The HuPack

HuPack ShoutBox

2012-11-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

Merry Holidays PC Engineers and worshippers of OBEY!

2011-12-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

You've no doubt gathered your secret santa goodies under the tree and set aflaim the Yule SNES cart in the fireplace. All set for this year's holiday offering. What OBEYness might you recieve? One can never know, but one thing is for sure- regardless if you are opening a fresh copy of Night Creatures, or you were fortunate enough to open up a used TaleSpin. Hey we feel your pain... we do!! But open the mothah up anyway, pop it in the ole PCE/Turbobber and take a strong swig and get gaming!! This isn't just ordinary gaming, this is OBEY! This is Christmas done Turbografx style! Feel like a kid again.

Looking for a couple new ideas for a turbobber? Try a couple of these suggestions:

Check out http://www.turboviews.com/ for Chris Bucci's very own Turbo Views. Chris goes through reviews and extras of all sorts of great and some not so great Turbo games. A really great watch, even for those not knowing of the ways of OBEY. Or check out his youtube account here - http://www.youtube.com/user/spida1a

Who is interested in a new Turbo game!?!? I know I am. While I'm pretty sure this is going to miss the boat for the 2011 holiday season, we have a good feeling it will finally be released in early 2012. Check out http://www.frozenutopia.com/ for more information!! Pre purchase the game to be one of the first to say you have the FIRST TURBOB RPG IN almost 20 years!!

Thanks for reading- happy holidays!!

A clean slate

2011-12-02T14:18:00.000-08:00

So pcenginefx.com came under attack a few weeks ago. The forums went down for about a week and a half. Most of the community pulled together and congregated at Sunteam's place . I really got to say thank you right off the bat to Paul for putting forth the effort to give everyone a nice spot to keep the 'turbob way' going. As of a few days ago, the pcenginefx forums did get restored and all is well. Or is it?

When the forums were restored the moderators decided to take away the shoutbox along with a few smaller modifications to the site. The shoutbox is a pretty big loss, it's a great way to get a hold of someone and get responses in a quick manner. A few members made sad faces when they found out this would not be returning. However, Windy was nice enough to pop a really sweet shout up here on our very own HuPack blog! (Thank you Wind) In addition to that SunTeam Paul added a really excellent chat room to the PC Engine Community Forums . So never fear. We have ways to keep the community chatting!

I hope that with the return of pcenginefx we will see more involved moderation and leadership. Possibly to get new members signed up quicker than 30-60 days? Maybe returning emails/PM messages for questions to the moderators, or even answering requests. I would like to see the original pcenginefx site have half the speed of SunTeam Paul's response time when it comes to admin questions and issues. That would be the day. My one thought right off the top of my head though, if this is really a new start to the pcenginefx site, and things are going to change going forward, why not let everyone have a clean slate?

A New Start Is Upon us

2011-11-14T13:54:00.000-08:00

PCEFX suffered an attack similar to the attacks that SEGA-16 suffered earlier this year. The host pulled the plug on the forum side of things since the attack happened by exploiting a security hole on that side of things. The host is willing to continue hosting the site, but has demanded a restructuring.

Current places to find other members:

http://pcengine.freeforums.org/index.php

https://www.facebook.com/PCEFX

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthr ... ost1869203

http://www.aetherbyte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=396

http://windypcefx.freeshoutbox.net/hl=1 ... aqrck9mvl3

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-PC-En ... are-Bible/

Does this mean the end of an era with PCEFX? Hopefully not. But everything is in the works to get a place to meet back up and running for us and the Forums Paul has put in place are just excellent!

TV Sports that Never Was

2011-11-09T22:38:00.001-08:00

I had been waiting for this game in 1991. Then in 1992 the game was cancelled by TTI. I think it looks pretty neat. I like the spot catching and the players seem animated pretty well. The TV Sports that may have got the system into the sports genre. What could have been.

Keep on playin guys until next time Windy

Efera and Jiliora Excellent in most respects

2011-11-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

I had never heard of this of game until I came across a review of it at the Brother's Duomazov's website. I picked the game up and it sat for quite sometime. In fact I just recently put every single game I owned up in order to get some much needed money together to catch up on bills before popping this one into the old turbob.

I'm not going to write a huge review on the game cause I have not finished but I have been playing it now for at least 5 or 6 hours. First off the game Graphically is top notch for a game of it's time. It's a CDrom game from the first batch of PCEngine Cd's. The Artwork is outstanding! Music is also Top Notch. The tunes are very reminiscent of an Ys or even a Dragon Slayer Title. Sound effects they aren't that great but they will do. I must say this game is indeed a surprise for such a Cheapy title that can be grabbed for a mere 6.00 to 8.00 bucks.

The gameplay here is a bit Diablo, Y's and Dungeon Explorer all Rolled into 1. You will traverse some pretty large maps working your way forward to the next town or forest. Watchout for the Giant wasps! Haha! you'll find out. Towns and inhabited areas will take a bit of exploration. There is lots to be learned in each of these area's. First thing you will want to do as in any Type of RPG is find a weapon shop and the armory. There is also a healer and a few other surprises to be found.

The cutscenes to me are just spectacular. I love these kind of cutscenes. They are not run of the mill anime still shots. These are a work of pixel art I've only seen in a few PCE/TG16 games that frankly I wish had been put into more titles. You will have to play to get the Picture of this most excellent feature of this beautiful game.

Is the game perfect? Is Old Windy off his rocker? Well no the game is certainly not perfect. It does have some visual slow down at times. I know this will drive some of you nuts. Me? No, I don't think it kills the gameplay at all. The game is very easily playable without the knowledge of Japanese. Pretty much just snoop around towns and you will be fine. I'm going to cut this short but felt this game should be posted as a must buy for PCE owners. It's just a nice ride. All I will say to end this short is this.......Do yourself a favor and level grind a little bit! Don't be a fool and save as often as you can!

**UPDATE** This game has a 2 player option. So for you guys who like to play co-op Here is your game!

Games that didn't go Turbo... but should have!

2011-10-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Every once and again I get the urge to go to the attic and pull out a game that didn't have the luxury of being on an NEC console. One that wasn't blessed with the all time greatest video game library in history. Yes, I brave the blizzard of shovel ware that is known as mainstream retro gaming. Digging through crap game after crap game, I stand face to face with the eye of the storm, full knowing that it may be a foolish battle, but one that I must attempt to win. Finding a Nintendo or Sega 16-bit game, that I wished was a TurboGrafx game!!! O_O .................

Take a look at today's selection. The classic DOS/SNES/Sega CD game; Wing Commander! Growing up in a small town being a poor white kid, I didn't have a personal computer(I did have a Tandy CoCo, but that was more of a game console than most consoles of that era were!) So my first experience with Wing Commander came at the hands of the SNES. I loved this game! I just thought to myself how deep it was, and how great the story lines were. Twists and turns in the plot came about as the game progressed, main characters could die and you would miss out on major events in the game, it had great replay value as the game was never the same after multiple play throughs. As far as space simulation games go, this was tops for me. It had great game play, awesome music, and amazing graphics for the time. Couple in the role playing aspects of all the on-ship activities and deep storyline and this is one of the all time classics.

Many years later I saw that a Sega CD release came out in 1994. That seems odd to me. Why would they release a game 2 years later on the Sega CD. Well, I had to try it, so picked that one up too. Played it and loved it the same. No real advancement here in game play, but the character voices were pretty cool. One thing that shot straight to my head, other than Kilrathi non friendly fire, was why on earth did TTI not try to get this game on SCD in the US? If the lowly Sega CD was able to handle it, then surely the Super CD-rom2 system could push this game to it's limits!! Why TTI? Why?

I had many great times with Wing Commander, and I'd reccomend it easily to any gamer or any age. If you haven't played it in ages, go back and give it another shot. The game is awesome!! Since recently playing it, I can really wonder- why wasn't this game brought out at least in the US for us Turbobbers? It easily could have.

Oh well, at least we got Camp California and Sim Earth........

What will the Future Hold?

2011-10-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

As some of you Know I have put Pretty much my entire collection of TG16 Systems and games up on Ebay. It's made me sick to do so. We just need the money. The doctor bills over the last 5 years or so have just killed us and I just found out the Goverment passed a Law allowing the union to cut my retirement by more than half and they intend to do such as they sent me a letter this week with their intentions. Times are Tough. Now I do not plan on going anywhere. I'm keeping my PCE with about 20 games and if my systems and games sell I do intend on picking up a few Hucard titles that I have always wanted like Ninja Gaiden. So I will be writing up some Hucard Thoughts and maybe about the agony of losing my TG16 collection. In the event that my system doesn't sell on ebay I will be offering a split sale on PCEFX sometime later in the week. This might actually allow me to keep one system. If anyone is interested in my sale here is the ebay link it just has a few days: Windys TG16 Sale .

UPDATE! I had a very good first week of sales. I want to thank everyone who purchased games from me. I lost some great games. However! I got to keep about 70 games and have been rejuvenated to play these games I have had for a very longtime. Thank you Pcenginefx for purchasing. I hope the prices were right and you guys get the enjoyment out of them that I had over the years. some of those games I had for 20 years.

Spell Casting a Loom

2011-10-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

I remember picking up the newest copy of Video Games and Computer Entertainment (VG&CE) and seeing this amazing looking adventure game. Of course it was only available on PC. PC games had this 'nya nya, look at what we can do' feeling to them. The cut-scenes, the music, the game-play, this was like watching an animated Disney movie, and controlling everything. The game is Loom. By today's standards Loom is largely known as a classic point and click adventure game, that was short two sequels of being a legendary game series. Creator Brian Moriarty had at one time mentioned that Loom was to be the first story in a trilogy of games. The sequels 'The Forge' and The Fold, never saw the light of day, even though Loom sold a half million copies on various releases. One of those being- The TurboGrafx CD!

Loom on the Turbo Super CD is amazing. It took everything from the PC original and consolised it for Turbo fans around the world. If you experienced the PC version you won't be disappointed. All the scenery, storyline, spells, and characters are in tact! Aside from a few issues with the buzzing sounds of the distaff, and the spoken dialog being cut out of this CD release, it is the exact same game. Brian Moriarty's Loom brings an excellent adventure game to the Turbo SCD and ONLY to the NEC console.

The first time I plunged into the game I spent somewhere upward to 8 hours going through the game. A few friends and myself huddled around the TV set like we would a movie, just waiting to see what trouble Bobbin would get into next. Now when I play through it, it takes me around 2~3 hours. Always a great experience trying out different things.

It is mainly a puzzle based adventure game. You are Bobbin Threadbare. You encounter an issue, think about it for a while, look and talk to things, and then solve the issue, then move onto the next issue. Of course this is very similar to other graphic adventure games of yesteryear in the days of Amiga and DOS PCs: Monkey Island, King's Quest, and Beneath a Steel Sky. There were very few games like this released on consoles, which is why I think this makes Loom a really special release. The only other game like this on the Turbo would be the rare Beyond Shadowgate. There are pretty big differences between the two though. In Loom you use a 'mouse style' clicker to move about and look at things, whereas in Shadowgate you actually move your character around, dodging and punching bad guys. Loom has pretty much no fighting at all. There are very few parts in the game where Bobbin is in any situation where you need to use any dexterity to dodge monsters or kill anything. Bobbin is mainly just casting spells to change the color of Sheep to camouflage their colors from a overheard Dragon, and reversing a typhoon's spin to float over the water of a lake.

The experience is not one to miss really. It's the perfect afternoon romp. It really makes you think too with memorizing musical spells and figuring out the puzzles that Bobbin encounters. If you have a night with your family and friends, and are looking for a movie to watch, maybe pop in the Turbo classic Loom and try to get everyone involved in saving the world from chaos!!

Highly recommended!!

The TurboGrafx Legacy

2011-09-27T09:55:00.001-07:00

What could possibly be better than having a giant high definition poster of every US TurboGrafx release hanging on your game room wall? Possibly actually owning every game on the poster is the only thing that comes to mind. Minus the recent Aetherbyte release Insanity X and the upcoming Mysterious Song by Frozen Utopia, this poster features EVERY US release for one of the finest consoles to ever grace video gaming history. Of course this library of awesomeness is dwarfed by the all encompassing Japanese library that the PC Engine offers, but these games still hold a firm grasp in all our hearts! Just look at this thing. This is it! This is the entire library in one screen shot! Damn! From the legendary Ys to the epic Ninja Spirit, Air Zonk, Bonk, timeless classics like Beyond Shadowgate to turds like Godzilla are all included in this amazing poster!! This would be the perfect Christmas gift for any turbob nerd!

This poster is available at http://www.cafepress.com/pcenginefx.260707543 for a little over $20. I think that is a steel, especially given the quality of the poster! I know this probably sounds more like an advertisement than an actual blog post, but something like this hanging on my wall would be so epic!

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Windy is King "Anearth Fantasy Stories"

2011-09-16T07:17:00.001-07:00

Well I was inside Castle Rostarl Hobnobbing with the king and queen. I said something to them and they left the thrown room..."HOW RUDE!" Anyway since they left I decided to take a load off and test out their seats...errr throne. But it was soon time to set sail.

A couple new areas opened up to me. The Mines and this little Village. So I decided to explore this village first. Not much Happening here although I think something bad is happening. The music is good but depressing. So I moved onto the mines. The mines were full of action it took me a good hour to clear it out. Had some great puzzles in there. One thing about Anearth is there is alot of back tracking and puzzle solving. I love this sort of thing. It's nice to really get to know a town, village and Dungeon. Most RPG's go with this massive map to explore when really you can do plenty with the map the size of anearth or cosmic fantasy for instance. I think in todays RPG's they really concentrate to much on the massive instead of the quality. From my 9 hours of Anearth I do believe it could be the most quality RPG That I have played in my life.

I didn't do it! I swear I didn't clear out your house! Haha It was Runin I saw him do it! He was here yesterday!

Until Tommorrow..........SPREAD THE JOY OF PCENGINE!
Windy

The Curse Lives on!

2011-09-15T19:31:00.000-07:00

Years ago I received a game in mailbox called street smart for the sega Genesis. Well it was pretty bad...and a curse was started....I sent the cartridge out to someone...who sent it to someone....who sent it to someone...ETC ETC. Well 20 years or so later I get an SNK insert (which fits perfect on my old crt BTW) of Street Smart for an SNK arcade Cab. HaHa Great joke!

Hello from the City of Rostarl

2011-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

Well I had to dig into the Walkthrough for the city of Rostarl last night. After an hour of walking around town and getting nowhere. I found out from the walkthrough how to access a magic door unlock and unseal magically locked doors to move forward in the game. Still had a bunch of fun trying and I did manage to get my fourth party member added to the group without the walkthrough. That member happened to be the one to unlock the door.

next thing I knew I was upside down in this weird maze. Tons of puzzles to solve with switches and backtracking but I managed to get through it. Great stuff! look forward to playing more tonight.

Wish you could be here!

Spread The joy of PCEngine!

Windy

Anearth For the Ages!

2011-09-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

Well Im starting my Anearth Diaries for the Ages. I am now 5 hours and 20 minutes into the game and met up with this boss who wasn't terribly hard to defeat but I gotta say WOW! Everytime I enter a new place with new music and local I am blown away by the quality of this game. There was really some effort and care taken when making Anearth Fantasy Stories for the PCEngine Cdrom. So Far I have not used the Faq I've been playing the old Fashion way..... Talk to everyone you meet....Then search every nook and Cranny lol. So far it has not failed me as tonight I made it to the Pirate Hide out then saved there to end my night. Do you own a PCE Cdrom? Do yourself a big favor save up about 35 bucks and go get this game. It's safe to say you wont be dissapointed. From here on out.....The days I play Anearth I will do a sort of Diary of what I did that day how much farther I got. I will also make a few comments about the music and graphics of the area i'm in and my thoughts on the gameplay and battles. It's obvious I love the game. So Pop back over here and Read Windys Anearth Diary which will get into full swing this week.

Spread the Joy and let Obey!
Windy

AC Adapter Update! Success fixed

2011-09-13T07:14:00.000-07:00

I thought my TG16 CDROM base was burnt but it was not. I picked up a second base on ebay with a cdrom included. The guy who sold it said the system was broken when in fact it was not broken it worked right out of the box. It was a Happy Day for the old Windy. After I got that new Dock working I decided to slap the old one together and give it one more try since I had bought a 3rd AC Adapter from Radioshack. Well I was shocked when it fired up. The AC Adapter I picked up is Part #273-358. New at Radio Shack this adapter is 29.99. So Now I have 2 working TG16 Cdroms and it feels great to now have a backup unit. Click here to buy this adapter online

Radioshack also sells the Tip you will need for the TG16 CDROM and the part Number is 273-345 it is called Adaptaplug "N". The Cost of the Tip is 6.99 You can purchase this online By Clicking here

So with that we have a fix for a blown TG16 CDROM AC Adapter. I would like to thank Nat from PCEnginefx.com for Steering me in the right direction. I was close to giving up on the whole thing and had nightmares about having to buy another Unit for my long beloved TurboGrafx.

**ATTENTION**

Be sure and get the polarity right before attempting to turn on your unit. Make sure that Tip is setup for the correct Polarity which is + o -

SPREAD THE JOY! Keep on Obeying!

Mysterious Song Beta Review By OSG

2011-09-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

Mysterious Song Beta Review
By Mason Flinn (OldSchoolGamer/OSG)

I thought I would Re-Release This Review of the old beta test that OSG had done over a year ago with the excitement surrounding Mysterious Songs Pending release. Enjoy

To start off, for all of you who might be unaware what Mysterious Song is, it’s an MS-DOS RPG created by Darkness Ethereal that is being completely remade and redone for the Turbo Grafx/PC Engine CD. The team at Frozen Utopia has headed up this project.

The game starts up with 2 flags to choose from. An american flag which stands for english text, and a spanish flag which will allow you to play the game through in spanish. There are plans for a French and German translation of the game as well, but nothing has been completed/implemented at this given time. When you get passed the title menu, you will have 2 modes of play available: Original, and Balanced. Original has you play the game through as was originally intended with enemies at their normal strengths. Your characters also gain the standard amount of EXP from boss fights and enemies. In Balanced mode, experience points from defeating enemies and Boss's are gained at a higher rate to help you progress through the game faster.

Before I go any further, let me just say that this game is short for an RPG. It can be generally completed in about 6-7 hours. The time it takes to complete the game greatly depends on what mode you pick from the start (Original or Balanced). This RPG is very old school, in the sense that you HAVE to do lots of level grinding to get from 1 area to the next. Whichever mode you choose at the beginning of the game, will have a great impact on how much grinding you need to do in order to progress though the game. In the final version, there will be an "EX game" available to play through upon completion of the game. This mode will allow you to play an even harder version of the game adding to replay-ability.

Graphically, the game looks great. The characters and levels all have a professional look to them. The opening cut-scene, character portraits, enemies, and backgrounds are all hand drawn and done well. Visually, this game is beautiful. Battles are fast paced and I have not yet run across much, if any slowdown in the game. The Spells in the game are not spectacular to look at.

Mysterious Song also features some great audio content. There is actual spoken dialogue in game, and the music is CD quality. The Piano seems to be the instrument of choice for Mysterious Song. Just about(but not all) of the music, from the opening song to some of the the background music in game, to when you need to save at an Inn is done on piano. The background music sets the mood really well for each part of the game. Depending on what area you are in, the music will pick up, or slow down. So your never listening to the same track over and over. The music in Mysterious Song is done well, and is a treat to listen to.
The Gameplay in Mysterious Song is straightforward and easy to use. The controls do take some getting used to, but once you get them down, your good to go. I am currently playing the game via mednafen(as is most of the team working on the game), but I can only assume the actual controls will be as responsive when played on actual PCE/TG hardware.

The story in Mysterious Song surrounds Spear. A boy with no knowledge of his past, whom is to become a Toren Knight. At the start of the game, he hears a voice calling himself Grimm telling him that he is different. Who Grimm is, and what he wants with Spear remains a Mystery. Throughout your adventure through the game, you will run into 2 other characters(Tiger and Ryanna) whom will join your party. To get through the game, you will need to learn all your parties strength's and weakness's, and use them to your advantage. You cant go into every battle with the same strategy, or else you will perish.

In conclusion, there are still some bugs to be worked out, the EX game implemented, and cut scenes added in, but overall the game at this point is shaping up pretty nicely. The game is currently scheduled to release in March, 2010. Pre-orders for Mysterious Song are officially open. If you would like to pre-order a copy of this game, please go to http://www.frozenutopia.com/

*All snapshots are taken from a BETA version of this game and are not of the final product.

Macross "Eternal Love song" Tutorial By Windy

2011-08-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have beatin this game a few times over the Years and thought it might be about time write up a little Tutorial for those who maynot understand the menus system. Button 1 brings up your movement and attack menu with 4 choices...

1st choice-Move Unit
2nd Choice- Attack.
3rd Choice- Change your mecha (battleloid, guardian, airplane).
4rth Choice- End a units Turn.
(click the above pic)

Button 2 will back you out of a bad decision on menus. Run Button will bring up a menu with 6 choices...
1st Choice-End Round all units 2nd Choice-Save point battle 3rd Choice-Memory Load 4rth Choice-Mission Objectives 5th Choice-ON/OFF Battle animations 6th Choice-Unit Stats
(click the above pic)

I have thoroughly enjoyed this game over the
years. It has excellent graphics! Awesome music. Once you get the menus down the game is a breeze. There are 29 Missions to play. Some of them require you to wipe out everything on the screen, others require you might just take out a mothership or special player character. A very key element as with Military madness is terrain advantages. They are there look for them in the same way as military madness if you are familiar with them. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it will help you. If you have anything to ad or I got something wrong let me know by emailing me and I will get it fixed up. Feel Free to link this Tutorial at your website. No permission required! Everyone should enjoy this Great game! Spread the Joy of PC Engine!

Windy

Beyond Shadowgate By Windy

2011-08-30T08:14:00.001-07:00

Well I certainly cannot say enough about this game. It is a slow mover. For those of you who like the fast paced environment, you may not Like Beyond Shadowgate all that much. If you're a smoker take your TG16 CD Rom outside, hook up your rig and enjoy the pleasures of smoking while you play cause you will certainly be comfortable, LOL. Then for you Nook and Cranny Role playing Nuts, beyond shadowgate is absolutely for you!.

You play the part of Prince Eric whose father was just murdered and sister kidnapped. Not only that, you've been thrown in Jail! You start out in Jail and need to use resources and items that have been bestowed upon you. Here is where you need to get used too the select button being your friend. The select button pretty much is everything in this game. From talking to NPC's to picking up items and searching locations. You will become very close with your select button!

The locations in Beyond Shadowgate are very well done. The artwork is amazing as it looks as though you are walking through a painting. Dungeons, woods, towns, castles, and frozen mountains just to name a few. Unbelievable Scenery in this game from start to finish! I Just think the backgrounds are gorgeous and look as though they were painted on a canvas and thrown up in this package. Characters are very well drawn and just hilarious when you talk to them. All characters that you can talk to have been done with voice-overs and were extremely well done.

Music and sound effects are just awesome. Now for my only complaint in the game. The music tracks load every time you enter a new area. This kinda gets a little annoying as your not on each screen very long, so music tracks shuffle constantly. The score has many tunes though and change to set the mood in each room, so I can see why the developers did what they did in regards to the music. Seems as though setting the mood is why we have music reloading. All in all great soundtrack!

Now there is a comical side to this game. You just know the programmers had a good time doing this. There are a ton of different ways to die in a comical manner. With that said, Save often and save again at every turn. Nothing worse then getting halfway through this game and dying in a comical manner just to discover you haven't saved since the second screen and you have start back there! I am WARNING you to Save Often! I have even gone through the game looking for the different death scenes. Pretty funny!

This is a game that every Turbo owner should have the pleasure of going through. It's relaxing yet has it's moments of stress! The game is so enjoyable and just a work of art. Whether you get an original copy or you get yourself a non legit copy, you will be so glad you did! Another game that has similar gameplay is Loom, also for the Tg16 CD. You can pick up Loom cheap on Ebay or from a few online shops. I will review Loom at a later date for you guys as I feel it has not received any love! Hope you enjoyed my review of Beyond Shadowgate. Until next time, "Spread the joy of PC Engine".

-Windy-

John Madden Duo Football By Windy

2011-08-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is a game That I continually go back to on the TurboGrafx! When most people think of sports games or even attempting to play sports games on the old TG16 they think BLEH! Well im here to tell ya this one is well worth the 15 or so dollars you will shell out to buy the best football game on the TG16. It doesnt have the supercharged graphics of todays football games but it does have the gameplay, sounds, fun and I happen to like the graphics as they are very colorful and well done. This game is and was very underrated back in the day.

Let's talk about what options are open to you in this game. You can play single player, multiplayer head to head, 2 player teammates, 1 game season (I was hoping for a full season), Start a new playoff which takes you through the playoffs and saves your progress. All teams are represented from the NFL but no names or NFL logos are present. However the team colors are well represented and I loved the old Los Angeles Rams Uni's! The game has an all madden team and teams from the past like the 85 chicago bears. Weather conditions are also present. Snow, Rain , Perfect conditions.

The refs are presented in full motion video. I really wish they would have gave an option to turn this off but it's not that annoying and can give you a laugh from time to time as there are also some full motion vids of a good stick or when a guy sacks a quarterback. with that mentioned , WHERE DID THEY GET THESE GUYS FOR THE FULL MOTION VIDS! lol. But full motion atthe time was going to be the next platform of gaming of the time and I will say this it was pretty well done here.

As you can see from the picks. the graphics are pretty colorful with some very well done sprites. The field Scales to and from and is actually very impressive for a Tg16 super cd game. If you want to see just how impressive it is for this hardware just do an instant replay and move your curser around the field or target a player its extremely smooth and fun to mess with. I'm still very partial to these old sports games from back in the day like NHL hockey 95, madden duo and madden genesis with well done sprites and smooth gameplay other than our new shiny 3d counterparts of today. I guess i'm stuck in the early 90's LOL

Sound effects and background noises are very impressive in this game as they are all cd sounds. When I first got this game back in 1992 my wife came into the room and asked me which game I was watching. I told her I was playing a game. She is quoted "thats amazing". There are no announcers which im really glad for since they usually are more annoying then anything else. The thing that really draws you in is the crowd noise and the sound effects of the quarterback. really cool.

Gameplay im going to say is a 7 out of 10 or so. It plays nice and gives you a pretty good feel of the game of football. You can audible if you catch the defense in the wrong set. While running with the ball you can make your back or receiver spin or make a dive for a few extra yards. one thing you will not be doing is running away from the defense for a 90 yard touchdown. this is really hard to do and I've only done it once or twice in all the time ive spent playing this game. most long yarders will be around 40 yards or so. I think that's why I like the game so much as it seems a little a tougher then most madden games. Once you get into it, and are crushing your opponents start taking the weaker teams and see what you can do in the playoffs. this game has some pretty good replay value as you may have to try the playoffs a few times to beat it with the Detroit lions LOL(I do beleive that Barry is there you may do well). All in all a fun game and a must own for any football fan and Turbo Duo/ TurboGrafx cd owner!

By Windy

CES Las Vegas Winter 1992

2011-08-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Found this Rare Footage of the CES winter show 1992 Lots of NEC coverage in this video! Enjoy

Complainers of the Hoop!

2011-08-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

What is everyone's gripe about "Takin' it to the Hoop" for the Turbo? Years back I was searching for some decent sports titles for our Turbo, and outside from some great Wrestling and Soccer games, I was unable to find much. There were only two basketball games released in the lifetime of the Turbo; TV Sports Basketball and Takin' it. While I have played the hell out of TV Sport's entry into the hardwood, I never once played Takin' it... that was until the other night.

I've seen countless reviews and comments about Takin' it, and heard about how horrible it is. Well, I'm writing this today, not so much to tell all of those reviewers that they are wrong, but to tell them to back off! It isn't that bad. As a matter of fact, I would say that certain elements of it are more playable than TV Sport's B-ball release. I think the game is VERY pick up and play, I was able to win the first game I played. Multiplayer is pretty frickin' hilarious as well! The game does tend to get far cheap the further you get into the playoffs with the AI still being completely derp, but they still are able to steal the ball away from you when they get close to you. It still is a BUNCH easier to score and get a momentum going your way, at least when compared to TV Sports.

I would say this is an average sports release for the Turbob, and an above average release if played multiplayer. I had a good time playing around with it, and as long as you don't go into this thinking it would be as in depth as NBA 2K12 and think of it more like a fun little bop around the basketball court game, you'll have a good time.

Hello world!

2011-08-28T14:45:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Windancer for adding me to the blog here! I hope to post some cool stuff soon, just wanted to stop in and say hello :)

Didn't get to play Last Night

2011-08-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

I made my wife dinner and just Talked about the years that passed for our anniversary. Will get back to more Obeying later this weekend....

I love my Baby!

Emerald Dragon journey part 1

2011-08-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

As this is my first ever post as a member of the legendary turbob clan 'The HuPack', I would like to start off by saying thank you Windancer for inviting and allowing me to contribute to the groups blog site! I hope that this is a long and exciting journey for the readers and our members!! We will laugh, we will cry, and I can only hope we will learn from each other and spread the word of the HuPack to as many turbo nuts as possible!

Anyway, with that out of the way.....

This week I started a quest playing what many consider an excellent Japanese RPG only released in the orient. The game? Emerald Dragon. My progress thus far: only about 1 hour 30 minutes. I realize that I am still at a very early stage in the game, I'm not even sure how long it really is, and at this point I don't really care. My experiences with completing a Japanese RPG from beginning to end is lacking. On the PC Engine/Turbob I can only think of two Action/RPG's that I've played all the way through. Ys IV and Gulliver Boy. Both I would consider excellent games, and while it can add some difficulty to the overall challenge of playing, the language barrier is something you just get used to.

After watching the opening cinema, which looks really excellent by the way, we see a group of Dragons standing around talking about something that I'm quite sure is important business. Maybe the lives of many are being threatened and they have to send off the young dragon on a quest to save humanity.... I'm not really sure, I'm playing without aid of a translation or a gamefaq-walkthrough. The Young Dragon (YOU) says his goodbye's to a young human female and it seems as if he has feelings for her. Then we are taking a few years into the future, we see the Young Dragon has grown to a slightly less younger dragon. We walk about talking to other Dragons in the village, then stop to have a conversation with the elder dragon. He tells us that everything will be fine, and says we must start our journey. Magically transforming the young dragon into a HUMAN!!

Just after this we wind up in a town for your usual RPG fare. There are inns, shops and people to talk to. Step outside of town and you chance getting into a random battle. I really got to tell you, I LOVE the battle system. It's so easy to get into! It almost reminds me of a mix of Ultima and Ys a bit! The battle system starts with a battle map with the baddies on one side and you on the other. When it is your turn to act, a number pops up over your head. You can either use items, attack, cast spells, flee or move. Usually when you're just starting out, you'll mostly just be moving and attacking. When you use the D-pad to move, you instantly move, like you would in say Ys, but when you take one step the number that popped up over your head goes down one. For example, if you started with a '12' over your head, and took two steps, the number would now show '10'! It's pretty awesome! It involves a great amount of strategy. Attacking depends on the character and sometimes the item they wish to attack with as well. Say a baddie is 9 paces from you, attacking costs you 4 points, and you only have 12 points per turn. You would only be able to move your character up to the evil doer, but wouldn't be able to get in an attack this round, so you might want to only move half way, so the enemy would waste some of their movements on their turn, then you could also use a heal potion or do something else this turn too. It just goes back and forth like that till one side is dead, and the other collects the spoils. I love it!

Once I got the battle system down, I started the search for allies to join my party. In the first towns bar I acquired a kick ass fighter that really helped in battle. Then after leveling up a bit, we headed out East and found our first dungeon. After playing around with the menus I found a nice Map feature that helps out a lot showing you a good amount of your surroundings. Kind of similar to Zelda: Link to the Past's over-world map. Really helps out if your lost. In the first dungeon we ran into the same young girl from the opening sequence! She's actually a pretty good healing character with some excellent projectile attacks, and she now joins the party. After running around a bit, we fought a pretty awesome boss battle and went on to beat the dungeon.

Our party of now 3 went back to town and stayed at an inn, healed up, filled up on weapons, talked to the towns folk, and continued onward. I remember a cave entrance to the East that I got my butt kicked early on when I first started to get used to the battle system, so we headed out that way. Got into the dungeon, leveled up a few places, and at the end we came to find a bald magic user that was casting some sort of spell on a giant statue coming out of the wall! He quickly joined our part (4 strong!) and we were able to defeat the monster! Now with our 4 person party I wondered about through the country side doing the level up dance, and moving south slowly to see if there are any other dungeons close by.

From my experiences so far, this game is incredible, and easy to get into! The battle system is excellent, the music and graphics(which I hardly touched on) is top notch, and I'm not finding it too difficult even with it being Japanese. After you get your feet wet with this adventure you would swear it was made by Falcom. It really sucks you in and the music sets the mood. The battles have the usual Turbob chiptunes, that we've all grown to love, and it has a nice transition from red-book audio to battle music and back to red-book between battles.

I'll keep chronicling my journey through this game here, sharing my thoughts and experiences. I was able to find Emerald Dragon a few months back on eBay for around $8($12 shipped) from 'hit japan'. It seems like a fairly common game, and not hard hard to find or too expensive for the average turbob head to own. For what it costs and how much I'm enjoying it thus far, I would have to say its already been worth it, and can definitely recommend it for anyone reading!

Till next time.......

You read it. You cannot un-read it.

Got in a Couple of Hours of Play Tonight

2011-08-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

I got in a couple hours of Flash Hiders this evening. Flash Hiders is one of those games that's Dear and near to my Heart. I have beaten it on every skill level. I also got friends into This fighting game who would normally not play a fighting a game. They would say this game kicks so much butt!

The Game has a wacky story mode with very memorable characters. The sounds and sights of the game Get it on! The controls can be a little on the hurtin side if your thumb just cracked open and is spewing blood cause you can't put the game down LOL

This is a must own in any TG16/Turbo Duo's stash of good games. Pick it up! It will not disappoint! In the words of an old Friend...........DO IT! See you Tommorrow Night when I write some more about my Adventures with Benki

"Spread The Joy of PCEngine!"

Benki Gaiden

2011-08-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

With the outage on my TG16 Cdrom I've hooked up my Core Grafx and started playing Benki Gaiden that I've owned for years but really never played. I am pleasantly surprised by the game although I am lost Haha! I did manage to head south of the main 2 towns or villages and entered a Tower and defeated a boss in there. It's a pretty good looking game so far. I like the overhead map it's pretty large and the game has pretty Decent music. The Battles are random and Turned based. I had a little snafu in the beginning with saving games, but got that all straightened out. So far so good. I have found 2 other towns one west of the start town and another north of the town in the west. I am a little lost but I plan to remedy that soon :)

Ahhhh More Bliss!

2011-08-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well this is it for a while. I have seriously been on a pce binge. So with this I dedicate myself to getting a new AC Adapter. Then demolishing Anearth and getting on to more PCE games.

Gotzendeiner, Poem of Angel, Dynastic Hero and Solid Force. Cant wait to try out Solid Force but first Onto an AC Adapter "spread the joy of pcengine!"

No Obeying Tonight.....Just Crying.....

2011-08-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

Enough Said......Haha......I just picked this up today and Thought I would Watch it.

Here's Hoping! AC Adapter went out Tg16 Cdrom

2011-08-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well My AC Adapter went out on my TG16Cdrom. I bought a Cross Referenced universal
RadioShack 12VDC 1500mA Power Adapter # 273-1779

I also picked up this Tip Part#273-345 Type "N" from Radioshack which fits the TG16 Cdrom AC input.
So Hopefully Today or Tommorrow my TG16 will be back up and Running. The old Adapter went 20 years I got a ton of use out of it and this will hopefully do until I might come across a working original. I will post an update when I get it going

Beautiful Loot!

2011-08-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Picked up a few games from my mail today. Man do I love packages in the mail anyway here I have Dungeon Explorer II (Japanese), Langrisser, The Pro Yakyuu (dupe) and Efera and Jiliora

This set is Populous, Doraemon-Nobita's Dorabian Night CD, Aoi Blue Blink and Tecmo Soccer

This one is a The Pro Yakyuu 94 which I am very fond of. This is a Dupe and is being sent out to someone as a gift :) Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Thanks For Reading and as usual "Spread The Joy of the PCEngine!"

The Hu Pack is Back!

2011-08-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well Ive been thinking of making a new Blog about the Daily Life I live in my PCEngine Kingdom. It's been a very longtime since i've written on a blog. However I will start posting a daily entry about what I played, How much I enjoyed what I played, and my thoughts about what I played. There will be some days I don't actually play. I will leave a blog entry of something. So with that I will try and breath some life back into the HuPack

What are My Thoughts now?

Well, I have been very frustrated for years with videogames. Nintendo seems to be hammering out sequel after, after sequel. It just seems at this point that they are not capable of creating anything new or innovative. They also seem to have an issue backing their console Hardware. Sure they backed the DS which I do love. But the Wii has been an absolute disaster and it's a time they appologize to their loyal fans for that.

I do love some of the 3d games that come out. I had a great time with games like Gun on the PS2. I am a sucker for a good ole west shootem up :) However a majority of them just don't seem to be my thing. I also don't like 1st person shootem ups Like call of duty and Duke Nukem. The industry keeps plugging away cardboard cutout 1st person shooters and that makes me sad.

So for me it's back to my Trusted TG16/PCE. I will not be buying another home console call it retirement to TG16/PCE and my DS for portable gaming. I hope you will all enjoy the Daily entries. I also hope I can make them interesting, informative, Funny and enjoyable to read. Now as some of you have read at pcefx I have had the unthinkable happen to my TG16. The AC Adapter went after 20 years of servitude. I was just about in tears. However, after scouring the messages boards. Nat had posted years ago that he found an alternative to the AC Adapter at Radio Shack. I immediately ordered the Part and should be getting it about wednesday or thursday for testing. in the mean time I have my PCE Coregrafx. So over the next couple days I will posting some small thoughts on games I play on my PCE.

Thanks for Reading and its Good to be Back!
Windy

BRAND NEW PCE/Turbografx review site NOW OPEN

2009-08-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

The Brothers Duomazov

Run by 3 MANLY men...who IMO are some of teh BEST gaming minds in the PCE/TG community. Reviews are colorful (and unlike SO many sites) have LOT'S of screenshot's...and more than just 1-2 shot's from 5 second's into level 1 lol. More reviews are added regularly, with the daunting goal of EVERY TG/PCE game released eventually being added.

Goodbye Hu-Pack.

2009-07-25T10:26:00.001-07:00

Am saying goodbye to the Hu-Pack today as i have decided to start my own GoggleBlog....Invader from the Cosmic Ark.

It was fun posting on the Hu-Pack but there seems to be a lack of interest anymore here and instead of posting about my PC Engine fun here i optioned to do it on my new blog.

Plus i will be having blogs about the Atari 2600 and other randomness so am looking forward to that as well.

I hope the Hu-Pack continues and who knows i may return because this is a great place to be if you like the PC Engine or the Turbografx-16.

Goodbye my friends or is it hello to my friends i will see you great folks on the Cosmic Ark.

SonSon II

2009-06-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

People who follow Dragonball would feel somewhat at home playing SonSon II on the PC Engine as it is based off of the "Legend of the Monkey King" much like Dragonball is
.

Its a fun and colorful action platformer from Capcom but released by NEC Avenue on Hu-Card around 1989/1990.

Players take on the role of SonSon who with his magic pole staff sets off to rescue his friends from the evil clutches of various vile villians collecting food,fruit,health and zenny(coins)to buy power-up items in various shops that are spreaded about the game.

Its a pretty proto-typical game of this type but is fun and one of the better ones on the PCE you can buy.

The game itself can be found for a fairly cheap price last time i looked(I paid about $25-$30 for a near complete copy).

SonSon II is one of those games you might not go to every time to play but when you do pick it up and play it you will find yourself wanting to play it over and over again because it a quite enjoyable.

Do yourself a favor and give SonSon II a try its worth your time and effort to find and to add to your PC Engine collection.

I wonder why some PC Engine games never made it to the U.S.?

2009-05-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

I wonder why some PC Engine games never made it from overseas to North America for the the Turbografx-16?

I was going through my PCE games today picking out a few to play and i started to think about this.

Games in my collection like Digital Champ or Break-In to me would be "no-brainers" as we americans enjoy things like boxing or pool(billiards if you prefer).

What about Knight Rider Special,Hatris or Rastan Saga II? These games would of been a perfect fit for U.S. gamers.

Heck i could even see titles like DragonEgg! or SonSon II being released here with a few minor changes if any at all.

All of this makes me wonder if maybe if some of these great games made it here how much better the Turbografx-16 might of done?

Software makes the system right? And these games and many other PC Engine titles could of pushed the T-16 ahead of the pack but instead U.S. gamers got games like Impossimole.

A few personal PC Engine notes

2009-05-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

No review from me this post just a few odd notes of things i have been playing on the PC Engine as of late.....

Power League II: this was a freebie Hu-Card that i had gotten from WolfGames(awesome place to order PCE and other import games from) with a game i ordered from them and for a baseball game its fun(Am not into sports games but i guess everyone should own one at lest right? lol).

Panic Bomber: I have had this game for a while now and its a fun puzzle game in the vain of Puyo Puyo featuring Bomberman(Great fun and cheap to buy too).

Burning Angels: This great overhead shooter(shump) has been talked about on the HuPack before and it should be talked about its a good game(I like the anime clips in it reminds me of the Dirty Pair anime).

P-47: Another World War II shooter(shump) but this one is horizontal(left to right)and is a fun and cheap game to pick up if you dont own it already.

Knight Rider Special: Yes i know its a Pack-In Video title but its worth getting and playing just because its Knight Rider!(I used to watch the show as a kid plus it reminds me alot of RoadBlasters which was a great arcade game from Atari).

Dragon Spirit: Got this on a trade and i used to own the U.S. version(Turbografx-16)years ago(Its 1941/42 but with dragons!).

Daisenpu.....War is Hell they say but this game isn't.

2009-05-17T08:06:00.000-07:00

Daisenpu is a vertical shooter(or Shump if you perfer)released by NEC Avenue for the PC Engine back in 1990.

It is a conversion of Toplan's/Taito's arcade game known as Twin Hawk which also saw a release on the Sega MegaDrive the same year.

In Daisenpu you control a World War II fighter plane and fly into the heart of the enemy lines shooting at tanks and various warships.

Power-ups can be found in the game by shooting some of the smaller tanks during play.

You can also call out a small squadron of fighter planes that will fly next to you as your wingmen and will help you shoot at your enemies and with a press of a button will dive bomb at your foes as well.

One of the most interesting things about Daisenpu is the fact that there is no pause between levels creating a continuous flow in the game.

Graphics and sounds are good in the game as is the controls of your plane which moves quite smoothly on the screen(well as limited as your movements can be in a shooting game).

I should also note that a year after the release of the Hu-Card edition of this game a CDRom2 version was released and while i have not had a chance to play Daisenpu on CD my understanding is the Hu-Card is the better of the two(which seems to be a common thing among CD ports of Hu-Card games i have heard).

So Daisenpu is a good shooter(shump)for your PCE with much in common with games like Fire Shark or Tiger Heli.

It is one of my "go to" games when am looking for something fun to play with a little bit of challenge to it.

They say "War is Hell" but those with skills in shooting games will no doubt blast there way through this game with ease but it is still worth a buy if you are looking for something new or at lest a round of play or two if you have a friend that owns a copy.

Power Drift..... Very Ambitious!

2009-05-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

I picked up a copy of PowerDrift for the PC Engine most recently which is a port of the Yu Suzuki produced arcade game from Sega.

What can i say about this game but its a very ambitious port of a fun arcade title and in spite of the limitations of PCE hardware the game turned out quite nice.

The arcade Power Drift has all sorts of sprite scrolling creating a 3-D effect and gave the game a almost roller coaster feel to it.

The home version on the PCE does a good job recreating this and while not perfect or as smooth you still know you are playing Power Drift.

Players still get to choice from 12 drivers from various walks of life but instead being able to pick your tracks like in the arcade you now have to play them in order.

This is Asmik published Hu-Card game(The same good folks that brought us another Sega arcade port for the PCE....Shinobi).

After playing Power Drift for a while i pondered to myself if this game could be done better as a Super CD or Arcade CD title?

I guess we will never know but still am pretty happy with Power Drift on the PC Engine and yes i know there those who don't care for this port but i find it enjoyable and i think its well worth trying out.

Deep Blue.....Not So Good.

2009-04-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Ok i hate to say this(well not really)but Deep Blue for the PC Engine(and Turbografx-16)is not so good.

There i said it and now its out in the open for all to know but am sure most people know this by now.

You know its sad too because Deep Blue for the PCE(T-16)could of been a ok game(notice i said ok)the graphics are fairly clean but the music really starts to feel like some one is hammering a rusty nail into your skull.

But the worest part is the enemies they attack you in irratic patterns and can be pretty relentless making the game a really pain to play.

If you need a fish based shumup you may want to try one of Tatio's Darius games which can be found on the PC Engine has well.

All i can say is at lest Deep Blue can be bought cheap and is better than Xevious(This is my personal opinion so no offense to all of you Xevious fans out there).

Forever and a day....A blog from Jboypacman on the HuPack.

2009-04-23T17:24:00.000-07:00

Boy it seems like forever but i finally made it back to the HuPack to place a new Blog up.

My collection has grown quite abit from last time i was on here am now up into the 70 games range and i have 2(with a 3rd one on the way)PC Engine systems(Duo-R and CoreGrafx II with a Brief Case unit close behind).

I now not only chit-chat over on the PCEngineFX.Com ShoutBox but on the RisingStuff Forums as well with all my great friends.

The PC Engine has really introduced me to not only some great games but to some great people has well and that am very grateful for(See video games can bring people together).

I hope to be able to continue to post a blog or two on the Hupack here as well as re-jumpstart my AtariAge.Com Blog as well this year.

This Blog is just a reintroduction of sorts to me and hopefully there will be more to come from me(no promises here lol).

Take care untill next time gang.

Burning Angels

2008-11-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a rather short shooter featuring scantily clad female anime pilots, and your shooter skills better be up to speed.

Die one time and it's GAME OVER. All you have is a two layered life line. No lives and no continues.

PC Engine Review 11/30/08: Sidearms Special

2008-11-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

Today I'll be reviewing Sidearms Special. On this disc are two modes, the original (basically the Hucard of the original sidearms), and a new Before Christ mode (Have no idea why they call it that, but hey that's the creator's choice...)

Before Christ mode has alot of differences from the original, alot of tweaks have been made to make the game more balanced and tolerable than the original. And to those who have played the original on Hucard or the arcade, the difficulty was just unfair and brutal!

The differences include: The Yashichi (windmill) icon commonly seen in dozens of Capcom titles creates option pods, thus replacing the Alpha Type mech. Weapon change is replaced by an R-Type style laser charge gauge. Power Up icons don't have to be shot to death, they change automatically. There is also a new weapons arsenal. And boss battles are brutally challenging as on some you can only damage them with charged lasers!

In this video, I'm playing the game all the way up to stage 8 and get my ass handed to me by the boss.

NEW MANAGEMENT

2008-11-11T14:33:00.000-08:00

Hi guys, I'm PCE Kokujin (Kokujin is Japanese for "black foreigner"), if you hang out at the PC Engine FX forums, I go by the name "Ninja Spirit", named after one of my top favorite games for the system as ninja sidescrollers are just one of my favorite genres.

VIDEO: Ninja Spirit completed on PC Engine mode with no deaths, made by myself. Yup, I fall down that pit of ninjas unscathed!

One more interesting fact, I'm the first person on the face of the planet to put a video clip of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood on YouTube.

Anywho, I'll be taking over this space in the midst of other blogs showing the goodness of the PC Engine system aka the "Turbografx 16". Such a great system, just bad marketing, and also didn't even get a chance thanks to Nintendo of America's "X number of games a year" rule and anti-competitive third party license hoarding.

I'm trying to get some pictures of my collection, as since the last time I made pictures a few months ago more games have rolled in.

Trimming the Fat

2008-10-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

I guess am somewhat different then a lot of my fellow video gamers i know and am not one to own every single game a system has to offer.

Really this is true with the exception of the Atari 2600 which i really want to own anything i do not current have(loose carts only i really have no need for the cardboard boxes the games come in).

So recently i have been "Trimming the Fat" of my collections and down sizing my games and systems to the point of just having a total of seven game systems(this includes the Nintendo DS)and outside of my Atari 2600 games i have gone through and have trade or sold many of the games i had for these systems.

I had some great stuff like the Colecovision and Vectrex to name a few but it was just time for them to go so i have said good buy to a lot of video gaming history but i have space now and by limiting what i have to collect i will be saving money in the long run(which in this day and age is in short supply).

Sad yes but i know these systems and games are going to good homes and to great people who will take care of them and get more use out of them then i was.

Lords of Thunder vs Gate of Thunder

2008-09-06T06:13:00.000-07:00

I have a few friends that are fans of Lord of Thunder for the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 they just think its the greatest shooter(Shump)out there with its huge bosses and rocking Heavy Metal soundtrack.

One night a while ago we had all gotten together for a gaming night and the PC Engine was in full game play that night and as we were going through a set of games Gates of Thunder got put in for some play time and the debate started shortly after some play.

Lords of thunder

Debate? You ask what could we be debating about after playing a great game like Gate of Thunder? The debate was which one is better.......Lords of Thunder or Gate of Thunder?

Now with me i like them both i think they are pretty even across the board as far as game play and style with each bring something to the table but my friends see it differently than I do.

With most of them going with Lords due to its music

Gate of Thunder

and style but a few sticking with Gate because of it being some much like the legendary Thunderforce games.

And i will admit i was a very pro-Lords fan when I first played years ago something about a Metal sound track and fantasy setting that draws you in like your at a Dragonforce concert or something very epic really.

But after picking up a copy of Gate not that long ago and giving it some play time i really grew to enjoy it like the before mentioned Thunderforce games.

So its Epic fantasy shooter vs Scifi shooter tour de force its a hard choice to choose one thats better than the other one so i say pick both as they both are reasons to own a PCE/T-16 and to play shooters(Shumps)i just wish my friends saw it that way.

Jboypacman's Playlist

2008-08-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be a fun ideal to post my current playlist of games for everyone to see and i hope everyone else will do the same that posts here on the HuPack.

I think this a great way to see what all of us are playing and give each other insights into our likes and dislikes.

Who knows maybe some of us are playing and enjoy the same games.......

Kunio DodgeBall-PC Engine

MappyLand-NES

Golden Ax Warrior-Sega Master System

Rastan Saga II-PC Engine

Daisenpu-PC Engine

Pac-Man Arcade-Atari 2600(Ms.Pac-Man Hack)

BreakOut-Atari 2600

The Return of Funcoman

2008-08-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

This was a rant of mine that was meant to be posted on a site's forums earlier this year. It's a bit of a long one so be prepared:

I can't believe the place one of my favorite used game stores used to be has become.

The story starts like this, there is a game store in the Stonebriar Center mall in Frisco, that used to be awesome and bought and sold anything and everything console related. Now I only got to go to this mall about once a year, so I just took my yearly trip yesterday with a couple of friends who were excited to see it for their first time. Too bad it will probably be our last unless another change in management is made for the better.

You see it wasn't that the manager was a jerk, ok I'm lying he was a complete tool. I don't know if it was just that he had no realistic clue about games and their worth or if his plan was to drive the store into the ground while laughing at the unsuspecting innocent people who would occasionally walk in to buy something only to quickly figure out that something was up. The prices, oh my freaking GOD the prices. Now when Shawn Myers, the old manager, worked there before going to the store in Florida the prices were only slightly overpriced, but still reasonable. At least he was willing to cut you a deal. This is understandable because Frisco is a bit of a richer area, but not for what this new manager was charging. I could actually freaking afford more than a couple of common, oh yes I do mean extremely common, snes games before he came along! Not only that, but Shawn was one of the most awesome gamers and people I have ever met, hell he even gave me a discount because I didn't have all that much money to spend at the time.

Well just to give you an idea of how BAD prices were exactly were, here are some figures, please try to restrain yourself from laughing too hard as this guy was a complete joke.

Atari Jaguar $99.99
Panasonic 3DO (it was the best model, at least according to him) 129.95
Sega nomad $125.95
Colecovision $125.95 (I pretty sure that is what he was asking)
Atari Lynx somewhere between $60 and $80, can't remember exactly (I knew this guy was a joke the second he responded to me saying that price was high, with "Oh, the Lynx is really collectible right now". RIIIIIGHT, sure maybe for some rich ass sucker who doesn't know any better, but then again why would a rich ass sucker being buying a lynx 1?)
Turbo Grafx, with missing back cover...$125.95
Samurai Spirits 2 and various other common as hell AES games all $79.95.
Legend of Mana $69.95
Saga Frontier 1 and 2 $39.95 and $49.95 respectably (I swear he knew nothing of the contents of these horrible games. He probably just saw Squaresoft on the cover and was like, "Squaresoft huh? Don't know what the hell this game is, but I sure can't let it go for under 40 bucks, and a sequel? $10 bucks more.)
Sega Backup ram cart $79.95 (I'm sorry this just cracked me up!)
Atari Greatest hits or whatever it was called $14.95 (see? even cheap ass common games are overpriced!)

The list goes on and on, after a while I just gave up asking prices for the systems, because they were consistently near or over $100.00. I should have looked at the prices for the CD-i games he had for a laugh, but I didn't bother because anytime CD-i is involved my eyes just kind of glaze over it. He had a ton of games tough, especially nes games. A whole case filled with easily over 1000 games. Hmm.. I wonder why, maybe because no one wants to spend what would probably be $9.95 on common ass games like Dragon Warrior? I swear, nothing was cheaper than $9.95 in that store, oh believe me he CLAIMED to have some, he just didn't have any of those titles in stock. Yeah sure whatever. He also proved very unknowledgeable when talking about games, and when it was all said and done I knew what this place had become. Yes people, the Console Game Exchange in the Frisco mall is the freaking Funcoland of the 21st century. It had everything Funcoland had, unreasonable prices on used games, a manager that didn't know crap, hell I was waiting for him to cram some sort of cleaning kit down my throat when I bought the few games that I could afford.

Not only that but there was some sort of tension between him and Shawn. When I asked about Shawn and a way to get in touch with him, he said he had a handle, but couldn't remember it. More like he wouldn't tell me because if Shawn found out what he had done to his old store, he would most indefinitely turn into a hulking mass of a man, run all the way back from Florida, and obliterate his ass. He also said something about that he worked in one of their other stores as manager for 7 years before being "tricked" into being sent to the Frisco mall after Shawn's move. He also spewed crap about how he organized the store better than Shawn had it (in reality he just rearranged it, it was no better or worse organization wise than the was Shawn had it, hell it was slightly worse because you couldn't see all of the nes games in the case the were in due to the way they were stacked.)

Also when I told him I bought a Master System for $20 less than he was asking for when Shawn was manager, he replied with "Well how much was Shawn asking for nes' at the time $100?" When I told him nes' were never more than $60 when Shawn was there nor did any older system that wasn't say Neo-Geo AES go quite so near $100, he replied with this rubbish: "Well I had to raise the prices of systems, just enough to keep a stock and so that they weren't flying off of the shelves, and even when I raised them they still flew off the shelves." Really? Looked like he way too much stock, due to his pricing to me, and why the hell would you want stock of old no longer manufactured systems rather than making money selling them.

Well I could go on and on about this guy and the fall of a once awesome store, but I better stop my rant here before I take up two pages worth of space. Shawn if by some off chance you are reading this PLEASE come back or at least get in touch with me. The downfall of another once great store, the last local one I know at that, has me upset. At least come back to teach this new manager a lesson.

Btw by what the manager there now said they opened up two more stores where Suncoast pictures used to be in Valley View and Collin creek malls. I am hoping they don't suck like this one. Also I just noticed on the business card of that store has a free game of bowling compliments of them. Too bad a free game of bowling will never make up for the way things used to be run there, sigh....

End original rant

After writing this earlier this year and never posting it, I found out that Shawn split form the Console Game Exchange stores to open his own store in Florida. I wish I was in Florida, cause I know for a fact it must kick more ass than Mr. T after finding out that a group of thugs just insulted his mom. We went to the store in the Colin Creek mall, the guy working there was way more cool, although the prices were more of the same. In fact when we mentioned Funcoman to this guy, he called him a dick as he knew who we were talking about, AND he gave me info on how to get in touch with Shawn. Also Mithos happened to buy a Game Gear from Funcoman, which we later found out needed sound AND video cap replacements, and came with a complementary dead gnat in the screen! No wonder why he lied about not having a power supply (of which we saw several behind him) to test it before Mithos bought it. Finally let it be know that if we ever see Funcoman again, that Game Gear he sold Mithos is gonna get implanted into his face, after getting the ass beating of his life of course!

Cover Art in Video Games

2008-08-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

Ok i just dont get it why do we here in North America get some of the worst cover art on our video games.

Over in Japan they have always had the best art on the boxes/cases of there video games it seems which is great but I wish U.S. game publishers would follow suit and either use the import game art or come of with better art for there releases stateside.

Japanese cover Final Zone II

US cover Final Zone II

The PC Engine is a prime example of this look at the art on PCE cases vs art on its U.S. counterpart the Turbografx-16 the T-16 art is just bad compare to the PCE.

Now this is not always the case as Winds of Thunder and Lords of Thunder(T-16 version of Winds) retained the same great art work and am sure there are a few others too.

And am sure there are fans out there that like the Turbografx-16 cover art but I just think the PC Engine art is so much better.

This is like this on most game systems from the NES up to the PS2 I guess it just how things were and are now but I think its getting better with fans having more awareness of the import side of gaming and with anime being so mainstream now we are seeing more games being brought over to the US and having there cover art being unchanged now.

Still it would of been nice to have seen more PCE art on T-16 games but I guess that would take away from the charm of PC Engine and the uniqueness of the Turbografx-16.

A introduction is in order......

2008-07-31T18:14:00.000-07:00

When i was asked to be a part of the HuPack i was pretty excited about it really as being able to Blog with other PC Engine/Turbo-16 fans was something i found to be interesting and could be loads of fun.

But i also realized that the people i would be Blogging with really do not have a ideal of who Jboypacman is and thoses who would be reading this Blog might want a ideal of who i am as well.

So here my story which i will keep short.......

I have been a long time video gamer having started playing them back in the late 70s/early 80s.

I first played video games at home on a Coleco Tele-Star Pong system followed by shortly there after the Atari 2600 which i still collect and play even today.

My very first arcade game was Space Invaders then followed by the classic Omega Race and then the one arcade game that would have the most impact on me Pac-Man.

I have ran the gambit of video game systems over the years but the ones i have now settled into are the PC Engine,Atari 2600 and the Sega Master System.

So there is the short version of my video gaming story i hope this will give you the readers and my fellow bloggers a ideal of who jboypacman is as far as a video gamer goes.

The personal stuff well thats something you will just have to find out about as we become friends here on the HuPack.

Thanks for reading and take care untill next time.

Chip Tunes

2008-07-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

So if you ever get to know me, and the subject of music is brought up you will find that there is only one kind of music for me: chip tunes. Now I know what you may be thinking. How is that bleep bloop stuff even considered music and how can it be the only thing I listen to? Well first of all it isn't "bleep bloop" music, it is just as much like music as rock, hip-hop, or whatever it is you kids listen to these days. Chip music, when done right can be just as inspired as "real" music if not more so, and there are countless types of chips that produce different sounds and many different "styles" as I like to call them. Just as with artists of more traditional forms of music, you can often tell when a certain chip tune artist made a particular music for a game. It really is amazing how imaginative these artists can get especially considering in some cases all they had to work with were things like square waves and noise channels. Contrary to what you may believe by this point, the purpose of this article is not for me to rant and rave about how awesome chip tunes are (which they are by the way), but rather to SHOW you how awesome they are and hopefully by the end of this article I will have pointed you out to something you may have overlooked or not given a chance before.

So here's what I am going to do. Every now and then (hopefully once a week), I will pick one console, computer, or hand held that made use of chip music, and go into detail about what is is capable of, and make some recommendations of music to listen to.

First up the Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom. Ah the good old nes, for many it was their first and they hold fond memories of it's games. Who can blame em with such classics as Super Mario Brothers, Castlevania, Metroid, Punch Out, and Zelda amongst others. It wasn't my first system and even I get this nostalgic feeling from playing it's games. However lots of time, the nes gets a bad rap for having lame, simple, or primitive sounding chip tunes. Granted the Super Mario Brothers theme is a classic forever etched into anyone who has ever played a games' memory, but you have to admit that, while catchy, it is a very simple tune. Believe it or not the nes can do better WAY better, and it has. Games like Mother, Batman, Astynax, Journey to Silius, Silver Surfer, Sky Shark, and Target Renegade show what the nes is really capable of. All of those games I mentioned have quite different styles and give you an idea of the range of sounds the nes can produce. Well except for the last three which were all made by the same artist Tim Follin, who by the way made some kick ass tunes for many old systems and computers back in the day.

But that's not all! Those lucky bastards in Japan, boy do they get the good stuff. You see the whole idea behind the nes/famicom was to produce a cheap, not so powerful system and as required allow for add on chips in cartridges, to enhance what the system could do. The vast majority of nes games used one of these mappers as they are called, and it allowed for the pretty weak nes to do some pretty impressive stuff for the time. One such enhancement were mappers that allowed for extra channels of sound, in some cases even fm synthesis! Unfortunately for whatever reason as usual, in the US we got shafted, and the capability for the mappers with extra sound channels was removed. Also due to the cost of these mappers that allowed for better sound, relatively few games in Japan even used them. Well with the exception of the famicom disk system which had the capability built into the add-on itself. There are about 6 said chips total (including the disk system) and each produced it's own unique sounding tunes. Probably the most impressive of the bunch, were the Namco106, VRC7, and to a lesser extent the VRC6. The games using the namco106 like Megami Tensei 2 sound very close to the turbo grafx's music, and the VRC7, while only one commercially released game used it (Lagrange Point), was pretty damned impressive. The VRC7 made the nes sound similiar to the Sega Genesis, but better! It's a damn shame we never got to experience any of it over here, and even more of a shame so few games use them. Fortunately, due to the nes's thriving popularity, there is a community of many people making chip tunes to this day that will run on actual hardware, and yep you guessed it, they often use the special chips to unlock the nes's full potential.

If you want to listen to some good old nes tunes for yourself, you can download a plugin for Winamp called nezplug++ that supports many chip tune formats including nes, gameboy, turbo grafx, amongst others, and then download a mostly complete library of game chip tunes: http://www.snesmusic.org/hoot/nsf/nsf_games.rar and homebrew tunes: http://www.snesmusic.org/hoot/nsf/nsf_homebrew.rar.

There's a lot of good stuff there so it should keep you occupied until next time! I hope...

By Zeon

Who Are We?

2008-07-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

We are a group of Videogame collectors, players and Modders. Why have we put up a Blog? Well it's more about being part of group really to get content up as we see fit. Reviews, mods, collections and just general videogame interest and fun subjects. We have a group here who has extensive experience in videogaming and playing of videogames. We will be looking for more contribitors as we move along with this venture. Missa came up with this wonderful idea from the pcenginefx chat. I thought a group of videogamers collectively comming together to get content up on the blog whether it be games themselves, movies, PCFX, PCEngine, sega, nintendo etc etc. They are all good! Most of us have nice collections and will hopefully be posting some pics of our collections for everyone to enjoy and envy. Right now there are 3 of us contributing to this blog with the hopes that more peeps would like to get involved. The more the merrier! So if you would be interested send any one of us an email and we can get you in on something truly exciting hopefully. So come along for the ride and see how you can contribute to our little corner of the world!

Windancer