Share your TG16-Duo-PCE collection: pics, stories, favorite items!

[ifkz]

I searched for a similar thread and came up empty.  Everyone is sad about current prices, so why not lighten the mood and make a post about what everyone has found so far.  I want to read all about everyone's collection: unexpected finds in thrift stores, online auctions, and flea markets that you still own today.  Why-When-How did you decide to start collecting for the TG/Duo/PCengine?  Have you found anything recently to add to an old post (if this thread sticks around).

I'll start!  I began retro game collecting in 1997, ages ago now.  During my busiest period, I was going to three thrift stores a day and on very rare occasions I would come across a TG16 base unit.  Some times they had all of the hookups, a controller, and a common game or two (I remember Vigilante standing out from back then).  Other times they were loose units with nothing, not even the rear back cover.  My most interesting sighting from those days was a TG16-CD unit and a few games, the carry case all for what was back then a very expensive $75.  When I came back with the cash, it had sold.  I always wonder what games might have been included with the bundle and whether it worked or not!

After years of seeing these systems, and some early memories with it from when it was at retail, I threw down three figures to get a TurboExpress unit in 2009.  This is where a lot of my rarer items came from:  Cadash, Chase HQ and Military Madness were all included as chips only.  I had zero experience with any of these titles, but they were all excellent!  The TE came without sound and I was able to search this very forum for the way to fix it and I started collecting in a big way.  The TE still far outclasses all other handhelds of the time and I have no trouble enjoying it even in 2014.  The screen is still bright, free of bad LCD angles, and has a very fast refresh rate.

Back then on ebay I was able to make my dollar stretch and I acquired a lot of good titles in various conditions, usually CIC but almost never boxed.  Some true classics (in the US market) came my way:  Air Zonk, R-Type, Raiden, Parasol Stars, to name a few.  There was one version of the system I always wanted but could never afford:  the TurboDuo!  After months of auction watching and waiting I found my system:  a boxed system from the original owner; he had burned out the original laser using CDRs.  Thanks to this forum, again, I quickly repaired it once it arrived and I was able to finally start to enjoy the CD side of the library and, additionally, I owned a fitting centerpiece for my collection.

Since then I have been slowly adding games and CDs when I can come across them on a budget.  My CD collection is small, titles like:  Last Alert, Final Zone II, Ys, the 4-in-1, It came from the Desert, Monster Lair and Lords of the Rising Sun.  A few months ago I added my first two imports:  a disc only Rayxanber II and the famous Castlevania Dracula X.  I would like to add more quality titles from the PCE library but added overseas shipping usually trumps my shoestring budget.

My most exciting find in many years happened only a few weeks ago:  a loose, abused TurboDuo found locally.  When I got it, it looked to be an empty shell that had been used as a dusty door stop for many years.  After opening it I was excited to find a repairable main PCB.  So far I have added a controller, AV, and power; a start to fixing up what was lost.  I am looking for a cap kit vendor right now, and I am hoping a CD door and laser assembly turn up (hence my signature).

As a reward for reading through all of this, here are a few pictures.

A slightly older picture of my collection:


Turbo Duo project:

[jelloslug]

My personal favorite things are the boxes for my original systems that I bought in '89 and '90.



I'm also fond of some of the more rare things like the CES handouts and the kiosk laserdisc that I have.

[pulstar]

My story is kind of lame, but kind of unexpected if you live in the UK. I go to car boot sales regularly and generally get the usual Megadrive, Mastersystem, SNES, Gameboy games. One week about 5 years back there was a guy with a table full of satellite and cable smart cards. I flicked through the cards and towards the bottom I found two PC Engine Hu cards - Mr Heli and Power Drift - all on their own. Paid 50p each for them. That is the only time I found any PC Engine stuff in the wild other than at specialist retro game shops. It's a rubbish story but I was pleased with them

[jelloslug]

My story is kind of lame, but kind of unexpected if you live in the UK. I go to car boot sales regularly and generally get the usual Megadrive, Mastersystem, SNES, Gameboy games. One week about 5 years back there was a guy with a table full of satellite and cable smart cards. I flicked through the cards and towards the bottom I found two PC Engine Hu cards - Mr Heli and Power Drift - all on their own. Paid 50p each for them. That is the only time I found any PC Engine stuff in the wild other than at specialist retro game shops. It's a rubbish story but I was pleased with them

I have never found any Turbo stuff in the wild and trust me, I have looked.

[ifkz]

My story is kind of lame, but kind of unexpected if you live in the UK. I go to car boot sales regularly and generally get the usual Megadrive, Mastersystem, SNES, Gameboy games. One week about 5 years back there was a guy with a table full of satellite and cable smart cards. I flicked through the cards and towards the bottom I found two PC Engine Hu cards - Mr Heli and Power Drift - all on their own. Paid 50p each for them. That is the only time I found any PC Engine stuff in the wild other than at specialist retro game shops. It's a rubbish story but I was pleased with them

Not a bad story at all!  In my post above, probably one of the things that pushed me to get a TurboExpress in 2009 was a trip with friends to a flea market.  I found a CIC copy of Blazing Lazers for $10 at a vendor selling a truck bed full of miscellaneous CDs.  As I was attempting to bargain him down, he got fed up and took the game away saying it was no longer for sale.  I was, well, pretty PO'd.  One of the first auction BIN games I purchased was Blazing Lazers for about $8 or so    That was the first and last time I ever went to a flea AND it had an entrance 'parking lot' fee.  I will take thrift stores any day over that!

[ifkz]

Double post, my bad!

[sosoyo180]

There's a game shop I frequent quite often and they always over charge, but I got a lucky brake on two occasions... First, I got Dead Moon (huey and manuel) for only $40 and another time I made off with a CIB copy of World Sports Competition .

But my most cherished part of my collection is my PC Engine Duo that sparked my whole PCE/TG16CD collecting.

Oh and a copy of Dracula X I snagged on eBay for only $57 last summer 

[jordan_hillman]

My absolute best TG find in the wild was a CIC U.S. Super System Card for 5 bucks that I found in a stack of CDs. However, recently I found a really good conditioned TG16 controller at a local Goodwill for 5 bucks. I asked the lady working if she had seen anything else in the store that looked similar to the controller, and she didn't know. I've always wondered if that controller was just a random isolated donation, or part of a bigger lot that somehow got separated from the pack.

[Bardoly]

Here's a similar thread.

I do agree threads like these are useful for the community.

[Tatsujin]

 few things I like