How Does the TurboGrafx-16 Compare to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo? - Retro Bird
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- I take a look at the TurboGrafx-16 and how it holds up in a comparison with it's top two 16-bit console competitors.
How Does the TurboGrafx-16 System Compare to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo? TurboGrafx-16 Video Game System Review Retrospective!
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So, I mispronounce the word "library" in this video as a few of you have pointed out. Memories of my 2nd grade teacher lecturing me come to mind. It's not how I normally say the word. Although, it does make me wonder if I ever made the same mistake in any other videos.
BTW Neutopia and Neutopia 2 are awesome.
you spelled "graphics" wrong, too - twice!
@@hhectorlector hahah
I didn't notice.
I haven't gotten that far in the vid but I'm gunna guess you said "lie-berry" instead of "lie-brare-ee" - I say the first one. It's an Ohio thing.
In a world of Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo , I was a TG-16 man who got the CD setup early by complete chance. The neighborhood friends and I would set up an “arcade” in a kid’s garage during the summer for a long weekend. People lined up to play the Turbo !
I loved my TB16, if they had brought all those shooters to the US the system would have been a success. The Japanese people got to enjoy what the system could so and at the time that is what I was hoping for. I remember reading about all the games coming out for the system back then in the gaming magazines and hoping those would make their way here and they never did. Thankfully I can enjoy those games now through other means.
I've never heard of the TG 16 ... I had the saga megadrive here in the uk..A++
@nasachusetts Gunhed :p
Had so much fun with groups playing the arcade style wrestling on the t16 with the multi-tap
I was barely aware that the TG16 existed back in the day. None of my friends had it, and at one point I remember I had assumed it was exclusive to Europe and Japan.
Back in the 90s...there was a company called Japan Video Games in the back of EGM.
I got SFII about 6 months before anyone else.
Still play my turbo grafx today! I love galaga 90
All right!
Galaga 90 is great! I still have it, Devils Crush and my original Keith Courage....but I sold my TG16 years ago.
I keep the games for sentimental reasons and they don’t take up much room, but I’m over collecting physical copies of games. They just take up too much room and cost too much for stuff I’m only going to play once in a blue moon (if ever).
Long ago I lost the need to fill up my bookcases with crappy old games.
the TG16 has one of my favorite games of all time, the "champions forever" boxing. we even had tournaments with championships and all that.
Actually the games were called Hu-Cards in the US as well for most of the TG-16's life. They were only rebranded to Turbochips after the Turbo-duo was released.
Of course they were Hu-Cards...
@@nexxusty there is a lot of misinformation out there about how they were called Turbochips from the beginning here in America. What OP is saying is that didn’t start until the Turbo Express came out, but everyone still mostly called them Hu Cards. Kinda wondering what the point of your comment was.
I got my Turbografx 16 back in 1989. I've always thought the HuCards are unique and cool! I didn't know anyone else who had one, so whenever someone would come over I would show them Splatterhouse, Blazing Lasers and Legendary Axe 2. They'd be impressed.
I had the original Street Fighter on the CD system. I loved that game. Blazing Lasers was one of my top favorite games along with Y's III.
I must be an anomaly, I had two friends who had a TG16. We used to swap games.
Yeah a lot of people didn't even know that Street fighter was on any home console. I used to tell everybody I played it when I was a kid on a turbo graphics 16 that my uncle had it was called Fighting Street.. Needless to say the controls are horrible now that I look back at it for the first Street fighter but if you could rattle off of hadouken they did serious damage in that game. Good times indeed lived being born in 1980,got to experience video games to the max lol
I really enjoyed blazing lasers but the TurboGrafx-16 was definitely the least of the 3 consoles.
During this time, growing up I had the NES, SNES, Genesis and TG-16. The TG-16, by far, had the most play time of all of those systems. I was the only one of my friends that had the TG-16, but all of my friends loved it too. It was always the go to console when people came over to my house. Nothing against the others because they are amazing, but the TG-16 was always my favorite.
I had an uncle and a cousin from another uncle who both got it Christmas of 89. That will forever be one of my favorite Christmases ever. Playing Alien Crush, Keith Courage, Military Madness, The Legendary Axe and Blazing Lasers was mind blowing. Also both got the Turbo booster which made playing on my cousin's 42 inch tv with stereo speakers hooked into it that much more amazing (that Blazing Lasers soundtrack my God!)
Then not long after my uncle got Splatterhouse and I was obsessed with it then a year or two after got Dungeons and Dragons Order of the Griffon. I think we spent a whole Summer vacation playing through that one. Nothing but awesome memories. Always wanted one but never got one (my parents opted for a Genesis the following Christmas because it like half the price. Not that I'm complaining because I love the Genesis). I have been singing the praises of this system since '89. Though at this point looking back at what stuff I played after the life of the Turbografx I'd say my favorite thing about it for me is it was the start of my favorite gaming company: Working Designs! It's funny I don't own one but have 3 games for it: 1. That D&D game for nostalgia. 2. Exile and Cosmic Fantasy 2 from Working Designs. I'm thinking about getting an Analogue Duo to finally play those bad boys.
I Remember seeing TG16 in toy stores when I was very young. I admit I didn’t give it a second thought next to my Nintendo. Today is a different story of course. A great console with great games. Thanks for the video.
I was so young at the time but I feel like I remember seeing it at least once myself.
probably the first time i saw it was at KMart after a summer of saving up for the Fighting System w/SoRII packed in ... the design kinda reminded me of the Master System, and i was a bit intrigued, but i was set on the Genesis. hmmmm, looking back, though, it would have been nice to snag thee Turbo when they were on clearance ... still trying to get the PCengine mini once/if they start up production again ...
@@RetroBirdGaming you don’t “feel” like you remember , you THINK you remember.
You feel cold, you feel pain, you feel sick.
@@briantaylorcloe7725 just buy an emulator. My friend has one with almost every NES, SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, Master System and TG 16 game on it and it was around $100 dollars.
@@Vichedges wait you buy emulators?
they are free they aren't sold I don't think it would be illegal for them to be sold
This is the system I always wanted but never got. Now as an adult, I've gotten to play the Bonk Games on emulation.
Ah man your face when symphony of the night is on the table Lmao!! Love it
Haha, I wonder what you all think of me doing that kind of stuff sometimes. It's fun for me so I do it :)
He sounds like being so missury as if he didn’t feel like to do a kind of review of it, just insane.
@@RetroBirdGaming well it got a laugh out of me
Haha that face
He reminds me of Odo. Esp. when blurred out slightly.
Wow, I suddenly have this sudden urge to play Lords of Thunder...
It's laggy on the mini, but plays great on a MiSTer.
My best memory of the TG-16 was going to the mall one weekend afternoon and finding a kiosk setup in the middle where they were having a promotional tour. I stopped by and played a few of the games. I recall playing Bonk's Adventure for about an hour or so. I finally pulled myself away, only to realize I had been wearing a Super Mario 2 T-shirt the whole time, They must have a good laugh about that one. 😁
Toys R Us and Children’s Palace, Kohl’s and probably most dept stores had demo systems where I lived.
They also had a VCR playing a video about the TG16, games, CD add-on etc.
I read game magazines back then too and the Tg16 got a lot of coverage.
I’ve heard people say it wasn’t advertised well but it was where I lived, which was Indianapolis.
I always thought that "Turbo Grafx 16" sounded so cool lol. But I was so used to just Nintendo and Sega that the TG just seemed like something to not even bother with. And the kid on the box always reminded me of Zach Morris from Saved By The Bell.
Haha. He's totally got that sorta vibe and that's probably what the marketing team was trying to key in on. Just looked it up: that show originally aired in August of 1989 so it's possible.
NEC would've sold way more systems with Kelly Kapowski on the box...
zack morris is trash
I used to play bonk's adventure at my friend's house house on a black and white tv. His mom wouldn't let us use the main tv. Still had fun though. We had a cassette of the song Rump Shaker on repeat in the background.
I was completely obsessed with the TG16 - I played the living shit out of legendary axe and blazing lasers growing up - wanted the CD player so bad but once girls happened, I could never save enough $ for it
Legendary Axe and Blazing Lasers are two very iconic games for the console. Most people with a TG-16 had them.
Damn girls! Get your priorities straight. There is Turbo Grafx games to be played.;)
That is a problem I would love to have had.
@@BigAL68xyz I believe that.
In Canada at least, the thing that hampered Turbo Grafx most was that the only store that carried it was Radio Shack. Exclusive distribution channels is not good for wide spread appeal.
Yes and I remember the store demo machines were setup with only 1 controller. I didn't even know you could get a multitap until about a year after it launched.
What! Not in a million years my inner kid would have bought an exclusive and pricey video game console at Radio "scrap". What the hell was that?!?
@@RottenMuLoT The pack in game was Keith Courage, it was ridiculously easy and had terrible controls. I remember thinking as a kid I can't wait to get home and play my NES.
Blazing lazers and Devils Crush are amazing. Some of the best games I’ve played on my Mister FPGA.
Impressive how good the developers were on this platform...
Those are great games indeed!
MiSTer is also my preferred way to play tg16 but the PC engine mini is pretty good for a emulation box . My most played Mini console.
The Turbo kicked all the ass back in the day! I would play Blazing Lazers until my eyes bled. One of my most regrettable mistakes was selling off my Turbo collection.
Ah man, that’s tragic! You need to get it back :)
@@MarMaxGaming I got the Mini it will do for now.
💔Nooo! I hope you get it all back👍
y's book 1 and 2 my fave game!!!!
Definitely a favorite among Turbo enthusiasts.
I played that, I think I rented the CD player.
Or it might have been on genesis CD, I honestly can’t remember.
It was OK but not that interesting IMO.
Adol kicks ass!!!
I bought a tg just for this game. Then I bought the game and found out it was cd only. Still haven't bought the cd addon some 8 years later.
@@RetroBirdGaming can we hang out? I just want to play all your tg games. I hope you have ese, i mean y's.
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones and Blazing Lazers were my jam! Also, the turbo switch on the controller, Galaga ‘88 port (Galaga ‘90) was AWESOME!
The only thing I concretely remember of this console is Devil's Crush's soundtrack. :D
2nd console I purchased after Sega Genesis. It was different but I loved it so much that I have 2 TG-16's, 4 TurboDuo's & a Turbo Express. Some of my top 10 games of all time are on Turbografx. I'd say try Vasteel, Military Madness, Bonk 1,2,3, Air Zonk, Bomberman 94, Gate of Thunder, Beyond Shadowgate, Neutopia 2 & SM Terraforming
In Arkansas, the TG16 was a myth we only read about in magazines or on TV shows. They *might* have sold it somewhere in Little Rock, but certainly nowhere else. We were NES/SMS/GEN/SNES all the way.
I was in Southern Illinois and one Christmas went to a big city. Never saw these, but I remember the Jaguar & 3DO, but they were crazy expensive
@@BeeHatGuy I was one of only two people I ever knew that owned a 3do. Wish I'd never gotten rid of it.
@@jhousdan I owned a 3DO. It was and still is a POS. I only ever played Star Control and Street Fighter on mine.
Most games on it were shovel ware.
@@jhousdan I had a 3DO and it was a POS system. I only played street Fighter and Star Control on mine.
When it was being blown out you could go into Best Buy and buy games for like 5 bucks. I bought a bunch and they were almost all complete garbage that I played for a few minutes and never played again.
@@Vichedges star control, wing commander III, Doom II, I owned a lot of cool games for my 3Do. I loved it
got my mini for $75 off amazon right before they got scarce and the price went way up. I mostly only use it for Blazing Lazers. That game is incredible.
The shmups on the mini are amazing. Other than Bonk the shmups are the system's only real selling point.
I grew up in South Africa, and the PC Engine was never on my radar. We got all the Atari consoles in the early 80s, but late 80s/early 90s were dominated by Famiclones and the Master System (and its clones). I mostly gamed on a PC because of all the games I could pirate for it.
In my personal opinion, the Turbo Grafx Mini is my favorite mini console from all the mini consoles out there.
Great video Retro Bird.👍
The CD versions of Ys 1-4 live here. That's all you have to say!
Word. imo the best versions of Ys 1+2, Ys 4. And the best ost for Ys 3. A shame Ys 4: Dawn of Ys is retconned in the whole Ys lore
@@matthewlumibao7057 I can't imagine playing them without that music.
Bonk and especially Bonk’s Revenge were great, unique platformers. AeroBlasters and Blazing Lasers were two of my favorite shooters ever. Loved playing Splatterhouse as a kid. And Dragon’s Curse was one of my personal faves for the system.
I never had the cd-Rom. So these are all Hu-Card games. I even loved that format. No clunky cartridges (although they were possible to lose, like a debit card or something, if you didn’t put them away in their modified jewel cases after playing).
Nothing but good memories of TG-16.
Dude, love your videos, they are amongst the absolute best in the retro TH-cam community. 👍🎮
Thank you my friend!
For the longest time the TurboGrafx 16 was my unicorn system. Always wanted one but never seen one. Don't even remember seeing one as a kid. While visiting a friend earlier this year I went retro hunting and found one and brought it home. I also picked up the Everdrive for it. No regrets.
I bought a PC Engine a decade ago to play Splatterhouse after seeing it in an AVGN video. Since then it's become my gateway into shmups, the Ys series and making me a diehard Castlevania fan. The Far East of Eden series is also amazing, with those games really taking my Japanese language studies to a next level. It has become my favourite system to collect for.
The most underrated undermarketed system ever
Totally. I had a handheld GT and the Duo both from Japan. GT was the best handheld by mikes until GB colour came along many years later.
Hardly anyone here in UK knew about it.
The Neo Geo Pocket suffered from the same problems. Never had a chance the way it was marketed.
I loved the TurboGraphics 16!! People forget TG 16 also had the first and only handheld game boy type that was in color (before game gear came out) and the games were able to be used with both they system and handheld
It was the Sega Nomad BEFORE the Sega Nomad 👌😂
It wasn't just any color screen, it was a TFT active matrix LCD (also backlit) that was miles better than the passive matrix, blurry, poor viewing angle LCD of Game Gear and Lynx (and later Nomad). It was expensive to produce TFT displays (the best tech at the time) , and the Turbo Express price reflected that, but the performance was excellent. I don't think any other handheld had a backlit TFT LCD until the Nintendo DS or a later revision Gameboy Advance, well over TEN YEARS after the Turbo Express was released!
I grew up playing the system in my uncle's house, it was so amazing, so wonderful so different, and I got to play it when I first released, unfortunately, I never owned it, but now that I'm gonna adult, I actually bought myself a duo r modded with RGB and region free as well.. This statics of the Japanese system is so beautiful, makes me wonder why I never was released over in the United States and I bought myself Rondo of blood ❤ I got to say, we really did miss out on so many great amazing, wonderful Japanese titles, my titles keep growing as we speak.
I helped make a game for it last year ;3
I did the graphics...
Oh? That's awesome! Do tell... I'm still working on similar lofty projects.
@@jeremiahkenworthy4003 Look up Jessie Jaeger in Cleopatra's Curse
@@Michirin9801 Cool! Will do. Thanks!
Turbo Duo R was my first import system back in the 90s 👍
This was my fave 16-bit system. The CD attachment was mind-blowing at the time. The first time I booted up Ys, I just sat there in awe, watching the introduction over and over.
TG16 had some WILD games. Like Bravo Man, Keith Courage, Klax, Tricky Kick. Games that may never see the light of day again but were timeless bangers.
The marketing was it's main problem. I was oblivious to the consoles existence back in the early 90's. I knew what a Jaguar, Neo Geo and 3DO was, but I always viewed them as super expensive consoles. However, the discussion was dominated by Sega and Nintendo back then.
It's a total must-have console if you are into shooters and arcade ports. There are also some great exclusives of other genres but those 2 reasons I mentioned are the biggest ones. I mean, there are more than 110 shooters for the console, like a 1/6 of the whole catalogue. Great console indeed.
A good chunk of those shooters are quality games too. There's a bit of filler, but still so many solid options.
I only ever knew one kid that had a TurboGrafx-16. And the only reason I remember it was because we played Bonk on it, and that the system took those cards.
I grew up in it's era. Had NES and SNES during those days. Never knew one kid with one. So weird. Funny video! Great information
I played Ninja Spirit, Silent Debuggers, and R-Type. Man those were the days. My brother in law would let me borrow it all the time when I was a kid. I got tired of my SNES after beating and playing SMW, Lion King, Mario Kart, and SF2 so much
All throughout '89 and '90, I wanted a Turbografx but I honestly had quite a lot on my plate with both an NES and a recently-acquired Game Boy. I saw the advertisements in game magazines and the games on display at my local Toys 'R Us. I never knew or encountered anybody that owned one, although a friend did get a TurboExpress for his birthday in '92 and I got to play a few amazing minutes of Blazing Lazers on it. When I started getting back into classic video game consoles in the mid-2000's, I was reminded of the Turbo and made an effort to pick one up. I don't regret it one bit. Sure, it's game library doesn't pack quite the consistent and versatile punch that the Genesis or SNES do but part of what makes it so interesting to play today is that it's all new experiences. These are games that a majority of people never played or knew much about and exploring them is like uncovering some kind of long-forgotten treasure. The Turbo has such a distinct style, graphics and sound. It is a real treat! Not very collector-friendly these days, unfortunately. Especially the TurboCD systems and games.
I'm glad you covered Bonk. One of my favorites of all time. It's sad how bad the turbografx did in the states.
I wish we had LEGENDARY AXE ON THE TG16 MINI!!!
Yeah, it should be there.
@@RetroBirdGaming any news on it coming out?😎
Hori Turbo Pad + Mister FPGA = As good as having an RGB modded TB16+CD. its close to the same price as the minis, so you can have your cake and eat it too.
I was amazed when I went to this kid's house after school in 4th grade and saw his TurboGrafx cause I had never even heard of it at that time. I thought Nintendo and Sega were the only 2 systems. I was blown away that there was an entirely different system with fun games. I used to always ask him to go to his house to play the "Turbo system". Good times.
Second system I ever owned as kid ( nes was the first ). Loved it! Splatter House, Blazing Lasers, Bonk and Bonk 2 were my favorites.
Back in my teenage days my friends and I were big eight bit Nintendo players. But as soon as I could graduate to 16 bit, I got the Sega genesis the first Christmas it came out. One friend of mine was waiting for the new super Nintendo to come out, but he did buy the TurboGrafx 16 because he couldn’t wait to get to the next level of video game playing. We played four or five different games that he had but he ultimately sold the system when the super Nintendo came out and purchase that one. But I did enjoy the bright colorful graphics that the TurboGrafx 16 had.
I remember seeing Bonk ads as a kid and thought the turbografx looked cool, but no one had it. I plan to get the mini when it is available to the US
Shouldn't be too much longer for the mini to release on the US Amazon. I've been hearing mumblings it should be soon.
Or just emulate. Bonk is fun as heck played it for the first time yesterday.
I have almost every console from 85-95 and I picked up a RGB modded and recapped Duo-R with a Turbo Everdrive and have like 60 cd games on silver lacquered discs. I must say it instantly became one of my favorite consoles ever.
Nice! Yeah, a recapped PC Engine DUO that's been RGB modded is the best way to get into the system if you want original hardware. That's what I had years ago that really got me into the system. I sold it though, because I became increasingly paranoid that the CD drive was going to break on me and it made me not want to play CD games. Glad to see you haven't let that happen to you!
I bought into this and not Sega or Nintendo. I loved it and had a whole team when playing sports games like football. They owned the shooter and RPG Genre.
I still have my original TG16 with the Turbo booster plus. It was the first console i was able to buy on my own.
From what I remember from my adolescence. Unlike NeoGeo, Turbo Graphix 16 had a full page in the Sears catalog. Like NeoGeo, I never played it, never knew anyone that had it.
It's great you used actual footage from a old tv because it looks even more beautiful! I consider myself lucky to have grown up with a turbo grafx 16. Ninja Spirit, Splatterhouse, R type, Bonk's adventure, Bloody Wolf, Dungeon Explorer, Legendary Axe, are all great games that I still love playing. In fact I probably like more games on turbo than genesis although obviously the Sonic series is amazing in every way and am a huge old Sonic fan
Turbo graphics are bright and colorful and also it has a very cool distinct sound
This vid shows Lords of Thunder a lot, which is an upgrade from the TG16. Also it never did a screen comparison of Devil Crush vs. Dragons Fury
He’s using an upscaler on a modern tv.
Neo Geo's soul crushing prices back then.....now its as if the grim reaper himself are setting the prices for NG carts.
Everytime i look at my TG 16 box I always wonder where the turbo grafx kid is now... he is pretty much the unofficial turbo grafx mascot. I enjoy the system but i find i dont play it nearly as much as my sega and nintendo far more often
Yeah, I was having that exact same thought about him. Where is that dude? He obviously didn't want to be on the box of the mini, unless Konami didn't want him on there....
He became heroin user an died in 2011 jk lol
I use to do googly eyes at the pictures of the PC Engine games in EGM and other gaming mags back when it released. The graphics looked way more advanced than what the other systems were offering and I remember thinking that the PC Engine looked so tiny and advanced in comparison to the NES and Genesis. Unfortunately, it never released in Australia where I am from. All these years later and I might have to finally go buy the mini to see what I missed.
I still like to play games on their original hardware as much as possible! However, the Turbografx didn’t have much of a presence in PAL territories. I did hear a bit about the PC Engine in the Retro Computer Cabin section in Computer & Video Games magazine and when the Wii came out, my Virtual Console purchases were exclusively Turbografx titles until the Hanabi Fireworks release of Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels and I did also download some Neo Geo, Commodore 64 and arcade titles after those were added to the service! One “friend” I had at college got at me for playing older games on their original hardware as opposed to relying solely on modern compilations and the Wii Virtual Console. He got at me for having a huge collection of consoles as opposed to only having whatever’s current! Just let people collect what they want to collect! You want to collect Canadian literature? Go for it! You want to collect wooden trains? That’s your choice! You want to own a lot of lesser known consoles like the Turbografx, 3DO and Jaguar? Get them! We are all entitled to our own choices!
My friend suddenly got a PlayStation 1 in 1995. I asked him why his notoriously stingy mom bought it for him, he said she threw his Turbographx 16 and broke it over his head. Ahh good ole 90’s child abuse.
TG16 started out strong and gradually withered out. It felt like a novelty because it was a game console marketed by a corporation. Today two big corporations, Microsoft and Sony, dominate gaming.
Bloody Wolf, Bonk's Adventure, Neutopia, Blazing Lasers, Side Arms, Vigilante, Ninja Spirit, and Legendary Axe... These were my childhood along with the Sega Genesis, but I preferred the TurboGrafx-16. I wish we would have had Rondo of Blood early on, because that is probably one of my favorite games now.
Great stuff. The turbo was $199 at launch while the Genesis was $189. Seemed like the game mags at the time focused on the RPGs when it came to the Cd attachment. A great console indeed, but probably should have released a year earlier in the states.
I still have my Turbografx 16 when I bought it used when I was a kid. The kid that sold it to me, sold it to buy a Genesis. Well, I ended up with a Genesis as well. And an SNES. I still only have my SNES and Turbografx for some reason. Can't recall what happened to the genesis.
I have a mini I've never opened. I owned a duo once but sold it in 2002
. My friends swore by it back in the day and all have find memories. I was an amiga nut then though. I would love to own another so getti g the analogue.
That analogue unit looks pretty dang nice.
It’s actually the incredible library of JRPGs that separated this system from all others
What RPGs? Or do you mean in Japan? In the It didn’t have RPGs unless you’re talking about the CD player.
SNES and Genesis blew it away as far as RPGs.
@@Vichedges PCE has lots of great RPGs, but the incredibles are in CD-ROM2.
@@jmssun yeah....the PC Engine....not TG16.
Back in the early 90s the TG16 didn’t have many games
At all and even if it did have an RPG the password for it would have been a mile long.
You guys keep conflating the PCE with the TG16.
@@Vichedges So much of PCE’s greatness comes from developers’ effort of pushing this underpowered system. So TG16 was already dead-on-arrival, as they’ve already given up with that monstrosity of system design and disrespected to the original work with lazy translations. So.. I never consider its existence
I always been intrigued by this console. Back in the day, there wasn't much info of it on the bigger mags (EGM or GamePro) compared to Genesis and SNES, but every game they review looks awesome at least for me. Beyond Shadowgate and Rondo just blew my mind honestly. I imported the PC Engine Duo and Rondo in 2004 for around US $450, sadly the console was stolen but I still keep the game, one of the most valuable items in my tiny collection. Great video! ;)
The console was STOLEN? That SUCKS. Sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you've hung onto the copy of the game all this time :)
I did the same when Robdo came out......My Duo died but thankfully I had it on the PSP and now the Turbo mini👍👍
Fun Fact The TG16 had a hard shelled case that held the system with the CD unit, and controllers. I have no idea where mine went.
I remember Splatter House being advertised for Turbo Graphx 16. That Ninja Spirit game looks really cool.
I got into the Turbografx in about '94, after having a few years to enjoy the NES and SNES. I had thought about the Sega Genesis at that time, but went with the super rare Turbografx at a local game shop as one just so happened to get traded in. It was less expensive than Sega and I completely fell in love with the game library!
TG16 was amazing, I had Sega Genesis and Sega cd at my mom's house, the. When I would visit my dad on the weekends we had the TG16 and Turbo CD,I absolutely loved the TG16 growing up and I did buy the Mini 👍 nice review, thank you
That's a pretty sweet setup you had as a kid!
yeah!! best of both worlds right there! ^_^ all the CD gaming wherever you be!
1:00 the kid got a platinum grillz hella cool
lmao I was looking at that
Hidden gem of a channel!
Castlevania Rondo of Blood in my opinion is the best CV game, except for CV3 Dracula's Curse on NES. I bought Rondo in 2009 on the WiiShop and I was so excited about being able to play that game. 100 percented it. One of the tougher games in the series. Amazing game. I would have probably benefited greatly from buying a TurboGrafx16 back in the day.
You forgot to mention that the HuCard game could also be played on there handheld system, so you only needed 1 library of games. I remember that Christmas morning we got our Turbo Grafx 16 with the shooter Ordyne. It was night and day difference to the NES. I loved that system.
I was mainly into SNES but I also had a TurboDuo. It was pretty sweet but I could sense from playing Bonk that it was mostly a supercharged 8-bit system instead of a true 16-bit. Loved Ys and the Thunder games. At least Turbo CD games weren't overfill with FMV titles.
I've had a TG16 system since 2000 but only own two titles for it as it's was hard to find games in my area. Now the prices for games are kind of pricey when I see them at CONs or in stores so I never really bought much but enjoy playing titles on a Raspberry PI and now on the TG16 Mini. SO much so that I bought a Turbo Everdrive so I can play games on my actual TG16 system, still waiting for it to arrive in the mail.
Yeah, Turbo Everdrive is a great option. Really popular and it's actually my favorite looking everdrive from a design perspective as well.
Agreed!
I was lucky enough to bypass all those hardware upgrades and get a TurboDuo back in the day. Loved it.
I had purchased the TG16 on launch and I purchased the TG-CD when it was available as well. I later purchased a Genesis and while we all realized the Genesis powerhoused the TG16, I still loved the console just because it was a lot of fun to play. Years later I was blown away when I found out how many more games Japan received under the PC Engine. After exploring most of the whole collection I can honestly say that this is one of the best consoles of all time.
Never had the system back in the day, but picked up the Mini version and it is my favorite now!
As a die hard gamer from the 90's, I remember that the TG16 was tougher to find in stores then its competitors. A lot of places just didn't carry it. And it didn't have as extensive a library or that killer app that would win over the casual fans. I personally have played a few games on the TG16 and it is a solid system. However, the competition was just better.
Yeah, the availability part of the equation is interesting because it's almost like a chicken or the egg thing. Did it not sell well because it had limited availability or did it have limited availability because it wasn't selling well to begin with?
@@RetroBirdGaming I think it was more because it didn't sell good. And NEC in my opinion did a terrible job marketing it. I never saw one single commercial or print ad for the system.
One of the reasons was Nintendo had agreements with stores not to sell competitors (it was difficult to even find Sega in the early days). Outside of a major city, the only place I could find TG16 items was pawn shops. Still hold a grudge against Nintendo for that.
Half-remembered from the back in the day, but the "killer app" was suppose to be able to play computer games directly with the release of the CD attachment, but a warehouse fire delayed the release and contracts were lost so that never came to fruition.
Love the TurboGrafx mini. It's the only one of my mini consoles that actually gets played while the others collect dust. Such a great selection!
I had a friend with a Turbo Grafx very early on, and I loved it. So when the Turbo Duo came out, I debated buying myself one of those or a Super Nintendo. I ended up getting the Duo thinking CDs are the future! I loved it to death even though there weren’t many games available. I regret selling it many years later because now it’s so expensive. But it brought many great memories! I did end up getting an SNES later also because my parents felt bad I couldn’t find games locally. So that was a win-win for a short while.
Great take on the TG/PCE. I had one as a kid and regret getting rid of it years ago. To that end the TG16 mini is awesome and I'm glad I picked it up last year.
Wow. You had one as a kid though!
@@RetroBirdGaming Yeah, I lucked out with that and although I didn't have many titles it was always a fun system. It was a great idea for the box to have a handle as well for transport. (on my bike!)
@@RetroBirdGaming Man, your channel is great! I subscribed after this tg16 video last week and have been going through older videos. Really like the retro videos, perspective and various questions posed. Keep it up!
My neighbor had a TurboGrafx-16 and I was always astonished by the color, graphics, and animation. The card system was cool too
Haha, love the bonk "swimming up a waterfall" sprite.
Splatterhouse was my Jam!
Better on Sega
This is a great video, you did a wonderful job with his. I loved the the joke where you were writing out the various spellings of ‘grafx’.
Hahah, that was a fun part to do. Thanks!
Rondo of blood is great in playing it on the mini. On the castlevania note, still haven’t played SOTN, but I have played the GB games and I love those.
I loved playing the turbografx as a kid. My favorite game was final lap twin.
That was one of my favorite games on the system too. So unique! Racing car RPG games are a very rare breed. :D
The CPU was 8 bit, but because it was clocked about twice as fast as it's competitors at release, it was able to perform most workloads pretty well compared to true 16 bit processors at the time. The reason it is considered a 16 bit system is because it has two 16 bit video chips. A 16 bit VDC and a 16 bit Color Encoder chip. It could only have a single background plane, but with line scrolling and other tricks like animated background tiles, it could simulate two background planes. It had the same total colors as the Genesis, but could display up to 240 colors on sprites, and another 240+1 colors for the background plane. I remember it didn't do as well as Genesis and SNES because it was a bit more expensive to get started (composite out and 2nd controller and turbo tap). Another big reason was that all the cool games were coming out for Genesis and SNES. Needed more "Killer" games. Having 2 action buttons only was a bigger deal then you may first think.
You're on point. I never had the sega saturn but wanted to try it, so I got one and love it.
I got the turbo grafx 16 mini and loved it. I really think it's enjoying an experience that you couldn't have when you were younger.
Totally agree with you! I had the same experience with Sega Saturn.
I was looking for a video that would basically explain to me what the PC Engine/TurboGrafx was, and you delivered. Thank you :)
My friend Ming had one of these. The games were great
I had the turboduo, sold my tg16 for it. Still one of my favorites of all time. Woefully undervalued.
I had one. It was legit awesome. I sold everything i owned to afford it.
I had TG16 and absolutely loved it. My favorite console during that era
Had it. Loved it. Was most popular kid in school for about one day. Nobody else had it or bought it, toys r us soon discontinued it. But man I spent many days and nights playing legendary axe and Keith courage. The system had more an arcade feel.. I also believe that it had two eight bit processors, hence the 16.