Let's Save the NEC Turbografx-16!

Can we turn around the fortunes of the high energy gaming system?
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Opening "Sega" jingle is from Astal for the Sega Saturn.
Ending Music during the credits is from Batman for the Sega Genesis.
SLX Logo
By: Jan Neves
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Intro by Evan S.
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Outro Animation by Kevin Bhall
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Episode Notes:
1. There is a mixture of FPGA, emulation, and real hardware in this.
2. The making of this video was grueling. It was rewritten several times.
3. I purposely left out the Turbo Express. I would not use it unless sales of the base unit turned around significantly.
4. Waiting to release the Turbo CD is a must. I think it helps mitigate expenditure at a crucial building point.
5. I would not have designed the PC-FX the original way. NEC went in a direction that gave it no meaningful chance at success.

[@DavidJohnson-td5ic]

I bought a TurboGrafx-16 when Bonk's Adventure released. Soon afterward, I learned of the Japanese PC Engine market, went to my local import shop and picked up a PC Engine and 2 games. Seeing the multitude of amazing games that were left in Japan, it's no wonder TG-16 failed in the U.S.

[@Mr.Wormsworth]

It is I, a time traveler from 1988. I have been sent from nec to hire you. Congratulation

[@TheNinjaStuff]

God, I hope (and assume) that "congratulation" was intentional. 😂

[@Mentherex]

One singular congratulation

[@Mr.Wormsworth]

@@Mentherex thank

[@EnforcerX71]

The TG-16 in a way is like that generation's Dreamcast, a damn fine console that deserved to do way better than it did.

[@Arizona-ex5yt]

True, but unlike the Dreamcast (which was not successful anywhere) the PC/Turbografx was highly successful in Japan.

[@lady1kaka]

Like the Dreamcast the Turbo Grafx was somewhere inbetween two generations. Some games Feeling more like NES games, but looking slightly more 16 bit.

[@rameybutler-hm7nx]

Uhh i owned one when it was new. It was a rip off. Dont get me wrong i liked it but it lied on its actual capabilities.

[@MarquisDeSang]

Too good for American't It was a success in Japan, just like the Sega Saturn.

[@catsaregovernmentspies]

​@rameybutler-hm7nx I had one, too. It would have been a dominant 8-bit console, but I felt misled about it's 16-bit claims.

[@SharifSourour]

I love this “Let’s Save The” series!

[@PaperBanjo64]

I want a "Let's Save The Nintendo 64"

[@jsr734]

@@PaperBanjo64 "Let´s Save the Atari 7800" 🙂

[@Noricavus]

Having Bonk's adventure as a tie in would have helped massively imo. The bonk's series is still one of my all time favorites.

[@sonkien3]

Never owned one, but I definitely recall playing a Bonk game on the system at a Toys R Us back in the day. It was the stage where you were inside the the dinosaur.

[@DanHemsath]

Bravo for remembering Snatcher for the PC-Engine. And yes, I would have loved an English translation for it. I'm very lucky I got to play the Sega CD one.

[@ianhowe338]

I only had the (for the time) ridiculously expensive TurboExpress. It was $300 and worse, no rental shops near me had TH-16 games to rent, so all the games I played had to be purchased. I ended up with a decent sized collection that I still have. Eventually, when I was old enough to drive, I drove myself to Funcoland and bought a used TG-16, so I could finally play my games on the TV. The Express took 6 AA batteries and gave you about 4 hours of play. So I spent a lot of time at the end of my living room couch plugged into the wall. My Express had a loose port for the AC adapter so I had to hold the wire pressed against the side of the handheld. If it shifted, the connection was severed and it powered off. I made it all the way through Splatterhouse and Talespin like that, with my sweaty 10 year old hands gripping the console for dear life. When those credits finished I was very relieved. But because of the hassle, I turned my attention and gaming dollars to Genesis and Sega CD. At least those games were available to rent. I still have fond memories, but there aren’t many TG-16 games (besides Alien Crush) that I still go back to. I have Alien Crush on my Wii, I think. And it was included on the TG-16 mini. But I mostly play it on my PS3. My Turbo Grafx-16 is one of my only consoles that is in storage. Most of my consoles are hooked up to CRTs in my game room. But there just aren’t that many TG-16 games that I care to play.

[@Galgomite]

I had almost the exact situation (down to the twitchy AC connector!). Long after owning the Express, I bought the home version and couldn't adjust to how ugly and garish the graphics were on the big screen vs the Express, where they were astounding. (It probably didn't help that the first game I tried on the CRT was pack-in Keith Courage.)

[@MaxAbramson3]

My best friend bought one of these and spent over a year trying to tell me that it was better than my Genesis for some reason. Did he ever have egg on his face when new games slowed to a trickle! NEC should've either released their system as soon as it was kicking butt in Japan or at least included the $400 CD addon for that crazy $200 price. And tying up 750,000 consoles when there was no demand for this albatross? NEC and Hudson clearly didn't know what they were doing. And so few games brought over from Japan.

[@Chris-Courage]

The problem with the turbo Express power supply is actually the tip on the end of the power supply itself, not the power jack built into the system. I too had the same problem back in the day and would tape my cable to the side of my system so the power wouldn't turn off.

[@diehlr]

Same. I went through 2-3 adapters. Finally found the universal AC adapter from Radio Shack had a tip that worked. The Turbo Express adapter was an oddball 7 volts, but the 7.5 volt setting on the Radio Shack adapter worked fine.

[@bdunk914]

Crazy you made it through TailSpin and those shitty controls! I played that game too much..

[@DieselJT]

Have always been and still am in love with the Turbografx 16/PC Engine! I still collect games for it current day.

[@HollyDrew-bf7zx]

"Let's save the Atari 7800" "Let's save the Atari Jaguar" "Let's save the 3DO" "Let's save the Master System" "Let's save the Game Gear" "Let's save the Neo Geo CD"

[@1956wood]

My all time Favorite system. It was an underdog here in the state.

[@matthewmckinney9348]

Mine too

[@jh5131]

Same here looooved several of the games I had for it

[@Dattson510]

Best system for SMUPS

[@HybridAngelZero]

Keith Courage is actually a localization of an anime tie-in game based on Mashin Hero Wataru, and I feel like it was a missed opportunity for NEC not to push to localize the anime in the US as a Keith Courage Saturday morning cartoon... sponsored by the Turbo-Grafix, of course

[@ShutoStriker]

Oh wow never knew but it makes sense. Played a lot of it!

[@FistyDollars]

I adore what-if/armchair general scenarios like this. Great video!

[@davidglad]

Some of this doesn't take into consideration how competitors will react. Although once Sony (and still much later Microsoft) was on the scene, they were using infinite money to take over the market.

[@ChrisH0Y]

I still have my Turbografx 16. Bonk's 1 and 2 were quite fun, R-Type was so close to the arcade version - and Blazing Lazers was (and is) still one of the most best shooters I've ever played. The variety of powerups and the soundtrack were amazing. Space Megaforce for the SNES was it's spiritual successor, as was equally as good.

[@diehlr]

I think they should have gone all-in on the SuperGrafx and released that in North America instead of the TG16, since the SuperGrafx hardware was basically done by the time the TG16 launched. Develop games for North America, then launch the SuperGrafx system to Japan the following year with a full fledged software library. Crazy? Maybe. But it would have been an interesting way to foster two systems and two libraries of games with less market overlap. And the SuperGrafx would have competed beautifully during the second half of the 16-bit console cycle.

[@francofrignani3997]

To the SG I would have added a 6-button pad, 2 pad ports and a new audio chip

[@TurboXray]

@@francofrignani3997 SGX has an update to the audio chip tho, allowing you to do some things you can't do with the original PCE. While no SGX games took advantage of this, it was there.

[@Hamdad]

@@francofrignani3997 6 button pad wasn't ready until 1994

[@darthbaker182]

These are really fun thought experiments. I did a deep dive into the TG16/PC Engine during Covid lockdown. That & Animal Crossing took up all of 2020 for me. Sooo many Shmups, I was in heaven.

[@GameSack]

I would bundle The Legendary Axe in and release the console when it originally came out and then let Bonk release in the US at Christmas, creating a must-have app. And while we're at it, I would've just made the PC Engine and TurboGrafx-16 the SuperGrafx to begin with.

[@SegaLordX]

You know there was an entire version of this script that had the Supergrafx the machine that was released in the US. But that thing was what, around $300 at release?

[@megamanmarchek8293]

Never played the TurboGrafx-16. I am excited to learn more about it!

[@aprichman]

I don’t think I ever remember seeing a TG16 in a store or at a friends house until much much later in the early 2000s when people were collecting retro consoles. I started getting really into games when I was around 6 in 1991 so i think I missed the boat. The TG16 looked like an incredible system though, I still toy around with the idea of getting one and an Everdrive since I have never played a single game for it.

[@joeyjo-joshabadu9636]

Rondo of Blood would have been the perfect swansong for the North American fans

[@warchild9381]

I would have loved to be in the board room for that decision to not bring one of the best games ever made over to NA looooooooool great job NEC

[@jsr734]

@@warchild9381 most likely it was Konami's decision.

[@warchild9381]

@@jsr734 makes sense, Konami made plenty of blunders even back in their heyday of the 90s.

[@bubbythebear6891]

​@@jsr734I thought the same. Why bother translating and bringing over a game to an already dead console?

[@jsr734]

@@bubbythebear6891 They could have ported the game to the Sega CD or Mega CD as they did with Snatcher. But i guess that would have taken more effort and money and somewhat they tought Castlevania was not popular enough to justify the investment.

[@hardcoreep]

Yes, I must say the TG-16 sound was great.

[@ynotwalk7391]

some hucards have terrible sounds tho, like cadash

[@Prizrak-hv6qk]

The audio chip sounded like a beefed up NES one, which is a very good thing if you're into chiptunes. Of course, CD games mostly had redbook audio (CD quality) soundtracks.

[@jc_dogen]

it was pretty close to being capable of a lot more. it's a wavetable chip, meaning it works like an nes but you can use your own wave shapes. one of the best tricks for wavetable is being able to swap waves you're playing in the middle of a note, but the tg-16 resets the volume when you do this, causing a click sound. if not for this it could do noticeably richer sounding music. some games ignored the click and still sounded pretty good, like bloody wolf.

[@pharmtek]

These videos are great. An amazing opportunity for you to flex your knowledge of technology and marketing. Thank you for another banger!

[@ZOMBGiEFart]

I had a TG16 as a kid, I never met anyone else for a long time that also owned one. I enjoyed the hell out of it, an underrated console from that era for sure.

[@PipBoyRoy]

This was such a fun video. Thank you!

[@iam16bits]

Wish I could afford a TG16. Started playing the games when they came to the Wii's VC and spent hours with Bonk's Adventure and Splatterhouse.

[@G-zeus_M]

Get yourself a cheaper PC engine from Japan and get a turboeverdrive or the SSDS3 its worth the price of either instead of looking for ultra expensive carts these days.

[@warchild9381]

@@G-zeus_M or just play them all for free on an emulator. it's literally the exact same as using an SSDS3 since that uses FPGA emulation as well. Also a TG16 console isn't that much, it's about $125-150 on Ebay right now. Bonk HuCard only is $30-40, and Splatterhouse is about $50-70 for a Hucard. $250-300 for everything isn't a lot when considering how much kids these days spend on shallow cosmetic skins on Fortnite or Apex etc etc.

[@MrDirkles]

​@@G-zeus_Mjust get a Wii and mod it. It plays all pc engine games perfectly.

[@Robert_Shmigelsky]

@@G-zeus_M Or an Analogue Duo and jailbreak it.

[@James-cf2mr]

When I saw the video cover, I came here just to say that I am very excited to watch this!! I am looking forward to watch it soon. #1 idea, make The Legendary Axe the pack-in game!

[@Waifu4Life]

This is one of a few instances where I cannot disagree with a single thing SLX mentioned in a video.

[@OhKayEl]

"One of a few"?

[@Waifu4Life]

@@OhKayEl yes

[@alexojideagu]

I also often disagree with things he says in videos. Especially when ranking games.

[@TexasHollowEarth]

Them Neo-Geo ports ain't fittin on Hu-Cards. Some of the tiny puzzlers and platformers, sure. But the fighters and beatemups need the CD storage space and upgraded RAM cards. Then, would SNK be willing to enable all this competition for their own competing, Neo-Geo CD console? 🤔

[@mikeclark4480]

Well happy Turbo Tuesday to you !! Have a great day

[@redipsapap]

Next up: Let’s save the PC-FX

[@jl6743]

It’s a single screen that says “no porn”

[@MaxAbramson3]

I remembered that my best friend at the time got the Turbogrfx-16 at almost the same time that my older brother got me the Sega Genesis, and we argued about the technical details endlessly. As time went on, he was forced to accept that the games, speed, and hardware were better in Segaland. Obviously, the PC Engine won in the Japanese market because it was smaller, came out sooner, had tons of great games, and it was easy to bring sequels and ports over from the Famicom to NEC's entry. The fact that NEC held up the machine for nearly a year to redesign the box with something larger and bulkier--and that forced you to spend $10 more for a machine that nickel and dimed you right out of the box--pissed off value-conscious American buyers something fierce. And their CD add on was $399! By the time NEC finally allowed the price to come down, it was obvious that all of the cool games were coming out for the Genesis, and everyone dumb enough to pay $700 for the full Turbogrfx platform was going to be left holding the bag when the music stopped. If you're going to force people to buy a control adapter for every two player game, you'd better be ready with some cool new games, a lower price, or an earlier launch. NEC-Hudson Soft had none of these things. NEC could've sold the combined CD console for $300, saved millions on those game cards, and courted all of those developers who wanted arcade-sized games and jRPGs on a home console.

[@LucareonVee]

My childhood best friend had the TG16 where I had the NES, SNES, and Genesis. Getting to experience that system along with the more popular ones was an absolute treat, and I'm so happy that I now have a Turbo of my own. :)

[@jeroenboth167]

As I loved the previous 2 Let’s Save episodes, I can already predict that I will love this video haha 😁

[@davidhiggins6251]

I got one of these xmas 89 and the cd add on a year or two later, my favorite system of all time I was the only kid in the neighborhood with one!

[@M.Borjas]

Thank you for this, watching it now and feeling that exciting when I turned on the system for the first time. Great video!

[@mekman4]

The PC FX was a great idea, it really needed an add-on that provided more ram and 3D capabilities. Great Stuff, as always.

[@Tempora158]

You contradicted yourself there. How could the PC FX be a great idea if it needed things that basically turns it into a PlayStation?

[@Borh7777]

Thanks for vidéo. The PC-Engine was indeed released in France, and was distributed by Guillemot, owner of Ubi Soft. It had a moderate success, far behind the Megadrive and the SNES but it still has a cult following.

[@MrGoldenwheels]

IMO the best bet would have been to get the system released as early as possible. Capitalize on the window you have before the Genesis was released to capture as much market as possible. So, best bet for success IMO: 1. No redesign of the console AT ALL. Make it black, rename it, fine, but don’t waste months working on a new design or stupid rubber covers for the expansion port (which got abandoned anyway). I don’t mind the idea of RCA outs, but RF only is fine. The same geniuses who thought the system needed to be bigger were ex Atari guys who had size issues on the brain. The time and money wasted on redesign could have been used selling and marketing. 2. Package it with some version of a Twin Commander controller. Boom, two players without a re-design. 3. Release it with the best early game you got…IMO that means either translate Bikkuri Man World or use R-Type.

[@tempestfennac9687]

I agree about the fact that it came out in the US just after the Genesis was released being a major issue considering how it was less powerful (the fact that TG-16 was slightly more expensive despite only having one controller port didn't help either).

[@yoman8027]

What's a twin commander controller? It's the first time I've heard about it.

[@MrGoldenwheels]

@@yoman8027It is just a controller with a single breakout box on the cord for another controller plug in (player 2). While I am unsure exactly when they released these for the PC-E, I do believe they would have been available for an early US release.

[@MrGoldenwheels]

@@yoman8027it is just a single controller, but it has a breakout box on the cord which allows a 2P controller to plug in. Pretty handy!

[@mrlaidback83]

I never owned an original TurboGrafx -16 but I did buy the Mini version and among the other mini consoles I have, it's my 2nd favorite behind only the Sega Genesis Mini.

[@sinlatenightsins9657]

I wasn't sure about these 'Let's Save' videos, but they are all in good fun & interesting. Thanks Sega Lord X

[@brunop77]

A south america launch like Sega did with Tectoy could be a good idea.

[@jsr734]

I think it was Tectoy that reached Sega for distributing the Master System in Brazil. There is a big reason most game companies avoided that market: ridiculous import taxes and a large population unable to afford such an expensive product.

[@Monhamd1000]

Turbografx-16 is absolutely the one that deserves love and no one can deny that!

[@nr2676]

Especially Tengai Makyou series, who was able to rival with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest in Japan.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

It was an example of a great product that was let down by the people selling it.

[@whookidd1979]

That would have been a stellar start up for tg16!! I still love this system, and I always love the controllers, they feel great when you use them.

[@Canadian_Gamer]

I fondly remember walking past a Radio Shack in a shopping mall during the early 90’s and seeing these things being liquidated.

[@Super_Nofriendo]

Make a video on why the snes was labeled for toddlers 🍼👶

[@gracekim25]

Is a radio shack like blockbuster May I ask?

[@BDawgStudio]

​@@gracekim25its a mix of a small electronics store and electronic parts shop. They were really pushing the Turbo Grafx there and had it on display at every shop as you passed them in the shopping mall. Almost always there was people around it playing the console. They only sold Turbo Grafx and nothing else. Great times!

[@Steph_7d7]

That where and when I got my tg16, radio shack when it was like $80+ tax .

[@Dorelaxen]

I never got to experience the Turbo during it's heyday. I would see the games in all the magazines, but much like the Master System, I never saw a single system or any games for sale around me (in an admittedly fairly small town). I got mine in 1999 for next to nothing at a game store I was working at at the time. I was far into my Playstation days during that time, but I made some time to play the Turbo, and it was awesome. I've loved it ever since, and have always felt like the games on it feel like nothing else during that time. They have their own thing going on, and I appreciate that.

[@GhibliNova]

These are such fun videos! I just bought a broken CoreGrafx last year and fixed it up and its been a wonderful little machine. I only have Galaga but I'm currently waiting on a Super HD System 3 I got last August and Im pretty excited! :)

[@notorious8361]

Living in Kansas I only knew of the TG through gaming magazines and promo tape they mailed me. I wanted one. Bad. Finally had my dream come true when the mini was released.

[@rockmanx2002]

I missed the TG16 in its heyday. It wasn’t until about six years or so ago that I got my TG16, and that was the very first time I ever played one. It has quickly become one of my favorite consoles of the generation, with a ton of great games that are obscure, but mostly very good. I love it!

[@DonaldHendleyBklynvexRecords]

I loved my T-16 and my Turbo Duo, Still do

[@Planag7]

Looking forward to this and I do wish switch would bring this back to the virtual console if it was possible. (Or the Switch online equivalent)

[@chfgn]

The TG16 was in an extremely tough spot with Sega America and Tom Kalinske doing *everything* right at the time. Using the power of hindsight I think there was simply no way for NEC to offer a better value at the same price, so I'd use my time machine to compete for a different market in a different price bracket instead. Their options as I see them were to keep the Japanese shell and drastically slash the price to $99 (or thereabouts) and position themselves as a more toylike affordable 16-bit platform, or go the opposite direction and redesign the shell to go all-in on CD-Rom as the $400 premium high-tech platform. As much as hardcore gamers gushed over the PC Engine shell at the time (and even now), I think NEC America's research was probably more accurate than most of us would care to believe. The mass market would see that tiny little white plastic square and credit card games and conclude that, while cool, it MUST be less powerful than its larger, heavier competitors. That was just how electronics worked before computer chips took over and a lot of people hadn't caught on to the new normal yet. If you're sticking with the Japanese shell the easiest path forward would be embracing that and marketing as a lower-cost option that comes close enough to the big guys to be worth the tradeoff. There was still a market for new NES and Atari 2600 games into the early 90s, so that low-end market that's hesitant to upgrade to a new $200 box was very real at the time. With the all-in CD option they'd skip HuCard entirely and publish Japanese HuCard games on CDs in North America, either with enhanced soundtracks / voiceover where warranted, or with multiple games on a single disc for lower-end titles. In 1989 this would also be many people's first CD player, so they'd also have a bit of a PS2+DVD strategy going on to justify the higher price by including that new music player that you were thinking of buying for a similar price anyway. Either option is risky (and they're both probably undercutting manufacturing costs by about a hundred bucks), but they'd both give the system a personality and an obvious market strength for consumers to latch onto that the game library alone was never going to deliver.

[@DouglasTitchmarsh]

I love the TurboGrafx, I bought a new old stock one here in the UK and I am still blown away by the games on it. Definitely an underrated console and a missed opportunity outside of Japan.

[@whookidd1979]

They should have hired you to do this, X knows his stuff and sounds good doing this!

[@JGreen-le8xx]

Where I live in Canada, one of the big problems for the TG16 was RadioShack was the only place that sold it and for an over inflated price compared to the Genesis (that you could buy anywhere) and even later the Super Nintendo! Had it been on NORMAL store shelves (which it was advertised in catalogues, but never seem to have inventory) for a modest price it might have sold better over here on the east coast.

[@projectmayhem6898]

Thanks, you really put your NEC on the line for us fans!

[@ericl7519]

I know hindsight is 20/20 but yeah, these are great fun. Thank you! Always look forward to your presentations!

[@arcticridge]

let's do it! @RGT85 wake up Nintendo boy, we got work to do!

[@G.G.___162]

I love this "let's save" series! You should seriously do one for every console (or at least, every console that didn't do very well lol)

[@Marc_Araujo]

Before releasing Fighting Street, def gotta ask Capcom to go back and fix a bunch of things.

[@Tempora158]

It's already an accurate port, so what was there to fix before its release in the US in 1989?

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@Tempora158 The difficulty in pulling off special moves.

[@Tempora158]

@Marc_Araujo You are applying 2024 standards and expectations to a game that was designed in 1986. No one knew the moves were unnecessarily difficult to do in Fighting Street because every fighting game before it had even worse controls. There is no fixing its bad controls short of the porting staff time traveling to the future year of 1991, acquire Street Fighter II's joystick polling algorithm that was written for a faster 16-bit CPU, bring it back to 1988, and reimplement it on a slower 8-bit CPU from 1987.

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@Tempora158 Isn't the point of this video to apply hindsight in order to try to "save" the console?

[@Tempora158]

@@Marc_Araujo Everything Sega Lord X mentioned in the video all involved making smarter decisions on things that actually existed at the time. Your "make Fighting Street good" suggestion involves methods and thinking that haven't even come into existence yet. Street Fighter II turned out the way it did because it was built upon the mechanics of Final Fight, and it also didn't exist when the Fighting Street port was being done.

[@joemorgan6675]

That was a fun video! The TurboGraphx was really underrated.

[@InitialDL84]

I remember seeing the TurboGrafx 16 in department store catalogs back in the 90s and always wanting to have one. Other than that, I didn't see much advertising for it. This was a great video on how you would have done things differently; would love another one with you talking about how the next system from them would turn out (possible specs, games released, etc)!

[@denraimei32]

Wasn't expecting to see you branch into other brands. Would like to see how you would change Nintendo 64 considering its history.

[@ericbrynelson9725]

I like any video game console that has great gameplay, big sprites, sound and music that's good.

[@BocaRetroGames]

What an amazing video! And just in time that I've got a pcengine as a gift from a friend from the other side of the planet! I'm just getting to know the games following your video and pretending that all the things you narrate really happened and I'm just enjoying the games in th order they appear on the video ! Fantastic Job! Thank you once again !

[@tommy516]

Your plans are great, I think this would have made this system MUCH more successful. I remember seeing the initial launch at Montgomery Wards in Texas and then going to the PX and BX in 90/91 in Germany and seeing the CD player and Final Zone II and Psychosis and wanting a TG-16, so bad. I didn’t get one until Christmas 93. But, my parents were able to get my brother and I the last Two Turbo Expresses at our local Toys R Us before they stopped carrying it. We mostly played on those until I got a duo in 94.

[@Kilmej78]

I was the guy with the Tg 16 growing up.

[@redsyrup1138]

me too.

[@wargameboy72]

I also was the only kid who had a TurboGrafx 16... We should start a club? 😅

[@BaddeJimme]

Given how early they were with CDs, it may have been a good idea to make a CD based machine from the start. Add-on CD drives usually failed to pick up steam, but if the base console was CD based, they could build up a large user base and developers would start making games like RPGs that relied on having large amounts of data.

[@chaospoet]

True. But the problem is the cost. With it being an unknown the asking price for something like that out of the gate might have killed it in it's tracks. Kind of like the 3DO asking price of $700 in 93 being a death nail before it made it to market.

[@jsr734]

@@chaospoet Even if it was more expensive than Sega´s and Nintendo´s machines. They could capitalize with parents being able to play back music cds with the system. And the CD Rom would eventually get cheaper and cheaper to produce with the pass of time. Remember than CD-Rom games with tons of super high fidelity dialog and music, tons of animations,etc, were a novelty back in the day, if marketed correctly they could had taken a good market share.

[@EvilToeKnee]

I have such a fantastic story about my adventures with the Turbografx. And some really bad decisions after it's run. Glad you gave it some attention.

[@dr.mofongo9001]

There was something about the Turbo Grafx-16 and I had to have it back in the day. Great memories on that system.

[@jonathanfiel6215]

I remember wanting the tg16 over the genesis back in '89. My uncle surprised me with it for christmas that yr. I still remember all the games i had; keith courage, vigilante, blazing lazers, victory run, bloody wolf, splatter house, alien crush, china warrior and veigues tactical gladiator.

[@wargameboy72]

I gotta say, this is one of the best videos I've seen you do in a long time. The last video I seen that were this good, was the videos you made talking about your childhood and how you went from the Atari to NES to SEGA Genesis and so on.... This was a fun video for a diehard PCE fan like myself. When I was a kid, I was one of the only kids who had a TurboGrafx 16 and it always bothered me why NEC didn't do more to show people how awesome the console really was!! So this video hits close to my heart and what could have been. 🤩👍❤️👍❤️👍

[@tommiefunk2099]

There's an alternate timeline where TurboGrafixLordX just dropped his "Save the SNES" video.

[@DavidGoscinny]

The gigantic shell of the TGX always left me baffled

[@MrJWTH]

Keith Courage was always a weird choice for a pack-in game since it was a localized version of a game based on a anime that never came out in the West.

[@DieselJT]

Im a perfect world this is how all of this would have went down!

[@mjdf122]

I’m from NY blessed to see and still have every NTSC console and tons of games from 1980-Now

[@totemlordreviews7242]

These videos are a lot of fun and I really enjoy watching them! I never got the chance to play one until a few years ago at a friend's house. I do have one suggestion though - when you give the stats, could you compare them to another console on the market at the time? It would be good for us that aren't as savvy with the tech stats lol.

[@RyzenZegend]

Way ahead of its time. The Turbo graphics 16 was Nintendo Switch way before Nintendo.

[@JeffYPbPr]

Man what a “what if”. If only

[@jagergerg9771]

Releasing with Bonks adventure is an excellent move.

[@BuzzsawGaming]

Love me some Turbo baby!! - Mr. Buzzsaw 🦎🦎

[@williamalexander1033]

I loved Power Drift so much!

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

The TG 16 (PC Engine) was an awesome system that was definitely the Dreamcast of its generation that deserved better and was a victim of poor management and marketing.

[@ichemnutcracker]

"The Genesis has more buttons. A more powerful console should have more buttons" was what I remember thinking about the TG-16. That is what wrote it off in my young mind. (I realize that they both technically have the same number of buttons. I didn't say I was smart.) In all seriousness, though, I think the only thing that would have saved the TG-16 in North America would have been if it launched a year earlier without the nonsense back-and-forth about the the redesign and marketing. And that would have required NEC having marketing sense, which they never did (even in Japan, I would add).

[@goranljubojevic6979]

i only know about this system 5 years ago i was one of those counties that missed out on this system Australia

[@NightDragon2383]

Unfortunately, I don't see how the Turbografx would ever have been truly successful in the North America due to 2 major factors: the lack of true killer-app / next-gen software on the base unit compared to its competitors, and the overall cost of ownership once you factor in the CD add on. Having a significant chunk of the system's library only accessible via the CD add on really hurt any chances of mass adoption in the west compared to the SNES and Genesis, which while the Sega CD was a "nice to have" at the time, it wasn't required to really enjoy the system's overall library. One thing I would have done differently with the TG-16 is release it as early as possible in North America. I'd have done a "soft launch" in the fall of '88 in the US to get its foot in the door as the first of the "16-Bit" systems, riding the coat tales of the NES's skyrocketing popularity, and start an advertising blitz during the holidays into '89 to get people buzzing about it, and then pushing as much software as readily possible for it in the 2nd half of '89 as the Genesis is getting ready to launch. While I still think it would have ended up a distant 3rd compared to the SNES and Genesis's sales, this likely would have helped give it a longer lifespan and a healthier library here in NA.

[@OzarksVHS]

Oh yeah, 15:50 gotta have a good showing on Mortal Monday!

[@TheWarmotor]

Was the CD add-on available in '89? Imagine if they skipped HUcards all together and released the Duo straight off? Talk about a value proposition, getting a CD player for dad's hifi and cheaper CD media to keep prices low... It would have made the Genesis and SNES look like toys in comparison.

[@jsr734]

Correct, even in Japan, i think the PC Engine´s success was for the CD Rom System, not the Hu-Cards. If they launched the system with the included CD-Rom in NA they would had a head start against Sega and Nintendo.

[@chawa623]

I completely agree, I love my TurboGrafx 16, first game I bought when I finally added the TurboGrafx 16 too my collection was the Iconic SPLATTER HOUSE

[@Rockhead84]

Nice video. I think packing in Bonk's adventure and trying to get SNK games on the TG-16 would have shifted more eyeballs in their directions.

[@anglo-saxonconnor817]

Judging from what these systems could produce graphical wise i think these things cost way too expensive for most people to buy back then.

[@svenvaltik5657]

Our parents just waited a year or two for the units to be discounted, but the TurboGrafx was a mere blip on the radar compared to the overwhelming noise around the SNES and Genesis...

[@XTRABIG]

i got away from gaming because i couldn't keep up with the new systems. i felt i want going to get the full value of my investment if every two years my current system becomes outdated. Much the way cell phones are now. Saturn. Dreamcast. N64. GameCube. PS1-2-3.... the hobby became expensive to follow.

[@tigermike74]

To OP: It's all relative to the time they were released. You are comparing the price and quality based off today's technological capabilities, which is a completely ignorant comparison.

[@Brian-qn7fn]

Wrong.

[@penguinreloaded7756]

​@@XTRABIGI mean... kinda, but not any differently than other hobbies. When I was a kid, I could get a new system every Christmas or two. - As we've gotten older and the hobby has matured, console cycles are WAAAAY longer. Anywhere from 5-9 years. Makes it affordable (to most/many) to own all console platforms. There was always the option to buy in at the end of console generations, too. End of Dreamcast cycle, the system was $50 and games were all priced $5-$10. You could have a full library to last you literally years for maybe $250. That's crazy cheap. - Even the end of Playstation life cycle: system was $100 and all games were $20. Same thing; you could get 5-10 years out of that library. System and 10 stone cold masterpieces for $300. That's cheap!

[@McCucumber]

I sold my turbo graphics 16 a few years ago when times were tough. Still regretting it.

[@richardcandia3224]

Great decission My friend to talk about turbograft, that was awesome

[@ralfvanbogaert3451]

I imagine they sat down kids in a room with a one-way mirror (Simpsons style) and made them choose between the original PC Engine shell and the TG-16 redesign, and went for the latter because larger is better. Atari did precisely that to determine how large the Lynx should be, which is also largely made up of air, defeating the whole 'portable' thing. In hindsight it's amusing to see just how clueless marketers were back then.

[@jsr734]

And in the same Simpsons episode we learned that kids don´t know what they want at all.

[@danielrecommends]

The Turbografx-16 was not on my radar as a kid growing up in the 90's. I barely heard of it. However, if this strategy had been the one NEC went with, I think I was have been a TG-16 fan boy. They really had some amazing games!

[@seansack609]

When meeting with Electronic Arts, know in advance they ARE capable of producing outstanding software.

[@thegardner80]

I strongly disagree on one point. Rather than pushing the TG16 release back, it should’ve been released much earlier. The US team admitted that they were so confident it would do well that they ended up slow walking it, doing the redesign and other stuff that ended up wasting time. Imagine the TG16 came out in 1988, a year before the Genesis. The games at that point weren’t amazing, but they blew the socks off NES games. The Geneais may have never even gotten off the ground

[@ToshisGarden]

Ah, yes. I theorize that innthis alternate timeline, we would be watching "NEC Lord X", and he'd be talking about how he would have saved SEGA's consoles back in the 90s whilst NEC was encouraged to keep making consoles. What a timeline THAT would be! XD

[@elblanco5]

This is the future I want to live in.

[@AngryCalvin]

I always loved what I saw in store displays back in the day. The introduction to CD-ROM only made the console more appealing. The color palette was extremely noticeable and added to the beauty of the visuals. The HuCards were also super cool. Some of the best arcade ports I’ve ever seen were on the system. Because I never owned one or knew anyone that did I ended up buying a PC-Engine mini a few years ago only to be more blown away by what this console was capable of. Even better it was being distributed by Konami and had plenty of great Konami ports added. Sure wish they had more Konami games including different versions of Contra and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that were not on the Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo. If only the system could have arrived earlier. Much earlier. Had more 3rd party support. I would have really liked to see the console to have had more games, pushed more limits, and had more popularity in the west. Hopefully the homebrew community will pay more attention and put all new work into showing off what could have been.

[@Mike-B-Jackson]

35 years of hindsight is a powerful tool ;)

[@Aki_Lesbrinco]

Even with hindsight, he made the same fatal mistake as Sega, Atari and NEC of thinking that releasing a cd add-on was anything other than a money pit.

[@2Plus2isChicken2013]

@@Aki_Lesbrinco That money pit gave us the Ys Book I and II soundtrack so it was worth it.

[@ynotwalk7391]

some of the stuff is so obvious, like using the japanese pc engine design instead of redesigning

[@Des_Zee]

I know you purposefully didn't mention the Turbo Xpress, but with all the improvements you made for the TG-16, showcasing how a color handheld could play the same games as the console system would've been a huge selling point. Even though i was team Sega back then, i was always intrigued by that thing.