Alien Crush

Ballistix

Blazing Lazers

Bloody Wolf

Bonk's Adventure

Bonk's Revenge

Chase HQ

Darkwing Duck

Deep Blue

Devil's Crush

Dragon's Curse

Galaga '90

Ghost Manor

Impossimole

Ninja Spirit

R-Type

Space Harrier

Splatterhouse

Veigues Tactical Gladiator

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^{April 21, 2000} The TurboGrafx-16...quite an interesting little system. The most notable feature of this console was the credit-card sized games - it gave the system a really new technology look, since it claimed to be 16 bit and had such tiny game cards. There was a bit of a problem with the card sized games, though...there was no room for a battery back-up, and some definite memory constraints. Instead, the games required that you take down outrageously long passwords or buy an add-on called the Turbo Booster Plus to save your progress in some games. It fit onto the back of the system where the TurboGrafx-16 sleeve normally fit into place.

Anyways, the truth of the matter is it never really caught on in much the same way as Nintendo or Sega's game machines, the NES and Genesis. Even with the Turbo's 16 bit muscle, Nintendo had already built up a following of fans that probably felt it wasn't necessary to purchase a brand new expensive system that didn't have the quality OR the quantity of games of the NES. And then Sega released the Genesis about a year after the Turbo, boasting much faster gameplay, better graphics, and generally better games, to a certain extent. This caused a problem for NEC (the makers of the TG-16), since there weren't alot of *really* good games out for the TurboGrafx at this time.

Sure, there was Bonk (an all time Turbo classic) and Blazing Lazers, not to mention Legendary Axe, but with Nintendo's steady stream of awesome games and Sega's impressive entry into the market, NEC had a hard time in convincing people to buy the Turbo.

They released a handheld unit of the TurboGrafx, called the Turbo Express, that was...a wonder, to put it lightly. It retained all the power of the full-sized Turbo unit, only about a quarter of the size, or less, with an awesome game screen. But the bugger was horribly expensive, and it never really caught on, either. But it made sense to have a portable version of the Turbo available - I mean, the credit-card games seemed the kind of thing you'd use for a portable, right? They were even smaller than Gameboy games... Makes you wonder if maybe NEC should have waited a little and simply released the Turbo Express and marketed it as the first 16 bit portable, getting a head start on Atari and leaving the Gameboy and Gamegear in the dust.

At any rate, it never happenend, and even if the TurboGrafx-16 never really caught on here, it was incredibly popular in Japan - 'course, there it was called the PC Engine...and there were some incredible games released for it.. why is it Japan always gets the good games?! Oh well.

It was even the first game system to have a CD attachment, a groundbreaking achievement in video games, even though it had it's share of problems (it only had a 1 speed CD drive, so load times were far longer than they should've been). You could even use it to play music CD's by removing it from the Turbo. I like the TurboGrafx-16. The first time I played one was at my uncle's place (he was always on top of the technology scene). He'd started by buying Keith Courage, Devil's Crush, and Bonk's Revenge. I always played Keith whenever I'd go over there, even though it's a terrible game to play now, but when you're young everything seems fun. I used to find myself rolling down the stairs because I liked the speed...but enough about me. Read the reviews! Or better yet, go out and get a TurboGrafx!