pal pc engine? UPDATED I have the clone with me:its ntsc!

[devilredeemed]

http://personales.ciudad.com.ar/radiolinker/pcengine/PICT0002.JPG

has anyone ever seen one of these before? pal and pc engine compatible? I'm not sure if its clone (could well be), or the real deal. But the fact that its pal makes it extra strange (upto now I only ever heard about the pal turbografx).
my hunch is that its a clone, but I've come across very few nec clones. anyone care to share their opinion?
It looks base around the coregrafx design.

[sayin999]

Its definet;y a clone, however dont be shocked that it is pal since parts of asia do use that standard as well.

[devilredeemed]

Its definet;y a clone, however dont be shocked that it is pal since parts of asia do use that standard as well.

you're right about the pal thing. are there alot of pc engine clones? you ever see this model before?

[ASSEMbler]

Seen that one and a bootleg "shuttle" I own a shuttle style.
It uses cartridges and cannot play pce card games, but is a pce.. strange stuff.

[devilredeemed]

Seen that one and a bootleg "shuttle" I own a shuttle style.
It uses cartridges and cannot play pce card games, but is a pce.. strange stuff.

the chinese one that looks like a UFO? this one uses hu cards. so its definetly a clone then? how much do they tend to go for?

my confusion arose from reading on some message board - that nec, upon seeing the success of modded pal systems, had tried to sell pal pc engines through distributors but it hadn't gone too well. maybe I read it wrong - I'll look it up.

[devilredeemed]

http://www.pcengine.net/pictures/a603c332e9358e1e830ecf7152340fec_1.jpg this yours sir?
certainly looks radical.

edit:
http://nfg.2y.net/games/pceclones/

[devilredeemed]

here's something I found:


Right sat down and did a bit of research and came up with this...

The original white PC Engine was a NTSC machine it supported NTSC RF, although the expansion bus at the back had Composite, Stereo Audio and RGB and sync signals. You could get Composite with an AV Booster. The machine became very popular if because against the Famicom it looked and sounded amazing and the Sega Megadrive had not yet come out.

It became popular via grey imports in other places including the rest of asia, europe and the States. However as NTSC RF or even composite video doesn't work on PAL TVs it meant that some people couldn't play the machine. Although RGB existed on the machine very few TVs had a SCART socket and the ones that did may not have supported RGB (this was the late 80s after all, a lot of people didn't even have CD players....).

However some engineers in Hong Kong found a way of reducing the video refresh rate to 50Hz and converting the video signal from NTSC to PAL (which technically isn't all that difficult to do...) and lo the PAL PC Engine was born. It was a third party adjustment and it was soon copied by people who could just barely hold a soldering iron in the UK (cough colin moron diamond cough...).

NEC saw how popular the machine was and decided to launch the machine in the states and would see how the machine would do before commiting to a european launch. The US machine was a lot larger, the official reason given was that it required more RF shielding then the PC Engine to pass FCC tests. However the unofficial reason was that americans would think that anything that looked smaller then the NES would probably be worse and would struggle to do 64x48 pixels in 4 colours and go beep at the same time. NEC struggled to match SEGA and Nintendo in advertising and the machine struggled to sell in any great numbers.

Back in Asia, NEC decided to try and sell the PC Engine in Asia and unofficially made a small number of PAL Core Grafx units and sold them via a distributor, they didn't sell very well and NEC decided not to enter certain Asian markets.

Back in Europe, NEC saw how the PC Engine in France was selling well via a large games distributor who sold converted PC Engine units. Still Grey imports but NEC decided not to do anything except refuse to repair the machines, in the UK the same thing happened when a few distributors sold the machines via mainstream shops, most notablely Hamleys. NEC then decided to convert NTSC units into PAL ones to see if they could shift some units.

The major differences between the PAL and NTSC ones is the fact that the PAL ones have an Composite AV socket on the machine rather then an RF connector (although an PAL RF box came with most machines). No machines were sold as RGB machines although in France some machines were converted to RGB SCART by the distributors.

NEC did dither about which regions they would sell them in, mainly due to the success of the Sega Master System, Nintendo NES and even Sega Megadrive and the slow sales in the states. Several distributors came up including some investors in the UK that claimed they would sell the TG16 in the UK (which they er didn't). In the end they decided not to sell the machine officially anywhere in Europe. However they did let distributors sell the machines and NEC would at least honour the warrenties. They turned up in Spain, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Austria and they even were sold in Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.

Most of them were unsold and a distributor did sell most of the European stock to various distributors includig Lik Sang and Telegames.

so this may be a clone. but is there an asian pal coregrafx out there?

[SuperFunkNinjaYoshiiKun]

PAL PCEngines do exist. Noone can ever remeber seeing them for sale, except maybe in Spain. But fully boxed PAL PCEs do exist, just you'll have a right old time hunting one down.....

[devilredeemed]

http://argentina.deremate.com/user/images/607/6074452.jpg that's the last picture I have of this item. apparently it has the exit bus on the back. so if its a pirate, its well made.

[Alien Workshop]

PAL PCEngines do exist. Noone can ever remeber seeing them for sale, except maybe in Spain. But fully boxed PAL PCEs do exist, just you'll have a right old time hunting one down.....

I thought it was a PAL Turbo Grafx 16, and that it was gray. I don't remember there ever being a PAL PC Engine.

Anyway, my view on the system is that it's a clone. It just has that cheap clone look to it.

[Yakumo]

I don't think there was a PAL PC Engine from NEC butthere was a SECAM one made for France. They even got the Shuttle version as well.

Yakumo

[sayin999]

I don't think there was a PAL PC Engine from NEC butthere was a SECAM one made for France. They even got the Shuttle version as well.

Yakumo There actually was a pc egine made officaly for pal, however it's the us version(turbohraphics) with a slightly different color. Wonder if they got any clones for people like me that use ntsc.............................

[devilredeemed]

PAL PCEngines do exist. Noone can ever remeber seeing them for sale, except maybe in Spain. But fully boxed PAL PCEs do exist, just you'll have a right old time hunting one down.....

I thought it was a PAL Turbo Grafx 16, and that it was gray. I don't remember there ever being a PAL PC Engine.

Anyway, my view on the system is that it's a clone. It just has that cheap clone look to it.

but I'm thrown off by the serial bus. I have a picture of it. The guy is dissasembling the system as we speak. its got to be a clone, but its quite impressive

[devilredeemed]

fuck... this appears to be an NTSC model. I don't know what the hell to make of it. the guy just told me that..

edit: when I get a firmer picture of what we have here I'll let y'all know. this is confusing

edit: this guy's on crack. I don't know.. should I buy this system off him and check it out for myself?

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Hey Ignacio como va???, te comento que los foros de AD cambiaron...asi que espero te registres y postees!...
http://www.arqueologiadigital.com.ar/foro/

PD: Siempre te encuentro en todos los foros eh? jaja

[devilredeemed]

Hey Ignacio como va???, te comento que los foros de AD cambiaron...asi que espero te registres y postees!...
http://www.arqueologiadigital.com.ar/foro/

PD: Siempre te encuentro en todos los foros eh? jaja

hey como andas? si - vamos por msimos caminos tu y yo

[Alien Workshop]

There is no doubt in my mind that that system is a clone.

First, I would like to mention the name. PC-2100 Video Game... This name practically screams clone. Both America and Europe got the Turbo Grafx, and Japan got the PC Engine. PC-2100 Video Game just does not sound legit.

Second, upon further inspection of the pic in the first post, I noticed the controller had four buttons, the standard PC Engine/Turbo Grafx controller only had two.

Both pics you had were not that good, so you can not really tell if it has the exit bus. It may appear to have it, but that might just be part of the design to make it look real. What you need is a good pic of the back of the system actually showing the exit bus.

[devilredeemed]

There is no doubt in my mind that that system is a clone.

First, I would like to mention the name. PC-2100 Video Game... This name practically screams clone. Both America and Europe got the Turbo Grafx, and Japan got the PC Engine. PC-2100 Video Game just does not sound legit.

Second, upon further inspection of the pic in the first post, I noticed the controller had four buttons, the standard PC Engine/Turbo Grafx controller only had two.

Both pics you had were not that good, so you can not really tell if it has the exit bus. It may appear to have it, but that might just be part of the design to make it look real. What you need is a good pic of the back of the system actually showing the exit bus.

I have very little doubt that this is a clone - but its a wierd one.
http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/407d9b80_2313/bc/My+Documents/Pict0014.jpg?bf1_FHBBN263veHa
http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/407d9b80_2313/bc/My+Documents/Pict0010.jpg?bf1_FHBBuV6ftBmN
http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/407d9b80_2313/bc/My+Documents/Pict0008.jpg?bf1_FHBBIm5DN7bT

as you can see in the first 2 pictures - the bus port showing and with the lid on. the third picture is where you'd put the cable for the tv.

http://us.f2.yahoofs.com/bc/407d9b80_2313/bc/My+Documents/Pict0001---1.jpg?bf1_FHBBX1ag4ujP
and here's a useless picture showing the back of the system's board. he wasn't able to unscrew it from the case to show the chips apparently... :smt017

[Alien Workshop]

I have very little doubt that this is a clone - but its a wierd one.


So you don't think this is a clone? Why would they need to have a PAL PC Engine when they have a PAL Turbo Grafx 16. I have my PC Engine Core Grafix in my hands right now, and I am trying to compare it with those pics, but they are just too blurry. I still think it is a clone.

[devilredeemed]

no, I ment to say that I believe its a clone.
you have to admit its impressive with the inclusion of the bus port.

[Alien Workshop]

no, I ment to say that I believe its a clone.
you have to admit its impressive with the inclusion of the bus port.

Yes, one of the best clones I have ever seen... but I don't really like clones :smt023

[Joe Sancho]

Sorry for go off topic.
Que alegría me da leer a alguien en español por aquí.
Saludos desde España a los dos amigos argentinos.

[Alien Workshop]

Sorry for go off topic.
Que alegría me da leer a alguien en español por aquí.
Saludos desde España a los dos amigos argentinos.

Guess It doesn't really matter if you go off topic if we can't understand what you say. If you didn't say you were going of topic I would have never known :smt023

[NFG]

1. It's a clone, it's obviously a clone, I'm surprised anyone doubts this.

2. It's almost certainly PAL, most clones are, and all the PCE ones I've seen are - including my two white shuttle clones, shown above. BTW, they play both carts (shown) and HuCards (not shown). You can read more about them here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pceclones/).

3. The PAL TurboGrafx-16 was officially released in Spain (And intended for other countries, I assume, as IIRC the manual's in different languages). It was a charcoal grey, instead of the US machine's black. It played US cards and had as a pack-in Blazing Lazers, even though the box is adorned with R-Type graphics. You can read more about this unit here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pce) along with the only other PCE official clone, the Korean Vistar. (http://nfg.2y.net/games/vistar/)

4. There was never an officially released PAL (or SECAM) PC Engine, the reason no one ever remembers seeing it for sale is because it doesn't exist. A French company - Sodipeng - imported huge numbers of PC Engines and converted them themselves. They were not official NEC gear. Some scans can be found on this page (http://necstasy.emuchina.net/main.htm). Look under 'scans'. This PCE History (http://nekofan.free.fr/history.htm) page (French) details how Sodipeng (which is a french acronym for SOciété D'Importation de la PC ENGine) imported the machines and sold it to other retailers, with translated instructions made with a typewriter. A French seller you may have heard of, Adol, was frequently drawing fire for selling as 'new' these games with French instructions slipped inside.

5. There were several variations of this CoreGrafx-alike clone, all in the dark-grey with blue lettering. GameLab magazine shows a few of them in an old (old) issue.

6. This is the worst misspelling for TurboGrafx I've ever seen: turbohraphics


All this stuff is available on the web, I'm kinda surprised you guys don't google for it before babbling on. =)

[SilverBolt]

You can still get a brand new PAL unit at lik-sang for 60 euro's

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=181&products_id=2135&

[Alien Workshop]

1. It's a clone, it's obviously a clone, I'm surprised anyone doubts this.

2. It's almost certainly PAL, most clones are, and all the PCE ones I've seen are - including my two white shuttle clones, shown above. BTW, they play both carts (shown) and HuCards (not shown). You can read more about them here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pceclones/).

3. The PAL TurboGrafx-16 was officially released in Spain (And intended for other countries, I assume, as IIRC the manual's in different languages). It was a charcoal grey, instead of the US machine's black. It played US cards and had as a pack-in Blazing Lazers, even though the box is adorned with R-Type graphics. You can read more about this unit here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pce) along with the only other PCE official clone, the Korean Vistar. (http://nfg.2y.net/games/vistar/)

4. There was never an officially released PAL (or SECAM) PC Engine, the reason no one ever remembers seeing it for sale is because it doesn't exist. A French company - Sodipeng - imported huge numbers of PC Engines and converted them themselves. They were not official NEC gear. Some scans can be found on this page (http://necstasy.emuchina.net/main.htm). Look under 'scans'. This PCE History (http://nekofan.free.fr/history.htm) page (French) details how Sodipeng (which is a french acronym for SOciété D'Importation de la PC ENGine) imported the machines and sold it to other retailers, with translated instructions made with a typewriter. A French seller you may have heard of, Adol, was frequently drawing fire for selling as 'new' these games with French instructions slipped inside.

5. There were several variations of this CoreGrafx-alike clone, all in the dark-grey with blue lettering. GameLab magazine shows a few of them in an old (old) issue.

6. This is the worst misspelling for TurboGrafx I've ever seen: turbohraphics


All this stuff is available on the web, I'm kinda surprised you guys don't google for it before babbling on. =)

Wow, I haven't seen you around here in a while.

Anyway, If you look at all my posts, you will see that I was saying this was a clone the whole time, and yea turbohraphics is the worst spelling of TurboGrafx :smt043

[devilredeemed]

1. It's a clone, it's obviously a clone, I'm surprised anyone doubts this.

2. It's almost certainly PAL, most clones are, and all the PCE ones I've seen are - including my two white shuttle clones, shown above. BTW, they play both carts (shown) and HuCards (not shown). You can read more about them here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pceclones/).

3. The PAL TurboGrafx-16 was officially released in Spain (And intended for other countries, I assume, as IIRC the manual's in different languages). It was a charcoal grey, instead of the US machine's black. It played US cards and had as a pack-in Blazing Lazers, even though the box is adorned with R-Type graphics. You can read more about this unit here (http://nfg.2y.net/games/pce) along with the only other PCE official clone, the Korean Vistar. (http://nfg.2y.net/games/vistar/)

4. There was never an officially released PAL (or SECAM) PC Engine, the reason no one ever remembers seeing it for sale is because it doesn't exist. A French company - Sodipeng - imported huge numbers of PC Engines and converted them themselves. They were not official NEC gear. Some scans can be found on this page (http://necstasy.emuchina.net/main.htm). Look under 'scans'. This PCE History (http://nekofan.free.fr/history.htm) page (French) details how Sodipeng (which is a french acronym for SOciété D'Importation de la PC ENGine) imported the machines and sold it to other retailers, with translated instructions made with a typewriter. A French seller you may have heard of, Adol, was frequently drawing fire for selling as 'new' these games with French instructions slipped inside.

5. There were several variations of this CoreGrafx-alike clone, all in the dark-grey with blue lettering. GameLab magazine shows a few of them in an old (old) issue.

6. This is the worst misspelling for TurboGrafx I've ever seen: turbohraphics


All this stuff is available on the web, I'm kinda surprised you guys don't google for it before babbling on. =)

excuse me but babbling gets us to the truth. Alot of what you've said I've read on the net. But what you say about there not being a PAL issue of the system contradicts with what I quoted someone as saying (that pal system was made in limmited numbers for the asian market) - also pulled from the net. And this is nothing to do with this system right here.
We've established the thing is a fake - doubt only arose from what I was told by the seller. Even if it is a fake - the way its built makes it interesting (CD rom compatibility - something the pirate shuttles don't have).

After everything you've stated, its not the end all say all in this situation - the system is pal and ntsc (well that's what it apparently sais on the box) - the games he's selling with it are the 'KING' cards (the back written in japanese and english). was there a pirate japanese market for items such as these? There are massive grey areas in these discussions, you can't just glaze over them by saying find it on the net.



Back in Asia, NEC decided to try and sell the PC Engine in Asia and unofficially made a small number of PAL Core Grafx units and sold them via a distributor, they didn't sell very well and NEC decided not to enter certain Asian markets now I don't know where this guy got his info from - and this is unrelated to this whole debacle - but he clearly says that NEC tried selling unofficially made PAL coregrafx units through distributors in asia. So what's to be made of this? Sorry if I'm going on a bit.

edit: great scans you provided there!!! look at this rare thing:
http://necstasy.emuchina.net/scans/big/045.jpg

so do you know where and if I can get those particular magazines that showed the coregrafx clones?

[D-Lite]

I'd love to pick up some of these clones. Where is the best place to find them?

[nutribrain]

Actually I saw one of these PC-KD836G for sale on YJ:
http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f23623025[/url]

[Rich]

Actually I saw one of these PC-KD836G for sale on YJ:
http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f23623025[/url]

Its been 3 months listed, no one seem to be interested in that system, few months ago he asks 150,000 yens now down to 59,800 and hes now willing to ship internationally :-D

[SilverBolt]

That system looks awsome, to bad hsipping to holland would be 5 times the selling price :smt082

[Alchy]

How much would it be to the UK, roughly? And how easy is it to buy such a thing from Yahoo JP?

[devilredeemed]

Actually I saw one of these PC-KD836G for sale on YJ:
http://page6.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/f23623025[/url]

Its been 3 months listed, no one seem to be interested in that system, few months ago he asks 150,000 yens now down to 59,800 and hes now willing to ship internationally :-D

not cheap ata all, but I guess its rare? It looks nicer in the advertisment

[Zeta-Gouki]

http://necstasy.emuchina.net/scans/big/045.jpg

Always wanted one of those. :)

[devilredeemed]

update: ok so I got hold of the system in question a few weeks ago, and I'm soon to be sending it and the pirate games it came with the system (pirate games you say? check this french site out for more info: http://sdicks.free.fr/Potins/PCBoy/PCBoy.htm ) out as soon as I can. I HAVE NO DIGITAL CAMERA AT THE MOMENT SO NO PICTURES PROVIDED.

anyway I digress.

Today I was able to do a couple of things - I can confirm that it is 100% ntsc. It has an RF output - it was made for a market that sustains ntsc. Remeber that this system was bought in Japan


I can also confirm (as if it wasn't obvious) that its not NEC original - I opened it up and non of the chips had Hudson written on them nor the bee logo - socked chips maybe? I'm not too familiar with all this electronics stuff, but I noted down the numbers/letters to all the chips and stuff inside - I don't know if providing such info would be interesting or telling - but I have it if anyone wants to hear).

As was previously stated the exit bus is present and on the inside of the system the pins slotted into a rectangular 'grid' (a pin per box within that grid) which itself was connected to a smaller board attatched to the upper shell of the PC-2100. Is this like the a normal coregrafx is constructed? - the grid on one of the edges has 'Japan' written on it.

The main board sais BIT 80 on one of the sides. I don't know how relevant this info is - anyone familiar with stuff like this? like what to make of what's written on the rf box:
PHAM0005
MDEIAFO3A
FD9124AM62
or one of the main chips (the ones that may be socketed):
215
9117

then there's a smaller rectagular chip:
SONY 9E01
CXK5864M- ISL JAPAN (edit: this is related to the image?)

there's a couple of letters written by hand in with some sort of marker (looks like chalk though) - don't know if its japanese or western though - one of them looks like an 'E' but resembles hirigana/katakana (could be horribly wrong though)

I have no clue - is it possible to decipher this stuff? just wondering how this was put together is all.

The system is very sturdy, good quality product, and the same size as the real coregrafx. It is a true clone as it tries to look like the real thing.

I hope I haven't just bored any of you to death, but its not everyday you come across such a strange clone for a system no known for clones.

edit: there are 2 small rectangular chips - both sya the same thing:
NEC JAPAN
D43256AGU-12L
9038A9030
acording to this site they are related to the system's memory (these chips can hold as much as 320k of memory?): http://www.arrakis.es/~espartero/Circuitos/d.htm

[Nintendomad]

Yeah cmon guys,why the confusion...we know pc engine clones form the real thing!! :smt023

Nec did dabble a bit with Pal consoles in Spain but that is as far as it goes Europe wise.The french versions were never official,just done by a large distributor.Clever move by the distributor but,very clever.

I think Nec missed out with the Pc engine,had it been released worldwide shortly after the jap launch,the NEs would have had some stiff competition in it's final years and the Megadrive would have found it alot harder to get the foothold it did with Megadrive.

[devilredeemed]

Yeah cmon guys,why the confusion...we know pc engine clones form the real thing!! :smt023

Nec did dabble a bit with Pal consoles in Spain but that is as far as it goes Europe wise.The french versions were never official,just done by a large distributor.Clever move by the distributor but,very clever.

I think Nec missed out with the Pc engine,had it been released worldwide shortly after the jap launch,the NEs would have had some stiff competition in it's final years and the Megadrive would have found it alot harder to get the foothold it did with Megadrive.

this was the first time I had played a nec system (or a clone of one), and I'm amazed how good the games are - arcade style games work better on this system than they do on the megadrive I dare say.

[Nintendomad]

Yeah you are completely right Devilreed mate,it does seem to do arcade ports far better than the Megadrive.The shooters especially are amazing on the machine.If you really get into Engine collecting, get yourself a Supergrafx, the version of Daimakaimura on that machine is better than the Md version imo.

Also the arcade cd rom card produced some stunning games for the engine,utterly defying the doubters who said certain things just couldn't be done on the engine.

It's such a shame it only enjoyed success in Asia, as it was a superb console.

[SovietStriker]

There a PC BOY for sale at http://www.mercadolivre.com.br/jm/item?site=MLB&id=21165943 (It's a brazzilian site, in portuguese) it's says it's compatible with HU cards. Is this a special clone because it compatible with hucards?