Was the TurboGrafx-16 or any of it's variants your first 16-bit quality console?

[Shrapnoid]

So, if the TG16, TE or Turbo Duo was your first arcade quality console, what made you choose it over the competition and were you satisfied with the choice you had made?

Also, how did people you knew who didn't have one act about it? Did they like it, did they put it down or make stupid jokes?

Please be descriptive and take the time to go into detail if you wish so, that we can all understand what it was like for you as an owner of the system.

   

[SMF]

Well for me as a kid one day my dad brought home a big black garbage bag from work. He stared pulling out Monster lair, Vigilante, China Warrior, Bonks Adventure, Blazing Lazers, Fantasy Zone and a few others along with the CD attachment add on. We had everything cept the TG 16 unit itself that we had to wait till tax time to get one.

My dad worked for a trucking company and got A LOT of games. I remember every few weeks he would bring home a new game lol I don't think I ever bought a game until the system got pulled from the shelfs at stores. I had 2 unopen boxes of TV tuners I traded up at the local game store for $65 each lol. Also have 2 turbo Boosters. A Turbo Booster and a Turbo Booster Plus lol. I remember trading new unopen controllers for games for the Genesis lol.

Only me and 2 other kids in the neighborhood had TG 16s and me and my friend had more then Bonk and Keith Courage. Yea it was a good time asa kid lol. Nothing like coming home and seeing your dad giving you a big bag of games and assesories it was a early xmas.

[Black Tiger]

I got a Genesis at launch after being a huge SMS and Sega fan and owned an NES and played most games that had been released for those consoles. The Genesis was very cool, but kinda unique with its visual style in early games and most titles were too arcade like in gameplay. I had a specific idea of what I wanted for graphics that I only saw in arcades and in spots in SMS games. I was dying to play console style games with vibrant shaded (kids in my town calked it "glowy") graphics. Keith Courage looked exactly like what I wanted when I saw it at a trade show. What won me over entirely was visiting a guy I knew one evening, who had a TG-16 with Dungeon Explorer and Neutopia. I was so biased against it and criticized everything I could. But I couldn't stop thinking about the graphics and perfect next gen sound and the look and feel if the hardware, esoecially tge TurboTap and pads. I finally got one late 1990 abd soon after bought those two games from that same guy and everything lived up to and surpassed my lifty expectations. The Turbo/PCE has been my favorite console ever since.

[DragonmasterDan]

I got it in Christmas of 1990, I got the Genesis in May of 1991 and the SNES on Christmas Day in 1991.

[Shrapnoid]

I got it in Christmas of 1990, I got the Genesis in May of 1991 and the SNES on Christmas Day in 1991.

It's refreshing to see someone online actually spell Christmas correctly and respectfully. So you got 3 of the 4 arcade quality systems within just 2 years. That must've been a lot of fun, being able to have nearly all of them at your fingertips so, you could play them and compare them to each other at the same time.

[DragonmasterDan]

I got it in Christmas of 1990, I got the Genesis in May of 1991 and the SNES on Christmas Day in 1991.

It's refreshing to see someone online actually spell Christmas correctly and respectfully. So you got 3 of the 4 arcade quality systems within just 2 years. That must've been a lot of fun, being able to have nearly all of them at your fingertips so, you could play them and compare them to each other at the same time.

Well from December 25th 1990 to December 25th 1991 I picked up three 16-bit consoles. So within one year.

As far as comparing and contrasting goes, I did a bit but it was limited to the number of games I had.

And it really came down to the games, when I got my TG16 I picked it up because I had a lot of friends that had it. I grew up within single digit miles of NEC USA's headquarters and I suspect it was better promoted here than other areas. When I got the TG16 it was because I knew a number of other kids my age who had it or were getting it and it offered the opportunity to trade games, bring games over to friends houses and such. I knew probably a half dozen other kids (I was in elementary school at the time) with TG16s. By comparison I knew ONE person with a Genesis until Sonic came out (I got mine right around the same time). Once the Genesis took off, it quickly caught up to the Turbo and surpassed it among kids I knew. By the first holiday season (1991) the SNES had caught up and by the time Zelda came out (Spring 1992) I knew more kids with SNES's than Turbos. By the time the Duo came out most kids I knew quit playing their Turbo's. I knew only one other kid who got a Turbo Duo.

[soop]

uuhhmm... I can't remember.  I never had any of them new, I always went around second hand stores buying stuff when it was cheap.  I think it probably was actually my first, thinking about it.
I did have an Amiga though, that definitely came first.

[BigusSchmuck]

It wasn't my first 16-bit system that I owned, however I remember playing Keith Courage at a Toys R Us in Portland Oregon early 90. I bought mine in late 94 after reading the reviews of Ys books 1 and 2 in a old EGM that I had at the time. We had got it used (in box) for $150 with Ys books 1 and 2 and China Warrior, got Gates of Thunder 3 in 1 from game dude shortly after. Then I started going to pawn shops in the area to get more games for the system, ended up getting a turbo tap with the converter and 2 games for $20. Then I discovered TZD and got a 5 turbo sticks for $25, man I wish I still had those boxes ><. Fast forward a few more years and then the 1997 EGM came out with the top 100 games to commemorate their 100th issue (wish someone had a scan) and lo and behold it had a few turbo games make their top 100 list. Fast forward even further, my old Duo had died last year in August, so I went to the retro gaming convention to pick up another duo, ended up trading my white sega saturn cib for it and not even 2 weeks after I got it the damn thing started to get the static sound and the cd drive eye got stuck hence I had a duo of duos for a while until I traded one of them off and got a Duo-R from my brother in Japan. Been collecting more games for it ever since.
Edit found the list:
http://kisrael.com/vgames/powerlist/egm100.html

[KingDrool]

It was mine. The last console I owned prior to the TG16 was a 2600. So many of my friends had an NES that I didn't really feel I needed one.

[roflmao]

The Turbografx-16 was my first 16-bit system.  The only system I had previously was a Sega Master System, which I sold to raise funds for the TG16.  Before the SMS, I wasn't really into console gaming.  I had a Commodore 64 and a Texas Instruments TI99-4a before that.  I've since purchased another SMS and nearly all the games I once had (and then some!). 

It was R-Type.  I had R-Type on the SMS and a friend of mine brought over his TG16 and R-Type and my jaw dropped.  It was love at first sight.  I then bought the SNES when it was released a couple of years later.  I didn't get a Genesis until last year, and that's because it was a gift. :oops:  But now I'm really enjoying picking up old Genesis games that I vaguely remember laying at friends houses.

[Necromancer]

It was mine. The last console I owned prior to the TG16 was a 2600. So many of my friends had an NES that I didn't really feel I needed one.

Pretty much the same story here, though I also had a GameBoy between the 2600 and the Turbob.

[Keith Courage]

The Turbografx was my first 16 bit system. Before that I only had a hand me down apple II+ computer. For Christmas my dad had bought me a turbografx with the CD rom attachment together. So I started out with the CD system right away. We got it at a local pawn shop and it had included Ys 1&2 monster lair, fighting street, and keith courage. My dad really wanted me to go with NEC cause he worked in the audio visual field at the time and knew of their great background. About a year later one of the Video rental stores by me started to sell off all of their Turbo grafx HU card games at only $5 a piece. My dad went and bought me a copy of each one and held onto them for me. He then gave me a game every time I got an A on a test in school. I was in 7th grade I believe at the time. I always loved the system mainly because of it's original games. Everyone else I knew had a Genesis which always seemed to bore me since they all owned the same games as one another.

[DesmondThe3rd]

I was lucky enough to get the Turbografx at Xmas 1989 with Keith Courage (of course) plus R Type and Legendary Axe. I was a happy kid!

[guyjin]

My first 16 bit game console was the SNES. I didn't get a Turbo (or Genesis) until 1998 or so. Most of my friends also had SNESes, but a couple had a Genesis instead. We were actually a little jealous of Genny owners because they got a CD upgrade (that Nintendo teased us with, but denied us) and Mortal Kombat with blood in it.

Gobbling up videogame magazines of the time (EGM, VG&CE, Diehard Gamefan, and, I'm embarrassed to say, Gamepro) I read a lot about the Turbo, Supergrafx, and Duo, and I coveted them. My friends were perplexed, since 'everyone knew the turbografx is really 8 bit'.

I almost got a job when I turned 15 just to get one (that would have been in 1994) but that didn't work out. By the time I did get a job, Starcraft, Quake, and the Internet were the new hotness, so I forgot the old systems for a while. Then I started getting into old game collecting, and here I am.

[Father5&JoshUnion]

I got the turbo duo in the summer of '94 as a result of saving up my money.  I had a SNES prior to that for about two years.  I got the SNES for X-mas that year.