You know your plumbers from your hedgehogs and your control pads from your analog sticks, but can you recite the history of the HuCard? How about the TurboTap? Can you spot a Super CD-ROM2 System from a mile away? No? Then perhaps you should go back to school with Retrogaming's TurboGrafx-16 101 educational guide. After reading through this crash course you'll be thoroughly versed in Hudson and NEC lore. You still won't be able to explain Johnny Turbo though.
NEC America really mishandled the American debut of the TurboGrafx-16. Marketing was weak, game selection was poor, and the original pack-in, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, was a joke. Add that to Nintendo’s illegal stonewalling of many developers and you have a recipe for failure. 3rd parties were reluctant to support the system in the US initially because of pressure from Nintendo, but even after Nintendo’s threats subsided they remained leery. Working Designs was one of the only licensees to continue localizing games in the US after the demise of the TG-16.
I never had a TG-16 as a child thanks to its high price and lack of Super Mario. Bonk's Adventure and its sequels were intriguing as was the TurboExpress portable system with its TV Tuner, but in the end I just never got around to picking the console up. My patience was rewarded over the years, however, as first Bonk came to Nintendo consoles (I still have fond memories of playing the Game Boy version of Bonk's Adventure on long car trips) and then later the TG-16 library itself began to trickle onto the Virtual Console. The final piece of the puzzle comes together later this year when Konami digs into the TurboCD vault to bring Castlevania: Rondo of Blood to the Sony PlayStation Portable as The Dracula X Chronicles. Yup, I think my TG-16 needs have been met after all this time.
Once you finish the introductory class, feel free to graduate up to the advanced level with these thirty-seven TG-16 secrets.
