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NEC TG-16/TE/TurboDuo => TG-16/TE/TurboDuo Discussion => Topic started by: Mobius on April 01, 2008, 12:30:35 PM

Title: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Mobius on April 01, 2008, 12:30:35 PM
Okay, dumb question time... I'd say a third to half of the Duos I see in person or on eBay are missing the cover to the HuCard slot (especially loose systems).  Did people take these off on purpose back in the day, or something?  They don't seem that fragile, I can't imagine them breaking that easily.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: bust3dstr8 on April 01, 2008, 12:56:01 PM
A lot of them where probally removed to use some sort of region adaptor.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Joe Redifer on April 01, 2008, 01:00:40 PM
I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Sinistron on April 01, 2008, 01:04:36 PM
yeah the purple barney converters will only work on duos with the cart door ripped off.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: nat on April 01, 2008, 01:12:35 PM
It's such a shame that had to happen.

Duos look so sleek with the door in place. When the door is missing it completely changes the look of the console.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Joe Redifer on April 01, 2008, 01:22:11 PM
Quote from: Sinistron

yeah the purple barney converters will only work on duos with the cart door ripped off.


Are you sure?  I removed the entire purple shell from my "Barney" converter and I think we even took the door off and the damn thing still didn't fit in a Duo.  Perhaps I am remembering incorrectly, though.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Tatsujin on April 01, 2008, 01:33:07 PM
that damn cover is quite fragile! the holdingclip breaks easily at the one side and then goes lost, while putting it somewhere else.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: ApolloBoy on April 01, 2008, 01:53:26 PM
I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Mobius on April 01, 2008, 02:15:11 PM
I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.

I have never seen this!

Converters make some sense, but I find it hard to believe that many duo owners would have one.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Turbo D on April 01, 2008, 02:19:40 PM
It comes off very easily. I bumped mine on accident once while changing hucards and it came off! It wasn't broken though, so I simply snapped it back into place. :)
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: ApolloBoy on April 01, 2008, 02:38:42 PM
I always wondered that myself.  I never see NES's with missing cart doors.

Never? I see NESes with missing cart doors all the time on eBay.

I have never seen this!

If you browse around eBay, you'll notice that there's a number of NESes missing the cart door. I'm pretty sure that if you put enough pressure on it, it would simply snap off.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 01, 2008, 03:17:07 PM
Quote from: Mobius

I have never seen this!

Converters make some sense, but I find it hard to believe that many duo owners would have one.

I think every person I've ever known with a Duo has had a converter. Even I have one. Everyone I know bought a Turbo Duo because of all the cool games featured in EGM and such...games that ended up never coming to the US, so importing eventually ensued. Importing is expensive, but the price of PC Engine games was cheaper than import SFC games by $40 or more, and if you could afford a Duo (three times the price of a SNES) then you could probably afford import games for it. Furthermore, even though people pay shit-loads of money for these converters now, they were often free with a game in the early 90s. They are just cheap pieces of crap after all.

As for the door; removing it won't allow the TV Game Computer Cartridge Converter (aka: Barney) to fit. It has to be physically hacked to pieces. It fits in an Express, PCE core (all three), or a TG-16 no problem. The door does get knocked off pretty easily, but it also snaps back into place pretty easily providing you didn't snap it.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Necromancer on April 01, 2008, 05:57:14 PM
It's such a shame that had to happen.

Duos look so sleek with the door in place. When the door is missing it completely changes the look of the console.

Indeed; the combination of careless oafs and semi-fragile covers was bound to end badly.  That seemingly minor change really ruins the look, much like an open door on a PC-FX or 'cube controllers connected to a Wii.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: nat on April 01, 2008, 06:35:56 PM
Careless oafs should be banned from buying video game consoles.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: ApolloBoy on April 01, 2008, 06:36:50 PM
Careless oafs should be banned from buying video game consoles.

Indeed, it'll make things better for us collectors down the road.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Necromancer on April 02, 2008, 02:59:05 AM
Careless oafs should be banned from buying video game consoles.

But I like 'em.  :cry:
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: ceti alpha on April 02, 2008, 06:32:58 AM
I couldn't imagine my Duo without its HuCARD cover. It has come off on me before, but it's easy enough to put back on.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: nat on April 02, 2008, 07:55:52 AM
If my HuCard cover ever comes off I'm going to write NEC for a refund.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: vestcoat on April 02, 2008, 07:59:08 AM
Barney converters need a hole cut or drilled in the lower-left corner to make room for the turbochip lock to slide out with the power switch on a Duo.  Either that or saw off your turbochip lock.

The little piece of flexible plastic on the hucard cover of my first Duo broke upon contact with a flying SNES cartridge but I was able to very carefully super glue it back together.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 02, 2008, 04:31:10 PM
Barney converters need a hole cut or drilled in the lower-left corner to make room for the turbochip lock to slide out with the power switch on a Duo.  Either that or saw off your turbochip lock.

The little piece of flexible plastic on the hucard cover of my first Duo broke upon contact with a flying SNES cartridge but I was able to very carefully super glue it back together.


I had to hack a great deal of plastic off the sides to accommodate the Duo's case. Otherwise the converter wouldn't slide in, not even when I threw SNES carts at it.

Maybe there is more than one version of the Barney? Everyone here calls it Barney because of the purple color, but personally I've never even seen a purple one in person. They have all been brown. Maybe with the color revision came a physical one as well?

Here is mine:

(http://homepage.mac.com/signofzeta/.Pictures/hcc1.jpg)

(http://homepage.mac.com/signofzeta/.Pictures/hcc2.jpg)

Note the Buy-Rite sticker on thing making it even crappier than it already is. Thanks Buy Rite!

Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: guyjin on April 02, 2008, 04:52:12 PM
(http://homepage.mac.com/signofzeta/.Pictures/hcc2.jpg)


I've never seen one like that. ever.

Quote
Note the Buy-Rite sticker on thing making it even crappier than it already is. Thanks Buy Rite!


Indeed.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Turbo D on April 02, 2008, 05:08:06 PM
Mine looks exactly the same as Zeta's. Mine even has void gum left from a buyrite sticker.
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 02, 2008, 05:10:41 PM
Quote from: guyjin

I've never seen one like that. ever.



Do you mean hacked apart like that, or a converter like that in general? This was by far the defacto converter back in the day. I didn't see another model until TZD started selling diving boards in 1994 or whenever that was.

Looking at the purple onein this image:

(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/b/b8/TurboGrafx_HuCard_adapters.png)

It almost looks like it was revised to work with the OG Duo. It looks like its already missing the plastic structure that I had to hack away on mine. Its the same sticker as mine has though.

Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: vestcoat on April 02, 2008, 07:53:45 PM
Wow, I've never seen the brown ones before.  No sense in calling that thing a Barney converter...anyone have any name suggestions for the new "turd converters?"
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 02, 2008, 08:01:22 PM
Well the sticker on these things (brown purple or otherwise) says, "TV Game Computer Cartridge Converter", and that rolls off the tongue so well I think we should just use that. Or "TVGCCC".

Also, "stupid piece of useless shit that came free with my $130 copy of Street Fighter II' and f*cks up when I try to use an Arcade Card with it".
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Joe Redifer on April 02, 2008, 08:16:32 PM
It doesn't f*ck up, you just need some skillz with an exacto knife and it will work perfectly.

Open 'er up and slice where indicated:

(http://www.joeredifer.com/crap/convertercard.jpg)
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: nat on April 03, 2008, 03:51:26 AM
I don't get it... Out of the box do those converters have those pins jumpered or something? Why on earth?
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Mobius on April 03, 2008, 12:17:18 PM
Wow, I've never seen the brown ones before.  No sense in calling that thing a Barney converter...anyone have any name suggestions for the new "turd converters?"

Nominating "turd converters"
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: guyjin on April 03, 2008, 05:03:30 PM
I nominate "barney turd".
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Mobius on April 04, 2008, 12:50:32 PM
I nominate "barney turd".


Even better!
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Sinistron on April 04, 2008, 01:09:17 PM
I nominate "smoochy converter".
man all that hacking and slicing looks like a real pain in the balls to get a game flowing. 
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: Joe Redifer on April 04, 2008, 07:13:58 PM
Well Zeta, I assume you got the arcade card working 100% perfectly along with every other PC Engine game through the converter via my awesome picture?  Well?  Well?
Title: Re: Why are so many Duos missing the HuCard cover?
Post by: SignOfZeta on April 05, 2008, 03:41:42 AM
I haven't used this adaptor in years. Even after hacking it apart it still won't fit into a Duo R (much thicker than an OG Duo), and that's the only CD system I have now. Also, this Duo R has a region switch in it anyway.