RickR

Here is Justin's list in Word doc format for old timers like me who prefer a hard copy.
 
TG-16 Best Games List.docx

I have a co-worker that has that exact car and also loves it.  I'll have to look into one of those!  Enjoy it, man!

Hard to believe how the insurance company will total out the old car.  Sounds like the regulations need to be updated if we're ever going to make progress on everyone having electric cars. 

Looks really nice.  When you have an atari.io party, I'll make sure to use a coaster and not leave a ring on your new furniture. 
 

Goodwill strikes again. But sadly the wrong game in the wrong case. 

When you sell a system on ebay, ebay will try to match it with what they have in their database to fill out some info for you. Sadly, ebay calls a large number of retro systems Launch Edition by default, so an ignorant seller might just see the picture, say that looks like what I'm selling and click it for their auction. Sometimes, ebay might not have an non launch edition variation to choose. 
This is more ebay's fault for their database than the seller who doesn't know better. Ebay shouldn't have "Launch Edition" as a default choice, especially for older systems that were never called "Launch Edition" by the company who released it.

This one looks like it was launched off a ladder onto a concrete floor.  So it truly is a launch edition. 

Not a bad idea if time permits.  The problem is that getting ebay to do anything is hit and miss.  Example: the auction ArenaFoot mentioned elsewhere -- someone is selling an SD card full of Atari 2600 bin files for a pretty outrageous price.  That is clearly not allowed (copyright material), but they won't take the listing down. 

$15 shipped.  PM me if interested, thanks.

Great take Rick, I never knew that. Almost 20 years ago when this website had a store, one of the items that never sold was RealSports Baseball for Atari 7800. For whatever reason it had a bad rap. I thought it was 5200 RealSports Baseball with stepped up graphics and gameplay, so if the 7800 version wasn't great the 5200 version wouldn't be either. I never gave sports games enough play, or the 5200 for that matter, but I'll have to pull that game out and give it another try. Your recommendation goes a long way around here. Thanks!

Pete Rose Baseball however is an excellent game for the 7800 (and 2600 too)
...and we now return you to your regularly scheduled Squad Challenge

7800 RS Baseball is awful. Just to be clear. I do love 7800 One on One Basketball however. 

7800 RS Baseball is awful. Just to be clear. I do love 7800 One on One Basketball however. 

This is great.  Thank you.  I'm going to go down the list and try each game as time permits.  👌

A day in the life of RickR:

I spent some time today during the Super Bowl on a little project in my garage.  I decided to mount my garage TV on a wall mount so I could reclaim the workbench space.  Indeed, it seems to have returned 20% of the bench top.  I think it turned out really nice.  The mount came from Harbor Freight, and was only $10!  I had to rearrange the stuff on the wall a bit, but that's just part of the fun. 

I use this TV to watch over-the-air channels while exercising, football on weekends, and a lot of times for gaming (either repairing or testing consoles, or playing systems I've pulled out of the attic). 

I finally got a TV stand for my new place and hooked up some of my favorite consoles: a PS4 Pro, AVS, Saturn, Jaguar and 2600. I'm running the classic consoles through a RetroTINK to a 49" Samsung 4K HDR TV. It looks amazing! 
I did have my 7800 hooked up but the RetroTINK and the LHE mod don't seem to get along too well.  After about 20 minutes, I started getting really weird interference. The LHE mod is temperamental  so I'm going to try a simple modded 7800 eventually. 
Anyway, here are a few pictures. The screenshots are from my phone and do not do the picture justice. I also wanted to show my attempt at cable management to get everything off the floor. Because this TV stand has tall legs, it looked really messy at first. I even grabbed a wooden box for the power strips and bricks. 
 

When I was out of town for the holidays, I left my car parked with my soon to be ex-wife at the house. Living downtown now, I can't leave it in the same space for more than a day or two. I figure, I still own (and pay for) the driveway, right? She drove it and parked it overnight at a Christmas party where it got sideswiped.  The driver didn't leave a note so I had to make a claim under insurance.  If it were a normal car, it would've been a fix of about $4,000, but because it was an EV (a LEAF) there are special battery handling requirements that made it a total loss. I was shocked, frankly. So I went a month without a car.  I live close to work and bike a lot so it wasn't horrible but getting across town on transit or out to LA or Orange County was a pain. And then there's the rain. 
So last weekend, after 8 years of driving a zero emission vehicle, I returned to the dark side of fossil fuel with this gently used MINI Cooper S 4-door. The MINI has 189HP and was the closest thing I could find with the zippiness and immediacy of an EV.  I will really have to watch my speed though as I keep blowing past 80 without feeling it. They actually have a "speed warning" that you can set to your MPH of choice. It's currently on 90. 😂😂😂
Anyway, a week in and I'm really loving it. It's decidedly retro with chrome toggle switches everywhere and bonnet stripes. It has super tight handling and is a dream on the freeway. It might be too much fun, really.  Aside from the red, it's not exactly a midlife crisis car but it's as close as I am likely to get. 

This is great.  Thank you.  I'm going to go down the list and try each game as time permits.  👌

A day in the life of RickR:

I spent some time today during the Super Bowl on a little project in my garage.  I decided to mount my garage TV on a wall mount so I could reclaim the workbench space.  Indeed, it seems to have returned 20% of the bench top.  I think it turned out really nice.  The mount came from Harbor Freight, and was only $10!  I had to rearrange the stuff on the wall a bit, but that's just part of the fun. 

I use this TV to watch over-the-air channels while exercising, football on weekends, and a lot of times for gaming (either repairing or testing consoles, or playing systems I've pulled out of the attic). 

I’m thrilled to see so much interest in the TurboGrafx-16 since we held our Devil’s Crush Squad Challenge recently! A Turbo EverDrive is a must-have accessory if you’re just getting started with a TurboGrafx system. Below is a list of the best games to start out with.
You can pick up a Turbo EverDrive for sale at Stone Age Gamer. Here is the Turbo EverDrive with the same configuration as the one I bought. If you have a TurboGrafx system of any kind, I highly recommend getting your hands on one of these:
https://stoneagegamer.com/turbo-everdrive-black.html
The Turbo EverDrive supports American and Japanese HuCard (TurboChip) games for TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine, but does not support CD games. Many of the Super CD games in particular were sooo good. Having an EverDrive made me step aside from the Super CDs and appreciate all of the good HuCard games released for TurboGrafx-16.
@btbfilms76 and @MaximumRD also have Turbo EverDrives and might be able to offer some good recommendations of games they think would be best to start out with. I've been talking TurboGrafx with them for years and they always have good insights.
 
 
Top Picks 
Air Zonk Blazing Lazers Bomberman ‘93 Bonk’s Revenge Cadash Devil’s Crush The Legendary Axe Magical Chase Neutopia Ninja Spirit R-Type Soldier Blade Splatterhouse  
More good games to try
Alien Crush Bonk III - Bonk’s Big Adventure Dungeon Explorer Fantasy Zone Final Lap Twin Galaga ‘90 Klax Military Madness New Adventure Island Pac-Land Parasol Stars (Bubble Bobble) Raiden Space Harrier Super Star Soldier Chase H.Q. Victory Run  
PC Engine 
Batman Bomberman ‘94 Bomberman Users Battle Columns Die Hard Gekisha Boy Gomola Speed Gradius Gunhed - Hudson Gunhed Taikai (2-5 min Blazing Lazers Caravan game) Kato-chan & Ken-chan Space Invaders Street Fighter II: Champion Edition Toilet Kids Xevious

@RickR there's no need to take any risks with your console by modding it or making a cable. All you need is a TurboBooster Plus. I highly recommend these! The TurboBooster Plus gives you A/V RCA out plus Memory Backup. This is an official NEC TurboGrafx product. I bought one of these from Toys R Us and have used it with my TurboGrafx-16 ever since the system was new!
It's a nifty little expansion module that attaches to the back where the plastic cover would go. The TurboBooster Plus adds composite video and stereo audio RCA ports to the TurboGrafx-16, so you don't need to make your own. Additionally, it adds onboard memory for the "Game Save" feature that is built into the TurboDuo. You can save your games and scores to the TurboBooster Plus and not have to enter codes. 
 

This is easily explained. The square base at the back of the TurboGrafx-16 is a vestigial footprint of the Japanese PC Engine. (See photos below) The TurboGrafx-16 retained the PC Engine footprint at the expansion port so the American systems could be compatible with the TurboGrafx-CD and other potential future add-ons without a tremendous amount of redesign or retooling from their Japanese counterparts.
PC Engine, more than most video game brands, had all sorts of different variants and peripherals that were released in Japan. It's unbelievable the different PC Engine items that were available in the Japanese market. I'm sure the the thinking at the time the TurboGrafx-16 was designed was that Americanized versions of many of these items would be released in the US, and keeping the expansion port area on the TG16 similar to the PC Engine would make it much easier to create American versions of these add-ons.  (So why redesign the PC Engine into the TurboGrafx-16 in the first place?)



The plastic piece was added to the TurboGrafx-16 to maintain the design aesthetics of the console while serving as a protective cover for the expansion pinouts. Not only does this keep dust out but it protects the tiny brittle pins at the back which could easily bend or break if bumped against something unprotected.
Imagine buying a TurboGrafx (nearly twice the price of an NES at its release) for your 2nd grader. His friend comes over to play and bangs a Hot Wheel into the back pins, or the system gets pushed into an AC Adapter and even just one pin is bent or broken. Would anybody even notice it right away? Then shelling out another $400 in 1990 dollars for the TurboGrafx-CD add on only to realize it won't connect to your system and won't play. Because a pin got bent. It's probably a good idea to include a hard plastic cover at the back to protect those pins while also maintaining the sleek looks of the video game system.
The protective cover at the back was part of their design initiative to "beef up" the PC Engine for an American audience which they had perceived as being more rough. It was the same reason why they substantially beefed up the PC Engine controller port to the larger American version. The changes in the PC Engine design in becoming the TurboGrafx-16 and the reasons for them is a rabbit hole that we could go down endlessly. I've felt for a long time that they should have released the PC Engine in America keeping the PC Engine design, but updated with black plastic and the neon TurboGrafx-16 branding. Why redesign that high tech little unit to be 3x the size it needed to be? Then there would be no need for a clunky plastic piece at the back.

PS - thank you for all the info Rob.  To be honest, I think I'm just going to stick with RF.  It's tempting to make a cable myself or buy the one you linked from ebay...but I have no desire to take any risks with this console.  I paid a pretty high price for it.  And the RF signal is excellent.  And all of my gaming TV's have the RF in. 
 

Check out this item I found on ebay from China.  It says it's for PC Engine, but I assume it will work for TG-16 too?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PC-Engine-AV-Booster-RGBS-output-TurboGrafx-16-Composite-RCA-RGB-SCART/153340041454?hash=item23b3c758ee:g:Za8AAOSwhu9cFTgo:rk:2:pf:1&frcectupt=true
 

The Trak Ball is the way to go for the 5200.  That thing is a beautiful piece of engineering.  Example:  The buttons have the metal bubble switch instead of the stupid rubber and mylar.  Get one if you can.  Highly recommended.
Plus, it's totally awesome on the side-to-side games too.  Space Invaders, Galaxian, Super Breakout all become infinitely more fun with the track ball. 
I'd have loved to see Atari take the Track Ball design and replace the ball with a joystick for an "Arcade Stick" product.  It would have been a HUGE improvement.  I can't tell you how nice it is to have those buttons flat on the face instead of on the side of the controller. 
 

I also highly recommend the Atarimax SD cart for the 5200.  All of the games for the system fit on there, and the price is not too bad.  In fact, you can find them on ebay for about $80 used (that's what I did).