TurboGrafx-16 101: The Beginner’s Guide
The RetroGaming 101 series is aimed at gamers who are just starting out in the classic gaming scene or are curious about an older console that they don’t know much about yet. Those of you that are especially knowledgeable about the featured console, I encourage you to add any information that you think would be beneficial into the comments section. If you are new to the featured console, and still have questions, you can also use the comments section and I will do my best to help you out.
When I recently asked around in the forums about which console everyone would like to learn more about, the TurboGrafx-16 was by far the most common answer. Personally, I wanted to learn more about the console, so our resident TG-16 expert, marurun offered to help me out. He did an awesome job writing just about every word in here. I just rearranged a few things and added some comments. I hope you enjoy learning about this somewhat forgotten gaming machine.
Also see: Games That Defined The Turbo-Grafx 16
Background Information
- The TurboGrafx-16 (known as the PC-Engine in Japan) was the first console created by NEC or Hudson Soft (the two companies responsible for the hardware design).
- Hudson Soft was the first 3rd party game developer for Nintendo’s Famicom (NES) and as a result, so they were in an excellent position to gauge the condition of the market. Their hardware division was cooking up a console chip triumvirate; a CPU, video processor, and video output combo that they were no doubt sure could take on Nintendo’s Famicom and win. When it came time to enter the market they took their ideas to NEC and a partnership was born.
- While Hudson is often credited with the initial hardware design, including the HuCard, credit card sized game cartridges, form factor and the high quality video output chip, NEC is likely to have played a big role in the later CD-ROM attachment.
Historical Impact
- Strong in Japan: The PC Engine took the number one sales spot from the Famicom (the Japanese version of the NES) not long after its release and stayed there until finally unseated by the Super Famicom (SNES). Its popularity in Japan was analogous to the success of the Sega Genesis in the US.
- Struggling in the US: Thanks to poor marketing, bad localization selections, and the illegal stranglehold Nintendo placed on US game releases, the TurboGrafx-16 failed to take off in the US, rapidly losing market ground to Sega’s Genesis.
- 8-Bit or 16-Bit?: The GPU in the TurboGrafx-16 was a 16-bit chip, but the CPU was only 8-bit. The TG-16 and PCE billed themselves as 16-bit systems because of the GPU, while detractors claimed that the 8-bit CPU meant the TG-16 could not truly be considered part of the 16-bit generation. In the US the system’s market performance was decidedly 8-bit, in that the Genesis and the Super NES, in full 16-bit glory, left it choking on their dust. In Japan the system clearly performed square in the middle of the 16-bit generation, trouncing the Sega Mega Drive and managing a few fading pot shots against the Super Famicom before slowly fading away. Many of the early games really did seem to be nothing but a minor graphical update from NES games, but later titles, especially some of the Super CD and Arcade CD games, did things only a competent 16-bitter could handle. In that sense the TG-16 was really a transitional system. It not only bridged the 8 and 16-bit generations, but also the cartridge and CD generation.
- Punished By Nintendo’s Third Party Rule: Nintendo required loyalty from third party developers in the US and punished those who developed or released titles for competing consoles. In response, NEC America licensed games from Capcom and others and localized them themselves. NEC America also relied heavily on companies like NaxatSoft and Icom Simulations who did not have a strong US presence on any other consoles. So while the Japanese market flourished with great releases, the US market declined. By the time Nintendo was rebuffed in US courts the damage had already been done.
- First CD-ROM Console: The TurboGrafx-16′s CD ROM² attachment was a first for a home console. It was an external add-on and it was a little low on memory, only 64kb initially in which to load levels, not to mention expensive, but the capabilities made an impact on the market. Games like Ys I & II, Ys III, and the Valis series all featured voice acting and CD soundtracks, not to mention early full-screen stills and cinematics.
- Built-In Turbo Button: All 1st party TG-16 controllers had turbo functions on them for buttons I and II. The basic pad, to date the most comfortable 8 or 16-bit generation pad made, had 2 simple toggles with off, slow, and fast. The Turbo Stick, a joystick looking much like a lighter-weight, rounded-edged, black NES Advantage, featured two analog-style sliders for variable turbo and buttons to turn turbo on and off.
- First Controller Multi-tap: The Turbo Tap (see System Accessories & Upgrades) allowed up to 5 controllers to be attached to the TG-16. The TG-16 also had a number of 5 player games, including all the TV Sports games. Multi-player Bomberman got an early start, as well. This eventually set the stage for games like Saturn Bomberman which took console multiplayer to the next level.
- Portable TG16: The Turbo Express, known in Japan as the PC Engine GT, was a hand-held version of the TG-16. It came out only a year after the Game Gear but was no hamstrung, weakling portable like the Game Gear or the Game Boy. The LCD was one of the best at the time. The high price ($299) kept it out of reach of most US gamers, but it was still quite a showpiece. A link cable allowed head-to-head gaming on a few, select titles and there was even an optional TV tuner add-on (like with the GameGear). Sadly, drastically short battery life and no save memory meant your game playing and TV watching had to be had in short bouts and at the cost of mountains of AA batteries. Not until the Sega Nomad would anybody attempt to put a full-powered console into a portable case. Notably, the Nomad, too, was a market failure.
Console Variations & Terminology (US)
- TurboGrafx-16: This was the main console. For its US release it was doubled in size over its Japanese counterpart, supposedly in the theory that in the US bigger is better, and perhaps due, at least in part, to a little extra RF shielding. The TG-16 featured RF out only, a single controller port that used a much larger controller connector than the Japanese PC-Engine, and lacked any kind of save memory. It also had an enormous expansion port that jutted from the back of the unit and shipped with a plastic cover that attached over this and made the shape of the system more uniform. The Expansion port is identical to the PC Engine’s expansion port and the TG-16 can use all Japanese add-ons, and vice versa.
- TurboCD Expansion: This monstrous peripheral attached to the expansion port and featured a platform on which the TG-16 rested. It was effectively the Japanese CD ROM² add-on with a different name. The TurboCD contained a removable CD drive slightly larger than later CD Walkman models. The AC adapter that came with the CD attachment powered both the CD and the game system. The AC adapter that originally shipped with the TG-16 could then be used to power the removable CD unit when detached and allow it to serve as a semi-portable CD player. Shipped with the CD ROM² System 2.0 card. The CD ROM² System expansion did have AV stereo output and save memory for CD and TurboChip games, however.
- TurboDuo: The TurboDuo was the last hurrah in the US. Designed in Japan and barely modified for the US, this system combined the TG-16, CD ROM² drive, CD ROM² BIOS, and Super System expanded memory into a single, compact console. It stilhad only one controller port, though. It debuted in the US at $299 and featured an impressive set of pack-in games. The system came with Ys I & II, Ninja Spirit on TurboChip, and a Super CD with Gates of Thunder, Bonk’s Adventure, Bonk’s Revenge, and a hidden copy of Bomberman that was unlockable with a code. There were some packages that featured a different TurboChip game.
- Super System 3.0 Card: When the TurboDuo was released the remaining inventory of the TurboCD expansion had its price slashed, and as an effort to let others in on the game TTI also released a US version of the Super System 3.0 Card, allowing the TG-16 with TurboCD to play Super CD ROM² games. The Super System 3.0 Card shipped with the 4-in-1 SuperCD that shipped with the Duo, meaning you were never without at least 4 great games to play. The 4-in-1 SuperCD was the best deaon the gaming market. Two great platformers, a fun puzzle/party game and one of the best shooters ever. What more could you want?
- Japanese Hardware Disambiguation: check out Wikipedia’s outline of the Japanese naming conventions and additional console variations.
Game Formats
- HuCard : Known as a TurboChip in the US, this game cartridge form factor was only slightly larger, and about twice as thick in most cases, as a credit card. The cases they came in were the same size and shape as a CD case and even opened similarly. The HuCards were housed in rubbery plastic sleeves and held in place by a plastic clip. This odd storage decision meant HuCard/TurboChip games could be stored in their cases in the same CD racks with their CD-ROM brethren.
- System Card: The System Cards were HuCards that provided the CD-ROM BIOS code so that the PC Engine or TG-16 could controthe CD ROM² System add-on. It was required to be in the card slot in order for CD ROM² games to play.
- CD ROM²: CD ROM² is reported to stand for and be pronounced CD ROM ROM. It is simply the name NEC and Hudson gave their particular CD game format.
- CD ROM² System: CD ROM² System refers to the first generation of CD games and the hardware designed to play them. The CD ROM² System consists of a PC Engine or TurboGrafx-16, a CD-ROM add-on, and a CD ROM² System 2.0 Card. A System Card 1.0 exists and shipped with the original PC Engine CD ROM² System expansion but only had a couple games developed for it before the CD ROM² System 2.0 Card was released.
- Super CD ROM² System: This is the second generation of CD games and the required hardware. Anything that can play a Super CD ROM² game can play an older CD ROM² game. The Super CD ROM² games were designed to take advantage of the extra memory on the Super System 3.0 Card and therefore had improved graphics, animation and sound over older CD ROM² games.
- Arcade CD ROM² System: The 3rd and final generation of CD ROM² games and hardware, Arcade CD ROM² games took advantage of the massive supply of memory on the Arcade Card and Arcade Card Pro making relatively accurate Neo Geo ports possible.
System Accessories & Upgrades
- Turbo Tap: The world’s first multi-tap. It was a block with 5 controller ports and a cable out the other end that connected to the single controller port on the front of the TG-16. Unfortunately, this device was required to have even 2 players, but many TG-16 games supported 2 or 5 player play so it was often a worthwhile investment.
- TurboPad: Basic system controller. Comfortable gamepad with a responsive rocker pad and 2 action buttons with built-in turbo capabilities.
- TurboStick: Joystick release for the TG-16 with variable turbo and a nice, large base. The thing was tough, too. I put years on one of these and it never even flinched. They don’t make joysticks like that any longer. Who needs clicky joysticks, anyway?
- Turbo Booster: This overpriced add-on plugged into the expansion port and mimicked, in appearance, the plastic cover, keeping the TG-16′s uniform shape. All it did was add AV Stereo out. It was originally price as something like $30 or $40 if I remember correctly.
- Turbo Booster Plus: Nearly identicato the Turbo Booster, only with some save memory included as well so you could save your high scores or, in a few cases, your progress without having to input annoying passwords.
- Super System Card: The limited 64kb memory of the originaCD-ROM accessory become problematic in that chip games started to surpass, graphically, some of the CD games, so NEC and Hudson Soft went back to the drawing board and returned with the Super System Card. Like the original System Card 2.0 that shipped with the CD-ROM, this card was to be inserted into the HuCard slot and provide basic CD-ROM support. What the Super System Card did differently, however, was provide an additiona192kb of memory, for a total of 256kb, thus allowing levels to be much longer and much more graphically intense.
- Arcade Card & Arcade Card Pro: After the Super Famicom was released in Japan and demonstrated its market controlling powers, NEC and Hudson made one last ditch effort to keep their market alive. They released the Arcade Card and Arcade Card Pro. Basically a Super System Card with an enormous memory increase, bringing the memory total to 2048kb, the Arcade Card made possible some of the best Neo Geo ports available until the 32-bit era. The Arcade Card was meant for systems like the PC Engine Duo which already had Super System capabilities built-in. The Arcade Card Pro was a little more expensive and meant for older systems that required earlier System Cards in order to operate. There were only 6 or so exclusive Arcade Card games released and most of them were Neo Geo fighting game ports, but they were all very competent and well-animated. There were, additionally, a couple Super System games that could use the extra Arcade Card memory for fewer loading breaks and the like. One of the 3×3 Eyes digital comic type games was one of these.
- Game Save Memory: You also had to get a special add-on to get save memory for HuCard games, The CD-ROM² attachment, however, included CD and HuCard compatible save memory.
Strengths
- Compact & Simple Power: The PC Engine relied on only 3 chips to do the heavy lifting, and it demonstrated that, while it only had an 8-bit CPU, it could be the equaof its theoretically more powerful competition. Games like Street Fighter 2 and Gates and Lords of Thunder prove the point. The elegance of the 3 chip design helped keep the Japanese consoles compact and made the Turbo Express possible.
- 2D Shooter Library: The PC Engine, even in the US as the TurboGrafx-16, was the place to be for shooter action. It wouldn’t be until the Sega Saturn was released that players had so many impressive shooter options to fulfill their itchy trigger finger.
- Excellent Video Output Quality: A high-grade chroma encoder powered the video output of the PC Engine and the color and video quality outshone all until the Super Famicom stepped up to the plate, and even then it was a close call.
- Multimedia Power: The CD-ROM² attachment dragged games, kicking and screaming, into the optical age. Voice acting, animated cut scenes, and CD soundtracks were all effectively pioneered, at least in the console sphere, on the PC Engine.
- No Copy Protection on CD Games: For the few, the proud who had either a TurboDuo or TG-16 with CD ROM² attachment importing CD games was a breeze. Now, many years after its death, there have been many homebrew projects for the PC Engine. You can just burn a CD and stick it in the system and it will run any compatible code present.
- The Japanese Market: The PCE was an outstanding success in Japan, all around, and surely made Hudson and NEC a great deal of money. A huge library of games spanning HuCards and CDs and sales numbers to envy surely frustrated Sega as they failed to leverage the Mega Drive in the Japanese market.
Weaknesses
- NEC America & Lack of US 3rd Party Support: NEC America really mishandled the American debut of the TurboGrafx-16. Marketing was weak, game selection was poor, and the original pack-in, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, was a joke. Add that to Nintendo’s illegal stonewalling of many developers and you have a recipe for failure. 3rd parties were reluctant to support the system in the US initially because of pressure from Nintendo, but even after Nintendo’s threats subsided they remained leery. Working Designs was one of the only licensees to continue localizing games in the US after the demise of the TG-16.
- High Price: The TurboGrafx-16 was initially too expensive in the US, and the CD ROM² attachment and Turbo Express even more so. NEC America was slow to drop the price on the TG-16 even after it was getting soundly trounced by Sega. The CD ROM² accessory debuted at $399. Ouch! When the TurboDuo was finally released the opening price of $299 was high but reasonable for what you got, but people were already price shy at that point and the Duo couldn’t save the PC Engine in the US.
- Chip Audio: While the PC Engine’s sound chip was pretty flexible it was, ultimately, limited. Unlike the Nintendo NES/Famicom it had stereo and 6 channels of audio. Furthermore, the NES had programmed channels, in the sense that this channel is a square wave and this other channel is a saw wave, and so on. On the PC-Engine you could determine what you wanted out of each channel, but assigning three channels to do different sine waves was only so much of an improvement. Trying to get digital sounds like recorded voice samples tended to yield very poor results. It wasn’t until CD games arrived that the PCE was truly able to shine in the audio department.
- Game Genre Limitations: While the Japanese library was huge, the US library had some gaping holes. There were very few RPGs translated to the US, so RPG lovers were left out in the cold. Even in Japan there weren’t many RPGs until the CD ROM² attachment was released, due to the core system and HuCards usually lacking save memory.
- The US Market: How could a system that did so well in Japan fail so spectacularly here? We can throw blame around to try and find out who’s responsible, but it’s the results that are telling. The US game library was small and quite limited, the CD ROM² attachment was priced out of reach and too many peripherals were needed to have a “working” system, and 3rd parties avoided getting involved with the system. Many of the later CD ROM² games were excellent but nobody has the CD attachment so it didn’t really matter. The Sega Genesis, almost in retribution for the role reversal in Japan, trounced the TG-16 and the Super NES later pounded the nails into the coffin while kicking the Genesis around and chewing bubblegum at the same time.
- Large Amount of Hardware Upgrades & Variations: With all the different types of hardware and game formats mentioned above, the TG-16 makes Sega and their Genesis/Sega CD/32X combination look tame. Oddly, the US had far fewer model variations than Japan and yet suffered possibly as a result.
- Virtually Required Add-ons: In the US, you had to buy an upgrade to do just about anything with your TG-16. The system shipped with 1 controller port and only RF out, and most TurboChip games had no save batteries in them. You had to buy a Turbo Tap to play even a 2 player game and if you wanted stereo AV out you had to pony up for, at the very least, a Turbo Booster. Not many TurboChip games really needed save capabilities, but if you wanted to save your cheapest option was the $50 or $60 Turbo Booster Plus. Thankfully, the TurboCD included AV out and CD and HuCard compatible save memory in addition to allowing you to play CD ROM² games.
Emulation
- Emulation Status: There are several emulators available and most handle HuCard games quite fine, but very few do a good job with CD games. However, AlPC emulators have trouble presenting the full screen resolution from edge to edge.
- Best PC Emulator: The best emulator is a commercial one that costs $20. Magic Engine, developed in France, can run all chip games, including SuperGrafx, and all variants of CD games.
- Wii Virtual Console: The Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console supports a limited number of TG-16 games with it’s specialized emulator. Games are available for purchase on an individual basis.
Importing
- Japanese HuCard games have a different cartridge pin out from US TurboChip games. In order to use Japanese HuCards in a US system you need an adapter like Dave Shadoff’s Kisado.
- Japanese HuCards can be used in US TurboGrafx-16 with an adapter, but US TurboChips cannot be used in a Japanese PC Engine without making modifications to the PC Engine. Why? Japanese HuCard games don’t do any kind of region check, but US TurboChip games do. If you have a PC Engine and want to play TurboChip games you have to open the system and cut a particular pin on one of the chips.
- Standard CD games had no region protection and will work on US and Japanese systems.
- The CD ROM² System Cards are all region-specific and have the same constraints as HuCard and TurboChip games. There are no US region Arcade Cards, only Super System 3.0 and System 2.0 cards.
- Japanese controllers use a smaller connector than US controllers. For some reason the US TG-16 used a controller port that was different, up until the TurboDuo was released, when they went back to using the Japanese port style. This means that earlier controller peripherals were not compatible with the later TurboDuo or Japanese units without a converter. TTI tried to remedy this by selling Turbo Taps (see System Accessories & Upgrades, above) that were modified to connect to the TurboDuo with the smaller connector but featured 5 old-style ports so you could use old-style controllers. The inverse was available from a few tinkering fans and later, I believe, from Turbo Zone Direct, the company that took over sales of the remaining inventory from TTI when TTI decided to fold.
Affordability
- At around $60 for the base model, the TG-16 one of the more expensive “mainstream retro” systems to get into.
- The complete system get more expensive once you add the CD-ROM² attachment, which is quite pricey at a couple hundred dollars.
- Pricier still is a working Duo variant (around $400), and to a greater degree, the PC Engine GT/Turbo Express or the PCE LT (will set you back several hundred as well as being nearly impossible to find)
- The CD games are “cheap”. You can burn them from ISOs without problems on both US and Japanese systems, after you’ve emptied your bank account for a system.
- As mentioned above, the Wii’s VirtuaConsole is the most affordable solution for playing the TG-16 games available through the service. Lacking from the Virtual Console are CD games.
Something very weird happend to every single word that ends with “l.”
Awesome post, though!
Great article.
I just happen to own a Turbo Express as well!
I thought the NES was the first to have the multitap – four score. But I could be wrong.
Alejandro, I thought I caught most of those (I think I messed something up with a Search & Replace)
Where are you still seeing them?
My brother picked up a Turbografx16 for $5 at game craze in the late 90′s and it was pretty darn fun. Funny though, the story of this system smells of the 3do… Popular in Japan, tanked in America (although the 3do made more penetration anyway)
Great work marurun & racketboy!
By the way, the post seems fine to me as far as the Is go, too.
Cool — I think I found them all
http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?cid=177
Do you know why the Wii is selling so many units? BECAUSE it plays Turbographic 16 games THATS why!!!!
You know so much about retro gaming…
It’s interesting to see you mention Magic Engine, because it’s an awesome emulator, yet I could never get it to run Valis (actual disc, not a copy). I own Valis II, as well, which runs fine, but Valis tends to reset over and over again at the first screen that appears whenever the game boots up. Very annoying, because I’ve always wanted to play it.
More popular than the Famicon in Japan? Really? O_O
Did this system actually get released in the UK? They have the TG-16 games on the Euro Virtual Console, but I never remember it ever being released here, nor had I even heard of it until a couple years ago, and I remember all the systems that bombed in the 90′s..
Ahh…I somehow got Valis working in Magic Engine. Sweet game. It’s such an improvement over past Valis games.
fastbilly1, according to the Wikipedia entry for multitap the PC Engine’s multitap was the first. The WP entry for the NES Four Score indicates it was released in 1990. I know the original PC Engine design has only one controller port, and you can bet they weren’t planning on releasing any 2-player games. I suspect a multitap was part of the original design manifesto. Still, the PC Engine Bomberman wasn’t released until 1990. I don’t know when the earliest 2PS game was released for the PC Engine, however.
Well done on a great article. I use to own the PC-Engine which I had imported because these machines never made it to Europe. I paid £180 for the console which is the cost of a Wii, so quite expensive for 16 years ago. I love the fact that I can now play all my old favourites on the VC, thanks Nintendo for not being so mean anymore lol
“You can just burn a CD and stick it in the system and it will run any compatible code present.”
yeahhhhh. no. never worked for me… the Turbo Duo CD drive has got to be the cheapest piece of electronics on this face of the earth. Thank god for the Xbox – PC Engine emulator.
My biggest pet peeves: short controller cord length and RUN+SELECT auto reset without confirmation! I’ll ALWAYS remember that one faithful day, 4AM, deep in some Neutopia II dungeon when I accidentally reset the game and I lost all progress (password based RPG)… man!
But this is the system on which the Ys series really came alive so I’ll cherish it until my dying day!
great read. one thing that would be cool would be a short list of must have games for the kids that don’t know the system that way they can pick them up when they are out on VC.
for me at least i’d vote
1. Blazing Lasers
2. R-Type (freakin Bydo emipre!)
3. Bonks ( I thought 1 & 2 were good never got to play 3)
4. Miitary Madness
5. Dungeon Explorer I & II
6. Y’s series
7. Valis
8. Galaga 90
9. Bomberman
10. Godzilla (SCD2 format)
there are tons more but that’s jsut the short list that came to mind.
thanks for the list — we’ll be following this up with some lists of our own
1. excellent article, as usual….
2. ”As mentioned above, the Wii’s VirtuaConsole is the most affordable solution for playing the TG-16 games available through the service. Lacking from the Virtual Console are CD games.”…….. hm, i prefer to download the entire ‘turbochips’ collection in 5 minutes and completely free instead of waiting 3 years until 40% of the games appear on VC and paying some hundred dollars to download them all ‘one by one’….. i really dont understand why most people keep being so ****** and keep paying for these 15 years old games… illegal, illegal, blah, blah, what most ‘retro gamers’ dont realize is that most designers/programmers that made this games are already retired or work on different companies…. and dont get the money you give them thru Wii’s VC…. the publishers and Nintendo are the ones that keep all the money with them…
I’ve found Mednafen to be a more solid emulator than Magic Engine, with its sole flaw in emulation (if you could even call it that) being that it doesn’t support improperly dumped ROMs (such as the byteswapped US HuCards that GoodPCE show as good; you’ll sometimes see people refer to these as “encrypted”). Other than that, the wickedly off-putting interface and somewhat high system requirements are the only reason I can see anyone avoiding it.
The Xbox port of Mednafen is pretty snazzy other than I absolutely hate the forced adoption of the “perfect CUE” system, which I’m still not absolutely sold on. Perhaps if someone could explain precisely why CDRWin generates different TOC data than CDRDAO and why it’s somehow better, then I’d be more accepting of it. As it is, I can’t rip BIN/CUE images of any of my games and play them in Mednafen-X; I still have to stick to using the CDs or convert them to CUE/ISO/MP3 (which I absolutely hate doing).
At least it adds an interface! IIRC it may support the byteswapped ROMs as well, but I honestly don’t remember (I used PCEToy to clean up everything a while back)
Ootake is pretty damn excellent as well, along with being frequently updated (weekly or sooner, generally), free, and highly compatible. It seems like whenever I do actually stumble on a problem with a game in Ootake, that same problem winds up getting fixed within the next release or two. Clazy.
Great comment, RoushiMSX!
I will have to look into those!
This article was linked to on the front page of gaming.ars. Nice work RB!
I have to say that the TG16 is my hands down favorite console of that generation. I have spent more time on MednafenX than any other Xbox emulator, trying to get each of the CD games to work perfectly. It can be very finicky with CUE files!
Also, as I’m sure many of you have already noticed, Underground Gamer is just a couple of games away from a “PERFECT” TG16/PCE (HuCard and CD) collection. Tipping the scales at well over 120GB, that is a very impressive accomplishment.
I’ve used Mednafen for quite a while, but I’ve only briefly used it for it’s PCE/TG16 capabilities. But it does perform fine for those systems, as far as I’ve seen. I mainly use it for GBA games, as Mednafen is the only updating emulator of GBA, and it performs a bit better than VisualBoyAdvance for very high-requirement games (like Gunstar Super Heroes, lags like hell in VBA but Mednafen handles it fine). Although I only use Mednafen in Linux, as I can’t manage to build a binary for Mac OS X, and I’ve since abandoned Windows. And if you’re using Linux, Mednafen is really the only good option available, as MagicEngine has no Linux version or source code, so a Linux port will not be available any time soon.
http://www.emu-russia.km.ru is one of the finest rom sources on the net….. it has completely free
No mention of the Pioneer Laseractive NEC PCEngine Pak? The pioneer laseractive was a laserdisc player that had an expansion port on the front where you could swap in a Sega pak, NEC pak or a karaoke pak. They turned the laserdisc player into a sega cd or pcengine cd unit. There were also Sega and PCEngine games on laserdiscs (which only meant that the video cutscenes were awesome, or the backgrounds were videos). I’ve only got the sega pak since the NEC is impossible to find, but its on my list of things to get.
Good alternative to Magic Engine is Ootake, and it’s free!
Just so you know, the Wii Virtual Console does have a few Turbo-CD games on there now.
I loved the TG-16 back when I was a wee lad and I was kind of irritated that the turbo games don’t look as sharp as the others on the virtual console.
The sprites are kind of muddy and blurred compared to other systems.
I hope Nintendo can fix that someday.
Oh well, i’m gonna go play some AirZonk!
I always thought that they should have just stuck with the PC Engine name here in the states.
wird Backlink hinzuf?gen – Bookmark this site? Regards, Reader.
Super-Duper site! I am loving it! Will come back again –
Great site for all the retro stuff. I picked up a nice T-16 with CD attachment to relive my childhood. I still remember using my allowance to buy a T-16 when they fell to $99… I sold it a year later to help pay for a SNES when their price fell finally. I have to say my T-16 is the centerpiece in my retro collection.
Very informative page, I just ordered a TurboDuo from japan ! Cant wait to play all those awesome Shmups !
Can a Japanese PC Engine system work on a US television? If so, do I need to buy adapters for it?
Mikeke352, it will work on a US television. Japan uses the same standard as North America (NTSC) so it’s no problem. Same thing goes for all of the other consoles from Japan.
TG16/PC Engine has dual 16-bit graphics processors, not just one. The CPU was 8-bit. I still don’t think of it as a “hybrid” system, or a “bridge”. It’s part of that same gen as Genesis and SNES (and NEO GEO). There is no “between gens” consoles IMHO, as a gen indicates time of release more than anything else.
It couldn’t do some of the things Genesis and SNES could do like loads of parallax scrolling or mode 7, but it could really push those onscreen colors. Same amount of colors in its palette as Genesis (512 colors) which was less than SNES (palette of over 32,000 colors), but Genesis and SNES couldn’t show the amount of colors onscreen at once like TG16 did (over 475, iirc, compared to 64 for Genesis and 256 for SNES).
Going to get myself a real PC Engine one day. I think it’s a brilliant system.
The TG-16 was sold (exclusively?) by Radio Shack here in Canada. I don’t recall having ever seen any of the accessories or add-ons, except the Turbo Booster. Indeed, the only game I remember seeing was the original pack-in (Keith Courage).
Ironically, for several years after the console was discontinued, stores were _still_ trying to unload their stock of Turbo Boosters. I assume that these eventually went into landfill.
ON my tv the picture quality is pretty bad is it because I need a new RF connector the system?
So, I’m confused on two things (the second one takes some explanation/elaboration, so please bear with me):
1) I own a US TurboDuo. Am I not going to be able to play Japanese Super CD Rom2 games on it? Would I be able to overcome this with a japanese Super CD Bios HuCard if I bought a japanese-to-US hu-card adaptor?
2) I have a solid understanding of the audio hardware in the SNES, Genesis, NES, and Game Gear/ Mastersystem, but am still working on wrapping my head around the TG16 audio system (Game Boy seems to have like one or two channels of a similar or identical technology that TG16 is based on (albeit with 6 channels), so as I better my TG16 understanding, I’ll better my GB understanding as well).
It might help to start with what I do know before asking what I do not know: I understand that the TG16 is based on a PSG architecture, like NES/SMS/GG, only it’s a far more advanced version: six channels of assignable waveforms, rather than four channels of non-assignable waveforms, such as NES’ two flex-duty pulse waves, 1 triangle wave, 1 white noise, 1 sampler, and SMS/GG’s even more limited three fixed duty square wave, 1 white noise. Also, TG16 had more waveform types at its disposal (I.e. Sine Waves, and Sawtooth Waves) TG16 could also substitute a waveform on any channel with a very small sample. This could be a voice talking, or it could be used as a musical instrument. Some sources refer to the TG16 technology as WSG, or PSGWSG, instead of PSG.
Now, here’s where I’m confused: It was my understanding that a heavy portion of the music made use of these simple sample instruments, along with the more advanced PSG waveforms, but this article seems to imply that the music was almost entirely PSG.
So how much were samples used in TG16 HuCard music? Is there a resource that I can go to for examples of each?
I understand that the samples used were dramatically smaller than the already undersized samples used on the SNES, so the sampled channels would sound little-to-nothing like the sampled channels on the SNES (so, listening for SNES like sounds won’t yield anything). But I understand them to be better quality than the sampler the NES employs, so I don’t think you can sound-test by listening for NES caliber samples either.
How do I tell these rudimentary samples from very advanced PSG forms that I would not be familiar with from NES/SMS/GG?
I’m good at picking out voices I’m familiar with, so I can always detect when the NES is using a 50% duty square wave instead of a 25% or 75% (though I’m not familiar enough with 25% and 75% to be able to tell those apart), and I can always tell which one is the triangle wave, or if a sample’s being used. Also, when playing the Genesis (since the Genesis uses the SMS’s PSG as a supplemental sound source to compliment the FM chip), I always make a fun little game for myself by listening for the PSG in the music, and I could spot an SNES caliber sample anywhere…because I’m familiar with them, I know their characteristics.
Yet I’m not familiar with the characteristics of these new PSG waves that the TG16 brings to the table, nor am I familiar with the characteristic sound of the TG16 samples…thus, I’m unable to tell which one I’m listening to. I’m going in blind….strange metaphor that that is for sound. Initially, I thought that most were PSG waves, but when I was told that they were mostly samples, the power of suggestion took over, and I thought I was hearing samples the whole time. Now, I’m being told that very few of them are samples after all, and now I’m all mixed up.
Can anybody help?
Thanks!
-J
Oh, also: comparing TG16 graphics to SNES and Genesis graphics, I think, for better or worse, the TG16 much more closely resembles the SNES.
They have similar RGB-to-Composite conversion quality (if anything, the TG16′s is better), they run in the exact same resolution, they output similar numbers of simultaneous color (256 per spec sheets I’ve seen, though as spiffyone pointed out, you could get the TG16 to produce more), similar amounts of simultaneous sprites (though there were clearly more on the SNES than on, at least, a TG16 HuCard), as well as animation and detail on the sprites, and nominal clip (game play speed.)
The Genesis, on the other hand, had -terrible- RGB-to-Composite conversion, resulting in a somewhat blurry picture, with tons of color bleeding and/or color fringing. The Genesis also displayed only 64 colors at a time. But, the Genesis usually ran at a higher resolution (320×224 vs 256×224), had more animated, more detailed sprites, bigger sprites than SNES (I think TG16 took the cake on biggest sprites), more simultaneous on-screen sprites, and the fastest nominal clip of the three.
Now, this is -NOT- an attempt to start a SNES vs Genesis war. Instead, I’m simply intended to say that whether you prefer the cleaner, more colorful, and more polished graphics of the SNES, or whether you prefer the bigger, louder, bolder graphics of the Genesis (like I do), you’re going to find the TG16 slotting much closer to the SNES (though mysteriously, some games seemed to be the recipient of lazy programmers and almost looked more 8-bit than 16-bit)
Here’s a question: Despite the glaring similarities between TG16 and SNES graphics, the TG16 HuCard games still felt less substantial, not only in game play, but also in visuals. I had always assumed that this was because the 8-bit CPU was holding the 16-bit GPU back, but this article appears to imply that it was neither GPU nor CPU that was limiting the TG16, but memory restrictions. Were these memory restrictions primarily restrictions within the system itself, were they more a matter of the limitations of the Hu-Card format, or was it more or less a matter of equal fault? Other than that it lacked mode 7, could we say that the later Super CD games matched the SNES in terms of graphics? Can anyone show me some pictures, or point me towards some video? Lastly, those rogue games that looked more like NES than SNES…was that indeed just lazy programming like I suspected, or was that also due the above limitations and restrictions?
Thanks!
-J
Thanks!
Is truly amazing how much money he had spent the NEC, for the unity CDRom.
Considering all the expansions “arcade card pro” and more, for to arrive to sell, any model, only 1.5 million units in worldwide,counting both the JAP version, and the USA version.Is for this reason that the NEC has failed! UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Link:http://magweasel.com/2009/07/17/i-love-the-pc-engine-cd-rom-system/
@J
- SNES actually had the largest sprite capabilities that gen (64×64). Genesis and TG16 were less substantial there, but Genesis had the greatest sprite size variety. SNES was actually supposed to be capable of more sprites on screen at once, but that was hindered by the limitations of the stock CPU, so there weren’t many games that showed off that capability. This is part of the reason why more Genesis had better animation, btw: the CPU could handle a more massive amount of sprites on screen at once without as much slowdown as SNES, and the sprite size variety was put to good use for multisegmented characters and such.
To answer your question (albeit quite late lol):
The restrictions were both HuCard sizes as well as RAM restrictions, but moreso the former than the latter. The extra RAM used by the CD add-on, was initially really used as a sort of buffer for the CD-ROM; later on, with the Super CD-ROM 2 games and the Arcade ROM games and their respective RAM upgrades, the extra RAM was put to more actual use in games. But, really, the HuCards were the biggest factor early on, as they weren’t available in huge sizes.
As for vids, I suggest Rondo of Blood, which very much looks near SNES level (like a cross between Genesis and SNES looks, actually), and stuff like Sapphire. Also, the Arcade CD games like the SNK NEO GEO fighting game ports show that, with the huge boost in RAM made available for those games, the animation, sound, etc. were all over stock SNES level.
The CPU on TG16/PCE wasn’t a real hindrance; it was on SNES, but not TG16 because the former was pretty damned slow while the latter, while not 16-bit, was still quite fast. And while direct comparisons by clockspeed are typically iffy at best, in this case one can make a more direct comparison because they were both based on the same family/architecture of CPU (the 6502 family). In 8-bit operations, from my understanding, TG16′s CPU smoked SNES’, and it was fast enough where if devs broke down 16-bit operations to two 8-bit operations, the TG16 would work through them just as fast, if not faster, than the SNES could work through a single 16-bit operation.
@Spiffy
Thanks! That’s helpful information on the TG16!
Re: The SNES sprite size vs Genesis: Yes, the SNES could theoretically handle larger sprites per the spec sheet. But it could also theorhetically handle more sprites and higher screen resolution…both of which we know were not utilized due to other parts of the hardware not being able to handle them. So it is that in a practical, “in the real world” sense, the sprite size advantage was not used either. Unless we’re dealing with a situation where the characters are made up of several small sprites, then this is another situation where the Genesis wins. Painting with a broad brush, the genesis characters, whether they’re mono sprite, or poly sprite characters were bigger, higher res, and more detailed (not to mention more fluidly animated).
Also, I don’t notice notice nearly as big a difference between SNES and Genesis in frequency or degree of slowdown as I do in what I’m calling “nominal clip” (nominal gameplay running speed). The Genesis is much faster. Both systems slow down, and at some of the strangest times…but…in defense of the Genesis, it is almost always carrying a signifcantly heavier sprite load, and with a faster nominal clip to boot.
Wow… incredibly informative. I literally tripped over this article browsing for a suggestive “best of” game list. I couldn’t have been more pleased to find this. Very thorough; certain aspects of the Magic Engine make a lot more sense now… me being no technical wiz. Much appreciated Marurun. Quite a find and I even got something of the list I was looking for as well, as supplied by gerry. Thank you both! I think I’ll keep an eye on this site for future enlightenment. And please, any more tips on some of the better titles, anyone?
Pardon me Marurun, I’ve found your game article. How did I overlook that one? Wow again and thanks again!