Is this the main TurboGrafx forum?

[bacteria]

Hi guys; my first post in this forum.

I am very active on the BenHeck forum; I not only play retro systems but have a love of making them portable. My current project is making a TurboGrafx (PAL) unit with relocated cart slot, US/Jap converter and making the board about 60% of its original size to fit into my project case. All this I have done so far. Into case preparation at moment.

I found out about this forum during my research for the system - I am building up a good catalogue of games for this system and rate the TG-16 and PC-Engine as a very good system indeed, probably better than the SNES; or certainly on par with it.

So, as well as this forum, which others are big on this wonderful system?

When my portables get made they tend to generate a fair bit of interest on the net - I want to try and publicize the greatness of the console, hopefully to get more people lovin' it.

So, which other forums, as well as this one, are good TurboGrafx and PC-Engine sites (in English)? I want to try and see if I can get more people to visit such sites, on the back of my portable system - I think the console deserves more notoriety than it gets!

To prove i'm not a noobie, below are pics of my hacked console (lots of soldering to chip pins) and the case backing so far:

[Black Tiger]

I guess that it's too late to warn you that the PAL TurboGrafx plays games at different speeds than NTSC hardware. Although I understand that part of the fun of portablizing a console is the challenge, a white PCE or CoreGrafx would already be smaller than your current project. Still looks cool though, good luck.

[spenoza]

I really like that you retained the slot-look for the hucard slot. Very classy.

(marurun @ Racketboy, FYI)

[jperryss]

Glad you finally made it over here Bac!

Although I understand that part of the fun of portablizing a console is the challenge, a white PCE or CoreGrafx would already be smaller than your current project. Still looks cool though, good luck.

I already pitched it to him and he doesn't wanna hear it, LOL.

[bacteria]

Just to explain, the hardware to play HUcards and CD's (if you want CD's) has many options; other systems, eg NES has one unit only, (NOAC don't count), SNES is one unit (although you can get RetroDuo, and US market have a smaller one), N64 is one unit, etc - the HUcard consoles have a variety of choices strangely. When I did my research, I read on sites that Japanese consoles didn't play US games, but US consoles could play Japanese ones; so the Coregrafx etc were out - I then realised that that was entirely wrong and in fact with a very simple extra mod, any system can play US and Jap games fine; however, at that time, I had already obtained a TurboGrafx from a UK supplier, as that cost about £45 inc postage, which was about two thirds to half the price of alternatives - after all, consoles for HUcards are not cheap! I then discovered that my TurboGrafx was happy to play US games via my PAL screen, which was strange, further research showed that I had a UK PAL system which has a chip to convert RGB into composite PAL; which was interesting.

So, yes, had I known then what I know now, I would have got a CoreGrafx or similar, as the board is smaller and would have saved me hours of painstaking rewiring and trimming of the board, however the result is still that in either scenario, I wanted the board to fit into my case. The difference however is that my PAL system plays at a slower speed than the NTSC ones, however, not really sure if that means any games will suffer slowdowns?

Can someone clarify if in fact any of my games will run with any noticable difference in speed (ie slowdowns) - I have the following so far: Alien Crush, Blazing Lasers, Break-in  (jap), Bomberman (jap), Bomberman '93 (jap), Bomberman '94 (jap), Cratermaze, Dead Moon, Final Lap Twin (jap), Galaga '90, Gradius (jap), Military Madness, Power Golf, R-Type 1 (jap), Side Arms (jap), Space Invaders (jap), Salamander (jap), Vigilante.  If there is no slowdown, etc, it wouldn't matter if the system runs faster or slower after all. I think, as I recall, the difference in processor power is 17Mhz vs 21Mhz; the 50mHz va 60Mhz will be the video output (also, perhaps any difference in the processor speed is offset by the reduced video output?).

Thanks spenoza, I thought I would use the original slot as it looks nice and does the job. I have enough space to put my disassembled Li-ions alongside, to balance also the weight.

Black Tiger - which other forum(s) are you in?

On another question, is this forum fairly active? How does it compare to other ones for the TG-16/PCE? Is there a good fan base?

[Tatsujin]

welcome aboard and a cool project you do here. but why don't you take a JPN PC Engine? since the board is already much smaller by nature and will also play all the JPN games which are also much more fun ( ).

btw. there already exist a Portable PCE/TG16 done by its original maker. but i guess you're already aware of that

[Tom]

HEy! That's a pal TG16 in the pics!? The board layout is totally different than the US PCB. Can you list off all the chips on the PCB? There's definitely some additional chips in that PCM pic you posted.

[bacteria]

Thanks for the welcome Tatsunjin. Mentioned in previous post why used the TurboGrafx board. My board runs both US and Japanese games, I made my own eight pole double throw switch.

I am actually going to make the system detachable. Those of you "in the know" know I made a multi-platform system a year or so ago (as per my website); I am going to make the TurboGrafx the first system in my major version 2 of the multi-platform system; with a far smaller case than before, vacuum formed, curved etc. It will be a major upgrade over my previous system - this one will be awesome! 

Tom - the PAL unit has an extra chip - it takes RGB (presumably NTSC) and spits out composite in PAL.

[SignOfZeta]

As others have said the PAL Turbografx is the largest and least compatible of all the dozen or so different versions of the PC Engine. A standard PCE is already less than %60 of the size of a TG without any modifications. Also, NEC already made two portable systems.

That being said...I still think this is a good idea since the screens on those old systems, although bleeding edge at the time, are pretty miserable by today's standards. Small, blurry, and power hogging. You are the only one that has to deal with the extra work needed to use a TG instead of a Coregrafx or something small so why do we care?

Something like this with at least a 5" screen and a six button pad build in would be very cool.

[Duo_R]

Bacteria,

welcome to the boards! Do you have a link to your work on Benheck? I have seen almost no information or interest in portabilizing a PC Engine / turbografx. I think this stems from already having the Turbo Express and the PC Engine (small) systems. However i think it is cool what you are doing. Please don't leave it that brown color though otherwise it might be called the PooGrafx.

Also - you should post your work on the "Modification" section of the forums.

Again good luck on your work!

[spenoza]

Bacteria, Tom, others in the know...

Is the RGB output of the PAL TG-16 50 hz or 60 hz? If it's 60 hz and the PAL converter samples it to 50 hz you could just wire the RGB directly to the screen and maybe suffer no slowdown at all.

Or maybe I'm speculating out of my ass on this.

[Tatsujin]

very high probably they changed the crystal to obtain the 50Hz. so the whole board will be affected from that. without changing back the crystal, there will be no other way to bring back the original speed onto the screen.

at least, that is the thing what all the early importers did, when they modded JPN PC Engines (or Mega Drives as well) to PAL for the european market.

[Tom]

Ccovell theorized that the PAL consoles (the modded ones for import) ran on a slower clock crystal - hence the faster speed in that finland release of 5-in-1 NES cart for PCE (and color/palette choices too).

 Anyway, that PAL unit has a totally different PCB than the US model. So it's more than just a re-used/modified version that NEC used from back/old stock of US consoles.

[TheMilford]

...Please don't leave it that brown color though otherwise it might be called the PooGrafx...

Looks very crimson RED to me on my monitor.

[bacteria]

SignOfZeta - My system will have a 5.4" PSone screen, which is a very good screen. Yes, there was a portable system made years ago, they are rare and only one I found was going for over £1100. My system will cost me 10% of that, and with good batteries, screen, etc. The handheld system only had a 2.5" screen and was power hungry. My system will be easy to hold, good battery life, quality screen, plays US and Jap games; so your point??

Duo_R  - Thanks, appreciate the welcome and interest. Will post my final work in the Modifications section then.
The system is glossy medium red; if you see brown it must be your monitor!

No-one has done anything on BenHeck on the TurboGrafx / PC-Engine. There isn't even a relevant section for me to post this project there onto. You can see my work on my site (and its evolution) - www.modded-by-bacteria.com   and obviously, you can search for me on the BenHeck site - I am "Bacteria" there too of course!

I am going to make this TurboGrafx system the first of my version 2 major upgrade to my concept for a multi-platform system. One screen, one set of controls; pluggable console systems into the backing.

spenoza - Good point well made. I suspect, but might be wrong, that the RGB is 60Mhz as it takes NTSC games and when converted by the extra chip, you get 50Mhz composite on PAL - which explains why NTSC games play fine on a PAL system.

I have tapped off the RGB, just need to amplify the signals for my screen (I have the components). This probably therefore means I have a full-speed system (and great image quality).

What I do know is that the games I have tested don't slow down, so don't think there is a speed issue anyway?

Tom - Have you pics of the US system for comparision?

TheMilford - Indeed!