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I have since grown to adore the Turbografx 16 and the unique library of games ( Dracula X, Bonk Series, Splatterhouse, just to name a few). I can't believe this system was not more widely known...
You know, I always find this statement to be somewhat odd. I guess it is possible the system really wasn't well known among players in other areas, but where I live currently, which is where I also grew up at, NLR area of Arkansas, the Turbografx was widely known. It may not have been
widely popular with everyone, but pretty much every kid I knew during the TG-16 systems retail life span that cared about video games on any kind of level knew about the Turbografx 16. Toys R Us, Software Etc, and Electronics Boutique all carried games for it, as did Sears and some other retail chains.
Most kids I knew did not shop at Wal-Mart, Target, or K-Mart for their games (mainly just parents did that), so basically where we spent our own cash also happened to be stores that carried the Turbografx. We also had a video store near by that rented out TG-16 games (R&R Video, and yeah, I bought the guy out of his TG16 and NeoGeo AES stuff
). Early TV ads had good exposure in the morning, coming on around the time Video Power aired, which everyone I knew watched, and also in general during normal cartoon air time. Between that, retail store exposure, the game magazines and comic book ads, pretty much everyone knew what it was because the exposure to the system was there.
They were just not sold on buying one, or did not have the cash to do so yet. It was always one or the other. Most parents in general did the game system shopping, and what they knew was Mario and Sonic and they went with what they knew, and what Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart told them to buy during the holidays. But to be flat out honest, the few kids I knew
who actually bought systems with their own cash, they bought the Turbografx, which is interesting in and of itself, and they, like myself, usually preferred to have a TG along with their Genesis or Snes that their parents got them.
Part of the Turbografx systems issue early on was it did not have enough killer aps, and by the time they did get some they tried to milk those few titles to death with terrible marketing efforts instead of coupling them with a slew of other solid B+ and C+ titles and solid advertisement. Most of the TV advertisements done for the TG-16 early on were great, but once they started the comic book ads and moved on to Johnny Turbo it was just mostly one bad marketing move after another. The ad people seriously had no idea that it's not that hard to make cool fun games look cool and fun in a ad. Solid artwork that is actually relevant to the game, a brief description, and 3-6 gameplay shots will do it. Instead they ran these two page comic ads that had ZERO gameplay shots. An ad for a video game should never try to be a two page story void of gameplay screen shots. The other issue with marketing was at times not enough was done for games like Final Lap Twin and Ordyne.
Stuff like them, Dragon Spirit, Silent Debuggers, etc, they should have been advertised, if nothing else, then on single page advertisements showing off two games. Seriously, they could have scrapped those two page Bonk comic ads and ran one ad page showing wtf Bonk was actually like, and another page split, showing off two C+ to B+ titles. In one comic book or magazine these ad pages could have been back to back, and in others they could have been spread across a few pages to serve as a reminder, and stay fresh on the readers mind.
Anyway, basically during my middle and high school years I knew of 8 or 9 others who had a TurboGrafx 16 or TurboDuo. Most my close friends who did not have one wanted one due to the arcade ports and Bonk games, but they couldn't afford it until it was too late. One friend did not necessarily want one, Brent, but he did like coming over and playing the stuff I had on it (mostly he was into Eternal Champions, Fatal Fury 2, Samurai Showdown, and Chrono Trigger, etc). When I was in my late teens I also scored a huge TG lot from a guy also in a trade that had probably 30 games or so along with a TG CD, multi tap, etc. I think the peak of the games I had was very close to 70 in my teen years along with a couple of TG CD decks and stuff.
All in all this was something I can at least look back on with pride. I only knew a couple of people who had a Master System growing up, let alone anyone who actually knew what one was by the time I was a teenager, so at least the Turbografx was not so out on the fringe that it had it that bad in my area. And honestly, US sales of 2.5 million units, while not great by retail standards, is still pretty good if you just look at the fact that it was
2.5 MILLION systems that were bought and enjoyed, compared to like the NeoGeo AES and CD, 32x, 3DO, or Jaguar retail sales numbers for the US side of things. Over two million families of some type owned a Turbografx 16 or TurboDuo. And that in itself was by far a good enough reason for them to continue support up until 94 or whatever. And then you had Smartworks selling TG hardware after retail ended (whose hardware sales were not tallied in the total NA sales figure), and TZD taking over game sales, so I mean, in general, for it not being a retail success, it didn't do terrible by any means and it actually enjoyed pretty good support after its retail life ended.
Topic: Introduction to the forum...sort of LOL (Read 723 times)
