Hello from Japan

[sanjo]

Hi everyone!

The reason why I came here is because I am interested in starting a PC-Engine Duo collection!

When I was young and living in America, I lived next to this game store that sold a lot of imports.  I had a Super Nintendo at the time and was heavily into RPGs. I would often go to the game store to stare at Final Fantasy 5 gameplay. I was fresh done with FF2 (4) and wanting more.  I went every other day, hoping that FF5 would come out to the US. I was so into how it was bringing back the job system.

That wasn't the only thing that caught my eye. Next to the FF5 display, there was the PC-Engine Duo (or Turbografx cd, can't remember). It was playing dragon slayer and some other CD based RPG games. It was the first time for me to hear how a CD based game sounded and I thought it was awesome. So I often came to look at PC-Engine CD games as well.  Around the same time was the big Street Fighter 2 craze. People were lining up. One of my friends, while tired of waiting in line suggested "hey lets go to my friend's house, he has Street Fighter 1!". Thats when I saw the American version of the PC-Engine CD.

in the end..I couldn't get a PC-Engine CD as my parents said I already have an SNES. and neither did FF5 ever come to the US until later.. and SF1 sucked.

It wasn't until 4 years later I could afford a new console. By that time I moved to a different state where there were no import stores and no one carried the TG-16 anymore. So I bought a Genesis and a Sega-CD because of Phantasy Star and Shining Force.

When the 32-bit era came.. I was so excited for polygon games.. but it led me to do one of the greatest regrets of my life.. and that was selling my entire SNES collection to get the PS1, and my entire Sega Genesis collection to get the Saturn.  After that i refused to re-sell my retro consoles (so I still have my PS1, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2 and PS3).

Now I live in Japan and I also picked up Japanese (N1 level). I've been thinking of buying a 16-bit console again as it was my favorite and most memorable era. Ive been thinking of getting the PC-Engine Duo and collecting all those games I've always wanted like Xanadu, Dragon Slayer, etc, and some of those fighting games. I'm not as interested in the Hu-card games to be honest (but the hu-card only console runs around 3000 yen which is cheap and the design of the console is cute and compact).

Thus I came here to learn about hardware problems and longevity issues of PC-Engine DUO consoles and cds.

[NightWolve]

Hiho Sanjo! Welcome to PCEFX!

[Warbucks]

Welcome

[WoodyXP]

Good story.  Welcome to the boards.

[blueraven]

Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the forums!

[wildfruit]

Welcome!

[esteban]

Welcome, comrade

Yes, you can play Necromancer (HuCARD) and tell us if it is a game worth translating into English.

Thank you.

[NecroPhile]

Welcome aboard!

In general the hardware and games are quite reliable.  The most common issues are dying caps and cracked solder joints on the din ports (both easily fixed) and dying lasers, which isn't too bad on a Duo but can be tough on an original cd add-on (no new replacement lasers available).

[sanjo]

Welcome, comrade

Yes, you can play Necromancer (HuCARD) and tell us if it is a game worth translating into English.

Thank you.

I played it a long time ago and thought the game was hard. I realized later that they remade it on the Nintendo DS. I thought it was cool you could choose your own party though which was rare for a late 80s rpg. I think only Ultima had that back then.

[EvilEvoIX]

WELCOME!!!  Post pics of the Japanese games stores when you go hunting!

[NightWolve]

Nice, THAT looks like it's worth having in English if not already.