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Will we ever see Turbo CD and PC-Engine Games in the US Wii Virtual Console? Even Hudson is not Sure
The Director of Marketing of Hudson Entertainment wrote me an email responding to my Open Letter about PC Engine Games in the US Wii Virtual Console.
He wrote:
“Thanks for your email. It's always great to hear from our fans. All the more important because our fans do make an impact on the kind of games we make. In fact, our initial lineup of games we launched for the Virtual Console is strongly influenced by such feedback as yours.”
”As for Japanese games and CD based games, it does present an interesting challenge. The question is whether there is enough overall consumer interest in games that are not in English, and whether the Wii one day will be able to support full CD based type of downloads. If we hear enough interest from fans it will definitely be something that we evaluate, and work out with Nintendo. We agree, there are so many great games that were created for the Japanese market that never came out in the US. Being a fan of these games myself, I would love to see them come out here. Continue to show support, and who knows, perhaps we'll all make enough impact to bring this dream to light!”
So to summarize will we ever see Dracula X : Rondo of Blood for PC-Engine CD in on the Wii in the US? Who freaking knows at this point but they are working the technical details to make it possible. My pal BBQ is still a lucky bastard for having his copy of it next to his TurboDuo.
Jake at December 1, 2006 
Games
Comments
I'm very happy they got Bonk on it. Now if only they'll give us the rest of the Bonk series and Zonk. Over time.
Oh, and Dungeon Explorer would rock too. Keith Courage....
I should've never gave my TG-16 away.
Posted by: Llydis at December 2, 2006 8:38 AM
There really is a legitament concern with the CD games: that being the size, like he mentions in his email to you. Granted, most games do not fill up the full cd, but are only about 200-300 megs in size, there are a lot that full up the CD. Simply because of the videos and or music. So these CD games would require a 2-6 hundred meg download, and space on the flash mem or your SD card. Then since these are so huge, how much will they cost?
I think that size is a large part of the concern with CD games. I think the best method would be to have the publishers of the original games make the port and trasnlations, that way the full burden wouldn't be on Nintendo, and there would be a better chance of seeing Import games on the VC. There would also be a lot more coming out much faster if the publishers were porting the games.
I can see where that guy is coming from, but at the same time, I agree with you on this.
Posted by: Shawn L at December 2, 2006 10:53 AM
Well the largest part of Turbo CDs was the uncompressed music.
I don't think waiting to reprogram their old games to support Engish is going to be commercially viable. I think that most non-RPG games PC-Engine only games could be viable in the US while they are still in Japanese.
Also I got a 1-gig SD card for 24 bucks lastweek. That can fit atleast two uncompressed Turbo CD games.
Posted by: Jacob Metcalf ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.8bitjoystick.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 4, 2006 9:22 AM
These games unfairly contain so not enough place on a disk, it would be possible on to contain much more games.
Posted by: Brat at December 4, 2006 10:35 AM
Brat, What??
Jake, now that you mention it, all they would have to do is slam those tracks through a simple mp3 compression app, and bam. But still, you maybe right. A lot fo people don't even know of those games and simply want to play the gems of their childhoods. I just hope hey bring Uniracers to the VC.
Posted by: Shawn L at December 4, 2006 6:52 PM
Nintendo did say that they plan on using the USB capabilities to allow for basically any type of storage. Once Nintendo puts USB HDD and FlashDrive support on the Wii (fully possible with their updates), CD based games on the VC would be more logical.
Posted by: ShotgunSteve at December 5, 2006 12:10 AM
