PAL TurboGrafx, Vistar -- Hucard Pin Layout

[esteban]

Hi folks, quick question:

Does the European TurboGrafx (PAL) support all North American HuCards?

Does the Korean Vistar support all North American HuCards as well?

I just wanted to confirm that the PAL and Korean consoles didn't have any region-checking performed on software.

Thanks in advance

www.tg-16.com

P.S. Lawrence, congrats on the book you just published! Excellent

[esteban]

My apologies, if I posted in the wrong section. Sorry

[NFG]

The TG-16 hardware has only two region modes, JP or <everything else>.  If your PAL or Vistar system plays one US HuCard it'll play them all.

re: book: Thanks!  I hope it's worth reading.  =)

[esteban]

The TG-16 hardware has only two region modes, JP or <everything else>.  If your PAL or Vistar system plays one US HuCard it'll play them all.

re: book: Thanks!  I hope it's worth reading.  =)

Unfortunately, I don't own any European or Korean hardware (I'd love to, of course, but that's another story...). I'm simply fascinated with PAL TG and Vistar, but I was never quite sure about the software and region encoding.

Lawrence, have you played around with these consoles recently? If so, I'd love to get some additonal info. For example:

Did you ever stumble across any additional "Korean" HuCards (or hear from any folks with first-hand experience with Vistar)?

Do you think North American HuCards were "re-badged" for Europe (as found with the Vistar)? Or do you think they simply kept the American HuCard packaging as-is? Personally, I have never seen any evidence of re-badging for Europe.

[FM-77]

I know there aren't any PAL-specific hu-cards. I've seen the PAL system (it is very easy to get ahold of new unused TG-16 systems here for some reason). I find the PAL TG-16 very strange. Where was it released? Who bought it? Were there even any games available?

By the way: are you esteban666?

[esteban]

I know there aren't any PAL-specific hu-cards. I've seen the PAL system (it is very easy to get ahold of new unused TG-16 systems here for some reason). I find the PAL TG-16 very strange. Where was it released? Who bought it? Were there even any games available?

By the way: are you esteban666?

Hi Seldane . Yes, I am the one and the same .  I want to have only 1 moniker, I really do. It would make things a lot easier.

The PAL TurboGrafx is interesting, and I actually bought one (but I the seller was a deadbeat and I had to get a refund via ebay). So, after that horrible experience, I was going to buy one from lik-sang (or an equivalent online source)... only to be told that they were "out of stock."

Frustrating, indeed.

Anyway, these are the facts, as I understand them:
1. PAL Hardware --> The same mold was used for the console shell, so everything is the same, but the plastic is gray and it was re-badged with a "TurboGrafx" sticker. The controllers, also gray,  were re-badged to simply "TurboGrafx", but the injection-molded plastic still says "TurbGrafx-16" (much like the situation with the Vistar). I can't recall the technical details, hence my questions here. I thought Lawrence had a page dedicated to the PAL TG, but I couldn't find it yesterday. Now, if it wasn't Lawrence, who was it that documented the PAL TG? The fact that I can't remember is frightful.

2. PAL Packaging --> The box seems to be the same dimensions as the North American box, but it features a different layout and design (i.e. large screenshots of R-type and perhaps another game adorn the front of the box). Naturally, the box simply refers to "TurboGrafx." I can't recall if there was a pack-in game (I'm pretty sure there *was none*. I don't know what the back of the packaging looked like. Nor do I know about the printed materials and accessories (if any) that were included with the console. I really would love to see the manual.

3. Eyewitness accounts --> There was a fellow who had a wonderful page documenting all sorts of rarities. He said that someone had seen a PAL TG, complete, new, in box being sold in SPAIN... (but it was years after the 16-bit era, IIRC). Now, this doesn't necessarilly mean that PAL TG was marketed in Spain, but rather that somehow, at least one PAL TG made it there . Unfortuantely, we (the Turbo Community) have not really heard from too many people with first-hand knowledge of PAL TG and how (if) it was marketed, where, and for how long. A few years ago, someone on www.magicengine.com or pcefx.com actually stumbled across PAL TG in the wild. In fact, I think he might have been the very same fellow from Spain that I previously mentioned. Unfortunately, I can't recall the details. Sad but true. I do have a vague memory of this fellow mentioning that a few games were being sold alongside the PAL TG... and for some reason Blazing Lazers comes to mind.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, because my recollection is really fuzzy. I'd say it was 2 1/2 to 4 years ago when some of these events transpired.

You're right, though: I've never heard of any PAL-specific games. I *am* eager to find out if there was PAL-specific packaging, though. Were the manuals re-printed? (Unlikely?) Did special literature accompany the games distrubuted in Europe? (Perhaps).

What we really need, I think, is some evidence of PAL TG actually being sold, marketed, distributed in Europe. If only we had scans of relevant magazines from the period! We could look for evidence.

Until then, we can only speculate.

[FM-77]

So it was you, hehe. Thought so.

Here's an auction of a PAL TG in Sweden

The price is 695 SEK ($95), and buy it now is 995 SEK ($135). Nobody will bid on it, it can easily be purchased for 695 SEK.

The auction says:
Brand new, European version. No games included.

They ship internationally if you'd like to buy it. I've bought stuff from this store (it is a real store) and they provide a great service (as you can see from their feedback -- 4784 unique ones).

If you want, I can e-mail them and ask for more pictures.

[esteban]

Oh snap, that is sooooooooooooooooooo tempting. A few years ago, the PAL TG was going for around the same price ($90-120 USD).

At this point, however, I am not able to make any purchases. You might have seen me mention (on other forums) that I had to stop visiting the ebay site (lest I bid on something).

But, I loved that pic you provided: it reveals what the inner-box looks like!

Also, the fact that all of the text is in English.... can we draw any conclusions from this? Do companies use English if they were marketing to several countries? Or would they only use English if they were aiming for the UK? Mind you, I've never heard any folks from the UK mention anything about PAL TG marketed there.