Buying a PC Engine / Turbo Grafx 16

[Anonymous No.8326618]

I never had one, and I’d like to get one. I want to be able to play Ys 1 & 2, and Rondo of Blood though, so I guess I need some sort of CD attachment or the Terra Onion thing.

I don’t plan on buying any games for it, since game prices aren’t worth it. I can afford them, there are just better things for me to spend my money on other than the console itself.

I guess I have three options that I known of:
1. Get an unreliable Pro Duo for a higher price and burn games (Everdrive for Hu-cards).
2. Get the standard pc-engine / tg16 and the stupid overpriced terraonion shit.
3. Hope that the Everdrive someday supports the CD attachment through fpga like the Mega Everdrive does with Sega CD games.

Are there any other options I’m missing? What’s the preferred method? Is it even worth it, or should I just emulate and save money/headache. Honestly besides a few games I mostly just want the console for coomlection purposes.

[Anonymous No.8326636]

>>8326618

[Anonymous No.8326664]

>>8326618
The Turbo EverDrive has received one firmware update in 5+ years, do not get it if you're expecting CD-ROM2 support down the line, it will never happen. If you want to jump into the bottomless money pit that is the PCE, you need the TerraOnion thing. Do not waste your money on a Duo that will break again, even if it's been refurbished. Frankly, getting a plain ass PCE and a chinese bootleg EverDrive isn't a bad move on the cheap if you really want to get into the hardware, but I would just emulate for PCE CD-ROM2 games. Controllers cost $30-50 a piece, the original (and only cheap) PCE is RF-only, so you need a video output adapter for the expansion port, there's no replacement membrane pads for fixing shitty controllers, it's just such a pain in the ass. Shame too because it's one of the coolest systems ever.

[Anonymous No.8326780]

>>8326618
Why not consider a briefcase?
The standard CD-ROM2 drive usually just has one plastic gear inside disintegrate, but overall the whole briefcase setup seems to be much, much more reliable than the first Duo model (not sure about the R and RX).
The games you listed only require a super system card at most, so you can avoid buying an arcade card pro.
Plus it's objectively the coolest looking PC Engine setup (as much as I love the look of the original Duo).

[Anonymous No.8327137]

If you want to play on CRT, get either a MiSTer if you're autistic, or a Wii if you want "good enough for everything but Wonder Momo".

If you don't care about CRTs, just run Retroarch. The actual hardware just isn't worth owning, it's very expensive, prone to failure, and has terrible video output. I adore the PC Engine, I think the briefcase is one of the coolest looking systems ever, but I'll never own one of these fucking things. Just doesn't make any kind of sense in the modern day, if you picked up a Duo R for 5 bucks 20 years ago and you orgasm every time you replace a capacitor, good for you, but for normal people the system just isn't worth owning anymore. I struggle to even justify the cost of a fucking controller these days.

[Anonymous No.8327168]

Spot the MiSTer marketer ITT.

[Anonymous No.8327263]

is the polymega a viable alternative?

[Anonymous No.8328090]

The Analogue Duo

[Anonymous No.8328151]

>>8328090
I've been ready to buy this shit all year.

I'm guessing preorders won't be open until halfway through next year and supply chain issues means won't have it until 2023.

[Anonymous No.8328527]

The chink rgb adapter I got don't work, alixpress gave me a refund. Guess I'll have to buy the real one

[Anonymous No.8328552]

>>8328151
Same, I've got a decent library of hucards and CD's and don't want to keep risking the death of my Duo-R, will patiently wait until then.

[Anonymous No.8328685]

>>8326636
somewhat true


you can do the modulator briefcase and get a recapped/regeared pc engine cd addon


do not buy any pc engine shit that hasnt been professionally serviced the gears are plastic and will break (cap issues aside)


hyperkin makes a decent controller with turbo sliders & cdr are easy to make via cd romance

the everdrive will be the cheapest part of all this nonsense

make of this what you will,
do what makes you happy


misterfpga runs cd games just fine & i can mediafire you the entire hucard library if you want

[Anonymous No.8328691]

>>8328685
also worth mentioning you can tinker with the everdrive and use it as an arcade card


only the hardcore have original hardware-

[Anonymous No.8328748]

>>8327263
emulation is fine if you don't want to use original hardware

[Anonymous No.8328749]

>>8326618
I have a CoreGrafx. I'll give you my thoughts as someone who owns the hardware: if you don't intend on building up a collection of HuCards there is no reason to own the original hardware. The CD drives break easily and as far as I know there is no proper ODE available for the system so you're going to be stuck harvesting CD drives from broken walkman's (which are collectable and expensive) to fix it just to play burned games. The Terra onion shit is all emulation. At that point you're better off saving your money and either emulating the system or buying some sort of fpga device like a mister or that analogue thing that will never ship.
If you still want to play HuCard games on real hardware with an everdrive then I recommend getting either of the CoreGrafx models because the original white PC Engine model only supports RF unless you put some sort of attachment onto the back of the system. But what's the point in having a PC Engine and no HuCard collection? That's half of the fun.

[Anonymous No.8328792]

>>8326618
Just get a mister

[Anonymous No.8328798]

>>8328749
>The CD drives break easily and as far as I know there is no proper ODE available for the system
Do people really not know what an ODE is?

[Anonymous No.8328802]

>>8328749
>The Terra onion shit is all emulation
Oh you’re that shitposter, never mind

[Anonymous No.8328817]

>>8328802
So you're schizo AND retarded? The Terra Onion is running most of the game, not the hardware itself. Unlike the Famicom, the PC Engine's disk drive does more than just read the disk.

[Anonymous No.8328820]

>>8328817
uh huh, you gonna post proof?

[Anonymous No.8328827]

>>8328820
My Life in Gaming did a video on it. Go find it yourself.

[Anonymous No.8328829]

>>8328827
uh huh, post the part where they said it's all emulation minus the supergrafx part

[Anonymous No.8328831]

>>8328829
What do you think fpga is?

[Anonymous No.8328832]

>>8328831
What do you think ODE is

[Anonymous No.8328857]

>>8328832
Optical Drive Emulator. The Terra Onion is emulating more than just the optical drive, it's emulating the expanded hardware that is a part of the PC Engine's optical drive.

[Anonymous No.8328862]

>>8328857
>it's emulating the expanded hardware that is a part of the PC Engine's optical drive
the CD rom rom is just that, an optical drive
the PC engine itself is what processes the data

[Anonymous No.8328871]

>>8328685
back to plebbit you go fag

[Anonymous No.8328872]

>>8328862
Ok, so explain why Terra Onion's device is using the FPGA to do most of the work and is barely using the original hardware at all.

[Anonymous No.8328875]

>>8328872
>explain why Terra Onion's device is using the FPGA to do most of the work
again, post proof

[Anonymous No.8328889]

>>8328875
I already told you of a video that covers it. Watch it if you want proof so badly. I'm pretty sure Game Sack talked about it too. I'm not going to spoon-feed you.

[Anonymous No.8328898]

>>8328889
>I'm not going to spoon-feed you.
then don't lie, either post the point where they said it's completely emulated with no use of original hardware or just keep lying, your call

[Anonymous No.8328905]

>>8328898
Lying and not combing through a 30 minute video to find something that you, a supposed grown adult, can do all by yourself are not the same thing. If you want to pretend that an FPGA doing most of the work isn't emulation than be my guest, I don't care. Good luck with your autism.

[Anonymous No.8328909]

>>8328905
>Lying and not combing through a 30 minute video to find something that you, a supposed grown adult
ironic for someone that's claiming something without backing it up

[Anonymous No.8328914]

PC engines are only good if you fucking love shmups, or you know Japanese.

I can't recommend one in good faith to an EOP, because you're missing out on some of the best games on the system out of the gate. A solid percentage of the CD library is just completely inaccessible, you can't even play some of the system's stand out games like the Far East of Eden series.

[Anonymous No.8328919]

>>8328905
Is the Genesis Everdrive (the one that can run Sega CD game without any extra hardware) also emulation?

[Anonymous No.8328925]

>>8328909
I've already recommended you two videos that cover it.
>>8328919
I'm not familiar with the Sega CD. Does it improve on the original hardware or just add a optical drive?

A better example of a device that is strictly an ODE is the FDS Stick which replaces the optical drive and does replace the ram adapter. But the Everdrive emulates the ram adapter.

[Anonymous No.8328928]

>>8328925
>I've already recommended you two videos that cover it.
and neither of them say anything that you claim, point out your claim

[Anonymous No.8328934]

>>8328925
>Does it improve on the original hardware or just add a optical drive?
It improves the sound quality as far as I know.
Even the Famicom everdrive does that tho.

[Anonymous No.8328951]

>>8328928
You didn't watch the videos retard.Game Sack definitely talked about it.
>>8328934
Is it adding extra sound hardware or is it just streaming it from a disk? In the case of the Famicom, the rain adapter has extra sound hardware which is part of what the Everdrive is emulating. The FDS still still requires the ram adapter because it is just an ODE.

[Anonymous No.8328954]

>>8328951
then post that part of the video
put up or shut up

[Anonymous No.8328969]

>>8328871
why are you fucking retarded
im on mobile it makes the spaces automatically

everything i said is exactly true dipshit

[Anonymous No.8328992]

>>8328954
Watch the video and find it yourself or stop asking

[Anonymous No.8329001]

>>8328992
I accept your concession

[Anonymous No.8329098]

>>8328969
>phoneposting
>automatic double enter
what did he mean by this

[Anonymous No.8329109]

>>8328969
> it makes the spaces automatically
No it doesn't.
See?
I wrote this on a phone too.

I only double space manually if I need to separate paragraphs or if I think it looks better that way.

[Anonymous No.8329129]

>>8329109
>>8329098
have fun without my complete retail library then faggogs

[Anonymous No.8329197]

>>8329129
kill yourself

[Anonymous No.8329762]

>>8327168
No one is marketing an open source project, jesus christ.

[Anonymous No.8329775]

>>8328817
>the PC Engine's disk drive does more than just read the disk.

It's the total opposite. The PCE CD-ROM2 is just a dumb data storage device that can play redbook audio. You're conflating it with the SEGA CD which does actually have "additional hardware" inside. The TerraOnion thing is just pretending to be that drive, it's not like emulating at all.

[Anonymous No.8329837]

>>8329775
There's additional RAM involved (system cards/built-in for Duos etc.) that would need to be emulated too, right?

[Anonymous No.8330010]

>>8329837
Yes / sort of. System cards weren't part of the CD-ROM2 unit itself; they were HuCards or built into the other hardware as you mentioned.

[Anonymous No.8330038]

>>8328792
If you're a faggot, I mean.

[Anonymous No.8330052]

>>8330010
Yeah, but the CD-ROM2 unit needs them to play CD games, so the TerraOnion device must need to replicate their functionality in FPGA, correct?

[Anonymous No.8330506]

>>8330052
No not correct
That would make any flash card emulation in your eyes

[Anonymous No.8330821]

>>8330052
It imitates the CD-ROM hardware, yes, it's "emulating" a physical disk drive in hardware/software. That's not really at all similar to pure software emulation of a machine. The game code is executing on the native PCE hardware.

[Anonymous No.8331226]

>>8330052
Kind of, but not really. Pretty much all of these CD addons at the time weren't much more than a cd drive that just sent game data to the console to run, and sent redbook audio from the disc over the AV lines. At most there was an extra RAM buffer the console could also take advantage of.

[Anonymous No.8331227]

OP here, didn’t realize how much debate there was on the topic. I’m aware that Terra Onion’s solution is emulation to an extent, I get that it’s not the system doing 100% of the work, and I’m okay with that. Especially if it means I can avoid failure prone cd-drives. I can do a bit more research on the Terra Onion, I just hate the price.
The reason I mention the Mega Everdrive having Sega CD support through fpga emulation, is that the Mega SD by Terra Onion offered it first, and Krikzz added the support to ‘fight back’ I guess. With Terra Onion offering a solution that fpga emulates the CD games with their device, I’m wondering if Krikzz would do something similar.

I’ll look into the analogue duo though, that looks cool. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[Anonymous No.8331234]

>>8331227
>I’m aware that Terra Onion’s solution is emulation to an extent, I get that it’s not the system doing 100% of the work
no, it is
only the super grafx is emulated

[Anonymous No.8331361]

>>8331227
If you don't mind fgpa emulation just get a mister for about the same cost of a analogue rip off device

[Anonymous No.8331524]

>>8330506
>>8330821
>>8331226
Why did I get three of the same answer that I got before?
I'm not the absolute moron arguing that the TerraOnion device is "mostly emluation". That's retarded.
All I was saying is that it does need to recreate that extra system card RAM in FPGA.
Everyone that responded seemed to extrapolate what they think I was implying by that, but I wasn't implying anything except what I said.
It's pedantic, but doesn't that still make the whole CD-ROM2 system that the TO device is replicating slightly (very slightly) more than "just a disc drive"?

[Anonymous No.8331562]

>>8331524
OK
what the TO drive is doing is an ODE, a flash drive and also pulling the digital RGB output of the actual PCE to clean the image up from artifacts
and if you use the HDMI port it will output a digital signal upscaled
the Arcade and RAM cards on PCE are just bigger game cards with a BIOS that work in conjunction with the CD ROM

[Anonymous No.8331604]

>>8328919
Parts of it, yeah.

[Anonymous No.8331645]

>>8326618
I bought a Core Grafx with a Super CD-ROM2 recently and I love it. So far I've been playing Splatterhouse and R-Type Complete CD. I went with a Super CD-ROM2 because they don't seem to suffer the same capacitor issues as the Duo models and because it has built-in System Card 3.0 functionality for CD games. Whether it's worth the money or not is entirely up to you. My whole setup with an ac adapter, a mono RCA cable and one controller was around $260 including tax and shipping from Japan.

[Anonymous No.8331649]

>>8331645
If you're going all original hardware, this is probably the best setup, unfortunately it makes an appealing system look ugly

[Anonymous No.8331651]

>>8328685
cdbromance does not have PCECD games.

[Anonymous No.8331657]

>>8331649
Yeah, kinda makes it look like a VHS rewinder. It's less of an awkward shape to deal with under my TV than I thought it would be, at least

[Anonymous No.8331664]

>>8331657
I like the way the interface unit looks myself, but I know it's more prone to issues and you need the system cards

[Anonymous No.8331683]

>>8326618
for the sake of your wallet, you're better off buying a Wii. There's other PC Engine emulators besides WiiMednafen that work perfectly well, as well as official Virtual Console versions of those 3 games which you can easily install if you get the wads.

[Anonymous No.8332032]

>>8328827
Some fucking cringy YouTuber attention seeker isn't really proof

[Anonymous No.8332402]

>>8326618
Just buy a DUO-R or RX from Japan. Yeah, it won't be cheap, but I assume you're not poor if you want to get into PC Engine, lol.
Those versions are the best looking imo and the general opinion seems to indicate that they're much more reliable and less prone to failure compared to the original DUO.

[Anonymous No.8332430]

>>8328919
I'm pretty sure the mega everdrive only supports the bios of the mega cd section so you still need the hardware and disc to run the games

[Anonymous No.8332431]

>>8328992
So you don't have any proof then. Got it

[Anonymous No.8332440]

>>8326664
>The Turbo EverDrive has received one firmware update in 5+ years, do not get it if you're expecting CD-ROM2 support down the line, it will never happen.
Isn't Krikzz developing a completely new Turbo Everdrive with CD-ROM2 support though?

[Anonymous No.8332447]

>>8332440
I have no idea. The HuCard slot is technically capable of it, save for redbook audio iirc.

[Anonymous No.8332448]

>>8332430
No the mega ever drive pro runs CD games fine off the cartridge with no hardware

[Anonymous No.8332449]

>>8332447
So that's why MegaSD looks like a tumor on PC Engine's ass...

[Anonymous No.8332456]

>>8332449
MegaSD is TO mega drive flash card
PCEs one is called SHDS3 pro, it’s quite a mouthful

[Anonymous No.8332463]

>>8332448
Ah thanks anon, I wasn't too sure as I have an x5 and a mega cd - I didn't realise the pro could do that

[Anonymous No.8332489]

>>8332463
Yeah it seems the mega CD is pretty much just a data loader as well
Unlike the 32x which actually needs the hardware to play it’s games

[Anonymous No.8332575]

>>8331227
Might be worth checking in on Terraonion later this month. I remember in 2018 or 2019, Terraonion did a pretty good Black Friday special where they put all their stuff up on sale. Even the SSDS3, which was restocked solely for that day.

[Anonymous No.8332586]

>>8332575
They said on their Twitter that they’re not doing that, check anyway if you want though