The great thing about the CD add-on was that it was region free, so you can play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood without any sort of modding or disc-swapping.
I would love to have one of those with the CD add-on and Rondo of Blood. People say the TG16 was not a true 16bit console, but that dosen't mean shit, it was still powerful for it's time, and could just about match the Genesis.
I don't know why the Turbografx failed here in the states. I mean, it had some good titles, and a good advertising campaign. My guess was it was due to poor third party support
Back then if it wasn't name-brand it was slept on. Plus Nintendo and Sega had the market on lock. Yes it was 16-bit but was a couple days too late with their release. The Sega Genesis was released a couple days before plus Sega was already successful and established with the master system.
Notice in the commercial how they mentioned the CD-add on, but didn't show any graphics that were impressive, and didn't really say anything impressive about it. That's because CD's were so cool, just the idea of having a CD-player and system together sounded cool enough.
They should have went all out and said it could display over 20x as many colours on-screen as the NES, which is true. But, alas, they didn't, and it flopped.
CD add-ons never did well in retail (at least here in America) because they would cost 1.5-2x as much as the core system itself. @ the time, most gamers still would have parents buy them VG's, & most would be hard pressed to convince them to drop another $3-400 for a system, and then $60-70 a game.
Thanks a lot for this upload, I don't think I've seen this commercial! I wonder how many TG16 commercials there were total? I can only think of like three TV ones.
It wasn't just poor 3rd party support that killed the Turbografx in the US, it was also Nintendo's anti-competitive practices that were later ruled illegal that killed the Turbografx in the US.
@Dude45Productions Ehh? The Genesis, SNES, and TG16 all use 4bit color indexed pixels for sprites and BG layers. The systems use subpalettes of 16 colors (only 15 see-able 'cause 0 is always transparent). Genesis has 4 subpalettes; so that's a max of 61 colors onscreen (4 subpalettes X 15 colors +1). SNES is 241 for most games (non-mode 7, is 16 subpalettes * 15 colors + 1). Excluding transparency. TG16 is 481 colors on screen (32 x 15 + 1). That's systems colors without any tricks.
I remember consoles like this and Neo-Geo: Neo-Geo even had a memory card where you could continue games from SNK arcade consoles at the local video arcade, and they were interchangeable.
@SwordOfCrystalis just because things are expensive doesn't make them successful. Plus it's still expensive because it's very hard to come by these days.
@modewr IT is and it isn't the PC Engine is the japanese version,which is the same hardware in a very much better designed small case which actually makes sense that's why you play the games from small cards and you only have one controller port,the Turbographx is the ugly US version which put the same stuff in a gigantic case without any advantage,on the other hand the PC Engine can't read turbographx games,but the Turbographx can read PC Engine games,so its the best option despite the uglyness
Absolutely. They were releasing maybe one or two new games every couple of months (Why do you think their magazine was bimonthly?), and most of it was utter trash. What they should have done was discontinue their Hucard games and just make the CD games the standard format, while bringing out all the top-notch Japanese shooters and RPGs. Really, if you didn't have the CD system and money to spare for mail-order import games, you weren't going to get much out of your TG16.
Same arguement could be said for something like LaserActive, or any other rare system. I just think that NEC really did not put it's all into the US market, which in the end, became a major factor in the 16 bit wars. SEGA and Nintendo ate them ALIVE in sales, & also not being in every retailer hurt as well.
i know it's years later but he was right. it was a failed add on. the reason a used one costs so much today is because there isn't an abundance of them out there sitting in people garages or attics. (most of us old gamers have at least one of our older systems just sitting around) because no one bought them in the first place. making the few that are out there really rare, and therefore pricey.
You know I often ask myself what would happen if you bring the modern game system from this time back to the time when turbo graphix,sega and etc. how advance would system be now ; you know what they say about time any little change in the past would alter the future.
I don't remember this commerical at all. The only one i remember for the TurboGrafx16 was on a tape of the PeeWee's Playhouse Christmas special on MTV. The commerical went something like, first there was atari, then there was nintendo. And then they showed of some of the games, like Bonk and wonderers of Y'll
I remember seeing this commercial on TV when it came out. It was certainly a step up from the NES, but the samples of the games I saw didn't impress me all that much, unfortunately. In fact, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall the TG-16 having any "mega popular" games on par with Sonic or Mario that transcended the system itself. Anyone?
Back in the day when home systems were nowhere near as good as arcade systems......now a days home systems are massively powerful and online, while arcades are where adults go to get drunk
R-Type was the flagship game when it was launched in Japan (and remained the most technically impressive game on the system in some ways)... strange how it doesn't feature in that ad.
LMAO... Blazing Lazers made R type look like a turd virtually overnight... with all the flicker, slowdown and sluggish gameplay, R type was an overhyped dud...
@SwordOfCrystalis That's more due to rarity than quality. A working 3DO could also cost nearly as much if not more, and that was a piece of shit. Remember, uninformed comments make you look stupid.
@RockoJulian Yep I got it as a kid and it was around the time Street Fighter 2 was taking over the universe. I figured Fighting Street would be comparable not so much graphics wise but enjoyable. I was dead wrong. The rounds often took a minute to load but worse the controls were so sluggish and non responsive. Amazingly I was sent the game as a gift and was waiting anxiously for a month to play it after 30 minutes I lost interest. Big disappointment Fighting Street gets 0 stars out of Five.
Overall I was never a huge fan of the turbografx. I had one but I returned it quickly and got a Genesis instead. It did have some great games but overall it was lacking as a system. Keith Courage sucked (although it had great music) but Legendary Axe was a pretty good game and so was R-Type. Alien Crush is still the best pinball game I have ever played and the baseball game was good. Bonk's Adventure was a decent game too. Overall however, not a great system.
i actually hated the control pad as the directions were stuck to all parts. nintendo's controller was precise as it was a real crosshair model. the games were also too difficult where nintendo had good cheat codes like 30 lives in contra or obvioiusly the game genie.
it never broke the n.american market. however, in the rest of the world, this outsold sega and even super nintendo for a while. i was fortunate enough to play this console and man was it way ahead of its time.
Taylor Swift is born on December 13 1989 Christmas season holiday birthday on turbo grafx 16 system nec Cornelius Raibon girlfriend Taylor Swift Cornelius Raibon on Halloween birthday 35 anniversary October 31 1985 on Nintendo entertainment system Cecilia Raibon born September 18 1960 Cecilia Raibon birthday on sega 60 anniversary sega birthday 1960-2020
@modewr Yes! I've always thought that was their reasoning behind that decision, the problem is it makes the other design decisions look weird, the HU Card and the Single player port are ways of making the console very tiny in the japanesse version I think it holds the title for the tiniest home video game console ever, at least they could have thrown the multitap addon in the US version, because it's just an empty box! but apart from it's design its a great console I actually like it a lot!
What was the point of that CD player? It was a hideous looking combo. And all I can see is Sherlock Holmes. It smells like it was another Sega CD failure.
If this included Legendary Axe instead of Kieth Crap, it likely would have made a big difference in popularity. Some of their choices of arcades to port were pretty bad though but really for a dual 8 bit system, it had pretty good graphics for it's time. I never understood why companies like NEC didn't choose to port some of the really popular arcade titles that few others ported such as Simpsons, TMNT...the type of games that most everyone knew of and could have really sold the system back then.
***** They did have the arcade port of Vigilante...granted not nearly as popular but that system seemed to have a lot of arcade ports that few heard of.
I'm 45 now but 1989 is one of the best Christmases I ever had when this was under my tree!!!!
Same---45 yrs but I got mine in end of 1990. For my birfdee. Got all the goodies, the CD etc.
U ain't lying 😂
Those guys were super into the game
The great thing about the CD add-on was that it was region free, so you can play Dracula X: Rondo of Blood without any sort of modding or disc-swapping.
Cool
Man those guys were amped.
why wouldn't they be, this console was boss dare I even say quit radical!
I play games just as amped
Those guys need to lay off the coke before they play
LOL
Now you're playing with power!
That synthesizer sound at the end of the commercials was so cool.
They were even using the term "Next Gen" back then, holy shit balls...mind = blown
Two words: Military Madness. My dad had a Turbo Grafx 16. One of the games he had was Military Madness. I love that game!
Agreed! That is still one of the best games ever made and I still play it till this day
@@darrendavenport3094 It's a fun game, and it challenges you to think out your moves and strategies, kinda like chess.
Fun trivia: The pro skater Tony Hawk edited this commercial whilst struggling to make a living off of skateboarding in the late 80s.
Link
Best system ever and the pc engine
The big nail in the coffin for the TG-16 was the release of the Sega Genesis and SNES
Sega Genesis was actually released ahead of TurboGrafx-16.
God knows I wanted one, but it was huge money in those days.
anyone notice a mistake @ the 22 second mark? it looks like NEC should've known that Street Fighter came out in '87, not 1986.
Good and well.
I hear the TurboGrafx kicked butt in Japan. Only it was called the PC-Engine over there for some reason.
I would love to have one of those with the CD add-on and Rondo of Blood.
People say the TG16 was not a true 16bit console, but that dosen't mean shit, it was still powerful for it's time, and could just about match the Genesis.
I don't know why the Turbografx failed here in the states. I mean, it had some good titles, and a good advertising campaign. My guess was it was due to poor third party support
Back then if it wasn't name-brand it was slept on. Plus Nintendo and Sega had the market on lock. Yes it was 16-bit but was a couple days too late with their release. The Sega Genesis was released a couple days before plus Sega was already successful and established with the master system.
Only recently have I paid attention to the fact that it is spelled 'GRAFX,' not 'GRAPHIX,' LOL! (^_^)
Nice commercial! Thanks for sharing!
Notice in the commercial how they mentioned the CD-add on, but didn't show any graphics that were impressive, and didn't really say anything impressive about it. That's because CD's were so cool, just the idea of having a CD-player and system together sounded cool enough.
They should have went all out and said it could display over 20x as many colours on-screen as the NES, which is true.
But, alas, they didn't, and it flopped.
They weren’t lying about arcade graft. Ninja Spirit, R-Type, Splatter house, Bloody Wolf, all great ports from the Arcade!
CD add-ons never did well in retail (at least here in America) because they would cost 1.5-2x as much as the core system itself. @ the time, most gamers still would have parents buy them VG's, & most would be hard pressed to convince them to drop another $3-400 for a system, and then $60-70 a game.
Thanks a lot for this upload, I don't think I've seen this commercial! I wonder how many TG16 commercials there were total? I can only think of like three TV ones.
Still have mine. This commercial tho. Lol
It wasn't just poor 3rd party support that killed the Turbografx in the US, it was also Nintendo's anti-competitive practices that were later ruled illegal that killed the Turbografx in the US.
Genesis fought the shit out of it, man.
@Dude45Productions Ehh? The Genesis, SNES, and TG16 all use 4bit color indexed pixels for sprites and BG layers. The systems use subpalettes of 16 colors (only 15 see-able 'cause 0 is always transparent). Genesis has 4 subpalettes; so that's a max of 61 colors onscreen (4 subpalettes X 15 colors +1). SNES is 241 for most games (non-mode 7, is 16 subpalettes * 15 colors + 1). Excluding transparency. TG16 is 481 colors on screen (32 x 15 + 1). That's systems colors without any tricks.
Turbografx is what Genesisn't!
@Dude45Productions Yeah, but with an inferior game system... the NES. The NES hardware was truly under the bar when the 16bit generation hit.
I remember consoles like this and Neo-Geo: Neo-Geo even had a memory card where you could continue games from SNK arcade consoles at the local video arcade, and they were interchangeable.
did you own the neo geo?
Turbografx in my opinion was way better than sega genesis, and Nintendo. Just to pricy when it came out..
My favorite game for that system was the dungeon and dragons game I still have it somewhere.
Final lap twin needs more love
@SwordOfCrystalis
just because things are expensive doesn't make them successful.
Plus it's still expensive because it's very hard to come by these days.
@modewr
Yeah, it was just named differently in the US (or maybe Europe, too, I don't know about that).
turbografx looks awesome, but i wouldn't want to end up like those guys in the commercial.
@mrblackalchemist What game lol? Fighting Street?
@modewr IT is and it isn't the PC Engine is the japanese version,which is the same hardware in a very much better designed small case which actually makes sense that's why you play the games from small cards and you only have one controller port,the Turbographx is the ugly US version which put the same stuff in a gigantic case without any advantage,on the other hand the PC Engine can't read turbographx games,but the Turbographx can read PC Engine games,so its the best option despite the uglyness
Now you're playing with power. turbo power.
were there any fmv games for this system?
That Legendary Axe clip had me almost ask for one of these for Xmas at the time. Fortunately I wound up getting a Genesis instead.
You made the smart move
@@roderickstockdale1678 bonk ruled
grahamjarman bonk was cool but he ain’t have as much skill as Shinobi or the warriors, don’t forget the warriors could transform into creatures!
@@roderickstockdale1678 i said it kicked nintendos ass lol
grahamjarman nobody commented on Nintendo!
Hey Vern! That one guy looks like Ernest. Y'know wada mean? #LOL
Absolutely. They were releasing maybe one or two new games every couple of months (Why do you think their magazine was bimonthly?), and most of it was utter trash. What they should have done was discontinue their Hucard games and just make the CD games the standard format, while bringing out all the top-notch Japanese shooters and RPGs. Really, if you didn't have the CD system and money to spare for mail-order import games, you weren't going to get much out of your TG16.
Same arguement could be said for something like LaserActive, or any other rare system. I just think that NEC really did not put it's all into the US market, which in the end, became a major factor in the 16 bit wars. SEGA and Nintendo ate them ALIVE in sales, & also not being in every retailer hurt as well.
I never had this system
Turbo does... What Nintendont!
yes
I didn't mean as in location, but in popularity. It was never really a popular console here in the U.S.
Sega killed off the T16, then they attacked Nintendo (the Nintendon't ads.)
i know it's years later but he was right. it was a failed add on. the reason a used one costs so much today is because there isn't an abundance of them out there sitting in people garages or attics. (most of us old gamers have at least one of our older systems just sitting around) because no one bought them in the first place. making the few that are out there really rare, and therefore pricey.
Cool
You know I often ask myself what would happen if you bring the modern game system from this time back to the time when turbo graphix,sega and etc. how advance would system be now ; you know what they say about time any little change in the past would alter the future.
i didn't know anyone who could afford one of these things, or a neo geo, or find games for either one.
@SwordOfCrystalis
they are so expensive BECAUSE they weren't successful. that makes them rare and therefore expensive.
I don't remember this commerical at all. The only one i remember for the TurboGrafx16 was on a tape of the PeeWee's Playhouse Christmas special on MTV.
The commerical went something like, first there was atari, then there was nintendo. And then they showed of some of the games, like Bonk and wonderers of Y'll
it did.
looks like a ps3 to me
@modewr yes, yes it is
The moral of this commercial: don't experiment with LSD before playing your TurboGrafx 16.
Wavy
I remember in like 93 or 94 you could get this console at toy r us for 20$ the game cost more then the system I bout one always liked it.
+Kevin F Yea I remember when they were unloading these for $29 at Babbages.
It was a great system most of the good games at the time cost more than the system
Wish I could have grabbed one (or more!) then. The prices now, esp. for a Duo are ridiculous. Great system though, I agree.
And if you don't buy one, Johnny Turbo will be right over to ZARK! you right in the face.
I remember seeing this commercial on TV when it came out. It was certainly a step up from the NES, but the samples of the games I saw didn't impress me all that much, unfortunately.
In fact, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall the TG-16 having any "mega popular" games on par with Sonic or Mario that transcended the system itself. Anyone?
True
Street Fighter 1!
Great!
Back in the day when home systems were nowhere near as good as arcade systems......now a days home systems are massively powerful and online, while arcades are where adults go to get drunk
16 is for 16-bit graphics
double the NES's 8-bit
@scir91 BRO! It's coming out next MONTH! Just in time for Christmas!
But acording to the virtual console it was made by capcom.
R-Type was the flagship game when it was launched in Japan (and remained the most technically impressive game on the system in some ways)... strange how it doesn't feature in that ad.
LMAO... Blazing Lazers made R type look like a turd virtually overnight... with all the flicker, slowdown and sluggish gameplay, R type was an overhyped dud...
Awesome commercial! It's too bad the TurboGrafx-16 didn't make it here in the U.S.
previous 15 years or more years ago it was made
I’m from the future, next gen consoles are out in 2021, this is nothing.
yeahh! but in that epoch have problems with the name search that in wikipedia
Best game on this system was Military Madness.
@SwordOfCrystalis
That's more due to rarity than quality. A working 3DO could also cost nearly as much if not more, and that was a piece of shit.
Remember, uninformed comments make you look stupid.
...By Hudson!
🐝
(ding!)
@RockoJulian Yep I got it as a kid and it was around the time Street Fighter 2 was taking over the universe. I figured Fighting Street would be comparable not so much graphics wise but enjoyable. I was dead wrong. The rounds often took a minute to load but worse the controls were so sluggish and non responsive. Amazingly I was sent the game as a gift and was waiting anxiously for a month to play it after 30 minutes I lost interest. Big disappointment Fighting Street gets 0 stars out of Five.
On 00:07 on the bottom says compared to nintendo... So thats how it got on Nintendo wii
Overall I was never a huge fan of the turbografx. I had one but I returned it quickly and got a Genesis instead. It did have some great games but overall it was lacking as a system. Keith Courage sucked (although it had great music) but Legendary Axe was a pretty good game and so was R-Type. Alien Crush is still the best pinball game I have ever played and the baseball game was good. Bonk's Adventure was a decent game too. Overall however, not a great system.
i actually hated the control pad as the directions were stuck to all parts. nintendo's controller was precise as it was a real crosshair model. the games were also too difficult where nintendo had good cheat codes like 30 lives in contra or obvioiusly the game genie.
Video Games Are Fun Genesis had the best one
it never broke the n.american market. however, in the rest of the world, this outsold sega and even super nintendo for a while. i was fortunate enough to play this console and man was it way ahead of its time.
In retrospect, I feel really bad for my parents for spending their hard earned money on this piece of shit... 400 bucks
They should have got a Sega Genesis
@RockoJulian I had that game and it blew!!!
Fighting street? Isn't that street fighter?
yea to bad know one got to play the real dracula X on the Trbo GF that is a kick ass game.
It beat the pants off the genesis
SPLATTERHOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
horrifyingly good
Taylor Swift is born on December 13 1989 Christmas season holiday birthday on turbo grafx 16 system nec Cornelius Raibon girlfriend Taylor Swift Cornelius Raibon on Halloween birthday 35 anniversary October 31 1985 on Nintendo entertainment system Cecilia Raibon born September 18 1960 Cecilia Raibon birthday on sega 60 anniversary sega birthday 1960-2020
Are u OK?
Who’s Cecilia?
@modewr Yes! I've always thought that was their reasoning behind that decision, the problem is it makes the other design decisions look weird, the HU Card and the Single player port are ways of making the console very tiny in the japanesse version I think it holds the title for the tiniest home video game console ever, at least they could have thrown the multitap addon in the US version, because it's just an empty box! but apart from it's design its a great console I actually like it a lot!
@Dude45Productions
That's why you generally don't spout "facts" about consoles you have zero experience or knowledge about.
The Higher Energy game system??? HAHAHAHA!! Who came up with that crap??
Ha it said Fighting Street instead of Street Fighter
That’s what it was called on the TurboGrafx CD.
@@roderickstockdale1678 the arcade ver had huge buttons you hit n punch
grahamjarman should’ve said that to Rocco.
What was the point of that CD player? It was a hideous looking combo. And all I can see is Sherlock Holmes. It smells like it was another Sega CD failure.
Ninja Spirit, Bloody Wolf and Splatterhouse were my favorites on that system.
ebay
Turbo graphix 16 RULES!!!!! LoL jk
+1 for anyone who can beat keith courage and/or enjoy it...what bundle-in piece of crap lol...bring on the AIR ZONK!
OMG!
It was good in its time.
If this included Legendary Axe instead of Kieth Crap, it likely would have made a big difference in popularity. Some of their choices of arcades to port were pretty bad though but really for a dual 8 bit system, it had pretty good graphics for it's time. I never understood why companies like NEC didn't choose to port some of the really popular arcade titles that few others ported such as Simpsons, TMNT...the type of games that most everyone knew of and could have really sold the system back then.
VERY surprised double dragon did not come out for this system. it debuted in 1988 in jpn so double dragon (in 87) was still HOT.
***** They did have the arcade port of Vigilante...granted not nearly as popular but that system seemed to have a lot of arcade ports that few heard of.
It wasnt a dual 8 bit system lol... It had dual 16 Bit GPUs and an 8 Bit CPU which still ran faster than the SNES
first console i ever played when i was like 5