If you're looking at that unattractive word and going "Turbo what?" then you may know the console better by its Japanese name, the PC Engine.
The machine was a kind of supergroup project between Hudson Soft and NEC, designed to ride Nintendo's slipstream as console gaming took off.
It started well too, but the world of blistering shmups, niche RPGs and cutthroat game dev licensing was far outside NEC's comfort zone, leading to a meek US launch and precious little footing in Europe.
Conversely, the PC Engine had sold like a homegrown beast in Japan, outgunning the NES towards the end of its life with some teeth-crackingly good arcade ports and a TurboCD expansion long before the PlayStation and Saturn made CD gaming the standard.
It wasn't until 1989, that the PC Engine braved America as the TurboGrafx-16 (not strictly 16-bit but so what). By then Sega had already marked out their pitch with mines and barbed wire, making up for the Mega Drive's Japanese kicking courtesy of the PC Engine. The touchdown of the SNES in a maelstrom of marketing and Mario only marginalised the TG-16 further.
All the same, it hung on in there until 1993 - late boosts coming from the TurboDuo with built-in CD drive and a flourishing catalogue of CD-only epics, and from sales of the system being handed off to new NEC/Hudson joint venture Turbo Technologies Inc. before it was rolled up into a mail order business.
With some top-shelf shooters, killer arcade support and all sorts of tantalising Japanese exclusives, it's still a choice bit of hardware for the retro connoisseur.
Order Games Master here and have it delivered straight to your door
Comments
8 comments so far...
Richyrich316 on 5 Feb '12 said:
Still got my little white PC Engine some excellent software on that little white box to
R-Type, Chase HQ, Bonk, Bomberman, Gunhead to name a few
sulli456 on 5 Feb '12 said:
I miss adverts like that. Adverts these days are so dull and lifeless, adverts back in the 90s were much better, like the singalong vitalite advert, chip pan fire adverts or the chewitz advert. Bring them back.
alan666 on 5 Feb '12 said:
ahhh the golden age of gaming, great consoles & truly innovative games.
toaplan on 6 Feb '12 said:
The PC Engine was such a "japanese" console that a Jap PC Engine feels more genuine and hip to me.
Still have and sometimes play my PC Engine... recently Splatterhouse, Bloody Wolf, Final Soldier, Ninja Spirit and Final Match Tennis.
I also have fond memories of the CD-ROM add-on and my Turboexpress (i.e. handheld PC Engine/Turbografx) console. I had to sell them, as I couldn't afford every console in those days.
Old Skool Gamer on 6 Feb '12 said:
That was when a console had quality parts, I bet one of those will outlive a PS3 or 360 anyday.
Even those old Atari 2600's are still going strong.
ensabahnur on 6 Feb '12 said:
Ahh i always wanted a PC Engine/TurboGrafx, it was just nobody ever seemed to get them in up here. A few places could order them but the prices were always just a little too high and the games would have had to have been a special order as well. Always remember reading Mean Machines reviews of the games with a twinge of sadness knowing that i'd never play games like Alien Crush and Super Star Soldier.
Of course i finally did when they brought them to the Wii, but it wasn't quite the same.
LordVonPS3 on 6 Feb '12 said:
This had the best version of OutRun going for some time. Sidearms was good too!
roynluc on 7 Feb '12 said:
I still have a boxed white PC Engine up in the loft. I need to do a scart conversion on it, as my PAL TV Booster was ruined years ago.
Awesome console, with the likes of R-Type, Sidearms, Bonk, Vigilante being amongst my favourite games on it.