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HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: How to play Super CD format games.
You can play Neo Nectaris on a U.S. TurboDuo. And yes, you can also play
Neo Nectaris on a U.S. TurboGrafx-16 + CD, but the "Super System Card 3.0"
(U.S. version) upgrade is required. Why?
Well, System Card 2.0, which originally came with the CD attachment, can only play "CD-ROM²" format
games. Since Neo Nectaris is a "Super CD-ROM²" format game, it requires the upgraded "Super System Card 3.0".
DUO owners don't have to worry about this, of course, because System 3.0 is built into the DUO.
NOTE: Both a U.S. and Japanese version of "Super System Card 3.0" exists.
They are not interchangeable. So, if you have the Japanese PC-Engine + CD,
you will need the Japanese version of the "Super System Card 3.0" upgrade in order to play
Neo Nectaris.
REGION COMPATIBILITY: Japan vs. North America
Or, in other words: can I play Neo Nectaris on my U.S. system? As the discussion above reveals, you DON'T have to worry about regional lock-outs with CD and SCD games--there are
none. You can play any region CD / SCD games without any problem as long as you have: 1) DUO, or
2) PCE/TG-16 + CD with the appropriate Super System Card 3.0.
EMULATION: Can I play Neo Nectaris on my PC / MAC ?
Of course, it is best to experience the glory of Neo Nectaris on the
original hardware. That said, it is possible to play Neo Nectaris on PC /
Mac. The following account is derived from my own (limited) experience
with PC: MagicEngine is a reliable PCE
emulator -- available for both PC and MAC platforms -- that supports most
CD / SCD games. Not all CD / SCD games play flawlessly in
MagicEngine,
however (and a few games don’t work at all). Furthermore, some MAC versions of MagicEngine
do NOT support CD games. I have played Neo Nectaris extensively on
both original and emulated hardware, and there do not appear to be any
significant differences between the two; Neo Nectaris runs smoothly and
faithfully with MagicEngine (PC version
VO.99 beta 5). When booting the CD, I found "System Card 3.0"
to be superior to "Magic System 3.0" (the console generated audio
was absent when using the latter, so you won't hear sound effects or the
"game over" and "password entry" music unless you
use the former).
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