My PC Engine Duo-R arrived this morning...

[mickyboy]

...what games can I play on it?

Am I right in thinking that only Japanese Hu-Cards can be played on it and not TG-16 cards.

What variations of the CD games can I now be looking at buying?

( This is where I get confused )

I've read that American CDs, Japanese CDs & music CDs can all be played on this damn sexy machine.

Ooh, what about best quality...am I going to have to have it modded for RGB?

Tar very much

[wheelaa]

Jp Hucards only without an adaptor.

PC Engine cds are region free so you can play us or jp cds. As it is a Duo R you will be able to play cd rom2 and super cd as standard, but will need an arcade duo to play arcade cds.

Imo the piccie is fine as it is, but yes, you can rgb butcher I mean mod it

[saturn-gamer]

Thats pretty cool, one day I want to pick one up just for Chi No Rondo

So to answer your question.. try to get Dracula X Chi No Rondo.. its expensive but its *supposed* to be the best of all Castlevania's and the best PCE game. Maybe someone who has it can tell if its overrated or not..

[mickyboy]

I thought I'd finally take the plunge seeing as I've always wanted some kind of true PC Engine incarnation for almost 15 years now and last years horrendous purchase of a cheap TG-16 on eBay did nothing to satisfy my curiousosity for an NEC console, infact it probably did the opposite and put me off NEC consoles for a good while.

Judging any kind of Japanese PCE against my soul-less PAL TG-16 seems truly unfair and I thought I'd try to rekindle those old memories of mysterious and obscure Japanese games once again with the Duo R.

To be honest, I'm not expecting the graphics to be a great deal better on the Duo-R than that of my PAL TG-16 ( obvisously, I only have TG-16 Hu-Cards to compare it to, I dunno...the Duo R CD games might be a million times better than the Hu-Card games I've seen so far ) but I'm just looking forward opening up the playing field a bit and ( finally ) being able to buy near enough ANY Japanese game ( CD or Hu-Card ) for it with the added bonus of the USA CD games.

I always wanted the original, little white PC Engine when they first came out ( who didn't? ) but in those days I was scared of the words "grey import" and stuck to my safe, official Megadrive. I'd still like one, just for the memories but picking up a ( preferrably boxed ) clean, uncoloured one on eBay isn't easy and without the CD add on, I'd still be missing out on all the great CD games like Rondo.

I've now got myself a boxed Duo R, in pretty good overall condition and more excitingly...almost 15 years worth of import software just waiting to be purchased. And at $5-20 a go for the more common PCE games, they're proper dirt cheap...and best of all, the artwork is totally awesome & cool.

LOL...just had a mental image pop into my head of the artwork for the TG-16 release of Dungeon Explorer...wtf!

YAY for PCE

[Baseley09]

Chi No Rondo isn't overrated, tho also I guess to really dig it being a Castlevania fan helps.

Gotta get Jackie Chan, what a classic.

[m0nk3y]

Check GamesX for info on the RGB mod. Well worth it too. DraculaX is absolute quality and I thoroughly recommend Winds of Thunder and Gate of Thunder too for some CD based shmuppery

[eastyy]

Is there a good guide to the various pc engines avalable?

[Kotatsu Neko]

Chi no Rondo is not only the best game on the PCE, but also the best Castlevania game. A must buy, no matter what the cost.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Is there a good guide to the various pc engines avalable?

Maybe this site? - http://pcenginefx.com/main/

[eastyy]

yep that will do thanks

[Saurian]

Imo the piccie is fine as it is, but yes, you can rgb butcher I mean mod it

You can get superb RGB out of a DUO-R and perform the mod so that the machine does not look like it's been tampered with at all. Infact you can do this will all PC Engines; replace the AV port socket and house the RGB amplifier circuit inside the SCART casing and you have a mod that's not only invisible but also gives an excellent picture.

With the DUO-R you replace the 5-pin DIN socket of the AV port with an 8-PIN version by de-soldering the original and fitting the 8-PIN in it's place, the machine's casing is not tampered with and you have a perfectly normal looking RGB with DIN plug cable to go with it. Inside the machine all you have is 3 short wires linking the new AV port to the RGB points on the video chip, there's absolutely zero mess.

The jump in image quality over the standard composite signal is very noticable when the mod is done properly.

[wheelaa]

I know, I know

I'm just a purist (save xbox of course) and would rather play the pce the way nec intended me too is all. I have seen duos that are modded and cosmetically perfect like you describe, but I'd still know they had been tampered with and for me that matters. Weird huh?

[anephric]

It is, because composite is still compo****e at the end of the day. Why limit yourself to something that was the result of technological limitation/cost-cutting?

[Kotatsu Neko]

The composite issue is one of the reasons I now just use my Xbox to play PCE games. RGB all the way.

[wheelaa]

Why spend money altering something that is fine as it is? Like I say its just me. I'm a purist and I like minty hardware the way it was factory made.

(Plus for nice minty pce hardware a modded system has less 'collector' value than a tampered system every time, imo)