There's a retro game store in houston, and while shopping the other day, the owner of the store stopped in. I started talking to the guy about purchasing some of the items he has in the store's museum that are "not for sale" and, after identifying each other as real-deal collectors, he told me to come with him into the back and pulled out a boxed European Turbo Grafx. To my knowledge, these things were never officially released, and only came out in a test market in spain. The box is pristine - it was opened only a handful of times. He indicated that he might be willing to sell it, but aside from recognizing that it's a very unique oddity, I couldn't really make an informed offer. I'm going to go back up to his store later this week with some money in hand to try and persuade him to sell it to me, but I figured I'd ask what price I should be looking at. Anyone want to give me a ball park figure I should go in with? The guy said he's really looking for an MSX2, and I have a Sony HB-F1 II model MSX2 with 10 games that I don't really want to trade away, but if the general consensus is that I'm coming out ahead, then I'll consider it. EDIT: To clarify, this is the real european Turbo grafx, with the alternate logo (sans 16), not the ones sold in france which were imported from north america. The person confirmed that the unit is indeed PAL, and won't work on an NTSC tv.
I'm pretty sure European Turbo Grafx isn't worth much. Mainly because they have little practical use. Zero PAL games were ever developed with commercial license for the platform. None at all. Any of the few supposed "European" games out there are either re-labeled US copies, or bootleg.
I'm aware that there aren't really any European Games (although I'd wager that at least a few copies of R-Type exist in PAL format, given that the box is completely plastered with R-Type). I'm interested in owning the hardware alone, since I have practically every other revision of Turbo Grafx/PC Engine out there. EDIT: Actually, looking online, it seems a huge warehouse was found and sold by Telegames around 2005 for the low price of 50 GBP. There goes any idea I had about trading my MSX2 for it, haha. I'll try and haggle the guy down to a decent price.
Yup that's the reason my post said "developed", not released. Very different concept. It doesn't involve programming to stick on a cartridge label. =)
haha yup, but sometimes a simple cartridge label can double or triple the value of the game. In any case, I have clearly been operating off of some old information, and this isn't nearly as valuable as I thought it was. Which is kinda a bummer. Thanks for the help, though.
They sell for around 50 Euros in Europe (new). I got a new one (bundle with US Blazing Lazers) for 45 Euros shipped around 1.5 years ago. There were no PAL-games, instead the consoles would play US cards while being compatible to PAL equipment.
I've always wondered how good the compatibility is. I wouldn't be surprised if one odd game here or there shows SOME kind of slightly off effect, run in PAL it wasn't intended for.
Few weeks ago they sold them in a dutch online shop, for only one day. The price was 60 euros for a brand new/never opened PAL turbo grafx. A guy on a dutch forum posted a picture of what was send to him:
I suspect NEC halted plans late in production. From what I've seen online like that, its design quality seems too high to be quite outright counterfeit.
dutchconsolefreak's release is exactly what I have. It plays games fine. By-the-by, if anyone knows where I can find a JP-NA/EU converter for under £40, please do let me know. People are very keen on robbing me.
Except for including the US manual with the unaltered TG16 logo on it. You can also wait until the HUcard Everdrive is released in one or two months.
