PC Engine (aka TurboGrafx-16) Console Nostalgia Trip

[SeeNoEvil]

Following my Snes nostalgia trip, I'm giving some thought to getting another console. around 1992/3 my older brother got hold of one of the original white Japanese PC Engine consoles on import (exactly like the one pictured below). He had a couple of games, but the two that stick in my head were Devil's Crush (a pinball game) and Splatterhouse (if you don't already know this brilliant game then feel utterly ashamed of yourself!), both were Japanese versions on HuCards. For those of you who don't know, the PC Engine (aka TurboGrafx-16) was a 16-bit console released in Japan over the late 80s and early 90s. There were a good number of slightly differing versions released over the years. I won't write loads about it, you can check out the Wikipedia entry if you want to read up on it Here



I was thinking about buying the console & those games, maybe from Japan via Ebay, but I just wanted to see if anyone on the board already owned one, or knew enough about them to lend some advice? Am I best of just going for one of the lower end versions like the original PC Engine, or is it really worth paying the extra and getting a top of the line PC Engine Duo (or TurboDuo), even if I'll only ever likely to play those two games on it? or is there another version I should really watch out for and What should I expect to pay? I would want to play the Japanese versions of both these games as the western/US versions were censored & altered in places, would that necessitate a specifically Japanese machine, or can any machine play any card?

A quick flick though Ebay puts a PC Engine Duo at around £100+, and a lower end PC Engine around the £60+ mark (both imported from Japan). Anyone know of any specialist shops in the UK who'd be able to beat that?

[Moondog]

back when i was young i always wondered "what the hell is a PC Engine?" when i saw it mentioned in magazines, and that's as far as it ever went, never saw one and never knew anyone that owned one.