Bought a Turbografx 16: What should I get for it?

[Eltigro]

I told the history of the machine. I like studying the history of things. I just said it was the XBox of it's day. How Nintendo screwed them and Atari with catch 22 and contracts. Just told the history of it. Just told of the different version's of the machines and some of the stupid decision's NEC made.

 

I was sleepy when I wrote it. I spelled some words wrong.

 

I suggest taking some No-Doze before attempting such a long post again. Informative, yes, but it's hard to believe that someone who knows so much about NEC and the TurboGrafx would misspell some of the things you did.

 

Hudson, not Husand, Husdon, or Husond.

HuCard, not Hue Card.

TurboGrafx, not Turbo Grafix.

Bonk, not Boink.

Air Zonk, not Air Zoink.

 

There are other minor misspellings, but if you're going to talk about the TG-16, these are pretty big ones to misspell. I actually thought for a bit that Husand was a different company and Googled it to see if there was such an entity. No dice. I agree, there is some great information in there for someone who hasn't done research themselves, but it's just hard to read.

 

I'm really not trying to be an ass, but... well... wake up dude!

 

I think he already got the message that his writing was a bit off. Seriously. Let it go. Stuff like this is just trolling.

 

In any case, any PC engine games I should look for? Japanese ones, that is?

 

Not a troll, honestly. Just a grammar/spelling Nazi. =) jk

 

Anyway, on Japanese games, they seemed to be selective when releasing titles in the US. Selective as in: They kept a lot of good ones in Japan.

 

I'll admit, I haven't played many Japanese games, but from looking at TG stuff for years, I know some I would like to try.

 

P-47, horizontal shooter

1943 Kai, vertical shooter

Dracula X: Rondo of Blood is now available on Wii Virtual Console and I would recommend getting it there if possible as it is expensive as the original Super CD game. I got it and if you like Castlevania, I definitely recommend it.

[NBC]

OK. I got it. But 1 thing. What is a troll.

[Eltigro]

OK. I got it. But 1 thing. What is a troll.

 

I believe the term originates from a fishing term, where the boat just moves a long at low speed, trailing bait until something bites, but I could be wrong.

 

On the web, in forums, and in MMO gaming, a troll says something inflammatory just to get someone mad and start an argument. (Putting out bait, seeing if someone bites.)

 

I honestly was not trying to troll and apologize if my posts seemed like I was.

 

I just ask that you get some rest, buddy. =)

[NBC]

I Learned about the machine from some experts that knew more than I did. They talked to the guy that worked at Turbo Zone Direct and people who worked at TTI and NEC. I asked a lot of questions. But some I found off the Internet. I researched to see if the information was correct. Just did that for me. I really liked the machine. But I wonder why with the best graphics and technology why in Japan it was a huge hit. But failed in other markets.

 

In Japan they still make games for it. It really changed gaming over their. But Every where else it did not knock a dent in gaming. Can you imagine a XBox 360 doing nothing. Yes they did leave a lot a good game in Japan. But it was Nintendo that made that happen. Contracts and catch 22's.

 

I think the Atari Jaguar is the best machine of all time but the PC Engine AKA Turbo could have been that one great machine. Imagine what it would have looked like now. If games still came out for it.

 

Any comment's.

[Eltigro]

I Learned about the machine from some experts that knew more than I did. They talked to the guy that worked at Turbo Zone Direct and people who worked at TTI and NEC. I asked a lot of questions. But some I found off the Internet. I researched to see if the information was correct. Just did that for me. I really liked the machine. But I wonder why with the best graphics and technology why in Japan it was a huge hit. But failed in other markets.

 

In Japan they still make games for it. It really changed gaming over their. But Every where else it did not knock a dent in gaming. Can you imagine a XBox 360 doing nothing. Yes they did leave a lot a good game in Japan. But it was Nintendo that made that happen. Contracts and catch 22's.

 

I think the Atari Jaguar is the best machine of all time but the PC Engine AKA Turbo could have been that one great machine. Imagine what it would have looked like now. If games still came out for it.

 

Any comment's.

 

I've heard/seen/read lots of reasons for the PC Engine's success in Japan and the TG-16's failure in NA.

 

One thing was the delay in bringing it to North America. The Famicom was around in Japan in around '83. The NES was released in NA in '85. The PC Engine was released in Japan in '87. The TG-16 was released in NA in '89. So NEC and Hudson were about four years behind Nintendo on this release cycle with a two year gap in bringing it stateside. I think this delay helped Nintendo in several ways. It allowed them to get a bigger market share in America and develop name recognition. It allowed them time to make exclusivity deals with game developers. They pretty much pushed Sega out of the way and got an iron grip on the American Market. It also meant that the TG-16 came out kind of between generations of consoles. It was newer and more advanced, but I think consumers were already thinking about what Sega and Nintendo might do next. I'm not sure why there was such a gap. Both companies redesigned the look of their consoles, with Nintendo doing quite a bit different. NEC however just seemed to put the same thing in a different case. What took two years? If they had released it in the same PC Engine case a year earlier, I think it would have done better.

 

Also, speaking of design. I think that having only one controller port was a pretty big mistake. I'm not sure about console gaming in Japan, how social it is, but the American game buying public definitely saw the single controller port as negative. Having to separately buy another controller and a multi-tap seemed too much.

 

There's also the game issue. NEC and Hudson had very few games that were recognizable in NA and no real mascot until Bonk arrived. There were many games that never got converted to English and released in North America.

 

Then there's the distribution plan. For some reason, it was hard to find a place that sold them and all the accessories. It was like a movie that has a limited release. You could find them easily in LA, New York, or Chicago, but if you lived in a one red light town in East Texas (like me) you might have some driving to do. I think they eventually got into more stores; the local mall had one store that carried them, iirc, a Duff's Electronics. I had read an ad about how you could buy a TG-16 and get a coupon for a free game. My parents drove to Shreveport Louisiana (about an hour and a half away) to find one with the coupon. (I still have the original box mine came in, with the UPC code cut off so that I could send it in for my free game: Blazing Lazers.) I don't remember ever seeing the TG-CD or TurboExpress in a brick and mortar store.

 

The advertising was not a hit, either. It only got worse when they started using Johnny Turbo (see my avatar pic) and those terribly written "comics."

 

Despite all this, I was still a huge fan of the system and games. They were fun and had much better graphics than the NES. Until Genesis came out, nothing else touched it. And then, it was a toss-up on graphics imho. Genesis won the battle easily because it already had many of the things that Nintendo had in the generation before, an installed user base, recognizable games and characters, two controller ports...

[Fantasmike]

I got a TG-16 recently and the games I would recommend to see what type of game you enjoy most on the system and not break the bank are Blazing Lazers (which I love)for a shmup, and for the side scrolling type of game either Bonk's Adventure or Keith Courage.

[jhd]

 

Then there's the distribution plan. For some reason, it was hard to find a place that sold them and all the accessories. It was like a movie that has a limited release. You could find them easily in LA, New York, or Chicago, but if you lived in a one red light town in East Texas (like me) you might have some driving to do. I think they eventually got into more stores; the local mall had one store that carried them, iirc, a Duff's Electronics.

 

Here in Canada the TG-16 was sold at Radio Shack. Every store had a demo model on display; and there were RS stores in virtually every mall. If memory serves, Keith Courage was the pack-in game (or at least that was the title used for the store demos).

 

Even after the system was discontinued, many of the stores had piles of accessories in the clearance bin for a very long time afterwards.

 

That said, I have never seen one turn-up at a thrift shop, garage sale, or flea market, so presumably they were not huge sellers despite the better distribution channels.

[WIZZARD77]

Check out ToTo Tek's website They offer a flash cart. I have some of their products and they are of very high quality.

[tz101]

I think the Atari Jaguar is the best machine of all time...

 

Any comments? (fixed by TZ101)

 

Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, and I have a Jag, but it is far from the "best machine of all time". Just my 2¢.

[NBC]

I think the Atari Jaguar is the best machine of all time...

 

Any comments? (fixed by TZ101)

 

Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion, and I have a Jag, but it is far from the "best machine of all time". Just my 2¢.

 

Thats cool. I just love the Jaguar.

[7800Lover]

Lords of Thunder - it's a great shoot'em-up!

[WatchVenusSpa]

Unless you have the CD add-on, the TG16 isn't worth the money you paid for it. That is where the only good games were.

[Lendorien]

Well, The CD add on is a bit out of my price range at the moment, but really, I think that some of the Hu Card games are decent. I've tried a number of the suggestions here on an emulator.

 

I currently am looking to keep my purchases cheap. As such, I currently own Keith Courage, Alien Crush and Tailspin.

 

I want to get Blazing lazers among a few others.

Edited October 4, 2010 by Lendorien

[lushgirl_80]

I ended up not winning an auction on Ebay today. it consisted of a Turbo Grafx 16 console, 9 games and the Turbo Grafx Express handheld, but it did'nt come with any power supplies.

 

The ending price was 106 bucks. Oh well drats.

 

 

I like the Turbo Grafx Express handheld better than the console itself actually.

 

I think if I were to get the console, I'd also like to have the handheld too.

[lushgirl_80]

As far as games go, I remember playing Alien Crush a longtime ago and really liking it. One of the funnest pinball games I've ever played.

 

Love to get that just to play it on the Turbo Grafx Express . I'd also love to get the tv tuner that came with that too.

 

It's like Gameboy but way way better.

 

[Lendorien]

As far as games go, I remember playing Alien Crush a longtime ago and really liking it. One of the funnest pinball games I've ever played.

 

Love to get that just to play it on the Turbo Grafx Express . I'd also love to get the tv tuner that came with that too.

 

It's like Gameboy but way way better.

 

 

 

If it's mid 90's vintage, I bet the screen looks terrible. Anyone know?

[Reaperman]

As far as games go, I remember playing Alien Crush a longtime ago and really liking it. One of the funnest pinball games I've ever played.

 

Love to get that just to play it on the Turbo Grafx Express . I'd also love to get the tv tuner that came with that too.

 

It's like Gameboy but way way better.

 

 

 

If it's mid 90's vintage, I bet the screen looks terrible. Anyone know?

The screen looks better than any of the other three initial handheld system's screens, but by today's standards it's a bit crude. It's like an old pocket-tv, in that the pixels don't line up square. When I play Turbo GraFX games, I usually do them on the Express, just because it's less of a pain in the rear to set up.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Reaperman

[SlowCoder]

I can't play imports yet

 

Huh ... Does the TG16 have region awareness?

Edited October 7, 2010 by SlowCoder

[OldAtarian]

So, I just got a TurboGrafx 16 for fairly cheap. I have no games for it yet. Any suggestions on what to buy? I'm afraid that I don't have a lot of money to spend on it right now, so I'll only be able to get a couple games. Any suggestions?

 

Splatterhouse, Bonk's Adventure. What more do you need?

[Charlie_]

Air Zonk is a great game. I also like Deep Blue.

If you like Aliens Crush you will like Devils Crush too.

[Blur2040]

Huh ... Does the TG16 have region awareness?

 

CDs have no region locking, cards do. For US systems, some of the lines on the cartridge slot are swapped around.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Blur2040

[Lendorien]

Well, I'm up to 4 games now. All cheaply gotten on ebay:

 

Alien Crush

Bonk's Adventure

Kieth Courage

Tailspin

Victory Run (Hu card is busted. Doesn't work. )

 

I'm stopping there for now, but I will be looking for others suggested down the road. The CD add-on is off the table for now. Too pricey.

Edited October 9, 2010 by Lendorien

[Eltigro]

Well, I'm up to 4 games now. All cheaply gotten on ebay:

 

Alien Crush

Bonk's Adventure

Kieth Courage

Tailspin

Victory Run (Hu card is busted. Doesn't work. )

 

I'm stopping there for now, but I will be looking for others suggested down the road. The CD add-on is off the table for now. Too pricey.

 

 

Yeah, I've always wanted the CD addon, but never gotten it because of cost. And now I hear that they are all fatally flawed (a plastic gear inside becomes brittle with age breaks and no one can find a replacement). One day I'll maybe find a Duo instead. I have several chip games for my TG-16, but there have always been CD games that looked awesome and the CD attachment was one reason why I decided on a TurboGrafx instead of a Genesis.

 

To be honest, I've cheated on my Turbo... I have a Wii and downloaded a lot of games from their Wii Virtual Console. They have several of the CD games on there and with the Classic Controller, they play pretty well. It doesn't have the same nostalgic "feel" as playing on original hardware, but it does allow me to experience these games without the increased investment.

[Reaperman]

while a CD attachment is out of my price range--a broken one isn't. That seems like it might be an inexpensive way to get composite video out...

[8th lutz]

One day I'll maybe find a Duo instead.

The Turbo Duo has a major flaw. The Turbo Duo is prone to have capacitor leakage. The Japanese version of the Turbo Duo called the Pc Engine Duo has the same problems.That was posted by multiple Digital Press members and threads through the years.

 

The people at Digital Press claim the last 2 versions of the Pc Engine Duo called PC Engine Duo R and PC Engine Duo RX don't have reliability problems.

Edited October 11, 2010 by 8th lutz