NEC's Turbografx-16 History Recounted

Thanks to GameSpy for its comprehensive article discussing NEC's classic Turbografx-16 console. The article explains: "The PC-Engine went on sale in Japan in December 1987, and was the first major console launch since Nintendo's release of the Famicom in July of 1983", and muses: "The PC-Engine appealed to gamers that wanted a more arcade-like gaming experience than could be offered by the aging Famicom", before the author concludes: "If you're a fan of 8- and 16-bit games and think you've seen everything the other platforms have to offer, you might just want to take a plunge into the Turbo, and discover a whole new library of classic games."

Comments

The best thing about the TG16

[vasqzr]

The coolest thing was the credit-card sized games.

The worst things were the 2 button controllers and unimpressive power of the "8-bit" console.

It wasn't fully 16-bit! The sound and graphics chips were 16-bit, and the CPU was 8-bit. I remember getting in to the biggest argument with a kid over this at Toys R Us. Sad, in a way.

Here's another article

Re:The best thing about the TG16

[hal2814]

The TG-16 was already failing to capture the market before this whole not-really-16-bit argument starting gaining momentum in the video game community. It was late 1990 before EGM mentioned it. My Wal-Mart had already stopped carrying the system at this point and Toys R Us already severly limited shelf space for it.

The system has a 16-bit graphics processor. It's not unfair to call it a 16-bit system since the 8-bit CPU passed most work along to other processors, but they probably should have been more upfront since bits back then are pretty much the equivalent of MHz today. Neither are a good indicator of how good the hardware architecture is, but that's what everybody pointed to when arguing over which system was better.

Really cool system

[dewc]

The TG-16 still has a nice fan-base. I think the reason was that it had games no one else would release at the time. It was, in a way, ahead of it's time. It had a CDROM attachment, decent graphics that rivaled SNES and Genesis and games that worked on it's portable, Turbo Express. It had games like Snatcher, which the Sega CD came out with much later, and had the first "FMV" games with Sherlock Holmes. There's still places like Turbo Zone direct that sells new systems and there's quite a few "rare" games for it that people still seek. I don't really know what it is, but it's just different from Sega's and Nintendo's offering at the time.

Re:TG16 / PC-Engine

[silicon not in the v]

a portable that played the same games as the console

Yup, a great feature, and I'm sure one which no other console maker will ever do again. It saps the game market. They want people to buy additional games for their portable unit to make more money. I do think it was incredible that they could make a portable with enough horsepower to play the regular games.