What's a TurboGrafx? *NSF56K*
TheSonicRetard
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Registered User regular
The NEC Turbo Duo
With the arrival of Nintendo's Wii and the new-found availability of Turbo Grafx games, there is bound to be a ton of gamers who are either too young to have heard about it, or just flat out never got to play with one. This thread will hopefully answer all the questions that people new to NEC's machine have, as well as serving for a great center of nostalgia for us Turbo fans.
What is it?
The Turbo Grafx is the US version of the japanese PC Engine. The PC Engine was the first real challenger to the NES (or famicom in japan) to emerge. It was not a true 16 bit system like the later-released Genesis or SNES, but instead featured dual 8 bit processors and a 16 bit GPU. This meant that, while it wasn't as fast as the Genesis or the SNES, it could produce pictures either on par with them (SNES) or greatly above them (genesis). The PC Engine caught on BIG in japan, where it continued to be produced until the last game (dead of brain) was released in 2001. Banking on the success of the PC Engine, NEC, makers of the PC Engine, and Hudson (who were basically co-owners) decided to release it into the US under the name "Turbo Grafx 16." Meanwhile, back in japan, NEC looked ahead and saw the Megadrive launch, and fearing they'd fall behind, prepped for the release of the PC Engine CD, a cd add-on.
The PC Engine with CD attachment
Why did it fail?
3 reasons:
-Slow release of bigger game
NEC US was stupid about releases. They'd pass up sure-fire hits like Street Fighter II' to release duds like JJ and Ken.
-Lack of US 3rd party support
While in japan, Konami, hudson, and even Sega were behind the system, key 3rd party figures like EA were 100% behind the genesis. This meant more games came out faster on the genesis.
-Slow release of the Turbo CD
yes, as weird as this sounds, the main reason the Turbo Grafx failed is because they didn't get the CD attachment in the US out fast enough. In japan, it was less an attachment and more a sequel system - as soon as it was released, it gained MONSTEROUS popularity and regular PC Engine games (released on small cards called Hu-Cards) dried up. The US was slow to release the (overly priced) CD attachment which meant they basically had no new games lined up for a long while.
A hu-card, called a Turbo Chip in the US
So what about the CD attachment?
The CD attachment is the only addon in history to ever succeed. This is because, unlike the Sega CD, the jaguar CD, and so forth, NEC was staunch in their support for the add-on. In actuallity, the add-on was really treated more like a seperate system, sort of like the difference between the NES and SNES. The idea was to release the turbo CD in 2 parts - first as a stand alone-system (which would later become the turbo DUO) for people who wanted to get in on the new games, and then as a discounted add-on which would allow gamers with existing turbo grafx to experience the new system at a discounted price. In addition, to force acceptance of the CD attachment, hu-card releases would quickly dry up, and all developers would switch to the PC Engine CD. In japan, this tactic worked flawlessly. Gamers, happy with their PC Engines, flocked to the PC Engine CD or PC Engine Duo. In america, the CD attachment was slow to be released (1991 vs 1989) and as such, NEC saw their market slip away.
The US Turbo Grafx 16
So what was so special about the CD attachment?
Quite a bit, actually. While basic hardware was the same, there were several key components that made having a CD attachment worth getting. For one, you could now save your game. Hucards were produced to be as tiny as possible, being the size and width of approximately a credit card. As such, it was impossible to add in a battery for saving games. A seperate add-on to the back of the PC Engine, called the Memory Bank, could allow you to save your games, but it was overpriced and since it wasn't standard, it was never really used. Since the CD attachment had memory built in, all games featured saves.
In addition, the original PC Engine and Turbo Grafx featured ONLY RF-out. No RCA plugs on the system. This meant fuzzy picture, and mono sound. The CD Attachment featured stereo sound, as well as RCA video-out.
The CD attachment also allowed for some really large games, which developers took advantage of (unlike with the Sega CD). Rather than bogging down games with FMV (which were huge, mind you), developers opted to use real time anime cutscenes when dealing with video on the PC Engine. The end result is pretty gorgeous, and can't really be explained, only seen. This results in infinitely clearer cutscenes that are more awe inspiring, and ultimately, a lot less filling. The developers could then use the remaining space to make monsterous games, like Comic Fantasy, or Ys IV. These games simply weren't possible on Hu-Cards due to their size limitation. More-so than on the genesis or SNES, which could get into the 32-meg size area, the PC Engine games were limited to basically 4 and 8 meg games.
The CD attachment also had a ton of ram, which could be upgraded. It came packed with 16k of ram, which brought the total ram of the system up to 32k. However, NEC soon released the Duo Card 2, which brought the total memory up to 64k. A small hu-chip that had nothing but ram, that was inserted into the card slot of the PC Engine while playing a CD game. The Duo Card 2 was standard in the US, and quickly became the standard in japan. This was, however, followed up by the Duo card 3, also called the arcade card, which brought the total ram up to a whopping 128k. This meant faster load times, longer levels, bigger cutscenes, and generally more of everything. The ram is the single reason the PC Engine CD could produce a flawless port of fatal fury special.
Finally, the CD attachment allowed for more hardware tricks, like even better scaling and rotation.
The Turbo Tap
Were there accessories?
Oh yes. In addition to the CD attachment, there was also the multi-tap. The PC Engine was weird in that it only had one controller port, so all multiplayer games needed a multi-tap. This was a blessing in disguise, however, as the multitap allowed for 5 players at once. Thus, if a game is multi-player on the PC Engine, it'll allow normally up to 5 people at once.
There were also arcade sticks, and a small memory card released for the duo called the Tenoke Memory Bank, the world's first memory card. You could insert it into the hu-card slot without a cd game inside and copy files off the internal memory onto it.
The Turbo Stick
Wow... so what games were released?
[continued on next post]
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ANCIENT BOOK OF YS I & II
Precursor to Zelda by about 3 years (1982-ish), it wasn't just ported to the Turbo Duo, it was completely revamped. The original Ys was a very short game (3 dungeons) weak on story, with pretty fun gameplay. Imagine Zelda, but instead of swinging your sword, you simply ran into enemies. Battle worked sorta like a Dungeons & Dragon's RPG, except everything was behind the scenes. All you had to do was be confident you were stronger, or at least on par, with the enemy, and run into them, and the computer would do the rest.
The Turbo Duo version took this game, and it's sequel (Book II) and released them as 1 game with expanded graphics. To add to it, they fleshed out the story with TONS gorgeous anime cutscenes and got the voice of fucking OPTIMUS PRIME to do some VA.
NEW ADVENTURE ISLAND
What super mario world was to the mario series, New Adventure Island was to the Adventure Island series. This game is bursting with production value - had it been released on the SNES, it would have no doubt rocketed to classic status. Great, fun graphics, large long levels, and tons of neat mode-7-ish tricks (like the scaling in and out of levels ala mario world)
SOLDIER BLADE
Gunhead/Blazing Lazers was previously mentioned, but people failed to mention the series of games it spawned. After the initial success of Gunhead (what blazing lazers was called in japan), NEC/Hudson tried to make a sequel. When attempts to buy the IP fell through, they relaunched their sequel to gunhead under the Star Soldier line, and thus, the spiritual successor to Gunhead was born. Star Soldier was a series of intense as hell shmups, each better than the last, and Soldier Blade is the king of them all. Amazing graphics, sound, and probably one of the best SHMUPS ever produced.
GATE OF THUNDER
Sega and Tecnosoft created a new genre of horizantal shmup with thunderforce - while previous shmups had been either methodical shooters (darius) or memory based shmups (rtype), thunderforce was a straight up action shmup. It was fast, but relied not on paterns, but reflexes, to play. It was as if Contra was made into a shmup.
Gate of thunder was the first game not in the thunderforce series to adopt this style of play, and it trumps all thunderforces (except TFIII). Fast, insane, with a rock soundtrack that'll blow your ass off. it, along with Ys, were the Turbo Duo's flagship titles.
BOMBERMAN 94
THE KING OF BOMBERMAN GAMES. Saturn Bomberman may have upped the number of characters (10 at once instead of 5 at once on the PC Engine) but no game looks as good, plays as good, sounds as good, or feels as good as bomberman 94. The last bomberman to appear on the system (bomberman was the Turbo Duo's 3rd, unofficial mascot), it went out with a bang. A massively inferior port to the genesis, entitled MegaBomberman, was released later, but bomberman 94 remains king. It's worth mentioning that the Turbo Duo supported 5 players at once instead of the conventional 2 or 4. So multiplayer bomberman games were intense 5 player deathmatches. Great game.
STREET FIGHTER II'
Faster than the SNES version. Prettier than the Genesis version. Released before either, Street Fighter II', unknown to many, was actually Turbo Duo exclusive for a while. While the SNES had the original Street Fighter II, NEC had exclusive rights to Street Fighter II' (called championship edition or Hyper Fighting edition in the states) for a while. And it was marvelous. Shows that the PC Engine could keep in step with both systems very easily. Amazingly... this is NOT the best fighting game on the system...
FATAL FURY SPECIAL
Think back to 1993. Fighting games were all the rage. The Genesis and SNES battled for superiority through fighting games. In the eyes of many, whichever had the closest-to-the-original port of a fighting game was best. Mortal Kombat II. Street Fighter II. Fatal Fury. Now imagine you walk into an arcade and you see Fatal Fury Special, the 128 meg monster on the neo geo MVS. Beautiful, absolutely destroys everything the SNES at it's max power can do.
Now imagine an arcade perfect port. Fatal Fury Special is, amazingly, unbelieveably, an arcade perfect port of a 128 meg game running off a 24-bit arcade system to what is essencially an 8 bit console. No, I'm not speaking in hyperbole. Through the magic of the Arcade Card Pro (which bumped the ram in the PC Engine to insane levels), and the near limitless space of the Duo, NEC and SNK managed to get a 100% arcade perfect port. No lie. It's actually MORE perfect than the Neo Geo CD version due to faster loading times and authentic music. Amazing.
SNATCHER
The ultimate port of Snatcher. Snatcher was a game for the PC-88 and MSX from way, way back in the day, circa 1983-1984. It was, for all intent and purposes, a CYOA ala Zork. However, when NEC and Konami decided to port it to the PC Engine CD, they decided to go all out, just like Falcom had did with Ys. and thus, Snatcher became what it is known as today. GORGEOUS Cutscenes, amazing color, and a fucking fun story. Great game. I consider this better than the Sega CD port (the sega cd version was a port of this game with a 3rd act expanded on) because the PC Engine actually can display more colors than the Genesis, resulting in better visuals. This one is also fully unedited - several scenes are missing in the Sega CD version, and others are censored. For example, there is a part in the game where a dog is infested by a snatcher. You kill it, and you see the snatcher crawl out of the dog's intestines and run away, leavin the dog on the floor, twitching, as it's intestines bleed out of it's stomach. Needless to say, this scene was massively toned down in the Sega Genesis version.
Awesome game.
DRACULA X: RONDO NO BLOOD
you've heard of it. It might be the only Turbo Duo game you've heard of. You might not even know about the Turbo Duo, but you have still heard of this game. And for good reason. Some will swear by SotN, or AoS, or Dawn of Sorrow. but pound for pound, enjoyment for enjoyment, this is the ULTIMATE CASTLEVANIA GAME. Period. It was designed to be so. The ultimate, very best castlevania game. Ever. And why not? just like Sonic CD was designed to be the ultimate sonic game because it was on a CD format, so was Dracula X. This wasnt' another castlevania... this was Castlevania CD. The next generation of Castlevania. And it shows. Jaw dropping anime cutscenes (how the fuck did they do that, without using FMV, on a fucking 8 bit system?!), HUGE levels with many different paths, 2 completely different games (depending on which route you took, you would wind up with 2 completely different games... only the first and last levels are the same). 2 playable characters, each with different play styles (maria and richter). Phenominal atmosphere (all in-game voice is spoken in german, not japanese, to complete the effect). Every single castlevania main song remixed, covered in hard-rock style, resulting in the BEST castlevania soundtrack ever. And difficulty. Oh man, the normal route in the game is pretty standard... but the 2nd game will make you pull your hair out in frustration. I could type a billion words and I couldn't express how amazing this game is. Fan-fucking-tastic. GET IT.
GIANT H-SCROLL RAPING PIC CONTAINING LOTS OF SCREENSHOTS
BLOODY TEARS REMIX FROM IN GAME
REMIX OF VAMPIRE KILLER FROM IN GAME
DRAGONBALL Z: THE LEGEND OF GREAT SON GOKU
Yes, believe it or not, it's a GOOD Dragonball Z game. I shit you not. And it's not even a fighting game. Well sorta. It's a mix between a fighting game and an RPG. It's really hard to explain, but it's actually amazingly fun. And it has some really fucking gorgeous anime cutscenes.
NEUTOPIA I & II
There have been a lot of Zelda clones over the years, but none have really ever come close to being as good as Zelda, let alone being BETTER. Except, of course, for Neutopia. Neutopia is unashamidly a Zelda clone. The first was extremely straight forward, copy Zelda almost screen for screen. but it's sequel was a whole different story... released BEFORE Zelda III, it actually plays almost exactly like it, BEFORE Zelda III was released! No PCE collection is complete with Neutopia.
STAR PARODIER
What Parodius was to Gradius, Star Pariodier was to Star Soldier. That is, NEC and Hudson released a game parodying their own successful series. And, surprize surprize, it ends up actually being the best game in the series (even better that Soldier Blade). Featuring the 3 biggest icons in the PC Engine's arsenal, this is a shmup that stars the ship from the Star Soldier Series, the PC Engine itself, and, get this... MOTHERFUCKING BOMBERMAN. No shit, Bomberman in a shmup. The game is brilliant. Each level parodies either a gaming staple (desert levels), other games (Level 8 is bomberman world... with the boss being black bomberman), or the PC Engine itself (there is a PC Engine level). Great game, with hilarious cutscenes and great anime sequences.
BONK'S ADVENTURE ~ BONK'S REVENGE ~ BONK 3: BONK'S BIG ADVENTURE
The Turbo Grafx 16's lovable mascot. Playing less like mario and sonic, and more like the mickey mouse games, bonk is a fantastic romp. Light hearted, with absolutely fun levels, and great music. Had the PC Engine been more successful, bonk would still be around.
LORD OF THUNDER
The Sequel to Gate of thunder took a serious change in pace. Rather than being a fast-as-hell SHMUP in space, Lord of Thunder is a sci-fi fantasy SHUMP taking place in a mystical world that feel a lot like what Rocket Knight Adventure would be if it was a shmup. A little slower, far more beautiful, and fun as hell, with 3 playable characters, large levels, and of course more of the absolutely kick-ass music that made GoT so big, this is a great sequel.
ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUSLY BAD PROMO TAPE SENT OUT TO PEOPLE ADVERTISING LORDS OF THUNDER
WONDERBOY SERIES:
ADVENTURE ISLAND - BIKKURIMAN - MONSTER'S LAIR - DRAGON'S CURSE - THE DYNASTIC HERO
NOTE: The wonderboy series is very complex and hard to explain... for an explaination, go to this site
Amazingly enough, the PC Engine is the only system to have the COMPLETE wonderboy series... every game that had wonderboy was ported to the PC Engine, except with massive name changes (Wonderboy in monsterworld became The Dynastic Hero, for example). But they all play just the same. For those who don't know, wonderboy is basically sega's answer to both metroid and zelda. imagine Zelda II done right, with Metroid's exploration aspect inserted. Fucking great games, especially The Dynastic Hero.
SEGA GAMES
FANTASY ZONE - SPACE HARRIER - OUTRUN - AFTERBURNER - SHINOBI
In a pretty dick move, Sega licenced out the arcade original versions of most of their libaries to NEC. The idea was to allow NEC to release ports of their arcade games, then make a sequel on the genesis that was superior, and then tout how cutting edge the genesis was (I.E. look, we have SUPER fantasy zone, while the Turbo Duo is still running our OLD regular fantasy zone!). This meant they'd not only get money, but would be hurting their competition.
The upside to this story is, however, we, the public, recieved some absolutely fantastic ports of several classic sega games. Some I actually enjoy more than the arcade counterparts (space harrier). Great games.
YS BOOK IV: THE DAWN OF YS
What Metal Gear Solid was to Metal Gear and Metal Gear II, Ys IV is to Ys. The ULTIMATE, absolute best in the series... amazing game. Words cannot describe the beauty the game holds. Stunning cutscenes, fantastic gameplay, long long quests, and a great story. This game would have reached Chrono Trigger/Final Fantasy III/Lunar SS levels of praise if it had been released in the US. It's a system seller. GREAT game.
There are of course, a shitload more of great PC Engine games, and hopefully you'll use this as a guide as you make your way through the fantastic world of NEC.
If anyone has anymore questions, feel free to post and I'll try to answer.
Funny how more people have actually played some Turbografx since the last iteration of this thread with the VC out.
edit: ^5!
Oh yeah, before I forget, thanks to Agentflit for backing up this thread for me. ^5!
He starred in three issues of a ridiculous comic that targetted the Sega CD.
Seriously, go read these comics. It's fucking crazy how stupid they are. The fact that Johnny Turbo ever existed is so awesome.
shame this never actually came to europe, I intend to hit up the VC soon, and it shall live on!
No, let's.
Mario Kart DS: 3320 6595 7026 5000
I need a Wii for virtual console
And a 360 for Live arcade
But I have no TV
DOESN'T EVEN COMPARE
I've been looking to pick up a Turbo16 for a while now. Problem is, the TurboDUO is expensive as hell and the Turbo16 + CD attachment isn't much better.
Which got me thinking... Would importing a PCEngineDuo be cheaper, since they sold so well in Japan? Also, how's the region lockout on those? Would I be able to play Region 1 games (both Hu-Card and CD) fairly easily?
Attack
Magic > Breakdance 2
Item
Flee
I want to say, you fail so hard at video games.
but I guess ... you're not that far out of the norm
I loved me turbo-grafx and me turboduo.
DUNGEON EXPLORER!
I know a guy who got a tattoo of Johnny Turbo on his arm! He regrets it quite a bit nowadays.
PCE Duos are cheaper, I'm pretty sure, though you will need to do some soldering and add a region switch if you want to play domestic HuCards. Turbo Duos cost a little more, but you can play U.S. Hucards. America got most of the good HuCards, with a few exceptions, so you really can't go wrong either way.
Mario Kart DS: 3320 6595 7026 5000
But for that week I enjoyed Keith's Courage and Boxy Boy quite a bit.
Holy shit.
And Splatterhouse.
What a great system. I miss it so.
Thank you for posting a link to that video. You've changed my life forever.
A friend of mine who was a professed TurboDuo fanatic would never let me leave without at least showing me something from his NeoGeo collection. He's crazy over Metal Slug and Ys.
I keep getting the two systems mixed up.
I remember my jaw dropping the first time I saw Ys in action. "Whoa...voice acting in a video game!" The music was excellent too.
My Backloggery
Did you ever know that you're my hero?
-dumbmanex history-
Back in the day I had the old TG16, NEC mails us an offer to send it in and get a discount on a DUO, plus a free game. I didn't have Legendary Axe, so that was my choice. Instead they accidentally sent me a TG16 wallet, which I have used up until last Christmas. We got back with them on that mistake, they sent the game and I got the wallet as a bonus.
Lets go back in time a tad further, pre DUO, we had a house fire and for some reason everything plastic melted except for my Turbo stuff, clearly a blessed machine. The jewel cases that the cards came in melted shut, but inside the cards were unharmed. After cleaning some soot out of the system, it ran perfect. Awesome memories, except for that whole fire thing.
Old visual aids
http://dumbmanex.com/TurboBox.jpg
http://dumbmanex.com/TurboDuo.jpg
http://dumbmanex.com/TurboGames.jpg
http://dumbmanex.com/TurboWallet.jpg
Snowballs in peril! Action/Puzzle = Snowball's Chance E1 (it's free now!)
Forgive me. My childhood didn't have a lot of gaming.
Don't do this. It's much easier to simply buy a Japanese Duo, and then a US Turbo Grafx. Thats what I did. You can get Turbo Grafx off of ebay for as low as $30 sometimes. Its the CD expansion that is the real heart of the system, and that's what fetches $200.
And by the way, the DBZ game is fucking GREAT. When I got my PC Engine, I got 5 games - Blazing Lazers, DBZ, Ys I & II, Bonk's revenge, and Gates of Thunder.
Besides Ys, DBZ was my favorite game. It's really awesome.
Does it even compare to the other ones?
I never asked for this!
No, it's so unlike any other game I've played. It's not really a fighting game, or an adventure game or a beat 'em up or anything. it's totally unique, I've never seen another game play the way it does. Very cinemativ and feels a lot closer to the show than any other game has gotten. The 2D animation is really spectacular.
Here are some videos from the actual game:
Intro
Clips 1
Clips 2
Clips 3
Clips 4
That screenshot of Fantasy Zone definitely brings me back.
Buy some useless stuff at my Cafepress site!
I've had a PC Engine GT, the Japanese handheld version, for years. I think I got it in like '93 or so, and only ever accumulated five games for it. But last year, thanks to my wife feeling generous when my birthday rolled around, I came into the posession of a Turbo Duo, a TurboExpress (the American handheld version) and a veritable pile of games. I'd wanted a Duo for years, more or less since it was released. It was one of the great gems missing from my collection, and it proudly sits on my console rack right next to the Xbox 360.
Since then I've added Ys Book I & II and Gradius II, both glorious CD games, to that little collection. The Duo actually had a bootleg of Macross 2036 in it when I got it, too, which I printed off a cover for.
Recent tighter financials have stopped me from adding more to it, but it's simply my favourite 8-bit console of all time by an enormous margin.
Steam | XBL
Now I want one.
Click me for Sin City Breakfast Tacos! | Come discuss CG with us!
Or you could do what I did and just get a US Turbo Duo, pricey as they are, and hunt down a Japanese PC Engine CoreGrafx later on for the Japanese cards.
Either way... they're a ton of fun.
Steam | XBL
Pokémon HGSS: 1205 1613 4041