The Nerd Nest TV Maybe a more detailed back story of “how the TurboCD made me a Shmup Junkie for life” video is in order 😂. Definitely on the caravan I think you’ll love it. It makes for a great chat room and fun times. Now that the mini is out way more people to join. My challenge is figuring out how to keep anyone from cheating with the save states since the last one was original hardware. So people just took screen caps of their scores on the crt.

LOL thanks man. So I'm responsible for you hitting the shooter crackpipe all hours of the night now... I can live with that. The butt paste is funny but I've actually used it for thumb blisters before. That square pad will murder your thumb after long sessions especially the 2min mode. Look forward to seeing you on here again in the future and thx for the great comment. Got a lot of other fun vids in the works.

One thing we proved that week of competition is that anyone can hit those numbers. It just takes being a Junkie that week 🤣. Pretty much everyone that put in the time got into the 600s that week even the less experienced. That was the best part honestly. Seeing how excited they got breaking through that wall after dozens of hours of practice. Realizing they could play that well. It brought out the best in everyone. That reminds me we are due soon for another on the discord!

Nice! I just played Espagaluda with my wife and we used the tips from your video, hold your position and learn the rhythm ,we stayed away from getting cornered and didn’t get annihilated.

Brian Thomas Barnhart These kinds of comments are what makes me want to keep working hard on these. I’m just one of those starved fans that’s craving the same content. So I’m making these as if I were making it for myself. Like you said something fun and unique based on shared memories we all have of these games. I’m looking forward to getting started on the next one with the lag tests.

Thanks! I love when people still find these old OG videos I made as I had so much fun with them. I only wish I'd kept that CD after it broke. They were pretty fragile compared to the later Duo models.

Thank you. I’m glad people are still finding this old video I made. I had so much fun making them!

LMAO, well the year has just begun. But yes, this community is freaking awesome and I love it here and interacting with everyone I've met so far. We have a great discord too that's grown to over 1K plus members. Crazy. If you are ever looking, I try to keep an invite for it on my about page.

Thanks! The second video I ever made but the Caravan clips and music just gets the blood pumping.

RetroHeed Thanks! Playing through SB and SSS this week reminded me how just about every level has great tunes. Nary a bad one in the bunch!

If you loved the old 16bit shooters there's no way you won't dig these killer games on this mini. And you'll have plenty to choose from. Playing the genesis and turbo shooters growing up was heaven and what got me hooked on the genre.

You’re going to be over the moon with it man 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

@@ShmupJunkie It has been awesome! I thought it was so cool, that I went ahead and purchased a PC Engine Mini on Amazon Japan for my brother!

Hey you found it! Hope this video helped explain the caravans and what made them so cool. We still have them on my discord every few months for various games.

DodonEnthusiasticArt Thanks man! Yeah the Soldier games are all great fun I’m sure you’ll enjoy them once you finally get yours. My top score on a CRT with original hardware is still my best, but I’m surprised I was able to score pretty high using the mini. It wasn’t that hard adjusting to the slight delay.

Hey, I'm glad you are really enjoying these and thanks for watching. I put a lot of work into them. Believe me it took a massive amount of practice to get good at that caravan mode haha. It's easy to play but not easy to score past a certain point. If you are competing with friends those modes can get very addicting.

nintendive Thanks! That means a lot as it’s seriously tough (but fun!) work making these. Doing my part to spread as much PC Engine goodness as I can. And I don’t think I’ll run out of content anytime soon with all those shooters 😂. But I’ll be sure and give all great engine games their due eventually.

I think that headbanging intro was one of the first things I ever did and had ready for my videos before anything else. It all started with a goof just to make something funny. But it's also bad ass haha.

gradius57300 Thanks! That was one reason I really wanted to make that guide. There are some really fast playthroughs out there but no real explanation. So this will help people just getting started. I had a lot of detail I just couldn’t squeeze in for time constraints. So I’m thinking I may take this and do an expanded playthrough only video. I’m sure that would be convenient for people just looking up tips on the 2 minute.

The last part of this video is really good primer on how to hit and break 600K. It's not easy but definitely doable once you learn to not miss any of the bonuses. Just have fun with it and enjoy. Awesome you got this. It's great they are still selling them on amazon japan too.

@@ShmupJunkie I got mine used on eBay for $100 shipped, took a few months of patience. On eBay US sellers sell new for $150. I think 500k is doable soon, 600 requires that extra practice for sure

Mark M Awesome comment really appreciate the feedback and stoked you and some others are enjoying them so much. It sounds like we both grew up around the same time in LA. Which Good Guys was it? I used to hit up the one on La Cienega across from the Beverly center all the time. For games and electronics I was (and still am) a huge AV geek as well.

@@ShmupJunkie That was the same one! Beverly and La Cienega. Small world my man! Beverly Center in the late 80s still had the awesome arcade back in the day. Haha so cool man. Keep rocking 💪. Can't wait to see your next video!

Kortland12 Awesome. Glad you enjoyed it and are discovering the library. The games are so pricey using an Everdrive is a great way to try them first and see which ones you want to own. I see you’ve tried our Nina Spirit I really enjoy that one. Short and sweet.

great video man, glad I started from the beginning and got the backstory on the butt paste lol

Oh on the caravan mode. I never even thought about it. Once that timer starts it’s laser focus and auto pilot lol. This whole game is rad it’s my favorite.

@@LordShmup ha. The butt paste has been a recurring theme on many of the videos 🤣. Will everyone tire of it someday? Not likely 😅

Timothy Hagan 🤣 glad it was that entertaining. I try 🤷‍♂️ I really enjoyed making this one too I’m a big fan of the caravan modes.

Thank you so much for this awesome comment. Not sure how long ago you found my channel but I’m glad you did. This was literally the second video I ever officially made and reviewing the PC Engine mini was the reason I even started making them. With no real intention to go beyond that but simply to put something out there for the exact reasons you laid out. But once I got such an amazing response to these similar to yours, I was compelled to continue the journey and see how much more love for the genre I could help people rediscover. I’m positive you’ll find a lot more similar content I’ve made to enjoy. And really glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the mini. It really is a gateway drug into the fantastic world of console shooters especially versus their much more brutal arcade counterparts. No surprise Soldier Blade impressed you and got you into trying more. The game is pretty timeless to me.

@@ShmupJunkie I'm so glad you got motivated to do more stuff like this! And thanks for your answer! Isn't it amazing how these 30+ year old games continue to inspire and bring enthusiasts together online ^^ I think I got some of your videos reccomended by algorithm before, but I just really dived into your reviews today for some weekend leisure after getting back to playing the PC Engine mini yet again the last few days (really getting into Gradius right now. Never got far on the NES). Was interesting to see your commentary on those Konami shmups as well! You nail it with inspiring people to rediscover (be it again or for the first time) those games, the shmup-genre seems to be a bit under-appreciated by lots of bigger outlets. Have a great weekend 🤗

Roy R2-2D Thanks for the support! Glad you enjoyed it. It’s getting quite a few new people excited for a caravan competition.

Dang, $30. I still had my consoles then so I wasn't going after those fire sales. But nobody could have known what they'd be worth today. My regret is simply selling a lot of my old consoles and games back then. Trading them in for the next gen systems. To be fair it helped me afford it, but I would love to have some of my original stuff back.

Turbo Express was 100

Ryan AirZonkWorldChamp Thanks 🙏 Was a bit time limited so am thinking of posting a slightly more expanded guide only down the road. Just so people who are trying to look up caravan tips can get right to it vs it being buried in the video.

Thanks. It's not my best one but just one I recorded. Believe me it was a long week when we did the caravan for it, I don't know if it was a dozen or more hours I easily put into just the 2min mode practicing.

That’s awesome you’re finally playing them though. You picked two really great exclusives to start with and there’ll be tons of others. Blade is one of my all time favs. Music is just legend.

The music part is no joke on soldier blade it's straight up so great jams to kill to! Gonna check out all I can on the system for sure!

Markus Ulfberg yeah that’s gonna be a blast. It always is. My challenge is figuring out how to do a contest with minis and insure no save states are used to cheat 😒

@@ShmupJunkie I guess you'll just have to trust people. Also I don't know what it takes to perform a save-state but hopefully it's more hassle than someone would want to go through in the middle of a good caravan run. :D

Hell yeah man you know I will! I've been waiting on the mini so more of you guys can get in on the caravan. My only challenge is figuring out how to keep everyone honest cause there's always that one person. Since minis have save states it's harder to make sure nobody cheats. So I'm trying to figure it out, but now way would I not want mini owners to be able to compete too. I also need to release my own line of butt paste me thinks hahaha

I wish I did! My old CD system from back then broke long ago, the original had laser and drive issues. Wasn’t smart enough back then to keep and repair it but got a Duo to replace it. My Lords of Thunder is definitely my original game though 🤘

The Layman Video Gamer I’ve got quite a few friends that had some on hand for kids as well. I only had some due to a colonoscopy from a while back 🤣. Never would have thought I’d be using it to play shooters... yet here we are lol.

Unfortunately it would be up to Konami if they wanted to make another one. M2 would just be hired for the work. Though to be fair if it were up to M2 they are so busy it would never happen anyway haha. Never say never, there was a Mega Drive Mini 2 after all. There's plenty more games worth making another for that were missed here. Gate of Thunder being at the top of the list, but I want to see Nexzr too!

@@ShmupJunkie Very true, all of it, thank you for your reply.

Ah an old favorite. I can talk about caravan games forever and enjoyed making this one. The second official video I ever made.

Mingo You don’t know how awesome that is to hear. If my videos are getting new people excited about playing some of these games it’s exactly why I made them. Either the Core or Turbo are identical in the games. If you do end up getting one I’d love to hear back if you are enjoying some of them. Don’t be discouraged if they seem very hard at first. They are supposed to be. Just enjoy playing some and see if you like them.

@@ShmupJunkie I'll definitely come back and report it if I don't forget to. I've never really played any turbo graphics games but from these videos and some other ones, they look fun! It's a bit of a steep price, but there are a lot of games so its a easier to swallow knowing its about 50ish games on there

That’s awesome you guys are doing that. I know others that do the same and it’s one of the most fun aspects of those modes. We do a quarterly caravan contest on my discord too. You should join one of the next times. Same thing only you get 30-40 people competing for a week. Everyone helps each other out and shares tips and posts gameplay. It’s always a good time.

@@ShmupJunkie I will check out your caravan chalenges for sure.

Ddao Dao Glad you enjoyed it. It’s the second one I did and I really liked how it came out.

I had play Ys1&2 30 years ago , and is my first turbografx16 cd game. Also is mine first best rpg games.

exmosquito Yep that’s me 😁 just having some fun on here for now. We missed you on that one. I did see those results on Final. Retroheed has gotten really good at that one since then. I still haven’t played the 2min on Final too much. I want to get good at SSS first 😊.

Shmup Junkie hah yeah I saw his updates, crazy score :)

Shmup Junkie what’s your score on SSS btw? I need a new game to play.

exmosquito I had one lucky run just barely over 500k I’d have to look it up, but I’m not good enough to get anything good consistently like SB. The SSS is a tough one.

That’s awesome! SB is not an easy caravan you have to be blazing fast to get all the big bonuses. Breaking 600k is definitely the big challenge. Took us all over a dozen hours or so of grinding to get there.

Wow I want to get that kind of score now

I never had the original box since back then. It’s honestly so enormous I wouldn’t know where to put it!

King Lizzard's Game Lounge Thanks so much for the awesome comment dude. I love hearing that you guys are really loving the videos. Great point on the Neo not many people know about those special high score modes they had. And the shooter caravans actually go WAY back to the Famicom days with Star Force and Star Soldier. 1985 was the first official year... crazy. I’m looking forward to making some more cool vids. And yeah I can’t wait for you to finally get that hardware to start messing around. The mini and Everdrives are a great way to see which games you would want to own.

I didn’t even know any neo geo shooters had a caravan mode that I remember. It was mainly common on some Famicom and these PC Engine releases. I wonder if they added something for ACA. But yeah it’s not a well known term. So it was fun giving some background on it.

@@ShmupJunkie I've only got a handful of aca downloads on my xbox, but they all have a caravan mode on the menu. A couple Fatal fury games, king of fighters and metal slug titles, no actual shmup downloads unfortunately 😕 (I do plan on picking a few up, Pulstar looks cool). But yeah that term "Caravan mode" I had no idea it was a thing. Arcades in the UK weren't as common here so my exposure to the scene was very limited. You guys in the states (and Japan) had it best 👌

jamiewalton666 Thanks! It’s new just started it a couple weeks ago 💪

@@ShmupJunkie fantastic, need to see that amazing R-Type print in your next video though😉👌

jamiewalton666 oh yes! Great idea I do need to incorporate it somehow in one of the next vids I’m doing in the background. It’s so bitchin

Thanks! One of my first ever. Old school but I enjoy going back sometimes and seeing the fun I had with them. Was always a huge fan of the old caravan games.

I'm glad you found one for at least a decent deal. Would still love to see more runs of this by Konami but doesn't look likely at this point.

The OG PC Engine ambassador I been watching him for a couple years now at least. Love his old chronicles videos too. And his Konami mini rants had me in stitches.

Not even close to the best but thank you. I’ve played these older games a lot. It’s mostly practice and experience.

One can not have a caravan without a preparation of butt paste. Unless you use an arcade stick to save your thumb. It's the best reason haha

Frank This was one of my fav videos as I love the old caravan shooters. Glad you thought so too 😁

And it is much better looking.

If it wasn’t so massive I’d have one as part of my turbo collection but I just don’t have the space for it haha. It’s enormous. It was fragile so maybe safe packaging was a big part. It came out one year after launch or less so it wasn’t the TTI days yet. The Duo wasn’t til 92. Way better and sleeker design and it sold great in Japan of course. But by then yeah it was in the hands of TTI and too late for the US. That early CD tech was out before the public was even ready. But I was ready good god that Ys intro slayed us all.

Still have my original game from back then. Could never give it up.

Check out my Every PC Engine Shooter Reviewed video. You’ll see every one of them!

@@ShmupJunkie well it HAS been a couple years since I've seen that one...

If you haven't tried Raging Blasters yet, that's definitely one of them. I did a review on the Steam version a long time ago, but there is now a Switch release too with upgraded graphics.

Perry Drayton If you’ve got butt paste on standby in each of your game rooms, you just might be a shmup junkie 😅

Martin Evans 😂 fat chance on that. He’s a one men wrecking crew I don’t see him ever not flying solo, but who knows. I know his shtick isn’t for everyone but it’s hard for any pc engine fan not to love some of his great rants on those games. His Konami bits were the first I ever saw and after that I went back and saw a bunch of his older game related stuff.

Martin Evans I did do a podcast with electric underground just a couple weeks ago though talking about input lag. That was fun though.

Shmup Junkie Bithead did a podcast/interview a few months ago, however, I can’t remember who with. You two could definitely do that!

If enough people request it I just may have to make that thumb chum a reality haha. FYI you can still get a PC Engine Mini on Amazon Japan and bypass the scalpers. No reason to pay their ripoff prices. You can even find the Coregrafx Mini there though it's more at $159 for some reason. Which is ideal since it has the turbo controller. But the PCE Mini is still original price Only the US Turbo Mini isn't sold on US amazon anymore so those are overpriced. I buy from Amazon Japan all the time.

@@ShmupJunkie Wow, had no idea about that. Might follow through with that purchase actually.

I used to play Tyrian a bunch as a kid on my old PC yeah, though I haven't played it in ages. I don't know how it holds up these days if I went back to it, but I do have a lot of good memories of playing it back then. It may not have even been tyrian2000 but the original Tyrian.

Chad Molitor I’ll admit here and now that I’m a massive ninja gaiden snob. If you already saw my old NG video from last year you already know. 😁 The nes games are my all time favs on the system. So to me the pc engine port is a bit of an atrocity. The amazing music is no more. The graphics are improved yet somehow also worse. And the gameplay and pacing is different. I know some people who it’s grown on, but I just can’t with it. Of all the games that did not belong on the mini it’s this one. So I have nothing nice to say about it aside from it could’ve been worse. Or even better. Play ninja spirit. Now that game I can get behind 😁. You’ve likely played it already.

@@ShmupJunkie yes sir, Ninja Spirit is AWESOME. That game is a 10/10 in my book. I didn't even realize there was a ninja gaiden port on pc engine until I hit the mini. I got pretty excited to check it out, but it was immediately "off". I was thinking, it was a bad port of the arcade for a moment, but no, it's a weird port of the nes version for some reason 🤔🤔 But why ruin the music man? That soundtrack was my JAM when I was going to college!

@@ShmupJunkie I'm gonna try to give it a fair shake though anyway. I'll just pretend it's a different game. I gave the nes version a good run last year and the game just feels weird on pc engine.

Chad Molitor college? How much younger are you than me? It was my jam when I was 12! 😂🤣

@@ShmupJunkie well, most like about the same age man lol. I was playing Ninja Gaiden still in 2009.

Still some of my all time favorites to replay. I love them all. Blazing Lazers is one of those "you had to be there" games. It was such a jump in visual and audio quality plus performance coming from the NES it was startling. I couldn't stop playing it.

Sinn0100 Thanks for the great comment and I’m glad you enjoyed the vid. And of course as of yesterday, the US TG16 mini is finally available on US Amazon... at least for now. I think you got my fav variant which is the Core mini. It has the turbo switches, Salamander, and isn’t overly large with that rear cover you need to mess with like the TG16 unit. I’ve been using the Core for all my testing. Stay tuned I’ve got my big lag test vid coming next this weekend hopefully and it may ruffle some feathers. But somebody needed to test it properly.

@@ShmupJunkie I will say this, the Core Grafx Mini has been amazing piece of kit so far. I have only experienced input lag on one game, Ninja Gaiden and unfortunately...it's unplayable for me. I used to consider the shmup my favorite genre (I still love it) but I did fall out of it for awhile. I was bitten hard by the fighting bug and I competed in SFC2, SF2T, Samurai Shodown 1-3, Fatal Fury, and all the way through to Virtua Fighter 2. I came back to shmup's briefly over the years from time to time. Musha, Thunder Force III, Thunder Force IV, Last Resort, Fantasy Zone 2, Blazing Star, Pulstar, Strikers 1945, Ghost Pilot, Einhander...basically I love all genres of gaming. It would be easier to list the types of games I don't like (tennis, gold, and Tetris styled games). I'm now just a collector that's enjoying my life and collection. I have a fiancee that is every bit the diehard gamer that I am and like me, she plays everything. We are currently building a home arcade in our living room complete with stand up coin-op machines (we have 7 cabs so far). Further, we have a room dedicated to all things retro gaming (Atari 7800/Nes/SMS through the base Xbox One and PS4). This doesn't include our enhanced consoles....we just love gaming. I think I found a new home here. Upvoted and subscribed! Now, where can i get some of that Sore Butt Cream...for my thumbs? ;)

@@Sinn0100 That's awesome you guys are building a home arcade and already have cabs set up. Getting some PCBs set up is one of my goals once I have the space to do that. Are you planning on posting any of that online on IG, here or somewhere else? I'm sure I'd love to see how it all comes out when you do. Far as Ninja Gaiden goes, I think you may be very interested to see my lag tests coming up and they include that game. It's actually not any different than the other mini games in actual input delay, but because it's so timing based (like NES punch out) that it makes it much harder to adjust to the delay that is there. That being said I am no judge of Gaiden playability as if you've seen my NG video from a few months ago (it came out pretty hilarious btw if you've never seen it), I can practically beat it blind folded it's my favorite NES series, so I am absolutely not a fair judge of how playable that game may be, delay or otherwise, haha. I'm a huge fan of old NES platformers as well. Like you aside from most sports games, puzzlers, and other odd bits, I play just about everything. But I love shmups for that quick hit of adrenaline you can get when you only have 20-30 minutes to play.

@@ShmupJunkie You know, I haven't thought about posting anything online yet. We were having a room added to our home as our poor living room is a bit of a disaster movie right now. COVID 19 put a stop to our build for the time being. I mean, our living room is pretty big but it's started to get a bit cluttered and we need to fix that. When the new room is finally finished and I get a chance to set everything up then I will likely show it online. The room is going to run perpendicular to our living room with a step down enteyway. I'm still pining over the flooring at current. I want to add more arcade cabs and I have been looking at getting a Retrocade for the thousands of ROM's and at least one sitdown. Maybe a Ridge Racer 2 cab...I don't know. At any rate, I'm going to check out the videos you talked about as they sound sweet. I too can beat Ninja Gaiden on the NES blindfolded and it's perhaps my favorite game on Nintendo's 8-bit machine. The PCE version just doesn't feel right. I can clear the Nes version on original hardware, Snes, and the Switch without dying (maybe one or two deaths if I'm trying something different). However, the PCE Mini version...I can't make it to the second boss (I have died on the first boss on the PCE Mini). Another thing, what's up with the Spin Blade attack? It seems to work only half the time.

They only appear if you’ve killed enough waves of enemies before them. Normally you know you will get it if you’re seeing the small orbs coming in from left and right, right before the boss. You can see it in the play through. If you’re not seeing those orbs until after the boss, you won’t get to those final big score orbs in time. They are very hard to get by killing all previous waves fast enough. If that makes sense.

@@ShmupJunkie yeah that makes perfect sense now I though I had a defective emulator file or something haha I just have defective runs! 😂 almost there then I can consistently get 500k now almost there. Thanks for the reply!

Just keep a stock of butt paste handy and hit that crackpipe until you pass out 💭

haha yeah, along with it being kind of funny to mispronounce it in weird ways. I love the game but only recently understood the "right" way to say it.

Japanese PCE mini controller has no turbo switches, others have them. Japan PCE has a couple japan language games the others don't, but is missing Salamander. The others all have Turbo switches and Salamander. Otherwise the rest is pretty much identical. So if you are english speaking and not japanese, I recommend the turbo or coregrafx mini.

Funny how things start like that. I had one around the house for I don’t remember why, but during my first caravan competition my thumb got really raw using a small dpad. I was desperate to soothe it somehow or not be able to continue playing, and figured what the hell. 😅 I posted about it after working for me and it became a thing lol.

I actually have no idea. I’ll listen to Japanese commercials if I can find them to see how they pronounce it. But I’ve never really known it for Parodier. You are likely right. A mix of parody and soldier.

I file this under an oldie but goodie lol. I was having a bit too much fun back then, I have to make sure I don't lose that, as it's part of what I enjoy about making these.

@@ShmupJunkie Good on you buddy! Hey, have you heard of NMK?

@@kbxthegamemaster06 what is that short for?

@@ShmupJunkie Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu. They were a company that mostly made shooting games. A lot of their later games let you get a whole bunch of points like Hudson's games. You might want to play Thunder Dragon 2 or Super Spacefortress Macross II to see what I mean.

I pretty much got all mine from Jp also. What’s funny is it’s packed better coming from overseas then the poor job US amazon does sometimes... showing up damaged or they just ship the open box and slap a label on it. 🤦‍♂️

@@ShmupJunkie It got here really quickly too, I was suprised. These videos were part of the reason I got one and I've been really happy with it so far so thanks for that.

@@KaedeSmithOfTheKiller7 it’s exactly why I made them so nothing makes me happier than hearing that. 🙏

Yeah I don't know why folks are overpaying if there are still more available on amazon japan. I think we would all have loved that uncensored Snatcher in English. It will only happen via fan project most likely one day if we are lucky.

Not that I know of no. I tried to tell everyone who would listen at the time not to miss them, cause they'd just slowly climb in price once sold out. I only see scalpers at the moment. I picked up a few at the time and had no intention of scalping them, but I am thinking for my upcoming 10K sub milestone I want to give one away! That would be fitting.

@@ShmupJunkie Selling them only through Amazon certainly didn't help, that's for sure! I can get a PC Engine mini from Amazon Japan for list price, but not sure how that would compare to a Turbografx 16 mini other then gaining Splatterhouse and losing Life Force/Salamander. Is it worth it for a non-japanese speaker?

Those are scalpers don't pay those prices. That happens whenever they go out of stock. Just keep an eye on amazon, mainly amazon japan until they have them in stock at $99 which is their normal price. Amazon japan gets all three variants often. US Amazon you may not see them for sale again, but it's possible.

The scan lines on the mini are definitely not well done and make the games look worse. Aside from real hardware or an ossc, I found using the Mister to play on a crt is beautiful and best I’ve ever seen it look.

@@ShmupJunkie yeah agree 100%... i prefer playing on the original hardware, but i love the pce mini

I do and I am 🤣. My son is grown up now though and a beast of a gamer.

Where the butt paste got it's start 😃