Your ethnicity

[Ninja Spirit]

(Mods, if you feel this thread needs to be deleted since race is the factor, go ahead, no harm done)

What's your ethnicity? I'm black/afro American. I think I'm the only Turbo/PCE player of that type.

[lord_cack]

(Mods, if you feel this thread needs to be deleted since race is the factor, go ahead, no harm done)

Anyway I'm just curious if there's other Turbo/PCE fans that are black or afro-american other than myself.

Of course we could just say..."Whats your ethnicity everybody?"

[Ninja Spirit]

(Mods, if you feel this thread needs to be deleted since race is the factor, go ahead, no harm done)

Anyway I'm just curious if there's other Turbo/PCE fans that are black or afro-american other than myself.

Of course we could just say..."Whats your ethnicity everybody?"

fixed. but chances are it could be ruled out as unrelated.

again no harm done.

[Keranu]

Ninja Spirit, I talk to another person online who is African American and is a Duo fan , he's also a kickass gamer in general. Oh and a good friend of mine is half black and is a huge fan of the TG16/PCE. He used to have a nice collection before he sold/traded it away.

I am a white, USA citizen with mainly Irish decent from my dad's side. Not sure about what's on my mom's side except a bit of German and possibly even Indian.

[OldRover]

I'm primarily Canadian-French (Quebeccian, about 75%) with strong Abenaki (Native American, just under 25%) blood and just a small portion Japanese (hardly 1%, a mix-in during the 16th century). My wife is mostly French and Hispanic with some African mix-in.

[AlexKidd]

I'm mostly Irish, with a little bit of Scottish, though i'm not sure of the percentages. I was born here(in the u.s.) but my mom was born in Ireland.

[Ninja Spirit]

Well since mixtures are coming into the picture, I'd say I'm Cape Verdean/Portuguese.

[PCEngineFX]

(Mods, if you feel this thread needs to be deleted since race is the factor, go ahead, no harm done)

What's your ethnicity? I'm black/afro American. I think I'm the only Turbo/PCE player of that type.

Yah, sorry Ninja Sprit...the basis of this topic is too unrelated to the Turbo....locking.

[PCEngineFX]

Moved to the new General Chat forum and unlocked.  You may continue

[Ninja Spirit]

Mad props Aaron. Had no idea we'd resolve that so quickly.

But yeah back to my root of the thread. I wanted to see if there were other Black/Afro-American Turbo gamers other than myself. All of them I know are either White, Asian and Hispanic.

[Keranu]

Nice to see this thread back because I am interested as well.

Ninja Spirit, you say you know Hispanic PCE gamers? I'm not sure if I know any, but most PCE gamers seem to be white and Asian (specifically Japanese).

One thing I have always been curious about is the large fanbase of PCE fans in France. I mean the system was never even released out there, so what is it exactly that attracted them to importing a PC Engine? Rather odd, I'd say.

[lord_cack]

Well I don't tend to lump people into there ethnic backgrounds.... but my heritage is all mixed up....Italian and Irish mainly though....

[Ninja Spirit]

I remember seeing that piece of info about France's PCE scene.

They sold PCE everywhere and the games included translated manuals.

[ElSeven]

I remember seeing that piece of info about France's PCE scene.  
 
They sold PCE everywhere and the games included translated manuals.

funny you mention this.  Years ago i bought a new Neutopia from TZD and it came with a french manual.

[xolik]

I'm American.

[lord_cack]

I'm American.

 

[OldRover]

funny you mention this.  Years ago i bought a new Neutopia from TZD and it came with a french manual.

That's because they obtained a lot of stuff from NEC Canada, and manuals were translated to French. I got a few games from TZD back in the day with two manuals, one in English and one in French.

[AlexKidd]

Mad props Aaron. Had no idea we'd resolve that so quickly.

But yeah back to my root of the thread. I wanted to see if there were other Black/Afro-American Turbo gamers other than myself. All of them I know are either White, Asian and Hispanic.

Like I said, i'm Irish but my friend Corey is Black/Afro-American and he plays quite a bit of turbo. I played the turbo grafx for the first time at his house when we were kids(i only had an sms at the time). I don't think he ever got into the pc engine/import stuff but he still plays the regular turbo grafx with me.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Mostly German, with some Swedish.  My dad is 100% German, my mom is mostly German, with that dash of Swedish.  My wife is Italian & German.  Can't get away from these damn germs!

[Kaminari]

As for me, I'm French with Breton/Welsh origins (I grew up in Brittany, that big Celtic province in the West of France).

Ninja, I had a black friend a decade ago who was a paratrooper! When I met him during a video game convention, he was a hardcore NeoGeo fanboy, but it only took me a couple of Gate of Thunder and Spriggan sessions to convert him to the true faith

One thing I have always been curious about is the large fanbase of PCE fans in France. I mean the system was never even released out there, so what is it exactly that attracted them to importing a PC Engine? Rather odd, I'd say.

I think it was not only the PCE -- any (unofficially) imported system from Japan would find a (relatively) strong customer base. The PCE quickly got a cult status here because it was first advertised as the first 16-bit system, then as the best 8-bit system (go figure) that could nevertheless compete with the more powerful 16-bit machines from Sega and Nintendo (which of course got an official distribution, months later). Besides, the public was fond of coders who could do in software what everyone else was doing in hardware... that was the spirit of the time!

But the real "success" factor was that we actually had a distributor called Sodipeng (which was actually a Ubi Soft subsidiary). This was no official distribution but it was tolerated by NEC France. Every system and game we got came from Japan, just modified to be PAL compatible... The TurboGrafx was merely unknown to us back then! But somehow, it turned out to be a good thing since it allowed us to always keep in touch with the Japanese market until the very end.

[esteban]

But the real "success" factor was that we actually had a distributor called Sodipeng (which was actually a Ubi Soft subsidiary). This was no official distribution but it was tolerated by NEC France. Every system and game we got came from Japan, just modified to be PAL compatible... The TurboGrafx was merely unknown to us back then! But somehow, it turned out to be a good thing since it allowed us to always keep in touch with the Japanese market until the very end.

I bought a copy of L-Dis a few months ago from one of the chaps who used to be involved with Necstasy. I was happy to discover a french translation of the the game manual on a 1-page, double-sided photocopy.  It even used diagrams from the actual manual. Clearly it was homemade -- it looked like it was typed on a manual typewriter -- but that was its charm.

Did many imported games get this attention to detail? Do the ebay.fr auctions often include these translated sheets (I've never seen any, but then again, I don't often scour ebay.fr too often)?

[Ninja Spirit]

Man that reminded me during the Sega Saturn days when Electronics Botique here in the USA were selling Saturn imports, particularly anything from Konami, Capcom and SNK.

[Kaminari]

By law, games sold in France have to be translated, whatever their origin -- the manual at the very least. I think every PCE game imported here by Sodipeng ("Société de Distribution de la PC Engine", read: PC Engine Distribution Company) got its tiny recycled piece of sheet with some badly translated instructions on it, but most people never kept it for long... I know I used to throw them away ;P

In practice though, more than often the law is not applied -- especially true for early imports like Morrowind, which I bought here in English just when it was released (the only French tidbit on the box was a sticker with the ironic mention "soon available in fully translated French!"). And publishers would like us to believe that region-locking is a Good Thing for their business... ^^

[esteban]

By law, games sold in France have to be translated, whatever their origin -- the manual at the very least. I think every PCE game imported here by Sodipeng ("Société de Distribution de la PC Engine", read: PC Engine Distribution Company) got its tiny recycled piece of sheet with some badly translated instructions on it, but most people never kept it for long... I know I used to throw them away ;P

In practice though, more than often the law is not applied -- especially true for early imports like Morrowind, which I bought here in English just when it was released (the only French tidbit on the box was a sticker with the ironic mention "soon available in fully translated French!"). And publishers would like us to believe that region-locking is a Good Thing for their business... ^^

Ahhh, well even if the policy is not always followed, it's nice that there was at least a token effort to translate some of the PCE manuals.  Here in the States, the only resource was to ask the clerk who worked at the import store.  Usually, the clerks didn't have a clue because they had never played the games. But a few times I was lucky enough to talk to a clerk who actually played some of the PCE games I was interested in purchasing. This was done over the phone and rarely went beyond the most general discussions, however.

Thanks for the info on Sodipeng, by the way! Are you aware of any sites that present a nice, detailed history of the PCE in France (and/or Europe in general)?  The North American Turbo community is really clueless about the Euro / UK gaming scenes and any links (even if they are non-English language) would be a good starting point for my research.

[Keranu]

Thanks for th information, Kaminari

[CrackTiger]

I remember seeing that piece of info about France's PCE scene.  
 
They sold PCE everywhere and the games included translated manuals.

funny you mention this.  Years ago i bought a new Neutopia from TZD and it came with a french manual.

Yeah, thats from a Canadian release. We got seperate English and French manuals. Which is better than what we usually get: gross "bilingual" mechanical mixes.

Every Masters Of The Universe package I ever bought as a kid was ruined by this garbage. Having bilingual cereal boxes also pissed me off as a kid.

I'd rather have an all French package than a multilingual one, although the modern trilingual stuff is way better now.

[CrackTiger]

I'm the smallest minority(the most minor) in the world. Blonde haired with blue eyes.

I don't have much of a cultural background other than my Mother's side is pretty much straight Swedish with my great grandparents coming across from Sweden.

I had a friend who's a big PCE/Turbo fan and is "black", but have lost touch with him(like most of my former online buddies).

[Seldane]

100% Swedish (white, blonde hair, blue eyes). Hitler's kind of people.  

[esteban]

100% Swedish (white, blonde hair, blue eyes). Hitler's kind of people.  

on that note, if you like horizontal shooters, check out Download 2!  

BACK ON TOPIC: So I thought you guys would get a kick out of this. A few years ago, some relatives from Switzerland were visiting the U.S. for the first time and visited my parents. Hilarity ensued.

1. After a really yummy dinner, my mom makes some popcorn and serves it. I guess we wanted something to snack on, but that was light. The Swiss folk are loving the popcorn. Totally intrigued by it, in fact. They keep asking, "What is this?" By the time we managed to explain that it was popped corn, they have eaten handfuls of the stuff.

"Corn?"
"Yeah, popped corn."
"Oh." Eating stops.
"Don't you want any more?"
"No, that's OK."

It turned out that they considered corn to be "pig's food" (as in, pig on a farm") and they never ate the stuff. What??? Anyway, they really were turned off to it, just by finding out it was corn.

I know, how could they be anti-corn?  I didn't think of it at the time, but if I were evil I would have given them snacks made from corn meal

So, I don't know if this anecdote is representative of any segement of Swiss culture or if it was simply a peculiarity of my relatives... and I'm sure there was more to the story, but we were in polite company and didn't press the issue.
-----------------

2. Same Swiss folks. Same visit. They whip out some photos. Now, my brothers and I really were involved in a different conversation... but after a few minutes we migrate to the other side of the room and ask for the pile of photos (since everyone else had seen them).

All is swell for the first batch. Then we hit the second batch. Pictures of a party for a newborn baby girl, who is dressed in a really nice, lacy, dress.

Tons of folks are at the party and peeking in on the little girl, who is sleeping in a bassinet. Just one odd thing: the baby's face is a disturbing gray-blue.

My brothers and I made a collective "GULP!"

It turned out that my cousin lost her baby girl, during or shortly after delivery. We were looking at photos of the baby's "Wake" (substitute appropriate term).

"Anyone want any more popcorn?" I asked. OK, I didn't say that.

[GUTS]

^^ Hah thats horrible, who carries around pictures of dead babies?

[rolins]

1. After a really yummy dinner, my mom makes some popcorn and serves it. I guess we wanted something to snack on, but that was light. The Swiss folk are loving the popcorn. Totally intrigued by it, in fact. They keep asking, "What is this?" By the time we managed to explain that it was popped corn, they have eaten handfuls of the stuff.

"Corn?"
"Yeah, popped corn."
"Oh." Eating stops.
"Don't you want any more?"
"No, that's OK."

It turned out that they considered corn to be "pig's food" (as in, pig on a farm") and they never ate the stuff. What??? Anyway, they really were turned off to it, just by finding out it was corn.

I know, how could they be anti-corn?  I didn't think of it at the time, but if I were evil I would have given them snacks made from corn meal

You're not only one. I encounter the same situation when I invited my neighbor's grandfather to our BBQ party 7 years ago. He just arrived from China and it was his first time in America. I offered him some corn and he declined. I found it odd and disrespectful. I thought everyone loves corn.

"Why are you giving me pig food?"
"huh...Pig food? I'm sorry you don't like corn?"
"Corn is used to feed pigs."
"We'll here in the U.S. corn isn't for pigs. It tastes very good. Please try it."
[cheww....cheww....chew]
"This is corn?! This is good."

I loved the expression on his face after he bit into that corn. I like that old man. The jokes he said at party are funny as hell, and damn he sure can eat a lot of BBQ chicken and sirloin steak.

[PCEngineHell]

Im mixed,German,Norwegian,and Irish.
White.Whatever indian we have in my family tree has all but thinned out to nothingness over the past 300 years.

[MotherGunner]

Nice to see this thread back because I am interested as well.

Ninja Spirit, you say you know Hispanic PCE gamers? I'm not sure if I know any, but most PCE gamers seem to be white and Asian (specifically Japanese).

One thing I have always been curious about is the large fanbase of PCE fans in France. I mean the system was never even released out there, so what is it exactly that attracted them to importing a PC Engine? Rather odd, I'd say.

Wrong!  I am Latino!  From El Salvador.  Now living in CA.

Im also a US Army Veteran,  3rd Infantry Division

[Kaminari]

Yum, caramel popcorn!

Steve, I'm rather surprised your Swiss relatives never ate popcorn though. The problem with American food is that it's so widespread you'd think every culture has embraced it! In some parts of the world, food can be a cause of diplomatic incidents. If I were to offer you a plate of frogs or snails and you were to throw up on it, I might be very upset ;)

[Note: that was just a fictitious example. I hate frogs and snails. But I heard the Japanese love turtles.]

Well, it might be disconcerting to be offered popcorn at the end of a meal (I'd rather gobble up a bowl of the thing watching a movie), but I find nothing really unusual here -- unless it was raw corn you were talking about? Now I could understand the reaction...

[Keranu]

My brother had frog legs once and said they were nasty. I have a very interesting taste in food, I might actually like them myself. However when it comes to food, nothing beats a Chicago-style deep dish pizza with spinach. (although you shouldn't even have to say spinach because that's a tradition!)

[TR0N]

White my ancestors were german.

[TR0N]

Man that reminded me during the Sega Saturn days when Electronics Botique here in the USA were selling Saturn imports, particularly anything from Konami, Capcom and SNK.

That  reminded me when, Babbages did the same sell Saturn imports.

[esteban]

Yum, caramel popcorn!

Steve, I'm rather surprised your Swiss relatives never ate popcorn though. The problem with American food is that it's so widespread you'd think every culture has embraced it! In some parts of the world, food can be a cause of diplomatic incidents. If I were to offer you a plate of frogs or snails and you were to throw up on it, I might be very upset ;)

[Note: that was just a fictitious example. I hate frogs and snails. But I heard the Japanese love turtles.]

Well, it might be disconcerting to be offered popcorn at the end of a meal (I'd rather gobble up a bowl of the thing watching a movie), but I find nothing really unusual here -- unless it was raw corn you were talking about? Now I could understand the reaction...

Yeah, I think my relatives lived in a rural area... but they didn't strike me as country bumpkins, by any means. But, no, they thought popped corn was wacky.

Anyway, here's a new question for you folks: Do you celebrate Halloween? All Saints day? All souls day?

We recently celebrated Halloween here in the States and it occurred to me that only certain regions might celebrate this. Hmmmm....  like parts of France, maybe, and parts of the UK (Ireland), maybe?

[mamonohunter]

In Sweden we imported Halloween some years ago. We celebrate it with decorations, candy begging, mischief, horrormovies and parties! Its very fun ^^

[Kaminari]

Do you celebrate Halloween? All Saints day? All souls day?

All Saints Day on the 1st, and Souls Day the 2nd -- though nowadays, people usually mourn the dead on the 1st and just forget about the saints.

Halloween gained some marketing grounds a few years ago when it was freshly "imported" in France, but it seems the interest has been on the wane lately. In Brittany however, we traditionally celebrate the Samain (Irish Samhain), despite the efforts of the Church to turn this folklore festival into a Catholic experience.

[GUTS]

I personally can't stand Halloween here in the states; it was awesome as hell when I was a kid (who doesn't remember dressing up as a bum at the last minute because you didn't have a costume?) but now that I'm an adult it's just an excuse for people to dress up like dipshits and get drunk.

[Keranu]

I've never liked Halloween, even when I was a kid. I stayed away from Trick-or-Treating.

[doomfarer75]

Wrong!  I am Latino!  From El Salvador.  Now living in CA.

Im also a US Army Veteran,  3rd Infantry Division[/quote]


Right on dude. I am Infantry as well, most recently the 3-172nd INF (MTN) out of VT Guard, and a year ago returned from a tour over in the 'Stan.

[esteban]

In Brittany however, we traditionally celebrate the Samain (Irish Samhain), despite the efforts of the Church to turn this folklore festival into a Catholic experience.

Yeah, Samhain is the way Halloween ought to be -- brooding and scary (at least, that's how it was back in the day). I don't know what a modern Samhain celebration would be like,though. No animal or human sacrifices, I'm sure .  

In Sweden we imported Halloween some years ago. We celebrate it with decorations, candy begging, mischief, horrormovies and parties! Its very fun ^^

See, I would have never guessed  this. That's awesome . How is Halloween understood? As a novelty that is largely foreign, or as something that has become interwoven with Swedish culture? Is there a "Swedish twist" on Halloween... you know, by tapping into the history and culture of Sweden?

I personally can't stand Halloween here in the states; it was awesome as hell when I was a kid (who doesn't remember dressing up as a bum at the last minute because you didn't have a costume?) but now that I'm an adult it's just an excuse for people to dress up like dipshits and get drunk.

Oh, I totally agree. Thankfully, with my daughter, I celebrate Halloween as a kid would I never dressed up as a bum, but I loved dressing up as a lady (this might not surprise you). Fake eyelashes, wig, pantyhose... awesome. When I was a kid, it was the one day out of the year when you could get away with stuff like that ;). My aunt and grandma donated their old wigs to me... they looked pretty good for being 15 years old.

Anyway, that reminds me: My brother, who kicks ass, always thought that the college year books were even more pathetic than high school yearbooks... so he wasn't even going to bother getting his picture taken for his graduation. But then, in a moment of inspiration, he suddenly changed his mind and went to the photoshoot.

He wouldn't tell me why he suddenly changed his mind. I forgot about it.

Then the glorious day arrived when his college year book arrived. My mom and I, being the girls that we are, flipped through all the pages to see the kids we knew.

When I got to my brother's picture, I almost died: He was wearing one of the old wigs I used to wear during Halloween, BACKWARDS, on his head. At this point, the wig was pushin' 30 years of age.

[mamonohunter]

See, I would have never guessed this. That's awesome  . How is Halloween understood? As a novelty that is largely foreign, or as something that has become interwoven with Swedish culture? Is there a "Swedish twist" on Halloween... you know, by tapping into the history and culture of Sweden?

It was a novelty and still are in different respects. It´s young people that have been taking Halloween very positive while the older people seems to not take it to seriously. The reason why Halloween was imported was that we wanted something new for a try but also the fascination for american culture as most of the inspiration how to celebrate it comes from american movies and such. I guess that its also because many parents like the whole idea when the kids can go out having a good time begging candy in "scary" costumes. But they dont like their kids doing mischief with eggthrowing and firecrackers etc  , it´s the same thing with Easter Saturday.

[Ninja Spirit]

I never celebrated Halloween...until this past HW. The club I hang out at almost every weekend had a thing where if you dressed up as something, you get in for free.

My family were church people, they never let us do any of that Trick or Treating and other stuff like that.

But I do remember one Halloween like a long time ago, I dressed up like a ninja, hid in the dark, in the trees and threw water balloons at trick or treaters that came to our house. Yeah I was a mean mothafugga back then.

[esteban]

I never celebrated Halloween...until this past HW. The club I hang out at almost every weekend had a thing where if you dressed up as something, you get in for free.

My family were church people, they never let us do any of that Trick or Treating and other stuff like that.

But I do remember one Halloween like a long time ago, I dressed up like a ninja, hid in the dark, in the trees and threw water balloons at trick or treaters that came to our house. Yeah I was a mean mothafugga back then.

You mean bastard . Seriously, though, when I was a kid, we always had to watch out for the older kids because they really did steal candy and stuff. They wouldn't beat you up, but they'd wrestle it away from you if you resisted. If you were lucky, they wouldn't take everything, but just take a percentage

I always hated mischief night... I rode a bike to work when I was a kid and I was the a sitting duck at the firing range. Luckilly, I never ran into any mischief makers, but I was anxious for the entire ride home. Thankfully, I bought a car by the time I entered college.

[GUTS]

My family was highly religious too, but fortunately my parents didn't see any harm in halloween since even christmas was originally adopted from a pagan holiday.

There was a summer where I couldn't watch smurfs though because of Gargamel always using magic to try and turn the smurfs into gold.  My mom had this crazy friend who would get wild hairs up her ass about stuff like that and try and convince everyone she knew that she was right, it sucked.

[Dark Fact]

My family are Ukrainian.  So, I come from a rich Ukrainian family.

[Keranu]

Lucky .

Us Irish people are always poor .