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As you may have seen on the short Darius page that I have, I just got one of these: (Yes, it's the exact same picture. I am lazy.)
When I first got it 2 and 1/2 hours ago (as of now, 6:23 on January 21, 2021), the first thing I was surprised about was how heavy it was! I was expecting it to be much lighter. Also, since I never saw one of these in person, I was not 100% sure exactly what size it would be, but I knew that the HuCard slot was about the length and width of a credit card slot, so I tried really hard to think about the size, but I still knew it would be quite small (no for real, I actually sat around and tried to make an accurate guess about the size. I am not joking. I spent legitimate time on that. If you found this site and you read most everything, then this probably wont surprise you). It pretty much lined up quite close to what I was expecting.
Now, my particular one is in absolutely beautiful condition. I know that on the picture, you can see some scuffs. Yes, they are there, but the picture really brought those out. In person, they are really hard to see. I opened it up to make sure that there were no bad capacitors (In all truth, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing when it comes to repair, but at least I knew that if I see all sorts of bad stuff coming out from the bottom of the capacitors, then something is not right), and they all look fine. They I think are all Rubycons, which I heard through "My Life in Gaming" (on YouTube) are quite good capacitors. I have been watching too many repair/mod videos on YouTube and excessively worrying about every little small thing that could possibly happen to my consoles that I just had to check, or else that is all I would be thinking about. (This is my last thing about all this capacitor business: I been recently inspired to try and learn how to replace capacitors and do other repair work to consoles so that I can do it myself and save money and not worry about these kinds of things.)
I know that many people would recommend getting a Duo R or RX, but I know that some of the other Duo models have BAD capacitors, and I couldn't find anything too solid saying that the RX ones were fine. Plus, they are obviously more expensive. Also, and I know that this way also has many reliability issues, but, ever since I was going off and on about getting a PC Engine about maybe 1.5 to 2 years ago, I wanted to get the Briefcase unit with that CD drive. That whole setup looks sooo cool! But anyway, I am completely happy with my CoreGrafx. I was going to get the white PC Engine and one of those cheap composite units that plugs into the back, but I read that those have the potential to damage the console because of how they are built, so I ultimately decided on the CoreGrafx, which of course has a built-in composite out. I know I am limiting myself for now, but I can still get a good setup eventually. Even though for some reason really early CD-based gaming (just because it is early and it's on a CD) fascinates me, the HuCards themselves fascinate me more. No matter what, it's still a PC Engine. Plus I don't want to deal with potentially faulty lasers.
So anyway, right now I have only Darius Plus. Since I don't have any optical drive for it, I guess that I cannot play Super Darius, or whatever it's called, as well as the port of Darius II. Since I am not a millionaire (or at least have a free $1000), I also probably won't get Darius Alpha. But for now, I can live without all of them. Super Darius I read is basically the same but with better sound, and as for the Darius II port, you probably already know that I like the Mega Drive/Genesis port. And as for Darius Alpha, maybe one day when I have the money...
Now I need to find more shmups. Since we are talking about PC Engines, that should not be hard. I already know that I want the R-Type HuCards. And I will find plenty more. There are some other games that I want, too. I have never played any of the Bonk games, so I will probably get those, and there is also a game called Tower of Druaga that has a PC Engine release. Oh, and some of the Sega games, like Fantasy Zone, and others (both shmup and non-shmup ones). So I will eventually build up my PC Engine collection.
Now with the PC Engine, other than the CD-ROM units and all that stuff for it, as well as some other things either that should not be too hard to get or they are not priorities for me, honestly, I think that my collection of console hardware is pretty much complete. Yes, there is more stuff that I would like to get, and one day I very will may get them, but for now, I really think I have pretty much all of the consoles that I could want. Here is a list of EVERYTHING in case you are wondering:
NES Frontloader x2 (+1 more not working one)
SNES (This is not a Jr. Model) (x2)
SFC (This is also not a Jr. Model)
NTSC-U N64 (Both this one and the Japanese one below are the charcoal ones [the nothing-special ones])
NTSC-J N64
GameCube (It's purple)
Wii (It's a backwards compatible one)
WiiU (It's the Deluxe model with the Wind Waker gamepad)
Switch Lite (It's grey)
DMG Gameboy
DMG Gameboy (It's black from the "Play it Loud" series)
GameBoy Pocket (It's black)
GameBoy Color (It's purple)
GBA (It's also purple)
NTSC-J GBA SP (It was cheaper to get it from Japan + shipping + buy my own charger than buying it all here in America, but honestly, it's an SP, so the fact that it's Japanese does not matter, and it's blue)
DS Lite (This was my first console; right now it does not work [It works but the sound does not]. It is silver.)
3DS (It is red)
New 3DS (Not the XL. I got the black one with the Mario plates.)
Master System Model 1
Genesis Model 1 (yes, it's the VA7 motherboard)
NTSC-J Mega Drive Model 1 (I think it's a VA5, or maybe a VA6, but one of those two for sure)
NTSC-J Saturn Model 2 (Obviously it's the white one)
Dreamcast (It's the standard one, not the Sega Sports one or anything like that.)
GameGear (It's not a special edition one)
NTSC-U PS1 (7501)
NTSC-J PS1 (5500)
PS2 (3901 I think? It's a Fat model with the i-Link or whatever on the front)
PSP 1000
WonderSwan (It's black)
WonderSwan Color (This was my first imported console, and it's blue)
And now I can add to this list:
PC Engine CoreGrafx
Famicom (7-11-2021)
Analogue Duo (9-26-2024)
Analogue Pocket (9-26-2024)
Of Course, I would like to get some Japanese variants of things I don't have yet (like a Famicom and maybe a Japanese Wii) and other things like a Vita for some reason, but these are by no means a priority for me. There are PLENTY of Famicoms and Wiis, and it should not be too hard to find a Vita in the future. So for now, I am quite happy with my hardware collection.
June 1 2021
I finally got a second game for my PC Engine! Take a guess what it is.....
A: Pac-Land
B: Orodyne
C: Soldier Blade
D: PC Genjin
E: Darius Alpha
F: All of the above.
Unless if you want to cheat, do not scroll down until you have made a guess.
Well, the answer is..................................
Yes, I got Soldier Blade. Now, at this moment when I am writing this, I have two options: I can either keep writing about this, or I can go pla....... Wait wait wait! Before I go to do the obvious choice, I do want to say that it is loose. Of course, I like to have things complete (especially for things which had a hard case to begin with instead of just a paper box), but it would have been even MORE expensive than it already was. Anyway, I am still completely happy with it loose. This is me from July 11, 2021 (though I meant to write this a LOT earlier): Soldier Blade is indeed excellent!
December 21, 2021
I was just going through and fixing something on the XDR page, and I was checking all of the other pages for the same issue. I noticed on the D-Pad page where I wrote about the PC Engine's D-Pad. I would say that it is fine, but it is not great. I probably just need to get new rubber contact pads. I honestly need to do this for almost all of my controllers anyway, especially the Super Famicom and SNES controllers; those feel terrible. Anyway, I am writing this to kind of add to that. It is not about the D-Pad, but it IS about the face buttons (except Select and Run; those are fine), and especially the face buttons with Darius Plus. I like to have both my bombs and forward gun going at the same time, but this is an extremely uncomfortable setup with Darius Plus. My right thumb really hurts after 5 or 10 minutes. It is the angling of the buttons (there is none; they are straight like an NES or Famicom controller) and maybe the fact that, again, I probably need new pads, so I press down harder than I guess I need to in order for the button to register as pressed. I just wanted to say this. It is two days away from this site being a whole year old, and for almost all of that time, I had the PC Engine (that is crazy to think about by the way), and I have noticed this for almost that same amount of time.
September 26, 2024
Many months ago (I think it was February, or maybe it was last December), I finally got the Analogue Duo shipped to me. I remember being at work one day in April of 2023, and I just happen to check my email. What do you know: an email from Analogue two days previous, saying that pre-orders would start for the Duo TODAY, in approximately 15 minutes! Thankfully, my mother at home knew that I was waiting for this for years, and I asked her if she could place the pre-order, and I would, of course, pay her back. She had done this, and many months later, it arrives at our house. I got the "Japanese" color version. Now, I somewhat quickly got American HuCards to try out with it, but it took a while (only until earlier this week as I am writing this) to finally get any CD game. Anyway, here is the Analogue Duo:
I am quite happy overall. I think, even with the $50 price increase as I had predicted, it still offers a good way to play the entirety of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx library (assuming it can handle EVERY game) for the price. My only complaint is that it does not have an analogue 240p RGB output. Like I mentioned on the updates page, I assume I can find a way to downscale and convert the HDMI signal to YPbPr, but, at the moment, I am forced to use this on a flatscreen.
Here is the CD-ROM game I have recently acquired:
Did you expect anything less? I am also looking at a cheap copy of Super Darius II on eBay as well, so that may come soon.
What you read on the Internet about Super Darius vs Darius Plus is that Super Darius is Darius Plus but with CD audio taken from the arcade original, and more bosses. Now, I have to double check, but I am quite sure that there is a bit more going on. For one, it seems that there are more enemy waves compared to Darius Plus; it seems it is more true to the original (that original being Darius Extra Version on the Genesis/Mega Drive as a stand-in reference to the actual original...), and the bosses (at least King Fossil) seem to be a bit easier, but that one I do need to check more. The extra enemies I am quite sure of, but the boss difficulty I need to actually go and compare. The truer-to-the-original enemy waves would make sense, since they could easily program this into the extra space the CD offered at the time. Also, I do not think there is the "secret" option to continue after a Game Over at your previous level, or I simply could have forgot the button combination...
Oh, what else? I got a complete American copy of R-Type (that was a bit expensive), and Galaga 90. I have to admit, I did not think I would enjoy Galaga 90 as much as I do. With its limitation on ship movement to only left and right, I thought that it would feel like a severely limited and archaic shmup, but honestly they did a really good job of making the game feel fun and modern (for the time I guess, do you consider 1990 "modern" in terms of anything electronic?). That one I only got loose, and even then, it was also a bit more than I would have liked to buy a game for, but it was worth it in the end.
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