TurboGrafx-16 - for those of you who don't know about it...

[bacteria]

It is surprising that this system doesn't appear to have been made into a portable before.

I am working on one at the moment. Trimming the board is taking a while to work out as I need to cut about half of the board off to fit in my case (very do-able though, as all the components sit nicely inside the case shape, although some re-wiring is needed of course). I haven't seen so many traces, and as fine traces as they are, in other systems so far, so am having to be careful. Accidentally cut off the traces to the audio amps, which I managed to find and fix! I also need to relocate many capacitors, etc so there is plenty of space for batteries in my system, and to make the system quite slim overall.

If there is somewhere suitable to post progress on this site (eg "other retro console systems") I can post it, if not, I will just have to use my own site. I am rather hoping to be able to document it here... (*looks at admin*)... - if a new forum section is made, please move this thread there, thanks!

For those of you who don't know about NEC's TurboGrafx-16 (also known as PC-Engine and TG-16), here is a good link: BACKGROUND and further reading WIKI

The TG-16 had about 140 games on the USA platform and about 1000 on Japanese format. The game quality seem to be about on par with SNES in may respects; although at the time the TG-16 was brought out as a direct competitor to the NES - so was actually far better.

Here is a good link to many of the games: GAMES

The system came in UK/USA format (TurboGrafx-16) and also Japanese format (PC-Engine). The Japanese version can play USA games by disabling a pin on one of the chips; the USA version (TG-16) can play Japanese games by swapping eight of the pins around. I will be doing this mod to my system; only needs four double-pole switches to do the job. To buy a converter on e-bay costs stupid money - about £70 (or free, if you do a little rewiring!); the console itself costs about £30-£40. The system also came with a CD add-on; and also a handheld version was made with only a 2.5" screen - DETAILS

You can also output via composite (as standard) or RGB if you want, although the RGB might need amplification depending on if you are unlucky or not.

USA HUcards have the TurboGrafx logo on the game carts and the game name,



whereas the Japanese ones tend to have a game picture or artwork instead.



The systems use HUcards for game carts, which are like slightly thicker credit cards, so very slim and light.

I think these systems make excellent portables; small and light game carts, many excellent quality games (eg the best Galaga game out there - '90 is the USA version, '88 Japanese).

[XCVG]

The reason nobody has made one is probably because of the Turbo Express, which is similar in concept to the Nomad.

[bacteria]

The Turbo Express is a smaller system so will have a smaller board, and it was official hardware (not third party generic); however only uses a 2.5" screen (5" is better!) and still needs the adapter to make it work on Japanese games (same way as the standard TurboGrafx one, as detailed above). It is, and was, expensive too. The TurboGrafx board can be trimmed down a reasonable amount, so is fine. I have already trimmed off a reasonable amount.

The Turbo Express was also a battery guzzler - 6 x AA's would last about 3 hours at most.

[Squalid]

Used to love my mates PC-Engine (I'm in the UK but we called it PC-Engine)

My favourite game was always Kato & Ken (or JJ & Jeff if you had the US version)



Would love to make a PC-engine portable, but theres an emulator coming out for iPhone/iPod Touch so i'll just play it on that

EDIT: Scratch that, the emulators available for public download! W00t, gonna get my PC-Engine on!

[bacteria]

I used to play some TurboGrafx titles a while back on the PC. Some emulators have bad sound, some don't register button presses right, some have graphic glitches; but hey!

These days, I only play an emulator for a system like the TG-16 if I am deciding if the game sucks or not - if it plays well, I buy the original on e-bay if I can (or save a search) - either way, I play the game on the PC for less than a minute and make a decision. This saves buying crap titles and means I can spend more on the quality titles. I much prefer original hardware and original games - far better experience and enjoyment!

[Triton]

the main reason it hasnt been made into a portable yet is because its largely unknown in the US and tends to be rather expensive! especially the awesome core grafx system which was TINY, about 4-5" square and maybe 2" thick, it would be perfect for a portable and if/when i can pick one up for <30$ i may very well have a go at it. i was going to get one at MGC last year but the guy sold it before i had decided i should go for it

[wallydawg]

the main reason it hasnt been made into a portable yet is because its largely unknown in the US and tends to be rather expensive! especially the awesome core grafx system which was TINY, about 4-5" square and maybe 2" thick, it would be perfect for a portable and if/when i can pick one up for <30$ i may very well have a go at it. i was going to get one at MGC last year but the guy sold it before i had decided i should go for it

The year before too someone got an insane deal on the combo system with the cd that was yellowed out, unless thats the one you are talking about haha

[bacteria]

the main reason it hasnt been made into a portable yet is because its largely unknown in the US and tends to be rather expensive!

Indeed. I put in a different post that it cost me over £30; actually, don't know why I said that, actually cost me £45 incl delivery. So yes, not cheap - given for my GameCube, N64, NES, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, SMS, Megadrive, PSone systems cost me £1-£5 each; GX4000 was about £10 and Xbox £10: so yes, much more expensive; the games seem to cost about £5-£10 each, or 2-3 times that for very good titles.

[jperryss]

Already been said, but the screen on the Express was pretty crummy, and that thing ate batteries hardcore.

...especially the awesome core grafx system which was TINY, about 4-5" square and maybe 2" thick, it would be perfect for a portable...

What he said! You could probably do much better with an original PCE or CoreGrafx, since they were already very compact, and wire up a region switch to flip between US and JP carts. Considering the amount of work you're putting into this, setting up the 8 wires for the region switch would be a piece of cake.

And modding the CD unit also (or just a Duo/Duo-R/RX) would be epic but probably way too expensive.

[Triton]

The year before too someone got an insane deal on the combo system with the cd that was yellowed out, unless thats the one you are talking about haha

yep thats the one! went back later that day and it was gone

[bacteria]

Already been said, but the screen on the Express was pretty crummy, and that thing ate batteries hardcore.

Indeed. In comparison, the TurboGrafx states it needs 10.5v at 780mA (probably takes less than 780mA, will test at some point); although it runs happily at about 7.4v - not sure how low it will go but suspect it will run down to about 7v or so.

Come on, any chance of an "other retro systems" forum here please - I want to post in it!!


In the interim, or for that matter if there is no-where to post my project, please look on my sig - link to my TurboGrafx project page!

[palmertech]

Post it in the arcade section.

Looks like a nice system, but when was the last time somebody made a portable with one of these? It is like the people who beg for a Saturn section; Would be nice, but almost completely a waste of space.

[bacteria]

No, arcade section is not appropriate.

No more a waste of space than the Handheld Hacking section; the same argument was made against having that one; anyway, I was talking about a forum section to embrace the other forgotten systems; including the Saturn.

Innovation is often about doing something someone else hasn't, so it is an advantage being one of the first to make a portable from a system like this one. Also, it is far more relevant to this site to have an "other retro console" forum than a spam forum that some have been asking for in Forum 42 lately. This is a console modding site, not a spam and blog site; so the request for a forum section to cover the unusual systems has to be appropriate.

[palmertech]

The difference is, people actually use the handheld board, and there were lots of handheld mods before the forum was made. Heck, ALL my projects thus far have been handhelds. Nobody would start making portables to fill up an empty forum space.

I agree that a spam/blog forum would be stupid; All we need is one topic sticky'd in Forum 42, IMO.

That said, an "Other systems" forum might be a good idea. I think you should finish this first, though. As of right now, you would be the only person posting in that forum.

And who knows, maybe a new forum would start a TurboGrafx portable revolution.

[schmellyfart]

In your first post you mentioned using 4 DPDT switches. I would ditch those and use a DIP switch.