Unfortunate Turbo/PCE Beginners Guide

[galam]

When the TG-16 was launched in 1982, under the codename Panther, it forced the NES to do a "quick launch" about a month early in Yemen.  After testing this market, nintendo knew it had a gem on thier hands.  With nintendos deep pockets and NEC's marketing brilliance, they teamed up with philips to develop the CD unit.  This took sega by surprise while they were scrambling to resurrect the failing genesis.  By 1987, the third party license disagreement lead to nintendo splitting off and taking all the good licenses with them in draconian fashion.  NEC counter punched by selling the CD technology to the video game juggernaut that was Atari, which eventually became the jaguar CD.  Atari had 87% market share from 1990-1995 and nintendo/sega couldn't keep up.  When NEC finally liquidated everything to Pepsi, thats when sony came along and said "we gotta get in this".  Sony developed a new 3GB storage capacity cartridge which was going to usher in the next generation of video games.  Too bad Danny Ocean stole the blueprints and sony was stuck with mediocre CD games in double CD cases.  If it wasnt for that extra packaging (cost), sony would still be "in the game".

[esteban]

When the TG-16 was launched in 1982, under the codename Panther, it forced the NES to do a "quick launch" about a month early in Yemen.  After testing this market, nintendo knew it had a gem on thier hands.  With nintendos deep pockets and NEC's marketing brilliance, they teamed up with philips to develop the CD unit.  This took sega by surprise while they were scrambling to resurrect the failing genesis.  By 1987, the third party license disagreement lead to nintendo splitting off and taking all the good licenses with them in draconian fashion.  NEC counter punched by selling the CD technology to the video game juggernaut that was Atari, which eventually became the jaguar CD.  Atari had 87% market share from 1990-1995 and nintendo/sega couldn't keep up.  When NEC finally liquidated everything to Pepsi, thats when sony came along and said "we gotta get in this".  Sony developed a new 3GB storage capacity cartridge which was going to usher in the next generation of video games.  Too bad Danny Ocean stole the blueprints and sony was stuck with mediocre CD games in double CD cases.  If it wasnt for that extra packaging (cost), sony would still be "in the game".

True story.

This is so true. It's sad, but it applies to magazines (remember them?) as well...I actually liked that UK RetroGamer mag, especially because it frequently discussed topics that I am barely knowledgeable in (as in, direct, first-hand experience...for example, the entire UK micro computer scene of the 80's), but in other areas (NES/Famicom, 16-bit generation), the articles seemed more prone to errors/biases. 

I used to work for a game magazine back in the day. When I would see other people write things like "Coming soon for Game Boy Advanced", I would cringe.  But that was typographical error more so than not knowing what they're talking about.

Everyone gets facts wrong, but when you have people who know very little about the content they're covering doing YouTube shows and Podcasts about it, it's a big issue. It's one thing when it's an occasional error, it's another thing when there's multiple issues in every episode.

You are absolutely correct: making an honest mistake, or misremembering something, or getting a fact wrong (I myself can't remember if JJ & Jeff was available 1989 or 1990 in US) is one thing; a pattern of sloppy mistakes is another....

Which reminds me, didn't you help me out when I needed a "pseudo-definitive" list of North American release dates? I can't believe something so seemingly simple is so hard to pin down. The year is usually narrowed down... but the month? Forget about it.

[DragonmasterDan]

Which reminds me, didn't you help me out when I needed a "pseudo-definitive" list of North American release dates? I can't believe something so seemingly simple is so hard to pin down. The year is usually narrowed down... but the month? Forget about it.

Yep, and even the year is difficult. It appears for example Monster Lair and Fighting Street were to be the first two CD games released in 1989, except for the fact that they pushed the CD system back to Summer 1990. So those games were manufactured with dates on them but not released til the following year.

[ApolloBoy]

except for the fact that they pushed the CD system back to Summer 1990.

Interesting, I had no idea that happened. I always assumed that the TG-CD was released in '89 shortly after the TG-16 itself.

[DragonmasterDan]

Interesting, I had no idea that happened. I always assumed that the TG-CD was released in '89 shortly after the TG-16 itself.

I suspect it was difficult enough to get stores to carry just the base unit in 1989, let alone a 400.00 add-on. All indications are that the CD-ROM add-on launched in the US in Summer of 1990.

[TheClash603]

Interesting, I had no idea that happened. I always assumed that the TG-CD was released in '89 shortly after the TG-16 itself.

I suspect it was difficult enough to get stores to carry just the base unit in 1989, let alone a 400.00 add-on. All indications are that the CD-ROM add-on launched in the US in Summer of 1990.

Arent the manufacturing dats all 1989?  So they took a year until they actually pushed them out?

[DragonmasterDan]

Arent the manufacturing dats all 1989?  So they took a year until they actually pushed them out?

ALL no, some yes.
I suspect that they started manufacturing the units in 1989 intending to release them then, but waited until the appropriate retail channels were available before sending them out. And it wasn't a full year, I think the base TurboGrafx 16 came out in August of 1989, and it was maybe June 1990 when the CD unit hit the market.

[A Black Falcon]

The Turbografx is the only console I know of where you can't even trust the year the game claims to have been released in, in case after case... it definitely makes figuring out accurate release dates a real pain.

[ApolloBoy]

The Turbografx is the only console I know of where you can't even trust the year the game claims to have been released in, in case after case... it definitely makes figuring out accurate release dates a real pain.

That's the case for *a lot* of other systems, not just the TG-16.

[A Black Falcon]

The Turbografx is the only console I know of where you can't even trust the year the game claims to have been released in, in case after case... it definitely makes figuring out accurate release dates a real pain.

That's the case for *a lot* of other systems, not just the TG-16.

Perhaps so, but it seems worse on the TG16, at least compared to other systems from the '90s...  but yes, in general release dates in the West are hard to find accurately.  It's not at all like Japan where you can find the exact day just about any possible game released, unfortunately.

[DragonmasterDan]

Perhaps so, but it seems worse on the TG16, at least compared to other systems from the '90s...  but yes, in general release dates in the West are hard to find accurately.  It's not at all like Japan where you can find the exact day just about any possible game released, unfortunately.

Stuff didn't have launches or street dates back then. One of the first games I remember having an actual street date was Sonic 2.

I remember in 1992 calling Babbages daily from March into April until Zelda: A link to the past was released. They knew it was coming, they didn't know when and there was no street date.

[turboswimbz]

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Black Tiger]

Perhaps so, but it seems worse on the TG16, at least compared to other systems from the '90s...  but yes, in general release dates in the West are hard to find accurately.  It's not at all like Japan where you can find the exact day just about any possible game released, unfortunately.

Stuff didn't have launches or street dates back then. One of the first games I remember having an actual street date was Sonic 2.

I remember in 1992 calling Babbages daily from March into April until Zelda: A link to the past was released. They knew it was coming, they didn't know when and there was no street date.

Games also didn't launch every where at the same time. It would often take a long time (by today's standards) for some areas to receive copies. Sometimes a game or console would only be available in very few places at first. So even if you find a technical first release date or a nationwide one, they don't have the same meaning as today's release dates.

Real "street dates" for games, movies, music, etc, in an organized form, where stores receive stock early and sit on it until they're allowed to sell it, is a fairly modern practice and was hard to pull off even in the late 90's. The internet makes it easier now, but even after street dates became somewhat normal, they were very hard to enforce for a long time.

[DragonmasterDan]

Games also didn't launch every where at the same time. It would often take a long time (by today's standards) for some areas to receive copies. Sometimes a game or console would only be available in very few places at first. So even if you find a technical first release date or a nationwide one, they don't have the same meaning as today's release dates.

Real "street dates" for games, movies, music, etc, in an organized form, where stores receive stock early and sit on it until they're allowed to sell it, is a fairly modern practice and was hard to pull off even in the late 90's. The internet makes it easier now, but even after street dates became somewhat normal, they were very hard to enforce for a long time.

Yep, even living in an urban area when Electronics Boutique or Babbages put games for sale, and when say Toys R us, or other general retailers (K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Target) varied. I actually vividly remember Sonic 2sday (the street date for Sonic 2 being a pun on the word Tuesday). However, the Babbages that I got my copy at sold it to me two or three days before. So even when there were street dates back then, they weren't widely enforced.

[A Black Falcon]

You're right that dates were unspecific, but Zelda LttP does have a reported US release day, at least... while with the TG16, we aren't even sure what year the Turbo CD released in!  I know the current guess is June 1990, but what proof is there for that?