Was it nostalgia or curiousity

[roflmao]

Roflmao and Tats: You both crazy. NES has such a great library of games. Crazy. 

No doubt. But *all* of my friends had an NES. Anytime I wanted to play pretty much any NES game, I could go play it via one of my buds.  I wanted to bring a bit of variety to the table.   I still ended up picking up all those other consoles and games (back when they were cheap), so it was win-win, imo.

[jordan_hillman]

My story for collecting is probably as random as it gets on this forum. . . I am huge fan of the Double Dragon series (I own damn near every port of each game in the series), and about 8 years ago I found out there was an awesome port of Double Dragon II on the PC-Engine. At the time I had absolutely no idea what a PC-Engine was, but I immediately started researching and found out about the Turbografx-16, CD attachment, and TurboDuo from that research. Even better, I found out that the Turbo CD and TurboDuo were region free for CD games (once again, I had never known this console existed until 2006) and was able to pick up a copy of Double Dragon II for the PC-Engine for 50 bucks.

A couple of years later I finally got my hands on a Turbografx and Turbo CD for a reasonable price, but I had no Super System Card to play by beloved Double Dragon II  . About a year after that I was on the hunt for some Sega Dreamcast games at a local swap meet, and, while searching for games in stacks of CDs, I came across a complete US Super System Card!! The vendor had no idea what he had and sold it to me for 5 freakin' bucks!!

I've been collecting ever since that day

[jelloslug]

I have had a TG-16 since 1989. I had a group of video game friends when I was growing up and we made an effort to not duplicate stuff so we could all play a different variety.  I was hooked on the turbo from the first time I saw the PC engine in gaming mags of the time.

[Tatsujin]

yupe.  This was back when I was a poor university student.  Had no money, but my Japanese classes got me wanting to play imports.  So I started with SegaCD as it was cheap, but couldn't afford to import la PCE, so it was le piracy.  I took what I could get, man hearing Super Raiden for the first time blew my mind.  Wasn't until I moved here that I started to buy.  And now I have over le 100.

kewl

[Nec.Game.head]

I first played it I believe in 92 when it had a price drop to $99.99 .. An older cousin of mine owned it which I spent a lot of time with that year. He moved away and I didn't get to play it again until 2001. It totally took me back to my childhood days. Now I play and collect for it because it's a great console but more then anything out of pure nostalgia ...

[Phase]

yeah I first saw it at toysrus back toward the end of 92 when it was either 69 or 49 I can't remember then I saw a lot of the games were only ten bucks so I asked for the system for Xmas. then in the year of 93 bought many of the cheap games.
Now days I have more fun playing retrogames and don't really find these new systems appealing but for modern games I will do some PC gaming.

[HailingTheThings]

Curiosity. I am a cat, you know?

When I was younger I had no idea what a Turbo was. Had I not been a toy collector first, gamer second when I was little I'm sure I could've possibly stumbled upon it. *sighs* Eff eff eff.

...if only. 

[ahuffman]

For me it was curiosity. I was not aware of the Turbo growing up, I had a SNES and later a Genesis. It was not until I started collecting that I became aware of the Turbo and it's great shooters, which happens to be one of my favorite genres.

[Tatsujin]

I have learned about the PCE back in early '88 when they covered it in one of the german mags.

i was in instant love with it, because all the bright colorful arcade like colors (r-type f.e.) let my jaws drop beyond the carpet.

but it wasn't until early '90 that I finally could get my hands on one of those uberexpensive imported obey machines.

since back then it never let me down.

[Ray]

Around here in Europe the TG/PCE wasn't mentioned much apart from some magazines and some people in highschool like with the X68000 and Neo-Geo. I did try it out a few years back and it was like a revelation, so many criminally underrated games on an underrated system. I got myself a Duo and never looked back.

[thesteve]

a friend got one back in HS (89, 90)
we had NES, GENI, SMS, 2600 around, and it just blew them all away with how clean everything ran/looked
ive always had at least 1 since then
in 94/95 needed a handheld, but couldnt find an express so i bought a GG.
grumbling aloud that i wished it was the express in the barricks (basic training) another said ive got one
i said ill buy it from you
he said its broken
i said dont care
traded my new GG for a broken TE (blown fuse) which i still use

[esteban]

traded my new GG for a broken TE (blown fuse) which i still use

Nice. 

[csgx1]

in 94/95 needed a handheld, but couldnt find an express so i bought a GG.
grumbling aloud that i wished it was the express in the barricks (basic training) another said ive got one
i said ill buy it from you
he said its broken
i said dont care
traded my new GG for a broken TE (blown fuse) which i still use

Awesome story and a great trade.  Was that the beginning...your very first Turbo repair?   

[dallaspattern]

I also got mine for xmas that year. At first I was bummed that it wasn't an NES w/Zelda or something, but I grew to like it more than any of the other systems (even when I eventually acquired a Genesis, NES & SNES). Something about it's underdog status kept me engaged, plus the games ruled. I remember renting games from Radio Shack every Friday after school, playing Bonk's Revenge for the first time on my Express (in the mall after I had it ordered in at RS), late nights rocking Vigilante under my comforter and being bummed when I got a malfunctioning CD component with the Fighting Street case to stare at until a new one came in. Awesome system. Upgraded to a duo eventually.

[thesteve]

in 94/95 needed a handheld, but couldnt find an express so i bought a GG.
grumbling aloud that i wished it was the express in the barricks (basic training) another said ive got one
i said ill buy it from you
he said its broken
i said dont care
traded my new GG for a broken TE (blown fuse) which i still use

Awesome story and a great trade.  Was that the beginning...your very first Turbo repair?   

had RF mod issues on my TG16 before that
broke the case as i didnt have a game bit, but made it run