That kinda depends on how much you want to spend, but a Duo will allow you to do the most (HuCard and CD games), but will cost more than a regular PCE/Turbo. Bear in mind that not only are a lot of the best games on CD, but the CD addons are often expensive and less reliable that the Duos, so if you want to play any of the CD games it might be worth taking the plunge and buying a Duo. I believe the US Duo can be very expensive, but the advantage is it plays both US and Jap HuCards (via an adapter), whereas the Jap one can only play US games when modified (AND still requires adapter). I'm also relatively new to the PCE scene, but I went with a Jap Duo-R as it's the best looking one IMHO. I paid £190 for a boxed one, which is probably more than I could have spent, but it's in wonderful condition and with the addition of an Arcade Card Duo it can play every title on the system. Hope that helps!
Agreed. Duo/R/RX is the way to go. I have both a standard TG16 and a PC Engine Duo, both region modified. If any of you first batch people have a modded console, please report back on if it works ok or not.
I think you have created a masterpiece Maybe the only sensible option for such a delicate and slim cart.
This is looking better and better all the time. I can't wait to see what will become of this experimentation.
There are many great HuCard games to play, so any TG16/PCE system is good. But if you want to get into CD games, get a DUO now rather than trying to get the CD addon. Ignoring any "reliability" assumptions, the addons are expensive compared to a DUO system. Also the DUO-R and DUO-RX tend to be preferred because they are less likely to have capacitor problems. However no matter what system you get, you may have to deal with repairs, or buy one that has already been refurbished. Also you should know this platform is not cheap by any means. For a really nice refurbished and modded DUO system you can easily spend $350USD including shipping. Even TG16 and PC-Engine systems are not super cheap usually. So I wouldn't get into this console on a whim. It's serious business.
yeah I just wanna make sure I make the right investment the first time. Will a jap duo run a Turbo ED out of the box or does it require the region mod I'm assuming (pinout diffs?)
It works straight out the box! There's a switch on the everdrive which you can switch between PCE and Turbo modes. That's all there is to it
Another question for everyone which has probably been answered but I couldn't find it. Will Japanese roms put on the Everdrive run on a US system or do I have to get some sort of region mod? I was always told that JPN games didn't run on US systems due to the different pinout of the Hucards, obviously this isn't a problem when using an ED since it already has the correct pinout for your system so I assume they will work.
To be clear about region issues. Two issues exist. With actual HuCards, the connector has a different pinout. Turbo ED overcomes this with a switch with PCE and TG16 positions. The second issue is a software lockout that ONLY prevents playing US games on JP systems. US systems can play JP games if the connector issue is dealt with. JP systems cannot play US games just by dealing with the connector issue. On JP systems you must do a hardware mod to play US games OR do region patching, which Turbo ED supports. Bottom line, all region systems will be able to play all region games on the Turbo ED. However when dealing with real HuCards you still need modifications or adapters.
That's what I wanted to hear. Looks like my Kisado adapter will be going up for sale along with all my Hucards.
BTW is there a recommended Micro-SD card for the Turbo Evderdrive? How big is the entire US and Japanese game library anyway?
Not really. Anything should do. The smallest you can find will be too big! I have a complete set apparently which contains every US and Jap game, including a number of different dumps per rom AND a whole bunch of homebrew and "sounds" roms... the whole lot is ~575Mb. A waste of a 4Gb card
I just downloaded the good pce rom set and it came in less than a gig. That also has alot of duplicates in it. But like with my other carts i like to get a bigger sd card in case of hacks or homebrews or translated roms. Scott
So something like this would work then? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134527 I assume 'Class 4' is fast enough?