Korean Vistar (Vistar-16): Anyone here actually own one??

[MotherGunner]

Had a buddy look for one while in Korea and he couldn't find one to save his life.




How many were made?
Has anyone ever seen one pop up on auction sites?
Does anyone here own one?
Value?

nfggames.com/games/vistar/

[c0ldb33r]

neat system - that article says its rebadged tg16 hardware.

Will it work on NTSC TVs?

[Supremo_Lagarto]

Had a buddy look for one while in Korea and he couldn't find one to save his life.

How many were made? 
Has anyone ever seen one pop up on auction sites? 
Does anyone here own one?
Value?

nfggames.com/games/vistar/

They were American Turbo Grafx 16 planar boards put into new plastic cases. So were the games. Should work fine on an NTSC TV (correct me if I'm wrong). Good luck finding one.

[RR1980]

I was talking to Cabbage at the new chatroom and he said he has one. He's an american working in Korea right now. He said the Vistar is pretty rare even in Korea and the one he found looks to be a display unit. I asked him if he would take some pics for us and he said he'll see what he can do.

[blueraven]

I wa n nz teh 500gr. Vistar

[snickersbar]

looks like a nice unit to have

[shubibiman]

Thibaut bought one last year and one actually showed up on yahoo auction last week, but it went for a really high price (something like 1000$).

[Windy]

I have a friend who goes to Korea 2 times a year she said she would check into one for me but from the sound of it ....they might be rare

[T2KFreeker]

I have a friend who goes to Korea 2 times a year she said she would check into one for me but from the sound of it ....they might be rare

Just a little. I have seen ONE in my lifetime. It came into Game Dude when I worked there but the owner offered him so little for it he wouldn't let it go. I thought it looked pretty damn sweet.

[termis]

Hah, cool.  You worked at Game Dude, eh?  How long were you there? 

GD was one of my favorite places to visit from time to time back in the 90s.  I remember when they only had that little shop, then moved into that giant within that same complex.

[BigusSchmuck]

Man, the Vistar-16 looks a hell of a lot better than the US Turbo by a long shot. If it wasn't so expensive and rare, I would pick one up just for the hell of it.

[NecroPhile]

Man, the Vistar-16 looks a hell of a lot better than the US Turbo by a long shot.

Surely you jest - it looks like a frickin' early DSS receiver!

[esteban]

Man, the Vistar-16 looks a hell of a lot better than the US Turbo by a long shot.

Surely you jest - it looks like a frickin' early DSS receiver!

He is correct. ;)

Seriously, though, I would love to have a Vistar but I don't think I'll even get a chance to hold one only hands before I die.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HUCARDS WERE AVAILABLE IN KOREA.

Anyone who can help compile a list would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Nfgman (Lawrence or Laurence ?) back when he first posted his article on Vistar and he provided only a handful of titles.

[BigusSchmuck]

He is correct. ;)

Seriously, though, I would love to have a Vistar but I don't think I'll even get a chance to hold one only hands before I die.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HUCARDS WERE AVAILABLE IN KOREA.

Anyone who can help compile a list would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Nfgman (Lawrence or Laurence ?) back when he first posted his article on Vistar and he provided only a handful of titles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it played U.S Hucard games that were left over from surplus ?
nfggames.com/games/vistar/

Man, the Vistar-16 looks a hell of a lot better than the US Turbo by a long shot.

Surely you jest - it looks like a frickin' early DSS receiver!

I guess I'm weird that way. ^^ At least it looks better than a toilet seat like the Jaguar. lol

[T2KFreeker]

I guess I'm weird that way. ^^ At least it looks better than a toilet seat like the Jaguar. lol

Here we go with the Toilet Seat comment again with the Jaguar. At least get it right now people. It's not the Jaguar, but the Jaguar CD Unit that makes it kind of look like a toilet. Like there aren't worse looking consoles out there than this ? How about the Behemoth the Genesis became after all the add ons ? The thing looks like it has tumors. Then there's the damn Virtual Boy. Not sure what that was about. The Atari 5200 was so big it looked like Furniture. The original NES looks like a fricken Toaster, so it's all subjective. When you take these into consideration, the Turbografx 16 is a relatively cool looking system in that it looks like a game system. Heel, even the original Genesis/Megadrive looked weird. looks like a toy of some kind.

[munchiaz]

^ i think the vistar looks better than the US tg-16. i hate the little indented(lack of a better word) area on the tg-16. Hard to keep clean

[MotherGunner]

I never thought the Jaguar looked like a toilet seat....  I thought it looked like dental imaging equipment though! 


wayback:// HotRod DS-final.pdf

[MotherGunner]

Sorry for the double-post.

[BigusSchmuck]

I never thought the Jaguar looked like a toilet seat....  I thought it looked like dental imaging equipment though!   

HotRod DS-final.pdf

I never thought of it that way. Now that I look at it, it does look like some sort of dental equipment!
Still fugly though.

Hell, even the original Genesis/Megadrive looked weird. looks like a toy of some kind.

Maybe because it is a toy! 

[T2KFreeker]

I never thought the Jaguar looked like a toilet seat....  I thought it looked like dental imaging equipment though!   


HotRod DS-final.pdf

I never thought of it that way. Now that I look at it, it does look like some sort of dental equipment!
Still fugly though.

Heel, even the original Genesis/Megadrive looked weird. looks like a toy of some kind.

Maybe because it is a toy! 

Point I was making.  I still thought the Turbo was cool looking.

[termis]

Man, the Vistar-16 looks a hell of a lot better than the US Turbo by a long shot.

Surely you jest - it looks like a frickin' early DSS receiver!

Necro is correct. ;)

Seriously, though, I would love to have a Vistar but I don't think I'll even get a chance to hold one only hands before I die.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HUCARDS WERE AVAILABLE IN KOREA.

Anyone who can help compile a list would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Nfgman (Lawrence or Laurence ?) back when he first posted his article on Vistar and he provided only a handful of titles.

They're pretty rare in Korea too, but when I browse the Korean websites, I read messages of people getting/selling the system for somewhere between $50-$65.  (Granted the those prices I found were from 2002 and 2007, respectively).  So I guess they're not so rare to the point that it exchanges for crazy sums of cash - at least in Korea.

According to the ad below, 22 titles were "localized".  The 5 titles on the ad showing:
Bonk 2
Neutopia II
Soldier Blade
Ninja Spirit
Dead Moon


https://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o90/thumpin_termis/vistar1.jpg
https://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o90/thumpin_termis/vistar2.jpg

On this blog, I also see:
http://blog.naver.com/q__________?Redirect=Log&logNo=130042584125



Air Zonk
Keith Courage

And the aforementioned nfg game site where most English-speaking folks initially got their info:
I'm about 95% sure the guy who sold it to him has it listed here (he says that he sold it some dude in the US, and the games on the pic are exactly that of those listed on the nfg site)  -- http://bbs2.ruliweb.daum.net/gaia/do/ruliweb/default/308/read?bbsId=G005&itemId=110&articleId=1329327

Bloody Wolf,
King of Casino,
Super Star Soldier,
Vigilante,
Super Volleyball,
Psychosis
Devil's Crush.

That's 14 out of 22...

[GameFreak]

^ i think the vistar looks better than the US tg-16. i hate the little indented(lack of a better word) area on the tg-16. Hard to keep clean

^ Yeah its kind of odd they put FAKE vents on the top of the US tg16. Im always cleaning dust from mine with q-tips dipped in hot water. But I noticed the vents on the white pc-engine are actually real, so I can't clean the dust out of them with liquid for fear of it dripping inside. Does it even get warm inside PCE to justify vents?
My xbox360 has vents on every side and it still over-heats...LOL.

It looks like the Vistar has AV hookups....cool.

[esteban]

termis, you f'n rule. Thank you for the swift response and the evidence/sources to build a credible account of Vistar's history in Korea.

If anyone else can provide more input/observations, please do so.

BONUS: termis, do you know if PCE had any presence in South Korea prior to the introduction of the Vistar ? I mean...did some folks import it? Did magazines mention it?

Thanks again.

On this blog, I also see:

Air Zonk
Keith Courage

And the aforementioned nfg game site where most English-speaking folks initially got their info:

Bloody Wolf,
King of Casino,
Super Star Soldier,
Vigilante,
Super Volleyball,
Psychosis
Devil's Crush.

That's 14 out of 22...

Call me crazy, but I'd love to find out what the remaining HuCards were!

[esteban]

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HUCARDS WERE AVAILABLE IN KOREA.

Anyone who can help compile a list would be greatly appreciated. I emailed Nfgman (Lawrence or Laurence ?) back when he first posted his article on Vistar and he provided only a handful of titles.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it played U.S Hucard games that were left over from surplus ?
https://nfggames.com/games/vistar/

I believe that only a subset of the NA library was actually re-badged/re-labeled with the Vistar logo on the HuCard & packaging.

[termis]

termis, you f'n rule. Thank you for the swift response and the evidence/sources to build a credible account of Vistar's history in Korea.

If anyone else can provide more input/observations, please do so.

BONUS: termis, do you know if PCE had any presence in South Korea prior to the introduction of the Vistar ? I mean...did some folks import it ? Did magazines mention it ?

Thanks again.

Yeah, no wuz.  The PCE was imported into Korea by several different mobs. 

The original PCE, in its original form, was first imported into Korea by some small-time importer called Alpha Trading.  It seems the original CD-ROM was imported as well.  I'd imagine it was gray-market import, but this ad claims they're the official importer of NEC consoles in Korea.




Then Daewoo stepped briefly stepped in to importing the PCE shuttle, as the "Zemmix PC Shuttle".  Zemmix series, as some of you may know, are a series of MSX consoles in Korea by Daewoo, but they also used the Zemmix brand for their one-off venture in a non-MSX console.  Daewoo localized the PCE shuttle for the Korean market with a 220v PSU, and tacked on a Daewoo sticker on the bottom with the label "Daewoo PC Shuttle".  Unlike the Vistar, the Daewoo imported the Japanese version of HuCards.  But similar to the Vistar releases, the Daewoo-released HuCards were just stickers on the back of the HuCards, along with a translated(?) manual.  I see Daewoo-versions of HuCards of Dragon Spirit and Deep Blue in these two blogs below.  The author mentions recalling having several other Daewoo-imported HuCards, including R-Type part I/II.

http://blog.dreamwiz.com/hanhogyu/3830105
http://blog.naver.com/backmr?Redirect=Log&logNo=42529355




But Daewoo eventually stepped out of importing PCE as well, and that's when Haitai (a now bankrupt confectionary(!) company) came in to release the Vistar.

So in sum - Vistar is not the only Korean-market PCE, and it's not even the first one...

[MotherGunner]

Holy Shit, I had no idea Korea had more than just the Vistar!  Termis, this is outstanding.  Thanks for sharing!

[shubibiman]

Didn't the Caravan Taikai take place in many countries in Asia such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Korea?

[csgx1]

Great info and scans on Korean systems.  Makes me want a Vistar even more now.

[NecroPhile]

Thanks for all the info. on the Korean stuff, Termis. 

[Windy]

awesome info! Im going to print and kick it to my Korean friend who is going to Korea next visit in April not that she will find one but worth a try.

[esteban]

Holy Shit, I had no idea Korea had more than just the Vistar!  Termis, this is outstanding.  Thanks for sharing!

As Mother_Gunner said: outstanding information terms! I love finding out about this stuff. ;)

[roflmao]

I agree. This has been a really interesting thread.

[TheClash603]

Great thread!

Looking at the Shuttle, is there any difference between it and the Japanese version?  They look identical to me.  Maybe the boxes were different, but the system looks the same.

The Vistar is pretty damn cool though, I want one now too!   ...and I want the Air Zonk glasses the kid is wearing in the ad!!!

[T2KFreeker]

Interesting. Would be cool to see some of these up close.

[SignOfZeta]

That Korean system looks a billion times better than than the TG16. The TG16 is just embarrassingly dull, and the hollow cover thing is fucking moronic piece of wasted plastic. Region locked controllers!?! Seriously, fuck the TG16.

I actually don't think the Jag is ugly. It sucks donkey balls as a system, but it isn't because it looks bad. The original XBox, now that's a dumb looking system. The PS2 is pretty crap too.

Best looking systems ever, IMHO:

PCE w/ IFU and CDROM2
Megadrive 1 w/ Mega CD 1
Wondermega 1 (silver)
Wii
GameCube (spice)
Duo R
LT

[DynamiteSJ]

Life after the jaguar.... dental machine -> https://archive.org/details/youtube-8qCtiRu-G_M

HAHAHA!

[esteban]

That Korean system looks a billion times better than than the TG16. The TG16 is just embarrassingly dull, and the hollow cover thing is fucking moronic piece of wasted plastic. Region locked controllers!?! Seriously, fuck the TG16.

I actually don't think the Jag is ugly. It sucks donkey balls as a system, but it isn't because it looks bad. The original XBox, now that's a dumb looking system. The PS2 is pretty crap too.

Best looking systems ever, IMHO:

PCE w/ IFU and CDROM2
Megadrive 1 w/ Mega CD 1
Wondermega 1 (silver)
Wii
GameCube (spice)
Duo R
LT

No way! You did not put MegaDrive on there (let alone the Mega-CD!)...no...no...



Seriously, though, the MegaDrive looks like a misshapen, gaudy, goofy child's toy. "16-bit" looks like it was pried loose from a Chevy and slapped onto the console.

I'd say the Atari 5200 was more inspiring (in a "2001" obelisk manner) than the fugly MegaDrive.

In fact, XaviX looks better than the old Genny:



Yes, XaviX looks like a cheap answering machine (with microcassette!) from COBY (that is, if COBY were to make such a product).

[bartre]

personally i love the looks of:
toploader nes
Genesis model 2/3
turbo duo
pce duo-r

[DynamiteSJ]

i like bartre selections but i'll swap out the top loader with the toaster. Also add the FZ-1 3DO to it!

[A_Locomotive]

For me the consoles I'd rank, in no particular order, as the best looking are:

Jaguar
Duo-R
Neo Geo AES
Super Famicom

I have a thing for sleek looking consoles.

[bartre]

come to think of it, the Dreamcast looked pretty good too.

[DynamiteSJ]

atari jaguar system might look sleek but the controllers are a fail!

[DynamiteSJ]

big fan of the dreamcast... kinda of reminded me was tg16 of its time.. arcade / shooter type games... pick up and play style! But terrible gd-rom... noisy as hell!!! even pulling them out of a spanking new box. but yea.. always pros and cons to every system out there..

[Ji-L87]

...The PS2 is pretty crap too.

Really? I think the old, fat PS2 (especially with it's blue stand) is easily the best looking PS2. Also hot in silver and white...was there a white one? I want to remember there being one. Anyway.

come to think of it, the Dreamcast looked pretty good too.

Yes. Yes it did. It so did <3. Controllers aren't that hot (I've defended them from time to time but they aren't that well thought out after all)

Other consoles that looks good is, I think, the Saturn Model 1 (black or grey, both are nice), those Hi-Saturns and the PS One.
Of course I also agree on the SFC/SNES (not the US one though) and the Neo-Geo Aes. I think the CD front loader is also pretty cool but a bit bulky perhaps.

...and most variations of the PCE, of course - including PC-FX and the Vistar in this thread. Not super cool but cool enough. : )

[termis]

Looking at the Shuttle, is there any difference between it and the Japanese version?  They look identical to me.  Maybe the boxes were different, but the system looks the same.

Yeah, they're basically identical systems.  The only difference are the Daewoo stickers -- on the bottom of the system, behind the controller, and on the RF unit -- and the 220v power supply unit.

[shubibiman]

I guess that the Korean Shuttle had stickers on the NEC logos as at the time it was forbidden to show japanese brands in Korea. Termis, tell me if I'm wrong.

[termis]

I dunno if I chalk up the stickers to legality issues, but Daewoo just pushing their brand where they could.  All console that went into Korea were through 1) joint ventures, 2) gray market (direct import of Japanese or American models by some random Joe), or 3) pirate models, until Sony went in to Korea themselves with the Playstation 2 in 2002 -- which is prior to the regulation I'm about to mention below, so again, I doubt the stickers were about covering anything up.

The specific legal issue is that any video games with in-game Japanese characters couldn't be *officially* distributed in Korea until 2003.  Hence, I'm not surprised that the Daewoo-branded HuCards that were mentioned (Dragon Spirit, Dead Moon, R-Type) -- even though they were straight Japanese HuCards -- happen to be games that do not display Japanese characters in-game.

Now, that didn't stop the direct imported Japanese-market games (RPGs, adventure games, etc) being sold in Korea, but people generally had to pay through the nose for those -- not unlike trying to buy Japanese games through importers in the 80s/90s in North America.

[SignOfZeta]

There was a recent discovery by...possibly that Assembler douchebag, I can't remember, that Saturns imported into Korea actually don't have the Japanese language option in the BIOS. They actually went that far.

Its kind of amazing how much things have changed. Korea is now the workhorse for virtually the entire anime industry, and a huge front in the Gundam garage kit scene. They also made a few Neo Geo games near the end of the system's life.

[esteban]

NECRO: Necro-bump because I find the subject interesting and to remind us that we used to actually have some decent threads before troglodytes like hailing, Nulltard, Desh, etc. ranted endlessly about Falcon Crest instead of obeying.

YOU HAVE BETRAYED ME: Seriously, though, you guys don't seem as infatuated with South Korean OBEY as I am. Whatevva, you dillweeds. You're not much better than Tatsujin, who thinks he can ignore the entire TG-16 cosmos. Which reminds me—I blame Tats for single-handedly ruining pcefx.com.



BACK ON TOPIC: Surely, some folks here can help clarify some further details about PCE in Korea, Daewoo's Shuttle and/or Vistar-16?

Don't tell me to read the _______________ article over at ________________. I already have.

[DeshDildo]

esteban, you meany.  I've never been called a troglodyte before. 

Anywho, finding vintage anything in S. Korea is harder than breaking Necro's high score in Atlantean.  I have a friend from highschool that lives in S. Korea.  He's been looking for a Hyundai Comboy and a Vistar for me for a couple of years.  The problem is that S. Korea is a society that is only all about the latest and greatest technology and whatever is old gets tossed.  The only exception to this is StarCraft.  They fricken love that shit.