For folks who aren't familiar with TG-16, you can think of Dungeon Explorer as five-player Gauntlet with heavier ARPG elements (exploration of distinct towns, dungeons, bosses) thrown in for good measure. It is truly a gem, with outstanding PSG tunes (every song is great)...and in STEREO...it was quite a nice thing to experience in 1989. I should add that all of the games featured in this video have great tunes. Sorry, comrades, but the Genesis/MD in 1989 did not have as many stellar-sounding soundtracks as it should have (when compared to TG-16/PCE PSG offerings). I could babble forever, but I'll stop....
The Turbo Booster simply added the ability to have AV composite output, since the console only had RF output by default. The Turbo Booster Plus added that as well as the ability to add save points to most (not all) Turbografx games. The bottom half of the CD unit basically doubles as a Turbo Booster plus. :)
Yeh I agree!!!!! In Australia it was pretty much non existent hey. Obviously some people had it probably more foreigners and collectors? Like I remember this Japanese m8 I had in primary school and he had the metal Voltron which here in Australia we mainly had the plastic one. Sorry lol random thought. I love the PC Engine now! Playing the shit out of it!
The model you want is the TurboDuo , was a complete upgrade to the turbografx16 and all of it's accessories and played everything including the chips, cds and super cds.
8:40 The turbo booster did not give the TG16 more ram. It allowed for Composite output only. The Turbobooster plus did the same but allowed you to save games, pretty sure it didn't give the system any additional ram for games.
The Turbo Booster Plus did add some battery-backed SRAM. It wasn’t used as work RAM but it was RAM. It was used as save/backup RAM for saving game progress, high scores, passwords, etc. SRAM used for the same purpose in cartridge games is often also used as extra work RAM, which is why the PC Engine HuCard version of Populous has SRAM in a thick “ROMRAM” HuCard even though it has no battery (uses it as work RAM). The ROMRAM HuCard design Populous uses was intended for battery-backed games too and has a spot for a battery though the only card to ever use it with a battery wasn’t a game: Tennokoe Bank Card. The Bank card gives you extra storage banks for copying game saves from Turbo Booster Plus, Interface Unit, Turbo-CD, Backup Booster, Duo, etc. It was basically one of the first memory cards ever made, though Neo Geo AES/MVS also had one. Neo Geo launched after PC Engine but probably before Tennokoe Bank Card.
In 1991 I produced a PC Engine Guide book because there was very little information about the machine and it sold over a thousand copies so it helped me when I was at college. I have one copy left if you are interested in adding it to your collection.
Kick ass to see you guys covering one of my favorite systems! Looking forward to part 2. If you ever want to do a part 3, I would love to help out hehe.
And Famicom Wars-the precursor to Advance Wars-predates Nectaris 1/Military Madness by a year. I wonder how much further back this goes (while remaining so closely analogous, I mean; obviously the roots of the turn-based strategy genre go back much further than '88, but these games are incredibly similar).
The CD is also interesting in that it's the only console add-on that was so successful it eventually replaced the original medium. Newer games switched completely from HuCards to CDs. Oh, and the Turbo Booster ONLY added AV out. The Turbo Booster Plus had the AV out as well as memory for saved games, but not extra RAM for games to use. The CD add-on also had AV out and memory. Extra RAM needed for certain Super CD games was available through the Super System Card (already included in the Turbo Duo hardware). Two versions of a final card with even more RAM came out later for Arcade CD games, the Arcade Card Pro (for the CD add-on) and the Arcade Card Duo (for the Duo).
The first Legendary Axe is a must play. The second one is pretty good, too! New Adventure Island is the best traditional Adventure Island game. Cadash is a fun action RPG arcade port for two players. Are you sticking to just US stuff? No CD games?
Ohya, since I have a few world records on these games I have to love this underrated machine. And yes Nectaris is the Japanese original name for Military Madness and they combined both names for the Playstation release.
MetalJesusRocks i loved your GameCube gems video it helped me out with learning more GameCube games and I might buy some. Thanks man your my favorite Game reviewer now lie
The Turbo Booster didn't give you more ram... It was more like a battery back up... It made you able to save some games and gave you AV output with stereo sound... You only got more ram with the Turbo CD And the PC engine didn't come out a little bit after the Famicom, it was a whole 4 years later! And it only had 1 8bit CPU but 2 16bit GPUs, so it was like an 8 bit console with 16 bit graphics... And you forgot to mention that the PC engine outsold both the Famicom and the Mega Drive in Japan and dominated the market until the Super Famicom came out!
I was skeptical about the Turbo Booster adding more RAM to the system, as I've never heard of any ways to bump up the console's RAM count without going the CD-ROM route. Speaking of the CD-ROM attachment, is it possible to use it while using the Turbo Booster, or do you have to choose between using one and the other?
1ex1uger Let's say that the Turbo CD "has a Turbo Booster inside of it"... The Turbo CD does pretty much everything the Booster do, plus play the the amazing CD games...
1ex1uger There actually is a way to add ram to the Turbo Grafx (kinda). The CD add on came with a card you had to put into the turbo chip slot to make it run. It had 64k of ram, and the CD player dumped data from the disc to that card so the games could be played. The Turbo Duo came out as an all in one unit but upgraded to with 256k of ram, so they released a new system card for the cd add on called the super system card 3.0 to match the Duo's memory. For a little more trivia the Turbo Duo was the first north american stand alone CD based console to have built in memory for saving games, not the Saturn or 3D0. The Duo is my retro system of choice.
Jools Stoo Don't forget about the Japan-only Arcade Card with 16 MEGA POWER of ram! (16mbit / 2mb) With it the PC engine CD could wipe the floor with the Sega CD and even the Super Nintendo and produce arcade-quality games that competed with the Neo Geo! It even got some amazing early Neo Geo ports by Hudson Soft! (Actually, the Super Nintendo could still compete with the Neo Geo... Look up Gundam Wing Endless Duel for a good example of how)
Without the ability to play two player games out of the box...what were they thinking...the system was never easy to find and I gotta special order a Turbo Tap!? But the T.Express was and still pretty awesome, certainly a pivotal moment in videogame history!
Cadash was one of my faves, and had two more characters than the Genesis version, the ninja and the priestess. Dragon Curse, I believe it was called, the 3rd entry in the Wonder Boy saga, was also a blast and unlike anything I had played at the time. You already covered Ninja Spirit, which I had to download on the Wii VC to own again (sold my TG-16 back-inna-day for SOME dumbass reason). Splatterhouse was one I used to impress my friends what with all the gore and voice effects (cheesy now but it was bombtastic back in the day). I also really enjoyed the sports games and had a ton of em, volleyball, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.
My uncle had this system when my brother, my cousin, and I were growing up an no one ever knew what I was talking about when I would mention the Turbo Grafx 16 or even heard of it before. I loved this system and the fact that we could only play it for 1-2 weeks out of the year, because he lived in NC and we were in PA, made it so much better being that it was so mysterious to us. He only had a couple games for it but we were all about that Ninja game, Bonk, SplatterHouse, and that devil pin ball game. I’m definitely missing some but it’s great to see people talking about a system we loved as kids mostly because at the time we felt like we were the only 4 people in the world that knew about it. I would love to see some more videos on the Trubo Grafx 16. Especially the cd drive and it’s games because I never remember knowing about a cd drive attachment
I know it's late to say this but, Dungeon Explorer -> Baldur's Gate/Diablo? WHAT? You could have said "Guantlet with Adventure/RPG features" and you've nailed it. By the way, Dungeon Explorer 2 (Super CD game) was one of the finest on the system! Another thing, the "Advance Wars" series was created before Military Madness. It was called FAMICOM WARS. Although is true that this came first outside Japan, and it's an awesome game nonetheless.
I was a huge TG16 fan when I was a kid. I had the CD-ROM attachment as well as the Turbo Express. I eventually bought the TurboDuo and gave the old system to my brother who was stationed in Japan. He quickly discovered PC-Engine games would not work without a converter card.
and yeah that's right the Turbo had an 8-bit CPU and a dual 16-bit GPU. I just remember my little kid version memory of it..and all my Genesis friends saying it wasn't a true 16-bit processor cause the CPU was 8-bit. Which def got my goat!
Before I watch the video, here are some of the gems, hidden and not so hidden: Soldier Blade (one of the best shmups ever) and Super Star Soldier, Gate of Thunder and Lord of Thunder (nice CD-shmups), Devil's Crush, Ys Book I&II (greatest remake of all time) and Ys 3-4, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
The turbo booster didn't add ram, it added composite video output. The turbobooster plus added composite and the ability to save some games. It was a despicable cash grab by NEC who assumed their console would steamroll the American gaming market the way the PC-Engine did in Japan.
Well, all versions of the hardware with the expansion connector do provide composite video there, but the original PC Engine, like the Turbografx, didn't provide a dedicated composite port. I'm not really sure what's required to use the composite from the expansion port - I use my system with a home-brew cable that just connects the expansion port pins directly to the A/V cables. I'm not sure if it's really correct to just use those signals as-is or if they ought to be amplified and put through decoupling capacitors. So it really is a corner-cutting thing - at most we're talking a handful of transistors, resistors, and capacitors to get composite out of a PC Engine. (but they did it in Japan, too - which kind of makes sense since the PC Engine was designed to go against the Famicom - which also didn't have composite. Kinda stinks...) It's hard to imagine a scenario where the Turbo could have really been a success in the US. The NES was doing quite well in 1987-1989 (between the release of the original PC Engine and the Turbo) and the PCE really didn't have the software library to compete, especially with Nintendo's exclusivity lock-in deals.
Actually, the original, first-gen TurboBooster allowed for composite video-connection and stereo sound (which greatly "boosted" the image-quality through the TV), but the TurboBooster Plus finally allowed for the saving of high scores and certain game-data (such as automatic password save-states, which were pretty handy). Also, both the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx 16 had a "true" 16-bit graphics processor and an 8-bit memory processor (Carlos mentions that both were 8-bit in the video, which is incorrect).
I own a PC Engine Core Grafx2 which is a pretty cool compact system. I would recommend showing off games like Parasol Stars, Splatterhouse, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, and the Soldier series.
Definitely recommend the Turbo Duo, really nice system . . . For games I recommend The Legendary Axe and Splatterhouse, but will happily second Bloody Wolf (just finished for the first time earlier this year), and Ninja Spirit. Just about everything on this system is a hidden gem in the US lol.
Fantasy Zone was a fantastic port, Neutopia 1 and 2 were awesome, high quality overhead Zelda style action rpg games, Psycosis was a great shooter, Bonk's Revenge, just stay FAR away from any of the "TV Sports" franchise.
Friday's are my favorite because of Metal Jesus Rocks! The area I live in there is no way I'd ever find a tubrografx without ebay. I remember the ads but I don't believe stores even sold them here. I don't hold me to that but I don't remember seeing them. The Ninja one does look like the best game actually.
there was the Turbo booster that allowed to use RCA (Yellow, Red, White) the Turbo Boost plus added internal mem storage to save game progress. Save data was not built in to hu-cards
I got my boxed TG-16 from a place called Floppy Joe's in Plano Texas @1990. I only paid $20 for it, and later got a boxed Turbo-Booster for the same price from there. My collection for the console is pretty small though, with titles like Military Madness, Alien Crush, KLAX, Galaga-90, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, The Legendary Axe, Dungeon Explorer and Side Arms.
KT Johnson - Yeah, arcade version, which this is a port of, is 2 player co-op. I caught that too as I once owned the game for TG-16. TG-16 port of arcade Dragon Spirit was missing an entire underwater level late in the game. Splatterhouse couldn't begin to compare to the legendary arcade original. Check 'em in MAME to see the proof.
You can name any game on TG16 as a hidden gem, it was a cool system but everyone I know was playing Genesis, Snes or maybe even NES. Hell I think I was more familiar with Neo Geo because of the arcades. I missed out though because there are so many killer shooters on the TG16
Although never mentioned by name, The Turbo Express was featured and had quite a big role in the 1998 movie "Enemy of the State" starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. The more you know!
I borrowed my friends turbo grafx and I only played nectaris/military madness the entire time I had it. that game was addictive as hell. Almost bought a system of my own just to keep playing it.
This episode almost made me cry! Thankfully, I got a TG-16 again, but I remember when I had my TurboExpress with my import enabler card so I could play Street Fighter II on the go. Ninja Spirit was amazing, and I remember playing a lot of Aero Blasters and Parasol Stars. Sadly, I lost everything when I left home for the Navy. Hopefully I can build up again, but wow, are these games going for a premium. And $350 for a Turbo CD isn't outrageous anymore (which is why I can skip it).
Ninja spirit came out on the Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy (Japan only) ZX Spectrum, Virtual Console. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Spirit
It had a lot of potential. competing with the Sega genesis and even the Nintendo nes..was a chore..but the tg-16 found a following and produced some great games..that are still fun to play today
I love my Turbo grafx its just really had to collect for the system without just straight up buying off of ebay. Games are really hard to come by. Great vid keep up the great work!
I know this sounds kinda odd but due to the slim western release of the Turbo I would almost say every game on it is a "Hidden Gem" outside of things that were ports on other consoles and MAYBE Bonk.
YourPalSal As more and more time goes on, I think you could safely say that the entire library when "Hidden gems". Everybody still talks about the Nintendo/Sega consoles...but the lonely TG16 is mostly unloved in the West.
In Connecticut we had TurboGrafx. However, it was expensive. At that time I was starting to game on the PC. I also spent all of my time working on my 1970 VW bug. Both of those were expensive hobbies. I am back to the console now. I got sick of swapping hardware just so I could play a game in full resolution on the PC. in retrospect I should've bought the TurboGrafx. As expensive as it was, it was nowhere as expensive as getting a PC.
MetalJesusRocks I don't think it's unloved, I think no one knew or knows about it. I'm very into (retro)gaming and have the age of 34 but I never saw a TG16 here in the Netherlands; not when I was a kid and even nowadays I never seen one. Not even Europe's biggest retrogame online store sells it. Do you know if there excists a pal version of the TG16? Cause when it does I like to hunt one down to make it my 16th console
I still have my TG16 and Express. Best games to get for TG16 is Lords of Thunder, Ys I&II, Valis, Raiden, Dracula X. I played the crap out of Raiden on the Express. Lords of Thunder has the most epic soundtrack ever; full blown metal riffs The best thing is all PC Engine games worked on the TG16/ DUO.
The most underrated console ever - at the time games like Bonk and Splatterhouse and Pinball were way ahead of the curve the games were fast colorful and fun the controller was bad ass and the jewel cases were so cool
picked up a turbo graphx 16 tonight with 8 games, 6 in the cases. can't wait to play some Blazing Lazers when I got more time, super great shooter I'm surpised they didn't mention.
Seriously thanks all for digging this episode and the Turbo! I feel validated for all those years of preaching to people that this little system with weird games was worth it. Of course..not counting (as mentioned) the TV Sports titles.
My favorite game on the system is a game that never made over here in the west. Its a japan only hu card called Metal Stoker! its like a top down army tank shmup game with great controls. One button switches from free movement to strafing and the other fires. The graphics are great for the system and the music rocks!
Man I never knew anyone who owned one of these and I always wanted one. It's hard cause I never find games out in the wild. Can't wait for the next video guys, thanks :)
ninja spirit was a arcade game first. Bloody wolf is more like contra. The pc engine had the best games though, It was a shmup lovers dream. If you get the everdrive for it you can play them on the us version of the tg16
The Turbo Booster didn't add memory or battery for saving, all it did was give the system AV out vs RF, which at that time, made the picture clearer and brighter.
Ninja Spirit was my first T-16 games.It's a classic. Hard and really hard towards the final boss. Falling Ninja pit. You needed to memorize the ninja placement.
I have 2 TG16 consoles. the best three games are galaga 90, Splatter house, and Devil's Crush. All I have complete happy to say :) My Friday's get even better when I know a Metal Jesus video is out. love the show. Do you like GodSmack?
Thanks for the video with all the information on the system. I bought a base system back in the 90’s and a few games. Later in the 90’s when the company went out of business a local game store was selling base turbo graft systems for $5 and games for $1. I bought 4 used base systems and a lot of the games. NEC Technologies was 20 minutes from where I lived and I used to go there and play games before they were released in return for filling out a survey giving an opinion about the game I played. . One time they even gave me my favorite game for the system, Neutopia II. I still have the game factory sealed in the box. They also gave me some promotional material which consisted of 5 by 7 inch cards which had the artwork of the box of the game and a written description of the game. I still have these cards too. It is interesting to find out now that some of the games are worth over $100 now because I remember seeing those turbo graft game cards for $1 in used game bins at small game stores in the 90’s. Back then you could also buy a converter that attached to the Turbo Grafx that played PC Engine games. I bought a lot of those too for $1 back in the late 90’s at small game stores with used games...
I had the PC Engine Express, the Japanese variant of the Turbo Grafx Express. They're very hard to come by now that are working properly as they, like the Game Gear, tend to develop a weak audio output issue with age.
For the longest time I wanted a PC Engine. And this was mainly to play Dungeon Explorer - as I loved RPGs back then [ I still do]. So, seeing the PC Engine there, brought back memories. Lol.
I have a Turbo Express. I found one last year for $40 with 20 games. Damn thing is in mint condition. I always wanted one back in the day and it feels like a dream to play on it!
I'm now thinking it may have been a PC Engine I had. Though I'm not sure, perhaps it was a different model of the TG-16. Mine was small like the PCE pictured, but I remember it being black, and could have sworn it had the Turbo Graphics logo on it, man memories from when you were 6 are hard to recall.
For folks who aren't familiar with TG-16, you can think of Dungeon Explorer as five-player Gauntlet with heavier ARPG elements (exploration of distinct towns, dungeons, bosses) thrown in for good measure. It is truly a gem, with outstanding PSG tunes (every song is great)...and in STEREO...it was quite a nice thing to experience in 1989. I should add that all of the games featured in this video have great tunes. Sorry, comrades, but the Genesis/MD in 1989 did not have as many stellar-sounding soundtracks as it should have (when compared to TG-16/PCE PSG offerings). I could babble forever, but I'll stop....
Genesis seems a bit inferior...I played the After Burner II and it looked and sounded much better on TG...
The Turbo Booster simply added the ability to have AV composite output, since the console only had RF output by default. The Turbo Booster Plus added that as well as the ability to add save points to most (not all) Turbografx games. The bottom half of the CD unit basically doubles as a Turbo Booster plus. :)
What a nerd.
the turbografx 16 itself is a hidden gem!
really everything outside of Bonk is a hidden gem sorta
@@Rodzilla97 everything outside of bonk and splatterhouse
Yeh I agree!!!!! In Australia it was pretty much non existent hey. Obviously some people had it probably more foreigners and collectors? Like I remember this Japanese m8 I had in primary school and he had the metal Voltron which here in Australia we mainly had the plastic one. Sorry lol random thought. I love the PC Engine now! Playing the shit out of it!
From what I remember of the turbo grafx is that it had a great pac man world and adventure island. Of course bonk was king.
It didn’t have too many terrible games, I’ll give it that
The model you want is the TurboDuo , was a complete upgrade to the turbografx16 and all of it's accessories and played everything including the chips, cds and super cds.
Big plus, too, if one can get their TurboDuo recapped and/or
region-modded! The recapping pays off really well; Trust me.
Yeah but that's way too expensive and so are the games
Yes! Thanks for showing this classic system some respect. It was terribly and falsely underrated by the gaming press during its time.
Can't thank you enough for that statement! Finally my childhood system gets some love!! Haha.
TG16 MINI coming this year!!!
8:40 The turbo booster did not give the TG16 more ram. It allowed for Composite output only. The Turbobooster plus did the same but allowed you to save games, pretty sure it didn't give the system any additional ram for games.
yep, unlike the ram cart for the sega saturn which allowed near arcade perfect conversions like x-men vs. street fighter
The Arcade Card and the Super Card gave the TG-16 more RAM to play the better CD games.
scir 91 - But did Sega ever bring it to the West? I don't believe so. I own a Japanese Saturn version of X-Men vs Street Fighter with the RAM cart.
The Turbo Booster Plus did add some battery-backed SRAM.
It wasn’t used as work RAM but it was RAM. It was used as save/backup RAM for saving game progress, high scores, passwords, etc. SRAM used for the same purpose in cartridge games is often also used as extra work RAM, which is why the PC Engine HuCard version of Populous has SRAM in a thick “ROMRAM” HuCard even though it has no battery (uses it as work RAM). The ROMRAM HuCard design Populous uses was intended for battery-backed games too and has a spot for a battery though the only card to ever use it with a battery wasn’t a game: Tennokoe Bank Card. The Bank card gives you extra storage banks for copying game saves from Turbo Booster Plus, Interface Unit, Turbo-CD, Backup Booster, Duo, etc. It was basically one of the first memory cards ever made, though Neo Geo AES/MVS also had one. Neo Geo launched after PC Engine but probably before Tennokoe Bank Card.
Great episode of hidden gems! I got to play ninja spirit as a kid at my local arcade and was the main reason why I wanted to get a turbo grafx 16.
In 1991 I produced a PC Engine Guide book because there was very little information about the machine and it sold over a thousand copies so it helped me when I was at college.
I have one copy left if you are interested in adding it to your collection.
Kick ass to see you guys covering one of my favorite systems! Looking forward to part 2. If you ever want to do a part 3, I would love to help out hehe.
Scottsquatch Good ‘ol Scott from five years ago. You totally should go on Metal Jesus man
wtf? dungeon explorer is like baldur's gate? :D i would say it's more like gauntlet. and military madness is clearly a battle isle clone.
Except Battle Isle is a Nectaris/Military Madness clone. Nectaris was published in 1989, two years before Battle Isle.
And Famicom Wars-the precursor to Advance Wars-predates Nectaris 1/Military Madness by a year.
I wonder how much further back this goes (while remaining so closely analogous, I mean; obviously the roots of the turn-based strategy genre go back much further than '88, but these games are incredibly similar).
ninja spirit also came out for the Amiga,Atari ST,C64,Amstrad CPC ,ZX spectrum and the game boy.
"Part 2 will be coming out very soon!" Little do they know I live in the future!!!
Thanks for showing love to one of my top consoles of all time!
Thanks for being awesome! Ha. Feels so validating to meet people (virtually) who love the system I had fond memories of.
After looking for 2 years finally added one back to my collection this year! All the memories came rushing back in! Can't wait to the next videos!
The CD is also interesting in that it's the only console add-on that was so successful it eventually replaced the original medium. Newer games switched completely from HuCards to CDs.
Oh, and the Turbo Booster ONLY added AV out. The Turbo Booster Plus had the AV out as well as memory for saved games, but not extra RAM for games to use. The CD add-on also had AV out and memory.
Extra RAM needed for certain Super CD games was available through the Super System Card (already included in the Turbo Duo hardware). Two versions of a final card with even more RAM came out later for Arcade CD games, the Arcade Card Pro (for the CD add-on) and the Arcade Card Duo (for the Duo).
i have a turboduo!! i spent 3000 on one in the box with 69 games 2 controllers and all the convertors. well worth it!!!
The first Legendary Axe is a must play. The second one is pretty good, too! New Adventure Island is the best traditional Adventure Island game. Cadash is a fun action RPG arcade port for two players.
Are you sticking to just US stuff? No CD games?
Ohya, since I have a few world records on these games I have to love this underrated machine. And yes Nectaris is the Japanese original name for Military Madness and they combined both names for the Playstation release.
World records??? Whaaaaa?
TG MINI was announced at e3!!!
Always a good day when a new Metal Jesus video comes out!
Always a good day when awesome people like you respond :)
MetalJesusRocks i loved your GameCube gems video it helped me out with learning more GameCube games and I might buy some. Thanks man your my favorite Game reviewer now lie
MetalJesusRocks I meant no lie not now lie
The Turbo Booster didn't give you more ram... It was more like a battery back up... It made you able to save some games and gave you AV output with stereo sound... You only got more ram with the Turbo CD
And the PC engine didn't come out a little bit after the Famicom, it was a whole 4 years later! And it only had 1 8bit CPU but 2 16bit GPUs, so it was like an 8 bit console with 16 bit graphics... And you forgot to mention that the PC engine outsold both the Famicom and the Mega Drive in Japan and dominated the market until the Super Famicom came out!
I was skeptical about the Turbo Booster adding more RAM to the system, as I've never heard of any ways to bump up the console's RAM count without going the CD-ROM route. Speaking of the CD-ROM attachment, is it possible to use it while using the Turbo Booster, or do you have to choose between using one and the other?
1ex1uger Let's say that the Turbo CD "has a Turbo Booster inside of it"... The Turbo CD does pretty much everything the Booster do, plus play the the amazing CD games...
1ex1uger One or the other, but the CD-ROM attachment had both built-in memory and AV out, so both aren't required for the same results.
1ex1uger There actually is a way to add ram to the Turbo Grafx (kinda). The CD add on came with a card you had to put into the turbo chip slot to make it run. It had 64k of ram, and the CD player dumped data from the disc to that card so the games could be played. The Turbo Duo came out as an all in one unit but upgraded to with 256k of ram, so they released a new system card for the cd add on called the super system card 3.0 to match the Duo's memory. For a little more trivia the Turbo Duo was the first north american stand alone CD based console to have built in memory for saving games, not the Saturn or 3D0. The Duo is my retro system of choice.
Jools Stoo Don't forget about the Japan-only Arcade Card with 16 MEGA POWER of ram! (16mbit / 2mb) With it the PC engine CD could wipe the floor with the Sega CD and even the Super Nintendo and produce arcade-quality games that competed with the Neo Geo!
It even got some amazing early Neo Geo ports by Hudson Soft!
(Actually, the Super Nintendo could still compete with the Neo Geo... Look up Gundam Wing Endless Duel for a good example of how)
Love the Sploosh shirt. If they had a Cheryl/Carol shirt I would totally pick it up. What! What!
Dungeon Explorer looks like Gauntlet. Wasn't there a Dungeon Explorer sequel for the TG16\PCE as well?
My older brother had this system, dragon curse was my favorite turbo game .
I didn't realize that TurboGrafx games were soo cool. I'll try and pick myself up one if I can find it!
Get Blazing Lazers, the absolute best game on the system.
Rad. Glad you dig it! It had a lot of weird games and I have such fond memories of it.
Carlos - Two of my personal faves bro; Good taste. 🖒
Without the ability to play two player games out of the box...what were they thinking...the system was never easy to find and I gotta special order a Turbo Tap!? But the T.Express was and still pretty awesome, certainly a pivotal moment in videogame history!
I need all the turbo grafx games! lol Sadly all I have is Ole Keith Courage!
Cadash was one of my faves, and had two more characters than the Genesis version, the ninja and the priestess. Dragon Curse, I believe it was called, the 3rd entry in the Wonder Boy saga, was also a blast and unlike anything I had played at the time. You already covered Ninja Spirit, which I had to download on the Wii VC to own again (sold my TG-16 back-inna-day for SOME dumbass reason). Splatterhouse was one I used to impress my friends what with all the gore and voice effects (cheesy now but it was bombtastic back in the day). I also really enjoyed the sports games and had a ton of em, volleyball, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.
U was gonna mention Dragon Curse actually! Weird simple RPG elements side scrolling game. Uber cutesy.
Every game on the TurboGrafx-16 is a hidden gem in my opinion
My uncle had this system when my brother, my cousin, and I were growing up an no one ever knew what I was talking about when I would mention the Turbo Grafx 16 or even heard of it before. I loved this system and the fact that we could only play it for 1-2 weeks out of the year, because he lived in NC and we were in PA, made it so much better being that it was so mysterious to us. He only had a couple games for it but we were all about that Ninja game, Bonk, SplatterHouse, and that devil pin ball game. I’m definitely missing some but it’s great to see people talking about a system we loved as kids mostly because at the time we felt like we were the only 4 people in the world that knew about it. I would love to see some more videos on the Trubo Grafx 16. Especially the cd drive and it’s games because I never remember knowing about a cd drive attachment
My first of many consoles. It started my game collecting hobby, and yes, I still have it. I love this system.
This is the best guest youve ever had, Jesus. You should have more of Carlos!
I know it's late to say this but, Dungeon Explorer -> Baldur's Gate/Diablo?
WHAT? You could have said "Guantlet with Adventure/RPG features" and you've nailed it. By the way, Dungeon Explorer 2 (Super CD game) was one of the finest on the system!
Another thing, the "Advance Wars" series was created before Military Madness. It was called FAMICOM WARS. Although is true that this came first outside Japan, and it's an awesome game nonetheless.
I was a huge TG16 fan when I was a kid. I had the CD-ROM attachment as well as the Turbo Express. I eventually bought the TurboDuo and gave the old system to my brother who was stationed in Japan. He quickly discovered PC-Engine games would not work without a converter card.
This was a fun episode, some of these games I never even heard of lol.
and yeah that's right the Turbo had an 8-bit CPU and a dual 16-bit GPU. I just remember my little kid version memory of it..and all my Genesis friends saying it wasn't a true 16-bit processor cause the CPU was 8-bit. Which def got my goat!
***** Holy crap a TechGrouch fan! I LOVED doing that show. Dvorak is in CA though and i'm now in Seattle.
I love your "hidden gens" episodes! I never was a turbo grafx guy, but I'm going to try all this suggestions on the emulator my Ouya! Thanks guys!
Two words; BLAZING LAZERS
Before I watch the video, here are some of the gems, hidden and not so hidden: Soldier Blade (one of the best shmups ever) and Super Star Soldier, Gate of Thunder and Lord of Thunder (nice CD-shmups), Devil's Crush, Ys Book I&II (greatest remake of all time) and Ys 3-4, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
Dude I'm so glad I found this channel. I used have some these but forgot title of em but seeing them now I can play again tuvm.
Metal Jesus RULES!! Turbografx16 was my favorite console growing up!
The turbo booster didn't add ram, it added composite video output. The turbobooster plus added composite and the ability to save some games. It was a despicable cash grab by NEC who assumed their console would steamroll the American gaming market the way the PC-Engine did in Japan.
it's weird they didn't include composite for the TG16 out of the box considering the PC Engine is composite compatible without any accessories.
Well, all versions of the hardware with the expansion connector do provide composite video there, but the original PC Engine, like the Turbografx, didn't provide a dedicated composite port.
I'm not really sure what's required to use the composite from the expansion port - I use my system with a home-brew cable that just connects the expansion port pins directly to the A/V cables. I'm not sure if it's really correct to just use those signals as-is or if they ought to be amplified and put through decoupling capacitors.
So it really is a corner-cutting thing - at most we're talking a handful of transistors, resistors, and capacitors to get composite out of a PC Engine. (but they did it in Japan, too - which kind of makes sense since the PC Engine was designed to go against the Famicom - which also didn't have composite. Kinda stinks...)
It's hard to imagine a scenario where the Turbo could have really been a success in the US. The NES was doing quite well in 1987-1989 (between the release of the original PC Engine and the Turbo) and the PCE really didn't have the software library to compete, especially with Nintendo's exclusivity lock-in deals.
Actually, the original, first-gen TurboBooster allowed for composite video-connection and stereo sound (which greatly "boosted" the image-quality through the TV), but the TurboBooster Plus finally allowed for the saving of high scores and certain game-data (such as automatic password save-states, which were pretty handy).
Also, both the PC Engine and the TurboGrafx 16 had a "true" 16-bit graphics processor and an 8-bit memory processor (Carlos mentions that both were 8-bit in the video, which is incorrect).
We definitely had zero turbos in my neck of the woods. Hell, we only had one legitimate retail store. I want one now, though.
You can find em still so get huntin. Sorry to hear you didn't have any around. And some of other favorites are in the next segment! Stay tuned!
Do you own a TurboGrafx-16 or PC Engine? And what games should be in Part 2?
I own a PC Engine Core Grafx2 which is a pretty cool compact system. I would recommend showing off games like Parasol Stars, Splatterhouse, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, and the Soldier series.
Definitely recommend the Turbo Duo, really nice system . . . For games I recommend The Legendary Axe and Splatterhouse, but will happily second Bloody Wolf (just finished for the first time earlier this year), and Ninja Spirit. Just about everything on this system is a hidden gem in the US lol.
How about all the Bonk games??
Fantasy Zone was a fantastic port, Neutopia 1 and 2 were awesome, high quality overhead Zelda style action rpg games, Psycosis was a great shooter, Bonk's Revenge, just stay FAR away from any of the "TV Sports" franchise.
Neutopia 1-2
"Hidden" Gems - are there actually known games for the TurboGrafx 16 ;)
To me, the whole system including PC Engine is a hidden gem.
TG MINI was announced at e3!!!
Friday's are my favorite because of Metal Jesus Rocks! The area I live in there is no way I'd ever find a tubrografx without ebay. I remember the ads but I don't believe stores even sold them here. I don't hold me to that but I don't remember seeing them. The Ninja one does look like the best game actually.
Never seen a TG until now, very beautiful console
TG MINI was announced at e3!!!
He responses to so many subs shows he cares about them and been active in his channel!
there was the Turbo booster that allowed to use RCA (Yellow, Red, White)
the Turbo Boost plus added internal mem storage to save game progress. Save data was not built in to hu-cards
love the Archer t-shirt dude such a good show!
I got my boxed TG-16 from a place called Floppy Joe's in Plano Texas @1990. I only paid $20 for it, and later got a boxed Turbo-Booster for the same price from there. My collection for the console is pretty small though, with titles like Military Madness, Alien Crush, KLAX, Galaga-90, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, The Legendary Axe, Dungeon Explorer and Side Arms.
Ironically most of the games listed are on the NEW TurboGrafx-16 MINI.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheapskate Gamer I’m so excited for the release of the Mini. I preordered mine today along with a second controller.
I'm a big turbo fan - I'm glad you're doing this series! Keep up the great work love the show
Turbo fan fist bump.
FYI, you can't do co-op in Bloody Wolf. It's a 1-player game.
+KT Johnson (kidThunder) Exactly, that was the biggest let down to the game. Rest of it was good fun.
KT Johnson - Yeah, arcade version, which this is a port of, is 2 player co-op. I caught that too as I once owned the game for TG-16. TG-16 port of arcade Dragon Spirit was missing an entire underwater level late in the game. Splatterhouse couldn't begin to compare to the legendary arcade original. Check 'em in MAME to see the proof.
You can name any game on TG16 as a hidden gem, it was a cool system but everyone I know was playing Genesis, Snes or maybe even NES. Hell I think I was more familiar with Neo Geo because of the arcades. I missed out though because there are so many killer shooters on the TG16
Although never mentioned by name, The Turbo Express was featured and had quite a big role in the 1998 movie "Enemy of the State" starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman.
The more you know!
I borrowed my friends turbo grafx and I only played nectaris/military madness the entire time I had it. that game was addictive as hell. Almost bought a system of my own just to keep playing it.
MJR.... I must have that shirt. It also warms my heart to see that you're a fan of Archer.
thequirts “You’re ruining your life, ya idiot! And making it hard to drop a deuce.” - Pam
One of the few systems I still really want.. 16bit forever! you rock metal jesus!!
This episode almost made me cry! Thankfully, I got a TG-16 again, but I remember when I had my TurboExpress with my import enabler card so I could play Street Fighter II on the go. Ninja Spirit was amazing, and I remember playing a lot of Aero Blasters and Parasol Stars. Sadly, I lost everything when I left home for the Navy. Hopefully I can build up again, but wow, are these games going for a premium. And $350 for a Turbo CD isn't outrageous anymore (which is why I can skip it).
Ninja spirit came out on the Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Game Boy (Japan only) ZX Spectrum, Virtual Console. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninja_Spirit
NateTek Good to know. Thanks for the clarification.
MetalJesusRocks You can also buy it digitally for the PC on Amazon. It's part of the Irem Arcade Hits Collection. And it's cheap.
It had a lot of potential. competing with the Sega genesis and even the Nintendo nes..was a chore..but the tg-16 found a following and produced some great games..that are still fun to play today
Dungeon Explorer, Neutopia I & II, Legendary Axe II, Silent Debuggers, Bonk 1 & 2 are the absolute essentials everyone should have!
I love my Turbo grafx its just really had to collect for the system without just straight up buying off of ebay. Games are really hard to come by. Great vid keep up the great work!
Ninja Spirit saw a Gameboy release in Japan.
Bloodreign1 Glad to see someone posted this. I own the Game Boy version and it is actually quite a good port!
I know this sounds kinda odd but due to the slim western release of the Turbo I would almost say every game on it is a "Hidden Gem" outside of things that were ports on other consoles and MAYBE Bonk.
YourPalSal As more and more time goes on, I think you could safely say that the entire library when "Hidden gems". Everybody still talks about the Nintendo/Sega consoles...but the lonely TG16 is mostly unloved in the West.
In Connecticut we had TurboGrafx. However, it was expensive. At that time I was starting to game on the PC. I also spent all of my time working on my 1970 VW bug. Both of those were expensive hobbies. I am back to the console now. I got sick of swapping hardware just so I could play a game in full resolution on the PC. in retrospect I should've bought the TurboGrafx. As expensive as it was, it was nowhere as expensive as getting a PC.
MetalJesusRocks I don't think it's unloved, I think no one knew or knows about it. I'm very into (retro)gaming and have the age of 34 but I never saw a TG16 here in the Netherlands; not when I was a kid and even nowadays I never seen one.
Not even Europe's biggest retrogame online store sells it.
Do you know if there excists a pal version of the TG16? Cause when it does I like to hunt one down to make it my 16th console
I still have my TG16 and Express. Best games to get for TG16 is Lords of Thunder, Ys I&II, Valis, Raiden, Dracula X. I played the crap out of Raiden on the Express. Lords of Thunder has the most epic soundtrack ever; full blown metal riffs The best thing is all PC Engine games worked on the TG16/ DUO.
kutulu3 - You need an adapter to play PC-Engine on TG-16 though. The pin-outs don't match up without it.
This is great, I have really enjoyed my Turbo Duo since I got it a bit less than 2 years ago.
New TurboGrafix-16 mini by Konami
That's why I'm back here.
Me too
Best guest gamer ever please keep inviting him back...
The most underrated console ever - at the time games like Bonk and Splatterhouse and Pinball were way ahead of the curve the games were fast colorful and fun the controller was bad ass and the jewel cases were so cool
picked up a turbo graphx 16 tonight with 8 games, 6 in the cases. can't wait to play some Blazing Lazers when I got more time, super great shooter I'm surpised they didn't mention.
Thumbs up as always . I am going to start a petition for at least 2 vids a week! :)
Carlos was definetly a good guest on your show, you should have him back!
Seriously thanks all for digging this episode and the Turbo! I feel validated for all those years of preaching to people that this little system with weird games was worth it. Of course..not counting (as mentioned) the TV Sports titles.
You and the HappyConsoleGamer... the week of TurboGrafx!
The Analogue Duo preorder that goes live on May 19th is what brought me here.
i would love to own one someday. but would be amazing to find a turbo duo
That Archer shirt is amazing!!!!!!
My friend had one of these when we were kids. I wish I would've played it more.
My favorite game on the system is a game that never made over here in the west. Its a japan only hu card called Metal Stoker! its like a top down army tank shmup game with great controls. One button switches from free movement to strafing and the other fires. The graphics are great for the system and the music rocks!
Everything is pretty much a hidden gem for a system that is a hidden gem itself (much like the Sega Saturn).
+Jack Patrick Mostly agree, but it also depends on how popular the system was for certain regions as well.
TG MINI was announced at e3!!!
Man I never knew anyone who owned one of these and I always wanted one. It's hard cause I never find games out in the wild. Can't wait for the next video guys, thanks :)
ninja spirit was a arcade game first. Bloody wolf is more like contra. The pc engine had the best games though, It was a shmup lovers dream. If you get the everdrive for it you can play them on the us version of the tg16
The Turbo Booster didn't add memory or battery for saving, all it did was give the system AV out vs RF, which at that time, made the picture clearer and brighter.
I love these videos. I am actually very interested in finding a turbografx for myself now.
Ninja Spirit was my first T-16 games.It's a classic. Hard and really hard towards the final boss. Falling Ninja pit. You needed to memorize the ninja placement.
I have 2 TG16 consoles. the best three games are galaga 90, Splatter house, and Devil's Crush. All I have complete happy to say :) My Friday's get even better when I know a Metal Jesus video is out. love the show. Do you like GodSmack?
Thanks for the video with all the information on the system. I bought a base system back in the 90’s and a few games. Later in the 90’s when the company went out of business a local game store was selling base turbo graft systems for $5 and games for $1. I bought 4 used base systems and a lot of the games. NEC Technologies was 20 minutes from where I lived and I used to go there and play games before they were released in return for filling out a survey giving an opinion about the game I played. . One time they even gave me my favorite game for the system, Neutopia II. I still have the game factory sealed in the box. They also gave me some promotional material which consisted of 5 by 7 inch cards which had the artwork of the box of the game and a written description of the game. I still have these cards too. It is interesting to find out now that some of the games are worth over $100 now because I remember seeing those turbo graft game cards for $1 in used game bins at small game stores in the 90’s. Back then you could also buy a converter that attached to the Turbo Grafx that played PC Engine games. I bought a lot of those too for $1 back in the late 90’s at small game stores with used games...
The turbo was one of my fav machine! I wish i could get my hands on one.
TG MINI was announced at e3!!!
I do own one, blazing lasers(one of the most overlooked shooters), legendary axe I and II, bonks adventure, splattterhouse, bonks adventure
Went back to this after seeing the analog duo. Can not wait!!!
I had the PC Engine Express, the Japanese variant of the Turbo Grafx Express. They're very hard to come by now that are working properly as they, like the Game Gear, tend to develop a weak audio output issue with age.
For the longest time I wanted a PC Engine. And this was mainly to play Dungeon Explorer - as I loved RPGs back then [ I still do]. So, seeing the PC Engine there, brought back memories. Lol.
Ninja Spirit was in the arcades!
I have a Turbo Express. I found one last year for $40 with 20 games. Damn thing is in mint condition. I always wanted one back in the day and it feels like a dream to play on it!
Alien Crush rocked, haven't played the Devils Crush though. Some great titles you showcased, thanks :)
What a fascinating gaming system, thanks for sharing!
Neutopia and Neutopia II are two of the most memorable from this great system
I had the tg16 setup as a young man. CD and all. Y's book 1 and 2. Is the best rpm game ever
I miss my TG-16. Bonk, R-Type, and some other games that I forget the name of were absolutely amazing to play.
I'm now thinking it may have been a PC Engine I had. Though I'm not sure, perhaps it was a different model of the TG-16. Mine was small like the PCE pictured, but I remember it being black, and could have sworn it had the Turbo Graphics logo on it, man memories from when you were 6 are hard to recall.