TurboGrafx 16 was a flop; why is it popular now?

to best understand the renewed interest in the turbo Graphics 16 let's go back to the future together to the year 1989. the system had been out for two years at that point as the PC engine in Japan and it just launched in the United States as the turbo graphics and to celebrate this new milestone in the system's history it's shipped with the pack in game Keith courage and Alpha zones consider that the Sega Genesis was shipping with the worldwide hit Sonic the Hedgehog and just two years later the Super Nintendo shipping with the worldwide Smash Hit Super Mario World and the four turbo Graphics it didn't stand a chance and when reviewers of the day took note that the TurboGrafx 16 had a 16-bit graphics processing set but only an 8-bit CPU Gamers hungry for the most bits you could shove into one single console Pan the turbo Graphics 16. the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive went on to sell 30.75 million total units worldwide Nintendo sold a staggering 49.1 million Super Nintendo in super famicom systems as for NEC in the turbo Graphics 16 well it sold a paltry 5 0.62 million total units worldwide so if the turbo Graphics 16 got crushed under the weight of the mighty Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo what's causing A Renewed interest in the system in the modern Retro Gaming scene the fact is we're better educated better informed Gamers than we've ever been in the history of gaming we know now that the number of bits and bytes that a game system can crunch are less important than the quality of the gameplay itself do you know the exact horsepower torque and fuel economy specifications for your vehicle or do you just love the feeling you get when you fire it up and press the pedal to the metal no one has demonstrated this better than Nintendo with the Wii and the switch neither of these systems boast the highest amount of power when compared to its contemporaries but both of them have an incredible library of games that can be enjoyed by Gamers of all ages now that you can look through that set of lenses to look at the turbo Graphics 16 you'll find that there's a lot more to this system than just the sum of its parts the turbo Graphics 16 may be rocking an 8-bit Central Processing Unit but it actually has a dual 16-bit Graphics processing unit the system has a total of eight kilobytes of on-board ram there's a total color palette of 512 colors but what's impressive is that it can show 482 of those colors all at once on screen it's one of the first consoles to offer stereo sound through the use of the turbo booster add-on pack and NEC launched a new era of add-on peripherals for game systems by making the turbo Graphics 16 and PC engine the first system to offer a CD-ROM add-on both the turbo Graphics 16 and its PC engine counterpart both have their game strolled in this unique media format called Hue carts also known as a turbochip the game and instructions came packaged in a dual case which made them Slimmer and easier to store than traditional cartridge media of the era the turbo pad controller that ships with the turbo Graphics 16 is unique to the era in that it includes turbo fire buttons that have three different speed settings there's only one controller port at the front of the unit in its proprietary but with add-ons like the turbo tap you can connect up to five total controllers to the system for the 19 games that actually support it speaking of games a system is only as good as its games and there were 686 total games released for the turbo Graphics 16 and PC engine worldwide let's take a look at some bangers that were released in Hue card format in North America for the turbo graphics 16. sometimes the system Just Nails it with a launch title right out of the gate and that's the case with blazing lasers launched in 1989 the game is a vertical scrolling shooting butt with a plot based on the Japanese movie gun hit your base is under attack by an enemy Force known as the dark Squadron and it's up to you to destroy this evil alien Armada in its special weapon fortunately you have an array of weapons available to use some better than others there are nine total levels in the game and the boss battles are epic and every level of the game has one or more of them to battle critics of the era praise this game for its visuals which never seem to slow down no matter how much the game throws at you on screen at any one time one of the unique gameplay elements of this game for the era is that you can actually control the speed of your ship you can select from one of three speeds to either choose a high degree of speed or a high degree of precision maneuverability today many retro Gamers consider blazing lasers to be the premier Shoot Em Up on the turbo Graphics 16 and in some cases the premiere Hue card game on the entire system when Bomberman 93 dropped for the turbo Graphics 16 electronic gaming monthly named it the best game of the year for the system and for good reason black Bomberman has stolen seven ships from the pan galactic bureau's mother computer and scrambled them across several planets in the Magellan system it's up to you as Ace detective bomber cop to save the day to complete each of the mazes you control bomber cop and deploy bombs in strategic locations you'll have to use bombs to destroy walls to access key parts of the Maze and to destroy enemies once you destroy all of the enemies in a maze the portal to the next maze will be revealed there are seven themed worlds with 8 stages to explore in the eighth stage of each world has a boss battle this game deserves all of the praise that it got from the Press of the day and Gamers today but I want to mention one important thing a lot of stuff flashes in this game and if you have photosensitivity challenges it's not a good fit for your game collection I've edited out most of the flashes in this video but be aware the flashes are in fact there during gameplay when bonk's Adventure launched for the turbo Graphics 16 Entertainment Weekly rated at the number three game of the year out of all video games released that year there's a reason it garnered so much praise it's just a heck of a lot of fun to play the turbo Graphics 16 shipped with Keith courage and Alpha zones but Bonk quickly became its well-known mascot this side-scrolling platformer features the cartoonish and kid-like bunk your mission is to travel the prehistoric World battled enemies and rescue princess zaw from the evil King drool your primary weapon your Crow bagged and forehead which you use to block enemies along the way you can collect power-ups like ground pounds and temporary invincibility there are five total levels in the game each with a number of sub levels to complete the game spawned several sequels on the platform so if you can't get enough of Smashing your head into things you're in luck among the genres the system is well known for is video pinball and Devil's crush is the bell of the ball released in 1990 the game has an eerie occult theme with skulls skeletons and demons on the Playfield the pinball Playfield is three screens tall and has flippers at each of the various sections among the many things to love about this game is its Rock and soundtrack which never seems to get old during gameplay throughout your journey you'll also discover that there are bonus battles available accessed by achieving key objectives and launching the ball into the right place on the Playfield it's worth noting that when the game was ported over from Japan to the North American Market a lot of the content in it was censored but none of that really takes away from the key elements of the pinball gameplay it's a fantastic game on the system and a must-have for any lovers of video pinball back in the day it wasn't so easy to get high quality ports of your favorite arcade titles on home consoles when Galaga 88 was ported to the PC engine of Japan and later Galaga 90 for the turbo Graphics 16 it was a gem the game is the third sequel to the original galaxian game following Galaga and gapless among the many improvements and upgrades to the game is the ability to get not just two captured ships together but three if you can pull this off you become nearly Unstoppable that is unless anything collides with your ships an Innovative element to this game is that the path for the game is not linear if you collect two warp capsules by shooting specific targets you'll be able to use them to warp from one dimension to another to take a different path through the game the game actually has four different endings depending on which dimension you end in and I think there are a few things as exciting and gaming as getting all 40 of the enemies into bonus stages and getting the fireworks celebration if you're into turn-based strategy games military Madness absolutely needs to be at the top of your list it's the first entry into the series that's now known as the nectarus series of games set in the year 2089 you take control of the Allied Union forces your mission defeat the evil axis Xenon Empire they're staged on the boom with their Supreme Atomic weapon and they can't wait to use it to obliterate Earth you take turns moving your units into strategic positions to battle the axis Xenon forces to win you'll need to destroy enemy forces and occupy their prisoner of war camps you know as a liberating force not as an actual prisoner of war There are 16 total maps on which the waves were in a password system to save your progress this is a thinking players game and it's a welcome change of pace on the system you'd be forgiven if you thought to yourself self newtopia for the turbo Graphics 16 looks an awful lot like that NES game that came in the gold cartridge and you'd be absolutely right nootopia is very much a clone of that game but there are two things to take into consideration here first of all that's not a bad thing as that game's pretty darn good second of all there's enough new stuff going on here to distinguish this game from that one in the silverhead action adventure game released in 1990 you play as the hero jazeta out to rescue Princess Aurora from the evil dearth dearth stole the eight ancient medallions needed to maintain peace and prosperity and you guessed it it's your job to get them back your progress is saved through a series of passwords but I hope you like really long passwords because these are 24 characters long each at least they're out there on the internet for you when you need them both lighthearted in nature and deceptively difficult pacland is a near perfect Port of its arcade Source material the original arcade game was released in North America by Bali Midway in 1984 and it's the first size scrolling platform game in the series your goal in each stage is to locate a lost Ferry and return them to their home and very land along the way the five members of the ghost gang Blinky inky pinky Clyde and Sue will be out to stop you the game uses a movement mechanic inspired by the arcade classic track and field you tap one of two buttons to decide Pac-Man's direction and speed and the third button to jump eat one of the yellow flashing power pellets and the ghost turn blue and run away from you then you can Chomp them instead of them chomping on you one should deliver a ferry safely home the fairy princess will grant you a special pair of magic shoes you can use these magic shoes to fly through the air on your return Voyage Home the game is based on the Pac-Man cartoon series from the 1980s and it brings the fun of the original arcade game home to the turbo Graphics 16 system I think it's possible the most famous game ever ported to the turbo Graphics 16 is Splatterhouse released in 1990 the game has become quite a cult classic it plays such an emphasis on its violent nature a parental warning written on the front of the game's casing said the horrifying theme of this game may be inappropriate for young children and cowards as the players who control Rick trapped inside west Mansion your goal in the game aims to Traverse the mansion in an attempt to save your girlfriend Jennifer from a gristly Fate The Game's look and feel or influenced by movies like Friday the 13th Evil Dead 2 and Poltergeist and the works of HK Lovecraft oh you can punch kick and jump your way through the game but there's nothing quite so satisfying as picking up a weapon off the ground and using it to knock the crap out of one of your enemies there are great boss battles to be fought throughout the game and many Mysteries to be revealed in many collector circles Splatterhouse is considered the best game you can get on a hue card the game considered by a number of Turbo graphic Gamers to be the best looking heel card game on the system is super star soldier from the instant the game hits the ground running it just oozes a science fiction theme of speed color and audio video Fidelity simply stated it's gorgeous just like with blazing lasers it can just keep on throwing stuff out on the screen and it never seems to slow down there are a number of Boss Battles throughout the game and they just do things with the turbo Graphics that you just wouldn't think are possible to go along with a great looks and sound is a highly competent vertical scrolling Shoot Em Up game the game takes place four years after the original Star Soldier game where the forces of the dreaded evil brain have returned to do battle this time they've brought along the ultimate spaceship with them Mother Brain ain't that name sounds familiar like it might have been borrowed from another Nintendo property write it down in the comments if you know which game it is part audio visual Masterpiece and part great shooter you should absolutely put this game on your collector list if you have a turbo graphic 16. if you'd like to learn about another great game system that's finally getting the love it deserves in the modern era check out this GameCube video shown on 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Channel: Forever 8-Bit

Views: 43,655

Keywords: turbografx 16, tg-16, turbo grafx, turbografx-16, tg16, tg 16, pc engine, pac-land, turbografx 16 pac-land, turbografx-16 pac-land, pacland, turbpgrafx-16 pacland, splatterhouse, splatterhouse turbografx, splatterhouse turbografx-16, turbografx-16 splatterhouse, turbografx 16 splatterhouse, splatterhouse tg16, splatterhouse tg-16, tg16 splatterhouse, tg-16 splatterhouse, turbografx-16 galaga 90, turbografx 16 galaga 90, tg-16 galaga 90, tg16 galaga 90, tg16 bomberman 93

Id: h7wmToaw94g

Length: 11min 48sec (708 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 26 2023