Hello,
. I'm brand spanking new to this awesome site and I not only wanted to say hi, but I also wanted to share my story of owning a TG16 in the Mid 90's. I've also been looking around to finally get a TG16 again, but instead of getting the CD attachment, which I remember was very finicky, I was going to possibly get a PCE Duo or something like that. I was hoping to see if anyone here had suggestions or could maybe point me in the right direction. So yeah, hi everyone, I can't wait to post more and share in the love of Retro gaming, especially the awesome TG16/PCE!!! Here's my story:
So growing up poor in the 80's and 90's (I was born in '81), I was still playing NES and Atari while I watched all my friends get SNES and Genesis consoles, but I at least got to game over their houses while hanging out. But I was fortunate in the way that I got to really check out the latter part of the NES library and play amazing games like Power Blade (my personal favorite) and S.C.A.T. I saw stuff about the TG16 here and there in gaming mags and it fascinated me big time, but it was very obscure and there was no way my mom was going to be able to afford buying it in the store, even when they dropped in price.
. So, I had a good friend that I hung out with a good amount and as fortune would have it, he had an older brother that at one point in time bought the TG16 and a load of stuff for it, including the CD attachment! Those 2 brothers had an SNES and Genesis, so that TG16 was just sitting. He hooked it up fir me one day and I was absolutely floored at the awesomeness of that machine. Every game was so vibrant and unique. I finally got to see and play what I read about over and over. I was in love. At this point, I hadn't even tried the CD portion cause I couldn't stop playing Blazing Lazers (I love Shooters/Shumps/BulletHell games), or Splatterhouse, or Bonk, or Ninja Spirit. This was the Console for ME and I knew it, right away.
. Cut to a month or so later and I had my brother and myself frothing over this Console. I had been trying to buy this whole set up from my buddy's brother, but he would go any lower than $55 for it all. Now, I'm going to list, to the best of my memory, what all I got when I bought it and it'll probably make some people fist pump. But then again, at the time, nobody in the US cared about this system. So, after getting all the money I had saved from my birthday that had recently passed, I sold a few beloved CDs, VHS tapes and an NES cart to a Pawn shop, I had $52 in folding cash and another $3 in change. I actually used two 50 cent pieces out of my rare coin collection. So, he drove over, and brought everything in. Which was more than I knew he had and my brother and I were beyond excited. He took about 5 minutes to show me how everything worked and how to hook it up (which was like all systems back then).
. So here is what we got for $55: The TG16 Console (No back cover, all appropriate OEM wires), the regular OEM controller, a large OEM Joystick controller, The entire CD Attachment with the Turbo CD Hu Card. Now I'm going to list all the games I remember, they all had the Jewel Cases and little cover on the Hu Card games. Ok, Hu Card games: Blazing Lazers, Splatterhouse, Bonk, Ninja Spirit, Dragon Spirit, R Type, China Warrior, TV Sports Baseball and Football, Jackie Chans Action Kung Fu (I think), Super Adventure Island, and 2 other Shooter games I can't remember the titles of though. CD games: Fighting Street, Ys Books 1&2(I think that was the name), Addams Family, and 2 other games I can't remember the titles of either.
. So yes, all that for $55. I felt like the coolest person ever and my brother and I were so happy. I had friends coming over that wanted to see the origin of Street Fighter and just to say they played a Turbografx 16! Plus, at that time the Sega CD had not come out yet or had just come out. So no one I knew had ever played games on CD before. It was a glorious time in my childhood and I appreciate anyone that read through it and, hopefully, enjoyed it.
. All that being said, I'm ready to finally get my TG16 back (I have a few of the CD games still but everything else vanished during a move in the late 90s). I'm also looking to get the PCE of course, since there are tons more games. Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. I put some cash aside specifically for this, so I'm ready and able. I do want to make sure I go about this the right way though. I don't want to buy a Console that's going to kick a few months after I get it. I'm also going to post alot on the forums and check out the entire site. I just thought before I did anything, I would introduce myself and share my TG16 childhood story. Thanks for listening....Corey