Messages

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbografx World Youtube show]

I really enjoyed Bloody Wolf too, so this is pretty cool!  Although I'm a bit of a stickler for aspect ratios and it drives me nuts watching these stretched to 16:9, looks so wrong.........

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Retro Video Game Collecting as an Investment?]

I collect retro games because I love to play them

vs.

so if something were to happen I could always get a return on my investment.

And? It's not like I'm hunting down boxed copies of valuable yet shitty games just to flip them on Ebay. It's just nice to know that my collection has a significant monetary value in case of an emergency and I had to come up with some cash fast.

Video games aren't exactly an asset with high liquidity. While in an individual crisis, you may be able to convert the assets to cash, if the crisis is more wide spread, such as an economic downturn, you won't be able to convert them back into cash, without taking substantial losses.

In reality, the reason most people ask "Are video games a good investment?" is not because they want to build up a 401k built out of Magical Chases, which is what most people assume.  It is more that they want to internally justify spending large sums of money on what boils down to toys.

Spending $100+ on a single video game that is over a decade old would be impossible to justify to your internal conscience if the game were to lose all value immediately. However, if you tell yourself "Hey, in 10 years, I can sell it for $200, and I'll have made money!" All of the sudden you've justified a reason to spend $100 on something that isn't the best decision for your personal financial stability. I would say the majority of the video game market, especially the VGA-graded market, falls under the greater fool theory of economics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_fool_theory

The problem is, just with baseball cards and comic books, the market WILL dry up. Liquidity on anything other than the rarest of the rare will disappear. So, if you purchase a game for $100+, you are better off assuming you will NEVER get that money back. If you still feel justified with the purchase, then do it. But don't use a false assumption of a perpetually growing market to justify a purchase.

I don't know if the comic book analogy is the best reference, as a lot of really old comic books are worth a ton of money.  The reason this analogy comes up again and again is because in the late 80's and into the 90's the value on much older comics became really high, and suddenly every comic was trying to do collector's editions, and the market was booming and production numbers were high.  I'm pretty sure about the same thing happened to baseball cards as well.

But with games, most of the $100+ games had low print runs, and there's no changing that fact.  We've also seen that remakes & ports, and especially download versions don't seem to have much if any impact on the value of the originals.  Sure, maybe some $40 games might end up worth almost nothing some day, but I'd say the $100+ games will always be worth some decent coin.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Just played my best game ever on Darius Plus.  I got all the way to tough spring before I game over'd. x_x

Hey, noticed your Raden picture, and I've been wondering: how does the Genesis Raiden Trad hold up?  I have TG-16 Raiden and SNES Raiden Trad, and I can't help but notice that the SNES port plays & feels like a complete turd compared to the TG-16 version.  But the TG-16 version doesn't have multiplayer; does the Genesis version?  Also, is the version on RP arcade perfect?  And how does it compared to the TG-16 version in terms of difficulty?  Sorry for the barrage of questions, but any answers would be appreciated.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: have your purchasing habits changed due to emulation / flash cards?]

Isn't it mostly just the graphics in the first stage look more "cute 'em up" in the JP version, an enemy or two were completely changed, and a few other minor sprite differences?  Or was there something else?

I watched some youtube videos and the TG16 & PCE versions still look to be 95%+ the same game.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Retro Video Game Collecting as an Investment?]

I'd like to believe you're right because I want our beloved 8/16-bit games to live forever, but I'm not sure whether I agree or not. There aren't a lot of games that were before my time, but even going back to the earliest gaming memories I have... there's less of a draw for me to revisit Pong on the Atari 2600 than there is for games and systems that came a bit later in my childhood, like the NES & TG16.  I'm wondering if the draw to 8/16-bit games is due to the quality of the memories associated with them, or if gameplay/technology just matured to a universally palatable state starting around the time of the NES/SMS.

As a kid that mostly just had Atari until I was almost 10 years old; I do think this is the case.  When I go back to pre-NES games it's just for a small touch of nostalgia, but I bore of those games so quickly.  But I can still play a ton of 8-bit games on NES & SMS and have a great time.  My son's preferences seem to echo it as well, he quickly gets bored of Atari games, but can play NES games for much longer stretches of time.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Still stuck on Raiden, got to the last level multiple times; think/hope I might be able to beat it soon.  It's pretty damn hard.

Just ordered:
Gradius
R-Type (US)
Super Star Soldier
Ordyne (US)
Barunba
Super Darius

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Turbo Grafx Collecting]

I'm just strictly in it to play the games, so my collection is a random mishmash of US & JP releases.  I will of course tend to prefer a US version so I can actually read the manual, but if the JP version is quite a bit cheaper then I might get it instead.  And I'm mostly in it with this platform for the shmups, and a huge chunk of them are Japanese only, further making me not care about region.

But I am picky about condition and loose hucards.  I don't care about spine cards and cardboard boxes, but other than that everything I buy has to have the game, original case, and manual.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Retro Video Game Collecting as an Investment?]

I don't view my game collection as an investment, but I do have to say that when it comes time to buy a game I've really wanted for a long time and it's over $100 in value it sure is easier to confidently buy it than buy a new release $60 game that you know for a fact will only cost $20 within a year or two.  But yeah, I buy games to play them. 

And I have a 4 year old son that tends to have more fun with retro games than on modern games; and I don't know if that will stick as he gets older, but I can't help but think that over the decades as the 16-bit generation folks start dying off, there will be younger people to take their place in terms of interest in retro gaming.  As some of these kids today get older, their passion for video games might stay strong and then when they find themselves in stable careers and financial situations they may end up collecting games from before their time.

I actually think the price hikes in the past few years are only a small taste of what's going to come over the next 20 - 30 years in the retro game market.  I think eventually we'll see a lot of Neo-Geo AES type prices on a whole staple of the more rare games for almost every platform.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: have your purchasing habits changed due to emulation / flash cards?]

Emulation is great if you cannot get access to the real thing. 

This is exactly what I'm doing for the US Magical Chase. Bought a $45 Flash Card that plays in real hardware and saved thousands over the real deal. Best part is, the Flash Card fits in an original HuCard sleeve, and goes in a case with a repro manual without any issues. Looks as though I have the authentic game sitting on my shelf, until you open it and see the chip.

I just refuse to pay what that game is going for (if I could even find a copy), and emulation works perfect for this occasion

Is it just to feel like you have a complete US collection?  The way I look at this, I mean you're already throwing almost $50 around, might as well just put in another $150 and get a Japanese Magical Chase and you can still say you have the real thing.  Though if the Japanese version was $400+ I would probably do the same thing you did. 

I'm not trying to say the collector mentality is wrong though, just wondering.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: have your purchasing habits changed due to emulation / flash cards?]

If anything, emulation(in particular: the Virtual Console) was a strong reminder that I needed to act on that 20+ year old desire to buy a TurboGrafx-16 and start getting into the platform.  I think the biggest reason I kept putting it off was the confusion over the various platform configurations, regional issues, and the cost of an all-in-one solution.  

So I probably spent at least $100 on TG-16 games on the Virtual Console starting from right after Wii launch, but after about 2 years realized I'd be better off saving up and spending my money on the real deal.  Finally jumped in just over a year ago now, still only own about 30 games, but I plan to eventually have well over 100.  Never looking back, I've always been a big fan of shmups, and even though SNES was the first console I ever personally owned and all I owned during that generation, I already know this platform is more up my alley in terms of genres.  

I've been playing Raiden lately and I put Raiden Trad into the SNES to compare, and holy hell, it amazes me how astronomically better the TG-16 version is!  Don't get me wrong, Super Aleste is amazing; but SNES is pretty piss poor overall for shmups.

In general, I thought downloads would completely devalue original retro stuff, but that hasn't happened at all; and I only spent a lot of money on download games for about 2 years then stopped, and mostly just buy retro games now.  Original games on original hardware is the way to go.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Finished Daisenpu Custom and Detana Twinbee awhile back; moved on to Raiden US this past week.  Consistently getting farther and farther every time I play it, think I'm getting to the 6th level now.  Loving the hell out of it.

Recent pick-ups waiting in the wings:  Image Fight, Download, L-Dis, P-47.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Played Daisenpu Custom twice, I keep getting stuck at the boss of.... can't remember, Area 4 or 5.  It's actually 2 enemies, and they pop up out of the water.  The hitbox takes a little getting used to, bullets can graze through half your wing, but everywhere else will kill you, and with this boss the tail of your ship is the particularly hard part to avoid from getting hit.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Played and beat Pac-Land yesterday.  Couldn't stand the default controls, wtf were they thinking with that?  But the "lever controls" are good enough I suppose; though it seemed like no matter how minor of a tap I did, Pac-Man would move too far to the sides.  The control flaws become way more apparent as you get into the later trips.  Overall a decently fun game though, glad I bought.

I played just a little bit of the post-game Pro levels, I might go back to it later using the cheat to get to the pro levels.  Didn't have the time or patience after beating the game yesterday.

The default controls are funny because I believe the mimic the actual arcade machine.  I was told the arcade version used buttons to move left and right.  At least for the TG-16 they give you a more stranded control option.

That, and they actually put an ending into the TG-16 version.  The arcade version loops back to Trip 5 after Trip 8; no Pro levels.  So we got an optional better control scheme, a real ending, and a "second quest"; not bad.  I love it when they do a great job with console ports of arcade games.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Whats your favorite part of this platform?]

Primarily the library(especially the shmups).  But the design aesthetics of the PC Engine is definitely really cool.  The implementation of turbo as a standard for 1st party controllers was an interesting move as well, though I can't stand too strongly behind the D-pads, just feel a tad stiff to my thumb that's been so spoiled by the Saturn pad.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Played and beat Pac-Land yesterday.  Couldn't stand the default controls, wtf were they thinking with that?  But the "lever controls" are good enough I suppose; though it seemed like no matter how minor of a tap I did, Pac-Man would move too far to the sides.  The control flaws become way more apparent as you get into the later trips.  Overall a decently fun game though, glad I bought.

I played just a little bit of the post-game Pro levels, I might go back to it later using the cheat to get to the pro levels.  Didn't have the time or patience after beating the game yesterday.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Kids!!]

My 4 year old son absolutely loves Bonk, Keith Courage, and Detana!! Twinbee.

I've also been considering setting up a TG-16 in his room so I can have the Japanese Duo all to myself, though he'll be upset when he finds out Twinbee won't work on the TG-16.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: What Turbo game are you currently playing?]

Just got Detana!! Twinbee and Daisenpu Custom recently; and my region-modded Duo that was re-capped + s-video from D-Lite yesterday; so enjoying the hell out of these 2 right now.

I guess this is a hello post too, my first on this forum.  TG-16 was a system I saw and wanted a lot back when it was released, but didn't have the means of owning; and as I got on a big retro kick these past few years I knew I'd have to re-visit everything I wanted back then but couldn't have.  Got a US system about a year ago, then bought a Duo-RX off ebay awhile back that had issues so I returned it; then turned to D-Lite to make it all right, now I feel like I can actually really get into the platform thanks to his awesome work.