Why did the TurboGrafx16 fail in the U.S.A
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2023
- The PC-Engine launched the 16bit market in Japan, yet failed to create a footprint in the west.
I owned a Turbografx console, but secretly yearned for the Genesis in the early days of 1990.
Reddit Link: / gamingquarterly - เกม
I grew up fairly poor, so I got my TG16 for $50 CAD when Radio Shack was clearing them out at the end. Final Lap Twin was a great dual-game cart, especially the RPG side. I also had Sidearms and a handful of others. Bonk's Adventure holds a special place in my heart to this day. My second cousin worked at Radio Shack up here in Canada during that time, and had nearly every TG16 game and accessory. He probably still does, 30 years later.
Nice!! I was taken by total surprise when I played Final Lap twin and saw it had an RPG side to it. I still play it every few years from start to end. Keep an eye on my channel. I am actually planning on doing a BONK series retrospective video.
What was your favorite thing about the Turbografx16? The least favorite?
I bought a TurboGrafx 16 brand new for twenty bucks at a Sears Surplus store. It was an open-box return that turned out to be missing the pack-in game (Keith Courage). I ended up returning it due to games no longer being available at that point. (it was long after the 1989 release)
I had this system back in the day too, it was so under appreciated.
Yup. Funny how now it is fondly seen as a great console by the retro community. Expensive too.
I went with the Sega Genesis in 1989 and I'm very happy I did. I almost got a TG-16 but a friend got his Genesis early with a copy of Ghouls n' Ghosts. When I got to play it my mind was made up. I asked for the Genesis for Christmas and I got it. With my Genesis I got Altered Beast, Space Harrier II, and Ghouls n' Ghosts with the promise that my parents would get me Phantasy Star II when they could find a copy. I wound up getting it in February of 1990 (I think).
I played Ghouls and Ghosts and Shinobi at my friends house before getting the TG16. But I wanted R-Type so badly, that I did not think reasonably.
Damn...you had one heck of a xmas!
Fascinating video :) Thanks for this! :)
I am very happy that i got a Core grafx mini when they released.
Had to import it from the UK for the simple reason that it was never available over here in Sweden, not only that, also the original console never got released in Sweden, didn't even know it existed until late in the 16 bit console era. To bad cause i think it was a great console with very good games.
Thanks for the video 😊👍
I wanted to get the turbo mini when it came out but it was sold out in various places I looked at. Now they are going over 250 bucks. I am hoping the market cools soon so I can get one.
@@gamingquarterly6353 i hope you get one bro 👍
It's funny. My favorite consoles/platforms are mostly just stuff I didn't have as a kid. I have mad nostalgia for the obvious stuff like NES, Game Boy, SNES, GBA, Genesis, etc. But, currently, stuff like the TurboGrafx, the PS Vita, and Arcade games are some of my favorites to play. I didn't have a TurboGrafx or Vita back in the day, and Arcade is just a matter of only being able to play what was actually in the Arcades near me at the time. So there's a ton there to play that I didn't have access to.
Nice to know you are open to systems that were not part of your childhood. The history of gaming is filled with so many consoles, accessories, etc. One of the goals for my channel is not only to talk about retro, but also that it may be seen by a new generation to educate and entertain.
I ran some of the Game Zones at Blockbuster and we did not rent Turbo Grafx16's. NEC should have focused on the Bonks series. I love the Bonk series.
It seems there is some truth to that story. I never saw them for rent either. Bonk needs to make a comeback. Try Air Zonk if you haven't. Great shooter.
I enjoyed the 16 but era, I loved my SNES and the turbo.
The Box office video near me rented turbografx games.
I guess it depended on where you lived in the US? Who knows. Several others have replied something similar.
The graphics on this system for that time was phenomenal good lord if Nintendo wasn't the cool thing to have because every kid had one this probably was the console that would have taken off had it had the resources of games to go with it. I still remember going to the electronics store at the mall with my dad and uncle afterschool at that time finding a Nintendo was quite difficult you before they made the decision to buy the Super Grafix System they wanted my ok. I know the salesmen at the electronics store was not amused at all with me he couldn't sell me on the fact that the graphics were so much better than the Nintendo. Even I was willing to sit and wait for the Nintendo to became available in stock I'm glad I waited I don't think I would have gotten my hand on a Nintendo had I gone with the Turbo Graphix 16.
I agree that better marketing would have gone a long way with this console. Nowadays, it is seen as a sort of hidden holy grail cause so few of us owned it during its original run.
We had a video store that had TG-16 games. No more than 10 maybe. Thats how I played Bonks Adventure.
You got lucky. I wish I had a store near me that I could have rented games from. Yet somehow I ended up with quite a bunch of games by the time I sold it off.
Keep an eye out. I will be doing a BONK series retrospective video in the near future.
Never had one. But did platly bonk at my uncles next door neighbors house. I thought it was cool. Im pasted already being the guy to have 50 or so consoles, and got rid of a lot of them. Next had one. And this makes me even more realize i dont need it now. Got a built snes mini with a tb HD with 43 consoles and 20000+ games. But i will say, Ys book 1 and 2 is on my top 50 soundtracks. Great game too. Never beat the end boss yet. Lol. Have it saved right before him on my Wiis VC 😅
Ys blew me away when I played it back then. I remember seeing a review of it on some video game tv show. I wanted a Turbo CD so bad but knew I would never be able to get my parents to buy one.
Are you me? I bought my TG16 for Rtype also. There were no other good games!
Great minds think alike!😄
I assume because nobody heard of it.
Marketing was crap.
Why did the TurboDuo fail in the United States that's the question. And why didn't they release it with the Supergrafx components. Also all the games that was on the Supergrafx should have been release on the TurboGrafx16.
One of the worst marketed consoles (possibly) ever. SO much potential.
@@gamingquarterly6353 After losing against the Sega Genesis.I think NEC knew they made a bad deal with Hudson Soft and wanted the TurboGrafx16 to fail in the United States. I always wonder why didn't they release all the good games for the TurboGrafx16. A lot of games they release played like shareware games.
@@orlandoturbo6431 Yup. Sure felt that way for the most part.
Turbo Graphx was my first console my mom bought me. My asshole brother had a sega genesis. Ninja Spirit and a pack in Keith Courage and Alpha Zones were my first games.
Interesting situation. Must have been some fun xmas mornings.
I remember seeing most of the launch games in the store for this machine and the selection was simply terrible compared to the genesis and super nintendo.
it was like Sega infiltrated the turbo marketing team and sabotaged it from day one.😆
The TG16 failed because NEC had no idea what the U.S. audience wanted to play, If NEC had paid attention to what was selling millions of copies on the NES they could have had a cheat code for unlimited money. I understand that Nintendo's exclusivity clause hurt everyone but Nintendo, but NEC often got past that by licensing through 3rd party companies that they owned (like NEC Avenue), except they didn't use their licensing to bring out almost any of the biggest hits. Imagine how much better looking, and sounding (while playing the same) games like Castlevania, or Contra could have been, instead we got JJ and Jeff based off of a couple of Japanese comedians (ken and kato) and Keith Courage based off a Japanese anime that no one in the U.S. likely ever heard of.
Ok so I wasn’t the only who got the TG-16 for R-type. I regretted my decision a few months later. I remember having Legendary Axe, blazing Lazers, splatterhouse (beat the game in a hour), tv football, bloody wolf, bonk and of course R-type. I was able to find one video store that rented games but it was when I visited my brother in college. I rented china warrior…that game was awful!!!!
Ah! Another rtype lover who got the turbo just for that game. I feel better now. You got lucky you found a store that rented them. I never saw any in Miami, where I grew up. Oh, and I agree, CHina Warrior is so bad...
Nice perspective fron an actual user from early 90's of the TurboGrafx-16. I've never hear about the TurboGrafx-16, and only knew about it during the heydays of Wii, when Nintendo re-relase on the Wii VC some of the most beloved PC-Engine classics.
Some time ago, Creative Cat Production relased two videos about why the TG-16 failed in North America, here, the first of the batch: th-cam.com/video/88kRqW8hQB0/w-d-xo.html
The secod video, a year latter was a kind of response to ShmupJunkie: th-cam.com/video/JJ1_KCLhtFc/w-d-xo.html
In summary, he didn't belive the change of the plastic exterior console, the name (whom I wholly and kindly disagree with this point) and the relative late relase on USA harmed the console. The change of exterior case it was because the average US-consumer didn't care about the size of the console, and the name was actually very confused (but I belive the name should be something like "Turbo NEC", "NEC Super 16", "Turbo 16", a more short and catchy name, not the name of a rejected Transformer toy). And the late realse, actually give the ability of choose the really good games to launch with the console, meanwhile, the japanesse gamers only could choose 5/6 games during the first months of the console in the market; even during all the 1988 year, the PC-Engine only saw the relase of 24 games in its original run in Japan.
CCP belive the failure of the TurboGrafx-16 it's more about the non-factor that was the NEC brand in the West to consumers electronic (NEC had have a vibrant consumer's electronic during the 80's and nice line of microcomputeres, the infamous PC-88 and PC-98 series that sold very well in Japan), the actually lack of a big name game attached to the console: it didn't have the franchise that were secured on the Famicom/NES, nor the arcade hits from SEGA, and Namco, the biggest publisher estranged with Nintendo, didn't relase nothing big until Splatterhouse, a very niche game. And the worst offender, the price. At the time, the console was a "kids sh!t" and not a "respectable hobby". The target market was boys under 15, and the parents are the buyers. An average parent when they saw the new Sega Genesis was a full package console with all the accesories, or his/her kid saw the Altered Beast game, it was a better package that a console with only one controller connection (a TERRIBLE and stupid unforgiven mistake from NEC part), an accesory to connect with the RCA cables to TV, and the CD ROM2, all of that could cost almost $.650.00! And the losses should be high, when NEC using the TTi brand, start to sale all the package for less taht $. 150.00 😅
The price was a mistake, but I firmly belive it was because of the nefarious agree between Hudson Soft and NEC. Hudson
received it's gains for each console manufactured, and NEC only obtain it's money until the console was brought to an actual customer. Another another source of profit for Hudson was the games sold on HuCards; even NEC actually PAID to Hudson as some kind of third party publisher when they relased games for it's own publisher label, NEC Avenue. So, NEC need a new source of profit with this venture, and the only source was the hardware (and the CD games, that were prevalent only after 1991, so, they sold the Turbo Tap to expand the number of players, the Turbo Tap to a new TV conection, and the CD ROM2. The TurboGrafx-16 felt like a scam to normal USA buyers. And you should remember what other console used this kind of agreement between a console dessigner and a consumer's electronic manufacture, The 3DO, The 3DO failed to grow because it's insane initial high price, because nobody from the consumer's electronic manufactures want to lose money with the console (it was an agreement between The 3DO Company, and Matsushita-Panasonic, Sanyo and Goldstar/LG, but you know the idea)
And the last, but not least, probably if NEC relased the console during 1991 in Japan, probably could be a big flop, because the economical reality at the time was very different and very bad for the average japanesse salary-man. It's initial success was the result of its time, something that is very difficult to replicate in other times and places.
Fuifff, what a long text, thanks for your video, it was very interesting, and you give another pice of validation for CCP theory.
Good stuff. I don't think the exterior was a huge deal, as you point out. But I feel it was a waste of time and money. Them not having third party and great arcade ports didn't help either.
I didn't watch those other turbografx videos since I didn't want to come off as copying them or being influenced by them when making my content. But I will check them out soon, now that I have done mine.
Thanks for the info.
@@gamingquarterly6353Rondo of Blood was too late to be relased in the USA for the TurboGrafx-16. Originally relased on Octuber 29th 1993 in Japan, the localization work should be enforced during late stage of development (july/august 1993): Voice acting, manuals, disc art... Konami didn't saw as a good idea relasing so late a game for the TurboGrafx-16 (late 1993/ early 1994), because from 1992!, NEC throw the towell in USA and begun the TTi venture with Hudson Soft USA trying hard to liquidate the excesive amount of unsold inventory. And the exclusivity contractual with Nintendo expire long ago to that point. Konami relased exclusive Castlevania, Contra, TMNT and Rocket Knight Adventure games for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis during 1992 and 1993.
@@moisesberducido1248 Yea, I think by that time, NEC and Konami knew it was a lost cause.