Not exactly true. It depends on what system you have. If you're using a regular TG-16/CD or PCE/CD, then yes. You WOULD need an actual card. But, if you're like me and have a Duo, then you WON'T need an actual card, as the memory is built in. I have a NeoFlash PCE 128MB card and I use that to also load the original CD-ROM2 card to play Altered Beast. It works like a charm. Haven't tried with the Super System Card, but I will in the near future.
You want a Turbo DUO or PC-Engine DUO/DUO-R/DUO-RX. It's the core system with Super CD-ROM built in. You actually will want a US TurboDUO unless you get a region modded PC-Engine DUO because there is software lockout in US games to prevent play on Japanese systems. The whole deal with the Arcade Card is for a few Arcade CD-ROM games that exist. More games exist that use the Arcade Card than the Super Grafx, but the vast majority of games are playable on any DUO console with nothing else. Some notable Arcade CD games are Strider Hiryu, Sapphire, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury 2, Mad Stalker, and World Heroes 2. Of those I mentioned I really only like Sapphire and Strider. So again the Arcade Card isn't that important. But there is a catch, if you get a Turbo DUO (US) you won't have the software lockout problems playing English games. However you cannot use an actual Arcade CD Card in your machine without a hard to find converter, or again a region mod. So you just have to pick what you want to go with. The ideal setup I suppose, is to get a region modded PC Engine DUO console, and buy an Arcade Card. However the only thing that would play all the games is a VERY expensive setup of a Super Grafx (region modded) with Super CDROM2 and Arcade Card. With that you can play every single game. I personally had a PC-Engine DUO and sold it in the past and when I got back into the PC-Engine I bought a DUO-R with RGB video mod. It's great. Haven't bought an Arcade CD Card yet. Again I consider that useful for 2 games. Although I should note that some Super CDROM games can use the extra memory in the Arcade Card either for reducing load times or maybe additional content like more animation, I'm not sure.
Thanks to Wizball and MottZilla for your replies. Just a few more quick questions: - I assume the software region check isn't easy to defeat? On Genesis/MD games it can usually be hacked out by hex editing a couple values. - Is the region mod easy to perform? Does it require the purchase of a modchip or something comparable, or can it be done with off-the-shelf parts? I see that lifting/grounding pin 29 on a certain chip is part of the solution -- is anything else required when using a flashcart? - MottZilla, you said that "The ideal setup...is to get a region modded PC Engine DUO console, and buy an Arcade Card." Besides the headphone jack, is there any other reason to pick the plain DUO over the DUO-R/RX? Which of the three has the best reliability and cost?
The DUO-R is considered more reliable, but I don't know that it is true. But my plain duo I had in the past had a cap issue with the digital sound effects in CD games where it needed to warm up or something. DUO-R might be better. DUO-R and RX are essentially the same.
As far as I know, there is no software region check. The region check was done primarily through the console, where certain pins on the card connector are swapped for the US and JAP regions. The region mod is somewhat easy to perform. The reason I say somewhat is because it depends if you decide to get one premade or to build one yourself. Mmmonkey.co.uk has plans and install directions for a DIY modchip. Blue BMW at the PCEnginFX.com forums has premade one available. I personally went with a regular Duo. It really doesn't matter which one you go with; it's mainly aesthetics, IMO, if you wanna go with a Duo/R/RX. However, whatever Duo you go with, you need only to look for a Arcade Duo card. You could go with the Arcade Pro card for total use with the Duo systems and the PC Engine/TG-16 and CD attachment combos.
You are wrong goombakid. If you play US games on Japanese consoles, some will not work because it detects a region bit which is on the same register as the controller input I believe. You can change a JP DUO-R to have this region bit set to US by grounding a certain CPU pin. On regular DUO's you have to lift the pin and ground it I believe. Turbo DUO's don't need this, there region bit is ofcourse already US, and no games check if the game is US region and refuse to run. Games only refuse to run if the region is JP and the game is US. Why, who knows. Maybe to punish people that imported PC-Engine consoles so they would buy TG16 consoles.
I was reading into it that it was asked if the actual ROM needed to be modified to use on different region consoles. My bad. Easily disabled by lifting leg 29 on the HuC6280 and sending it to ground. Only needs to be done on all Japan region PC-Engines except the Duo R/RX. Yes, you do need to to it on the PC-Engine Duo. I know because I have a PCE Duo and I reluctantly forgot to ground that pin prior to completing the mod.
So I’m looking to step into the PC Engine world. Never owned one, but with the possibility of an everdrive for it, I’m definitely tempted. I’m thinking I might as well go with a DUO to get access to CD games. How reliable are the DUO-R really? I got a Neo Geo CD a few years back that didn’t last long cause the lens wore out in a matter of months. If I pick up a region modded DUO-R, would I have access to all games on the system? From reading up, I would only require the Arcade card for a few games (mostly for Sapphire in my case). Price wise, how much would a region/s-video modded DUO-R go for? Is it really worth it to go with one that has a CD drive? Are there that many CD exclusive (I’m mostly interested in shmups and platformer). I own most consoles, so ports on the Turbo are of no interest to me, unless it’s much better on that console.
The DUO-R is pretty reliable. You can probably get a region modded/rgb modded/refurbished console for between 200 and 300. S-Video mod, I have no idea. The DUO systems will never play SuperGrafx games. There are I think 6 of those. The CD-ROM is DEFINITELY worth it. Even ports will have nice CD audio soundtracks that cart versions lack. Some notable CD-ROM games are Castlevania Dracula X, Lords of Thunder, Super Raiden, Bonk 3, Gradius II, Popful Mail, R-Type Complete, River City Ransom, Spriggan Mark 2, Super Air Zonk, the Valis series, the Ys series. Probably plenty more I don't know about. But the HuCards alone have plenty of solid games. It's all up to you and what you want to play and how much you want to spend. PC-Engine is not a cheap hobby.
The two main reasons why I always passed on PC Engine is because it's an expensive console to collect for and that between all the different models, add on cart and stuff, it makes it very convoluted to pick the best option. I've emailed the guy at http://multimods.com/ hoping to pick up an S-video/region modded one. I'll be mostly done collecting MVS soon, so might as well find a new place to spend my extra income.
It doesn't seem like "convoluted" to me. If you want SuperGrafx, buy a SG. Otherwise, buy a DUO. The DUO systems with Arcade Card can play all but the 6 SG games. Even without the ACD Card, the DUO can play nearly all games as there aren't that many ACD games either. The bulk of games are Hucards and CD/SCD games.
I'd be surprised if you get a response from multimods.com. I'm still waiting for one. Emailed him roughly over a year ago.
Ok, guess I need to find another source. Anyone know where I could pick up a Turbo Duo-R with S-Video and region mod?
Thanks, it's what I figured this morning. I registered, but I'm waiting for the admins to approve the account. Let's hope there's someone out there whiling to part with his modded Turbo Duo.
Did you ever follow up with another email? He region-modded my TG-16 sometime after April in 2010 (sorry I can't be more specific—I only remember that it was in 2010 and after April because of where I was living when I had the mod completed). I do remember that he wasn't quick to respond when I initially emailed him; however, when I sent him my TG-16, he completed the mod relatively quickly.
