What's the deal with this? I've noticed that there are two variations of
the standard TurboPad. One is marked NEC Home Electronics, and the other is
marked NEC Technologies (also HES-PAD-01). From the outside, they are close
to identical, but the NECT pad has a more intense color print, and the
direction pad is raised further than on the NECHE pad.
Inside, they are way different! The NECT pad looks really cheap compared to
the NECHE pad. The circuit design looks more like the insides of a Pong
machine than a TurboGrafx (no joke!). Many components (mostly jumpers) have
been eliminated, including the polymer reinforcements for where the
TurboSwitches slide. And now that I am examining it closely, I can see that
all the contact points are what looks like bare alloy, and not the resilient
black-type of contact (what is that black material, anyway?).
The two chips inside the NECHE pad are both manufactured by Toshiba. Inside
the NECT pad, one chip is a Hitachi, and the other is a Goldstar (!). The
connector for the cord is different on each pad.
Is this another example of NEC trying to cut their costs to keep their heads
above water? Is this the price we paid to offset the cost of importing all
the great games like Drop Off, Timeball, and China Warrior? Ugh...
Earnest
xxxxxx@valleyint.com