The SCSI adapter was a rumor?

[toofastforyahuh]

Once upon a time I was shopping at Weird Stuff Warehouse and found an unusual PC CD-ROM drive.  But it looked familiar and I bought it anyway.  Sure enough it was the TurboGrafx CD drive with a SCSI adapter.  I figured this was a cool way to get started with CD games on my Turbografx-16.

Until I realized it's alot nicer to just have the TurboDuo.  So I bought that instead and sold off the rest of the Turbo hardware to 4jays.  This was years ago.

Then the other day I saw the
Wikipedia article claiming this was a prototype.

So now I feel a bit sad.  Was this actually an unreleased unit?  I did scan top and bottom of the system before selling it.
http://www.anthrofox.org/pics/nec_drive_top.jpg
http://www.anthrofox.org/pics/nec_drive_bottom.jpg

It's the only one I've ever seen, but with the plethora of NEC hardware I felt it couldn't be unique.  ...?

[SignOfZeta]

Whatever that is, its a retail unit, and not a prototype. I assume its a CDROM for a NEC PC, but not a PC Engine. Some NEC computers used CDROMs very similar to the PC Engine CDROM2, but not the same thing.

The PC Engine/Turbografx SCSI adaptor was to be for Duos. The SCSI adaptor fit into the HuCard slot. There was, I think, at least one working bare board prototype. It looked like one of those diving board TG-16/PCEngine HuCard adaptors with a huge ribbon cable comeing out of it.

[nodtveidt]

I do know that the CDROM units you're referring to are in fact interchangeable with the TurboGrafx 16, dunno about the PC Engine but it's also likely. Also, the CDROM unit that the TurboGrafx 16 uses can be used on the NEC computers in question. I know this because a friend of mine back in the day worked at an office where these machines were used, and we traded drives for a day just to see what would happen.

[Kaminari]

The drive is a PC-8801-30 and was used with PC-88 computers. The PC-8801-30 and the CDR-30 of the PC Engine are actually the same model. At the time of the Interface Unit's release, the CDR-30 was re-used by NEC to equip some PC-88 models like the PC-8801MC. It could also be used as a standalone drive for earlier PC-88 models via an interface named PC-8801-31.

[nodtveidt]

That would explain why the drives worked on our respective machines after exchange.

[torgo]

I had the prototype in my hands a couple of times. It only worked with the Duo. As far as I know, there were no "retail" versions created.

[Necromancer]

I had the prototype in my hands a couple of times. It only worked with the Duo. As far as I know, there were no "retail" versions created.

That's pretty cool, but how did you get your hands on such a beast?  I'm not doubting you - just curious.  Did it look similar to the one shown in the magazine article, or were different prototypes made?

[Michael Helgeson]

I had the prototype in my hands a couple of times. It only worked with the Duo. As far as I know, there were no "retail" versions created.

That's pretty cool, but how did you get your hands on such a beast?  I'm not doubting you - just curious.  Did it look similar to the one shown in the magazine article, or were different prototypes made?

Yea I'm wondering too,because back when Smartworks was selling off the Turbo gear they got out of the canceled deal they told me they planned to keep the few prototypes of it for all eternity to avoid legal problems with NEC since they came to a settlement over the thing. I think NEC got off easy compensating Smartworks with Turbo hardware to sell. This was back in early 1995.

Yea I could possibly see them being leaked out,if the company closed up,but to my understanding Smartworks is still around,and the last email sent to them a few years back yielded a no go for giving away or selling prototypes,esp anything not passed by the FCC.

I think its funny how Wikipedia listed the thing developed by NEC,when NEC did nothing to develop it.

[Joe Redifer]

I've seen a video of some TV show about CD-ROMs with the real-life Johnny Turbo as he was showing off the Duo hooked up to a Mac.

[Keranu]

I've seen a video of some TV show about CD-ROMs with the real-life Johnny Turbo as he was showing off the Duo hooked up to a Mac.

That video is awesome. You can find it on archives.org somewhere.

[Joe Redifer]

It would be even more awesome if he used it to play the Mac version of The Manhole.

[nat]

It would be even more awesome if he used it to play the Mac version of The Manhole.

Hahahahahaha 

[torgo]

I had the prototype in my hands a couple of times. It only worked with the Duo. As far as I know, there were no "retail" versions created.

That's pretty cool, but how did you get your hands on such a beast?  I'm not doubting you - just curious.  Did it look similar to the one shown in the magazine article, or were different prototypes made?

I used to do some testing for TTi, and John B. and I were good friends. They were showing the unit off at a CES one year ("behind closed doors"). We messed around with it quite a bit at that show. I believe that it was at the Summer '92 or '93 show in Chicago, but it's been a long time. I'm pretty sure that it was the same show that we took one of the Hudson Japan guys to play Battletech down at the North Pier Mall (the equipment has been moved to Dave and Busters downtown now.)

[Necromancer]

Thanks for sharing torgo.  It's not too surprising that they killed this project, as the cost of drives had come down enough to make using a Duo rather silly.  Especially silly considering that SCSI wasn't exactly mainstream for home computers and I doubt many Duos were found at the office.