The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

Sounds like Pelican or Interact brand. I bought 6 of them on clearance sale when they were still around and had them hooked so 5 were chained into one, giving me maximum of 25 systems to control. The closest I've found with this many ports were the broadcast equipment costing a few hundred dollars.

Some really nice, and stackable 8-way RCA switchboxes on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=8-way+rca+switch+box

 

They are all the same unit more or less under different brands. Extremely sturdy and clean interface. Daisy Chain two of them to get 15 sources. I have one, perhaps the sturdiest and most well made switch I have ever seen...

[Eltigro]

 

Sounds like Pelican or Interact brand. I bought 6 of them on clearance sale when they were still around and had them hooked so 5 were chained into one, giving me maximum of 25 systems to control. The closest I've found with this many ports were the broadcast equipment costing a few hundred dollars.

 

This is the one that I have. At first, when looking at mine, I couldn't see the "Hip Gear" on it. That part of the design is changed. On mine, it's a different font smaller and almost the same black as the rest of the switch. And yeah, I bought it because it was the largest I could find. At the time I already had a four system switch, but my ex got that in the divorce.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hip-Gear-AV-System-Selector-and-cable-/231846044514?nma=true&si=teZUMU%252FFoWUFhrynwLx2D4Aadmk%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Edited March 8, 2016 by Eltigro

[Eltigro]

 

Are there any one player games that behave erratically with the Turbo Tap installed between controller and console?

 

 

 

Okay, here's what I did. I didn't try out all my games, but I did have some issues.

 

First, I just had the TurboTap and one controller. I had trouble with button I and up on the d-pad not working. This happened with Ninja Spirit, Raiden, and World Class Baseball (yeah, a 2 player game, but was just grabbing them at random). I figured it would continue with the rest of the games, so I didn't continue testing in this config. It didn't seem to be a problem with Galaga '90, but then you don't really use those buttons.

 

However, all this went away and everything played just fine when I connected another controller in port 2 on the TurboTap. With a second controller connected, it played just fine on all the above, plus TV Sports Football, JJ & Jeff, and Psychosis.

 

So perhaps there is something in there that is checking for a second controller?

[7800fan]

so tl;dr if you don't want to keep plugging and unplugging the tap, leave controller #2 plugged in and out of the way for 1 player games.

 

Some really nice, and stackable 8-way RCA switchboxes on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=8-way+rca+switch+box

 

They are all the same unit more or less under different brands. Extremely sturdy and clean interface. Daisy Chain two of them to get 15 sources. I have one, perhaps the sturdiest and most well made switch I have ever seen...

 

No S-Video support I'd have to redo my mod for 7800, Colecovision, and remove 32X S-Video mod, replace the cable from my SNES, N64, DC, and custom Saturn cable with composite version to get them back on composite. S-Video to composite would add up quite a bit as well :/ I think I'll stick with my stuff for now.

 

If only I could find a massive switch box that has at least 6 isolated lines to common lines I could mod them for S-Video+composite (for NES and Intellivision) + audios.

Edited March 8, 2016 by 7800fan

[Prosystemsearch]

Hmmmm... I wonder why the Supergrafx was rushed like it was by NEC.

[empsolo]

Hmmmm... I wonder why the Supergrafx was rushed like it was by NEC.

It was rushed because NEC got wind that Nintendo was working on a successor to the Famicom during the attempted pitch of the PC-Engine to Nintendo in 1987/88.

Edited March 9, 2016 by empsolo

[+Black_Tiger]

It was rushed because NEC got wind that Nintendo was working on a successor to the Famicom during the attempted pitch of the PC-Engine to Nintendo in 1987/88.

Any pitch to Nintendo would have been years earlier, as the PC Engine was released in 1987. There's never been any evidence that Nintendo was far along with the Super Famicom back in 1985.

 

Nintendo declined the partnership, because the Famicom was going strong as-is and they don't like sharing profits (which sank the SNES CD-ROMs).

 

The SuperGrafx wasn't rushed, it was just an overkill knee-jerk reaction to the Mega Drive and lazy developers who couldn't be bothered to put effort into parallax. The PC Engine got lots of medium budget games, which often turned out great, but this led to most games falling short in at least one aspect (usually parallax). Lazy devs could do generic parallax by just sticking any kind of image on a second tile layer.

 

But the SuperGrafx also having a second PC Engine-worth of sprites moved it into arcade hardware territory. It could do perfect CPS1 ports sprite, layering and resolution-wise. But the only way that the SuperGrafx could succeed would have been if they pulled the core-unit PCE systems and only sold the SuperGrafx and Duos with the SuperGrafx hardware inside. Even then, to not screw over the established user base, all software would require an additional simpler "PCE" mode.

 

The SuperGrafx was DOA for the same reason Nintendo declined to use Hudson's hardware: the PC Engine was already established and successful.

[Prosystemsearch]

Any pitch to Nintendo would have been years earlier, as the PC Engine was released in 1987. There's never been any evidence that Nintendo was far along with the Super Famicom back in 1985.

 

Nintendo declined the partnership, because the Famicom was going strong as-is and they don't like sharing profits (which sank the SNES CD-ROMs).

 

The SuperGrafx wasn't rushed, it was just an overkill knee-jerk reaction to the Mega Drive and lazy developers who couldn't be bothered to put effort into parallax. The PC Engine got lots of medium budget games, which often turned out great, but this led to most games falling short in at least one aspect (usually parallax). Lazy devs could do generic parallax by just sticking any kind of image on a second tile layer.

 

But the SuperGrafx also having a second PC Engine-worth of sprites moved it into arcade hardware territory. It could do perfect CPS1 ports sprite, layering and resolution-wise. But the only way that the SuperGrafx could succeed would have been if they pulled the core-unit PCE systems and only sold the SuperGrafx and Duos with the SuperGrafx hardware inside. Even then, to not screw over the established user base, all software would require an additional simpler "PCE" mode.

 

The SuperGrafx was DOA for the same reason Nintendo declined to use Hudson's hardware: the PC Engine was already established and successful.

 

 

Yup. Instead they should have waited and worked more on the PC-FX. Would have liked tto have seen a more robust PC-FX compete against the PS1.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Ironic the Supergrafx got the only ever home console port of 1941, but both it and the game are incredibly stupid expensive on eBay...

 

That and that ghost game. What happens if I try to load the ROM on my Everdrive on a Turbografx?

[CatPix]

Nothing.

The game can't start as the Supergrafx is different, that would be like trying to read a Game Boy color only game in a Game Boy.

[+Black_Tiger]

One of the SuperGrafx games plays a chip tune when booted on a PC Engine. Chris Covell's Axelay demo displays a warning screen.

[CatPix]

And isn't there one game that is compatible with both? Like you can play in on a PC-Engine, but add visual effects when played on a Supergrafx?

[+Black_Tiger]

And isn't there one game that is compatible with both? Like you can play in on a PC-Engine, but add visual effects when played on a Supergrafx?

Darius Plus is bi-compatible. Playing it on a SuperGrafx moves the player's projectiles to the second sprite layer and that makes the fames 100% flicker free.

 

Too bad the much better Super Darius doesn't have a default SuperGrafx mode.

[7800fan]

FWIW Everdrive can play SuperGFX game on SuperGFX console. And a good thing, with 6 SGFX games plus 1 bi-compatible game, I doubt anyone would make proper flash cart for it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Nothing.

The game can't start as the Supergrafx is different, that would be like trying to read a Game Boy color only game in a Game Boy.

So just a black screen and no warning "This cart is not compatible with your system" logo?

 

I like how 32X, Game Boy Color, DK64 / Majora's Mask, etc all display screens stating they are not compatible with your system. One homebrew game, Chunckout, plays and entirely different Easter Egg minigame when run on a Game Boy classic or Super GB.

[mickcris]

The system was released in Japan only. Probably if they would have released a supergrafx version in the USA, they would have had to put a message up on the games saying it was not compatible, cause stupid people would have defiantly put them in TG16.

[Andromeda Stardust]

The system was released in Japan only. Probably if they would have released a supergrafx version in the USA, they would have had to put a message up on the games saying it was not compatible, cause stupid people would have defiantly put them in TG16.

Well, an error message is technically impossible given the way that the PC Engine and Turbografx have their data pins swapped around. I'm stating that most systems which added enhancements (GBC, 32X, N64 expansion pak, etc) generally the game carts had code which displayed a warning message stating the game cart was incompatible with the system. Nintendo also keyed the GBA and 3DS to prevent insertion to older system because the format was incompatible. It would make sense if a PC Engine game can run with enhancements on a SuperGrafx, that the programmers would design a warning screen for SuperGrafx games inserted into a PC Engine, rather than load a black screen, etc...

[mickcris]

That's not what I was saying. All those other systems you listed came out in multiple regions. Had the same been true with the supergrafx, it would have made sense for them to do it.

I was just saying that your average Japanese person is not as dumb as your average American.

[7800fan]

SuperGrafx system can play all existing PC Engine game, there is no region limitation there. However SuperGrafx games cannot work in reverse, that is what the incompatible message was about. Out of the 6 games that only works on SGFX, only a couple actually displays message. The rest either do not check for incompatible console and crashes to black screen, or it does check and stops running on incompatible console but doesn't display any message.

 

Had SuperGrafx been released in USA, it would have the same flipped data lines to make it work with existing TG-16 games, and SGFx games would have had new messages added so that if an idiot user tries to play it on a USA Duo or TG-16. it would have displayed a message "This games requires Supergrafx console to work. It cannot run on this console."

[+atari2600land]

I just bought Dragon Spirit. Am trying to get back into this system. I never really cared for it that much, but I still own it because it has some great titles I like to play.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Impulse buy of the month: I Just picked up the scatological Toilet Kids on Poo-Bay. Japan has some of the weirdest shit, no pun intended!

[NE146]

I just bought Dragon Spirit. Am trying to get back into this system. I never really cared for it that much, but I still own it because it has some great titles I like to play.

 

If you can finish TG16 Dragon Spirit then you're a better man than I. I'm not exactly a novice but I gave that game my best for quite a while but never could finish it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

One "crappy" game (and two great ones) just arrived from Japan.

 

I was this close to hitting Buy It Now on a Turbo Bomberman before price checking the PCe versions. Both Bomberman and Bomberman '93 combined (and from the same seller no less) were much, much cheaper than the first US release alone. And I'm not going to discuss how expensive Turbo Bomberman '93 is...

 

Toilet Kids was a bit spendier, but how many games are there where you get sucked into an alternate toilet dimension and must defeat the evil Poop King to return to the home world? LOL! Looking forward to playing Toilet Kids, which from what I can tell is a decent run-of-the-mill SHMUP. I wish AVGN did import reviews; I'd love to hear his take on this!

[Eltigro]

Hitler gets a new TG Game... lol

 

[magmon51]

I actually just got a reprint of Rondo of Blood and Bonk 3 CD from PCEworks, pretty excited to play through Rondo of Blood. I just picked up a modded Turboduo (region switch), and have been enjoying it immensely. Gate of Thunder and Street Fighter 2 have been beating me up pretty badly, makes me realize how long it's been since I was any good at retro gaming.