Worth it buying a Turbografx-16(If you already have a PC Engine)?

[lukester]

Hey everyone,

I know that PC Engine is better than the Turbo, but PCE is confusing and hard to collect for. I am very intrigued by the history of the American system, and collecting the games with awful box-art would be a lot of fun.

Also, the library is much smaller, but still has enough excellent games worth collecting for. I don't even have many PCE games because they are very expensive. Sure, some PCE versions of Turbo games are somewhat cheaper, but many PCE exclusives are too expensive for me. Plus, I would love to be able to play Neutopia I, II, and Dungeon Explorer II, as well as being able to own many of my Virtual console games in person.

Any thoughts?

[vestcoat]

I know that PC Engine is better than the Turbo, but PCE is confusing and hard to collect for. I am very intrigued by the history of the American system, and collecting the games with awful box-art would be a lot of fun.

Fun if you like flushing your money down the toilet. Have you seen how many members are looking for the same handful of U.S. games in their signatures? If you're already happily playing the PCE, why would you start collecting TG games with boxes in 2012? Better to buy a bunch of loose games for PCE, or any system, than a handful of North American TG titles with boxes.

Anyway, you're asking a lot of different questions, so it's hard to answer.
1) the PCE isn't necessary "better", it just has a larger library and lacks the stupid controller incompatibilities.
2) Yes, being able to play both U.S. and JP games is worth it.
3) PCE games are not more expensive. Other than a few oddballs like Ninja Spirit, Parasol Stars, and Keith Courage, PCE games are much, much more affordable. The list goes on an on: Magical Chase, Dynastic Hero, Cotton, Terraforming, Godzilla, Exile 2, DEII, Super Air Zonk, Soldier Blade, Bomberman 93, Hero Tonma, Shockman, Neutopia 2, etc., etc, can all be had for a fraction of the price of their U.S. counterparts.

So yeah, get a region mod or a TG deck so you can play both regions. If you're an RPG diehard, maybe spring for a handful of the expensive text-heavy titles.

As for the boxes and the set: "abandon all hope..."

[lukester]

Hmmm, I guess you're right.

Where is the best place I can get a region mod?

[Sadler]

For someone new to the platform, it's hard for me to make a case for US releases. The reality is the PCE had a much larger library and for the most part games and hardware are cheaper. Region mods are cheap and you can play US CD releases on PCE hardware.

Having said that, The TG16/Duo has plenty of merit. Several games benefit from being in English and there were some notable US only releases. The reality is I grew up with the TG16/Duo and for that reason alone I'm partial to it. Yeah, the art may suffer. Yes, you are paying too much per game. But nostalgia is a big part of this for me. As much as the US system has a reputation for being overpriced, the reality of the matter is most of the releases can be had for cheap. The titles that command a lot of value often benefit from English translations as well.

In the end it's up to you. If you don't have an attachment to the US releases, I can't make a good case for going that route. Most of the games I own are US though and for me it's worth it.

[DragonmasterDan]

Hey everyone,

I know that PC Engine is better than the Turbo, but PCE is confusing and hard to collect for. I am very intrigued by the history of the American system, and collecting the games with awful box-art would be a lot of fun.

Also, the library is much smaller, but still has enough excellent games worth collecting for. I don't even have many PCE games because they are very expensive. Sure, some PCE versions of Turbo games are somewhat cheaper, but many PCE exclusives are too expensive for me. Plus, I would love to be able to play Neutopia I, II, and Dungeon Explorer II, as well as being able to own many of my Virtual console games in person.

Any thoughts?

You want to ask yourself these questions. First off, "do I have an attachment to playing US released games." If so you probably want to stick with domestic hardware.

Second "Do I want to play CD based games?", if so you probably want to look at Japanese Duo's as they're generally less expensive than the US ones and are not going to require an additional system card (besides arcade card or games express games). The System Card 2.0 doesn't play very many games, and the US 3.0 card is hard to find and expensive. So if you buy a US TurboGrafx 16 it's almost cheaper to buy that for US HuCards and a Japanese Duo for everything else.

Third: "How much of a concern is cost?". A US Duo won't play PC Engine HuCards but will play all US releases, and Japanese CD-ROM 2.0 and 3.0 games. To play PC Engine HuCards (or arcade card games) this requires a converter, or would involve modding a fairly rare system. Japanese PC Engine Duo's won't play US HuCards without a mod, but are far less expensive and far more common. They have the same CD compatibility as the US Duo and will play all US CD releases as well. If you decide to go with the TurboGrafx option the cost of buying the CD add-on and either converting a system card 3.0 or arcade card pro to play Super CD games is going to cost far more than just buying a PC Engine Duo.

Without having a Nostalgic attachment to owning the US hardware it's hard to make a good case for buying US hardware.  While the US TurboGrafx 16 isn't that expensive, and the Express is generally considerably cheaper to buy in North America than a GT the US HuCard library is small and to expand beyond what's available on it by upgrading to a CD-ROM attachment is more expensive than just buying a Japanese Duo in most cases.

If you get into buying a Turbo Duo or Laseractive NEC PAC you're going to save a lot of money buying the Japanese hardware. The disadvantage is that without a mod a Japanese system can't play US HuCards. Yes, there are some games you definitely want to play in English.

If you're mostly looking to play shoot em ups and platformers, then there isn't much of an advantage to buying US hardware. As far as the games themselves, most games Japanese copies are cheaper. There are some exceptions but this is generally the case. As a general rule US games are more expensive.

[DarkKobold]

... and collecting the games with awful box-art would be a lot of fun.

None of the box art for TG16 is particularly egregious.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lxAQqlyCiRU/ToH6gnKSZ7I/AAAAAAAAAGc/dqWmn5F_qaQ/s1600/TurboLegacy_Poster_large.jpg

Really, if you want just bad box art, you're limited to a handful of games. Bomberman, China Warrior, Final Zone II, Super Volleyball... Not really too many are bad.

Nothing quite matches the atrocities that Nintendo had, like Mega Man 1 and Phalanx.

[ProfessorProfessorson]

Considering there is about a tad over 100 US releases worth owning to some degree, and of them only a handful are really truly expensive, I don't see any reason to not buy the US titles if you have a region modded deck or a Pce and TG both on hand just if you want to try to cover all the bases. But when I say this, I am just referring to the games themselves, in cases. The whole got to have the box too thing is about as annoying for me as people thinking they need the Obi strip for their game. I get why people want it, but to me if that being missing is what holds you back from buying some good games, then god help you, because you don't play cardboard boxes and obi strips, you play games.

[roflmao]

I'd recommend getting a  region-modded system.  Pretty much what Prof said.

[esteban]

Q: TG-16?
A: Hell yes.

[TR0N]

Not much reason of owning a (TG16) these days,unless for collection sake.Just having a pce that is region modded covers every thing period.Not to mention vestcost all ready brought up the point that the pce version of games are all ways cheaper.

[soop]

Hey everyone,

I know that PC Engine is better than the Turbo

/Topic.

[lukester]

I never said I wanted to collect the boxes. The manuals have the same artwork...

[turboswimbz]

I personally have a region modded PCE Duo - I do almost all my gaming on it, which is mainly US titles with some PCE platformers and shewties mixed in.  But I also have a US Duo and TG-16 + CD.  Mostly becuase I love the look of all the systems.  The question here is do you want a US system to have and enjoy in addtion to the PCE or mod the PCE into a workhorse like mine and many of the others here? - there is no wrong answer just make sure you KNOW what you want to do and keep asking questions

there are several great modders here who can give you a mod! 

If you are in the market for a TurboGrafx-16 I have one + CD attachment that I will be selling shortly with a standard 2.0 card and a JP 3.0 card that you can a chopsado to, to make it work on a US system, allowing you to play all US releases.

Also since it sounds like your in the philly area, I could save you some money with a local pick-up as well.

[Aggie Tsubi]

I think it's worth having access to US HuCards, yeah, but I did without for many years and it wasn't a huge loss. You can get by quite well with just Japanese HuCards, since many games are basically the same in Japanese or English and Japanese releases are often cheaper than the US releases. But there are some games that do benefit from an English localization, so, at the very least, it's worth having a modded system or a TG-16 for those.

[roflmao]

This thread is silly because eventually you'll end up multiple systems, and they'll likely all be region modded.

Do not resist your urge to obey.