1up.com: Saving the System - TurboGrafx-16

[DragonmasterDan]

There are many HuCard RPGs, especially compared to the perceived number of Genesis JRPGs.

The main problem with bringing over PCE RPGs is that RPGs were unpopular during that generation.

How many were there? I was thinking a dozen or so at most.

[KingDrool]

Yeah, I'm not so sure RPGs would've done much to save the Turbo. It didn't seem like RPGs really took off in the States until after FFVII.

If anything, some more decent flashy platformers like Bonk, more licensed games like TMNT, Street Fighter 2 being localized (though by that time, the writing was on the wall), and even a tiny bit of support from publishers like Konami and Capcom would've done wonders.

[Arkhan]

RPGs were huge back then in my area.  Thats all my older relatives and their friends talked about/played.  Commodore 64/DOS RPGs, NES ones.   Dragon Warrior was like crack around here. 

There is also a really heavy penpaper/table top gaming history / scene, so maybe its all related?

[DragonmasterDan]

RPGs were huge back then in my area.  Thats all my older relatives and their friends talked about/played.  Commodore 64/DOS RPGs, NES ones.   Dragon Warrior was like crack around here. 

There is also a really heavy penpaper/table top gaming history / scene, so maybe its all related?

The problem was that RPGs required reading. Kids found them boring and not having enough action and being too wordy at the time.

With that said I loved Dragon Warrior as a kid and spent countless hours playing RPGs from about age 7, but.. at a time when the gaming industry was seen entirely as a sub-section of the toy industry RPGs weren't the most popular genre.

[A_Locomotive]

There are many HuCard RPGs

Really? Were they mostly Japanese? What about English releases, I know of the Neutopias, Dungeon Explorer and Double Dungeons but what else was there? I'd love to play some RPGs on my TG16 so if you could drop some names that would be awesome. :]

I read the article and I must say I think the part about the name being a reason it failed is idiotic, TurboGrafx-16 isn't hard to spell or remember unless your a moron so I think they were just grasping at straws in an attempt to extend the article.

[Black Tiger]

There are many HuCard RPGs, especially compared to the perceived number of Genesis JRPGs.

The main problem with bringing over PCE RPGs is that RPGs were unpopular during that generation.

How many were there? I was thinking a dozen or so at most.

That's just about how many JRPGs were brought over for SNES.

I read the article and I must say I think the part about the name being a reason it failed is idiotic, TurboGrafx-16 isn't hard to spell or remember unless your a moron so I think they were just grasping at straws in an attempt to extend the article.

Before they became household names, what do you think the average kid would've thought of words like "Sega", "Genesis" or "Nintendo". I guarantee that none could've told you what a Sega or Nintendo was. But I don't think that any kid at the time would've been clueless about words like "Turbo", "Graphics" or "Sixteen".

[DragonmasterDan]

That's just about how many JRPGs were brought over for SNES.

I don't think RPGs helped the SNES much either, these days people like to go back and fondly remember playing Chrono Trigger, Earhbound and Final Fantasy 6. But none of those games were monster sellers in the US, the only one that sold particularly well was Super Mario RPG, because it had Mario in it.

[Black Tiger]

That's just about how many JRPGs were brought over for SNES.

I don't think RPGs helped the SNES much either, these days people like to go back and fondly remember playing Chrono Trigger, Earhbound and Final Fantasy 6. But none of those games were monster sellers in the US, the only one that sold particularly well was Super Mario RPG, because it had Mario in it.

I agree. Although RPGs have been my favorite since the 8-bit generation, I've never pretended that they were mainstream or hardware sellers bitd.

Someone just said that there weren't many PCE RPGs on HuCard. But going by what North Americans were used to, even by the number of JRPGs that were on the console that is remembered as having loads of them, there was a good amount of PCE HuCard JRPGs. The PCE has more RPGs and RPGish games than SFC and a comparable number of RPG/ish games as it does shooters. But non-PCE-fans love to say how the PCE only has shooters and that the SNES/SFC was the king of RPGs.

In Europe the pack in was Blazing Lazers.

The PAL TurboGrafx pack-in was random. Mine came with Alien Crush.

[T2KFreeker]

I don't know about the RPG argument. I think people forget about a group of gamers that came from the AD&D era. Most of my friends and the like were way into RPG's on the consoles. I still remember us all thinking the Sega Master System was so much better than the Genesis because it had Phantasy Star on it! We ran through games like Shadowgate, Immortal, The Dragon Warrior Games. Zelda was HUGE. When I had my Turbo Grafx and nobody else did, we all went out looking for the Neutopia games and tried, very in Vain sadly, to find AD&D Order of the Phoenix. Also, many of the people I knew were talking about the Turbo Grafx CD system because of the Y's games and the Valis games. We all wanted the Sega CD system too after seeing Lunar the Silver Star and Shining Force CD.Those were the games that were popular here in Palmdale California. Most of the kids here thought that shooters were cool and the like but most of them liked playing those in Arcades. We thought that RPG's were cool because it was something unique to the consoles. Just a side look is all I am saying. RPG's may not have been the end all of the consoles at the time, but there were a large number of gamers that did play them and enjoy them.

[DragonmasterDan]

The PAL TurboGrafx pack-in was random. Mine came with Alien Crush.

Interesting was yours a UK one or one from Spain? Almost every one I've seen came with Blazing Lazers.

[KingDrool]

I don't know about the RPG argument. I think people forget about a group of gamers that came from the AD&D era. Most of my friends and the like were way into RPG's on the consoles. I still remember us all thinking the Sega Master System was so much better than the Genesis because it had Phantasy Star on it! We ran through games like Shadowgate, Immortal, The Dragon Warrior Games. Zelda was HUGE. When I had my Turbo Grafx and nobody else did, we all went out looking for the Neutopia games and tried, very in Vain sadly, to find AD&D Order of the Phoenix. Also, many of the people I knew were talking about the Turbo Grafx CD system because of the Y's games and the Valis games. We all wanted the Sega CD system too after seeing Lunar the Silver Star and Shining Force CD.Those were the games that were popular here in Palmdale California. Most of the kids here thought that shooters were cool and the like but most of them liked playing those in Arcades. We thought that RPG's were cool because it was something unique to the consoles. Just a side look is all I am saying. RPG's may not have been the end all of the consoles at the time, but there were a large number of gamers that did play them and enjoy them.

There's no doubt that RPGs had an audience, but they weren't, by any means, system sellers.

[Arkhan]

they werent system sellers?

that is probably why N64 failed.  No RPGs.   Theres like, 3 of them.

[DragonmasterDan]

they werent system sellers?

that is probably why N64 failed.  No RPGs.   Theres like, 3 of them.

The first RPG that was a system seller in the US at least, is widely regarding as being Final Fantasy VII (this in no way reflects the quality of the game, merely the popularity of it).

[sheath]

Interesting article.  I personally think the PCE/DUO were ahead of their time by having only one controller port and forcing the buyer to pay for add-ons to have stereo sound, composite, and multiplayer.  The Playstation and PS2 are almost entirely single player affairs, this proves for all time that the masses tend to play games alone in a dark room and rarely shower.  

Also, the DINs were huge on the TurboGrafx-16 (spelt right) because everybody knows that Americans have huge hands and are intrinsically clumsier than Japanese people.  

I personally have not noticed the TurboGrafx-16 or DUO considered a failure in gaming circles like the Saturn frequently is.  Both are considered elite hard-core gaming havens by real gamers, but in my experience only the TG16/DUO gets recognized as such.  It is nearly impossible to find a thread about the Saturn that doesn't include the phrase "horrible mess," by comparison.  

Wait a minute, did 1-up seriously base a multi-page article on multiple consoles on the opinions of Victor Ireland?!

[Black Tiger]

I don't know about the RPG argument. I think people forget about a group of gamers that came from the AD&D era. Most of my friends and the like were way into RPG's on the consoles. I still remember us all thinking the Sega Master System was so much better than the Genesis because it had Phantasy Star on it! We ran through games like Shadowgate, Immortal, The Dragon Warrior Games. Zelda was HUGE. When I had my Turbo Grafx and nobody else did, we all went out looking for the Neutopia games and tried, very in Vain sadly, to find AD&D Order of the Phoenix. Also, many of the people I knew were talking about the Turbo Grafx CD system because of the Y's games and the Valis games. We all wanted the Sega CD system too after seeing Lunar the Silver Star and Shining Force CD.Those were the games that were popular here in Palmdale California. Most of the kids here thought that shooters were cool and the like but most of them liked playing those in Arcades. We thought that RPG's were cool because it was something unique to the consoles. Just a side look is all I am saying. RPG's may not have been the end all of the consoles at the time, but there were a large number of gamers that did play them and enjoy them.

Myself and a few others in my hometown were also huge RPG fans and I often saw the same people when buying second hand games through the local paper. But everyone else was playing platformers and the latest edition of NHL' .

There has always been a large number of RPG console fans, but they were always a tiny percentage of the market before FFVII. Even FFIII(VI) was supposed to have broken new ground for RPGs popularity wise, but it and Chrono Trigger and PSIV sold very poorly compared to real hits and were special cases when non-RPG fans would play them, but not hunt down other RPGs afterward.

If RPGs were popular enough before FFVII,  we would have recieved Final Fantasy 2, 3 & 5, at least Dragon Warrior 5 & 6 and Capcom would have brought over Breath of Fire 1.