Topic: Buy a TG-16 or Virtual Console games?

I am really into collecting and playing retro games. I have a few hundred NES games, and tons of games for nearly every retro game console. Recently I traded away my TG-16 and some great games for a huge lot of NES games + boxes. My question is, should I try to re-buy the TG-16 and the games or just get them on VC?

I tend to like to buy and play games on the original system, and I like physically owning the games, but the price of a TG-16 or a turboduo has me considering just buying them on VC. Plus, some of the great games are like $30-$40, where I can get them for $6 or $9 on the VC. What do you guys think?

Stick with the VC. There's not much from the TurboGrafx thats worth getting that isn't on the VC already.

I guess it's a function of how much "play money" you have available. I would buy a real TG-16 if money was no issue... but my budget is limited and the Virtual Console offers me most of the games that I wanted to play anyway. For me, the choice was easy.

I think it depends on how serious you are about the TG-16. Personally I'd opt for importing a PC Engine as the library of TG-16/PCE games is much larger in Japan. Of course the easiest way to access that library would be getting a Japanese Wii since the Japanese Virtual Console PC Engine library is only barely exceeded by the Famicom library (and it's been the other way around a few times) owing to the system's popularity in its native Japan being much greater than outside of Japan. You'd also have the advantage of getting access to other Japanese VC exclusives (like the Virtual Console Arcade) and WiiWare that isn't presently available outside of Japan.

Money definitely plays a factor in this case. Right now, I can buy a TG-16 with 3 games for about $70 + shipping (about $80 total), or I can buy $80 worth of Wii Points and buy 12-13 games or a little less if I buy the imports. The plus is it's much cheaper and I don't have to search all over to buy these games. The negative (and this is a biggie) is that I can't resell or trade my VC games away. If I spend $100 on a TG system and games, I can probably sell it for $100 or more in the future. I will never get the money back if I buy VC games.

The VC has a painful lack of Legendary Axe games, though.

I was tired of waiting for games to show up on the VC, so I went the Ebay route and got a TG16 and a bunch of games. No regrets at all, even though I ended up with some games that I already had on the VC I always have the option of selling them off. Theres not a huge library like the NES or Genesis to sift thru, so the best games are usually the easiest to find and reasonably priced, and I bet those Hu-Cards wil still work a hundred years from now. I was lucky and scored a lot that included an import converter, and I found alot of those games can be had without breaking the bank as well. Really, unless its a real issue due to space limitations or significant others, if you desire and can afford them than owning the original systems is always a better value.

Thanks BIkeage - I was leaning towards the VC route, but I think you just knocked some sense into me.

And don't forget that Virtual Console has no clear upgrade or maintenance path. Once the Wii is no longer being supported, you might lose all your digital games... or you might not. We just don't know yet. (Of course it's not getting any easier to buy replacement TG-16 consoles or controllers either.)

Virtual Console certainly is the cheaper solution, but has some notable drawbacks to consider.

If people were worried about the resell cost then they wouldn't buy many VC games.

I treat it as a rental. If I spend points on a VC game, I won't see that money again. So I make sure to play each game for hours to get my money's worth out of it. Its become a game in itself to me - I tend to make myself play the games at the bottom of my records to bump up the time played on my Nintendo Channel records. Even the games I don't like and regret downloading.