NEC TurboExpress | Ashens

[@alexojideagu]

"Consider this video a stopgap until I finally get round to showing my Atari Lynx collection." Well done Ashens it only took you 4 years!

[@samholdsworth420]

7 years

[@TheBrianJ]

"I don't think there ever was a Strip Fighter 1." Actually there was! It was released 7 years AFTER Strip Fighter 2 was released. I'm not entirely sure how they did that, I'm assuming a time machine was involved.

[@elephystry]

It’s like a prequel but true to sequence.

[@Dekomata]

so strip fighter alpha?

[@minefilms1122]

Lets all thank whoever made this for actually adding a backlight to a color LCD. Back in the 90s, that was rare.

[@moonjimunji7916]

Didn't he say it's a crt screen

[@TheBeatfox]

@@moonjimunji7916 He was wrong. It's LCD.

[@Boogie_the_cat]

Not rare. It was only Nintendo who didn't use a backlight. Sega game gear, Atari lynx, Sega nomad, all used backlights. It's just you poor Nintendo kids who thought backlights are for rich people only. Nintendo was a big smelly pussy about battery life, AND they wanted to cheap out on parts. Took 15 years before a game boy used a backlight, that's nuts. I never could understand the game boy. Green puke, can't play in the dark, can't see the screen, worst smeary image during screen scrolling. Disgusting. I guess if it's your first handheld you don't know any better, but if (like me) you saw a game gear screen first, you never wanted to look at a game boy ever again. Exorcist vomit color monochrome, no backlight. Once you go back(light) you can't go back.

[@somepixelynerd]

Hang on a frickin' second. This thing was released in *1990*? Just one year after the Gameboy? 8 years before the Gameboy Color? And it's got hardware on par with a SNES, a big bulky non-portable console also released in 1990? How did this thing NOT take the world by storm and immediately completely dominate the market? O_o

[@yliadyzzuf]

It has six batteries, weighs a bunch, and was pretty expensive.

[@blackhawkchalk]

In America Nintendo have a stranglehold on rights for 3rd party games. The US got only 94 games released. That is just a fraction of the entire library and full of duds. The marketing technique they used in Japan was to just advertise in the Big Cities. It worked well over there because of how compact Japan is. They thought the same would work in the US. That was not the case. The ads they did have were horrible too.

[@augustwest5356]

it really should have been more popular, it was just awesome. it made the game boy and even the game gear look like crap.

[@KoopaKid2000]

It cost something like $280 or something at launch and didn't have many big name games on it.

[@mothergoose3585]

what u smoke'n?. the game gear beat the crap out of this in sells. and killed it off along with the lynx, game.com and wonder swan. the game gear was the only real competition 2 the game boy. the game gear made this and other handhelds look like crap. even though both the game boy and game gear had 8-bit graphics, the game gear still looked better in every way. the only reason the game boy won in the end was because the game boy had more games and sold more systems and carts by the time the game gear came out. also, the game boy had alot of 3rd party support. screen-wise, the game gear looked better in every way compared 2 the game boy. it had a lighted-up screen, it was in color, and packed in the power of sega's own 8-bit master system. infact, the the game gear was basically a upgraded sega master system turned into a portable, with more colors. but as powerful as the game gear was, it wasn't about the graphics back then. it was about the games. and the turbo express din't have its own games. it was just a portable turbograffx16/pc engine. the game gear had its own games, plus it had a converter cart attachment that even let u play sega master system games on the game gear with more color. adding what little usefulness the turbo express had. playing your sega master system's console games on the go. it also had an attachment that let u watch tv on your game gear and a shit load of other accessories that the game boy also had. like a screen magnifier, rechargeable battery packs and an ac adapter.

[@elleCX01]

Those arcade conversions are amazing. Digitized sounds, near arcade-perfect graphics. Amazing power for an older handheld system.

[@TheMamaluigi300]

That's because it's a freaking portable TurboGraphics-16.

[@samholdsworth420]

That's because it's a freaking portable TurboGrafx 16

[@alecsneed5835]

Lovely to see this. I have a great memory of my dad finding me one of these second hand just in time for Christmas. Pre internet days too!

[@W0mpa]

I'm quite impressed by the high standards of that handheld console. The screen seems awesome!

[@seanglass1519]

+Thomas Wallblom The best part of the design for the TG16 was the card design. You could fit a bunch of games in a wallet, and use the same cards on the portable. Brilliant design, shame about the battery life on the portable.

[@xen84]

+Dick Fageroni For the era, it looks pretty damn good. Pretty much everything else at the time with an LCD had horrible ghosting on the screen (check out Ashens' Sega Nomad review to see what I mean).

[@ronsmith4325]

+Dick Fageroni and you do realize the screen was built in the early 90's... right? Find another from that era that looks even half as good.

[@W0mpa]

***** I watched a Game Gear review.. cant see why you say that it has a better screen. But can be because of the video itself. I will hold on to my first thought, NEC TurboExpress has a great screen! Would love to own one!

[@StormsparkPegasus]

+Thomas Wallblom The Mega Drive/Genesis had a similar thing called the Nomad. About the same quality as this.

[@xeokym223]

Ashens have you ever done a review of the *Nokia N-GAGE*?

[@Broyale26]

I love you.

[@TopiasSalakka]

I had one. I thought it was great :/

[@DeepDiveDevin]

Hey, they ported Sonic Advance to it, so there was at least that.

[@kakas10000]

Tong Zou He has done 2 episodes of Game.com

[@WOSArchives]

Tong Zou Send him one!

[@noluckst2]

I love how the most searched thing after having watched this video is Strip Fighter II.

[@noluckst2]

@Satoshi Nakomoto Seven years on, dunno. I was probably referring to either the suggested videos or the suggestions in the search bar.

[@Samsgarden]

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful hardware has become. Having every PC-engine game on an SD card is a good comparison of old and new technology-and I suppose there's still a lot more capacity on the card.

[@SolidSonicTH]

You can still use analog television stuff if you had some reason to. You just need a digital UHF converter...

[@IggyM]

Very nice my friend had one of these in 1990/91 or so. It was seriously impressive for the time. The tv tuner attachment was very cool. Such a huge leap from the gameboy.

[@eins2001]

"This is the music that goes with everything" ilu, Ashen.

[@zedorda1337]

This is the best looking TE I have seen in the passed 10 years. I own a sizable collection and still can't find an atari lynx or TE that is in functional quality. Grats its valuable to some collectors and you would be shocked what they would offer for the likes of this one.

[@yaboimaxwell9031]

Years later, no Atari Lynx video.

[@angel-loves-jazz]

"Consider this a stopgap until I finally get round to showing my Atari Lynx collection" *FOUR FUCKING YEARS LATER* "Hey guys I'm going to review the Atari Lynx"

[@user-ok8yq6nc6x]

Fookie Bookie now he has to do game gear

[@LadyBrightcynder]

These retro console reviews are my favourites of Ashens' videos. It's nice to see the history of gaming. I'd like to see more obscure consoles like the Apple Pippin if Ashens can get his hands on them.

[@TXFDA]

I do wish Everdrives and similar devices weren't so expensive. I want an SD2SNES(similar to an Everdrive, for SNES, but it has better game compatibility), but they're like $200 or something ridiculous like that. Sure, for the price compared to buying an entire collection of games, it's worth it. But chances are if I don't want to spend tons of money on real games in the first place, I don't have the $200 to spend on a flash cart. That's honestly the ONLY reason I stick to emulation. If I could afford Everdrives or whatever, for each system I have, I'd just play those instead. With the console though, for what it is, it's not bad. But I think I'd much rather get one of those clone-portable SNES systems, and an SD2SNES for that. Nothing wrong with the TG16, but there's more games on the SNES that I'd rather play. Plus more buttons means not having to press select to switch between punch/kick in Street Fighter.

[@Rouz102]

They have this device called the UFO Pro 8 for SNES which is about $50. It's meant for saving games but can also run backups. I've been meaning to get one but just haven't gotten around to it. Look into it if you're interested.

[@Wanderersea]

Great timing. Right as you mentioned Liam Neeson's mother, the trailer for Tak3n appears on my T.V. at the same time.

[@yakkowarner753]

The Turbografix is actually an 8-bit system, with a 16-bit GPU. I should know, Wakko took ours apart and ate it!

[@wakkowarner7948]

It was yummy! ^U^

[@theJOYSofANALpenetration]

***** I guess it didn't begin as much as was expected.

[@drlanator]

The joys of Anal Rape best username

[@theJOYSofANALpenetration]

Fluttershy

[@yakkowarner753]

Fluttershy Uhhh, where are your rainbow equine buddies at? Dot likes you guys.

[@SouthwesternEagle]

I can't believe this thing is from 1990! It's so far ahead of its time that it surpasses standards even of 2000!

[@SouthwesternEagle]

***** The Lynx is older than I am by a year! I can't believe that kind of technology existed back then. Wow. Why didn't we just make flat panel color LCD TVs in 1989? The technology was there!

[@SouthwesternEagle]

***** That TV they used was probably over $100,000! They were still $21,995 in 2003 for LCD. Could it have been a Plasma?

[@SouthwesternEagle]

***** I lived in San Francisco in 2003, and they had the absolute latest products for sale. They had brand new 72" LCD TVs that were $21,995, but I think there was more to them. That was at a time when plasma screens were your only affordable flat panel option. That's about $30,000 adjusted for inflation. Prices fell sharply to $2,000 in just 4 years.

[@jekblom123]

these games look REALLY good.

[@MrTheil]

they are lol they're just ports not rip offs

[@chloejessica6013]

+Breadmond McLoafquinn (Mr. Breadmond) They're not even all ports - Bonk's Revenge, for one, was original to the TurboGrafX. It was the first game I ever played and it's a fantastic little platformer, if perhaps a tad easy (see ProJared's review of Super Bonk, a lot of his observations apply to Bonk's Revenge as well, though it's not as... strange). Alien Crush and Devil's Crush were both original and really fantastic as well.

[@jekblom123]

Breadmond McLoafquinn I meant they looked good despite running on emulation and on a handheld device.

[@MrTheil]

jekblom123 oh lol

[@emcee2k965]

+jekblom123 They're not running on emulation.

[@chloejessica6013]

Bonk's Revenge was the first video game I ever played, when I was about four. I finally went back and beat it last year, and it was every bit as good as I remembered. It really is worth playing, and I recommend you try it if you haven't.

[@TouhouNazrin]

People who play Hyperdimension Neptunia remember the Turbografx 16! Peashy Engine ftw

[@IanC14]

Chen Neptunia is otaku trash

[@Skelig]

IanC14 accurate

[@fixman88]

I remember seeing those at the mall when they first came out...and immediately lamenting the fact that there was no way I could afford one. It actually has a TFT Active Matrix LCD screen (which was brand-new technology for the time), Sony had a Color Watchman handheld TV that had a TFT screen as well back then, and it was expensive too. Later on I rented a TG-16 console and played Bonks Adventure all the way to the end in one weekend!

[@fuppetti]

1:02 oh god, you've caught the Americans

[@5.43v]

Assuming your not from the usa...

[@ramonjlechuga2763]

I had one. And honestly I like the "tank" design and how big it was. Plus the card games was cool back then

[@TheCandoRailfan]

Whatever happened to that Atari Lynx collection?

[@SeanBatemanblobord]

It got shot in the fucking head...

[@rugal00030]

Lol!!

[@TorinnDerg]

*Four years later...*

[@SuperRollyTrolly]

Wow, these actually seem really cool! Loads of games you can play with just that tiny chip, it's cool.

[@paulspydar]

Pause at exactly 3:26

[@eng3d]

what happened?

[@syntaxvrc]

such a lovely face

[@archetypalculinarian]

I remember this system, it was wildly expensive. I think it was available around the same time as Neo-Geo which was also insanely expensive. Everyone that played in the arcades at the time wanted one of each, but nobody ever got one... let alone both.

[@AlexOjideagu2]

The Turbo express was so far ahead of the Gameboy and only 1 year older it boggles the mind. The Game boy held us back so far technology wise it's such a shame. Imagine we all could have been playing console quality colour handhelds in 1990!! This was destroyed ALL because of battery technology being poor. Also the Lynx as a 3D/scaling powerhouse was even superior to the Pc Engine. Although vastly inferior for sprite based 2D games. Both of them nuked the Game boy.

[@mattmolloy636]

ojideagu game gear tho

[@AlexOjideagu2]

The game gear was primitive compared to the Turbo Express and Atari Lynx

[@darsparx]

yeah but it was expensive as heck. Nintendo played it smarter compared to NEC, Atari, and even Sony when it comes to handhelds. Seriously, even sony makes some great handhelds but they go a little too far in specs and other areas that make it too expensive that some will just end up buying nintendo instead(this is why vita is already legacy yet big n's 3ds is still going strong. These companies shoot too high only to miss the mark and fizzle out on the handheld spectrum. These other systems were great but as always too expensive in the long run...

[@mattmolloy636]

ojideagu yeah, but it also came out before those hand helds. It was basically a portable battery eating Master System. As a direct competitor of the Game Boy that had a backlit color screen with a decent library of games, I'm surprised that you don't hear about it much...

[@AlexOjideagu2]

The Game Gear came out AFTER the Atari Lynx and Pc Engine GT/Turbo Express.

[@jnerdsblog]

I TOTALLY FORGOT THIS THING EXISTED! But I remember seeing it in the Christmas Sears Wishbook catalogs we got over on our side of the pond.

[@1Manny93]

he has nice looking hands.

[@IgorBertolucci]

Hello Ashens. Thank you for all your interesting and humorous videos. Being and Atari Lynx fan myself, I would really enjoy seeing a review by you on this superb "portable" gaming console.

[@samljer]

what the fuck, these things on ebay are like 300-400 USD.

[@BPJJohn]

+samljer they are collectors pieces now

[@cheesewheel789]

"collectors" says to me "speculators" which can only mean... "quick jack the price up before we can't make money off of people"

[@tarstarkusz]

The screen is an active matrix TFT, the best of it's time. The screen is really good on this. One game you definitely want to check out is parasol stars. It's one my favorite games of the era. It's just a shame you can't play rainbow islands on a Turbo Express, because it's the best home version of the game. It's just a shame that AA NIMH cells weren't cheap and readily available back then, because 6 typical AA NIMH cells are 18 watts hours and should power this for quite a few hours.

[@tarstarkusz]

+GameBoyLegacy Yep. Make that mistake too often. The fingers can be quicker than the mind.

[@Nukle0n]

Also the worst game to demonstrate because without a 6 button controller it's basically unplayable.

[@ADubiiousTask]

ashens, your voice is very soothing not only that but your improv on everything you review are funny to hear. Alot of the things you review you say are bad or even look bad but for some reason it makes me want to own them...or have a bite of the "hot pots" stuff.

[@yaosio]

It's 2015 and you still have not shown your Atari Lynx collection. Reported.

[@internetwaffle]

it is an active matrix LCD "Display: 400x270 screen resolution, 512 colors, 481 colors on-screen"

[@2thinkcritically]

03:25 why does this face keep coming up in your videos ***** ???

[@MrTheMighty]

6 years later, and I just noticed today that Wonder Momo seems to use the same sound effects as Galaga.

[@Sinthist]

i honestly didn't expect the graphics to be this good, quite a nifty thing, reminds me of the old sega handheld :)

[@ToseRoyal]

if you had this when it came out in the early 90's you would be the coolest kid in town!

[@Rowsdow3r]

I found my brother's old Turbografx 16 in my basement with the rf box and ac adapter. Bought a game pad on amazon for about 40 bucks, and an everdrive and gave it back to him as a gift. It's absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend the everdrive.

[@raydeen2k]

The TG-16 was my favorite console of all time!

[@skins4thewin]

PC Engine/Turbografx-16 is definitely the king of the obscure consoles for sure. Wonderful games, library is semi small but the quality of the games is just as good as the popular consoles.

[@AlexOjideagu2]

It was not obscure in Japan and was well known in the UK in magazines in the 90s even though it had to be imported

[@CPS2]

skins4thewin Library is semi small? Lol, the PCE has a bigger library than the snes.

[@honestguy7764]

This was officially released here in Spain at a retail price of 49.900 ptas ( roughly 300euros) back in maybe 94. Got mine in london (raven games) for roughly half of it.....it was marvelous....period

[@AlexOjideagu2]

At one point it was only £75 at raven games in 1995

[@honestguy7764]

+ojideagu : think i paid 99 quids. but it came bundled with a coupke of games. at that point it was a bargain

[@wrestletube1]

Brilliant semi 16-Bit graphics chip power on an 8-Bit system power handheld. It mixed it's 8-Bit system power and 16-Bit graphics power really well.

[@Claidheambmor]

I'd love to see more of Ashens playing TurboGrafx/TurboExpress games. Always wanted one as a kid but being in good ol' Blighty they never appeared!

[@14catorce]

maybe not in UK, but it was released in other european countries, At least I'm pretty sure seeing it in stores back in the first 90s in Spain (I think CD unit was never released, but I'm not sure). It's amazing how advanced was Turboexpress for its time.

[@birdbrain4445]

There was an annotation accompanying the part where he called the screen a CRT, pointing out that it is in fact an LCD screen. Also I've got to say, this is quite an astonishing unit.

[@funkycraft]

I remember wanting one of these after seeing it in the first Independence day movie

[@flatshade]

Imported mine when it came out in japan. Paid a fortune, still love it...even though the DUO-R gets more playtime these days.

[@dave4shmups]

Great video ashens! You got a TurboExpress that's in MINT condition! That thing looks fantastic!

[@xXRazorfistXx]

Most retro games are both challenging and creative which is something a lot of games nowadays lack, but the biggest reason people choose retro games are for the nostalgia. Just like when you play a PlayStation 1 game or any other game you grew up with.

[@strawman5300]

This thing looks so cool. Like that hack tool from alien isolation. Love the bulky dezine

[@doomie77]

Own one of these and a tg16 proper. Have about 20 games for it. I've already had to do the sound capacitor fix and am now fixing the dead screen capacitor.

[@TXFDA]

"You have to press select to switch between kick and punch"..yeah..that's a thing the genesis had to deal with too. I dunno why Nintendo was the only one to realize they might need more buttons.

[@davy_K]

Looks great. No blur on the screen then?

[@Justinestabrook]

One of the last handhelds I need to get. Want yours so bad.

[@Marscow]

The TurboGrafix and its components were the best system of the time. Still have mine with the CD-player add-on. Even played Air Zonk on my Express recently. Gobbles batteries, though...

[@darkdan3549]

Must be said that the sound emulation on that unit is second to none

[@MathewHaswell]

I'm not surprised that this console has H-games. Before releasing the TG-16/PC Engine, which was actually developed by Hudson Soft (Hu-Card = Hudson Card), NEC released the PC-98. That home computer rivals Fujitsu's FM Towns in terms of how many h-games are on it.

[@likearitual]

just saw one of these at my local retro store and was blown away

[@revivedfears]

FEMTO SECOND! I had never heard that term until I started watching Ashens

[@GuitarAnthony]

Late to this party but damn, Ashens, that TurboExpress looks like it was new out of the box.

[@tommypeace2601]

Enjoying getting that turbo fix on the go via the analog pocket it’s great sadly not as chunky

[@forkboy3309]

id love to see ashens do a video on the atari lynx

[@zedorda1337]

+nicholas paulson Nice idea but nearly impossible since the atari lynx screen degraded over time even without use. I have owned over 20 of them trying to find one for my collection that you can actually see the game on screen. But all of them turn into a blurry mess the sec you move and only 1 of all that I have owned you could even make it out while still. So emulator it is.

[@MakoClover]

+Zed orda is that due to the screen or a capacitator issue like the game gears?

[@CommodoreFan64]

u can get the TV Tuner for them, and u can plug other things into it, and use the built in LCD as a display, but the reason they did not do it the other way around was cause they wanted u to buy the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine and then the CD add on, which can't be used with the Handhelds.

[@Elgauno]

Never knew they made a Everdrive for the Turbografix/PC engine. Now i have to get one for my TurboExpress!

[@Fapoleonn]

5:26 IT REALLY GOES WITH EVERYTHING

[@brendonford4778]

I had a turbo grafx 16...loves it

[@Sam-Lawry]

I remember she was available in France,that was a fucking dream...just play Sf2... Like other stuff (expensive),the Combo A.V supergun... The Turbo GT,I remember the commercials on magazines,with the amazing LT... The Neo geo was called Rolls Royce of home system and the GT was the Rolls Royce of portable. Sweet 90's...vhs...laserdisc...cadridge...(but all was in 50 hertz...I was so furious with all the commercials in 60 hertz...).

[@onelazynoob15]

The audio captions were actually spot on in some places. Overall it was pretty close. Google is getting their program to function very nicely. Hats off to those chaps at Google HQ.

[@getBlackbird]

I’m way late to the party but I just wanted to stop and appreciate how amazing it was that STREET FIGHTER II was available on a handheld in the early 90s 🤯

[@Bensjammin69]

Had the pinball game on my mega drive back in the day. Was called "Dragons Fury" on there

[@tinysmall9697]

DAMMIT IM SO LATE COMMENTING CAUSE MY HANDS WERE FULL OF GUM AND GIANT FOAM HANDS, AND I HAD TO WAVE AT EVERYTHING FIRST!!!!!

[@Hmmge]

A youtuber his last video was about his 12 favourite youtubers and Ashens was one so here we are.

[@kennyronald1886]

Mine got sold at my mother's table at the Sunday flea market. along with my turbo grafx 16 system and stack of Hu cards.

[@RetroGamebloke]

I have one of these! The everdrive looks very nice :) Battery life was a concern, not sure how they do now, but when I first had it, I couldn't actually beat Vigilante before the batteries run out, and it wasn't exactly a long game. Will have to have a look for this everdrive thingy me bob!

[@AnonAlmostDelivers]

Well damn, the graphics are better than in gameboy advance, and that console was released 11 years later I'm impressed.

[@manictiger]

Loved that movie and loved that scene.

[@robjackson4050]

turbo graphix as it was known in europe only ever got one game released for it and it came with the system

[@Pillowcase]

bonks revenge was the best - i remember playing that in the radio shack in the mall

[@lactobacillusprime]

Ah you indeed really need to get a recapped/reconditioned console if you ever want to be able to play one and enjoy it. I got the TG16 and the PCEngine including that Everdrive module and it has been sweet testing out games sampling which I want to go for and try to find at a reasonable price. This handheld is awesome indeed. A bit like the stuff of legends actually...

[@zetetick395]

it was a mail order release in the UK, I had one in about '89ish - "The PC-Engine" looked nothing like the one you have there though...mine was white, and the games came on these odd fat credit card thingies...some good games tho, perhaps surprisingly. Came with a platform game called "Chan VS Chan"

[@mattbeaudoin1]

TurboExpress is awesome. I play TG-16 games more often on the Express than on the console itself.

[@braddywarbucks]

I wanted one these so bad in 1990. I didn't know where to get one and it was at least twice as much as a game boy if I remember correctly. We weren't living large in 1990. Lol

[@chessebreath]

Clearly an Ashens movie is coming out

[@AgentTasmania]

According to eBay, a new-in-box Turbo Express is over a thousand Australian dollars (roughly parity with US Dollar). Others are around 400.

[@Mattasaurusx]

Ashens is love Ashens is life

[@misterbonzai08]

I would recommend a good Ni-Zn charger and batteries (BPI/PKCell) for this PC GT, Game Gear, Lynx and Nomad. Nickel Zinc batteries are usually 1,500mAH and above but with an awesome 1.6v each - in a six battery device that's a whole 1.6v extra voltage.

[@chilloutmusicfungamer2144]

It was released in England for a short while. I remember seeing it in boots in the 80s. It was amazingly expensive and no one bought them

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

+fun eggs fun eggs Gamer Surprised they would sell it at a drug store.

[@WH250398]

How expensive?

[@RICT0R]

Ashens recommending some old gadget, usually the best recommendation is, "it was something back in the day"

[@OctagonCookies]

"Nostalgia is getting people deluded" FINALLY someone who speaks sense!

[@pk2702pk]

Had two of the GT handhelds back in the day (US and Japanese versions) To be fair, NOTHING was touching them handheld spec wise! Battery life ran out quicker than the McCann's vacating Portugal.

[@TDUShelby]

I neither expected a Spaceballs reference, nor do I regret being reminded of it :)

[@rennmaxbeta]

The gold standard of consoles back in the day. Unfortunately only in mags like Mean Machines where we could only drool over those arcade conversions. I'd like to see the Atari Lynx reviewed, too.

[@BrianWebb0222]

You used to be able to watch TV on this if you had the additional TV tuner card - was highly advanced for its time.