TurboGrafx-16 Mini Retro Console (Amazon Exclusive : Pre-orders start July 15th)

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OFFICIAL RELEASE DATE : MARCH 19, 2020   (MSRP is $99.99)

AMAZON will be the EXCLUSIVE SELLER for this device, and pre-orders will open up on July 15th.

Konami's plug and play mini-replica system (roughly 85% of the original console's dimensions to maintain authenticity) will feature USB-enabled original-sized controller, HDMI-output, different display modes, quick save function for its pre-loaded games, and multitap accessory support (sold separately) for up to 5 players at once.  50 pre-loaded games currently announced are :

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American Titles (English language only)
  • Air Zonk
  • Alien Crush
  • Blazing Lazers
  • Bomberman ‘93
  • Bonk’s Revenge
  • Cadash
  • Chew-Man-Fu
  • Dungeon Explorer
  • J.J. & Jeff
  • Lords Of Thunder
  • Military Madness
  • Moto Roader
  • Neutopia
  • Neutopia II
  • New Adventure Island
  • Ninja Spirit
  • Parasol Stars
  • Power Golf
  • Psychosis
  • R-Type
  • Soldier Blade
  • Space Harrier
  • Victory Run
  • Ys Book I&II
 
PC Engine titles (Japanese language only)
  • Akumajō Dracula X Chi No Rondo (aka Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood)
  • Aldynes (SuperGrafx game)
  • Appare! Gateball
  • Bomberman ‘94
  • Bomberman Panic Bomber
  • Chō Aniki
  • Daimakaimura (Ghouls ‘N’ Ghosts - SuperGrafx game)
  • Dungeon Explorer
  • Fantasy Zone
  • Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire
  • Gradius (Nemesis)
  • Gradius II – Gofer No Yabō (Nemesis II)
  • Jaseiken Necromancer
  • Nectaris (Military Madness)
  • Neutopia
  • Neutopia II
  • Ninja Ryūkenden (Ninja Gaiden)
  • PC-Genjin (Bonk)
  • Salamander
  • Snatcher
  • Star Parodier (Fantasy Star Soldier)
  • Super Darius
  • Super Momotarō Dentetsu II
  • Super Star Soldier
  • The Kung Fu (China Warrior)
  • Ys I&II
 
Additional Turbo TG-16 mini controller - 2800 yen  (approx. $28)

Multi-tap TG-16 mini expansion accessory for 4 added controller ports - 3400 yen (approx. $34)

There are overlaps of games from the two different regions, so all titles are in their original language only.  If any other details arise, I will be sure to update this page. Cheers!

Official website is HERE

For comparison's sake, the Japanese counterpart (PC Engine Mini) will include the following exclusive titles:

  • Tokimeki Memorial (Dating sim) to replace Salamander


Cool stats to noodle over : 138 licensed games were released for the Turbografx-16 in North America, with 44 of them being on the CD-format.  On the other hand, a total of 650 games were officially released commercially in Japan for the PC Engine.   

 
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HaloGX said:
I couldn't get my Genesis M30 2.4ghz, though I'm not surprised. This way 8bitdo sells more controllers.
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I have 8bitdo snes30 pro and fc30 pro controllers and they absolutely suck. D-pad has gone completely limp on the snes30 to the point where it feels more like an analog stick than a D-pad and the fc30 always has connection issues. After those I swore to myself I'd never buy anything from 8bitdo again.
 
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pbfluff said:
i’m bummed that i have to settle for a pc engine second controller instead of another turbopad..

i already have some other 8bitdo controllers that are great for my pi and pc.

The replica controllers are a big reason why i have picked up these various mini consoles. The faux nostalgic experience is more fun for me than just playing these games elsewhere (pi, pc, legends cabinet)

Currently playing through quackshot on my sega mini with the 3 button pad...it just feels right.

Another great thing is that they all accept hdmi and the same power adapter so i can quickly swap in and out the mini consoles without any fuss (nes, snes, genesis, psx)

I still have the original hardware for many of these consoles, but they are inconvenient to setup and use on a whim. The lack of save states (which my father/husband lifestyle requires) also becomes problematic.
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Makes me wonder.... do the new controllers match the old 1:1? if so, what would stop someone from swapping the white shell controllers with an original black one? May have to try this....

 
defpally said:
They destroyed the aesthetic aspect of it by not offering a matching option. Hori really dropped the ball here.
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Look for some TurboPads to go up on eBay now that the 8bitdos are out. That said, I think these reissue pads are too stiff - both Dpads and buttons. I'm looking forward to my 8bitdo partly in the hope it plays better. :/

The only other USB pads that currently work are the Retro-Bit Sega controllers, and they require a button macro to go into a compatible mode. We're going to need a mod to open up the ports.

ashram said:
Makes me wonder.... do the new controllers match the old 1:1? if so, what would stop someone from swapping the white shell controllers with an original black one? May have to try this....
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Nobody's confirmed this online except that the turbo switch mechanisms are apparently different. That alone would make me fear the pad wouldn't go back together correctly. Oh, yeah, and the USB cable is much thinner than the original TG controller cable.

Maybe you can be the first to try :)

The one thing I gathered from the one or two teardowns out there is that the contact membranes may at least be swappable.

 
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I think mine is set to arrive today but the ac adapter it is bundled with has been delayed to an unknown date. Can't really play video games at the moment anyway, but looking forward to it.
 
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skiizim said:
Just got mine, bastards put it in a bubble mailer.
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Just got mine too and it was in a cheap paper thin mailer, not even a bubble mailer. There are a lot of dents, but i probably better keep it given the times. And the AC adapter it was bundled with got delayed and doesn't have a release date yet.

 
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Relatively common problem, unfortunately. What were you using as a power supply?

skiizim said:
Just got mine, bastards put it in a bubble mailer.
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IronChariot said:
Just got mine too and it was in a cheap paper thin mailer, not even a bubble mailer. There are a lot of dents
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It's really unbelievable Amazon continues to do this, and there seems to be little pushback.

Chariot, I would absolutely get that replaced if I were you. Now would be the time when supply is likely to be at its highest.

 
IronChariot said:
Just got mine too and it was in a cheap paper thin mailer, not even a bubble mailer. There are a lot of dents, but i probably better keep it given the times. And the AC adapter it was bundled with got delayed and doesn't have a release date yet.
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I got mine today too, basically in a plastic bag thinner than one you'd find at the grocery store. As I was opening it, I was expecting the worst and to my amazement, no damage to the tg16 box at all (or at least no worse than any I've ever grabbed off a shelf at Target). I seriously don't even know how that's possible.

It seems like 99.9% of everything I've ever ordered from Amazon (including memory cards and cloth items) has come in a box. Why they chose an Amazon exclusive collector's item that has been on preorder for over a year to start breaking out the bags is mind boggling. It's almost like they wanted a bunch of them to be returned...
 
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Are any of you waiting to see how easy it will be to add games like with the snes mini?

The snes mini was amazing, and I imagine the turbografx mini will be as well but I am not in a rush, it's not a day one purchase for me.  

 
dracula said:
Are any of you waiting to see how easy it will be to add games like with the snes mini?
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Mine arrived yesterday, so no, I'm not waiting.

And I don't have any real regrets on this one. I cracked it open and plugged it in today, and it's actually looking quite good. The menus are easy to navigate, and run nice and snappy. They are also relatively simple and intuitive, even a small amount of experimenting will get the results you're looking for. I occasionally had problems with the Sega Genesis mini when attempting to navigate through the menu. It would occasionally jump over more than one option. That is not a problem with the TurboGrafx 16 mini.

The controller appears to be a faithful reproduction, and feels fairly good in the hands. It's a bit on the light side, but that's not surprising. The D-Pad and buttons feel fairly responsive and I was able to play several games without any issues.

The exterior of this thing is spot-on. They even included the colored tab under the power switch, to let you know when the thing is on. In fact, they even included the tiny plastic tab that is intended to keep the cartridges locked into place while the system is active, even though there is no slot for cartridges. On the TurboGrafx 16 version, they also included the back-cover as a removable section, and cleverly used it as a cable organizer, with slots for keeping the power and HDMI cables nice and neat. This was a good use of what was originally a poor design on the part of the original TG16. It may be the ugliest of the versions, but they did a good job of miniaturizing it.

I likely won't bother attempting to mod it. I may get a second copy down the line, especially if prices fall off. (and especially if I can get one of the Japanese PC-Engine models) Maybe I would indulge in modding then. But for now, the selection of games is actually quite solid. Most of the major contenders are present and accounted for. Demon's Crush, and possibly a few of the TV Sports series are the only games that I would consider missing.

 
Chuckled a little seeing it got a rating of M by ESRB, guessing the gore in Snatcher is the culprit as even Splatterhouse is mild by today’s standards.
 
Sounds like this is the best mini to be released, at least for me. Tons of games I like, great menu operation, faithful console reproduction. Only thing is the absence of a second controller included to match the first.

I think my rankings for these consoles (in stock form, no games added) is TG16 mini > SNES mini > Genesis mini > NES mini > PS mini

 
I also agree this thing is great.  I even tried Lords of Thunder, the one that people complained had input lag and it was just fine, and had no issues with it.  Either they fixed it in the interim, people are using it on slower refresh TVs or they are far more sensitive to it than I am (and I tend to notice it).

What I don't like is the cover off the back makes it more of a pain to disassemble if you want to put it away.  You have to take the cover off and feed the wires through to plug them in, and the power cable has a small catch to make it go in where it goes.  Fine if you are going to leave it out, but a pain if you pack it up between sessions.

 
defpally said:
I also agree this thing is great. I even tried Lords of Thunder, the one that people complained had input lag and it was just fine, and had no issues with it. Either they fixed it in the interim, people are using it on slower refresh TVs or they are far more sensitive to it than I am (and I tend to notice it).

What I don't like is the cover off the back makes it more of a pain to disassemble if you want to put it away. You have to take the cover off and feed the wires through to plug them in, and the power cable has a small catch to make it go in where it goes. Fine if you are going to leave it out, but a pain if you pack it up between sessions.
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I plan to only keep the cover on while not in use since all of my mini consoles are plug in play into the same power and hdmi cables.
 
I might rate the Genesis Mini over the SNES mini. While the Genesis mini has a few issues, it also has a fantastic selection of games, all well emulated. The SNES mini has a much more truncated list of title, with some fairly glaring omissions. Part of this is just because the SNES library is so legendary, but still.

The good news is that the TurboGrafx 16/PC Engine mini is way better than the Playstation Mini. Anyone who pre-ordered isn't going to be sorely disappointed by their purchase. And anyone waiting on a better deal has something to look forward to.

I'll be keeping an eye on 8bitdo going forward. They've been good in the past about updating their USB wireless adapter to work with these mini consoles. I'm hoping they do the same for the TurboGrafx mini. It's not likely for us to see a Turbo-specific controller from them, but at least having wireless support for their existing USB adapter would be nice.

 
skiizim said:
Just got mine, bastards put it in a bubble mailer.
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same.... luckily only 1 dent that can only be seen as the right angle.

Richard Kain said:
Mine arrived yesterday, so no, I'm not waiting.

The controller appears to be a faithful reproduction, and feels fairly good in the hands. It's a bit on the light side, but that's not surprising. The D-Pad and buttons feel fairly responsive and I was able to play several games without any issues.
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I noticed the sizing is a little difference, as the bump on the center (where the logo is) is actually taller than my original turbopad (1st thing I checked, 2nd was sitting it on top of my original TG-16) I agree it is light in hand, and well, I have 30 years of play on my turbopads so this one feels a bit stiff. I was hoping the controllers were a 1:1 reproduction should I could place some old pads in new housings to match my Duo R, but oh well.

 
Richard Kain said:
I'll be keeping an eye on 8bitdo going forward. They've been good in the past about updating their USB wireless adapter to work with these mini consoles. I'm hoping they do the same for the TurboGrafx mini. It's not likely for us to see a Turbo-specific controller from them, but at least having wireless support for their existing USB adapter would be nice.
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8BitDo's TurboGrafx controller just started shipping

 
addicted2games said:
Sounds like this is the best mini to be released, at least for me. Tons of games I like, great menu operation, faithful console reproduction. Only thing is the absence of a second controller included to match the first.

I think my rankings for these consoles (in stock form, no games added) is TG16 mini > SNES mini > Genesis mini > NES mini > PS mini
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I think so too. Two things that elevate this far beyond evey other mini so far for me:
1) Having CD games on it
1a) Having Turbo CD games on it, which have some of the best soundtracks of all time
1a.1) Having Ys and Dracula X on it, which are probably two of the best soundtracks of any game ever made
2) Having Japanese games on it. Assuming all of these minis are hackable to the point where you can or will be able to add any game you want, I have not added many Japanese games to any of them other than the big ones everybody knows about. Being forced to deal with random Japanese games I would never randomly find on my own is actually a huge winning plus for me. The most fun I've had with this thing so far has been on the Japanese game selection side of things. Sitting through some of these utterly confusing cinematics and seeing weird games like half naked muscle man shooter has been a total laugh riot.

When this thing is fully breached, I may just end up adding the entire Japanese library to it. Does anybody know how big the onboard memory on this is? The fact there are so many CD games, it would seem to be pretty big.
 
Picked up the NEO GEO stick so I should add this as well. If you do not care about the aesthetics should you order the version from Amanzon JP? Prior to the American version shipping there was a conversation about both versions. Unsure if one is better than the others. I have Turbo roms on the Retrocade but did not own the original system. Thanks in advance
 
I don't get why the display settings don't have descriptions on what they are. What's the difference between the first one and the third one? Trying to figure out what the real 4:3 is. I think it's the first two, but not sure what that third one is.
 
doctorwolf said:
I don't get why the display settings don't have descriptions on what they are. What's the difference between the first one and the third one? Trying to figure out what the real 4:3 is. I think it's the first two, but not sure what that third one is.
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pixel perfect
 
I got my mini, box is fine. 

I won't be able to play it for a few days but I'm looking forward to it. I'm assuming Snatcher isn't translated into English just by this thread and the Internet not blowing up about it.

 
Strider Turbulence EX said:
I got my mini, box is fine.
I won't be able to play it for a few days but I'm looking forward to it. I'm assuming Snatcher isn't translated into English just by this thread and the Internet not blowing up about it.
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It's not. This is my first time with the console in any capacity and I happened to try Snatcher. Didn't know what the hell to do. Had to just move to another game
 
doctorwolf said:
So what's the one most accurate to the original aspect ratio on the turbo, the first one? The third one looks kind of squished.
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Without getting too technical, there are five options: two for emulating the 4:3 screen size you would have seen when playing games on older televisions, a “pixel perfect” mode that displays pixels perfectly square (but not authentic to how they were originally presented), one for stretching games to the full height and width of modern day HDTVs (don’t even think about it), and a curious final option that makes it look like you’re playing games on the Turbografx-16’s portable variant, the TurboExpress.

fyi, Pulled this from a website :)

TLDR Center and Fill are the 4:3 options that most resemble the old crt tv you would have played the tg 16 on.
 
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pbfluff said:
one for stretching games to the full height and width of modern day HDTVs (don’t even think about it),
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LOL, you say that but there are people that want the stretch so they don't feel their TV is being wasted. Had a manager back in the 90s that got upset that DVD movies were letterbox with black bars because it "wasted space". And my father in law made his laptop desktop a picture of my kids stretched all the way across. I saw it and fixed it, zooming in some, making the aspect correct but it still left some space since it was a vertical oriented photo on a widescreen laptop. Woke up the next morning and he made it stretched back out. He also took a really nice framed family photo we gave him with a good quality matte around the photo, scanned in the photo on his PC and blew it up on his printer and reframed it without the matte because that frame wasted "too much space". Picture looks like shit now, but he likes it so whatever, just wish we had bought him a cheap ass frame instead of a nice one. People have weird tastes.

 
pbfluff said:
Without getting too technical, there are five options: two for emulating the 4:3 screen size you would have seen when playing games on older televisions, a “pixel perfect” mode that displays pixels perfectly square (but not authentic to how they were originally presented), one for stretching games to the full height and width of modern day HDTVs (don’t even think about it), and a curious final option that makes it look like you’re playing games on the Turbografx-16’s portable variant, the TurboExpress.

fyi, Pulled this from a website :)

TLDR Center and Fill are the 4:3 options that most resemble the old crt tv you would have played the tg 16 on.
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Thanks. I think the only thing that tripped me up is I guess I always thought pixel perfect corresponded with the true aspect ratio (i.e., 4:3). But here it doesn't even seem close to it and in fact looks pretty jacked. Second option with scanline applied definitely seems the best to me.
 
doctorwolf said:
Thanks. I think the only thing that tripped me up is I guess I always thought pixel perfect corresponded with the true aspect ratio (i.e., 4:3). But here it doesn't even seem close to it and in fact looks pretty jacked. Second option with scanline applied definitely seems the best to me.
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That is what I use as well. I choose center on my arcade machine when there is a nice game specific bezel to justify the slightly smaller play area.

Had no issues playing New Adventure Island, Bonks Revenge, R-Type, and Rondo of blood.

The UI is really slick...can’t wait to be able to mod it with more games and retain the UI.

Like the other mini consoles, will buy a second for a cheaper price (hopefully?) that remains unmodded. Might wait to mod until then.
 
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pbfluff said:
That is what I use as well. I choose center on my arcade machine when there is a nice game specific bezel to justify the slightly smaller play area.

Had no issues playing New Adventure Island, Bonks Revenge, R-Type, and Rondo of blood.

The UI is really slick...can’t wait to be able to mod it with more games and retain the UI.

Like the other mini consoles, will buy a second for a cheaper price (hopefully?) that remains unmodded. Might wait to mod until then.
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Yeah I might do the same. I actually really love this console so far. I don't know why I was anticipating disappointment. This thing has been great in every way.
 
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Whats funny is I have a Turbo Duo with about 150 card and CD games and I still look forward to playing this mini. I guess its the convenience of not pulling out my games that are complete in box and taking a chance of messing up the condition of the box. It took me a long time and lot of money to get complete games for my Turbo-Grafx fix. The cardboard boxes are the hardest to find compared to the games themselves. It is one of my most prized system collections of all I got.

 
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"Pixel-perfect" can be a bit of a misnomer.

The technical issues plaguing classic games can get pretty involved, but most of it breaks down to CRT monitors vs. modern LCD displays. CRT monitors are, by their very nature, good at handling different resolutions. LCD monitors are NOT good at handling different resolutions. Scaling low-resolution games to run on modern LCD screens is a constant challenge.

For this mini console, the first of the five options will give you a display that is correctly vertically scaled, but has been horizontally stretched to match the original 4:3 aspect ratio of classic CRT screens. The third option gives you a square-pixel display, that is correctly scaled both vertically and horizontally based on the original output resolution of the system itself.

And there's part of why they are different. Older gaming systems typically rendered their games at 256 x 240 pixels. This is very close to a 1:1 aspect ratio. But those games would then be displayed on CRTs with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Since CRTs were good at handling multiple resolutions, it was possible for them to just take that almost square aspect ratio and scale it to fill the whole screen. Pretty much all retro gaming systems were designed to have their games displayed with rectangular pixels.

Modern screens absolutely suck at displaying stretched pixels, so a lot of retro gaming companies and emulation studio have to bend over backwards to provide different display options. Graphical issues from this effect different games in different ways. For games where there isn't a lot of scrolling, the first option is probably fine. Lots of motion on the whole screen can cause some noticeable graphical issues with the 4:3 option, but for games with not that much full-screen motion, it's not a problem. Also, a game that scrolls horizontally will have more noticeable issues than a game that scrolls vertically. The third option is the best for avoiding any and all graphical issues. Since it has exact pixel scaling, it is able to avoid most of the scaling issues that crop up. I would recommend the third option for games that have LOTs of horizontal scaling, like Darius or Salamander.

 
kevlar51 said:
8BitDo's TurboGrafx controller just started shipping
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I hadn't even noticed that they were releasing this, but yes, you are absolutely right. There is now an 8bitdo TurboGrafx 2.4 Ghz controller option. It looks like it has limited compatibility, and is primarily intended for this micro console. It is still a welcome option though. Some of their other 2.4ghz options have been nice, and quite affordable.

 
addicted2games said:
Whats funny is I have a Turbo Duo with about 150 card and CD games and I still look forward to playing this mini. I guess its the convenience of not pulling out my games that are complete in box and taking a chance of messing up the condition of the box. It took me a long time and lot of money to get complete games for my Turbo-Grafx fix. The cardboard boxes are the hardest to find compared to the games themselves. It is one of my most prized system collections of all I got.
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Same here... I have a Duo and Express Portable and it's to the point where that stuff is far beyond it's original intent and is now more an investment property than anything else.
 
played some more last night (rondo, ninja gaiden, bonks adventure, salamander, etc) using pixel perfect with scanline filter on a 50” samsung tu8000 tv (game mode) and it looked and felt great.

as far as 4:3 shimmer issues, i read that for the sega mini that a workaround is to set the mini to 16:9 and then have your tv scale it to a 4:3 picture.

also, don’t use a pi power adapter apparently it can fry the controller usb ports. personally, i think i use the nes/snes adapter for all my minis.
 
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Fyi, just got a shipping update for the extra pc engine controller I ordered but for some reason has been unavailable. Looks like it's coming sometime between jun 5 and 8.
 
pbfluff said:
played some more last night (rondo, ninja gaiden, bonks adventure, salamander, etc) using pixel perfect with scanline filter on a 50” samsung tu8000 tv (game mode) and it looked and felt great.

as far as 4:3 shimmer issues, i read that for the sega mini that a workaround is to set the mini to 16:9 and then have your tv scale it to a 4:3 picture.

also, don’t use a pi power adapter apparently it can fry the controller usb ports. personally, i think i use the nes/snes adapter for all my minis.
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Not all USB power adapters are the same. Much like anything electrical related you sbould always check the power requirements and in this case make sure of the Ma/A on the system and the charger. Not all USB chargers are the same. One could be .5 Ma and the next one could be 2.1 A and no one pays attention because most people just think "they look the same and I can use the same cord so they must be the same" and then sit around calling it a piece of shit when it stops working.

 
Dr_dreadful said:
Not all USB power adapters are the same. Much like anything electrical related you sbould always check the power requirements and in this case make sure of the Ma/A on the system and the charger. Not all USB chargers are the same. One could be .5 Ma and the next one could be 2.1 A and no one pays attention because most people just think "they look the same and I can use the same cord so they must be the same" and then sit around calling it a piece of shit when it stops working.
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My guess is the power supply has nothing to do with the USB going bad--that was just speculation thrown out in a forum once and it took off as fact. They're going bad regardless of what people are using.

If the units were THAT sensitive to the USB brick specs, then it would have (should have) come with a specific A/C adapter.

 
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