PC Engine mini is coming!

[big10p]

In various flavours.

https://www.konami.com/games/pcemini/gate

https://www.theverge.com/2019/6/11/18662198/turbografx-16-mini-console-announced-konami

big10p2019-06-12 13:36:11

 

[neoretro]

This is great news.

It’s in my top 3 consoles the Turbo Grafx and I’m always trying to get people involved in it. Everyone’s Christmas present now sorted.

 

[Bods]

The only reason I probably would of bought one of the original PC Engine, was because the Arcade Conversions were probably the best you could get then but I never really bothered with Console due to prices and game prices

Now you have the arcade machines and mame for me it's probably not worth bothering

Cool there doing one though

 

[RolyRetro]

I've never had a PC Engine so this would be great - with CD's and Hu Cards hard to come by and issues with multiple hardware versions this could be a great solution...

 

[muddymusic]

The original was tiny anyway, I'm wondering if it will just be the same size rather than 'mini'!

 

[Body pop]

I loved my pc engine collection ,sold it all a while back
It would be good if they put some cd games on it like gradius 2 or wonderboy
As mentioned though ,these games can be played on mame or xbox coin ops
They haven’t been done to death though like nes games ,so it could still be appealing if price is right and a good selection of games
As good as rtype is on pc engine and others ,I don’t think playing it over the arcade version would be a choice id make very often

 

[_Matt_]

I've been wondering what size they would make the pc engine mini ever since the nes mini came out.

It will have to be at least a bit smaller or they can't call it a mini, but it if goes to small it will look a bit weird once you have all the wires coming out of it.

Will defo get one, still think the PC engine is the best looking console ever. The TG16 looks like a cheap plastic piece of crap though.

 

[John Bennett]

I'm probably the wrong audience, but is this not almost the equivalent of a Raspberry PI in a PC engine shaped box?

I guess most customers don't care about compatibility with original HU cards, controllers, 15kHz CRTs etc...

 

[big10p]

I was wondering about how they'd do a 'mini' PC Engine too, since the original one is tiny anyway. Maybe they should go the other way and make an over-sized one!

 

[_Matt_]

I was wondering about how they'd do a 'mini' PC Engine too, since the original one is tiny anyway. Maybe they should go the other way and make an over-sized one! 

YES! I'd buy one of those for sure, it would look amazing 18" x 18"

Can just imagine all the envious looks as I walk down the street with that bad boy under my arm. I'd take it everywhere with me like those woman that carry their dogs in their hand bags.

 

[Vinegar Joe]

Doesn't look that 'mini':

But still interested if the price, quality and games are good.

 

[RygarR]

Lol. Is that any smaller than the original?

Seriously though, I wonder how popular this is gonna be over here? Hardly anyone had one bitd, and those who did probably still run the originals. So the nostalgia quotient isn't gonna be huge.

Not to say the PC Engine wasn't well ahead of its time, but that time was 30 years ago now...

Doesn't look that 'mini':

But still interested if the price, quality and games are good.

 

[Vinegar Joe]

I've always had a fascination with the PCE ever since I saw one in a gaming mag back in the 80's. It seemed like it was on a whole different level to my Master System at the time, but it was frustratingly out of reach.

I suspect there will be more people in a similar situation to me than are people who are nostalgic because they actually owned one.

Which may explain why they've gone with the PCE rather than the TG16 for Europe. It may be a clever move - nostalgia plus the added allure of something exotic that was never available until now.

 

[RygarR]

You've got a point there. It's a similar story for me. And if I hadn't got hold of a genuine PCE and Everdrive quite recently, I'd probably have been tempted to get one of these myself. But only the original white one! The one thing that would have held me back is the lack of Hu-card functionality, especially considering its size. If this thing had read Hucards and allowed for a library of ROMs it would have been amazing.

I've always had a fascination with the PCE ever since I saw one in a gaming mag back in the 80's. It seemed like it was on a whole different level to my Master System at the time, but it was frustratingly out of reach.

I suspect there will be more people in a similar situation to me than are people who are nostalgic because they actually owned one.

Which may explain why they've gone with the PCE rather than the TG16 for Europe. It may be a clever move - nostalgia plus the added allure of something exotic that was never available until now.

 

[RygarR]

Compare and contrast...

 

[Bods]

I couldn't really see the point in buying the mini NES and SNES

Assuming the people that did buy them are the Nintendo Fans that want any official product to add to their collection. for me I would much sooner have the flex ability of a Pi in a NES or SNES case so you can have all the games. 20 or 30 games like they put on them, I know I'll be bored in no time and it won't have the games you wanted

PC Engine in it's day was amazing, I didn't have one or any of my friends but remember them in one Video Game shop in town, I did get the emulator years back and tried some of the games out, was as close to arcade at home you could get

Previous arcade quality games on console to these were the Colecovision, they were amazing at the time too

Wow I didn't realise they were that small anyway, years since I saw them in the shop

If you don't have an original then these would be ok to own, but I would only bother if they made all the games available, they should bring these mini consoles out and at least allow streaming of all titles to add priced each, they would surely make more money that way, but then I guess with games being made by different companies they can't

So if Konami own Hudson, are you only going to see Konami games

Still sooner have original or wait till Retroflag case for Pi

 

[RygarR]

Guaranteed at least half the release games will be pants. But I'd be very surprised if these new minis weren't (deliberately) hackable, like all the other ones seem to be. The flash memory might not be huge, but let's face it, 90% of the games library won't have stood the test of time, or would have been rubbish when new anyway. If there's space for 100 odd games, that's more than you'll ever need. The bigger question is whether they've configured it to play versions of the CD based games as well as Hu-card ROMS. That's something even the mighty everdrive can't manage (as yet!).

 

[big10p]

Dracula X and Ys are supposed to be on the jap version - they're CD games, aren't they? Also, these are supposed to support various video modes, including a CRT/scanline effect mode and there's going to be a multitap for 5 player fun.

 

[neoretro]

I’d have to disagree with people saying this won’t have aged well.

I still play my Turbo Grafx now for mainly up scrolling shooters and they’re fantastic. Nothing like it I think except for perhaps the Japanese Saturn.

Very arcade and very fun. Plus it’ll be tiny so can play it anywhere in the house without much fuss.

 

[RygarR]

Dracula X and Ys are supposed to be on the jap version - they're CD games, aren't they? Also, these are supposed to support various video modes, including a CRT/scanline effect mode and there's going to be a multitap for 5 player fun.

Really? Could be worth a punt in that case...