First off, thank you to whatever administration accepted my request to join this forum. I was directed here reading an article about the pros and cons of various Turbo systems and decided it might be time to try and get involved in the community a bit. I dabble my feet in all kinds of places since I have been collecting for years (somewhere near 3000 CIB games and counting).
Still, out of all the systems I have ever collected on the Turbo seems to be one of the most complex and challenging to understand or tackle. I felt signing up to a fan forum would be my best shot to achieve my ultimate goals on this system and also gain a full understanding of my options from here on.
For some background, I started collecting some vintage games about a year after I met my current fiancee (about 8 years and counting now) and it began as just a small thing to introduce her to a few retro games she missed out on. Fast forward to today, I recently purchased a home back in January and more or less finished my primary work in setting up my entire basement to be a game area. I collect on all systems, but I also play on all systems. About 6 months ago I ended up dealing with a guy who sold me about 20 mint (with outer sleeve and all) Turbo games, so I picked up the system, controllers, and got myself all ready to play.
My first ever real experience with the system just happened a few days ago when I sat down with my fiancee to try out a game, Devil's Crush. She immediately fell in love with it and it went on to last many hours, and it provoked me to realize that this system was a genuine article with a lot of fun games to play just like the Genesis or Snes.
Unfortunately, now that I have dabbled a lot more into the system and compiled a list of games I'd like to find (I only collect US releases due to the vast amount I already buy in general), I came to the realization that the turbo system I own might not have been the smartest buy, and someone also told me I can't use my old controllers on a newer one if I decided to go that route. Then I read that the US duo systems have numerous problems with failure rates, need to be modded for Scart use, and that to do add ons for the other console requires a CD drive also prone to failure.. and an expensive system card.
All in all, deciding to take the plunge on this system has been quite an emotional challenge because it conflicts with my usually easy to follow guidelines. I try to collect only US stuff (even when it cost more) because my ocd would probably say that the moment I bought a Japanese title or hardware, that maybe I should consider doing that on everything, to which I'd go bankrupt
For someone like me who likes to collect US games and hardware, what are my best resources to look at in terms of achieving that goal and doing it correctly? Can I use my old pads on other systems using some kind of converter? I'm hoping to learn as much as I can here, and while i'm not a rich guy by any means, I am willing to spend some cash to get it done right within reason, even if it means I gotta save a bit. I'd really like the Turbo to join my setup in the same fashion all the rest of my stuff is (as right now it's hooked up by RF while the majority of my stuff is scart), so I feel I am doing a disservice to the system at the moment.