One of the best thing about retro gaming, much like music, is that when you look back you can focus on stuff you missed out on the first time around. The first time I saw the PC Engine was on the cover of Video Games and Computer Entertainment, back when the NES was still ruling my world. With screen shots of Victory Run and some other games, I remember just drooling over AWESOME it was. Fast forward a few years, the concept of CD ROM gaming came into reality and all I wanted to do was play what looked like the ULTIMATE video game, It Came From the Desert!
Well, I still haven't played it, but during a CES promo from the early 90s, it really seemed like the future now with the Turbografx 16. Personally, I finally got to play a TG16 in 1990, Legendary Axe was the game. It was everything that I loved about the NES, but much more. Magazines like Gamepro were continuously covering games that I unfortunately could not play (this was back when people generally had one console at a time
) , but I knew they were awesome: Military Madness, Alien Crush, Bonk's Adventure...and shooters up the ying-yang! Then one drunken teen night, I saw (rather, heard) the future: over at a party, and the owner of the house owned not only a TurboExpress (Ninja Spirit, WHAAAAAAT?!?!?) , but the CD Rom attachment...listening to Valis (2, 3?), I couldn't believe it. It seems long ago, and it was! But this was what it was like for me back then.
Now, through luck, really, I've been retrogaming a loooong time and it's finally come around: while deciding whether or not to include 16-bit era consoles in my retro collection, I first tracked down a Genesis. But as great as that console is, I knew I had to track down the one system that I knew was going to scratch the "NES on Steroids" itch: the Turbografx 16! Not doing enough research, I hit the only place I could: ebay, and now own a great console, albeit minimalistic (one joystick), it's going to be the start of something special. It came with two games, Bonk's Adventure and J.J. and Jeff (that one in particular was reviewed a lot back in EGM, when I learned it was an Americanized version of a Japanese game that, to my teen delight, allowed the main characters to FART?!?!...this was the pre-internet world for me, accessible only through gaming mags
) and the best part is everything works. I'm pretty sure I overpaid, but I don't care
I can always be frugal in the future, although it looks like this system isn't very frugal in general
No matter! I'll keep it simple for now, and track down a few things that should make life easier (I have a post in the wanted section, if you care to look). My next step was to pick up a TED, and life couldn't be better. It's only recently that I learned about the vast collection of Japanese games, and how relatively small the NA releases were in comparison. And if all I got to play were the NA games, I's seriously be ok with that, as for nostalgia factor alone this system is legendary. Now that I know a bit more, it seems that a PC Engine Duo-R is the way to go, as I'd love to play those CD ROM games too (I was a fan of Shadow the Beast), having passed up a TurboDuo last fall, I'm kicking myself as I type this!...but then I wasn't aware that they were so problematic (capcitor issues), so perhaps it wasn't so bad. But even then, I should snagged it. Anyways, it seems there's a lot of dedicated folks here and I'm glad to learn more about this awesome system. Even if I never manage to get to play the CD games, I'm happy to get to play the HuCards that I remember. Thanks in advance for all the help, tips and knowledge!
Topic: Intro, hello! (Read 313 times)
