IntoGrafix: portable TurboGrafix

posted Jul 29th 2009 7:31am by
filed under: portable video hacks

[Bacteria] tipped us off to his latest portable system mod called IntoGrafix. The TurboGrafix-16 was awesome when it was released. the graphics were, compared to Nintendo, astonishing. Its games were these little cards, like a thick credit card. [Bacteria] wanted to revive his old one in a more portable fashion.  He designed a custom case to fit the whole thing into, which is pretty impressive itself. The screen is the trusty old PSone screen.  The last time we saw a TurboGrafix, it was in a mini Arcade cabinet.



22 Responses to IntoGrafix: portable TurboGrafix

  • strider_mt2k says:
    July 29, 2009 at 7:47 am

    Remarkable work as is evidenced by this remark I’m making right here.

    emulators, shmemulators, this is some really incredible work.

    Reply Report comment
  • Red Five says:
    July 29, 2009 at 7:52 am

    Um, wasn’t the portable TurboGrafix-16 known as the TurboExpress Portable?

    Reply Report comment
  • smyd says:
    July 29, 2009 at 8:16 am

    Do any turboexpress still survive?

    Anyways this is a great idea. A. the games are being played relatively legally, B. you can possibly start adding support for other systems.

    Neat.

    Reply Report comment
  • svofski says:
    July 29, 2009 at 8:36 am

    Hmm what do you mean by “relatively”, smyd?

    Reply Report comment
  • bile says:
    July 29, 2009 at 8:47 am

    My TurboExpress still works just fine. And I’ll say the graphics were far better than the NES. Dracula X, Lords of Thunder, SF2CE? Looked better than the Genesis.

    Reply Report comment
  • PocketBrain says:
    July 29, 2009 at 9:34 am

    I have a TurboExpress, albeit it is now broken. :-(
    Far superior to Game Boy, Lynx, Game Gear, even arguably GBA. Used the same game cards as the standard console version, which was very convenient. Ate batteries; I had to sacrifice a set of alkalines to finish Bonk’s Revenge or leave it plugged in; had two sets of rechargeables, one always on the charger.
    I didn’t “take it out from time to time.” When it was working, I had it out every day, but it hasn’t run since 2005.
    I like the idea of the bigger PSOne screen!

    Reply Report comment
  • jtag says:
    July 29, 2009 at 10:18 am

    TurboExpress does the same thing – still got mine, boxed, in mint condition (with it’s bigger cousing the TurboGrafx 16)

    Blaser Lazers FTW

    Reply Report comment
  • jtag says:
    July 29, 2009 at 10:19 am

    that would be “Blazing Lazers”, heh

    Reply Report comment
  • smyd says:
    July 29, 2009 at 10:21 am

    @svofski, because the games are software. You don’t necessarily have the right to use that software on unlicensed devices.

    It depends on many contexts and depends where you live.

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  • thecauseandeffect says:
    July 29, 2009 at 10:30 am

    remarkable construction but pointless when considering the turbografx express

    Reply Report comment
  • thecityspiders says:
    July 29, 2009 at 11:06 am

    It is redundant to make a portable out of the turbogafx16,yes. But the redundancy ends with notable modern improvements like the added screen size,and better batteries.Would be nice to emulate that on a DS/lite or a some other portable media device with decent performance.on a ds there are two screens so one of the screens could be the game gallery select menu/settings/debug/ etc

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  • Bakamoichigei says:
    July 29, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I too was taken aback by the redundancy of this hack given the existence of the TurboExpress, but the added features are worthwhile.

    I wouldn’t mind a portable NEO-GEO… But the size of the cartridges really negates any chance of portability, lol

    http://media.giantpachinkomachineofdoom.com/blog/2008-10/images/cartsize.jpg

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  • moddedbybacteria says:
    July 29, 2009 at 2:51 pm

    Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated.

    The screen size of the PSone screen is 5″ which is far bigger than the TurboExpress, which to me is important as it allows better game immersion and also less eye strain. It also uses integrated Li-ion cells which are far better than NiMH cells!

    It was a fun project to do.

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  • Hirudinea says:
    July 29, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    I’m getting tired of Famicom clones, get some factory in China to start building this (with about 100 built in games of course.)

    Reply Report comment
  • smartass says:
    July 29, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    Looks store-bought. (y)

    Reply Report comment
  • Scott says:
    July 29, 2009 at 6:49 pm

    I have a TurboExpress, it still works just fine all these years later.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/22469144@N05/2430348372/

    Reply Report comment
  • waffleking101 says:
    July 29, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    I still have my Turbografx, amasing system. What were your favorite games?

    Mine was Splatterhouse

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  • moddedbybacteria says:
    July 30, 2009 at 1:06 am

    Galaga ’90, Gradius, Bomberman ’93 and ’94, Salmander and others. Great system!

    Reply Report comment
  • cantido says:
    July 30, 2009 at 4:34 am

    @Bakamoichigei

    You can get PSRAMs big enough now to make a decent SD card -> PSRAM -> Neogeo device… so you wouldn’t have to carry carts around. However the smallest of the MVS boards is still pretty wide.

    Or just buy one of those Dingo A320 things to play the 5 or 6 neogeo games that were actually any good.

    Reply Report comment
  • Hitek146 says:
    July 30, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    Awesome project! I couldn’t find one single reference to where he obtained the case “blanks” that he modified, though…

    Reply Report comment
  • moddedbybacteria says:
    July 31, 2009 at 12:08 am

    The case blanks I made myself, made a vacuum forming table and mold, and made some cases. It’s documented on my WordPress site and how to do it!

    Reply Report comment
  • MrAfterFx says:
    March 5, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    Yes great work Bacteria! I tipped this site on my portable ps2 and they havent uploaded it yet.

    I love the design that allows you to grip it in different ways depending on how you play, having options are always great especially if you are wanting to sell it. But I don’t have to ask you about that!

    If you guess want to learn how to make portables of your favorite consoles please don’t hesitate to visit moddedbybacteria.freeforums.org, we can help you get started :).

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