The Official Turbografx 16 Thread!

[SegaSnatcher]

3 minutes ago, CZroe said:

How much?

A little bit higher than I actually want for a little wiggle room if someone makes an offer.   I'll just say I'm hoping to make at least $600.  Anyways this is local in person sale only. 

Edited May 6, 2020 by SegaSnatcher

[CZroe]

Well, only three of the 8 packages from Yamatoku have arrived but it looks like everything PCE/TG16-related made it so here we go...

http://imgur.com/a/uVhjGKU

 

Yes, it really is taking this long to start receiving them!

 

The Super System Card 3.0 was only $14.01 and worked perfectly.

 

The white PC Engine was sold as defective "junk" for $26 and came with controller to boot. I'd say the controller alone was worth that except it seems to have a Avenue Pad 3 cord attached... unused strain relief and all. Anyway it seems to work great in the CD dock. I only got a white screen the first few times I tried that System Card until I cleaned some strange adhesive off the card's contacts. Not sure if the card picked it up from the "junk" system or if this SysCard simply came that way but I had just tested it with my other systems and it seemed fine. Regardless, it all works great... including the controller. I haven't actually tested the DC jack since I was powering it through an IFU so it's still possible it has that common and easy-to-fix failure point.

 

That boxed Saturn wheel was only $1, and if you think that's crazy, the two Saturn backup memory carts were only a half-cent each! That's right: One penny for both! I'm not set up to test the Saturn stuff at the moment but I tested everything else and the only thing not working is the $5.52 FDS Hyrule no Densetsu (Zelda).

 

The Pikachu N64 is missing the controller (as expected from the description) but I only paid $53 for it. When I tested the $10.61 Expansion Pak in the system I found that it already had one! Both checked out.

 

I compared that $5 Hori Fighting Commander to the one they sell for the SFC Mini/SNES Classic Edition and noticed something I never realized before: The original pads have no shoulder buttons (L & R) though they added both to the 2017.

 

I got that $4.76 Atomic Purple N64 controller not because the Pikachu N64 was missing the controller or because I don't have that color... I got it because I thought they didn't realize they left a Controller Pak inside (visible in pictures). Turns out that they did, but it was stuck. I had to pry it our with a butter knife.

 

Hyperkin's adapter to fit their TG16 AV products to a PC Engine doesn't quite fit PC Engine or CoreGrafx unless you force it, oddly enough. What's more, there is nothing stopping you from forcing it backwards/upside down, and the only reason the other product don't have a universal fit is to keep you from screwing this up and doing exactly that. I opened it up and it only passes AV and RGB stuff so it won't be useful for RGB-modding without making a ton of connections. For whatever reason, the ports are inverted from one another, which is why I plugged it into the console upside-down when I test-fit them. This will be easy to fix if I ever do something with it (RGB mod that fits the USA dock,

 

 

 

 

 

Everything lines up perfectly, edge to edge! Of course, this blocks the pin that secures a TG16 and the blocked pin will lock out the power so that would need to be bypassed (easy to do).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

43 minutes ago, SegaSnatcher said:

I just put this badboy up for sale on Craigslist.  

 

That is the most pristine TurboGrafx-16 I have ever seen. Then again I have only ever seen one in my whole life (Tokyo Game Show last year). If I was wherever you are, I'd probably buy this for sure, but I'm not so I won't.

[Steven Pendleton]

5 hours ago, CZroe said:

lots of stuff

The Pikachu N64. I've only ever seen one in my life. I went to my favourite band's bassist's parents' restaurant in Chiba once in early 2016 and his older sister was there. She gave me a tour of their garage, which basically has been converted into a small museum of stuff for the band. They had a bunch of his stuff that he left behind when he moved out. Buried under a pile of TIE Fighter parts was his Dreamcast, with Sakura Taisen 2 inside, and the blue Pikachu N64. Man that thing is... yeah. It's pretty hideous, but it is technically a collector's item. No game in it, though. I think the blue Pikachu N64 got a US release, but I'm not sure about the orange one. I have a feeling that it was Japan-only.

 

Anyway, it's too bad you didn't get much from the Hyperkin converter. I wonder how good those components are. Hyperkin has a pretty bad reputation, and I wonder if they are the same thing as Pound. Bob from RetroRGB says it's all the same (and that it's trash), but I wonder if any components at all are different.

 

I tried one of those Pound Genesis 2 cables last year while I was waiting for my OSSC to arrive. Basically it was just something to use as a temporary substitute until I got the HD Retrovision cable and the OSSC since it was like 2000 yen or something and I found it in town so I didn't have to wait for it to arrive. It didn't work at all on my monitor. Then I brought the whole Mega Drive tower to my friend's house to see if it worked on his TV and it didn't. Then we tried it on his monitor and it didn't work on that, either. Returned it and got my money back. What a pile of trash. I just saw Voultar saying that Limited Run Games used to advertise those things on their website using Framemeister + composite video as a comparison. Yes, composite. Not RGB. Lots of respect lost for LRG.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Steven Pendleton
I forgot to finish writing a sentence somehow!

[CZroe]

The Pikachu N64. I've only ever seen one in my life. I went to my favourite band's bassist's parents' restaurant in Chiba once in early 2016 and his older sister was there. She gave me a tour of their garage, which basically has been converted into a small museum of stuff for the band. They had a bunch of his stuff that he left behind when he moved out. Buried under a pile of TIE Fighter parts was his Dreamcast, with Sakura Taisen 2 inside, and the blue Pikachu N64. Man that thing is... yeah. It's pretty hideous, but it is technically a collector's item. No game in it, though. I think the blue Pikachu N64 got a US release, but I'm not sure about the orange one. I have a feeling that it was Japan-only.
 
Anyway, it's too bad you didn't get much from the Hyperkin converter. I wonder how good those components are. Hyperkin has a pretty bad reputation, and I wonder if they are the same thing as Pound. Bob from RetroRGB says it's all the same (and that it's trash), but I wonder if any components at all are different.
 
I tried one of those Pound Genesis 2 cables last year while I was waiting for my OSSC to arrive. Basically it was just something to use as a temporary substitute until I got the HD Retrovision cable and the OSSC since it was like 2000 yen or something and I found it in town so I didn't have to wait for it to arrive. It didn't work at all on my monitor. Then I brought the whole Mega Drive tower to my friend's house to see if it worked on his TV and it didn't. Then we tried it on his monitor and it didn't work on that, either. Returned it and got my money back. What a pile of trash. I just saw Voultar saying that Limited Run Games used to advertise those things on their website using Framemeister + composite video as a comparison. Yes, composite. Not RGB. Lots of respect lost for LRG.

Yeah. I ordered a blue Pikachu console in the same order for $61 but it must be in one of the packages I haven't received yet. T
You're right: the rest of the world never got the orange/yellow one. The blue one we did get has a different jewel that says "Pokemon" instead of "Pikachu."

When I first put in my bids back in January I was expecting to have UltraHDMI HW2 boards in my hands any day. As the first person with HW2 boards I was expected to do some testing and test fitting and tackling the Pikachu variant would be my first order of business... except those UltraHDMI HW2 boards never came.

The Pikachu console doesn't fit UltraHDMI HW1 without a special bracket piece that I typically 3D print but we don't expect the old design to fit HW2. It's because there is no plastic frame for the EXP port since the Pikachu console has not accessible EXP port. Never thought it would take this long to get the Pikachu consoles but, them again, I was supposed to receive a ton of HW2 boards in December and that still hasn't happened.

Yeah, those "HDMI cables" are literally just standard cables combined into one of those $20 SCART2HDMI or AV2HDMI boxes. Many of them don't even power off the console and get the analog cable side completely wrong, so you are better off with a generic box even though the boxes deinterlace non-interlaced 240p from retro consoles (Hyperkin, Pound, X-Treme, LevelHike, etc all do this). Examples of the analog side being wrong:
Bad brightness/colors on the early SNES cables
The wrong model 1 DIN adapter with Hyperkin's Genesis cables (U-shaped DIN8 vs C-shaped DIN8)
Genesis 2 cables that are absolutely unusable and garish with the 32X
Wrong signal levels in the XBOX cables
...and more. I would not expect them to get the right components in the analog side just like the cheapest Genesis 2 SCART on Amazon that will likely have only resistors or nothing inside (straight connections) instead of the proper components for 0.7v peak-to-peak signal levels and 75-ohm impedence (typically need resistors and capacitors).

If your TV has the same input you are literally better off connecting straight to your TV rather than double-scaling and adding latency. Since most in North America have never seen RGB with their classic consoles many will be tricked into thinking that this is better, but has huge issues. I can't stand playing a classic game and seeing a 60hz effect ruined by pointlessly deinterlacing non-interlaced games, like when you are flashing invincible to appear semi-transparent but your character appears solid, striped, or totally invisible. Even smooth scrolling is a 60hz effect and if you compare freeze-frames of a moving background to a still one you will see that the deinterlacer is blurring stuff that moves. Absolutely terrible!

I bought the $10 Hyperkin thing as a curiosity to see if I can use it for some mods. It looks like I can but the inverted ports means it'll take a bit more modding. Since they didn't solder all the pins it would not be terribly hard to remove these connectors for another PCB entirely. It's very easy to trim the bits off the female side to make it fit a TurboGrafx-16 but the other side will take a bit more to ever fit a PCE dock or RAU-30. Like, you might as well just 3D print a custom housing with an unconstrained board design.

Still, the connectors are fully-pinned for alternate uses and it's only $10. The female port alone is $5 from places like GameDoctorHK so it is probably the most economical way to get them. I noticed Console5 now carries this too.

I don't have a Super CD-ROM² but I think this can be used to make it fit a TurboGrafx-16 without cutting the original hardware... just trim one side of this adapter, cut the internal traces, and straight jumper the connections on one side to the other. Should work for the RAU-30+IFU-30 too though it seems a bit silly to "extend the extension" and you wouldn't even get composite AV unless you add it yourself with the board (RAU does not pass video to the IFU). Adding it to the board would mean having the AV port somewhere largely inaccessible (deep inside the RAU's "throat") and then you wouldn't have full stereo either (RAU only feeds back mono after mixing with CD audio).

I'm surprised it needed a 2-layer PCB for just RGBS + composite AV + power. I think flipping the TG16 connector side caused that. It's weird because they seem cost-conscious and don't even solder the unused connections for extra physical strength. They clearly didn't wave-solder so this is probably made in one of those machines that extrudes solder paste and lasers it or something.

[Steven Pendleton]

28 minutes ago, CZroe said:

 

Yeah. I ordered a blue Pikachu console in the same order for $61 but it must be in one of the packages I haven't received yet. T
You're right: the rest of the world never got the orange/yellow one. The blue one we did get has a different jewel that says "Pokemon" instead of "Pikachu."

When I first put in my bids back in January I was expecting to have UltraHDMI HW2 boards in my hands any day. As the first person with HW2 boards I was expected to do some testing and test fitting and tackling the Pikachu variant would be my first order of business... except those UltraHDMI HW2 boards never came.

The Pikachu console doesn't fit UltraHDMI HW1 without a special bracket piece that I typically 3D print but we don't expect the old design to fit HW2. It's because there is no plastic frame for the EXP port since the Pikachu console has not accessible EXP port. Never thought it would take this long to get the Pikachu consoles but, them again, I was supposed to receive a ton of HW2 boards in December and that still hasn't happened.

Yeah, those "HDMI cables" are literally just standard cables combined into one of those $20 SCART2HDMI or AV2HDMI boxes. Many of them don't even power off the console and get the analog cable side completely wrong, so you are better off with a generic box even though the boxes deinterlace non-interlaced 240p from retro consoles (Hyperkin, Pound, X-Treme, LevelHike, etc all do this). Examples of the analog side being wrong:
Bad brightness/colors on the early SNES cables
The wrong model 1 DIN adapter with Hyperkin's Genesis cables (U-shaped DIN8 vs C-shaped DIN8)
Genesis 2 cables that are absolutely unusable and garish with the 32X
Wrong signal levels in the XBOX cables
...and more. I would not expect them to get the right components in the analog side just like the cheapest Genesis 2 SCART on Amazon that will likely have only resistors or nothing inside (straight connections) instead of the proper components for 0.7v peak-to-peak signal levels and 75-ohm impedence (typically need resistors and capacitors).

If your TV has the same input you are literally better off connecting straight to your TV rather than double-scaling and adding latency. Since most in North America have never seen RGB with their classic consoles many will be tricked into thinking that this is better, but has huge issues. I can't stand playing a classic game and seeing a 60hz effect ruined by pointlessly deinterlacing non-interlaced games, like when you are flashing invincible to appear semi-transparent but your character appears solid, striped, or totally invisible. Even smooth scrolling is a 60hz effect and if you compare freeze-frames of a moving background to a still one you will see that the deinterlacer is blurring stuff that moves. Absolutely terrible!

I bought the $10 Hyperkin thing as a curiosity to see if I can use it for some mods. It looks like I can but the inverted ports means it'll take a bit more modding. Since they didn't solder all the pins it would not be terribly hard to remove these connectors for another PCB entirely. It's very easy to trim the bits off the female side to make it fit a TurboGrafx-16 but the other side will take a bit more to ever fit a PCE dock or RAU-30. Like, you might as well just 3D print a custom housing with an unconstrained board design.

Still, the connectors are fully-pinned for alternate uses and it's only $10. The female port alone is $5 from places like GameDoctorHK so it is probably the most economical way to get them. I noticed Console5 now carries this too.

I don't have a Super CD-ROM² but I think this can be used to make it fit a TurboGrafx-16 without cutting the original hardware... just trim one side of this adapter, cut the internal traces, and straight jumper the connections on one side to the other. Should work for the RAU-30+IFU-30 too though it seems a bit silly to "extend the extension" and you wouldn't even get composite AV unless you add it yourself with the board (RAU does not pass video to the IFU). Adding it to the board would mean having the AV port somewhere largely inaccessible (deep inside the RAU's "throat") and then you wouldn't have full stereo either (RAU only feeds back mono after mixing with CD audio).

I'm surprised it needed a 2-layer PCB for just RGBS + composite AV + power. I think flipping the TG16 connector side caused that. It's weird because they seem cost-conscious and don't even solder the unused connections for extra physical strength. They clearly didn't wave-solder so this is probably made in one of those machines that extrudes solder paste and lasers it or something.

Yeah, that's right, I forgot that I got the one with the improper DIN cable, so it must have been the Hyperkin and not the Pound. Same trash, I guess. Anyway, I knew about it before I bought it and since I already had my Super 32X, I tried to connect it using the original Sega adaptor with my MD in addition to the cable itself with the 32X. Nothing worked. I unfortunately had to waste money to take the train back to where I bought it, so I ended up losing money on it even though I returned it. What a pile of trash. At least I got to spend more time in Akiba. I forgot, but I either bought my Vita TV on the day that I bought that crap cable or on the day that I returned it. Pretty sure it was on the day that I bought it, though. Got both at Trader, though.

 

Anyway, if you buy a Super CD-ROM2 and convert this thing to work with the TurboGrafx-16, I'd like to see that. Something about the huge TG16 combined with the huge Super CD-ROM2 makes me laugh. If you've never seen one in person, it's about the size of the main body of the SuperGrafx and it's pretty heavy, as well. There is one over in Trader right now, but I forgot how much they want for it. I think it's about 27000 yen. No box or instructions, but it does have the little power thingy, which is good because I think you need that thing to power the PC Engine or it won't work. I've been thinking about buying it, but I'd honestly rather use that same amount of cash and buy a Skeleton Saturn or the Sakura Taisen Dreamcast, which I think I saw recently. They do not have the Skeleton Saturn at Trader, but they do have 2 V-Saturns right now. The Skeleton shows up often but sells out very quickly, and now that MODE exists, I think both the Skeleton Saturn and the nicer limited edition Dreamcasts will probably increase in price.

[+Black_Tiger]

Someone posted a guide on pcefx about how they modified their TG-16 and/or Super CD-ROM to fit together. Unfortunately I don't think it got migrated to the newer forums and pcefx seems to be gone altogether now.

[Steven Pendleton]

2 hours ago, Black_Tiger said:

Someone posted a guide on pcefx about how they modified their TG-16 and/or Super CD-ROM to fit together. Unfortunately I don't think it got migrated to the newer forums and pcefx seems to be gone altogether now.

This one?

 

https://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/

 

I did manage to find a picture of what it looks like anyway, so I'm satisfied. This one isn't fully connected, apparently, but it works enough for me to see what it looks like.

 

[+GoldenWheels]

Saw two cool things in quick succession and my wallet got hit. It happens. Have a PC-E Jamma unit coming, and a TourVision unit. Years of trolling sales sites, never saw either for sale...then I see both, one right after the other.

 

Might have to build a turbob arcade cabinet.

 

 

[CZroe]

Someone posted a guide on pcefx about how they modified their TG-16 and/or Super CD-ROM to fit together. Unfortunately I don't think it got migrated to the newer forums and pcefx seems to be gone altogether now.

Yeah, I've seen one cut to fit before. It's what inspired me to do essentially the same to that RAU-30 ROM² Adapter. It'll be hard to justify a Super CD-ROM² with all the crap I already have here but I'll always be on the look out for a severely under-priced one that I can restore!

Saw two cool things in quick succession and my wallet got hit. It happens. Have a PC-E Jamma unit coming, and a TourVision unit. Years of trolling sales sites, never saw either for sale...then I see both, one right after the other.
 
Might have to build a turbob arcade cabinet.
 
 

Oh, man... I know Albert Beckmann would be excited to see that.

[DragonGrafx-16]

@CZroe $77 for an AV Famicom? What a bargain! 

[CZroe]

[mention=4949]CZroe[/mention] $77 for an AV Famicom? What a bargain! 

Crossing my fingers on that one since it hasn't arrived yet! I usually buy 'em loose for $40 and install Hi-Def NES but figured I should get a boxed one for the personal collection at that price.

Same guy I got my boxed SuperGrafx from for $250 and my Arcade Card Pro for $76. Economy Shipping takes ages though. It usually takes two months but this time it's already taken more than three for the first three of right packages to arrive. Was getting worried! I can't even look up the tracking numbers on eBay anymore.

With the consistently good deals from that seller I'm tempted to stock up and open a game shop but, well, the virus seems to have disrupted his operations. Most of these bids were in January before most people knew what was happening in China.

[Steven Pendleton]

6 hours ago, CZroe said:

Crossing my fingers on that one since it hasn't arrived yet! I usually buy 'em loose for $40 and install Hi-Def NES but figured I should get a boxed one for the personal collection at that price.

Same guy I got my boxed SuperGrafx from for $250 and my Arcade Card Pro for $76. Economy Shipping takes ages though. It usually takes two months but this time it's already taken more than three for the first three of right packages to arrive. Was getting worried! I can't even look up the tracking numbers on eBay anymore.

With the consistently good deals from that seller I'm tempted to stock up and open a game shop but, well, the virus seems to have disrupted his operations. Most of these bids were in January before most people knew what was happening in China.

I have been thinking of opening a game shop myself for about a year now. Rather than pay the typical ebay prices to import stuff from Japan, I imagine people would much rather pay the prices that I find in town.

 

The thing is that I haven't figured out my pricing yet. I was thinking something like price of game + shipping + maybe 10% of game price or so, but then I'd be making no money, especially if they want Famicom or Super Famicom games. It might cost me more money to take the train to go pick stuff up than I'd make, so I'd be losing money and that's pointless. Need to figure it out, but I'm still not sure if I want to do it yet or if there is a demand for it.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[CZroe]

I have been thinking of opening a game shop myself for about a year now. Rather than pay the typical ebay prices to import stuff from Japan, I imagine people would much rather pay the prices that I find in town.
 
The thing is that I haven't figured out my pricing yet. I was thinking something like price of game + shipping + maybe 10% of game price or so, but then I'd be making no money, especially if they want Famicom or Super Famicom games. It might cost me more money to take the train to go pick stuff up than I'd make, so I'd be losing money and that's pointless. Need to figure it out, but I'm still not sure if I want to do it yet or if there is a demand for it.

Whatever you decide, good luck!

I'm told that all the really good deals are found well outside of Tokyo/Akiba in the more rural secondhand media shops. Considering this stuff is so much cheaper than anything I found in Akihabara myself, I'm inclined to believe that Akiba shops are often closer to eBay prices.

Next time I visit I'm going to do my best to find one of those obscure rural places to see what I can dig up.

[Steven Pendleton]

11 minutes ago, CZroe said:

Whatever you decide, good luck!

I'm told that all the really good deals are found well outside of Tokyo/Akiba in the more rural secondhand media shops. Considering this stuff is so much cheaper than anything I found in Akihabara myself, I'm inclined to believe that Akiba shops are often closer to eBay prices.

Next time I visit I'm going to do my best to find one of those obscure rural places to see what I can dig up.

The thing is that Akiba has become a giant tourist trap. There are usually more foreigners than Japanese in Super Potato at any time. It is still possible to find good deals in Akiba (like my SuperGrafx), but it's becoming difficult. They know what everything is, too, so you can't fool them at all. Their prices on imports are insane, though. I found a Nomad at Potato for 43000 yen or so last time I was there and they still have that CDX for 99000 yen or so. Their Tiger handhelds are also usually around 8000~9000 yen each as well.

[NE146]

26 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

There are usually more foreigners than Japanese in Super Potato at any time.

Yep.. the word about Japan got out a long time ago and western video game tourists flooded in, pillaging the games. And of course the japs got wise jacking up the price.   It's a pity though because didn't they ban street vendors in Akihabara? I remember back circa 1990-94 there were vendor carts outside of every store just filled with loose Famicom carts and other retro items, selling for a pittance. Too bad those are gone, but then again so are the streetside cassette tape shops. ?

 

 

[CZroe]

https://i.imgur.com/o9PpfxM.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/es2EplW.jpg

 

[mention=4949]CZroe[/mention] $77 for an AV Famicom? What a bargain! 

 

Well, I'm still missing two more items (Virtua Fighter 4 fight stick and Mega CD model 1) but that AV Fami is here and MUCH better than I expected!

 

https://i.imgur.com/UHlcJjl.jpg

 

The box is in good shape but not perfect, however the contents look like they've never been touched since someone took the twist ties off however long ago. It's flawless with not even a mark across the bottom labels from sliding around. OK, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to point out a flaw it would be that the EXT port cover falls out too easily which really only makes me surprised it's still there (more evidence that this thing just stayed in the box). Even the dogbones look brand-new. There's a boxed Family Computer Communication Adapter set with it. That includes the NTT Data controller too (the NES controller with a built-in numeric keypad). Not bad for $12!

 

The two-toned black/gray controller bundled with Mario Kart 64 also had a Controller Pak left inside... a steal for $9.

 

That Hori Superbike controller for $1 was probably the biggest deal here since the $61 Pikachu console is defective (no audio). I've seen that thing go for $90 loose.

[CZroe]

I was editing that last post when the time limit was reached and ended up breaking it. Here's how it was supposed to go...

 

Well, that yellowed PCE and controller from a few days ago is cleaning up nice.

 

Just left it out in the sun after a good scrub-down and now this:

 

 

Still a bit too much yellow for me but another day in the sun should get it where I want it. I've already got a replacement cord on the way from Console5 too.

 

For reference, here is what it looked like when I got it a few days ago:

 

Yuck!

 

[mention=4949]CZroe[/mention] $77 for an AV Famicom? What a bargain! 

Well, I'm still missing two more items (Virtua Fighter 4 fight stick and Mega CD model 1) but that AV Fami is here and MUCH better than I expected!

 

The box is in good shape but not perfect, however the contents look like they've never been touched since someone took the twist ties off however long ago. It's flawless with not even a mark across the bottom labels from sliding around. OK, if you put a gun to my head and forced me to point out a flaw it would be that the EXT port cover falls out too easily which really only makes me surprised it's still there (more evidence that this thing just stayed in the box). Even the dogbones look brand-new. There's a boxed Family Computer Communication Adapter set with it. That includes the NTT Data controller too (the NES controller with a built-in numeric keypad). Not bad for $12!

 

The two-toned black/gray controller bundled with Mario Kart 64 also had a Controller Pak left inside... a steal for $9.

 

That Hori Superbike controller for $1 was probably the biggest deal here since the $61 Pikachu console is defective (no audio). I've seen that thing go for $90 loose.

[Steven Pendleton]

4 hours ago, CZroe said:

Well, that yellowed PCE and controller from a few days ago is cleaning up nice.

Looks much better. I don't trust any of these procedures, though, so if I pick up a white PC Engine, I'm just going to buy a clean one. It does make me wonder what will happen to my PC Engine mini in 20~30 years, though. I wonder if it will turn the same nasty yellow color that the real PC Engine does. Same with my Famicom Mini. Meanwhile, Genesis Does (Not Turn Yellow).

[CZroe]

Looks much better. I don't trust any of these procedures, though, so if I pick up a white PC Engine, I'm just going to buy a clean one. It does make me wonder what will happen to my PC Engine mini in 20~30 years, though. I wonder if it will turn the same nasty yellow color that the real PC Engine does. Same with my Famicom Mini. Meanwhile, Genesis Does (Not Turn Yellow).

I didn't use any cleaning, brightening, or bleaching chemicals. Just water and a microabrasive sponge ("Mr. Clean Magic Eraser") to get off the dirt and grime then put the shell out in the sun... no need for OxyClean or Peroxide cream or any of the stuff people use when they "retr0brite."

[Steven Pendleton]

Just now, CZroe said:

I didn't use any cleaning, brightening, or bleaching chemicals. Just water and a microabrasive sponge ("Mr. Clean Magic Eraser") to get off the dirt and grime then put the shell out in the sun... no need for OxyClean or Peroxide cream or any of the stuff people use when they "retr0brite."
 

Yep. I don't trust the sun to not kill my stuff.

[CZroe]

Yep. I don't trust the sun to not kill my stuff.

Well, this one was almost as bad and I didn't even try to brighten it:


Other than cleaning it when I first got it, all I did was move to a new place where I didn't have curtains. It brightened on its own without deliberate exposure to the sun! ...just what naturally came through the uncovered windows.

For whatever reason, it really doesn't take much to de-yellow a white PCE, as evidenced by it happening indoors. Though the sun was out today the weather was really mild... pretty cold and breezy, actually. Nothing got hot and it still deyellowed rather quickly.

I wouldn't say either were subjected to anything harsh.

[Steven Pendleton]

30 minutes ago, CZroe said:

Well, this one was almost as bad and I didn't even try to brighten it:


Other than cleaning it when I first got it, all I did was move to a new place where I didn't have curtains. It brightened on its own without deliberate exposure to the sun! ...just what naturally came through the uncovered windows.

For whatever reason, it really doesn't take much to de-yellow a white PCE, as evidenced by it happening indoors. Though the sun was out today the weather was really mild... pretty cold and breezy, actually. Nothing got hot and it still deyellowed rather quickly.

I wouldn't say either were subjected to anything harsh.

CAT~

 

So is your SuperGrafx discolored at all, by the way? Mine is slightly. Look at it from certain angles and it is noticeably yellowed. It's not too bad, but disappointing. Still, I'm not going to be picky since I was fortunate just to find one, even if it's all beat up. I also guess being like that helped keep the price down.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Steven Pendleton
spelling

[CZroe]

CAT~   So is your SuperGrafx discolored at all, by the way? Mine is slightly. Look at it from certain angles and it is noticeably yellowed. It's not too bad, but disappointing. Still, I'm not going to be picky since I was fortunate just to find one, even if it's all beat up. I also guess being like that helped keep the price down.

 

 

Yeah, if there's a lap available, Rooster will make sure he's in it!

 

I haven't noticed any but that's probably because the previous owners stored it in the original box, away from fluorescent lights. I'll have to take a closer look next time. 

On a similar note, that blue Pikachu N64 that arrived today was definitely a little yellowed since the Memory Expansion door was a much brighter blue. Of seen blue Pikachu controllers that were so yellowed they looked navy (near-black)! Somehow I don't expect that to respond well to sunlight and the yellowing is really only noticable in contrast to the memory door so I think I'll just live with it.

 

I don't think dyed plastics like that are compatible with Retr0brite at all. I've seen the stuff discolor the red Nintendo Entertainment System text on a NES-001 cartridge door and really screw up the purple SNES Power & Reset buttons. Maybe I'll experiment with sunlight for dyed plastics when I get around to it.

 

 

 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

My SNES and PS1 are my only consoles with some discoloration... funny it was just those two considering the whole Nintendo Playstation prototype....