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Konami announces the TurboGrafx-16 Mini (UP: list of games revealed - see threadmark)
- Thread starter vestan
- Start date
So wait a minute, Snatcher - an entirely narrative spoken word & text based adventure game is going to be released entirely in Japanese in the U.S.? WTF?!?
Also - where the @%*# is Legendary Axe??
I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread that Keith Courage was adapted from some anime TV series.
The chances of it seeing a re-release were really low.
The chances of it seeing a re-release were really low.
Victor Interactive Software made that game and they're known for being a record label that copyright blocks any YT video with Namco music in it these days (basically, the strictest , so they haven't offered a rerelease of their games in years because that's not who they are anymore. It's never coming out of hiding sadly.
As for snatcher, there's no US translation, so there's nothing for them to use. I'm kinda glad it's coming at all since as someone with some understanding of Japanese, I can at least enjoy it. I do hope they maybe find a way to add subtitles to the voices though, somehow.
Bonk 1/2 are on there, don't worry. No 3 though. Keith will never be rereleased as Sunrise owns the rights to the game as the JPN version was based off an anime. Somehow they have the rights to the US version as well, probably because they maybe considered bringing the show to the west and made it a new license.
It's ironically the only game to be replaced so i'm honestly surprised tbh. I'd rather swap out Necromancer for Salamander as that game's poop anyway
Great list, at least a good few of the games I still wanted to buy are on there like Soldier Blade, Ninja Spirit, the English versions of Neutopia, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Gradius 1 & 2 and Salamander. Soldier Blade especially is expensive as shit so that one alone makes it worth it to get one.
They should just use the text and voices from the Sega CD version of Snatcher - it's nearly identical to the PC engine version.
If someone uninitiated with Snatcher doesn't understand Japanese, they aren't going to enjoy playing it entirely in Japanese, since it focuses 100% on story - and reading as well as listening are required to not only follow the narrative, but also to make decisions and enjoy the game. Including Snatcher without an English translation is a foul move on Konami's part.
Something else that would have made this a must have item would have been the inclusion of the much touted and never released SuperGrafx version of Strider.
It's deplorable!
It would be like Square-Enix releasing a never-before released Final Fantasy game - but only in Japanese in the U.S. and expecting English speaking audiences to find their own way through it somehow, while still attempting to understand what was going on.
NEC was the manufacturer, but were building Hudson's reference design. Sort of like how AMD or NVidia make GPU reference designs, then companies like Diamond actually manufacture them. Except, unlike GPUs, NEC held exclusive manufacturing rights indefinitely. Hudson's reference design dates back to a bunch of small independent projects they had come together, like Hucards are the evolution of their Bee Card line of software for the MSX (designed to make manufacturing cost of games cheaper). The heart of the TG16/PC Engine is a super common processor architecture, being essentially an Hudson-variant of the popular 6502 chip, basically the same CPU that powered the Commodore 64 and NES.
If the option is either not release it at all, or release it untranslated, which do you think is the better option?
There is no magic button that would do this. The source code is probably not existent or at least not in any shape to easily modify, and that leaves the only other option a long and painful hack job.
As far as the game selection goes, I think this is mostly a good list. However, I'm disappointed there isn't Son Son 2 on the list. I also would have liked to see Be Ball and the Doraemon game, but maybe cause I played the shit out of those as a kid and loved them. I also kind of remember there being a Kitaro game on PC Engine that I would have liked to see but I don't remember exactly what it was called or if was even that or just more of a Japanese mythology game featuring ghosts.
On the Turbographix side I think they hit most of the favorites; Keith Courage is actually a pretty bad game so I won't miss it. I will miss Splatterhouse and Dungeon Explorer 2 though.
On the Turbographix side I think they hit most of the favorites; Keith Courage is actually a pretty bad game so I won't miss it. I will miss Splatterhouse and Dungeon Explorer 2 though.
games like snatcher and policenauts use a modular platform independent kernel to achieve their ports, essentially a super basic virtual machine. This virtual machine handles the text parsing systems of the games. US Sega CD snatcher handles english text through an additional, sega CD specific module that is not part of the original kernel, written in 68000 assembly. The PC Engine doesn't run this type of code, the module is incompatible with other ports of the game. It's not as easy as just sticking the text from the Sega CD version into the PC Engine version, it'd require significant reengineering.
Wait, I'm a little confused.
So all versions are shipping with 50 games split between US and JP versions, correct? But there's going to be some regional differences, has anyone listed them yet?
I intended to buy a JP model just for the looks and the chance that it had more games than the western versions, but seeing that Amazon JP will do exclusive Prime pre-orders I don't think I can get one now.
On the other hand, if the EU version ends up getting pretty much the same games, then it's a bit better, even if the grey look is soooooo dull compared to the JP model.
So all versions are shipping with 50 games split between US and JP versions, correct? But there's going to be some regional differences, has anyone listed them yet?
I intended to buy a JP model just for the looks and the chance that it had more games than the western versions, but seeing that Amazon JP will do exclusive Prime pre-orders I don't think I can get one now.
On the other hand, if the EU version ends up getting pretty much the same games, then it's a bit better, even if the grey look is soooooo dull compared to the JP model.
It also means you don't have to buy different region minis to get all of the games unlike the Nintendo Classics. I mean, it still has 24 US games which puts it right in the middle of the NES and SNES classic, PLUS the 26 Japanese titles.
What I'm getting at is this is a long way to go to find something to complain about.
Several of those Japanese titles are literally just the same US games, in Japanese.
The whole thing is just bizarre. I can't understand how so many publishers have tried to get in on this mini console craze, and only Nintendo got it right.
I'm genuinely bummed about the lack of Gate of Thunder but oh well.
The lineup is pretty damn good but here's to hacking it. ;)
Did we ever get official confirmation on who is doing the emulation?
Assuming the emulation is solid, I'm in just for potentially having a Rondo of Blood release comparable to the Wii VC release. (The PSP and PS4 ports have some scaling and audio desync issues here and there; The Wii VC release was the only re-release to lack any of those issues, being straight emulation)
As someone who only recently started getting into Gradius, it's nice to see the second game in particular here. Are the PCE versions generally decent?
As someone who only recently started getting into Gradius, it's nice to see the second game in particular here. Are the PCE versions generally decent?
Definitely--both Gradius games, Salamander and Detana Twinbee are all fantastic conversions, and Parodius Da! isn't bad either but they clearly hit their limits with that one.
There's only one difference, from the looks of things: the Japanese version has Tokimeki Memorial (Konami's anime dating sim) but the US/EU versions replaced it with Salamander.
Konami should own the game rights so they are consciously leaving out one of the best game on the console.
It's bizarre!
Exactly. I can't believe people are actually complaining about this and calling it lazy. That's why companies in general would rather remove something like that for certain regions instead of releasing it untranslated, I guess.
Really glad to see this coming out. Looking forward to finally be able play the PCE and a good selections of the system's top games!
Looks as if Konami is the only publisher to release the same list of games worldwide, which is fine by me. Too bad for the Snatcher being in jp only for the non-japanesed crowd. Guess we'll have to rely on Sega and a Mini Mega CD (low probabilities) or some Ages version at some point.
Looks as if Konami is the only publisher to release the same list of games worldwide, which is fine by me. Too bad for the Snatcher being in jp only for the non-japanesed crowd. Guess we'll have to rely on Sega and a Mini Mega CD (low probabilities) or some Ages version at some point.
It most certainly isn't. The TG-16 Mini lineup is fantastic; there's so much stuff I never thought would get on there in a billion years. I'm hyped for it. But the inclusion of Snatcher on the Western console - a highly-regarded cult game beloved by the fans who would even consider buying this thing - and then not accomodating an English translation for it? That's a foolish move and absolutely valid to be upset about. I know it's not a simple matter to remedy (you can't just copy-paste the Mega CD script like someone else has said), but I think it's fair enough to complain about.
Their first PCE-related product came out earlier this year, actually. The commercial demand for PCE emulation is primarily dictated by whatever Konami wants to do and, well, Konami.
Part of me wants to say their workload as of late probably makes that idea unlikely, but at the same time, part of said workload involved officially localizing Kid Dracula and Seiken Densetsu 3, so weirder stuff has happened, I guess.
Not really holding my breath, though.
Fantastic lineup but as always there are puzzling omissions. Legendary Axe is a fantastic game and was one of the bigger early games for the system. Anyone know of any licensing issues with it?
I assume licensing issues are why we aren't getting Keith Courage or Bloody Wolf (which is a Data East game I believe). BW is a pretty good run and gun.
I assume licensing issues are why we aren't getting Keith Courage or Bloody Wolf (which is a Data East game I believe). BW is a pretty good run and gun.
Source for this please?
Also, great list, but kinda confused why there are seperate US and JPN versions for games? No splatterhouse bums me out, but no bloody wolf, bonk 3, or outrun stumps me.
Or either street fighter! Fuck!
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I count 15 shooters, many of them excellent. Makes up somewhat for the lacklustre showing from the MD mini in this department.
It was the Japan-only Darius collection for Switch, they threw in a rare PCE promo game as part of the special edition. The emulator they used was something a programmer was making as a hobby project, so they were able to throw in that one game as an extra, but at that point the emulator was basically configured just for that game and couldn't handle CD games or anything aside from that one specific ROM.
Legendary Axe is one of those games that was owned by companies that got merged into other companies, I believe Marvelous AQL owns it now. It never showed up on Virtual Console on anywhere else.
They didn't have much choice, the TG16 library isn't exactly well-rounded.
MD Mini has, what, six shooters between regions? and that's probably five too many for the average modern player, but I'm not complaining.
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Goddamn that's a great lineup. I was already planning on picking one up, but now I'm genuinely excited about it.
I have no experience with the TurboGrafx-16 but am pretty tempted to get this. Ys I & II are titles I wanted to try one day, anyways, for sure. Gauging responses in this thread, it seems like the games are going to be a fairly good representation of the best of what the system has to offer. I always wanted to try Snatcher; it's unfortunate that that game will be in Japanese text, only.