Actually, the first PC-Engine Duo was black, that's was released here. The Duo-R and Duo-RX were white.

Why do some SNES turn yellow while others stay white?

I'm not really sure. The last one I had was practically brown it had yellowed so badly. Luckily someone on this forum sold me a practically new-in-box SNES still in the plastic for $30 last year and it look BEAUTIFUL. It looks so damn good with my blue LED mod.

My hands still smell like bleach.

This post is dedicated to UAIOE.

I think black was the way to go. Any difference on the specs of the consoles? I know I could get the booster card to play the Japanese games but I dont know if that is worth it. I dont even think they sold the Duo in stores here in the US.

I'll be damned...it worked!

But only for white consoles, right? I doubt a SNES would be a qualified candidate for such a procedure.

Here's my U.S. P.C. Engine. What a great system.

Well, maybe. I don't think the bleach is really "whitening" the system per se, rather than breaking up and removing the dirt and stuff that caused the discoloration. The controller returned to its white color and the console itself returned to its very light beige color. It's quite possible to clean up a SNES with this process.. of course I no longer have a yellowed SNES to try it on.

I see you have a Core Grafx II as well, I've got one too.

Is the Core the add-on that boots the system specs to play some of the better games or was it needed to play the Japanese ones?

The Core Grafx and Core Grafx II were just re-releases of the original HuCard-only PC-Engine with standard RCA video and stereo output as opposed to RF video out. The CD add-on required a System Card that had the required software to boot CDs; there were two updated System Cards that had more RAM, Super System Card and Arcade Card. The Duo units did not need a system card (except for the Arcade Card, but there weren't many interesting games released for it).

The PC-Engine is definitely the most over-upgraded and over-accessorized game system of all time. There are nine versions of the main hardware (twelve if you count the US versions). Not to mention needing an add-on for any sort of multi-player.. separate RCA and memory add-ons (both combined into the CD unit later on). If you look over the original prices for this stuff in Japan you have to wonder how it practically aced the Famicom with how much money you needed to invest in it at the time.

Thanks for the info Pixy. I did enjoy my Duo for what it was. I did have the orginal TurboGraphix and I traded it for the Duo. I didn't like that I needed a new multi-tap for the Duo because of the smaller plug. Playing Y's I & II almost made the whole system worthwhile all by itself. I also have the Turbo Express with the tv attachment.

You just made me incredibly envious. I still have my original Turbo Grafx-16 with the CD add-on. I bought my pc-engine at a tag sale.

I have a friend who still has his Turbo Grafx-16 with the CD add-on as well. He also bought the arcade card to play some of the good games for it. My Turbo Express still works but man does it eat batteries for lunch.

having just bought a DUO R system with a lovely yellow controller I was hoping to see the before/after pics again and they're gone. is there anything you would recommend in getting the controller as white as possibe without damage?

I can post the pictures again when I get home (if I remember). Scrub them with a Comet gel and soak them in a bleach/water concoction overnight.. that's what I did and they came out literally sparkling. I have recently heard that others have tried this on yellowed SNESes with no success. Bummer.

Stupid question: What's so cool about this system? What are the killer games?

It was the first CD based system.

As far as games.. mostly shooters, some anime style RPGs, mostly very Japanese games.

That's good enough for me

you could always go and get some plastic prep (and color if needed) from the auto paint store. it'd be 3m plastic prep what it does is eat away any dirt, old color, etc in plastic products so they can be brought back or repainted. great product i've used it on a lot of computer parts and if you do want to paint 3m has a plastic only paint that if you get the right color you would never be able to tell any difference, unless you're one of those cake on the paint people. just some info if you can't find any other way to clean it, these products do cost some $$$ for a normal sized spray can of the plastic prep its around $30