Old VHS Turbo-grafx promo tape

[Zeon]

I was reading over on this topic here
http://www.pcenginefx.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1428
and it reminded that still have an old vhs tape from I got in the mail years ago back in the turbo grafx's heyday. I'm assuming it came from TZD or TTI inc. It showed many of the current games and some of the new games to come out (Neutopia and Shadow of the Beast come to mind).

I don't know if it still works and I haven't watched it in years, but my question is, does anyone else have anything similiar to this and if so what would it be worth? Not that I would ever sell it, I'm just curious.

I'd love to share it if it's not elsewhere on the net, but I don't have the means at the moment, and I haven't tested it yet to see if it works at all.

[Nanashi]

Ah a promo tape... I've only gotten one in my life (of course, I was born in 1990 so I lived through very little of the VHS era), the Pokemon tape (which sucked)...anyway, try and post the video online...i'm curious...

[Keranu]

Holy crap, you were born in 1990!? And I thought I was the youngest PCE gamer here being born in December 1987! Congratz, man.

[Zeon]

I am just as amazed as Keranu is; I was born January 1987 and was basically raised on the tg-16 (which my family later traded in to TZD for a Turbo Duo), but 1990? and a PCE Gamer?!?!

Nanashi I bow to you.

Man all this thinking back is really making me want to bust out with my Duo and play some good old PCE. But alas, I am living in a apartment at college, and my Duo and games are at home...

I will try to up the video for all to see, but it won't be until at least this summer, when I go home again, and only if I remember to do it.

Rest assured; however, that I will try my best to make it happen.

[nodtveidt]

You all make me feel so old.








































j/k    

[Keranu]

I am just as amazed as Keranu is; I was born January 1987 and was basically raised on the tg-16 (which my family later traded in to TZD for a Turbo Duo), but 1990? and a PCE Gamer?!?!

Well another '87er! Nice to meet 'ya! '87 sure was a rad year, wasn't it?

[malducci]

87!?! Wow, move over chinese astrological signs - you guys are the year of the PC-Engine!  But 1990? You were 2yrs old when the Duo hit the US.. that's a trip.

[Keranu]

The cool thing about 1990 was that it was the year of the Turbo Grafx 16 CD-ROM system .

[Zeon]

Yeah and I was two years old when my brother got a turbo grafx for a christmas present in 1989 (he was 7). No Nintendo for us, straight to turbo. Not that I'm complaining. We still have the VHS tape of him opening it on Christmas morning.

He was expecting a nes, boy was he surprised when he opened the thing that would entertain us and occupy almost all of our free time years to come.

Oh yeah and nice to meet you too Keranu. 1987 was a rad year, it's a pity I was too young to remember any of it. The earliest memory of my life I can recall at the moment is watching my brother and dad play Keith Courage then other early games like Fantasy Zone and Alien Crush, back when I was, like, 3 years old.

Man those were the days...

[esteban]

You all make me feel so old.
...
j/k    

Ditto, except I'm not kidding .

[Keranu]

I grew up with NES (though my older brothers were first growing up with Atari 5200) until Christmas of 1990 when we got a Genesis, which totally ruled. We still played our NES until it broke, but Genesis was the main road of gaming for about seven years to come.

[Zeon]

The genesis was the second system my brother came to own, I didn't like it as much as he did, but I have to admit that I absolutely love Shining Force I & II.

I think after that he got a Sega CD AND a 32X for his birthday one year. Later he got a game gear. Somewhere along the line we traded our Turbo Grafx for a Turbo Duo via TZD's upgrade offer years back, and bought some awesome cd games, such as Dungeon Explorer II, Ys I & II, Ys III, Beyond Shadowgate, Dynastic Hero (does the domestic version of this game really go for $500+ on ebay?), Bonk III, Dragon Slayer, Neo Nectaris, and some other pretty fun games like Might & Magic III, Loom, Splash Lake, and a few pretty bad games including Lords of the Rising Sun and Sim Earth. Opps.. didn't mean to make this into a list of cd games I own for the Duo.

Actually, I didn't own an nes until I was given one in 6th grade when the playstation, n64, and to a much lesser extent, the saturn, were the thing. Ironically the nes, not the PCE, is what ignited my obsession of collecting video games and interest in video game history. Part of it may have to do with the availability of cheap good nes games, the fact that the "nes scene" was in full swing online, and the extreme rarity of pce games (and lack of people and places that have pce stuff for sale, barring online stores).

I remember not being able to buy PCE games from places like Funcoland.. when the system was still in production and new games were still being made in the U.S.!!! Eventually the only place to buy from was TZD and luckily they were, and still are, a good, honest, and reliable company.

One funny side effect of getting exposed to Nintendo so much later than the PCE is that when I saw the original Zelda (my first time seeing any Zelda game) for the first time in an emulator, I watched my friend play it in amazement and bewilderment as I exclaimed, "That's a rip off of Neutopia!"

Wow I sure do rant a lot. Sorry 'bout that.

BTW Keranu, I am curious, when and how did you first hear of the PCE and what ignited your interest in it?

[Keranu]

Holy shit, do you still have all those Duo games? If so, you have a fortune in your hands!

I've always heard of the Turbo Grafx 16 and Turbo Duo growing up, but never knew what it was and never actually saw one. When I was in sixth grade in the year 1999/2000, I decided to download a TG16 emulator, which was back when Magic Engine wasn't so hot . I only downloaded and played two games: Bonk's Adventure and Neutopia, both games which I thought were really fun and great! Sadly, I didn't play them much due to emulation problems. Strike one.

The next year, I wanted to get into the Turbo Grafx 16 scene again, because I had watched "The Making of Lunar" video disc that came with Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete for Playstation and it showed clips of all these other Working Design games that I was greatly intriuged by, but then one that interested me the most was this game called "Cosmic Fantasy 2" . So I downloaded Magic Engine again and tried very hard to find a download for Cosmic Fantasy 2, but I had no look because I had no idea how to search for CD games and I always thought it was a cartridge game back then. So once again, I gave up on TG16. This makes strike two.

It's now about two years later and I'm up to bat still with two strikes, so I still have one good strike left before I'm out. I was commonly posting on this arcade emulation and video game message board called "Geoshock", and I met some cool online people to talk to there. Two of them (one who I later met in real life and became good friends with) were Duo fans and kept saying how much it ruled, so it encouraged my enthusiasm for the TG16 scene again. Since I actually had some help this time with these two online mates, I was able to get into the scene a lot better and I started downloading various HuCard games immediately, specificly some Japanese ones like Bomberman '94, Bubble Gum Crash, and Bonk 3.

I was totally digging this system now but I was still curious about CD games. So I got some help on how to run them and immediately I was downloading this game called "Dracula X", which I had no idea what it was really, I just thought it had a cool name. I was going to download Ys Book I & II first but I asked my brother which one I should download first, and he said Dracula X because we both thought it sounded cooler . I downloaded Dracula X and needless to say, I thought it was great. Now I had heard great things about Ys Book I & II, yet I had NO idea what it was about and from the info I was able to gather, I thought it was some kind of detective game . When it was done downloading, I played it and to sum it up, that game changed my life in the video gaming world forever . I had hit the home run.

From there own I was being a dirty pirate and downloading more and more games and enjoying them so much. Most of my gaming was going into those games and I loved every bit of them. When I was 16 and able to get a job, I was finally able to buy all these games I loved since I said I  wouldn't be such a pirate if I had money.

Those were the days .

[Zeon]

Yep, I still have all of my Duo and tg-16 games, and I never plan on selling any of it. One I forgot to mention was the 3 in one cd pack in (4 in one if you count the hiden bomberman game) that came with the duo. I would have bought more back in the day had I known how expensive, and consequently, hard to obtain these games were going to get.

You thought Ys Book I & II was a detective game?   I find that hilarious, yet with a name like Ys the game could be anything.

I'm glad you finally did hit a home run, because you would have really missed out on a great system and some really great and innovative games. It's too bad the majority of the world is missing out, most haven't even heard of the PCE (at least those of us outside of Japan),  even some who were born before its time, and those who have usually write it off as "just another quirky system that failed and consequently must have failed for a good reason."

Hopefully PCE games being included in the Revolution's download service will raise awareness for this underappreciated system and counteract the misconception of it.

Man, if only TTi had better marketing strategies, they could still be in the console market today. Think of all the other great games they could have come out with (looking on a list of 100's of games planned to be ported to or developed for the U.S. makes me want to cry). I will never keep wondering what Neutopia III would have been like.

Keranu, I hear you and the people at Frozen Utopia are working to remedy that (I am not mistaken am I?). I really wish you all the best of luck in realizing the creation and completion of it as well as Mysterious Song and any other games you are all are working on. They all sound kick ass.

I really appreciate the fact that you all at Frozen Utopia are dedicated enough to take on such massive undertakings as creating new and porting existing games for this great system. I know it is not easy work especially if you go to school, have a job, family, friends, or basically have a life, and I get scared enough at the prospect of thinking about the amount of work that goes into making a game, let alone actually doing it. I will patiently wait for the day when we all may reap the fruits of your and the rest of Frozen Utopia's labor. Even if no game is finished I will still be happy knowing that you all at least made an effort.

Dang it, I'm ranting again! Oh well, I'm sure no one really minds.

[Keranu]

Thanks for the kind words. All of us at Frozen Utopia have had lots of busy an d trouble real life moments which have lacked us from work, but we haven't gave up and two games are close to completion, and Neutopia III with a very long way to go. It's very nice to know how patient you are and we hope to match your expectations . I myself am proud of the work we have done so far and I honestly do think our stuff looks professional. Don't forget about MindRec, the original indie PCE developers . There latest projects look amazing and I am eagirly aniticpating their releases, most especially PC Gunjin. The PCE scene has never received so much love before.