plays (Valis and Xak, for instance).

 

I've tried several different SD cards (Sandisk, Samsung, PNY), I've tried formatting them both as exFAT and FAT32, and I even tried swapping in my original CoreGRAFX power supply, but nothing helps.

 

I tried searching for information on other people experiencing this, but cannot find anything due to how shitty search engines have become over the last couple of years, plus the fact that probably no one is playing anything other than Dracula X and Gate of Thunder or whatever these days (so the audio sync issue, if it exists, would not be noticeable).

 

Is anyone using this here, who has played Ys IV on it?  Have you encountered the same issue?

Edited September 7 by newtmonkey

[NE146]

Dont have one of those newfangled cards, but have you tried burning a CD and seeing if it's similar, or otherwise?

Edited September 7 by NE146

[+GoldLeader]

On 7/16/2024 at 10:16 PM, SlidellMan said:

Demon's World/Horror Story:

 

 

Well,  It always happens...I watch the video, (Skim some parts anyway),   decide that could be cool,  then look it up on eBay and die of sticker shock,..>Arrrg!    $115-ish  minimum,  and PCEWorks are as much or more!  Not that I can't afford it if I'm really inclined.

 

Except in this case...

 

I then look at my Toaplan Arcade Collection #2 Evercade cartridge and there's the Arcade game!   DEMON'S WORLD in America.   Cool!

 

Note:  It was called Horror Story in Japan.  There is a later revision, alternative version of the arcade boards that shuffles the levels around and adds a cave level before the end...And the PC Engine uses that level layout and also adds an additional mid boss (a cowboy skeleton throwing scorpions) to the Old Western Town level.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I then look at my Toaplan Arcade Collection #2 Evercade cartridge and there's the Arcade game!

Yeah, this is also why I didn't get that Evercade cart; I already own the PC Engine game (and the shmups are too hard for me).

[+jgkspsx]

9 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

Yeah, this is also why I didn't get that Evercade cart; I already own the PC Engine game (and the shmups are too hard for me).

Wardner though? Rally Bike? Really outside of Truxton and Truxton II the Toaplan shooters are pretty accessible for beginners. Keep in mind also that several PC Engine shmup ports like Tatsujin were much harder than the arcade game.

[DragonGrafx-16]

Yeah Tatsujin on PC Engine is the hardest shmup I've played.

[roots.genoa]

3 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Wardner though? Rally Bike? Really outside of Truxton and Truxton II the Toaplan shooters are pretty accessible for beginners. Keep in mind also that several PC Engine shmup ports like Tatsujin were much harder than the arcade game.

I read Shaun Musgrave's review and even though he loves that cart (it's one of his favorites actually) and thinks the shmups are even better on that one, he advises people who are not good at them to stick with the first cart - so I just followed his advice. He recommends Rally Bike but Wardner not that much though. Excuse me for trying not to buy EVERY Evercade cart! 😅 It's already difficult for me to find the time to play the ones I have. 😩

 

For instance, recently, before I got Thalamus and Tomb Raider, I went back to the Irem cart I hadn't played that much. I beat Lightning Swords but In the Hunt was already difficult even though you at least respawn where you die, so I just used tons of credits. But then I wanted to beat Battle Choppers and I had to quit without having even finished the first level; it's way too hard for me, there are enemies everywhere and you respawn way back. 😰

To be precise, I already have 4 games to play on Switch right now (also I'd like to play the Ace Attorney compilation and Zelda is out at the end of the month), 1 on Xbox, and 2 on PC. And in my free time, I watch a lot of movies, TV shows, and also some wrestling. So clearly, it's difficult for me to play every game I'd like. 😔

Edited September 8 by roots.genoa

[+jgkspsx]

6 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

But then I wanted to beat Battle Choppers and I had to quit without having even finished the first level; it's way too hard for me, there are enemies everywhere and you respawn way back. 😰

Mr Heli and In the Hunt are much, MUCH harder than any of the Toaplan games, haha.

[newtmonkey]

Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys

I'm about 6 hours in at this point.  Such a fun, breezy game to play.  The pacing is actually almost too fast, as you just zoom through the game going from location to location and slaying bosses.  There's no need to grind so far, since you always end up at a level high enough to take down the boss if you've taken the time to actually explore the dungeons, etc.  So far, the "mazes" are very easy to figure out by just sticking to one wall and following it to the end.  I check a walkthrough after the fact to see if I missed any important chests.

 

It's a great looking PC Engine game with lots of neat little effects, such as a very cool lightning flash effect in one area, and reflective floors in another... though it doesn't seem as sharp (resolution) as Ys I/II.  The tradeoff is worth it, though, because it's a very colorful, detailed game.

 

The soundtrack is great so far, but nowhere near as good as the previous three games.  The Darm Tower theme gets a remix that starts out quite good but then switches to 70s funk music for some reason.  Bizarre.

 

The story is cool so far, but I have two big complaints.  First, the three antagonists (Clan of Darkness) are pretty lame, and seem like something taken out of a kid's cartoon.  Second, the game tells its story mainly through boring exposition dumps where someone talks over a slowly panning picture... surely they could have done something more interesting than this!

 

Besides those two gripes, it's a fine game.

[newtmonkey]

8bitdo Arcade Stick

I bought this mostly to play shooters on Switch, but I figured I could use one of many random converters and adapters and such to get it working on the PC Engine, mostly to play the awesome port of Forgotten Worlds (very uncomfortable to play on a 2-button controller).

 

Sadly, I could not get it to work at all with the Brook PS3/PS4 to Mega Drive/PC Engine Super Converter (https://www.brookaccessory.com/detail/67670908/), even in Bluetooth mode.  In the unlikely event that anyone has got this combination working, please let me know!

 

However, I did get it working (in 2.4g mode!) with the excellent USB2PCE adapter (https://controlleradapter.com/products/usb-2-pce).  I made sure both the adapter and stick were updated to the latest firmware, and then it was just matter of inserting the 2.4g receiver into the USB2PCE and setting the arcade stick to Xinput mode.

 

It connected instantly, though the button layout was not ideal as it maps II and I to the bottom leftmost buttons (A+B).  "8BitDo Ultimate Software" to the rescue!  This application lets you freely modify the button layout, and you can even store separate layouts for Xinput/PC and Switch.  With that in mind, I mapped SELECT, II, and I to the top leftmost buttons (X, Y, RB) to mimic the layout of the 3-button PCE controller.

 

USB2PCE also allows you to switch to 6-button mode, so you could map the button layout for that if you are a diehard PCE SF2 fan.

 

Overall, it's a alright arcade stick that seems built decently, but with lots of cool features.  The buttons are fine, but the control stick is just okay with a loose/cheap feel and a bit too much throw.  The buttons and stick can be replaced somewhat easily, apparently, so I may look into that in the future.

Edited Wednesday at 03:33 AM by newtmonkey

[DragonGrafx-16]

I would love to get a good adapter so I could use my Mayflash F300 with my PC Engine but at $60? I could buy like 2 PC Engine controllers for that. The 2 button CoreGrafx controller is my favorite controller ever though so I'm in no rush.

[newtmonkey]

I just received the 8bitdo M30 2.4g ("Genesis/MD mini" version) and can confirm that it works fine with the USB2PCE adapter I mentioned above.  You can't remap the controls at all, of course, but the default mapping is quite comfortable for two-button games, with II and I mapped to B and C.  Turbo II and Turbo I are mapped to X and A, which is not ideal.

 

You can use some button combinations (hold for around 5 seconds) to switch between different input modes on the M30 itself:

Home+Up: X-input
Home+Left: Nintendo Switch
Home+Down: D-input (Genesis mini)

 

I don't recall which one of these it was, but one will map II and I to A and B, and Turbo II and Turbo I to X and Y, which makes much more sense but I find B+C much more comfortable to use than A+B.

 

Anyway, another fine option for PCE wireless gaming.  The M30 is by the far the best controller 8bitdo has ever made, so it's nice to be able to use it with the PCE.

[roots.genoa]

I also love the M30 but only use it on my Mega Sg. For my Analogue Duo I use the PCE equivalent which is fine, very comfortable as well. The only problem with it is the turbo buttons that don't exactly match the speeds the original controllers offer.