Questions/Tips about the PC-Engine Duo

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Questions/Tips about the PC-Engine Duo; Regarding Controller/AV ports
Topic Started: Mar 9 2011, 02:37 AM (684 Views)
steven	Mar 9 2011, 02:37 AM Post #1
Level 2 Posts: 63 Group: Members Member #2,786 Joined: Sep 24, 2010	I have a Japanese PC-Duo that I bought a couple of years ago. About three months ago I made some major furniture changes in my apartment. I bought some shelves and built some shelves and everything was great except for two things. I'd like to take this chance to share with people interested in the system some of my tips and experiences with the system. I'd also like to ask a few questions. Number 1: I had my PC-Duo unplugged for an extended amount of time. Little did I realize that by unplugging the system from the wall I was gambling with my memory. Long story short, I lost all of my save files as a result. Long story short, I learned the hard way and got some memory bank Hu Cards in case I have some save files that I really don't want to lose. Number 2: Like I said, I had rearranged my furniture. While I was setting everything up, without thinking I set my PC-duo in one of my new shelves and was happy about how snugly it fit in the space (width wise... it was about 32-33cm). Then, when I went to plug everything in, I was in for a big surprise. I realized that the behemoth-sized AV cable plug extended the width of the console about 10cm +(making the whole thing about a foot and a half wide). So I retired my PC Engine for about a month. Then, one day, an order which included some midi cables/adapters came in the mail (as I'm into music recording). As usual when I order adapters, I ordered a couple extra just in case. Well, a couple came in handy with my PC-duo. I realized that the AV cable was the same size as a midi cable! I'm not really familiar with the complexities of cables, but I never thought that audio... let alone audio AND video could be run through a midi cable... (I guess it would have to be a digital connection...). In the end, I ended up taking an L-shaped midi cable and connecting that to my PC-Duo, making a nearly flush connection. Then, I connected a female-female midi adapter to that cable and the PC-Duo's enormous AV cable. Problem solved! Question: After watching Gamester81's (love your videos by the way!) recent video about his Turbo-Duo, I learned that the Turbo Grafx has a "bigger" controller port. Is that "bigger" port, perhaps, the same size as the AV cable? If so, couldn't you extend original Turbo Grafx controllers with midi cable? As far as Japanese PC-Engines and the Turbo Duo are concerned, they have "smaller" ports. Its size is strangely familiar- I think that it may be the same size as non-USB keyboard/mouse cables. I also think that it may be the same size as my midi port on my sound card on my computer- which uses a breakout cable to connect to 2 channels of midi and 2 channels of SPDIF. Does anyone know of a cheap adapter that I could use to extend my PC Engine controller cables? I will try my breakout cable from my sound card later on just to test if it works or not. I'll report my results after I've tested it. That's it from me for now. I'd like to hear from anyone who has any other tips, any advice, or some questions about this kind of thing with the PC Engine/Turbo Grafx. Thanks guys!



python09	Apr 9 2011, 12:54 AM Post #2
New User Posts: 12 Group: Members Member #2,136 Joined: Jun 7, 2010	The pc engine duouses a charged capacitor to to power the ram for game saves instead of a battery like most cartridges or the sega cd/saturn. That's why your save games go poof if you don't power the console on for a couple of weeks. About the tg-16 controller cable, it's an 8-pin midi, like the av ports on the model 1 genesis and master system, and less common than the 5-pin on the duo av port. Probably the cheapest place to find one would be monoprice.com.



steven	May 16 2011, 02:07 AM Post #3
Level 2 Posts: 63 Group: Members Member #2,786 Joined: Sep 24, 2010	python09 Apr 9 2011, 12:54 AM The pc engine duouses a charged capacitor to to power the ram for game saves instead of a battery like most cartridges or the sega cd/saturn. That's why your save games go poof if you don't power the console on for a couple of weeks. About the tg-16 controller cable, it's an 8-pin midi, like the av ports on the model 1 genesis and master system, and less common than the 5-pin on the duo av port. Probably the cheapest place to find one would be monoprice.com. That's very interesting! Thanks for that info. What I've read is that as long as you keep the system plugged into the wall it is safe... but apparently not. Do you know how long those memory cards last? I'm not so sure that I play my PC engine every two weeks! I'm getting curious about the controller and possible midi capabilities though. I wonder if I couldn't rewire the a game controller somehow to turn it into a standard 5-pin midi controller to use with recording software as a cheap (and compact) alternative to a full blown midi controller. I'm doing some searching myself, but do you know if there are any adapters to convert an 8 pin midi cable into a 5 pin midi cable, or if switching plugs on controllers is a matter of just re-soldering a few wires? The Japanese controllers are much more available for me though so maybe that would be an easier route. Of course if it's a matter of swapping plugs, maybe I could do that with a Super Nintendo controller instead.



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