TG-16 is expensive, but PC Engine is cheap. If you insist on collecting TG-16, you are screwed, but you are only screwing yourself when nearly all games on TG-16 exist on PCE for (usually) cheaper prices and are (usually) better releases.
I dont care if the PCE shoots rainbows out its white f@cking huey slot, it is not my black TG16, the system i wanted way back when i was a kid, so now i have and have spent very little cash on it.
Let up a bit would ya zeta on tg16 hate.... geeeeez
I'm not "hating" on the system, I'm just being practical. There are literally hundreds of very affordable TG-16/PCE games out there. The system has this reputation for being expensive, and but aside from the initial cost of a working CD system (which is still much cheaper than a current gen system, but many times the price of SNES/MD) it really isn't pricy at all. Most games, either region, are $5-15.
Now if you *must* have a complete US collection, or if you *must* have Renny Blaster, or you *must* have those stupid-ass spine cards and useless cardboard boxes...well...then its expensive, but at that point its your own damned fault. I'd say the same thing to people complaining that Cadillac's are too expensive; Buy something cheaper, Cadillac's are shit anyway.
People wondering "How am I ever going to afford a complete Darkwing Duck!?" need to reexamine why they are buying these games in the first place. Darkwing Duck is a piece of shit. I wouldn't keep it in my house at any price because its crap and I don't collect crap.
Inflation is f*cking the collector, but not so much the player.
As for childhood nostalgia: I was born in '73, so I didn't have the Sears Wishbook dreams and such for the Turbo like a lot of you guys. Regardless, back in the day I lusted after the US Duo too. I eventually bought one (in 1992). These days I'm an adult with reasoning skills and, if I do say so myself, excellent taste. Therefore when the value of JP systems became reasonable and the US systems never did, I sold my US system to someone here on the forum because the JP shit is just plain better. Its also, inexplicably, much cheaper. Bonus for the frugal and the discerning! Bad news for nostalgic types.
Tonight I was listening to The Eagles Greatest Hits (the 180g re-issue) which my girlfriend bought earlier in the day. This was a record I loved as a kid, but now...I don't care so much for it anymore. I don't care if I ever hear it again. There is plenty of good stuff from my childhood I can focus on, there is no need to latch onto the garbage just because I liked it when I was seven. I liked SPAM when I was seven too, but I'm never touching the stuff again as long as I live.