History of the Amazing PC Engine! [Book II]
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- The REAL History of the TurboGrafx 16 and epic conclusion to the History of the Amazing PC Engine! [Book II] So what was the real reason for the Turbografx commercial failure in North America? Was it really all NEC's fault? Or was there more to it? Did Sega of America and their brilliant marketing campaign for the Genesis (Mega Drive) have something to do with it? Find out in this comedic take on the history of Hudson's PC Engine and their journey to America, and whether the TurboGrafx 16 was truly a failure. Or if you've been lied to all along.
#pcengine #turbografx16 #shootemup
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For more than a brief, comedic take on the fascinating history of the TurboGrafx16 in North America, check out the in-depth interviews in this excellent article from Gamasutra, some of which was quoted in this video.
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TurboGrafx16 Complete collection as shown in the final chapter of the video is courtesy of Jeff Masser. Follow his account SamuraiGhost on Instagram here for more on his collection
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Check out www.sarumaru.com/ for all kinds of unique PC Engine goodies
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Some games included in this video:
Bonk's Adventure
Bonks' Revenge
Ys Book I and II
Ys IV Dawn of Ys
R-Type
Keith Courage in Alpha Zones
Legendary Axe
Legendary Axe II
Blazing Lazers
Legend of Hero Tonma
Street Fighter II
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood
Madou Monogatari
Bomberman 93 and 94
Legend of Xanadu 2
Shubibinman 3
Wonder Momo
Devil's Crush
Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Games:
Gaiares
Altered Beast
Golden Axe
Sonic the Hedgehog
Super Mario World
![History of the Amazing PC ENGINE! [Book I]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/PFlMZiCZwVc/mqdefault.jpg)
![History of the Amazing PC ENGINE! [Book I]](/img/tr.png)
I'm one of the very, VERY few who had the lucky to play PC Engine in Brazil. My aunt had a japanese friend named Taba, who was flying back to Japan and he gave us his PC Engine with some games. It stayed on my grandma's and everytime I was there, I've played, it was my "first console". It was about 1996.
Damn, those SHMUPS was BRUTAL to me as a kid! And of course, I couldn't understand japanese (I couldn't even understand english, but at least I could read menus and such for some games, like Bomberman 93).
My grandma played a shit ton of Bomberman 93, and she finished the game almost everyday without losing a single life! When she actually died in the game, she just turn off the console as she loved the remote bomb control and couldn't stand playing without it.
Damn.. Growing up playing things like R-Type, Image Fight, Side Arms, Cybercore, Barunba, Lode Runner, Space Harrier, F1 Circus 91, Final Soldier. It was brutal lmao! Most games didn't even have an password system or something, and since I couldn't play all the time, or leave the console on, it was almost impossible to finish those bastards. Funny thing is, no one I've ever met here know about this console, or games, or whatever, so I couldn't share or talk about it. Since it was in my grandma's house, it was quite rare for some friends to go there. I was very young and many of then lived way to far. Some people even didn't believed in me when I talked about this console. The luxury to have pictures was expensive.
I only rediscovered it again in 2004 when I've finally had internet connection and dig the info in the internet that this console was called PC Engine (I know this was printed on the console, but it seemed like an generic name at the time, and mine was the Core Grafx II, who had the bold CORE printed on the console, and I thought that was the actual name of the console). Then, I remember when I've found the Magic Engine emulator and damn, that was a moment of realization. Having the opportunity to play then again was great! But I STILL couldn't finish most games without abusing save states!
I still have it to this day, it's plugged in an CRT screen with an flashcart nowadays with some other retro consoles. I thought it was broken for many years, as a technician said to me. But for my surprise, one day I've tried an Mega Drive (Genesis) power supply and it worked! I was happy AF.
Wow! Thank you for that amazing backstory I love reading them. What an incredible bit of luck to end up with that system and games as a kid in Brazil. Even in the US most didn’t have access to all those games you had! I love that you still have your original system and games. Did you have a favorite game you played the most out of them all?
Literally, the only RUclips channel I watch content of over and over again, because no one captures it better. It doesn't hurt that I was a TG16 kid by choice. Played all the consoles at the time, but I knew what I wanted, and never regretted a second.
Better yet, we were lucky to have chosen the Turbo as nobody else around usually had one. We got to play Genesis and Snes games plenty with our friends as everybody had one or the other. Once I found local import shops to rent all the great games that weren’t seeing US release it was like a floodgate of great games to play. Would do it all again given the choice. I try to share what made them so good in these videos. These two histories were still my favorite to make and I’ve even researched them myself haha.
Wow you didn't disappoint with part 2, and props for the production values, there's so much work gone into this video! Amazing stuff :)
Thank you man. I won't lie all that editing was a ton of work, I can't plan that for every vide. But for historical and exposition heavy stuff like this it made sense.
Yes it really didn't disappoint as well too and I can say business is rough especially in this day and age.
Since discovering your channel and having a PC Engine Mini for a recent birthday, I've been utterly blown away by this console. I knew all about it at the time, but like many kids back then, you couldn't have every console and I settled with my Megadrive and SNES, but man, the PC Engine is proving to me that it could easily stand toe to toe with those systems in many areas. Great video, your passion and knowledge shines through.
Thanks! A lot of people I’ve met recently have felt the same way, and loved discovering many of these games they never knew at the time. It makes total sense you had the other systems. You really couldn’t compare the turbografx to them in terms of support and library in the US. Unless you were lucky enough to live in a launch city like I did and also have access to great import shops, it was slim pickings. I’m just thankful Konami released the mini as it renewed interest for many that hadn’t played it before or known many of the good games. I got to play all the great genesis and snes games through friends anyway so I was glad to have something different and share those games with them too.
Beautiful. Absolutely amazing. I had to watch it three times in a row. You can tell these are passion projects. Thank you, Junkie, for creating such emotionally-stirring videos!
Passion projects for sure, I put a ton of time into them. Not to cover every little detail of what happened but more for the fans and to get new players interested.
It truly sure is and you can only wonder about what was going on in these peoples minds of the higher ups or any business that seems too good to be true or launching a product. As you can see in other videos about things that failed or places from long ago that are now gone.
I watch and i am a fan of sega lord x but i give you your respect because you put time and childhood emotions into the production as well. When you talk about retro games and consoles you really take me back in my days of real gaming. I miss getting together with friends to compete with each other physically, face to face, shoulder to shoulder while talking trash to each other. Wow🤔 i miss my childhood gaming days, they were the best. Thank you so much for your hard work and keep the retro gaming coming. Im a mega sega genesis fan and turbographx 16 also.👍🏿
This channel is soooo good. Just checked on my cookie-free work computer, when you type in “shmup” on RUclips, “junkie” will be the first autofill suggestion. Congrats, well deserved!
Well, let's hope when someone types junkie I'm not the first too hahahaha. I'll take shmup any time though, I never really imagined when I decided to make some PCE mini reviews I would be able to do a small part in bringing some popularity back to the genre.
17:17 "Brokered a deal to get MK to TG first, denied."
*DAAAAAAAAMMMMMN*
That would have been masssive!
All of these denied requests are truly mindblowing, there was no risk behind them! free money!
Fantastic doc, love the animations.
Are you considering to do a video on how the PC-FX came to be? such a bizzarely designed system.
Playstation competitor with the same sfx chip as the 1987 PC Engine 🙃
I know right? I don’t think anything could’ve brought them back from the brink at that point and NEC just didn’t care any longer. But it certainly would’ve sold systems and brought it attention. The Duo could’ve done it well and it would’ve kept all the gore unlike the censored Nintendo release.
I actually owned a PCFX what a disappointment that was. I could do a video on it one day but I fear it’d bomb as badly as that console did 🤣
The documentary by itself was enough for me to watch, but those little skits made this video ten times more awesome. I loved them!
Those little skits were a ton of work too, just putting the 20-25min together was a task. But it was worth it and made the exposition more entertaining. I always wanted to do an episode of robot chicken so this is about as close as I'll get haha.
In retrospect, the 2 biggest reasons I did not purchase a Turbografx were, 1: The system initially was more expensive than the NES, SNES or Sega Genesis, back in those days I was just married and I was struggling financially. 2: Most of the local retailers in the area I lived in, that sold video games, did not carry Turbografx software; my only choice was to drive 70 miles to the closest Toys R Us, which did have a decent selection of games for all the gaming systems on the market. I took the easy road and purchased a SNES along with a copy of the Legend of Zelda. I do wish that circumstances had been better for me back then and had been able to purchase a Turbografx; it is a tragically underrated gem that deserved more love in America. Your 2 videos are amazing and give the TGX the proper respect the system deserves. Thank you for these videos.
Your situation was duplicated across most of the US, with most not knowing it, or not getting proper access to it. NEC didn't commit and they paid for it. It wasn't your fault you couldn't even find the games at local stores. So as much as marketing and such was a part, they didn't even get enough distribution of games out to smaller towns and cities across the country. Only so many people are going to go through that trouble so it's expected. At least now hopefully lots more people are trying out the games they never did before.
@@ShmupJunkie I am glad you had a chance to play these games on the original hardware, you do a great job of letting everyone know just how great these games were and still are.
Hard to believe you've only been at this for a year, you've outdone yourself with this one. These videos this a whole world of shmups that I would have completely overlooked otherwise, I eagerly look forward to giving them a go.
I've just kept trying to keep learning new things with editing and tricks as I make more videos over time. I can't do this with every vid, it's just too time consuming, but it fit perfectly for the exposition here and was the perfect chance to use it. I'm stoked you started messing with Nexzr and look forward to hearing your thoughts on it once you clear it, which shouldn't be too bad on normal. You'll dig it for the music alone, it has this electonic 80s vibe I dig. Like I'm watching an old 80s flick.
You know, that comment about the Saturn and Dreamcast selling less than the PC-Engine and still being much more fondly remembered is an extremely good one. Never thought about that. Kudos!! 👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Thanks. It's something that came up as I was researching overall sales globally. I was surprised to see neither sold more than the PC Engine overall, which is impressive considering the PCE really only sold in Japan and poorly in the US. It's all about the games, and in the end that's what we remember.
@@ShmupJunkie Accurate sales data is SO hard to get at. On the one hand we have reports that NEC never sold through the original 750k units they manufactured for the US, and yet in other sources we see as many as 1.7 million TG-16 units sold in the US. Then we see some folks adding CD-ROM system unit sales to total unit sales as a separate line item from Duo sales even though their footnote references a source that seems to include those numbers in with the Duo sales numbers already (though those numbers are for Japan only). Historical unit sales is just a hot mess and best guess is the best we can do.
@@brandonwalker9066 I hear you on that. In interviews with actual TTi members I read they had to sell off remaining tg16 units to South America so likely how they finally “sold through” the rest. 1.7mil seems far fetched for US numbers. And we have sega and Nintendo both claiming they sold the most in NA each with their own statistics haha. Hot mess indeed but not much relevant now aside from bragging rights.
I love my saturn and the imports
Been watching a lot of Turbo vids lately here, and this is by far my favorite. Man, this was so well done. I’ve been gaming since the 70s, and the 16bit era remains my sentimental favorite. Turbo, Genesis, SNES…I loved the all, and the TG16 was no small part of that. So many great memories ❤️
That's what I like to hear man. I get tired of all the one upsmanship. It was fun talking smack as kids at the time, but we still all played each others systems and enjoyed all the games. We got to enjoy all of them. It's hard to imagine missing out on any one of them, even if we have our own favorites.
I agree, my favorite system was my turbo duo.
This, the Compile history and your PCE Mini review are your best videos imo. They are just oozing with love and care :D
It's come full circle. I started the channel to do those mini reviews, and even if they are old school and my basic editing was crap, I had fun with them and people enjoyed watching. And now at one year I wanted to do the system proud given the new techniques I learned. I'm also still stoked a Compile history video for such a niche name/dev did so well. I was glad to get the name out there more too.
The completely dropped the ball in Europe, announcing several different versions, using both the turbografx (sans 16) and even planning on calling it the EPC Engine (Euro PC Engine) and never releasing either officially, and just dumpung the produced stock with Telegames who gave it away for pennies.
But they despisied the import scene it had created, putting several threatening announcements in gaming magazines telling people not to import (trying to compare it to piracy) and renaming PC Kid to something that's slang for Sex in the UK probably didn't help much either, Why the game was called BC Kid when it was ported to the Amiga.
Wow I didn’t realize that. I knew it had a big grey market and always knew it was very expensive to import for those that wanted it. Why even go through the trouble I wonder. You figure if they are selling units even through importers they are still selling hardware. Will never completely understand many of the bad or silly decisions, but at least in the US it was mostly poor choices and not malicious until the end where they just wanted out. It always fascinates me to hear perspectives from others on the ground where I didn’t hear the back story and this kind of info isn’t really out there. If I could ever compile enough info on the European side it would make for an interesting segment one day too.
They must be jealous that Japan can make better games than them XD
A video on what went wrong in Europe for the PC Engine would be interesting.
In Spain it was distributed by just one man. One man in charge of distribution doing everything by himself. In France it had a bigger following, even the Japanese games were reviewed in big gaming magazines such as Consoles +. And I mean not just in the import section, but as if they were European published, along with Nintendo and Sega games.
An uncle randomly got me a TG-16 one birthday when I was a kid. At first glance I had no idea what it was and quickly dismissed it...then I played Blazing Lazers.
And it was all over from there right haha. Blazing Lazers along with that RType port made me an instant fan. What an amazing set of early shooter releases to have.
@@ShmupJunkie I never really played any shooters on my NES but my uncle was into them. He got R-Type a few weeks later and my love affair with shooters took off.
Junk, I've seen your channel grow and been with you since day one. I'm very impressed with your work, determination and positivity. This is definitely your best work yet. Thanks!
Hey man! Yeah the old days, with my OG PC Engine mini reviews and headbanging to LoT haha. It was literally just a year ago but feels like forever. Don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm still having fun. Really glad you liked it man. I wanted to do something special for the one year of my channel and couldn't think of a better way than honoring the system that made me start it in the first place.
Nice, this is the reason I sold my complete NES collection but kept my complete TG-16 set, too many underrated gems!
I just wish I never sold any of them! At least back then. Now getting them back is a small fortune. The NES and PCE/Turbo were my two all time favorite nostalgic system to play and the two I will be playing most when I'm too old to still be any good at them.
@@ShmupJunkie Well, I still have a few NES goodies left like Guardian Legend but I also sold them to pay off my house and save on space. Another great thing about collecting for the Turbografx-16 is how compact everything is.
I’ve seen so many of the Champ’s RUclips videos that when I read his RUclips comments I can hear his voice
We’re defiantly making a response video about this in the future!
I was bummed you didn’t mention our channel since you referenced our video’s hypothesis regarding the role that confusing and expensive add-ons played in burying the TurboGrafx in North America....you even referenced the image we generated of confused parents going to the store to buy console for kids.
Still, I’m glad you made this. The TurboGrafx certainly did find its fan base, I mean it had a small, fervent fan base pretty much from day one. Sega did too. Neither was really very successful until Tom Kalinske and his marketing team took charge of Sega of America. I have some stuff to say about that too, because I think the story is typically told from Tom Kalinske’s POV (like that whole Console Wars book was practically a self-congratulatory autobiography, insofar as they relied so heavily on his personal testimony) and I don’t think SEGA was NEARLY as successful in the mid 90s as we’re led to believe. Kalinske was only with the company for a few years, long enough to take the credit, and short enough to escape the blame if you know what I mean.
Anyway, we’ll definitely have to put something together, but probably not until later this year....and we’ll make sure to highlight your video and channel!
Hey man, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. And honestly, all I did and showed wasn't directed at your video at all. It wasn't until you pointed it out in my first video and I went back to watch yours, that I saw many of the references. A lot of those points in terms of confusing marketing and NEC's mistakes have been written about over the years so many times, that I was honestly referencing the overall accepted opinion in general and definitely not targeting your video. In fact I really enjoyed yours and they were all good and valid points (which I did say in the video btw). While not being a Sega expert myself, my take is mainly that being there and growing up around it and with it, it was pretty clear how well marketed Sega was, and how the majority of all my friends simply flocked to them and their system. Heck their marketing and games got me hyped too and I was always excited to play over at their place too. I don't think had anything NEC done differently aside from having an equally amazing campaign and going all out would have changed it. It simply would have made them moderately more successful versus just a commercial flop by never committing to any particular strategy. A much better NEC staff could have at least insured some third party support, but I give Sega all the credit in the world. NEC was tentative and Sega went all out. I totally respect your and other's take on it btw, and I'm sure I'll enjoy anything you put together in the future too, as I enjoyed your first one.
However! I am always about hooking up fellow tubers, and while I don't know if it was appropriate to directly mention your video, as I honestly wasn't making a counterpoint to it directly, I like your idea of referencing your video as a counterpoint or alternate perspective. So I am going to edit my top comment now and put in a link to your video there as I am glad to. I don't know how many people actually look at and click on those things, but I can at least include it.
In the end my main goal is getting new people excited about the system and games while also making a fun nostalgia video for fans. These videos are certainly not thorough historically, I had to cut out tons of content from my script just to keep it entertaining and watchable. Please do hit me up if/when you do make something as I will surely enjoy watching it. And it won't bother me in the slightest if you tear my perspective apart haha. This is all from my anecdotal lens of growing up during that time for me personally.
@@ShmupJunkie I’ll definitely hit you up, but I’m not going to tear anything apart haha
To me this is all just really fun to talk about, because like you, I really love this time period in videogame history. For me, it was the best, and I still sort of think the seeds of the best possible future are contained within this same past. I also think there are important lessons to be learned here for all would be marketers for videogames, chiefly, as you say....its about the games stupid. You give people the best product, at the best price, without subterfuge or chicanery.....a real service....then people will keep coming back. Nintendo wasn’t as flashy or aggressive as either TTI or Sega in North America but theyve always delivered the highest possible quality games and consoles at a highly competitive price. They’ve survived everything because of that, I think.
Anyway, we’ll definitely talk about this video down the road!
I agree on the SEGA thing. As someone who lives outside of America yet has friends all over the world, it is rare to see SEGA mentioned to the height of their supposed popularity. I'd be looking forward to a collaboration between both your channels by the way. Bringing attention to an era now lost and left in the magazines we used to read as kids, you bring up excellent stuff.
@@dr_ubo it really was an amazing time for videogames
Fun times great work my dude! Adding all the animation and stuff is really impressive
Thanks man, super time consuming of course. Only gonna do that for special historical stuff like this. No way can I do that on every video haha
I actually knew 3 guys in grade school besides myself who had turbografx systems. Then as soon as the marketing/hype for Sonic came about, they traded in their consoles to get a Genesis. I kept my Turbo and bought their used turbo games from them for cheap.
Sounds like you got hooked up, their loss was your gain. That's really rare to know that many with one. I lived in a big city and of all my friends I was the only one.
"What was cool in Japan was not here" How things has changed since that time.
I always loved Japanese games and anime, so the TG16 felt like the right console for me.
Great video by the way !
Thank you. I think once they gave american kids a chance, they saw we jumped all over it just like other countries. They didn't know better at the time.
That about sums it up, all right. I know, that as an American gamer, the TG16 certainly had an impact on my life that I'll never forget.
I had a script three times longer haha. There is so much you want to say and do, but ultimately I chose to cut a lot and keep it short and fun. Cover the overall big stuff and not sweat every detail. You and I were the lucky ones that did have it in our lives, see all the ads, and know the good games that existed. For many others it was non existent and they didn’t even get the chance.
@@ShmupJunkie That's pretty sad, if you ask me. I will say, as far as that impact on my life, that was the console that introduced me to Splatterhouse. You know what happened after that.
I was the only kid I knew that bought one in high school. A few years ago, I found out one of my coworkers got one back then too. It was cool to talk about the system and games with someone who actually had it. I sold my original TG-16 to get a SNES because of the lack of games and I didn't want to buy the expensive CD add on. A few years later, I got into import gaming and got a used TurboDuo at a gaming store and started getting a lot of the Japan exclusive games that were so cool.
Man... This was a great 2 part series!
I gave my original TG16 to a buddy in the 90s with about a dozen games ( all good ones) and he left them at his old house when he moved 😣 ... I wish I would of kept it but in my 30s I bought a tg16 and a couple of the titles back along with an everdrive, then bought a core grafx, super cd-rom2, a supergrafx and a superSD system3. Ive been having fun making repair / recap / jailbar fix videos lately on these nec systems.
I knew most of this stuff in the video but seeing it all visualized and narrated and timelined like you did with the facts and numbers sprinkled in there really helped grasp the story and fate of the system.
I had no clue mortal kombat on the TG16 was almost a thing. Even if it was a bad port it would of been so damn cool to see MK on the TG16, if they would of done that and also released SFII CE along with the avenue pad 6 button controllers here in the US I think it would of grabbed a decent chunk of system and game sales if they advertised right. SFII on pc engine never fails to amaze me how good of a port it was!
Anyway... I spotted so many good looking rpg clips in your vids I meant to ask about but lost track. When I fire up the everdrive I tend to play the known stuff I already played instead of trying new games.
So many cool looking shooters!
Sadly I sucked at shooters as a kid and still suck at them now so never make any progress and give up. I want to get into lords of thunder but usually give up after 5 minutes ofmaking no progress. Its like theres so much going on onscreen its hard for me to focus and dodge all the incoming shitstorms of bullets.... Any noobie friendly shooters you would reccomend?
Great series! Subbed
Dude that sucks. You just gave him all that and he left it to rot. Who knows what happened to them. He can kick himself now for what they may have been worth, but sucks either way. I honestly am not great at working on these systems and don't trust my soldering skills to do recaps and such, though I wish I did. I actually need to send in my Express for some maintenance as it's having minor issues. I don't risk messing with it myself. It's very cool to have enough practice to do it on your own.
By the time MK would have been a thing, it could have been a Duo game, so the port could've been pretty bad ass if it happened. There's lots of stuff I cut and couldn't even mention either. Other SNK ports like King of Monsters series could've been a thing too and was shot down. The good relationship Victor Ireland and working designs had with them was one of the bright spots, and the RPGs they ported to the system in english was much appreciated.
Most of the good RPGs were on CD and not hucard, but if you ever get an SSDS3 or similar you can play them. I had clips from Cosmic Fantasy 2 (which was translated by working designs) and Legend of Xanadu 2 in some of these clips.
There are definitely some beginner friendly shooters on the system. I mentioned one, Star Parodier in my Shmups for Beginners video just recently. But some other easy ones would be Coryoon which is also a really cool and cute game. Cybercore isn't too bad either. Both of those are hucard so you can play them on the everdive. Spriggan is really cool and not very hard, as well as Sylphia, both by Compile. But those are both CD games.
@@ShmupJunkie
I recently told my buddy what some of them old games are worth now and hes kicking himself in the ass. He had a rough homelife back then so I understand him just needing to get out of his parents house.
Anyway... I do have a ssds3 and a supercdrom2 so will check out some of those shooters,rpg's, and some of your other videos.
I just recently found out about cheats that can be patched into the rom files from the everdrive forum and going to be checking that out soon.
I wish I had a turboexpress or gt, i remember drooling over them years before the game gear came out.
Sadly even the non working ones on japan auctions go for high dollar
@@LameGaming Yeah at this point the express is for nostalgia. It’s really nice with the lcd upgrade. But they are just too pricey unless you collect or have nostalgia for it. I was excited for the analogue pocket as a great portable alternative for classics but it quickly became impossible to get.
RIP Hudson. Gone to the IP graveyard of konami to never see the light of day again.
At least they gave us the mini recently, so we will always have that. But it's true I don't expect too much from Konami these days. They were a different company when they combined with Hudson and intended to use them (and did for a while). But things change, as is often the case.
They literally produced and shipped the Turbografx, Coregrafx, and PC Engine mini’s not that long ago. Something I thought would never happen.
Hopefully Konami going "Fuck it, we'll let other studios use our IPs" will lead to something good, but seeing as the latest result of that is Contra: Rogue Corps I'm not getting my hopes up too high.
@@darkridearts yeah... I picked up a tg mini from japan amazon early after release. Then rumors it was hacked.... Here it is almost a year later and not a peep. A hacked mini would of been all i needed but it didnt happen so ended up buying a supergrafx, a core grafx and a supersdsystem3 😣😜
oh believe me you'll find Johnny Turbo on twitter and he's told stories about trying to get some of the Japanese games over here (the big one of course was Rondo) but Japan said no... and yet they wonder why the system didn't do better over here?! great to see the conclusion of this retrospective!
I follow him from my IG account, he doesn't post much, but I did read some articles with his interviews, so I got the gist of it. It reminds me of that song, they tried so hard and got so far, but to Japan, it didn't even matter haha. I could've used that if it wouldn't hit me with a copyright claim.
@@ShmupJunkie LOL! I did enjoy some of the artwork and animations in this episode, pretty funny stuff! Yeah it was neat to get some insight from the man himself about trying to get some of those Japanese-only titles over here... maybe if they'd at least tried with more of them the Duo would've taken off, or at least been able to keep up with SEGA and NIntendo?!
I can only imagine what would have happened if it DID happen; just imagine the original dub of C:SotN but somehow a hundred fifty times worse, given the quality of overdubs in the early 90s. Game itself would still be baller... what sort of YT Poops could netizens have squeezed from that potential?
@@NotABot55 oh that's a great point! imagine what the US dub of rondo would've sounded like (when there have been other PCE games with terrible dubs like I think bloody wolf was one? there was some run and gun that had some bad voice work but I forget which)
Again brother, so godamned good! As I said before this is one of the best mini-docs I've ever seen. So spot on, so genuine, it has true heart! And I love how you incorporated the two Y's Book 1+2 scenes to tell the story. You really captured the quintescence of the Pc-engine/Tg-16 and what made it special. This must have been hard work, but thank you so much for doing it. It really took me back and put a smile on my face! Truly awesome!
Legend of Heroes: Dragon Slayer intro music is just timeless
When I needed a beautiful melancholy song I knew exactly what to use!
I've literally just ordered a PC Engine Coregrafx because of your videos! It's RGB modded, has a region switch so I can play Turbografx games, and also has a "jailbar fix" too. I decided to go for the core rather than a Duo due to the huge price difference plus reliability concerns with the CD units, I figured I could always add a CD unit later or just buy one of the Terraonion adapters and load all the CD games on an SD card. Either way i'll soon be able to enjoy a proper PC Engine for the first time! I've also scored "Barunba" for a good price, it looks like an interesting shooter, hope its a good one!
Wow, that's quite a compliment. And I hope you really enjoy it. Definitely find a way to play the CD games too, as it's such an incredibly important part of the library and the majority of it. But there are still plenty of cool hucard games to enjoy too. An SSDS3 is a great route to go and you've got a perfect little console to connect to it. Barunba is ok, it's a very basic and early shooter. Nothing to write home about but not a stinker or anything. And it's cheap! PC Engine games can become really pricey to collect so an everdrive helps a lot. Not many gonna go pay 4-500 bucks for some of those games. Some must plays like Soldier Blade are even really pricey. If you do get a flash cart just spring for the SSDS3, that way you get the CD games too. You gotta play some Lords of Thunder and Sapphire sooner or later. 🤘
Congrats on the coregrafx! I too just recently got one and did full recap/jailbar fix on it. Definately get a superSDsystem3.... There is a huge japanese cd library!
@@ShmupJunkie I will probably go for a SSDS3 at some point down the road, I figured i'd stick to Hu Cards to begin with and go from there. Besides Barunba i've also scored Bonk's Revenge, Darius Plus, and Dragon Spirit. I definitely want to get Solider Blade when funds allow! I have Lords of Thunder on my Wii, i've never played Sapphire though. What would you say are the best Hu Card games to look out for?
You're the best, Junkie. I never had or even heard of a Turbogfx-16 as a kid and now as a 32 year old I'm completely in love--especially with Compile shooters. Even got a good friend of mine to play Blazing Lazers and Space Megaforce. Thank you for sharing the fun!!!
You're welcome man, that's why I'm mainly doing this. To spread the love for the system and games, and for shooters in general, and get more people excited for them. So it's always good to hear that my hype is working!
Normally I like to push back about a lot of the Sega history out there, as Tom Kalinske turned himself into a folk hero with that Console Wars book that has had a lot debunked in it. However, in this case, it's very true that NEC just had no clue how to present themselves in the west.
I think the Turbo is particularly confusing for a lot of people, because those of us that love it are so steadfast about its great arcade-style games, and those have gone on to become these collector pieces. Yet, at the time, most of us would most likely have taken any console we could get our hands on and find reasons to love it. To the mass market, though, it was all but non-existent in its day outside of major markets. Those great arcade shooters and platformers were starting to fall out of vogue as longer form PC-style content was on the rise, and fighters in the arcade scene replaced most everything. Those beautiful games weren't fitting in quite so well after 1991, and it took more than a decade for the game scene to start to really appreciate it for what it was.
You take that lack of cutting-edge excitement, then take a great game like Dungeon Explorer, give it that horrifically generic title, and THAT western cover art with no quality marketing to get eyes on the gameplay... who was gonna look at the cover art of those games and get excited if they weren't already a household name, when the box art for Golden Axe or Ghouls n Ghosts were right there?
I guess what I'm saying is that just everything was wrong with the Turbografx aside from the best part; the games themselves. I feel fortunate that I happened to know someone who got one for Christmas so that it got on my radar and became a big part of my 16-bit life. I probably wouldn't have truly discovered it on my own, and my life would be less rich for it.
Killer videos.
You're likely very right about the Tom Kalinske thing and his influence, I have been hearing a lot including today from others too his complete influence may be exaggerated. But that is what great marketers also do, so no surprise there haha. In the end, whether it was him, a great staff he put together or that was there, or maybe unsung heroes, I very vividly recall how insanely popular and effective those ad campaigns were after the first year. So many people were jumping on the sega bandwagon because it was cool in my age group and many of my friends. Not just the genesis does ads, but the scream ads, the really funny sports ads they kept making with the big name stars, it was very prevalent. NEC had nearly nothing going on by comparison. And they pushed and supported the right games for the time that got people excited, with the right cover art... theirs was the best overall. They made the right connections, went after the right age groups and the older crowd instead of going for younger kids and nintendo. They could have made any system succeed and sell well despite any hardware failings it may have had. That's why I said in the video, despite all of NEC's screw ups, it was really about how well Sega killed it. Maybe not right out of the gate, but by the second and third year they were rolling, especially with the price drop and Sonic etc.
I was honestly glad to have the turbo since I enjoyed the games so much, and I got to play all the great sega games with friends. And eventually SNES. If I hadn't had one, I would have missed out on the games as well.
Excellent job mate, I thoroughly enjoyed this. A lot of memories came flooding back around NEC, whose other products I supported for a while back in the late 80's and early 90's. I heard a lot of rumours back in the day, being part of the idustry back then, so it's nice to finally understand the real reasons for the console's financial loss. For me though the PC Engine is a winner regardless, an innovation way ahead of it's time, along with many of it's associated peripherals, not forgetting the DUO-R (my current grail) and with an excellent and timeless catalogue of classics (Splatterhouse especially of course). For me the TurboGraFX16 was always out of reach back in the day due to excessive import costs and the difficulty to get games, BUT it was always the console I wanted for the longest time (until 2020!) and am now estatatic and proud to own. Thanks for the memories, excellent edit.
I don't know how expensive it must have been trying to buy one or the games in the UK, but I imagine quite a bit. Not for the average joe on the import market. It was even a little pricier than usual here in normal stores. I'm just glad you have one now and can enjoy more games down the road once you nab a good everdrive for it. If you ever streamed splatterhouse one day I would try to be ready to watch in advance and maybe provide some tips. I just hope you're feeling alright these days buddy.
@@ShmupJunkie Cheer dude. I grabbed an Everdrive from our mutual friend :0), last year and do enjoy playing on it from time-to-time. I need to reorganise the gaming setup again (a major ordeal for me LOL, it takes about 8hrs to strip and recable, too tired for that kind of effort right now) so I can enjoy it more often and when ever I want. I think the controller might be the issue as I recently saw a video and it doesn't seem to jump as high for me. I have a reliable local source who I've brought a few Hue Card games from, who reckons he can get me a new unused original controller so working on that and Ill let you know how it goes.
Wow. One of the best TG vids on RUclips. Great job! I’ve been with TG almost since it’s inception (in the US). My dad bought me the system and Blazing Lazers. 8 yr old me was awestruck. And it really speaks to the quality of the games that I still play them to this day. But even back then, I knew things weren’t quite going to well, seeing the system going from NEC to TTI and ultimately TZD. I enjoyed every minute of it though. Look forward to more from you! And thank you for giving the system the justice it deserves.
I'm really glad you found me and this channel. This was part two of the series, in case you missed the first one, which focused on the PC Engine and was also really cool. It's good to meet and find new Turbo enthusiasts that had one growing up. We definitely knew things weren't going well as less and less games started releasing. Once the Duo came out I didn't think too much of it, as I was playing everything from the import stores and renting them too. But right in between I was starting to wonder how much longer I can go without any new games releasing. Blazing is what got me fully into wanting to play many more shooters, so I owe it and Compile.
This is an awesome video. I've been enjoying learning more about the console history and this is the most in depth history I've seen for the PC Engine/Turbo. While the Turbo 16 Mini price is through the roof through second hand dealers you can now get the PC Engine mini on amazon for around $120. It's an awesome console for those like me who didn't get to experience it in its day.
I'm really glad you enjoyed the two videos as they were so great to make. It's not the most popular subject, but I wanted to do it best I could and hope they survive historically for future viewers. It's also cool to still see the mini occasionally available on amazon japan, as I thought it was pretty much sold out everywhere by now. They keep getting small runs back in stock. Whenever people are looking for them I point them to amazon jp first. And it's a great gateway into the games that could eventually lead to exploring the library even farther via emulation or some other ways.
In France, we were blessed with a semi-official release. A company was formed in order to officially import japanese PC Engine consoles, (and subsequent systems) adapt them for french specifications (RGB Mod, power supply, instruction manual translation, ...) and put them to the market. This allowed us to enjoy the original consoles and games (though, not localized), and the system to have a pretty good success here. It was a very beautiful system, fruit of love and passion with a tremendous games library. Too bad it did not do too well outside of Japan. Things might have been quite different if it was.
It created quite a following in France, as I still have some friends I chat with there that are big fans of the console. It seems many Japanese companies aside from Nintendo were good at getting in the way of their own success, at least NEC and Sega. Nintendo really had the monopoly on properly running their international business despite being conservative themselves. It really took Sony coming along and smacking everyone down including Nintendo to force them into the next century in terms of running a competitive global operation. The 90s was still the Wild West of gaming.
@@ShmupJunkie France was quite the exception back then, because while the NES somewhat struggling, Sega had their own nice little succes with the Master system that was quite popular here. The NES was pretty hard to find because of distribution problems, and it was the same for the games (it took months just to get Zelda or Zelda 2 widely available in stores). It wasn't until Bandai took over distribution here in 1989 or 1990 that the system could properly settle. This left a wide open space for other systems to fill, and Sega happily took the job. This is also probably why when the first PC Engines were unofficially imported in 1987, it made such a strong impression. This is a fascinating time period to study, as you mentionned. Everything was still to be made and the competition was fierce, which means more great games for us !
nes was my first console as a young kid, then genesis. we got a hand-me-down turbografx from our neighbors when i was still really young (maybe 7 or 8?) and i was absolutely hooked. it quickly became my most played system at that time. keith courage, r type, space harrier, dungeon explorer, neutopia, devil's crush, outrun... even tv sports hockey and world class baseball! i have fond memories of playing all these. thanks for the trip down memory lane, i subscribed real quick.
You're welcome and I hope you enjoyed both of these. I really wanted to make something for the fans. NES was my first too and still a nostalgic fav, it really had more classics than any other system I can think of. That and the turbo were always my go to systems. It's cool you got that system back then, as had you not, who knows if you ever would have known or thought to ask for one down the road.
TTI was denied the best looking, best animated and _only_ true version of SF2 Champion edition, Dracula X, _and a port of Mortal Kombat?!?!_
Wow…
Corporations really are out of touch.
This is how sawdust ends up in tomato sauce and tire rubber chemicals in Subway sandwich bread, kids.
Excellent coverage!
I think if it was early days and NEC was trying to succeed in the market they wouldn't have denied such obvious winners. But by that point they were done and not interested in the US market period. There was nothing that could be done. It was always a tough situation for NEC because they only made money on hardware sales while Hudson got the majority of the software. It wasn't one company like Sega or Nintendo. So from their perspective, they may not have cared so much about the games selling well. Unless they could sell enough hardware from it they weren't going to invest any more. Or that's what it seems like.
@@ShmupJunkie I see. Then it was a shame NEC was calling the shots. My brother had the Arcade card (and an import card converter for his Turbo Duo). I would have loved to see an Arcade Card/CD ROM port of Samurai Shodown, I played way too much of it on my original Game Boy.
Keep up for great content! Thanks for the heart and the reply!
The REAL History of the TurboGrafx 16 - Amazing PC Engine Part 2. Focusing more on the North American history and how it all went down. There's a lot of doom and gloom takes on the Turbo in NA and it's tiring, so I wanted to give it a fun, alternate take and throw in my own perspectives of how things went down. I also grew up in Los Angeles and was local for TTi's operation, so I wanted to inject a perspective on what they were all about versus the unfair slack they get in most media. Of all the segments I really like how the end turned out and think it did TTi some justice. Don't miss the final 25% of this video!
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For another excellent video on the TurboGrafx in North America, and good counterpoint to some of my perspectives given here, check out this video by Creative Cat Productions!
ruclips.net/video/88kRqW8hQB0/видео.html
Check out my friend Danmakuman's store for awesome PC Engine and other gaming goodies. The Air Zonk in my thumbnail is his artwork and from his store!
www.redbubble.com/people/DANMAKUMAN/shop
Check out www.sarumaru.com/ for all kinds of unique PC Engine goodies and artwork as well.
For more than a brief, comedic take on the fascinating history of the TurboGrafx16 in North America, check out the in-depth interviews in this excellent article from Gamasutra, some of which was quoted in this video. www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/225466/stalled_engine_the_turbografx16_.php
CHAPTERS
00:00 - Previously on History of the Amazing PC Engine!
01:16 - Meanwhile in Japan
02:43 - Mistakes were made
06:22 - Genesis Does
09:38 - The TurboGrafx lineup
12:14 - Take us home
13:22 - Enter Turbo Technologies
16:35 - The Final Days of TTi
19:10 - Hudson Strikes Back!
22:04 - The PC Engine will never be forgotten
7:07 YEEEEEAAAAH!!!!!That music is still sounds gorgeous!^^
Would you be so kind and post the list of every game footage you used in this video with time codes?
Pretty please!!^^
@@oldfan4049 Dude how much free time you think I have? Hahaha jk. I actually tried to post which games everything is in a lot of the video, it just doesn’t work in some of the sections. If there are 4-5 games you really want to know most just post the time here and I’ll reply what they are for sure 👍🏻
@@ShmupJunkie It's MORE than 4-5 games I think....
0:12
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2:11 (lower right)
3:38 (upper right)
3:45 (that beach girl)
3:49/15:40/15:50/16:17/19:38
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5:56/20:44
9:38
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Absolutely incredible video. I was fortunate enough to have a Turbo at launch, and it remains to date one of my favorite systems of all time. That being said, it was so frustrating being a Turbo fan back then because we knew what Japan was getting, and the games simply weren’t being localized. The Turbo was the first system I actively imported games for, and words cannot express the feelings of firing up Rondo of Blood for the first time. No internet back then, so when that music hit for the first time, oh man, it was incredible. Same can be said the first time I heard Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder music. Such an incredible system. So many games still hold up today. Ironically, Turbo games have skyrocketed in value now that the secret is out, so collecting for it is pretty much second only to US Saturn or Neo Geo in price. Bravo!
Thank you! Sounds like your experience was very similar to mine. I really hit the import stores hard starting with CD games, after the first couple years once the Turbo games started to trickle in too slowly and there wasn't enough new content. We were lucky to live in a city that had that available as not everyone was so lucky. I do remember some jealous friends with DracX after seeing how awesome it was. That game, Lords and Ys are the three originals I kept and never sold. Even once my Duo was no longer working or being used, I was playing them in my CD just for the music.
in Canada I remember Radio Shack was the big promoter/dealer of TurboGrafx-16. It was the only console they sold for a few years and they were the big pusher of the system in those days.
That's interesting, I had a ton of Radio Shack around me too but don't remember a ton of Turbo there. I never bought it from them at least. They sold mostly cheap Tandy computers and some other stuff. At least NEC had a presence in Canada through someone, more than can be said for parts of the US.
@@ShmupJunkie Radio Shack in Canada was completely independent of Radio Shack US (I remember the manager of a Radio Shack telling me that once). They had a completely different ownership history. But yes, in Canada, Radio Shack was the big dealer for TurboGrafx gear and they didn't deal with any of the other consoles at all. They always had big displays setup at the front of the store to demo TG16s games and so forth. I remember always walking through the Radio Shack location in Portage Place (a mall in downtown Winnipeg) and they were always heavily promoting it between 1989-1994. Everywhere else mainly dealt SNES/Genesis but Radio Shack Canada was the one weird exception that placed all their bets on the TG16.
13:07 The Narcs: "Keep moving, nothing to see here" : )
When I needed to do a quick woop woop, instead of some generic police clipart I knew where to look. I used to think that game kicked so much ass in arcades back then.
Yes Tom Kalinske was a marketing genius and knew the North America market and when Sega Japan ignored and basically went their own way ultimate sank Sega. I also remember that in Canada the only retailer selling Turbografx was Radio Shack and by this time Radio Shack was a bit of a joke already and was beginning it's death spiral. I remember early on I had a PC-Engine and I didn't even recognize that the Turbografx was the same system, little ads and not being carried by the big toy box stores was sending alarm bells to kids. That how bad it was and then when I clued it it was the PC-Engine I felt so disappointed with NEC/Turbografx... I had a cool system and what I saw demo'ed looked not only mediocre but more like a joke.
It was Kalinske and his clout and experience that got Japan to let him do what he wants in the US, even though they didn't agree with him at all and didn't want him to. They really had no idea. Lucky for them he knew what he was doing while they didn't. And it showed once he and other key parts of the team were gone. There are some great interviews on youtube with Tom and his marketing staff and how they went about getting the older crowd onto their system. NEC was the opposite, they never completely invested in the US launch and paid for it. But my take was always the same, despite all their screw ups which made the games so hard to get outside of big cities like you just said, there was no way they were taking down that incredible marketing campaign that Sega unleashed, even if they didn't make most of their mistakes.
This 2 parter for the PC Engine was really good. Now I have an understanding why the system was big in Japan, and why the system didn't get the same kind of success in America. I might only have a TurboGraphx-16 Mini and might not get the original system anytime soon, but I definitely have a much better appreciation for the PC Engine/TurboGraphx-16 than before.
These two videos were special for me and I had been wanting to make them for some time. I do think I may remaster them someday, improve things I've wanted to, and make a single longer video from them someday. Really glad it gave you and others a different perspective on the system from someone who grew up loving and understanding it. Despite it not doing well in the US at the time, it's at a place now where anyone can find ways to explore the entire library. So the goal was to show anyone not too familiar how large and rich the library of games was. Really appreciate the comment, thank you.
I have to keep rewatching this as I was a TG-16 owner when it came out and collected many of the Japanese games after getting the TurboDuo and a Kisado converter. EGM's coverage was what sold me on getting the TG-16. The few games I had were Legendary Axe, Bonk's Adventure, R-Type, SideArms, Blazing Lazers, and Neutopia. All games I would purchase again later when I would get a used TurboExpress and a TurboDuo. I ended up selling my TG-16 along with the original games when I was set on getting a Super Nintendo and there was a severe lack of good games for TG-16.
Did Nintendo's monopoly of the game industry have anything to do with the console's failure? I know Sega was able to get around it by programming some of Capcom's games for the Genesis and they eventually got Capcom and Konami to become developers.
I'm still bewildered by the fact they chose Keith Courage as the pack in game. Legendary Axe would have made a much better choice. Bonk's Adventure was the game kids who played with my console wanted to play the most. Wasn't this eventually the included game?
And if they were going to go as far as redesigning the console shell, they should have added another controller port.
So what happened with NEC after the success of the PC Engine in Japan? They totally dropped the ball with the SuperGrafx and their next system after that failed to impress as well. Any plans to do another video that explains why NEC was unable to keep their momentum of success?
I think they never felt the need to add more ports. Even the late Duo units had one. It was their way and they stuck to it apparently. I do think they missed a grand opportunity to market it as a portable system and keep it small. Had it been like the pc engine I wouldn’t stuck it in my cargo shorts pocket with hucards and taken it with me to nearly every friends house. It’s all hindsight but they underestimated the draw of having a compact system like that and tried to turn it into something bigger and badder it didn’t need to be. We still loved it for the games. But I’ll admit if it was the original design I would’ve loved it even more as something to easily take with you anywhere.
Really glad you enjoyed the video though and it brought some good memories. I really like how part 1 came out too. It may be my favorite video I’ve done yet. It’s kind of like Kill Bill vol1 and this is vol2 haha
It's been a minute since I've seen someone on RUclips with such excellent content, I enjoyed both of these parts on the PC engine thank you for sharing this part of the history with me, I'm thinking of getting a PC engine duo this year I want to play legendary acts the bonk games, splatter house , that Street fighter port, and some of the JRPGs and the one I want to play more than anything else is snatcher and then use the mod so I can get the English subtitles, thank you again phenomenal phenomenal content
Thank you. I really enjoyed making this series and I hope people keep finding them. I didn’t know there was a mod for the pc engine snatcher. I don’t think it was ever translated. I know the Sega cd has an English version only some parts are censored or removed. But it’s still a great way to play it too. Ys IV does have an English patch and is a great game.
A BIIIIIG SHOUTOUT TO @ShmupJunkie FOR THIS SPECIAL EPISODE!! THIS IS HIGH QUALITY CONTENT! THIS IS FUN! THIS IS HISTORY!
Thank you for your passion...and the talent of guiding all generations through the golden video game era with your on point made videos!!💜
#retro
NEC's lack of enthusiasm to release guaranteed hot sellers like a near arcade perfect port of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II is a little confusing. I know NEC wanted to cut their losses, but these games were certain to print money. If a system isn't going to get games, it's not going to sell.
Sometimes I wonder if they were bitter in some way from the losses they took in the NA market and wanted to get back at them somehow. Either that or they just didn't want to deal with the NA market at all anymore. From a business stand point sure doesn't make sense.
This is the best, most well researched and presented documentary on the Turbografx 16 I've ever seen. Heartbreaking all the missteps NEC made in America as the TG 16 is such an amazing system and right up there with SNES and Genesis imo. When TTI took over I was so hopeful and really rooting for them but never knew Corp in Japan was hamstringing them every step of the way. Oh well, like the awesome ending said we still found a way to play and enjoy the amazing games it had to offer and we still do to this day. Another amazing ideo and perfect ending to the two part doc. I hope you do more stuff like this in the future and I'll be watching all your previous vids and looking forward to future ones as well!
I knew you’d really enjoy this one too and glad you did. It was a real shame TTi ended up in a too little too late scenario with the passionate staff they finally had to try and make something of the system. Of all the types of videos I make, some basic like reviews etc, others silly or fun, my favorite are absolutely the historical ones on devs and consoles I love. It feels like they’ll be important and relevant for a long time. So if you really like these I did a few more. The history of technosoft and thunder force being the most recent and one that came out as good as I’d hoped. But in the meantime, if you hadn’t already caught it, I have a massive 3+ hr video premiering today soon reviewing and ranking every single mega drive shooter ever released. I’ll be chatting live with everyone. I already did one for PC Engine reviewing the over 100 games, and one for Toaplan, so today is the mega drive’s turn in the spotlight. Given how popular that console is its looking to be a big turnout! The trailer and premiere page is already up for it.
Anyway just throwing out some recs. Take your time and enjoy what you come across in any order you like. I’m glad you found my channel and are enjoying it. It’s always great getting genuine feedback from others who are effected by the hard work I’ve put into them.
@@ShmupJunkie I think TTi did amazing with the hand they were dealt and basically zero support from Corp like you went over in the video. Such a shame as it was such a great system and would've been great if more people could've experienced it. Oh well. Oh and I just watched the technosoft one a little bit ago and absolutely loved it! And of course had to comment on that one as well. Lol. You're great at the documentary style videos! I also really appreciate your thoughtful replies. You're a rare breed on RUclips nowadays and it's so nice to see creators like you are still around. Hopefully I'll be able to catch the video today too! Thanks again for everything!
Wow, you can really feel the passion in this video, amazing ! i might only have the coregrafx mini at home, but i'm still proud of owning a litte part of this amazing console history.
Thanks! Yes this video history was special to me and one day I’d like to combine and remaster them with improved voice and editing. I had a blast making them. It was the pc engine mini and putting out some reviews for it that made me start this channel in the first place.
Thank you so much for the great video! I laughed, I held back some tears, and was deeply moved. Konami needs to give us a new Bonk game ASAP.
Man Konami is only giving us a Pachinko Bonk at this point haha, don't expect it. I am happy they released the Mini for us and it was made as well as it was. So they get bonus points from me for it.
Konami desperately needs to give us any new good game (Contra, Gradius, Castlevania, Silent Hill, etc.), not only the Bonk's one!! They were one of the greatest at the market, but now...they're only a hollow shadow of their past selves(((
I've been waiting all week! Thank you so much for all your videos, excellent narration, and editing work.
Absolutely stellar, hope everyone makes it worth your time and appreciates what you're doing for gaming information & preservation.
It's worth my time just seeing all the people who enjoy it and are glad something like this is being made for them. And it's something I'll likely enjoy myself as well in the future to watch sometimes for nostalgia. There was a lot of editing put into this one.
Finally, you don't even know how excited I am to finally watch it 💯 I swear your channel is amazing, it glorifies with the golden age of gaming was, and still is to us retro heads, and I really appreciate the hard work they put into these wonderful videos. You make my Sunday each and every week God bless, and may we all continue to prosper and our wonderful hobby 😇🙏
Thanks a lot man. You've been with me since near the beginning, so it's cool to see you keep coming back and enjoying these. I am just having too much stupid fun making some of these though hahaha.
I'm just definitely 💯 Nothing this amazing channel grow!! I will always be here☝💪
Outstanding documentary!
Without any doubt your masterpiece. It's simple everything was perfect from the commentary to the editing. Thank you so much Sir we are very blessed to have you with.
Timmy can be proud of you ;)
Warm regards.
Thanks man, I'm glad you did enjoy it. I'm definitely happy with how it came out. Timmy will never admit it, but he secretly watches them too in between his Fortnite videos.
I want more PC Engine and TurboGrafx 16 games on newer consoles. I pick them up whenever I see them. I love your review of the re-release of Cotton and getting it on PS4 when it releases. Thanks for all the great videos that really show love to these genres and your excitement and love for them that give them more exposure to people. 🙌🏻
You know I'd love to see it too. At least we got the mini which I never expected in a million years. The english versions of the Cotton stuff just takes a while, strictly limited is slow. But worst case it's always there digital too, not like it's physical only. So if they ever sell out that's always an option. I had a bunch of fun with that one and glad I got it.
5 months ago I bought my first PC Engine. Now I love the system. Last month I got the Super SD System and I am still discovering the library. I guess it is in my TOP 3 best console list. My favourite Shoot em Up consoles are PC Engine, Saturn and Xbox 360. Genesis and Dreamcast are probably in 4th and 5th place.
You already picked up the SSDS3 so you've got everything you need to play every single game. Pretty much the way to go if you want to use the real hardware but not a collector to buy individual games at some crazy prices. Makes total sense and the way I'd recommend it for almost anyone. I'm still discovering games myself.
Great video! A bit of a sad story but it wouldn’t be the first time marketing would win against quality.
Thanks man. To be fair, they were all great systems in their own way. I would've missed any of them. But no doubt most of us as kids drank the cool aid and good marketing did a number on us. Some old folks are still parroting marketing terms as if they were gospel... our impressionable young minds. But I wanted to make sure I did Sega justice here, as they came in as the unknown and killed it in the US. They deserved all the success that came to them.
The amount of love and time you put into this is so apparent! Thanks for making this fantastic two part series, so informative and a joy to watch!😍
Thanks dude! Glad you finally got a chance to watch them. Knew you would enjoy once you had some time. I've got your Final 2 all ready to go out btw for when I am out next and can drop by UPS.
Shmup Junkie Sounds great, my friend! BTW I've watched both episodes twice, just now getting around to the comments section! Lovely stuff!
@@ezeepeezy I’m glad you enjoyed it enough to watch it twice. I also have to apologize for the second round of ads it likely made you skip through 🤦♂️ 🤣. This’ll need to go on a Blu-ray as a two part series commercial free haha.
I never owned a TG-16 but am looking forward to exploring its complete library for all the obscure gems.
What are you going to use to check them out? I’ve been using the MiSTer a lot lately and it’s pc engine core is fantastic to play every game in the library. And on a CRT! 👌
when i was a kid these consoles came out sega genesis and turbografx16 nintendo(nes) was still dominating but by a year or 2 i remember sega started to make noise and soon alot of my friends were getting sega genesis or super nintendos and those sega commercials was always running on tv while many of us didnt even know that turbografx existed and one day i got invited to a kids birthday party which he happened to have turbografx 16 with one of the bonks games playing and i ended up bringing my snes to play since it only had 1 controller port and till this day that was the only kid i ever knew that had turbo grafx while everyone else had only sega or nintendo households
I've been watching for a while and you sir, officially have the greatest video game program in the history of human existence
Yea I'll say the channels overthrown bithead for sure.that channels just something else now it's not gaming at all. It used to be.used to be about pc engine n such.but now it's just about his wife n complaining about 'being old'
I'm also OK with being the second best program in the history of civilization, and you don't need to see my mug in 4K. Bithead is very different and I respect his comedy chops a lot. I can't get on camera like that and be funny or entertaining off the top of my head for an entire hour. It takes talent. I love some of the jackets and his handiwork too, a man of many trades. His show is not for everyone, and I often don't have the time myself to watch entire hour long programs, but when he is talking Turbo or PC Engine, the passion is there and you can see it. Some of his old episodes are classic and still make me laugh. FYI if you never saw his old PC Engine Mini/Konami rants, it's how I initially found him. Those episodes were short and comedy gold, only about the games.
@@NintenDub Bithead is more of a comedian now, the game angle was how he started but he's evolved because he's good at it and I think he enjoys it more than the gaming now, and if you don't do what you enjoy then you really are finished. He was doing the gaming for 10 years and during that time there was plenty of stories and comedy even in the early days. I'm glad that Bithead and Shmup Junkie exist and they are different. You don't have to compare them
I think he is getting up there with strafefox in terms of presentation and info.
what if this amazing channel would have the history of vertical shooters? I really enjoy your style of videos and the fans need a chronological order of the main mechanics that changed all shoot em up to dodge em up! :)
That would be an amazingly long video, I wouldn't even know where to start haha. Well, starting is easy because it's always space invaders and really Xevious, but after that it's too much content. I'd need a damn good script to pull that one off, but I will say it's tempting to do someday.
I love that this video doesn't run on speculations and theories like other videos on other channels, but straight up FACTS son!
Well to be fair my bit on Kalinski is mainly my take and how I see it, but it’s still speculation. The rest though… facts! 🤣
Growing up in the UK I only saw pc engine games reviewed in magazines and never saw them in the wild. Then a few years ago when messing about with emulators, I gave it a go and grabbed some of the shoot em ups I saw as a kid and thought it was s pretty neat little system. So when the core grafx 16 mini was announced I was sure to pick one up and have had a ton of fun with this old console.
It doesn't supplant the Megadrive as my favourite console (the answer to which 16 bit console was the best is always the one you had as a kid), but I'm glad I've got to have a taste of what was so illusive growing up.
Badass video bro, you outdone yourself with every new one!!!
Thanks man! I knew I couldn't outdo the kinetic energy of the first, so I just went a different way as I had more exposition and tried to make it funny and entertaining while giving my own take on how things went down.
Pretty absolutely fantastic retrospective! As a mega big PC Engine fan, I approve of this, and am actually pretty sad to learn how NEC Japan was the one that ended up shooting down Rondo, Ys IV, and SFII. While it was a bit late in the party to localize big CD RPGs, I feel if SFII came to TG16, it might have gotten a second wind. At least Turbozone direct managed to sidestep all that, but that ended before my birth, so unfortunately my PCE library comes through rereleases save for the four hucards I own. I still really want to get into collecting for the real thing one day, but it's really tough with the limited video output options for the TG and the crap third party HDMI/AV options out there, ensuring you need a turbobooster for an acceptable quality.
Absolutely gonna try and check out NEXZR though, since I did a retrospective on Recca a while back, and was planning to do one on the other naxat carnival games: but I assumed both were just Caravan games. If Nexzr is a followup to it though (and Spriggan in a spirtual way), I'll absolutely give them a spin though!
There is a decent booster for the turbo called the db grafxbooster that will give you component, scart, stereo and other options and it's around 70 bucks. But it doesn't help you with CD games since you end up using the CD output instead. If you're set on real hardware vs using something like an SSDS3 which gets you high quality out and SD card use, I end up using my Duo that's RGB modded. They are just expensive to do or get unfortunately. So most people end up going the flash cart route. So there's good cheap solutions for base consoles only, but not for CD you end up paying for it. Nexzr is freaking great and I hope you enjoy it when you play. I did a really great special episode for that game not too long ago, you can look it up. If it doesn't get you hyped to play it nothing will. It's much more thought out and paced than Recca, very different games. But it's design is pretty top notch.
@@ShmupJunkie Holy crap he DB booster may be the lifesaver I need. Don't mind not being able to use CD stuff, as the CD add on is hyper rare and fragile to begin with. I'll just get a DUO-R if I wanna go that route or just get the discs to dump myself. I'm all about the hucards and I think with that booster I'll be able to enjoy a lot of PCE stuff, especially if I get an everdrive too. I'll definitely try to hunt down Nexzr too!
Hi dude,
this second part is a masterpiece, as the PC Engine itself.
Great storytelling!
PC Engine & Turbografx-16 Forever!
RGMNC (Joe)
Thanks man, I especially liked the latter half of this episode and how it all went down. I had silly fun making it and glad it turned out entertaining. I'm still experimenting with a lot of the editing.
I honestly never heard of the console until I saw news in the gaming media that the TG16 Mini was coming out, looking at some of the videos from their titles the games looked good. It seemed that the mini generated a good amount of interest, enough to the point that Analogue is coming out with a clone system. Also Polymega too but who knows if that will ever release
The big reason I was excited for the mini is exactly what you mentioned. There are a lot of people who knew nothing about it if they didn't grow up around that time. It was a gateway for a lot of new people to learn about the games. It's actually how I started my channel. My very first few videos was reviewing the mini!
Damn that changed from "NEC are really cool dudes" to "NEC kinda got what they deserved for being so arrogant" to "NEC are just the outright villains now" really quickly
Lol, well to be fair some of it was for thematic effect. Hudson and NEC remained on good terms for a long time, but to the folks in the US and TTi and how frustrating it was trying to get anything from them in Japan, I am sure they felt like the villains to them toward the end. They were left with some painful memories and some of the interviews bear it out.
Bro I wish a had a PC engine growing up. I had an NES, then I went to sega. As a kid I would have defended both systems to the death haha. Those school yard arguments got intense. Anyway, I feel cheated by superior marketing. I lived in a small town and the pcengine never even came into the console war discussion. I played my first pcengine game at 35 years old bro and it's the system I play most by far. It's not even close, it turned me on to shooters and I haven't looked back. Thank you for the awesome video dude!
Haha well the Genesis was nothing to scoff at. It had way more games and variety in the US so unless you lived in a big market like I did, it was really hard to get all the good turbo games or imports. NEC definitely screwed the pooch there. I’m just glad you are digging it now and enjoying the ride!
@Deevon Dee I played a lot of PC games back then including those games like LSL and Space Quest. They’d make great mobile games using the touchpad these days and wonder why that genre didn’t see a second coming with mobile. Fun and casual games to chill and enjoy that literally anyone can play don’t have to be a gamer. My man you gotta play Rondo somehow. The mini was the ticket but it’s long sold out now. Didn’t it just get a PS4 collection release not long ago?
The day before yesterday, I put this video on in a public VR chatroom. The room had a kind of modern-luxury-home-by-the-sea-in-a-thunderstorm-at-night vibe to it. I got the URL and pasted it right into the big TV screen in there and sat on the virtual couch and watched it.
I was slightly miffed when someone came by about halfway through and put on some anime shit instead. But a couple of guys sat on the couch with me and watched for as long as it lasted.
Too bad in VR you can't kick them to the curb with majority consensus haha. I should try that one day I only messed with VR rooms and watching stuff briefly years ago when it was new. Sure it's come a long way. I remember you could watch youtube that way. What's the app you used for it? I've got just a Vive at this point the older one.
@@ShmupJunkie It's an app I found on the Oculus Rift store called VR Chat. It's where all the debauched VR losers go, so I fit right in. I'm also pretty sure it's where the infamous "Do You No De Wae" meme found it's legs. It was one of the rooms in there.
It's a real riot, honestly. But VR for me is mainly about Space Engine, and Microsoft Flight Sim 2020.
This was an absolutely fantastic video! Criminally under viewed my friend. Thanks for putting this together, it was obviously a ton of work but I enjoyed it immensely. Well done!
So ultimately, the reason the turbografx-16 failed here in the U.S, was not because hardware add ons, or their mascot, or the library of games, it was NEC’s arrogance. They did themselves in. I’m glad Hudson Soft made it out ok. Thanks SJ for the amazing video! 👍🏽
It was all the things you mentioned of course, but arrogance is the top of the list. Not knowing the market. Not hiring the right people. Thinking they could just go in and dominate. And at the same time being tentative and not committing. They very much did themselves in. Despite all that, winning against sega that gen would have been no easy task. They could’ve at least made a fight of it though. NEC made it out fine too of course they are a pretty massive company with so many arms. But they learned their lesson on staying out of the gaming business mainly after the pc-fx flop.
The SuperGrafx was the epitome of their arrogance and poor planning: extremely expensive, yet not really enough of an upgrade to be worth investment by either developers or consumers; then shoved onto the market with only a single launch title that was itself barely in a finished state, which didn't really exploit the new hardware capabilities, and no actual schedule for any subsequent titles. I don't know how much cocaine was getting smuggled into Japan back in the late 80's, but NEC execs must have been consuming the lion's share of it.
@@ostiariusalpha And it cost them. I don’t know how much of it was monetarily motivated versus Hudson being experimental with new stuff. They liked to release lots of products and see what sticks. Something creative people do but not good business people. For every good piece like the Duo you had stuff like the shuttle which wasn’t all that necessary. I don’t know who bought all this hardware.
Beautiful work on this! I've just recently started digging into the library. I've known about the PC engine but never gave it my full attention. Know that I'm getting back into shmups and retro games I want to make this system a priority. Keep up the great work!
That’s awesome man. You won’t be disappointed it’s a treasure trove if you know what to look for. Play em any way you can. 🤘
Love this history of the TG16, great editing, music, and awesome commentary. This system was marketed all the wrong way in the US it’s true but man in Japan it was a beast. I remember seeing all the marketing for the PC Engine in CoroCoro Comic manga magazine my friend kept getting from Japan in 1988-1989. I was like WTH is that 🤩. If only it had the same impact here Hudson would still be around 😔.
At least Hudson had a long life and still produced lots of games for a good while. They were such a unique company. You probably already caught it, but if you didn't, this was part 2 of the pc engine history. The first one was all about the Japan side and the system there. You'd dig that one too if you missed it. I pretty much had a similar experience here, with a couple friends from Japan and another Korean that would always show me exclusive stuff from there. PC Engine and all the anime we weren't getting here. I'd watch their stuff with them even if I couldn't understand the dialogue, they'd give me the gist of some things. Was the first time I got into dragon ball before you could even watch it in the US, through bootleg vhs tapes they had haha. I'm just glad the import shops caught on later to finally play all the imports we initially couldn't.
If NEC of Japan got out of Hudson's way you could have Had 3 Amazing Systems in the USA at the same time. It is Crazy that most Americans consider a few PC engine games as PS1 or Saturn classics these days.I never knew why the Mega Drive never took off here in Japan but when I got older I really enjoyed collecting the games later and even bought a US Megadrive ((Genesis)). Great documentary would love to see one on the Dreamcast which IMO was way ahead of it's time and the best system ever made.
I feel mega drive did poorly for the same reasons in Japan. Their library did not match the target audience, not nearly enough RPGs and otaku type games, too much sports and action games. Good for NA bad for Japan. It had a good STG selection and great platformers, a big plus. They also didn't push it as much there or invest in it. Part of it is Nintendo ruling with an iron fist and locking Sega out in many ways. Sega knew they can't compete with Nintendo there, but they were able to in NA. They put the money where success was most likely, there and European countries, and other Sega popular locations. The Dreamcast was awesome I loved it too. I'm not as seasoned as I am with the PCE and Hudson, so it would take a lot of research and input from others. But I would certainly be open to it. The Turbo didn't have a good history or doc on youtube so it was needed. Are there any good Dreamcast history videos out there already?
Fantastic documentary. Very entertaining and informative. Excellent job! I was one of the 4 kids that bought the system in my town. :)
Thank you so much for this very nice video! I'm from Brazil and only saw the Turbografx in magazine ads, it was very expensive to import (and still is). Keep up the very nice work!
You’re welcome and glad you enjoyed it. I do wish NEC was smarter in their global marketing at the time so other countries didn’t miss out, but they were too reserved and apprehensive going into new markets. At least now you have many ways to enjoy some of these cool games.
What a fantastic documentary SJ, easily the best one for PC Engine and TG16. Learned something new regarding TTI, a shame the deals they landed were not approved! Good stuff and all your animations made the story telling all the better. The sneakpeeks and feedback found in your Discord Channel were fun as well. Thank you for involving us!
You're welcome and glad you enjoyed the final version. I did really want to make a point of showing that side of TTi as they don't get any cred. There were lots of other great deals I didn't even get to mention, like for other SNK ports like King of Monsters. They kept finding ways to make things happen and getting shot down. Too bad they weren't calling the shots from day one, maybe things would have gone better for them.
@@ShmupJunkie Agreed sir! The emphasis on TTI was great and much needed to give better understanding of some of the "Why's?". I did not have much interest in the PC Engine which was a miss in my youth since I did like the TG16 (in which I did not have for long). Anyway keep up the content and very cool engagements in the Discord channels.
Great video and conclusion to the two-parter. We'll never forget the PC Engine!
I'm doing my best with these videos to help make sure that happens.
Excellent videos, especially loved the turnaround bit at the end. The excellent research, writing, rich content, dynamic audio-visual presentation and soothing narration really add up to great educational content. It felt like I was there and I now understand why this system was such a big deal. Please keep the retrospectives coming!
Thanks! This two part pc engine series was one of my all time favorite videos to make and kind of my one year magnum opus since starting the channel. I tried to up the editing quality and production from this point going forward. Luckily for this video I was already a big pc engine buff so a lot of the information was already in my head, along with a couple good articles I was able to pull from. It was a pleasure making it and I’m glad you found and enjoyed it.
@@ShmupJunkie Good stuff, I was also wondering if any emulators offer the sidebars you've produced in the video. It would really help when playing games in 4:3 without causing burn in on modern TVs!
@@whoisthis01 Not the kind I produced I did that in editing. Mostly just varying backgrounds you can change. If you are using an LED/LCD burn shouldn’t be a problem. That’s mainly for an OLED or older plasma displays and similar.
I was firing up PC Engine Mini and Sega Mega Drive Mini as I was watching this mini documentary. And it pained me greatly that they really botched the US launch.
PC Engine was truly magical. It was so mysterious here in the US. All gamers wanted it but no one had it.
I fell in love with the system when I saw Highscore Girl on Netflix. Great Video!
I remember when someone turned me onto that show, it was so sweet to see it represented in a modern anime that way. I started watching it for that reason.
I never met 1 kid at school who had one ... it was either sega or Nintendo ...no one even mentioned turbo grafx back in the day ... I didn’t get a turbo till I was a man
Great presentation and so uplifting down to the end where you said it will never be forgotten. Now I am going to check your PC engine Mini video to see if it is worth it to get even for historical value.
Thanks. If you never played many of those games yet, and have no other way to do it, the Mini is the gateway drug. I hope you find them useful. They are of course sold out by now and going for higher prices online.
My respect for the PC Engine has gone up by over 9000. Shame that I never got the chance to play it since it had so many great anime games there.
That much more reason to own a great flash cart to go back and enjoy some since they’re hard and sometimes expensive to buy now. Or emulation of course. One of my life goals is learning to not only speak but read Japanese well enough to play and enjoy many of those games that will never get a translation. It’s a goldmine of some cool RPGs and visual novel type games that I can’t fully enjoy without a proper grasp of the language.
@@ShmupJunkie Yeah. A few games got translated though.
awwwww man. the memories. lost my heart to the PC Engnine when i saw the white little gadget playing R-Type for the first time. Collecting until today.
I didn't even know what a PC Engine was at the time, only Turbografx really when it came out. RType was definitely what enticed me initially and how killer it looked, but Blazing Lazers finished the job. I was glad to learn the Japanese side of things down the road and enjoy the imports. It was a better design, but that nostalgia for the turbo is still there too.
I lived the era and but my first console bought with my own money was the Genesis 100% due to the cost of adding the TurboTap & TurboBooster putting the price of the TG16 well above the Genesis. I bought TG16 soon after and enjoyed it but lack of game releases was definitely frustrating. It wasn’t easy for Sega either as they dealt with developers/publishers being restricted from releasing games on the Genesis so hats off to Tom Kalinske’ steam for their hard work and dedication. BTW that merger with Konami doesn’t do much with the IPs so it actually hinders Hudson’s fantastic games.
Great job with part 2! Definitely worth the wait.
Thank you. I went with a different vibe for this one but still liked how it came out. Glad you enjoyed it.
I totally applaud your contagious enthusiasm in this video. You rule man.
Thanks. And I can't help it. If I'm talking about pc engine stuff it's my natural state lol
I sold my Nintendo system to get a turbografx 16. I was not disappointed by the games on the system I owned bloody wolf, splatterhouse, R-type, vigilante, dungeon explorer, final lap twin, legendary axe one and two, galaga 90 and blazing lazers. We had rentals in my community. Years later the Nintendo wii had turbografx games I finally had a chance to play gate of thunder and lords of thunder. Then when castlevania on the sony psp was released I finally got a chance to play Dracula X some 20 years later but at least I finally played it. When the turbografx mini was announced I pre-ordered it. I got a chance again to play some really great games.
I was lucky they even rented CD games from an import store near me, so I used to play them all that way over the weekends. Definitely had some jealous friends when it came to having Rondo to play, that one I had to buy. It was so insanely impressive at the time with the incredible soundtrack. Even to this day it hasn't aged much, it can be enjoyed as one of the very best of the series. I only wish I didn't sell any of my old stuff and kept it. As the few games I still have from my time then, the originals, always mean the most. I never could sell my Lords of Thunder, Ys or DraculaX and used to just play the music from the CDs even after my system was gone. I'm glad you finally got to enjoy them too 20yrs later. Some only did for the first time on the mini.
Just a quick correction but Ninja Spirit was also released for the Commodore Amiga (and is a rather good port tbh), Atari ST and Commodore 64 among other systems. As usual very entertaining video.
Thank you. As usual I am properly blinded to computer systems instead of consoles, growing up in the US without a single one of those systems available or extremely rare. Versus Europe where they were extremely popular and had most games ported to them. I appreciate the correction, didn't know Ninja Spirit was ported to all those systems despite never to other home consoles. Odd for such a cool game.
@@ShmupJunkie Irem was very involved with the PCE as a form of "Screw you" to Yamauchi. While they came back crawling to Nintendo with many fantastic SFC games (R-Type 3 is phenomenal), they still avoided Sega like the plague for no good reason in Japan (but allowed Sega to port some of their games like R-Type and Vigilante to the Master System and Mark 3).
Amusingly the best home convesion of R-Type 2 is the Amiga one (before emulation started kicking in, that is).
Amazing work, I can't imagine how much time you put into the writing, footage collecting and editing. A real piece of art, bravo !
Although I'm not sure that the mergin with Konami was a happy end... It seems more like a wedding with a taliban husband, who put you under a blanket and out of social existence.
Hahaha, well at the time I don't think it was so bad. Konami wasn't the same company then and now. And it saved their properties from a worse fate. We even got a PC Engine mini! and a good one. Konami has been making some positive moves lately, reviving some old franchises again. and investing in new games like Cygni. So it's a step in the right direction and I'm glad to see it.
Aha! Just the quality conclusion I expected. Excellent work, sir!
Full circle, starts with Ys and ends with Ys. There was no other way. I'm glad you enjoyed it thank you.
Always in the mood to see SJ in action. One of these days, I would love to listen in on him discussing about Neo-Geo memories and how it all began with the kind sir playing Neo-Geo...I'll have to view it with some Chinese take-out for sure to enjoy it to the fullest. 8^)
Anthony..
Well I can't say my Neo stories would be nearly as interesting as yours. I never could own one as most didn't, and all my experience was in the arcades on occasion and at the blockbuster kiosk I mentioned. I didn't know anyone that owned the system either. We ended up playing more Neo Geo on the pc engine arcade card than on anything else haha. It was one of those golden consoles on a pedestal that you drooled over but couldn't afford. It was tempting enough to ride a bike an hour each way on some weekends just to play it for a while though.
Man, what I would give to have been in the board room when they decided not to bring Rondo of Blood over to the USA, just so I could laugh in their faces at what an absolute idiotic decision that was. IT'S ONLY THE BEST GAME/WORK OF ART PRETTY MUCH EVER CREATED YOU DOLTS, GOOD 1
I think they knew it was an amazing game, they just didn't have enough systems out there and didn't want to spend the money to localize it in English and bring it over. Just shows how little they cared about the NA market by that point and just wanted out of it. What a shame.
Awesome video!!! I'm glad I've been able to enjoy the games with the benefit of hindsight. I'm sure your double video will convince people to get into these masterpieces! The TurboGrafx-16 was an excellent console, featuring games in rare genres that you can't play elsewhere. Just think about Dungeon Explorer. How many good games exist in that genre? Three Gauntlet games, three Dungeon Explorer games, and a handful of other games here and there. And Order of the Griffon is basically an extra Gold Box SSI D&D game exclusive to the TG16.
I was actually big into D&D at the time too, we used to play in a group with friends all the time. I always craved anything like that and most of those good games were all on PC. I guess that's one thing I liked about the PCE. It didn't have the action/sports library to take on Sega in the US, but all the unique games appealed to me. I can only stomach so many sports games and really enjoyed the Genesis for it's platformers and some good shooters, and the SNES for it's RPGs and the handful of first party titles. But I guess I was unusual in that way. I wanted rpgs, shooters, fun platformers, and unique games and didn't care for every single arcade port or sports games. It was popular at the time, but if you look back, all the best and biggest games were often unique and not just arcade ports. Even the best shooters were console specific like Thunder Force series etc. I was happy with all the unusual games you rarely saw anywhere else.
The TG-16 had a rock solid library. Very few stinkers in it's quiver.
What's funny is most of the worst games are the ones they specially developed later for the US only thinking it's the kind of games we wanted to play. Not really haha.
Awesome Video sir!!!! Makes you wonder what future consoles we missed out on from NEC and Hudson if the tg16 was a success in the states.
NEC did release the PC-FX in Japan only afterward and it was a complete flop, so they had their chance. The PCE did well so they went for the next gen, but that system really took them out of any future hardware on their own. I bought one simply expecting more like the PC Engine and it wasn't, mostly focused on FMV and video type games. Not sure what they were thinking.
Watching your 2 part series, I started playing Ys Book I and II again. 5 hours in and I'm already at Solomon Shrine and looking to turn back the villagers back from Dalles' stone spell. Love the Ys parody!
Sweet! You’re almost through the game already. That shrine can be quite the maze and easy to get lost at times but it’s the last hump. Then you can say you played and finished this original series. Pretty awesome music isn’t it.
@@ShmupJunkie One of the best musical scores for a game IMO. Especially the score on the 24th floor at Darm tower before fighting Dark Fact. My favorite. Lords of Thunder is another favorite and saw your awesome video on the turbo and segacd versions. Got close to beating it once.
I remember the lack of developer interest back in the day, NEC also got lazy with retailers, they managed to get a few independent video game stores but got as far as Radio Shack and gave up with trying to get into the doors of Target and Walmart. Sega had to fight tooth and nail for that. I had the Tg-16 and later the CD at launch and it was frustrating to get new titles, especially cd titles. Great system, could have done better but too much competition and the retailer network was too afraid of Nintendo. More marketing would have helped. Consumer education was pretty low and I understand making the system bigger, some idiots at the time had problems wrapping their heads on how a HuCard could be better than a big Cartridge because bigger is better right? More Bits, its better, etc. I remember that popping up in 91-92 even when I picked up Y's and the whole cartridge size argument was ongoing in a store because now Neo Geo was there and there whole thing was massive cartridges' packed with roms, which was quickly countered with CD's have more storage and will take over anyways. Yeesh, the old console wars sucked. At least today people can enjoy all the games in emulation.