PC Engine Magic Griffin on Ebay

schweaty · 08/29/2015, 10:18 AM

i dont really go in for the super obscure PC Engine peripherals, but if you do, here's one of the strangest i've seen so far. only about 2 hrs left on the auction. does ships to the us (international). cheers!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321840528926?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

SignOfZeta · 08/29/2015, 12:04 PM

I guess if you like 20 year old game copiers that are a total PITA to use and you don't want something modern that works really well, then $125 was a good deal.

Flare65 · 08/30/2015, 12:53 AM

I assume this is some sort of aftermarket item and not made by NEC/Hudson? The name sounds familiar and I think I remember it being mentioned in an issue of EGM or that Die Hard video game magazine back in the day.....

cjameslv · 08/30/2015, 12:59 AM

Well at least his *Rare* in title is accurate i think. Ive seen these for other systems like super famicom but not for the pc engine. Hell of an contraption too.

pulstar · 08/30/2015, 05:24 AM

I remember seeing one of these back in the day sometime around when the Multi Game Hunter came out. Cool for a history piece if you're into backup units, pretty pointless nowadays with the Turbo Everdrive.

dshadoff · 08/30/2015, 11:56 AM

Quote from: pulstar on 08/30/2015, 05:24 AMI remember seeing one of these back in the day sometime around when the Multi Game Hunter came out. Cool for a history piece if you're into backup units, pretty pointless nowadays with the Turbo Everdrive.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, if one were to only planning to use this to play games.

However, it was also used to extract the contents of cards - rare prototype cards are still among those which aren't circulated. Of course, ensuring that the transfer to diskette is clean, and then transferring that to a modern PC, may be more of a pain than most people are willing to put up with.

As I recall, there was also a mode where it would download from a computer - but that may never have actually worked (as I never saw it work), and standard computer interfaces have changed considerably since then, so it's probably not worth playing around with.

These copiers were all made in either Hong Kong or Taiwan (or designed in Hong Kong and built in Taiwan, for plausible deniability), and generally sold to the West through Hong Kong intermediaries.

pulstar · 08/31/2015, 04:55 AM

Quote from: dshadoff on 08/30/2015, 11:56 AM
Quote from: pulstar on 08/30/2015, 05:24 AMI remember seeing one of these back in the day sometime around when the Multi Game Hunter came out. Cool for a history piece if you're into backup units, pretty pointless nowadays with the Turbo Everdrive.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, if one were to only planning to use this to play games.

However, it was also used to extract the contents of cards - rare prototype cards are still among those which aren't circulated. Of course, ensuring that the transfer to diskette is clean, and then transferring that to a modern PC, may be more of a pain than most people are willing to put up with.

As I recall, there was also a mode where it would download from a computer - but that may never have actually worked (as I never saw it work), and standard computer interfaces have changed considerably since then, so it's probably not worth playing around with.

These copiers were all made in either Hong Kong or Taiwan (or designed in Hong Kong and built in Taiwan, for plausible deniability), and generally sold to the West through Hong Kong intermediaries.

True, with prototypes etc it would be nice to see them dumped...to be honest I was looking at it totally as a way to play games rather than as a dumping tool, but I can see its value.

I'm sure it was parallel port connection to PC only on most of these devices, or at least the ones I've owned in the past, so I'd assume it would be the same for the Magic Griffin, although I only saw games being played from floppies back then.

NecroPhile · 08/31/2015, 11:04 AM

Too bad I missed this. I woulda bought it so I could finally dump Dino Force.

esteban · 08/31/2015, 11:24 AM

...

esteban · 08/31/2015, 11:26 AM

...oops!

SuperPlay · 09/01/2015, 04:35 PM

I have been looking for one of these units at a reasonable price for a while.

Back in the 90's here in the UK these were far less common than other copiers such as the Super Magicom / Pro-fighter / UFO etc (for the SNES/Genesis and so on)

I can remember the griffin was very expensive and not as well advertised .

Retailers sold game copiers via gaming magazines (here in the UK) back in the '90s using strap lines such as ' We stock devices from the Far East' and 'We stock console add-ons' ;-)

esteban · 09/01/2015, 08:04 PM

Ha!

"We stock devices from Mogwai..."

SignOfZeta · 09/01/2015, 08:56 PM

Quote from: Flare65 on 08/30/2015, 12:53 AMI assume this is some sort of aftermarket item and not made by NEC/Hudson? The name sounds familiar and I think I remember it being mentioned in an issue of EGM or that Die Hard video game magazine back in the day.....

You are correct. NEC/Hudson did not make a copier device for their own system. That would not be smart.

rcantor77 · 09/05/2015, 12:35 PM

Damn, I have been looking for one of these for years... and you're right these are completely useless compared to the newer flash cards but they don't look as cool as the Griffin...

esteban · 09/05/2015, 01:54 PM

Quote from: rcantor77 on 09/05/2015, 12:35 PMDamn, I have been looking for one of these for years... and you're right these are completely useless compared to the newer flash cards but they don't look as cool as the Griffin...

That is an awesome-looking piece of hardware.

I am actually surprised the Griffin retains the same design motifs of the PCE. Pretty neat. Usually with products like these, zero attention is given to aesthetics, since folks are pirating software and don't care what the hardware looks like.

+10 for caring.

GreatBlue Swirlof99 · 09/06/2015, 04:06 AM

Wow I never knew they had a thing like this for the PCE!