A very Dangerous Journey!

Here's a crazy way to connect Gary Gygax to the Turbografx. (Not just through their collective love of the letter "X")

in 1992-93 Gary left TSR he went to start his own RPG that eventually became Dangerous Journeys. Very similar to D&D with a few twists, but it never really took off the ground. For a bit of time Electronic Arts and NEC/TTi had planned on releasing video games based on the world for PC, SNES, and Turbo Super CD!! It was planned to release around the same time as Beyond Shadowgate, so I was EXTREMELY excited to see this release... However, it was never meant to be. 🙁

Gary Gygax’s Dangerous Journeys™ Super CD Adventure Game

Coming soon for the new Turbo Duo is TurboGrafx Super CD version of Gary Gygax’s Dangerous Journeys™, a new Mulitgenre Roleplaying Game System, This product can be used on the new Turbo Duo platform or the TurboGrafx CD accessory system with system-upgrade card. Initial release of the Dangerous Journeys product is planned for April, 1993.

For more information contact 1-800-366-0136Dangerous Journeys is a trademark of Omega Helios Limited.TTI Turbo Technologies, Inc.

According from the Turbo Grafx ad so, the release date was optimistically set to April 1993. In fact, between the 1992 and 1993, some previews of the game appeared on the Turbo Play Magazine.

 

Due to TSR's lengthy lawsuit against Gary in regards to his Dangerous Journeys game being too similar in style/gameplay and NEC/TTi starting to bow out of the video game market by mid 1993-1994, the game was ultimately scrapped....

Team Innocent- Point of No Return (PC-FX) Review

The PC-FX by NEC was meant to be the successor to the incredible PC Engine console era. The 32-bit tower of power was announced in 1992 (5 years after the PCE's launch) to moderate fanfare, but fans like myself were hopeful to see the next generation NEC console regardless! However, NEC went in a very strange direction with this new release, focusing on high resolution Full Motion Video rather than a beefed up graphics processor. Matter of fact, the specs are more on par with the Sega CD or Super Nintendo rather than the 3DO, and nowhere near as impressive as the Sega Saturn or Playstation.

A smattering of releases over the first 18 months of the PC-FX's life span and it was more than evident that the console was a flop in Japan. No chance of a release overseas, as the PC-FX quietly set off into the sunset. Retro gamers that chose to add the PC-FX console often recommend a tiny selection of 3 to about 5 games to those curious about the console. Chip Chan Kick, Zenki FX, and Zeroigar are the most English friendly games you can get your hands on. They're also some of the most expensive! A puzzle platformer, an action game, and the one singular shoot 'em up. Otherwise, the rest of the FX library (63 games) is heavy on RPGs, TTRPGS, Dating Sims, and some otherwise softcore digital adventures. The best selling games in Japan had a more mature theme if you know what I mean...

Now here we are 400 years later and in today's retro gaming world the PC-FX is barely an afterthought, but somehow we have gotten a few brilliant folks out there doing fan-translations for us avid fans! Giving even those without the ability to read or speak Japanese a chance to try some of these obscure games!

Most recently the very curious survival horror in space game: Team Innocent: The Point of No Return was fan-translated in English!! I have attempted a few times in the past to play this one with a gamefaq or guide but was never very successful in my attempts, however with this incredible translation I was able to sit down and give this an honest effort! I even streamed and recorded my efforts finishing the game here!

I give my thoughts on the game as I play through it, however I will say this now that I've had time to reflect a bit. It's honestly pretty decent for being one of the pioneer games of the genre. TI predates Resident Evil by nearly two years, and has many of the same play mechanics found in Capcom's beloved series. Complete with tank controls, jump scares and fairly adult themes with gore and violence. As a whole I'm happy to have experienced the game, and would recommend it to any PC-FX fan out there.

This game is a PC-FX exclusive, so no luck finding ports on the Saturn or Playstation, however I would say if this game WAS released for either of those systems it would easily get lost in the shuffle as only a slightly above average action game. The cutscenes are great, the still image shots of various locals in the game are well done, and the tank controls are.. well, as tanky as ever! Once you get used to navigating diverse environments, solving puzzles, and overcoming enemies and traps, it's a pretty simple game to wrap your head around. The game features detailed rendered backdrops and an eye-catching intro.

The 3 missions come complete with maps to follow and fetch quests throughout to carry you through the story. The story goes something like this; —Saki, Lilis, and Arial—were genetically engineered fifteen years ago by Cronus Enhancer at the Tone Lab. Since then, the GF Police have trained them into a formidable special operations team. There's a few twists and turns along the way where the girls find out who their father or creator is and it's a whole thing with a big exploding space ship climax at the end and all sorts of chaos! Give it a shot if you've got a CD burner and a PC-FX just waiting to get played!

I prefer Legendary Axe 2

Debates like this are timeless. Which game is your favorite in a series? There are your Super Mario Bros. 3 folks, the Super Mario World fans, and then those oddballs who love Super Mario Bros. 2. What defines a specific game as "better"? Is it play control, story, graphics, music, or something else? Does nostalgia play a role in defining a game as better? I think it's a little bit of all of the above. There can be a difference between which game is simply "better" versus which game is your personal favorite.

For today's series in question, there are only two games. Even stranger (not quite as strange as the Wonder Boy/Adventure Island series strange) is that these games are only related as a "1" and "2" series on US shores. Legendary Axe was released as Makyō Densetsu on the PCE in Japan in 1988. Legendary Axe II was released as Ankoku Densetsu in 1990. They were developed by Victor Musical Industries, Inc. as games with similar styles: hulking, scantily dressed men wandering about, slashing and hacking baddies to pieces. The original had a unique attack method of charging your attacks the further you leveled up.

LA2 did away with the charge-your-attack method and built its game world around darker stages with added gore and a slightly horror theme—a style not too different from many early 16-bit adopters like Namco's Splatterhouse. Not to mention, the focus of LA1 was the warrior wielding an axe to destroy monsters. In LA2, the axe is mostly a mid-range weapon and rarely seems preferred to the swords and whips found within.

The first time I booted up Legendary Axe, I noticed similarities to another game: the arcade and NES release of Astyanax. The charging attack, accessing items through statues within stages—even some of the monsters you fight look similar. Looking further into it, Astyanax and Legendary Axe were developed by many of the same programmers! So, in essence, LA could be considered part of the Astyanax series!

Then we got Legendary Axe 2. It feels like a breath of fresh air. Some of the flaws of LA1 have been corrected. A darker palette, more original monsters, better level design. The character just feels more capable, and as a result, the game is easier too, which could be considered a drawback, I suppose, but to me, it was a welcome change. "But you hardly even use an axe!?"  Sure, "Golden Axe" by Sega only had one character using an axe too.  It's ok. 

Legendary Axe 2 just feels more 16-bit to me. Like NEC/Victor figured out how to make a game that could hold its own against big arcade games on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. LA2 is a step up in soundtrack, in boss design, and includes much larger levels with better balance. LA2, to me, feels more on par with Ninja Spirit in the sense that it looks like a "next gen" game. No way could it have been accomplished on an NES. I'm not too sure the LA1 couldn't have been an NES game with it's presentation...

I love both games. It's a shame we never got an LA3, as that would have blown all of our minds, especially if it would have gotten a Super CD release! I guess to some extent, we could appreciate Shape Shifter as a somewhat similar action game with open-concept/"Metroid"-style worlds, but that would be a massive stretch.

Which do you prefer? What other polarizing opinions are there in the PC Engine universe? Lords of Thunder vs. Gate? Neutopia I vs. II? Favorite Ys game?

Special Ninja Squad (PC Engine) in development!!

 FG Software  in conjunction with Kulor Research Labs (Music/sounds) have been working hard on a NEW PC Engine/Turbografx action game!  The first screengrabs from the development progress has got lots of excitement in our small PCE circle!  You should be excited for this release!

Check out some music sampling on Kulor's bsky account!

FG Software on twitter videos

Most of the teasers and video is available on twitter and over on BlueSky but I've managed to scrap together a bit of the highlights over here on youtube!  Check out the video below for some of the early development gameplay footage!

Special Ninja Squad on HuCard looks so good!  Taking elements from some major 8 and 16 bit classics with superb challenge and incredible music!  Ninja Squad has never looked more stellar!  Follow both FG Software and Kulor to find out more information about release dates and more!!

Team Innocent on PC-FX gets a translation!!

 

The PC-FX has always been the black sheep of the NEC hardware library. The final chapter in NEC's console legacy went out in disappointment. I recall sitting eagerly reading about NEC's 32-bit follow up to the PC Engine. The greatest console of my childhood is getting a follow up!! Only to be left in Japan with a small library and lacking the variety of it's older sibling of OBEY. The PC-FX's disappointing run did give us a few gems that we've enjoyed in English speaking regions (and I do mean FEW). Games like Zeroigar, Zenki FX, and Chip Chan Kick always remain the stand-by "fun" games accessible to those non-Japanese speaking retro fans. With a sprinkle in of some Pia Carrot (Translated by filler and David Michael) we have a small handful of the sparse PC-FX library in English.  

That changes now!!  The amazing PC Engine translation/mod community continues to pump out incredible projects, and this year we got an incredible Christmas gift!!  Team Innocent on the PC-FX in ENGLISH for the first time!!

I would say outside of the games mention above, that Team Innocent was seen as one of the more impressive PC-FX exclusive titles that are actually really fun to play no matter what language you speak! The BETA of this work is here!!

"Team Innocent: The Point of No Return - G.C.P.O.SS plunges players into a futuristic saga of mystery and survival," says the group behind this patch. "The story begins with the Galactic Police uncovering a horrifying secret: a rogue scientist, Cronus, has been conducting forbidden genetic experiments on humans. In a daring rescue, the police chief saves three young girls, each marked by the results of these experiments."

Fifteen years pass, and those girls – Saki, Lilis, and Ariel – are now adults and are serving in the Galactic Police force. Troubled by their past, the trio embark on individual quests to uncover the truth.

Team Innocent uses pre-rendered backgrounds and 2D sprites and employs fixed camera angles similar to Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. As PC-FX never made it outside of Japan, no official English version exists.

This unofficial translation has been accomplished by and incredible team consisting of Elmer, EsperKnight and Derek Pascarella (programming / hacking), Filler (translation) and Eien ni Hen and Josh / hasnopants (editing). Pascarella also acts as the project manager for the patch!!

MindRec's Luna Patrol and more!!

I've shared my feelings on the passing of the very first homebrew developer of our very favorite console in previous posts, but today we're looking towards the future!  The PCE community has seen a recent uptick in original software creations that is expanding our lovely library of incredible games. In 2025 there should be new SaruSoft and Aetherbyte creations, as well as others yet to be officially announced.

This is conjunction with translation projects has us eagerly anticipating the next big announcement! 

Most recently I've had the opportunity to take a deep dive into VAX for the PCE Super CD and omfg, let me tell you... It's a fantastic party game collection! Slope Dope, VAX, Zar's Ultion, and Wave of Thunder come packed with as four brand new games, and three remastered ones covering two SCDs. This is the arcade collection that you have been waiting for, with something for everyone: Puzzle games, a classic shooting game, arcade racing games, and even the first skiing game for the PCE.

The VAX Collection also introduces a new character to the MindRec family: NN9. Neko Nanobot Nine (aka NN9) is the main character of the flagship game VAX; beating the game in story mode will reveal her story, and her upcoming adventures will keep the TurboDuo light ablaze for the next few years.

However, for the first time ever, we've got an all new release ON HUCARD from MindRec!!  This game is a trippy take on Moon Patrol, but it doesn't end there. The card comes equpped with a very in-depth options menu that allows you to modify just how the game feels and plays. Everything from options on changing your vehicles colours, the challenge level, speed and more!  

You can pick up your copy of Luna Patrol over at guineapig games while supplies last!

The legend of MindRec and Turbografx/PCE homebrew lives on! 

New HuCard!! Strife Sisters SHIPS TODAY!!

 

Some major excitement has been dropping lately in the world of Turbo/PCE!!  Not only do we have incredible fan-translations of highly regarded classics like Dead of the Brain and Far East of Eden, but NEW homebrew is on the way as well!!

Strife Sisters by Laconic Software promises to be a HOT homebrew game for our beloved OBEY box!!

Strife Sisters can be ordered here: https://shop.strifesisters.com/products/strife-sisters

I played an hour of the preview/demo and I can honestly say it's turning out to be one of the BEST homebrew titles available so far!! Set in a strategy war/rpg setting with excellent dialogue and play controls. Top notch visuals and great music to boot!  This game could have easily been released in '93 and I would've been fooled. 

Strife Sisters falls in line with some of the better strategy games like Nectaris (Military Madness) or Vasteel and should NOT be missed!!

The Analogue DUO arrives!!

 

Remembering BT

Who remembers the Turbo List?

 

Many moons ago, the best way to stay in the Turbo loop was to be a member of the Turbo List mail group. Founding members BT Garner complete with conversations that carried on for many years with various members of the Turbo community. Even before PCEngineFX or Magic Engine forums, the Turbo List was the perfect way to trade games, talk secrets and share tips. 

--- Turbo List Information ---------------------------------------------

The File Server has thousands of bytes of information to help you get the 
most out of you system.  Send a message to the turbo-list-request address
with the command DIR for all the names file.  Use GET to access the file.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

For a trip back down memory lane, you can check out the digest archive at this link here!

I was such a Turbo nerd back in the day (and still am, proudly!) that I contributed a few times giving comments here and there, offering trades, and even attempted to write reviews for a couple games.  Oh my... I dug a bit, and found my very own review series... haha

I give you, the 1st of I believe 3 editions of "The Turbo Sage Speaks!"

-Welcome to the Turbo Sage Speaks.  #1  March 26, 2003

In todays column I would like to review a game.  Have you ever been interested in a good racing game for the Turbo Duo?  Racing games are one of the few dark spots for Turbo owners.  For how powerful this system was for its time, there should have been sweet racers for us to enjoy.  But alas we were treated to..... Victory Run. 

Key- ***********************

1.0 Stay far away from this pile!

2.0 Wow!  nothing special here.

3.0 May appeal to some.

4.0 For collectors

5.0 Average

6.0 Got some bright spots, but just not the best

7.0 This is worth playing, possibly owning

8.0 Very Special game indeed

9.0 Not just a game, an experience.

10 Perfection

The Game- Victory Run was a very difficult game.  Were you had to make it to checkpoints within the given time limits.  Sounds like just about every other racer made in the late 80's early 90's.  The further you went in the game the more money you got to spend on certain parts of your car.  Sort of like Gran Turismo.... Don't get excited yet.

The Sound-  Ok, Well The game sounds pretty much like older sounding Turbo games like JJ and Jeff or Keith Courage.  I found my self humming the tunes a bit so I can't say its all that bad.

The Grafx- This is were the game goes down hill. Ok, The Turbo was advertised as the first ever 16-bit monster.  But these grafx were not any better, if not worse than the NES's Rad Racer.  Matter of fact someone not in the know could think I was paying the Nintendo classic!

The Control- Not to say that it was great, but I really had no problem with the control.  Maybe if it were tweaked a bit the game could be more playable.  I have to say its a little irritating when the cars come flying across the screen at you when you can't even get out of the way.

Over all- After playing and failing at the game several times, I decided to hang up my driving boots.  I give this game a 4.0 out of 10 for a decent at best racer for the Turbo Duo.  Like the key says, if your looking for every single game, Victory Run ain't to bad.  You could find this slightly below average racer for less than $10 on ebay for sure.

Do you agree with my grades?  Let me know!

Turbo Sage Speaks out!

I am a Turbo Collector and major fan for over 8 years now.  I have just hit the 100 game mark recently and am very proud of it.  But aside from all of that I would like to talk today about Turbo ISO's.  Are they BAD or are they OK? 

My theory is this.  I consider ISO's a good way for people to keep their collectable and extremely expensive games in there protective cases.  I guess thats the rule right? Everyone that buys an ISO has to be buying them for back ups.  I have back ups for games like Dracula X and Y's I-IV.  And I think that its a good idea for the most part.

I also understand that some people just buy ISO's and have hundreds of them, and call themselfs Collectors.  To me I think this is LAME.  I think Collecting for Video game systems is the thrill of the hunt and finding the HUGE deals on Ebay or Message boards. 

I feel that ISO's have another use though.  Some games are extremely rare and cost an arm and a leg.  On top of that I'd be willing to bet that there aren't any places to rent Turbo Duo games.  To me renting is always a great way to see if you like a game enough to buy it.  So some could consider Buying an ISO for $2 a pop to be a good way to try out a game.  to see if its really worth spending $80 or more on.  I still will play it safe er Un-Safe and collect the old fashioned way.  Its a tuff hobby, but in the end it will be all worth it.  Sometimes you get burned- $75 for Sailor Moon Collection (YIKES) and sometimes you win big time- Dracula X, Snatcher, Shubibinman 3 bundle $97 ( A steal!!)  I know for me it probably evens out.

So long story short-  ISO's good for Backups.  ISO's bad for just buying and stocking up on them.  ISO's possibly good for trying out games you intend on buying.

That's the opinion of the Turbo Sage.

Check out these sites, I check them Daily-    www.darkcityproductions.com  www.pcenginefx.com

Thanks for reading, Next time I will Review The Turbo Classic Shock Man (Shubibinman 2 for PC Engine) and speak out about where I think the Torch was TRULY passed when the Duo Died in America.

TS (Joshua)

The Legend of .... Neutopia?

Neutopia gets a bad rap for being an unapologetic 'Zelda Clone' almost EVERY time it's brought up. I mean.. yeah- the visual similarities are pretty obvious and the gameplay style is very carefully copied from the original Zelda on the NES, but really... can we blame Hudson for trimming some of the most charming elements of the beloved Nintendo 

Well.. hold on now... How much of a Zelda clone really is our Turbo action RPG? The first Neutopia game developed for the PC Engine was released on November 17th, of 1989 then later brought to the US for the Turbografx-16. While no one should argue which came first as the original Zelda was released in February of 1986 which Neutopia takes most of it's inspiration from. Sure.  But, then in 1987, Nintendo developed the sequel - Zelda II: The Adventures of Link, and brought it to the US in 1988. Zelda II takes an entirely different spin on the action RPG genre as it has more in resemblance to games like Faxanadu or Legacy of the Wizard (Xanadu series).  

Was Nintendo taking the Zelda series in a different direction? Were they going to create a third Zelda game in the fashion of a 2D side scroller or traditional action/RPG?  We wouldn't find out until 1991 in Japan and 1992 in the US when Zelda returned to it's original form with the stellar "Link to the Past". 

It could actually be argued that Zelda III- A Link to the Past borrowed ideas and style from Hudson's Neutopia games while in development. I mean, Neutopia could be considered the evolution step between both Zelda (NES) and Zelda III (SNES). Perhaps Hudson did some of the work for them? Neutopia basically did everything that the original Zelda did, but better, and then Zelda III took those efforts and advanced them further... right?

Is any of this to be taken seriously as an argument on which series is better?... of course not, Neutopia is a fun 2 game series, but never truly holds a candle to the entire Legend of Zelda series.  What I truly needed was an excuse to share my recent playthrough of Neutopia II playlist below, so if you're really bored and want to see me play this game for hours on end, feel free to check it out and listen to my rambling about the series in the below playlist!  Thanks for reading!

Obeybrew PCE and Turbo Homebrew Tutorials and more!!

 Click here to check out Obeybrew's tutorials online!

Have you ever been interested in development for the Turbografx-16 or PC Engine game libraries? Do you have killer ideas and want to put them to fruition?  Then you should check out Obeybrew, a website put together by our very own Rover/Nodveidt of Mysterious Song and FX Unit Yuki fame. 

This site was last updated sometime in 2013 (as of this writing) so most of the links are no longer valid, so it's best to just stick to the tutorial section to get an idea of what you're doing, but feel free to bop around and see what you can discover!  Also, it wouldn't hurt to bug David to make an update to the site for all of those up-and-comers looking to develop using HuC. ;)

Dive in, become a developer and let's see what cool creations you can make for the beloved Turbografx/PC Engine! <3 

EVEN MORE HOMEBREW coming to Turbografx!!?!?

 

Homebrew Turbo developers have been churning out more and more frequent content on our beloved Turbo Machine, with most recent releases like Mindrec's VAX collection  which released earlier in 2022 on Super CD-rom2. There have been some serious home runs like Sarumaru's FX Unit Yuki, Bold Game Studio's Cleopatra's Curse, and the incredible Space Ava 201!! 

The excitement continues this fall with Billy's Bad Day on Turbografx (HuCard and TurboChip).  This will be the second official release on HuCard as most of the releases we've seen on Turbografx/PC Engine have been on CD. The first ever original release on Turbografx in the form of an "abCard" (special version of the HuCard) was Aetherbyte's Atlantean. 

Atlantean is an incredible shoot 'em up romp with right and left directional gameplay (similar to Defender) that includes an original soundtrack, some badass parallax scrolling and boss fights!  I completely suck at this game, and should spend some more time with it, but I'm told the further you get the more impressive the game gets!

Like Atlantean, Billy's Bad Day will be available in digital download AND physical release!  And the pre-orders are OPEN NOW!!  Jump in and grab a copy today!

If you'd like a teaser to see what the game is like, try this link to play a demo of one of the stages as well as check out some extras!  Click HERE

As you can see the box art and packaging looks incredible! All done by the very talented MegaBox Productions. If you have any manual or case needs you should definitely check them out!

Anthologies books on the horizon!

 

When it comes to publishers of classic video gaming tomes, there is none better than the French Geeks-Line Publishing! With a stable full of awesome retro gaming anthologies, you can trust in these guys developing and delivering a high quality page turning book.

Their latest campaign on Kickstarter is for an anthology on the NEC gaming systems that wowed us back in the day, the PC-Engine and its many iterations, aliases and also, the PC-FX. Check out the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and PC-FX Anthology Kickstarter now and if you are a fan of their books or the PC-Engine family of gaming systems, then this we’d highly recommend you jump on this right now!

image source: Kickstarter

If you are undecided, read our review of Geeks-Line’s PlayStation Anthology to see what you could expect with their upcoming PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 & PC-FX Anthology.

Order of the Griffon review and... patch update?

Some of my all-time favorite gaming experiences growing up are with the classic SSI & TSR "Gold Box" Dungeons and Dragons adventure RPGs. I have fond memories of playing through Pool of Radiance which then got me hooked on the D&D world. So much that I read the collected Forgotten Realms books that correlated to the games! 

When I finally took the plunge into my beloved Turbo Duo universe I quickly sought out any and all RPG style games. I picked up Might and Magic III, Beyond Shadowgate, Dungeon Master: Theron's Quest and finally D&D Order of the Griffon! I was completely hooked on the gameplay style with excellent graphics, great puzzling dungeons, and fun strategic battles. BUT! One thing always bugged me about the game that kept it from truly being a top tier RPG for obey.  The EXCELLENT chip tunes had the strangest of bugs...  The music would at the strangest times totally glitch out and stop at the point of any action or sound effect.

   

Like for instance, while you're in a battle the music pumping out of your speakers rocks and gets you into the mood for WAR!  However, once you select an attack or magic spell and use one on an opponent the music comes to a halt.. and you're left.. in silence..  Often for many minutes while you're in a difficult battle. The music glitch even happens at the beginning of the game when you're selecting your party!  I really LOVE the soundtrack and wound up sitting still for quite a while to hear some of the cool chiptunes to completion, but most would never hear them fully with such a weird glitch. It's like, someone at SSI did playtest this right?

It was even pointed out in one of Spida1's more recent Turbo Views episodes in Turbo Views #120!  You can check out the review here:

In GREAT news, thanks to our awesome modder and homebrew community in the PC Engine scene you can check out a fix that was put together that corrects (most of) the music glitches in the game!  No longer do you have to fear that your awesome chiptunes will hault if you're attacking someone in a heated battle!  You can check out the ROM with the fixed game here!