Kinda new to the PCE and PCE CD scene, looking for suggestions on buying games

[segaboy7]

Hi everyone, I am pretty new too the whole PC Engine scene.  I've had a Turbo Grafx 16 for years but only ever had a really small handful of games (Bonk 1,2,splatterhouse,Blazing lasers,Rtype ect).  I recently got myself a refubished PCE/PCE CD IFU Briefcase unit  and now I am trying to find games for it.  The PCE has a region switch on it so I can play both Hucards and turbo chips on it.  The one local store does have Turbo games from time to time but their prices are worse than ebay  .  Anyway I was hoping that you guys could kinda point me in the right Direction on where I should be looking for games PCE/PCE CD/Turbo?

[esteban]

Yes. I'll defer to others... 

[Black Tiger]

eBay is the best place around for deals. You just need to know what you want and then keep an eye out and know how to search.

[Azzurri]

eBay is the best place around for deals. You just need to know what you want and then keep an eye out and know how to search.

I've noticed finding Turbografx games out in the wild is really hard, especially in cities like mine where it wasn't considered a large market back in the late 80's, to what it is today.

I've been to flea markets, retro stores, and some garage sales and haven't seen a single game.

It sucks the ebay is the only good source for these games, but you can still fine good deals if you search around.

[Gao]

When I have the money, I like to order a bunch of cheap games off of Rakuten.  If you're not familiar with it, it's a site through which you can order from various Japanese retailers.  Unfortunately, it has some issues:

1. The search function blows.  It's best to browse by category (PC Engine is here).

2. This is a collection of retailers, not one store, so keep in mind how many retailers you're buying from when trying to figure out shipping.  Usually, I just go to a store page that I keep seeing on a bunch of games and just browse through there.

3. This all ships from Japan, so you really need to buy a bunch of stuff at once to make the shipping cost worth it.

[Necromancer]

Welcome aboard!

I mostly buy stuff off of eBay.  As long as you're patient, stay away from overpriced BINs, and restrain from participating in bid wars, you can get decent deals on most titles.

[segaboy7]

Yeah its been pretty much all ebay for me so far, I found some pretty decent deals on a lot 4 decent hu card games and got the pc engine versions of Ys3 and 4 for a good price, still would like to find a copy of Ys3 NA thou

[Trenton_net]

I buy most of my games directly from Japan. You'll have to know what your looking for in Japanese as well as be prepared to cover shipping and other expenses, but if your buying in bulk it's a lot cheaper overall. Most people are not prepared to do all the leg work and rather buy from eBay. But when your hitting almost 300+ games, saving money via leg work becomes more of a factor (^_^);

[technozombie]

Amazon has a lot of Japanese sellers now with reasonable prices. Anything that has a low price on shipping be prepared to wait a long time for your order. I'm new to buying PC Engine games too.  The PCE's vast assortment of shooters and platformers means there is a large selection of games that don't require knowledge of Japanese, couple that with the exotic nature of buying foreign games and it's a lot of fun.

[munchiaz]

Get a turbo ever drive

[BigusSchmuck]

Get a turbo ever drive

Yes, that's the cheapeast route to go other than emulation... That way you can play the expensive games without the $$$ attached to them. I would also suggest before plunging some cash to burn a few games to try before you buy so to speak. You'll hear all sorts of things for and against cd-rs in the cd units but as anything mechanical things will break over time.

[ultrageranium]

When I have the money, I like to order a bunch of cheap games off of Rakuten.

Could someone confirm/explain this:

I remember browsing Rakuten some months ago, contemplating the idea to order some PCE titles, and was quite impressed by the large collection available. However, now when I go to the site, the vast majority of the objects for sale/export are marked "Not available / This product is not available for sale".

My question: did something change in the export policy or in the website interface?

[Keith Courage]

Its because one of the main suppliers of pce games on rakuten no longer offers over seas orders for some reason. This started a while ago. The only way around this would be to pay a 3rd party to purchase the games for you and them mail them to the US/other destinations.

Oh and as far as game suggestions http://www.thebrothersduomazov.com seems to be right on for the most part. However, I am not a fan on playing JP RPGs that are not translated.

[ultrageranium]

Its because one of the main suppliers of pce games on rakuten no longer offers over seas orders for some reason. This started a while ago. The only way around this would be to pay a 3rd party to purchase the games for you and them mail them to the US/other destinations.

Ah, I see, pity. Thanks!

[segaboy7]

thanks for the replies everyone.  I have a Turbo Everdrive on the way, and I do burn games to try them out, I was having a really bad results with that at first but then switched to Verbaitum discs and now they work a lot better.  Yeah I'm not a person that needs every game for the sake of having it but I do want to buy the ones i end up enjoying.