A nice little surprise... (TG16)

So, walking about, I stumble across a garage sale.

...Bin full of games, $5 each. I took a look. Apparently, they had all sorts of things. Digging my way through some NES and GB games, I grad a flat, black object. Pulling it up, I read, to my astonishment, "Turbo Grafx 16" on it. Complete with Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon in it. Now, I'd never expected to see one of these consoles in my life. I haven't even seen a picture of the damn machine. At first, I didn't even think it was the console - that huge expansion port in the back made me think it was something else. Upon closer investigation, it had a controller port, AV port, ect. $5 for the console, power cable, controller, and game. Never had seen one before, and didn't really have any will to get one. Well, now I have one.

The somewhat dissapointing part is that I didn't get a real controller, but a "Turbo Stick". It's all I could find. And the D&D game seemed to be the only one. Finally, the RF cable was missing. Fortunatly, my Gen RF works fine.

And I'm loving the D&D game. Never did play many of the TSR D&D games, but I'm enjoying this one.

Tommorow, the original owner of the console will be back, and, from what family members said, might have more games. And hopefully a real controller.

...So, what games should I look out for? And what would the going price be for the Turbo CD? Worth it?

Hmm don't know the asking price of a CD, you'd also need a Super CD card for a good deal of the total software.

The Turbo stick is pretty good I hear for shooters, the stock controller is like a NES pad.

As for games: Splatterhouse, Blazing Lasers, Ninja Spirit, Military Maddness, Neutopia, Dragon's Curse, Legendary Axe 1 and 2, The Soldier shooters, etc. To be honest there's few Turbo games I consider bad purchases so if the price is cheap....

Enjoy this wonderful console! *-neo

They're not terribly rare or expensive, I picked up mine for $10 mint at a yard sale. Came with Keith Courage and Bonk's Revenge still in the shrinkwrap to boot. I've still got the poster hanging on my wall, it's so tacky it hurts.

Okay, onto the games. Some of these are PCE titles.

Bonk 1, 2 & 3
Air Zonk
Magical Chase
Neutopia 1 & 2
Don Doko Don
Street Fighter 2 CE
Liquid Kids
Doraemon
Alien & Devil's Crush
Bomberman '94
Splatterhouse
Military Madness
Cyber Core
Parasol Stars
Son Son 2

I'm sure others can add onto the list.

Soldier Blade and Blazing Lazers are a must if you like shooters. But then again, if you like shooters how can this be your first exposure to turbo? :D

When you dive into the cd end of turbo, unfortunately things aren't as cut and dry or cheap.

You should look out for Magical Chase. Good game, very expensive.

Check out the latest weekly haul for my impressions on a couple must-own PCE games. PCE/Turbo is great...I play it more than my next-gen consoles, by far.

How does Order of the Griffon play? It's interested me for quite some time but I haven't seen enough to know if it warrants a purchase. Is it 1st person? Ultima-like, Phantasy Star-like?

Impressions man, impressions! :p

D&D Order of the Griffin is a 1st-person dungeon crawler. I'm not a big fan of the genre, so the only game like that I played all the way through was AD&D Eye of the Beholder for SNES. They're seem to be similar.

As for playing the CD games, you're better off just getting a Duo. The price you'll pay for both a TG16 CD unit and the Super System Card (which apparently is rare and expensive) will probably be close, if not more, than the price of a good condition used Duo, which has the Super System Card built-in. Plus, it has a HuCard port, so you can play all your TG16 games on it. Turbo Zone Direct actually sells US Duos brand new for the somewhat steep price of $200. Good luck finding a brand new console elsewhere, though.

I'd suggest concentrating on getting all the worthwhile TG16 games before you venture into the CD/SuperCD realm.

Ah a favorite topic.

Get what you like, but a few favorites are

Parasol Stars
Bloody Wolf
definitely Military Madness. I think it is international law that says you can't have a PCE or TG16 and not this game(I'm kidding, but if you like strategy even a little, get this)
Time Cruise(It's as good as Devil's Crush and in some cases slightly better and that is saying a lot!)

Some of this may be hard to find, or not, depending on where you look. The time to get in on the PCE/TG16 wagon was the late 80s and early 90s. Of course, it's always nice to see people interested in such a fine machine. Have fun with it.

If you're planning on getting into the import and CD scene, then pick up a Japanese DUO. Then simply use your TG16 to play US HuCards.