What if...?

[Sadler]

I see threads here from time to time on what games you'd bring out in the US if you were in charge of the TG16. Let's take that a step further: what if everything available in Japan was available in the US, completely localized. Let's even include hardware in this. Do you think the TG would have come out on top then?

I'm not sure where I stand on it. The PC Engine had lots of fantastic stuff, and plenty that would appeal to the American gamer. At the end of the day though, I really don't know if it'd be enough.

[nectarsis]

At the time the lack of fighters, and sports games would have still been an obstacle IMO.

[Sadler]

At the time the lack of fighters, and sports games would have still been an obstacle IMO.

Good point on the sports games! Seems like there were a lot of fighters over the years, including the SNK fighters, Flash Hiders, Advanced VG (which I'm told blows), SF2, and Kabuki Itoryuden. Kabuki might be too Japanese though, and I'm guessing there's a good chance the arcade card would suffer the same problems in the US that it did in Japan which would negate most of the fighters on the system.

[tggodfrey]

I agree.  NEC focus wayy too much on shooters.

[SignOfZeta]

I see threads here from time to time on what games you'd bring out in the US if you were in charge of the TG16. Let's take that a step further: what if everything available in Japan was available in the US, completely localized. Let's even include hardware in this. Do you think the TG would have come out on top then?

At the time I thought it would. Well, I never though it could be "number 1" or "defeat the competition" because, really who gives a shit who's number one? I did think they could at least make money and stay in business in the US if they would just translate more games.

Looking back on it these days though...I don't know. Probably not. I suppose its possible that with more RPGs the TG-16 could have done what Sony did with FFVII a few years earlier and create the mainstream US RPG crowd, but probably not. The system was just too expensive. In Japan guys who bought a PCE w/ CD capability were mainly buying it because they wanted to play stuff like Dragon Warrior with CD enhancements. They were already fans of RPGs thanks to the Famicom, huge fans, and the upgrade was worth the money. In the US though gamers still seemed to REALLY hate to read.

Pre-CD games on PCE were considered too crude compared to Genesis/SNES stuff, and post CD games were mostly RPGs, which Americans didn't want. The system was basically screwed. They could have done better than they did, they really squandered a chance to get one up on the Genesis in particular, but I really don't think they had a chance to be "number 1" or even number 3.

[motdelbourt]

They would have gotten a little more attention. But PCE games are just so Japanese and catered to Japanese tastes, that no amount of bad western box art could have disguised that fact. The PCE library would have gone over great with the culture of the late 90s, but the late 80s and early 90s was too soon. NEC/TTi was kinda going for PC ports for western games, which was not a bad strategy, but they really would have needed more support from Electronic Arts, and possibly more direct support from PC publishers and developers.

But having everything localized would have given their marketing team a fighting chance. They would still have to spin it into successful sales, and drum up some local development, 3rd party publishers, more ports, etc.

So my answer is no, it wouldn't be enough. Solid foundation to expand on though, yes.

[RegalSin]

The Turbo would have been remodeled at some point, because of the obvious reasons. The obvious reason is the Genesis Mega Drive. If Atari had purchased the Turbo, and modeled it into the Jaguar maybe we would have seen something but the following still remains.

The Turbo would need some sorta plablicity to beat Mario and Sonic. I was a Mario fan, while my cousin was a Sonic fan. Then the big boys were all Amiga, and Arcade fans. SNK had drop the bomb of consoles for the importers.

Why would Alex Kid or Boink even fight Mario and Sonic, I do not know. Boink for instance was a fun game, but in comparison to Sonic and Mario. I doubt kids where singing about it, I remember drawing and dancing to Mario, even watching Captain Louie. RPG games was restricted to DAD people, and nobody even knew what a Comic adventure is until Metal Gear ( Snatcher ), and the NDS ( Ace Atourney ) came out. Our creativity was spread out all over the place, and we were recovering from the 1970's, apparently. In the west they divided the Comic books into two systems while in Japan they never did such a thing. The creator of Final Fantasy said "without the popularity of comics, videogames would have never been popular".

While I listen to "Yellow Magic" I am 100% honestly glad that it never happen. Look at Victor, you can obviously see they have attempted to port games of Japans taste, while most western games are left out to hang, and be forgotten. The entirety game changer, is the American consumer and makes a Japan game company thrive nation wide. Not the other way around. While counterfiting is occuring of American products. Most Japanese games are not purchased at all, and stays in stock. However in the west I believe out dead stock is destroyed or put outside.

[turbofan1]

I agree.  NEC focus Way too much on shooters.

True,but we still missed out on some really great shooters.Spiggan,nexzar,Parodius,Macross 2036.The turbo didn`t have much third party support,so I would of localized as many pc engine games that people were familiar with.For example Ninja Gaiden,Double Dragon II,Out Run.

[Necromancer]

I'm not sure if it could've taken the top spot or even nudged out the Genny, but it definitely would've made 'em profitable enough to fail even harder with the PC-FX ( ).  Lack of fighters and good sports games (is there such a thing?) is really a non-issue, as had the Turbob been more popular there would've been more games catering specifically to the NA audience (as happened with the SNES and Genesis).

They could have done better than they did, they really squandered a chance to get one up on the Genesis in particular, but I really don't think they had a chance to be "number 1" or even number 3.

I thought they already were in third.  Who are you counting in the third spot?  NeoGeo?  CDi?  32X?

[Arkhan]

The sports game garbage is an American thing.   If people gave two shits about the turbob here, EA would've put out a bunch of crap football and hockey games just like they did for the Genesis.


Plus, the baseball games for the Turbob that we never got are better than everything on SNES and Genesis anyway

[soop]

Hmm.  I think if they put out EVERYTHING, they would probably have come out worse than they did.  A lot of it wouldn't have sold too well, and the cost of manufacturing and making all those games to poor reception would have been high.

I think if they'd been a bit pickier about what they did release earlier on, it would have made the difference.  As it was, it never had the momentum.

[Father5&JoshUnion]

If that is the case, then the TG16 would have been released in 1987. A two year advantage over the Genesis.

I think if that would have happened the TG would have been in direct competition with the SNES in the early 90s. I'm not sure if would have lasted all the way to the next generation, but it would have definitely helped get them passed Sega....

[BigusSchmuck]

You know, if we saw a super duo with the arcade card and super grafx capabilities and released in 92, I believe TTI would have been able to compete better at the very least with the snes and genesis at the time. We would have then gotten the neo fighters at a fraction of the cost of getting an actual NeoGeo and the games for it. Again, cost would be a factor to all of this, but at $300 would still be better than paying $300 just for the sega cd for the genesis at the time.

[Arkhan]

If they would've released half the action games that they never gave us, we'd have been a bit more set than we were...

I put a few non action games in here too.  like Necromancer and Outlive.  Necromancer would've been a great US release.

Eternal City
Cyber Cross & Cross Wiber
Altered Beast
Final Blaster
Outlive
Necromancer
After Burner 2
OutRun (power drift too.  Its better anyways!)
Ninja Gaiden (who cares if it scrolls funny)
Schibibin Man
Raiden
SF2
Kyukyoku Tiger (I mean duhrrrr wtf)

there are more even.  The shooters would've done great.  and the rest helps round it out some.

Whoever picked what to bring over was a dumbf*ck.

[thesteve]

the best option would of been not to region lock anything, and multilang everything.
that would allow them to directly cross market games without the added cost of the US releases.
making your money off game licensing rather than system would have helped get the DUO into kids hands