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NEWS: Konami Details TurboGrafx-16 Mini Console's Full Lineup, March 19 Release




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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:21 am Reply with quote
That line-up is, actually, really damn good! Some of the most well known & beloved games on the system, some truly surprising choices (seriously didn't expect to see ports of Sega games on here, or even any of Working Designs' releases), & the Japanese roster is really strong too. SuperGrafx games, Ninja Gaiden, freaking Snatcher (though, obviously, not translated), & even the PC-Engine ports of the Gradius games are all cool additions. Some of the inclusions (Lords of Thunder, Sapphire, Rondo of Blood) aren't a surprise, though, as Konami had them in the background of the original E3 announcement video, but it's still nice to see them confirmed.

Definitely am going to get this ASAP, and I'll be importing the Core Grafx Mini from Europe, since I have no personal nostalgia for the TG-16 itself, so I'll be going with the cooler looking version.
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1105
PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:40 am Reply with quote
The line-up is really impressive, it's just a shame that Konami didn't bother to translate the japanese only titles, I mean some of them like Castlevania Rondo of Blood are playable. All in all, this seems like a better product than the PlayStation Classic and maybe the NES and SNES mini, I just hope that there aren't any issues with the emulation.
By the way, some people are confused that they didn't include Keith Courage, which was the Killer App of the platform, I guess that's because it was a game based on the anime series Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru from Sunrise just with the names and story changed, and maybe Konami/Hudson lost or didn't bother to get the license.
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v1cious



Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6199
Location: Houston, TX
PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 9:53 am Reply with quote
Disappointed at the lack of Valis and splattherhouse, but that's a great lineup. Seems a bit pricey though.
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1869
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 3:56 pm Reply with quote
It is indeed a fantastic lineup although the nitpicker in me still wanted the Valis series, both Legend of Xanadu games, Cosmic Fantasy series, Dragon Slayer, both Legendary Axe games and Devil's Crush.

But I may look into this. Smile
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GeorgeC



Joined: 22 Nov 2008
Posts: 795
PostPosted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:04 pm Reply with quote
It's still a fairly obscure system in the US.
I knew all of ONE person in high school who actually had this system!

I saw it in stores at Toys R Us but I honestly never knew anyone but the one guy in my graduating class of high school who had this system. He was one of those guys who was a first-run/early adopter of technology. The PC Engine games I'm aware of/played had ports/original releases to other systems. That would basically be Valis in my experience. I've played that on the SNES and Sega Geneis.
I generally take a much more cautious stance on tech and wait (generally at least a year, sometimes 2-3) until I'm SURE something will be widely adopted or is at least coming out from a company I trust has quality and backing behind its product. I got burned enough times with the 3DO, 32X and that was enough for me. I skipped the PS Vita after the software library debacle/lack of third party support for the Sony PSP. The PSP and Vita go to show that even an established company will eventually crash if they don't have the third party support. Sony should have learned that lesson from Sega in the US!
That said, should we be SURPRISED more classic/retro systems are being re-released/released with emulators? How well anything does outside of the SNES, Sega Genesis, and Sony PS1 is a good question. I would imagine it'll be a while before Sony releases a PS2 mini considering people are willing to pay for ports of PS2 era games to the PS4 (and eventually the PS5) -- and the tech isn't at an economical level where it's easy to emulate the PS2 at this point, either. That's been an issue with the Dreamcast and that's maybe half as powerful, one quarter as powerful as the PS2?

Heck, a better release for me would be a Sega console that was uniquely arcade retro and just did their Model 1, 2, and 3 releases more competently than anything online does. I would pay $300 for a licensed system that's RELIABLE. I'd buy a console alone for the racing (Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Indy 500) and fighting game titles (VF 1-3, Fighting Vipers, maybe an 'arcade remix'/upscale of Fighters Megamix, VF Kids, Last Bronx). House of the Dead and Virtua Cop would be big sellers, too, and would it be silly not to include at least the first titles of those. I wouldn't count on Sega's Model 3 Star Wars Trilogy unless Disney gets its stick out of its ass and just admits the Sequel Trilogy was a failure and lets fans have the OT stuff. The Arcade 1Up release of the Atari arcade Star Wars games is a hopeful sign on that horizon...

Back to the TurboGrafx-16... yeah, this is not going to be a big hit outside of the retro/diehard fan market in the West. It'll probably still do okay in Japan.
I haven't picked up any of the retro-system releases because I simply don't care for the game libraries (SNES, Sega Genesis) in the first wave releases of the retro consoles and it's long enough from when I played a lot of this stuff on the original consoles that unless it's substantially better than PC emulation (of the few games I care to replay) what's the point? I didn't like half the control pads these systems used and I can use any (much more comfortable) controller I want on my current PC...
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KabaKabaFruit



Joined: 20 Sep 2007
Posts: 1869
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
PostPosted: Sat Jul 13, 2019 3:47 pm Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:
It's still a fairly obscure system in the US.
I knew all of ONE person in high school who actually had this system!

I saw it in stores at Toys R Us but I honestly never knew anyone but the one guy in my graduating class of high school who had this system. He was one of those guys who was a first-run/early adopter of technology. The PC Engine games I'm aware of/played had ports/original releases to other systems. That would basically be Valis in my experience. I've played that on the SNES and Sega Geneis.
I generally take a much more cautious stance on tech and wait (generally at least a year, sometimes 2-3) until I'm SURE something will be widely adopted or is at least coming out from a company I trust has quality and backing behind its product. I got burned enough times with the 3DO, 32X and that was enough for me. I skipped the PS Vita after the software library debacle/lack of third party support for the Sony PSP. The PSP and Vita go to show that even an established company will eventually crash if they don't have the third party support. Sony should have learned that lesson from Sega in the US!
That said, should we be SURPRISED more classic/retro systems are being re-released/released with emulators? How well anything does outside of the SNES, Sega Genesis, and Sony PS1 is a good question. I would imagine it'll be a while before Sony releases a PS2 mini considering people are willing to pay for ports of PS2 era games to the PS4 (and eventually the PS5) -- and the tech isn't at an economical level where it's easy to emulate the PS2 at this point, either. That's been an issue with the Dreamcast and that's maybe half as powerful, one quarter as powerful as the PS2?

Heck, a better release for me would be a Sega console that was uniquely arcade retro and just did their Model 1, 2, and 3 releases more competently than anything online does. I would pay $300 for a licensed system that's RELIABLE. I'd buy a console alone for the racing (Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Indy 500) and fighting game titles (VF 1-3, Fighting Vipers, maybe an 'arcade remix'/upscale of Fighters Megamix, VF Kids, Last Bronx). House of the Dead and Virtua Cop would be big sellers, too, and would it be silly not to include at least the first titles of those. I wouldn't count on Sega's Model 3 Star Wars Trilogy unless Disney gets its stick out of its ass and just admits the Sequel Trilogy was a failure and lets fans have the OT stuff. The Arcade 1Up release of the Atari arcade Star Wars games is a hopeful sign on that horizon...

Back to the TurboGrafx-16... yeah, this is not going to be a big hit outside of the retro/diehard fan market in the West. It'll probably still do okay in Japan.
I haven't picked up any of the retro-system releases because I simply don't care for the game libraries (SNES, Sega Genesis) in the first wave releases of the retro consoles and it's long enough from when I played a lot of this stuff on the original consoles that unless it's substantially better than PC emulation (of the few games I care to replay) what's the point? I didn't like half the control pads these systems used and I can use any (much more comfortable) controller I want on my current PC...

I love how you're using your own personal opinion as a measuring stick to determine the success of a retro console that had gained favor with the retro gaming community over the past decade.

I'm not going to devolve this into an essay-long post to convince you whether this release is going to work or not because the need for such a thing would be pure hipster.

All I'm going to say is that there IS enough of a market here in the west to warrant Konami releasing this retro console. Period.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5887
PostPosted: Sun Jul 14, 2019 3:18 am Reply with quote
GeorgeC wrote:
I skipped the PS Vita after the software library debacle/lack of third party support for the Sony PSP. The PSP and Vita go to show that even an established company will eventually crash if they don't have the third party support.


PSP had far more third party support than the Vita and kept around way longer than the Vita which was on life support practically after launch.

GeorgeC wrote:
Sony should have learned that lesson from Sega in the US!


Sega had third party support throughout their console history and yet even with that it didn't save the Master System, Game Gear, 32X, CD,The Saturn or the Dreamcast.


GeorgeC wrote:
That's been an issue with the Dreamcast and that's maybe half as powerful, one quarter as powerful as the PS2?


Which is kinda intresting given that Gamecube is supposdely more powerful than the PS2 though emulation for that platform seems to be a bit better than for the PS2.

GeorgeC wrote:
I wouldn't count on Sega's Model 3 Star Wars Trilogy unless Disney gets its stick out of its ass and just admits the Sequel Trilogy was a failure


Last Jedi was the only film in the sequel trilogy that fans were massively split on and if that's the measure of failure, then Return Of The Jedi killed the original trilogy by this same logic.


GeorgeC wrote:
and lets fans have the OT stuff.


What rereleases of the original films isn't enough?
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anddo



Joined: 07 Mar 2015
Posts: 670
PostPosted: Mon Jul 15, 2019 12:50 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
>Castlevania X Rondo of Blood
>Cho Aniki
>Fantasy Zone
>J.J. & Jeff
>Lords of Thunder
>PC Genjin/Bonk/Air Zonk games
>R-Type
>Snatcher
>Star Parodier
>Ys I & II

Everything I was looking for is here. BASED list!! Konami knocked it out of the park here, good job guys.
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